We all spend a lot of time over explaining the obvious every day we are at practice so I won’t do it here: Starting today, you can get 30% off all of our programs, regardless of discipline or event group. Use coupon code JULY to apply the discount. If you have questions or want a recommendation based…
go *here* if you want to get recruited by college track and field coaches
Are your personal bests all you need to get college coaches to recruit you? Eh. Maybe… But, go on Milesplit or Athletic.net and take a look at how many people in the country have almost identical times/heights/distances as you. Now think about the fact that coaches are recruiting athletes from multiple other countries as well….
College recruiting & the pandemic: What every coach, parent, and athlete needs to know
Interview Details: Latif Thomas interviews Ron Grigg (University of Jacksonville Director of Cross Country / Track & Field) on a range of topics related to how the pandemic has affected the college recruiting process with a focus on the specific actions HS coaches, parents, and athletes can take in order to increase and improve their…
How to Get Recruited Despite the Covid-19 Pandemic
For coaches, athletes, and parents alike, the chaos and uncertainty of the past year has thrown a wrench into how to get recruited during the Covid-19 pandemic. After all, which criteria are college coaches supposed to use for basing their opinions about your recruitability when you’ve missed entire seasons, training has been inconsistent, access…
A Workout Ingredient List for the Cross Country Coach
Sometimes whimsical analogies are useful in understanding how cross country coaches go about their work. To that end, today we will consider a workout ingredient list. When it comes to cross country coaches, it seems there are both cooks and chefs. The cook chiefly wants a step by step set of recipes for several different…
Quantifying Training Effort of Middle Distance Runners
Most distance running coaches know that training for a 5-kilometer race involves a mix of aerobic and anaerobic workout sessions that will adaptively lead to improvements in a runner’s metabolic system. The work is varied, combined, and sequenced over a season in a way that is specific to the energy demands of the 5k race. …
Training Aerobic Capacity and Middle Distance Athletes
On the first day of track practice, a ninth-grader named Ryan, shows up to join the team. Ryan wants to be a middle distance runner, maybe run the mile for his school. Ryan admits to having not run much in his life, but he wants to start today. The middle distance coach sends Ryan out…
Middle School Training for Cross Country Runners
Middle school training for cross country runners are not just miniature versions of high school runners. Yet, many middle school coaches talk to high school coaches when setting up a training plan and just “scale down” the high school daily sessions for their plan. That works to a point with some types of work, but…
General Adaptation Syndrome and Cross Country Training
In 1932, physiologist W.A. Engelhardt, for the first time introduced the definition of the training process as a physiological breakdown that serves as a specific stimulus for the subsequent adaptive recovery process. While Engelhardt’s experiments worked with laboratory animals, injected drugs, and introduced stimuli far above what the animals were accustomed to, this idea became…
Advanced Warmup Routines for Middle Distance Athletes
When middle distance coaches cluster socially or professionally, and the inevitable training talk ensues, the topics generally fall into three broad categories: training mileage, peaking strategy, or warmup routines. While these are all fun to talk about and defend, the reality is that there is no right answer to any of these discussions. Mileage talk…
[Video] How to manage coaching multiple events at the same time…
For high school coaches, managing multiple event groups at the same time (as well as managing training for athletes who compete in multiple event groups) is a significant issue that can drastically impact the individual and group success of your team and program. It’s one of the most consistent and popular questions I get. And…
Functional Endurance Strength in Cross Country Training
Strength is one of the five primary physical components (speed, endurance, flexibility, strength, coordination) that defines athleticism. Cross country runners, like all athletes, benefit from the improvement of all five physical components to the degree to which their particular sport demands. Strength training must always be focused on training the movement, rather than the muscle,…