What a Cross Country 5K Tells You About Spring Track
A cross country 5K undersells spring track. Data from 1,608 high school runners shows how to turn a November 5K into realistic 1600 and 3200 goals, and how to adjust for your course.
Training Articles for High School XC and Track Coaches
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The Post-Season Debrief: Questions to Ask Every Runner Before Winter
Coach Jason Saltmarsh · USATF Level 2 Endurance Coach · 25 years coaching, 31 state champions The last race was…
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Cross Country Postseason Training: What to Do Between Championship Meets
Derryfield Park on October 31. Hopkinton Fairgrounds on November 7. New Englands on November 14. That is the 2026 New…
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Racing Cross Country in the Cold and Mud
Derryfield Park. New England Championships. 2018. We brought a young team to Manchester that November. Five sophomores led the squad….
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Why Your 18:00 Runners Won’t Go Out at Sub-17 5K Pace
You have five guys under 18:00. None of them will go out at sub-17 5K pace. Every team ahead of…
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Count Backward From the Line: When to Run Your Last Hard Workout Before XC Championships.
The short version: peaking for an XC championship. Last hard hill or VO2 session: 10 to 12 days before the…
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The Car Ride Home: What to Say After a Cross Country Race
Katherine Tamminen was working as a sport psychology consultant at a hockey academy when she got into a conversation with…
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The Four-Gear Ladder: A Cross Country Sharpening Workout for October
Our girls ran this workout in four pace groups. I’m sharing full splits from three of our runners, each assigned…
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Threshold Workout for Cross Country: Why 3×6 and 3×8 Minutes Build Better Runners
Every cross country program has a workout it trusts. Ours is a threshold session built on long reps, short steady…
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Seven Runners, One Jersey: Are Elite Meets and Club Coaching Breaking High School Cross Country?
Elite meets and paid club coaching are pulling the best runners off the school calendar. Here is what that does…
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Why Runners Get Slower Mid-Season: 4 Causes for Coaches
Every season I have the same Tuesday. It lands in the third or fourth week of September. The workout is…
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How to Pick Your Varsity Seven in Cross Country
Susie ran 24:34 as a freshman. That was her personal best, set in October, and it put her in the…
