This article was provided by Complete Track and Field

There is no better time in the cross country season then September.  Fun invitational meets, hard-core training, an already well-formed team, pretty good weather, and still eager runners all make for a very enjoyable month.  For a cross country coach, September training is especially interesting because it is the month of training creativity.  Already past is most of the general conditioning work, and the team is far from any sort of tapering activities, so workouts can be put together that are taxing, creative and full of variety.

September begins with the last fragments of the general preparation period.  The focus there is still on building a strong mileage base, strength work in the form of hill repeats, vVO_{2 max} work done in moderation, and an introduction to some lactate building activities.  If the runners have had a good summer of general prep work then it need only extend through the first week of September before transitioning to the specific preparation period.  As one moves to a different stage in the season, so do the activities, physiological stimuli, recovery periods, and training focus.  This is the idea behind periodization of training.

The specific preparation period covers most of September for serious runners.  If you are using nine-day training microcycles, then it is basically the last 25-27 days of the month or almost three full nine-day cycles.  For most programs there will be a race in each of these nine-day cycles, but many modern programs only race once every couple of weeks these days, so not every cycle may contain a competition.

There are still a few programs remaining that will have two races in each nine-day microcycle and the adjustments to training in these situations are unfortunately quite drastic.  Whatever the case, these are certainly not the most important races of the year so it is fine to temper it down the day before a competition, but do not set up much rest for any race in September unless it is an extraordinary situation.

* Training Resource: Speed Development for Distance Runners

What training changes occur in moving from the general preparation period to the specific preparation period?  The answer lies in the name itself.  Training activities are added that address the specific demands of the 5k race, replacing general activities like base mileage days that focus on building a generic distance runner.  For example, a previously done general six mile run is replaced by a four mile tempo run.  The former may have been done at 7:20/mile pace and the latter is done at 6:00/mile pace.  Hill runs previously done on a 45 second hill are now done on a 4:00 minute hill.  vVO_{2 max} work previously done as 5 x 800 on a grass course with 4:00 minute recovery for everybody now become 4 x 1600 meters on a road/tar trail at individual 3200 meter date pace with recovery time equal in length to work time for each repeat.  The previously done ten mile long run done at continuous pace now has a series of pickups over the last three miles of the same ten mile run.

Other stimuli need to be introduced as well during the specific preparation period such as high blood-lactate training loads.  Working blood-lactate values that would be found more in a one mile race than a longer cross country race should be prescribed.  Workouts such as these are not stressed during specific preparation, only introduced once or twice.  They do not become stressed for a 5k runner until the following block of training time called the pre-competitive period which is most of October.  But, by introducing workouts with a higher lactate load in specific preparation they prepare the body for what is to come, plus they are great strength workouts because the work must be repeated as well as possible despite the dramatic increase in fatigue caused by the inability to buffer the lactate accumulating in the blood.

Start with Special Endurance 2 length workouts but shorten the recovery interval.  Shortening the recovery during specific prep workouts is not intuitive, but it keeps the intensity low despite the very high heart rates.  This will prevent the athlete from sustaining a muscular injury because it is a lower velocity then near-maximum effort.  If the recovery interval is increased rather than decreased (which may make more sense), then the athlete can run faster and this is when “speed causes injury”.  Do the workout on a safe, fast, surface and prescribe something like 6 x 400 meters with 2:30 recovery between repeats.

During the specific preparation period many different workouts are added, generally replacing longer and slower work.  One of the concerns in doing this is that training mileage may drop too much.  The key to the puzzle is to keep the mileage in the specific prep period within 90%, or better yet, equal to the mileage values found at the end of general prep.

When the runners do a four mile tempo run, or a set of 400’s, or any other work that does not keep them in the seven or eight mile per day range consistently they will need to tack on miles at the end of the workout.  That is fine!  Any work demand done at the end of a workout is considered endurance effort and is useful in building fitness in a 5k runner.

 

* Coaching Resource: Training Model for High School Cross Country

 

September is fun!  But, it is also a very hard-working month.  Stress the appropriate aerobic and longer anaerobic work and introduce the shorter anaerobic work that is yet to come, so that when they get to the competition period (tapering and peaking) those workouts are effective too.  If the training stimuli is not appropriately periodized throughout the season, then adaptation will not occur effectively, and no method of tapering is going to fix that situation.

 

Sample Nine-Day Training Cycle for Late September:

Monday:           vVO_{2 max} day, 4 x 1600, @date pace 3200 meter pace/2, work time=rest time,
Tuesday:          10 mile long run,
Wednesday:     6 x 400, 2 min recovery, 2 mile warmup, 4 mile cool down,
Thursday:         4 mile tempo run, 2 mile warm up, 1 mile cool down,
Friday:              6-7 mile base run,
Saturday:          Race Day,
Sunday:            5 mile recovery run,
Monday:           4 x 4:00 hills, 2 miles warm up, 3 miles cool down,
Tuesday:          8 x 200 meters on grass, 2:30 recovery, 2 mi warm up, 4 mi cool down.

 

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 VO_{2 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 VO_2 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, VO_2 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 VO_{2 max} system is nearly developed through a combination of athlete physical maturity, and plenty of prior vVO_2 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 vVO_2 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 vVO_{2 max} fractionization can be used in training to either add to or replace 100% vVO_{2 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% vVO_{2 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 VO_{2 max} system already in place, so despite continued workouts at vVO_{2 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 VO_{2 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% vVO_{2 max} to a value closer to 90% vVO_{2 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 vVO_{2 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 vVO_{2 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 vVO_{2 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% vVO_{2 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 VO_{2 max} system and it has reached developmental maturity. So, despite continued workouts at vVO_{2 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 vVO_{2 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 vVO_{2 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 vVO_{2 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 VO_{2 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 VO_2 max training, as does lactate threshold velocity.  However, there comes a time when VO_{2 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.

 

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 vVO_{2 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.