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…
Archives for workouts
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,…
Distance 101 – The Workouts Cross Country Coaches Use
In a simple distance training scheme it is effective to longitudinally separate the season into three different segments of time and the workouts cross country coaches use in each. Early season is a strong preparation time characterized by general running, athletes not focused on their best event (all training together), and races that are interesting…
The 800 Meter Runner: Endurance (Type 2)
The 800 meter run is considered the shortest of the distance races in track and field. While it is half the length of the 1600 meter run, it retains some of the physiological and psychological characteristics of that event along with some properties of the 400 meter dash which is half as far. In profiling…
Specific Preparation Period Workouts for Middle Distance
Ideally, a typical middle distance training macrocyle is set up to be between fifteen and twenty weeks in length and divided into four training periods. The difference in macrocycle time lies in the number of training sessions dedicated to the first period, or general preparation period. Once general prep is completed, the next stage is…
Multi-Sport Athlete Transitioning to Track & Field
Often, at the high school level, it is common for coaches to persuade their athletes to join the track and field team after finishing up their preferred fall or winter sport. Likely, the main goal for encouraging an athlete to go out for the track team – or the objective for an athlete transitioning to…
Speed Endurance (Middle Distance Training)
The middle distance events in track and field have a sizeable anaerobic energy system contribution when the distance is done to exhaustion. The percentage of anaerobic contribution varies from 50% in the 800 meters to 80% in the 1600 meters. Because the energy contribution is so extensive, many training sessions need to be implemented during…
Know Your ABCs
Early morning commutes to Harvard are pleasant. No matter the season, the drive past Fenway Park is warming — easily reviving images of a boisterous crowd of Red Sox fans dressed in red, white and blue. In a city filled with some of the nation’s oldest historical sites, the 26-story Berkeley Building is one of…
Early Season 400m Training Workouts
A coach asked if I would consider writing an article about early season 400m training. Here is a look back at a few of my articles that cover this topic. A while back, I wrote an article entitled, “Circle of Truth.” This is a workout I use for all sprinters and hurdlers as conditioning in…
How to Establish Cross Country Training Groups
The cross country season begins anew and the coaches face their first training challenges as the team gathers for the first day of practice. Foremost in training group formation is the fact that half the team has done some summer training, while the other half has not run a mile all summer long. To further…
Finishing the Race
One of the most frustrating aspects of analyzing cross country running training is the post-race reflection of an athlete’s sub par performance. Even the really great performances have something sour that catches the coaches’ critical eye. As in any analytical, cause-result relationship, the result is more obvious than the cause. One of the more…
Speed Endurance Workouts For Jumpers & Combo Sprinter/Jumpers
Jumping events are defined as acceleration to an optimal speed, followed by an attempt to maintain the highest level of that velocity through the point of takeoff. Speed Endurance workouts gives jumpers the confidence and capacity to challenge the intensities they use in competitions. But what do speed endurance workouts for jumpers look like? …