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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.

 


Hill Training for Cross Country

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This article was provided by Complete Track and Field

By Scott Christensen

Winter and summer training periods are the ideal time in the annual plan to develop effective hill racing skills and to use various forms of hill training to develop strength in cross country runners.  Most geographical locations in the United States possess ideal physical changes in topography which are suitable for hill tactics and training.  The extreme mountainous regions and the very flat areas do provide challenges to planning effective workout strategies, but these can be overcome with creative thinking on the part of the coach.  It is just as important when you do hill training as it is what you do in this training domain.

The essence of the great Arthur Lydiard’s training program was the development of strength.  He tried to accomplish tremendous strength gains in his athletes by prescribing an abundance of training miles as well as bouts of interval running on sand dunes and hills.  Lydiard recognized that different hill characteristics have different training effects and adaptations, so he varied the prescribed work to fit the athlete and the period in the training cycle.  Arthur Lydiard was one of the first coaches to incorporate hill training into the annual plan.  He advocated for up to five weeks of 1-3 sessions per week of hill training in any given training phase.  He also advocated for hill training to cycle in these five week blocks of time throughout the general and specific preparation periods, but then be eliminated during the general and specific competition periods of training.  Lydiard determined that hill training helped delay the peaking period in an athlete and when that runner progressed

 

During the five week blocks of training time athletes should perform most of the hill work using their normal running technique, but some variety may be good from time to time.  For example, the Lydiard technique of hill-bounding and also modified skip bounding can sometimes be introduced to the more advanced cross country runners.  Hill bounding must be performed on a grass or earthen surface as asphalt is much too hard to hill-bound on.  Lydiard learned this technique from the great Australian coach Percy Cerutty who developed effective hill-bounding routines on the beach sand dunes of Australia working with the likes of Herb Elliot.  The technique worked because the surface was soft enough to accommodate the work.

 

Training Resource:  Peaking Workouts for Distance Runners

 

Once the workout surface has been selected, the parameters left to decide are the intensity of each bout of work and the total volume of the training session.  The rest interval between each bout of work should be active with generally just a jog recovery back down the hill viewed as adequate.  However, if the uphill is less than 50 meters in length, then an extended loop to the bottom should be prescribed.

Hill length varies in every town as does the pitch of the hill.  Use common sense in choosing the proper combination of pitch and length in prescribing work.  A general suggestion of the total volume of anaerobic work to done in a single session would be to limit it to no more than one mile.  For example, the anaerobic work prescribed could be divided into 8 x 200 meter hill, 3 x 500 meter hill or 15 x 60 meter hill.  The training theme should be, the shorter the hill, the greater the pitch.  The goal is try to achieve maximum heart rate near the top of any of the hill you work with.

Periodizing the hill workouts should be schemed so that the longer hills are done in the general preparation period such as winter or summer training.  As the athletes progress to the specific preparation period, the hills should get shorter in length and steeper in pitch for a different training effect.

A training model could resemble the following:  June 25-August 1, five weeks total, one day per week, a typical session would include a two mile general warm-up followed by 6 x 300 meter hill, jog recovery, followed by a three mile cool down.  Take three weeks off.  August 21-October 1, five weeks total, one day per week, a typical session would include a two mile general warm-up, followed by 10 x 150 meter hill, jog recovery, followed by a three mile cool down.  Physiologists consider the overall recovery of these workouts to be about 24 hours.  Repeat the summer block during the period January 1 – February 10 and then repeat again March 5 – April 15.

 

Want Every Single Cross Country Workout from June Through Nationals?

Check out:  Training Model for High School Cross Country

 

Many coaches also add hilly routes to their arsenal of continuous runs done during the season or in preparation for the season.  Great idea, as this adds variety and interest to base runs or long runs.  However, do not substitute these types of runs for dedicated hill training sessions.  Too many hills in a route would not be appropriate for timed VO2 max workouts or tempo runs done at a fraction of VO2 max pace.


2 Favorite Cross Country Workouts

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This post was provided by Complete Track and Field

By Scott Christensen,

Most cross country coaches have been running since high school and college, or newly enjoy running now. There are some workouts that seem to always go very well for you, but others that result in an endless struggle. From these workouts emerge favorites, but they may not be the best type of work for your athletes. Just having your athletes run your workout each day as you get ready for a 10k race next month is not sensible training for your team. What your favorite workout is for you may not be your favorite workout for developing runners on your cross country team.

A cross country athlete needs a coach for three important reasons: 1) time management, 2.) motivation, and 3) to implement workouts that strengthen the weaker physiological attributes of the athlete. This third point is where the struggle lies. It is human nature to repeat and want to do things we are already good at. If a runner is fast then they want to do sprint training today. If a runner has the capacity to run far, then left to them, they would do a long run today. Hard work lies in doing what the athlete is not good at.

scott christensen cross country workoutsWith all of this in mind, how do you come up with favorite workouts for your team? The favorites cannot come from what is best for you, or doing work at what they are already good at. Additionally, these favorite workouts must stand the test of time and be quantitative so that results can be compared over various training periods and among different athletes that you have coached.

As a cross country coach over the last three decades I have two favorite workouts. One is on the aerobic side and the other on the anaerobic side of energy system metabolism. We do neither workout often, only about four to five times each macrocycle. However, when we do them the athletes prepare for the day as if it was the most important race of the year. What makes them my favorite? In my opinion, if done properly, they give the athletes the most bang for their training buck.

On the aerobic side, my favorite workout is 4 x 1600 meter repeats at the athlete’s individual VO2 max pace. Work time is always equal to or close to rest time. For example if I have an athlete that achieves a 10:00 mark for an exhaustive two mile effort, then I know this is their individual VO2 max pace. For this athlete I will prescribe the workout to be four times one mile efforts at 5:00 per repeat, with about 5 minutes rest between. The real value in this workout lies over the second half of the session as they are trying to maintain two mile pace effort over four miles of work with proper and exacting recovery between efforts allowing them to complete the session. In my opinion, there is no better workout to improve aerobic power and it requires a tight control by the coach to make it all happen.

On the anaerobic side of things my favorite workout is 8 x 400 meters on the track with a tight three minute recovery between each bout of work. The ability to tolerate lactate and lowering pH values in the anaerobic energy system has limitations based on the human genome, but it is somewhat trainable. It has been shown that in racing the mile, up to 21 mmol of lactate are produced and must be both tolerated and dissipated. Normal is about 2 mmol. In order to tolerate such a heavy load of lactate the body must be cranked up to a sufficient velocity to produce that load for a short time before it is allowed a recovery period, and then it is forced up that high again and so on.

Related: A Proper Cross Country Warm-Up

This type of training slowly builds a type of lactate tolerance into the anaerobic energy system that is not native to the body. In other words, this is really hard work. Again the coach is there to provide just enough recovery time to continue the building process, but not cause damage along the way due to acidosis. For example, take a 4:20 miler and examine the 400 effort of 65 seconds per lap to achieve that time. Now subtract five seconds from each 400 for the known effort of 4:20. The workout prescribed will be 8 x 400 meters at 60 seconds with three minutes recovery. The real lactate tolerance stimulus is being accomplished over the second half of the workout and it will provide a real struggle to complete.

This formula of subtracting five seconds off the 400’s of the known effort works for all abilities of athletes. If the runner cannot successfully complete all eight repeats, then you know the runner has a low lactate tolerance and this is exactly the type of hard work that they should be doing.

Your favorite workout should probably not be very fun at all. The type of work described here does not promote the enjoyable aspects of running. It is also the type of work that the coach will not be doing alongside their athletes. The coach is there to do the most important aspect of this kind of work: closely monitor the exact recovery time needed to be able to replicate the work efforts. These are not workouts that see a deterioration in performance as the workout wears on. We will leave that to the tempo run tomorrow.