I am a junior in high school, and I run cross country. Since last season, I put in countless hours running, biking, and weight training in the hopes that I might make it to the State meet. I was very disappointed because I barely missed the cut-off for State.
I only have one more year of cross country left, and I want to make it my best. I want to be my team's #1 runner.
I currently run a 4k in 17:54. To be the fastest girl, I would have to run approximately 16:45 in 9-10 months time.
What should I do differently this year to drop so much time?
How should I train to become a significantly better runner in 9 months?
Answer by Dominique:
Hi there,
Thanks for your question about your cross country 4k race goals.
I can imagine it is tough to just not make the cut.
It sounds like you have put in a lot of work.
I would advise that over the next period you spend a lot of time doing just easy running and biking. Your goal for the next 4-5 months should be to build your base. For more info, go to the base running page.
You will really want to make this at an easy pace, just logging mile after mile after mile.
It's my experience that many high schoolers train much too intensely all the time. You do need the intensity closer to the meets, but in the off-season you need to back right down and focus on easy running instead.
You can do a weekly tempo run, but I wouldn't do more than one per week.
Then, after that base building period make sure you are doing a good mix of base running, tempo running and interval running. Keep on doing the biking as cross-training and add in the strength training as well, but for a 4k race you want to be lean and mean, not bulky, so don't go in overly aggressive trying to build up muscle. Dumbbell complexes are a good way to work on both muscle and endurance like the Javorek dumbbell complex #1.
Hope this helps.
Wishing you best of luck.
Cheers,
Dominique
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