I run cross country in the fall. I have a time of 17:50 as my personal best. What kind of training must I go through over the summer to get a minute off of my PR?
By far the most important thing is just running as many days as you can. Try to run just about every day. Maybe even run twice some days if you're feeling really ambitious. Keep the pace pretty easy most of the time, and try to gradually increase your weekly mileage. The number of miles you run over the summer will probably be the biggest determinant of whether you'll be able to achieve your goals once the season starts (but don't go crazy and get hurt). I'm not sure what sort of mileage you normally run, but based on your PR and goals, maybe aim for 40-60 miles a week? For added benefits, do strides and form drills at least a few times a week. Find a grassy field if possible, and do, for example, 4 or 6 by 100m strides as many days as you can. Barefoot is great if you aren't worried about bees. As for form drills, not as simple to put in words, hopefully you're familiar with these already. The strides and drills will help keep up your speed and form during this period when most of your running is relatively easy. Another added benefit could come from doing core exercises (like situps, planks, etc) as often as you care to. I disagree with those recommending 'one or two hard track workouts per week' over the summer. You'll be doing plenty of track workouts once your season starts. However, especially later on in the summer, it's okay to start pushing harder on one or two runs a week, or even doing, say, one tempo run per week for the last few weeks of the summer, just to start transitioning towards the workouts you'll be doing in the fall. It also isn't a bad idea to mix in some hill sprints in place of your strides on some days, especially later in the summer, to work on your explosiveness.But in the end, there's no reason to overcomplicate things. Running is pretty simple, really. The more you run, the faster you'll get. Get plenty of sleep, let yourself recover, push yourself sometimes. Run as far and as consistently as you can over the summer, and good things will come out of it. Best of luck!PS. My personal best was 17:54 after my junior year, and as a senior I improved that to 16:59. I was running mostly 50-60 miles a week that summer, with lots of strides like I described, with one week of 70 near the end. So, I think your goal is quite possible!
Cross country time trials tomorrow?
Nerves are common before races/time trials, and many with years experience still get nervous. I f you want to make the varsity, go for it. You sound as if you could easily be on the JV. You can only achieve your goal by going for it as long as it is realistic. The course will dictate your start. If it goes to a narrow path, you have to start out quickly enough to be in the top 6 or 7 at the narrow trail where it is hard to pass. If there is no narrowing, you can lag a few people behind that. Most folks will start off too fast. Try to avoid it. I am assuming it is 2 miles, and if it is hilly, you will not be that close to a one mile track time. Two miles is a hard run. Ignore the pain. You will be surprised at how much you can tolerate if you just decide to push through. The key then is finishing strong. No matter how tired you are, you can sprint in the last quarter mile--you are using different muscle then. Relax and try to get a good nights rest. Good luck tomorrow.
Time trial for cross country!?
eat some pasta for dinner tonight, then just eat healthy tomorrow or like you usually do before races and you should be fine. everyone gets nervous, but just drink alot of water throughout the day and tell yourself that you can do this and it will be a hard race, but you can do it because you trained and prepared for it. you should never give up in a race unless you feel your health is in grave danger...it shows perserverence, plus it is embarrassing to quit a race! just use that to keep yourself going and around the end of mile 2 tell yourself how hard you've worked so far and that if you keep going strong for the next mile and that last stretch and get a good time it will be totally worth the effort in the race. good luck!
Improve my 2 mile cross country time?
Any suggestions? My best time last year was 13:45. My starting time this year, or just my time trial was 15:11. My time trial last year was 16:10, so I brought it down from 16:10 to 13:45 last year. What do you think my best time can be this year? Can I break 13? What are some excersizes or scheduals to help me acheve this goal? I run with my middle school team every week day and I am a girl
What do you do at cross country tryouts?
I don't think you'll have to worry to much about it; normally we don't have official tryouts unless there are a lot of people going out for the team. I'd ask your coach if I were you to make sure, but most coaches will probably have you do a warm up and maybe a 5k time trial, just to see where you're at. Just make sure you have a good work ethic and show that you're willing to improve and become a better runner!
High school track time trials! Help!!!?
In a few hours we have time trials (basically tryouts) to make into the team. Our school is really competitive for track. I measured my 100m time a couple times this week, and it was around 18 seconds. I never really learned how to sprint or learned the proper form, so I think I would be a lot faster if I sprinted with proper form. Anyways, I need to get at least 16 seconds to make it into the team. Do you think it's possible that I get 16 seconds today without ever getting that low time before? Do you have any tips for doing this? Thanks! I'm a freshman girl btw. Also, my friends all suggested to like pretend there was a cheetah chasing me and this was a life or death situation, so my brain goes into that "adrenaline" mode and I sprint faster than I ever have before. Do you think this will work? I have heard mothers can lift cars off their babies... Can I trick my brain into a situation like that?
How much can I improve my 5k run time by the end of cross-country season and/or by the end of high school? I'm a new sophomore female and just ran time trials (5k) in 21:57. This is my first cross-country season, but this May my 5k was 26 minutes.
Congratulations on improving your 5K time so much in only a few months! It sounds like you’ve prepared well over the summer, and are ready to have an exciting first season of cross-country!I understand why you want some idea of how much you can improve this season and over the next few years. It’s fun and motivating to see your times come down and notice that you’re coming closer and closer to the fastest girls on your team, or in your league, or in your state.But focusing on times can be a trap, too. As a new runner, you’ll probably see rapid improvement. You might set personal bests every race you run — for a while. But at some point, you won’t, and it’s important to realize that plateaus – or even running slower times -- are part of a longer process of improvement. If you only focus on times, rather than on giving your best effort, you might think you’re doing something wrong, get discouraged, or even quit. I think it is far healthier to focus on putting in the training, staying healthy (including eating and sleeping enough to support your training), and enjoying the competition.There’s another reason why I haven’t really answered your question. I don’t have any idea how much you can improve. I don’t think anyone can know that. You might improve by only a few seconds, or by a few minutes. The fact that you improved so much since May is very promising, and suggest you’ll improve a lot more, but there are many factors that go into improving, and I don’t think anyone can tell you exactly — or even approximately — what will happen next.I say this because if there’s one thing I’ve learned coaching for many years, it’s that no one can see your full potential this early. I have personally coached runners who were very average when they were your age (slower than you are now) and just kept improving until they were among the very best in the country. Sometimes potential is obvious, but sometimes it’s hidden. It’s very difficult to judge what a person can do, until they actually start doing it.My advice is to learn to love the process, celebrate every improvement, and don’t put any limits on yourself.Good luck and have a great season!
What is a reasonable 5k time for a female JV cross-country runner?
Using 2016 Arkansas high school 5K times for Sophomore girls as a guide, the top time of the season was 18:55. In a pool of season-best times for the top 400 girls, the 100th place time was 24:07. The 200th best time was 26:27. I would say under 25 minutes is “reasonable.”
CROSS COUNTRY TRYOUTS TOMORROW!?
11:40-12:00 is what most 16 year old girls from where I'm from run (Georgia). Well. They don't really run 3ks, but they run the 2 mile in about 12:00-12:30. 3k is 1.864 miles so give-or take about 30-45 seconds off of a 2 mile time. Don't worry about you first race and just test it and see what you can do. Stick with other girls that you think you can run with that are slightly better. Ask for their times and then try to suck off of them. Most importantly have fun Courtney (I think Montana is thinking of 5k :))
How do you run an 8 minute mile for cross-country?
I found this really great website for this, here: http://www.military.com/military-fitness/running/improve-your-pft-mile-time I originally ran 10 min miles, but within in 8 weeks I ran 8 minute miles. But be careful, this will take a while; you probably won't get to the 8 minute mark until the end of season. One thing I noticed, though, if this is your first meet (which I doubt), your time will probably drastically fall. For my time trial I ran the 5k in 32:29 (Felt, loserish afterwards). In my first meet, I ran it in 28 min; second meet 27:12; third meet 26:54. Tips on spikes: - I'm in XC right now running JV. Spikes will only take a few seconds of your time, not whole minutes. Usually our Varsity members are the only ones wearing spikes because the few seconds could cost them first place. I would have to disagree with the answer above. If you have spikes, don't wear them to practice unless they need to be "broken in". Then again, if you want to wear spikes, wear them on terrain that is muddy or hilly courses. You could also invest in flats, if you want to focus on XC. This link answers your question, for the spikes: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080609124826AAe0m10