Track and Field Toolbox

The following is a listing of all posts in the category of Cross Country for our site.

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When to De-emphasize VO2 Max Training in Cross Country

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This article was provided by Complete Track and Field

Since the early days of exercise science testing and experimentation, it has been accepted that aerobic power development is one of four training domains used in preparing distance runners.  Consider the combined energy zone events of the 800 meters through the 10,000 meters; including both short and long cross country competitions.  Improvement in the anaerobic glycolytic domain in all of these races hinges on better management of hydrogen/lactate ion presence; while aerobically, the three domains are: improving running economy, shifting the lactate threshold, and boosting aerobic power.  These three aerobic domains have a sliding influence based on the distance of the race.  The shorter distance races lean more toward aerobic power, while the longer races lean more toward running economy.  Today we will consider how this relates to when to deemphasize VO2 max training.

For exercise scientists studying aerobic power, there is a maximum rate of oxygen consumption that can be measured during incremental exercise, or exercise of increasing intensity.  This maximum value is called VO2 max (V is volume, O2 is molecular oxygen, and max is maximum).

Maximal oxygen consumption reflects the cardiovascular and respiratory fitness of an individual.  For distance coaches, VO2 max is an important determinant of aerobic power during prolonged exercise and is a crucial variable in race performance.

 

* Training Resource: Speed Development for Distance Runners

 

In experienced runners, once the VO2 max system is nearly developed through a combination of athlete physical maturity, and plenty of prior vVO2 max work, a switch to the other two training domains of lactate threshold and running economy is necessary for continued success.  The training route most commonly taken is to implement a series of workouts that fractionalizes individual vVO2 max intensity into longer training runs.  These can be done as either continuous runs or inter-style workouts as shown in table 1.

Let’s look at a couple of case studies on how vVO2 max fractionization can be used in training to either add to or replace 100% vVO2 max work.

  1. Shannon is a junior and has been on both the high school varsity cross country and track teams for the past two years. She has run 5:05 for 1600 meters, 11:12 for 3200 meters, and 18:43 for 5000 meters in cross country.  Her tempo run pace always correlates to her 85% vVO2 max date pace and she seems to recover in 24 hours from the workout.  As expected, her improvement has slowed a bit as she has gotten older.  Let’s diagnose Shannon and look at specific training.  Shannon no doubt has a mature VO2 max system already in place, so despite continued workouts at vVO2 max pace, it is not going to improve much.  Her aerobic capacity work, mainly done as long runs, are her favorite thing to do because they come easily to her.  Typically, females are a couple of years ahead of males in VO2 max development, and some more than that.  If Shannon is to get faster at distance races, then her best route to success is to try to raise her LT pace from 85% vVO2 max to a value closer to 90% vVO2 max.  Her LT paced workouts need to evolve from continuous tempo runs to critical velocity (CV) runs done as intervals (table 1). To address this, Shannon should continue to do vVO2 max paced training sessions bi-weekly beginning half-way through the general preparation period, and concurrently do CV paced runs bi-weekly at the same time; doing both all the way to the championship meets in the competition period.  When Shannon begins the CV interval sessions she will first have to start with a 3200 meter test to determine her vVO2 max date pace and then do the mathematics to determine CV pace. Let’s say on August 10, Shannon runs 11:40 to exhaustion for a 3200 meter time trial, so her present-day vVO2 max pace is 5:50 per mile.  For the next fourteen weeks, Shannon should do seven spaced workouts at her date CV pace, in this case, 90% vVO2 max, to improve her LT.  The typical total volume for each of the seven sessions should be 4-5 miles done as intervals.  The date pace for Shannon is set at 350 seconds (5:50/mile) divided by .90 for a workout pace of 6:28 per mile, but she will not run a full mile at that pace, so one more mathematical division must be done. Shannon’s typical CV workout is 6 x 1000 meters with 90 seconds recovery between each repetition.  Her calculated date pace for today is 6:28/mile or 4:03/1000 meters.  As her 3200 improves throughout the year, the fractionally derived CV pace will too.
  1. Jack is a 21-year-old junior in a successful collegiate program. His athlete profile for 5000 meter personal bests notes 14:35 as a freshman and 14:21 as a sophomore. His desire is to compete in 10 kilometer championship track and cross country races over the remaining two years of school.  In high school, his best marks were 4:14 for the 1600 meters and 9:15 for the 3200 meters.  Jack’s improvement has slowed a bit as he has gotten older and the chances of running sub 14:00 in college have dimmed.  Let’s diagnose Jack and look at specific training.  Jack has spent his career stimulating adaptation to his VO2 max system and it has reached developmental maturity. So, despite continued workouts at vVO2 max pace, it is not going to improve much more.  In moving to frequent LT work sessions, Jack will not only shift to an aerobic capacity emphasis to perform well at 10k, but his 5k time may drop as well; probably lower than it ever would have with just continued vVO2 max paced work.  During each week of training, Jack should do a long run with frequent surges that accounts for 22% of his weekly volume, a tempo run of five miles at 85% of his vVO2 max, and a critical velocity (CV) pace workout.  The rest of the week is basically recovery runs at the aerobic threshold.  A typical CV work session for Jack would be 4 x 2000 meters at 90% of vVO2 max with two minutes of recovery between repeats.  Follow this unit with five minutes rest and then do 3 x 200 meters at 800 meter pace with 90 seconds recovery between repeats.

Aerobic power training exercises are not done in isolation from the other aerobic domains.  Work sessions directed toward VO2 max improvement also concurrently improve aerobic capacity and running economy.  Greater aerobic power can also help shift the lactate threshold to a higher pace.

 

* Coaching Resource: Training Model for High School Cross Country

 

Running economy, which is the efficiency a distance runner consumes food energy and oxygen molecules to facilitate movement, is dependent on aerobic power because the economy too is heavily dependent on greater blood flow to the muscles.  Running economy improves with VO2 max training, as does lactate threshold velocity.  However, there comes a time when VO2 max training needs to be deemphasized and economy and lactate threshold training emphasized with specifically targeted workouts if further development of the cross country runner is to occur.

 


Cross Country Assessment of the Primary Physical Components

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This article was provided by Complete Track and Field

By Scott Christensen

To improve athletic performance in any sport requires ongoing development of the five primary physical components: speed, endurance, strength, flexibility, and coordination. Balanced development in these five bio-motor skills is sport-specific with the training emphasis on each of the five determined by the demands of the sport and the profile of the athlete. In cross country running there is a heavy emphasis on endurance training, with the other four components used to a lesser degree to maximize performance.

Overall, cross country running performance is easy to assess as it is the elapsed time on the watch for the distance raced. This final time, however, does not tell the whole story of the five primary physical components and their development. The cross country coach should set up a means by which to comparatively measure the norms for the athletes on the team and a plan for assessing progress in all the bio-motor skills.

Rather than set up tests to measure skill levels and compare norms for each of the five primary physical components separately, it can be done in four distinctive and demanding tests. The administered tests would be done for each of the three main components: endurance, speed, and strength, with a single test then used to assess flexibility and coordination. The value in taking precious practice time to administer the four tests on each athlete is that it first establishes a baseline value for each test on each runner, and then subsequent tests will show changes to the baseline. Besides, these tests are fun for the athletes and help establish a good team atmosphere.

Coaching Resource: Training Model for HS Cross Country and Advanced Topics in Cross Country Training Symposium 

Let’s start with the most important test for cross country runners: date pace aerobic power. The values derived from this experiment are the single most important indicator of endurance capability in an athlete. The test is a ten minute run to exhaustion on the track. The coach will need to first set out forty cones or tape-marks on the inside of the track, or one cone every ten meters. All of the cross country runners’ start at the same starting point and the runners proceed for exactly ten minutes. Splits can be read to keep the runners on task. After ten minutes the runners are stopped with a whistle and they stand where they each stopped. The coach walks around the track and records the distance completed for each runner. This data becomes part of the runners’ permanent profile.

Table 1 indicates the high school-aged male endurance runner norms on this test.

Speed as a primary physical component is usually measured with a distance of thirty meters on the fly.  This means that the acceleration distance is removed from the elapsed time.  Runners are timed for thirty meters only during the absolute speed portion of the run.  The speed test is also done on the track with an emphasis on fast.  The coach should separate two large cones with exactly thirty meters distance on the straight portion of the track.  This is the fly distance.  Using a smaller cone add another ten meters to the start of the fly zone.  This is the non-timed acceleration zone and is used as the starting line of the run.  Using an electronic speed-trap device or just by hand holding a stopwatch, the coach yells go and starts the watch as the runner passes the first big cone and stops it at the end of the fly zone as the runner passes by the second big cone.  This data becomes part of their athlete profile.

Table 2 indicates norms for high school-aged endurance runners on this test.

Most cross country coaches do some methods of core strength work with their runners these days.  And well they should, maintaining proper body position during the race as fatigue sets in is crucial to saving performance.  Proper body posture is also what sets up a runner’s optimum stride length, both when they are tired and fresh.  Proper stride length then leads to proper stride frequency which then leads to the amount of elapsed time in the race.  So core strength is the most important form of strength to cross country runners, but how to test for it?  The backward overhead shot throw may be the single best test for core strength because of the dynamic nature of the exercise.  For this test, move to the safe area of the shot put ring and landing area.  Facing away from the landing area with heels against the toe-board is the proper way to initiate the test.  Using a 12 pound ball, the athlete grabs the shot with both hands cupped slightly on the underside of the ball.  After lowering the shot between the legs, and loading the hips, knees, and back, the athlete drives upward and backward to catapult the implement out into the landing area.  The athlete should try to land upright, but count anything that gets the ball out a distance.  Measure the distance thrown.  This data becomes part of their athlete profile.

Table 3 indicates norms for high school-aged endurance runners on this test.

The fourth test in assessing the primary physical component skill and development in an athlete is the coordination and flexibility assessment.  The running stride requires flexibility of the joints and body balance upon impact if fatigue is to be delayed.  Balance is a key form of coordination.  Momentum must be controlled effectively in each stride cycle.  The best means for assessing dynamic flexibility and in situ coordination is the three double-legged jumps test for total distance.  On the track the coach should set out the tape measure so it is visible and from an initial starting point stretch it to about 24 feet.  Athletes should try to land heel to toe to put them in good position for jumps two and three.  Ultimately, their fate will be determined by how coordinated they are able to land, recover, and tie together three consecutive jumps and the flexibility help they get for total distance.  They can practice a few times to feel how to best work the arms.  Record the total distance and this becomes part of their athlete profile.

Table 4 indicates norms for high school-aged endurance runners on this test.

All forms of training for cross country runners have become quantitative.  What used to be race times and a few key times from special workouts has morphed into individualized training with lots of records and data.  When prescription and assessment becomes quantitative one must have a means to accurately test and build data bases, not only for individualized training but for historical reference as well.  The assessment of the five primary physical components must be a part of a cross country runners training portfolio on an ongoing basis.


The Foundation of a Distance Running Program

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The foundation of a distance running program has three units: the cross country season, the track season and out of season running.

This post was provided by Complete Track and Field

By Scott Christensen

There was a time in high school sports when the only thing that really mattered was what happened during the season. For better or worse, that time has come and gone for many high school distance runners. Most good runners have found that simply running 500 miles during the cross country season is not enough to achieve success outside of their own school and by including the whole year in their training program they can make some real progress. Today we will consider the foundation of the cross country running program.

This is nothing against two and three sport athletes. In most cases, during this age of specialization in high school sports, distance coaches have been very accommodating to the concept of multiple sport participation. Unfortunately, that accommodation is seldom returned by the coaches of team sports. The athletes are seeing this daily. Good runners move on and want more out of their own running, and see greater involvement as the answer.

Most states have some restrictions as to out of season coaching and team activities. The level of these restrictions varies widely. The level of commitment outside of the season by coaches also varies considerably. Some see the season, others see the year. None of this prevents a certain guidance by a coach to an aggressive, developing distance runner who yearns to be faster.

It may simply be a month long training program handed to the athlete to follow on their own, or it could be full blown summer practices six days per week with the coach. Whatever the level, this interaction helps set the ground rules for the distance running culture in a school and will ultimately control the destiny of the cross country program.

The foundation of a distance running program has three units: the cross country season, the track season and out of season running. What an athlete and coach put into each of these three separate, yet connected units, should determine the ultimate goals for the athlete and the team.

By just running the cross country season each fall, one can expect an athlete to always be starting over from the beginning. Progress from year to year will be minimal. That does not mean they should not come out, it is just that goals should be highly tempered and it should be made clear to them that improvement will be slight.

All high school teams have athletes like this and they are valued as individuals, but they should not be how the training program is constructed or direct the formation of team culture. They are there because of social reasons and it is fun for them. Let it be fun, while the training program sets up around the serious runners.

A serious runner needs to run both cross country and track. The additional miles run during the track season help develop cross country runners to a much higher degree. Plus, all of the additional competitions help hone the racing skills of a runner.

The training during the track season is much different than the training used during cross country. Generally, the track training units consist of work that is shorter and more intense, and greatly enhances the athletes anaerobic power. Foot-speed improves and running mechanics clean up when a runner runs fast. That development carries right into the cross country season.

The danger with track is racing too much for a distance runner. A culture of training importance rather than racing importance is desired. Good races follow quality training and not the other way around. The very best scenario is when the cross country coach has complete control of the track distance runners as well. That situation enhances the continuity of training and absolutely limits spring competitions.

One never finds those dreaded, march through the distance cemetery, 1600 meter and 3200 meter double races in a single meet if the distance coach has control. Limiting competitions in track not only helps a distance runner improve, it also creates lots of racing opportunities for other runners on the team.

Physiologists advise that high school age distance runners should set aside about 10% of the calendar year for no running. This will allow time for young bones and muscles to repair themselves, energy to be re-directed to growth and maturation, and for young minds to relax from the rigor of training. That is about six weeks per year.

The best way to divide that time is three weeks off following the cross country season, and three weeks off following the track season. This then leads into off season training which should mainly consist of many additional miles of running. This is when a developing runner builds a huge cardio-vascular base that a part-time runner can never make up for.

As mentioned earlier, one of the foundational pieces of a successful running program is coach-directed off season running. Again, taking into account the rules of each state, a coach must develop a means for structuring almost daily off season running. It may be a computer program that athletes and coaches log into (there are several on the market), it may be a written plan that the captains and team follow, or it may be face to face contact.

Whatever it is in each situation, it must be consistent with the goals of the individuals and the culture of the distance team. It needs to contain both fun activities and very hard work. It should contain unique opportunities and interesting workouts that will get runners out the door each day despite the off season. The runners need to feel the vested interest the coach shares with the athlete in their running improvement.

It also needs to be long term, and not something thrown together to be just a two or three week lead-in to the season. For many good teams it is a week long summer training trip to the mountains or something similar. For others, it may be meeting and running at different geographical areas of their area of the state or city. Different, interesting, and hard work must be the cornerstone themes.

Cross country running has grown from an obscure high school sport into something pretty special in my lifetime. About 20 million people walk out of the door and run nearly every day in this country. Among those vast number of people should be the high school runners from your team. However, there is a difference between adults going out running each morning, and most high school runners. That difference lies in an adult making a personal decision to help themselves stay fit and high school runners going out because of a coach, their teammates, or the distance culture that guides them in their program.

Training Resource: The Training Model for High School Cross Country


What’s New in Distance Training

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What is scientifically in and what is scientifically being pushed out in regard to cross country training theory.

This post was provided by Complete Track and Field

By Scott Christensen

It is the end of the year, and with the change in calendars, it is always fun to take a look at what’s in and what’s out – or more specifically – what is scientifically in and what is scientifically being pushed out in regard to cross country training theory for the new year.  Keep in mind that science does not “prove” seemingly logical ideas.  The role of science, using the scientific method,is to disprove flawed ideas.  This is why scientific knowledge moves along at a snail’s pace, with the route to answers being a web of paths that twist and turn along the way.

Scientific studies are presented to the public, along with an invitation to disprove the stated results by other scientists who chose to design an experiment for such a purpose.  It is a rigorous process that does indeed lead to a loss of some semi-accepted theories; while at other times, as it becomes apparent that a theory or result cannot be disproved, it leads to full acceptance.

Theories are refined often in human performance activities such as cross country running because the science is historically young.  Replicable scientific experimentation on modern athletes is less than 50 years old, so there are many more changes occurring in the theories of human performance than in other sciences such as geology, which has been studied for centuries and few new things are ever found in experimentation.

With all of this in mind let’s look at seven concepts related to cross country training theory that have changed slightly over the last year.  In other words, what’s in, and what’s out!

  1. In ⇒ lactate and hydrogen ion removal from working muscle cells. Out ⇒ tolerance of lactate and hydrogen ions. To have tolerance to something is to build up a resistance or create a higher threshold.  The cells of the body will always be affected in exactly the same way by hydrogen ions which are acidic in nature, despite the runner’s fitness.  Anything that is acidic will be corrosive (depending on the concentration), and in the instance of H+ ions occurring as waste material from anaerobic exercise; cell membranes, red blood cells, and enzymes are all damaged.  There is no adaptive response of tolerance to the acid.  For years coaches have talked as if there were workouts that strengthened the tolerance to waste hydrogen ions.  This would allow a runner to carry near maximum speed longer in running races.  It has now been shown that drainage or removal of the acidic ions is what really occurs.  The best removal agent in the body of acidic ions is hemoglobin.  Runners higher hemoglobin levels by having more red blood cells, which is the result of aerobic training.
  2. In ⇒ static muscle stretching before exercise. Out ⇒ pointless active warm-up drills such as any form of butt-kicks.  For the last five years static stretching as part of the warm-up of a distance runner has been dismissed.  Reasons for this was diminished force production following the stretch and a need to be more active and connected in the routine.  New studies have shown that static stretching as part of an active warm-up actually diminishes lower leg injuries in distance runners.  If static stretches are held to only about 30 seconds in duration, there is no subsequent loss of force production.  Range of motion has also been shown to improve, but that would result as well if static stretching was left as a cool-down exercise only.  Butt kicks do not mimic the proper stride pattern and the neural impact of doing the drill is useless to improvement of running mechanics. Make sure all of the active and static warm-up exercises done serve an important purpose of either: proper posture or ground impact preparation.
  3. In ⇒ lateral movement in warm-up. Out ⇒ jogging in warm-up.  Distance running is primarily a straight-ahead movement pattern and that is where the adaptation stimuli occur.  However, strengthening the connective tissue of the triple extender joints is important in both performance and injury prevention.  The straight-ahead movement strengthens connective tissue in one plane only.  By adding side slide, side carioca, side stepover and the like, strengthen the connective tissue of the ankle, knee, and hip joints simultaneously, thus stimulating adaptation in all the planes.  For a seasoned distance runner, jogging to start the warm-up is a waste of time.  It tires the central nervous system, not stimulates it.  Reasons for doing it have been to increase body temperate and raise heart rate.  Any activity will do those things, so start with lateral movement patterns, not jogging.
  4. In ⇒ emphasis on critical velocity pace (Crv). Out ⇒ emphasis on lactate threshold pace (LT).  Some LT pace work is still needed such as a 25-minute tempo run by every distance runner.  The challenge with LT pace is it varies so widely from person to person and it’s relative fractionization to vVO2 max.  Some people find their LT pace at 70% of vVO2 max and others at 90% of vVO2 max.  The reason for this is true lactate threshold has a range of 2.0-3.5 mmol/L lactate in people.  Critical velocity is more tightly structure at 4.0 mmol/L lactate concentration for most people.  This is about date pace for an exhaustive 10k effort.  Moderate to tough aerobic workouts need to be designed more around Crv than LT paces to maximize their benefit in seasoned distance runners.
  5. In ⇒ upright body core strength routines. Out ⇒ horizontal body core strength routines.  The benefit of core work for proper running posture and efficient ground preparation mechanics is well documented.  Core routine “2.0” now brings the body to an upright position for most of the exercises to be most effective.  A runner would get more from a set of one-legged body squats that anything that could be done in the sitting or lying position.
  6. In ⇒ plyometric hopping. Out ⇒ plyometric bounding.  Hopping teaches the body a great deal about stabilization and coordination.  If one of the expected outcomes for a distance runner doing plyometrics is reduced ground contact time then hopping more than bounding is the emphasized exercise.  Bounding is an elongated stride in most distance runners-basically an aggressive over-stride.  There is some elastic response value found, but like butt-kicks, it just teaches bad neural engrams.
  7. In ⇒ emphasis on the soleus. Out ⇒ emphasis on the quadriceps.  Many exercises a distance runner does emphasizes the action of the quadricep muscle group such as uphill running, stadium stairs running, and squat work.  These exercises are important but have received too much emphasis.  Current research points to the soleus and its development as a key to improved distance running performance and injury prevention.  The soleus actually performs at 6.5-8.0 bw force production while running, which is the most of any area of the leg.  A good weight room activity to start with would be seated calf raises holding a 10 lb barbell on each knee.  After a few sessions increase to 20 pounds and so on.

* Coaching Resource: Strength and Power for Distance Runners

Each year-end brings in a list of new ideas, fads, and routines.  Hopefully, this list will help you in your training of cross country runners in the years to come.  Science does not change, only our understanding of it does.


Distance Training with Scott Christensen

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This post was provided by Complete Track and Field

By Scott Christensen

Why do distance runners need to train all summer, effectively doubling the length of their fall season, in order to be competitive in the championship cross country meets at the end of the year?  The answer lies in the rate by which physiological changes occur in humans.  Today we will discuss stimulus, adaptation, fitness, and timeframes as they relate to the training of the cross country athlete.

Fitness gains to the aerobic energy system requires enough time for structural changes in tissue to occur.  In the same light, strength improvements in the muscular system’s Type 1 fibers requires enough time for the cross-sectional diameter size of the myosin filaments to increase; again, a change in tissue structure.  Improvements in both the aerobic energy system and Type 1 muscular fibers lead to increased aerobic fitness which is the most important aspect of not only the cross country race itself, but the ability to effectively maintain day to day training.

The other side of the cross country training coin is anaerobic fitness.  Improvements to the anaerobic energy system are chiefly biochemical in nature and not structural, thus considerably less length of training time is needed to show positive changes.  Improvements in Type 2 muscle fiber activity does involve some small structural changes, but adaptation is mainly neural in nature.

Neural-muscular activity improvement lies in better synchronization and recruitment of Type 2 muscular fibers themselves, rather than size changes; again, requiring less weeks of training to evoke changes.

Cross country training involves a mix of aerobic and anaerobic stimuli and is volume and intensity driven.  Table 1 indicates many of the adaptations necessary to improve a cross country runners fitness along with seven columns of increasing heart rate (HR) training intensity (found in Table 2).  While a variety of training markers can be used to measure intensity, Table 1 uses heart rate (HR), while also indicating a 1-5 score for each level and degree of expected stimulus.

There are many valid means for measuring training intensity with some more accurate than others.  These can vary from lactate analyzers to heart rate monitors to the athletes simply mentally “measuring and scaling” how they feel with a modified Borg Scale of perceived exertion.

 

Table 2 uses heart rate and vVO2 max mathematics to discriminate training intensities, along with corresponding perceived exertion on a ten-point scale found in Table 3.  Heart rate is one of the easier hematological characteristics to measure, and most cross country runners fall into similar quantitative training ranges.

 

 

* Training Resource: Peaking Workouts for Cross Country Runners

 

Table 2 is set up for a runner with a maximum heart rate of 215 bpm which would be common for a person 16-20 years old.  Perceived exertion is more variable with athletes qualitatively assessing somewhat different intensities for the same effort. (The seven levels in Table 2 correspond to the same seven columns found in Table 1.)

Besides considering the training intensity stimuli needed for cross country fitness adaptations there are also timeframes to develop when scheming a training program.  Using the same crucial physiological adaptations found in Table 1, a timeframefor each of their developments can be charted.

 

* Coaching Resource: Advanced Topics Symposium in Cross Country

 

The timeframes can be found in Table 4.  Remember, the data are set up to reflect maximum development of each adaptation.  A shorter timeframe merely means a somewhat less, but immeasurable degree of adaptation.

Allow ample time for training cross country runners.  Many adaptations are significant to fitness, but all take quite a long length of time to develop.  Gauge training intensities to desired adaptation outcome in the training plan.