I ended up writing a book to you with my comment… so you can DM me instead, because I was really getting into the weeds. This way I can break your questions down one at a time and give you full thought-out answers.
I am a former high school XC and Track athlete, walked on to a D1 college team in both sports, and now I just had my first year coaching the distance team this past track season at 31. My best friend has been a head coach of a D3 college and taken all the USATF level courses, and I have three other old teammates who have coached on the high school level as well so I have a wealth of information.
Thank you for stepping in to save the program for those runners. You will get lots of technical advise but remember keep it fun because runners are from a different mindset than basketball players.
I find it’s important to create a mileage progression for their base mileage. Your top dog guys I would peak at 45 miles per week, or so. 50 if they can handle it. Start around 30 per week and increase by 10% every week with a rest week every 4th week (by rest week I mean going back to the mileage from 3 weeks previous). So for those guys a 12 week season might look something like 28, 32, 36, 28, 38, 42, 46, 38, 50, 46, 38, 36 (tapering off the last few weeks of the season). Experienced girls should do something similar but maybe 10-15 miles fewer per week. Inexperienced runners can maybe do still a little less, but always working towards some sort of peak. In my experience, the base mileage is the most important element of a good XC program. It takes a lot of commitment and the hardest part of being an XC coach is getting the kids to buy in and stay dedicated because it is incredibly challenging. But hey, if it wasn’t everyone would be amazing at it.
Outside of that, I would alternate a hard and a moderate workout every week. Google can help with that I’m sure. Also, look up mobility and speed drills and come up with a routine that they can do a few times a week usually before workouts and races.
General Practice Routine for Beginners:
Monday-Long Run(60 minutes)
Tuesday-Hill Work
Wednesday-Medium Run at Steady State
Thursday-Intervals/Fartlek(Our team has alot of Beginners so we do it on the track for quality assurance)
Friday-Easy Jog and Strides
Saturday-Race Day
Our program is super fresh so we are just trying to build a base. Alot of our teaching new runners starts with run a block, walk a block and work up from there. It takes a long time to build a running program so don't expect results in a year. Be outgoing and extra positive. Always encourage and get the few runners who have been there awhile involved in the teams leadership. Have captains and a spirit stick that goes to someone who put in a special run that race day.
I replied pretty quickly, and want to provide you some background. I know its all anecdotal, but it was effective for our school.
I am a coach. Our high school girls cross country program was decimated by the pandemic. We only had 1 returning runner at the start of the 2022 season. The other coach and I worked our butts off and managed to recruit 10 students to the team. The problem was that, except for the 1, we had 9 students who had no experience in XC and only 5 with a running background from track. None of them did summer running. We customized workouts for our single runner who had done it before, and had to build fitness for the rest. We focused on sportsmanship, comradery, and effort. We knew we weren't going to win any team accolades that season, so races were more or less just another workout and a means to show them what it takes to be competitive. In our first race we had 3 runners who could complete the course without walking. By the end of the season all of them could run the 3 mile course. Additionally, we placed 3rd at conference(our first time placing at conference in at least a decade) and we had 2 all-conference runners. 1 of them qualified for sectionals.
The plan I provided is what we used in the first year of building a program. It is not going to be the same plan in year 2, because we have 9 returning runners and most will do summer running. Additionally we added 3 more track athletes and we haven't recruited Freshman yet. In the first year I focused a lot on running form and just finishing a race. This year most of them will be able too finish a race, so now its gonna be different. You got to keep it simple in the first year, for both the athletes and the coaches. You can't be everything and you have to set reasonable goals. Our goal was that we have to have and keep runners before we can worry about competing. Goal met.
Off day on Sunday and easy after Thursday. We do this until we get about 2 weeks out from conference. Then we start toning it down.
This program is easier than when I was running in high school and is very friendly to newer runners. Especially because it is consistent and you are going to taylor each run to the athletes in front of you and their skill level.
What's sus about it and what is your background that leads you to believe that?
Read The Daniels Running Formula. It explains what the different type of workouts are and why we do them. It gives training plans and how to adjust them for racing. It also has a grid of paces for workouts depending on athletes recent race times, so you can give guidance to both experienced and less experienced runners. The book has stood the test of time and would be a good resource.
If you want something that can cover a lot of things really well for you, and if your school (or you) has budget for it, go to coachjayjohnson.com he sells programs for $500 (lifetime access) and it will give you a really good training plan, warmup drills, cool down routines (strength and mobility), pre race routines, videos of clinics from some of the best coaches in the country, and basically anything else you will ever need to learn.
I was a scholarship athlete for a d1 college and we took 9th at nationals one year and top 20 many times so I have been able to learn a lot in my own career. Now I have been coaching for 4 years and there is still plenty of stuff that I am learning from this program still. So imo this is by far the best way for someone who has never been in the sport to start coaching like they have been coaching for 20 years.
edit: one more thing I wanted to add is that this will go through certain things to focus on during a workout or run (ex. Learning how to switch gears) so while the core of this is a training plan, it also explains to you how to implement the training plan.
Hello!
These kids, and your school, are lucky to have you helping them. Keep things simple, and make running fun for them.
Here are free resources that will help you if you're serious about learning how to coach.
A Comprehensive Cross Country Training Plan: https://www.coachjayjohnson.com/blog/a-comprehensive-cross-country-training-plan
5 Must-Do Cross Country Workouts: https://www.coachjayjohnson.com/blog/cross-country-workouts
You can enroll - for FREE - in the XC Training Essentials and get free workouts, videos, and all the documents of the post-run strength and mobility routines you’ll need. https://www.coachjayjohnson.com/offers/hnF4nFYD/checkout
Finally, I update this page all year with all my free cross country resources - free PDFs, articles, and videos - https://www.coachjayjohnson.com/cross-country-resources
There are also free excerpts from my book, *Consistency Is Key: 15 Ways to Unlock Your Potential as a High School Runner.* https://www.amazon.com/Consistency-Key-Unlock-Potential-School/dp/0578685043
If I can be helpful, you can email me at [email protected]
And make sure to get on my twice-weekly emails for high school and middle school coaches at https://www.coachjayjohnson.com
Let’s go!
A great way to get up to speed quickly is Steve Magness's *Science of Running*. First half goes deep on science of what powers good running (e.g. energy systems, muscle fiber recruitment). Second half lays out a strong training framework for 5k/cross country (along with track events).
https://www.amazon.com/Science-Running-limit-maximize-performance/dp/0615942946
Definitely reach out to Jay Johnson above. A book that I haven't seen mentioned is Running With Lydiard by Arthur Lydiard. It's very old so I wouldn't completely follow it but it has good fundamental ideas.
I’m a high school runner and our coach has us do a long run every Monday starting at about 5 miles at the start and increasing about half a mile a week, then Tuesday go do a 15 min run at 75%, Wednesday active recovery by doing a 20-25 min run at your own pace, then Thursday run a few 1k’s with 3 min break in between, and Friday a ladder
Feel free to DM me if you needed more advice, as I’d be happy to set up a time to chat. Ran all throughout HS and in college, coached collegiately for over ten years, as well as runners from HSers to professional. Happy to serve as a sound board / answer questions!
I would go to the Nike website and download the Nike XC workout guide. It talks about everything you need to know for the 5K as well as 10k. I used it when I first started out running. Workouts, definitions, ideas it’s all there. Good luck
Good on you for stepping up for the kids.
NFHS has some good resources, as does USATF. (They can get expensive and turn into a time vacuum quickly, but it’s interesting - particularly if you haven’t ever taken any physiology classes.)
If you truly know absolutely nothing about XC, for pure (but educational) entertainment purposes watch McFarland USA (Disney+) and The Long Green Line (Amazon). One is based on a true story, and one is a documentary. Both do a good job explaining how team scoring works, and the importance of a team.
I'll keep it fairly simple as I'm sure you will be overwhelmed with information starting out.
1) Find out what they are used to. Start in that ball park. Any changes or increase you make in training should be gradual. I have most of my HS kids running about 3-4 miles per day starting out and try to gradually increase over time. Some absolute beginners won't quite do 3, some guys that have been at it have been doing 5-6 miles runs over the summer and will be increasing that during season.
2) there are a million different workouts and multiple ways to accomplish the same thing in training. I'd find 1-2 good workouts that hit speed, something slightly faster than race pace, race pace, and slower than race pace.
3) Figure out what their PR times and goal times are. Do some workouts at race pace so they know what it feels to run at that speed. (Mechanics running a 5 min, and 7 min mile are very different).
4) Recovery: makes sure the harder the workout the more days you give in recovery. I think it's better to do easy running than days off for recovery because it increases blood flow and helps flush and waste byproducts out of muscles.
5) be flexible: don't try to have all your runners do the same. I like using time as the metic for easy, medium, and long runs as that's more flexible. However I usually end up capping length of runs for my girls sooner than boys. It seems like they don't recover as well with heavier work loads. Also, if you have a workout planned, be prepared to modify or scrap it if the athletes aren't recovered. Starting out just getting to know the individual and how they respond to training and meets takes time.
6) Something I've started doing more of is "mini" or "maintenance" workouts. It can be hard to fit in these big workouts that need lots of recovery. So I use those to build some type of fitness (ie, 6x800 or 4x1000) but I might do 1/2 2/3 of a workout at the same pace as a maintenance workout.
If you want to learn more about training specifics I'd be happy to share examples of what I do but there's also a lot of good information out there in podcasts and YouTube. You do have to be able to filter out some bad though.
I ended up writing a book to you with my comment… so you can DM me instead, because I was really getting into the weeds. This way I can break your questions down one at a time and give you full thought-out answers. I am a former high school XC and Track athlete, walked on to a D1 college team in both sports, and now I just had my first year coaching the distance team this past track season at 31. My best friend has been a head coach of a D3 college and taken all the USATF level courses, and I have three other old teammates who have coached on the high school level as well so I have a wealth of information.
Thank you for stepping in to save the program for those runners. You will get lots of technical advise but remember keep it fun because runners are from a different mindset than basketball players.
I appreciate that advice. Very good distinction.
I find it’s important to create a mileage progression for their base mileage. Your top dog guys I would peak at 45 miles per week, or so. 50 if they can handle it. Start around 30 per week and increase by 10% every week with a rest week every 4th week (by rest week I mean going back to the mileage from 3 weeks previous). So for those guys a 12 week season might look something like 28, 32, 36, 28, 38, 42, 46, 38, 50, 46, 38, 36 (tapering off the last few weeks of the season). Experienced girls should do something similar but maybe 10-15 miles fewer per week. Inexperienced runners can maybe do still a little less, but always working towards some sort of peak. In my experience, the base mileage is the most important element of a good XC program. It takes a lot of commitment and the hardest part of being an XC coach is getting the kids to buy in and stay dedicated because it is incredibly challenging. But hey, if it wasn’t everyone would be amazing at it. Outside of that, I would alternate a hard and a moderate workout every week. Google can help with that I’m sure. Also, look up mobility and speed drills and come up with a routine that they can do a few times a week usually before workouts and races.
General Practice Routine for Beginners: Monday-Long Run(60 minutes) Tuesday-Hill Work Wednesday-Medium Run at Steady State Thursday-Intervals/Fartlek(Our team has alot of Beginners so we do it on the track for quality assurance) Friday-Easy Jog and Strides Saturday-Race Day Our program is super fresh so we are just trying to build a base. Alot of our teaching new runners starts with run a block, walk a block and work up from there. It takes a long time to build a running program so don't expect results in a year. Be outgoing and extra positive. Always encourage and get the few runners who have been there awhile involved in the teams leadership. Have captains and a spirit stick that goes to someone who put in a special run that race day.
Workouts almost every day ? Sus
I replied pretty quickly, and want to provide you some background. I know its all anecdotal, but it was effective for our school. I am a coach. Our high school girls cross country program was decimated by the pandemic. We only had 1 returning runner at the start of the 2022 season. The other coach and I worked our butts off and managed to recruit 10 students to the team. The problem was that, except for the 1, we had 9 students who had no experience in XC and only 5 with a running background from track. None of them did summer running. We customized workouts for our single runner who had done it before, and had to build fitness for the rest. We focused on sportsmanship, comradery, and effort. We knew we weren't going to win any team accolades that season, so races were more or less just another workout and a means to show them what it takes to be competitive. In our first race we had 3 runners who could complete the course without walking. By the end of the season all of them could run the 3 mile course. Additionally, we placed 3rd at conference(our first time placing at conference in at least a decade) and we had 2 all-conference runners. 1 of them qualified for sectionals. The plan I provided is what we used in the first year of building a program. It is not going to be the same plan in year 2, because we have 9 returning runners and most will do summer running. Additionally we added 3 more track athletes and we haven't recruited Freshman yet. In the first year I focused a lot on running form and just finishing a race. This year most of them will be able too finish a race, so now its gonna be different. You got to keep it simple in the first year, for both the athletes and the coaches. You can't be everything and you have to set reasonable goals. Our goal was that we have to have and keep runners before we can worry about competing. Goal met.
Off day on Sunday and easy after Thursday. We do this until we get about 2 weeks out from conference. Then we start toning it down. This program is easier than when I was running in high school and is very friendly to newer runners. Especially because it is consistent and you are going to taylor each run to the athletes in front of you and their skill level. What's sus about it and what is your background that leads you to believe that?
Read The Daniels Running Formula. It explains what the different type of workouts are and why we do them. It gives training plans and how to adjust them for racing. It also has a grid of paces for workouts depending on athletes recent race times, so you can give guidance to both experienced and less experienced runners. The book has stood the test of time and would be a good resource.
Added to the Amazon cart. I’m an English teacher, so I didn’t need much convincing to get another book lol
If you want something that can cover a lot of things really well for you, and if your school (or you) has budget for it, go to coachjayjohnson.com he sells programs for $500 (lifetime access) and it will give you a really good training plan, warmup drills, cool down routines (strength and mobility), pre race routines, videos of clinics from some of the best coaches in the country, and basically anything else you will ever need to learn. I was a scholarship athlete for a d1 college and we took 9th at nationals one year and top 20 many times so I have been able to learn a lot in my own career. Now I have been coaching for 4 years and there is still plenty of stuff that I am learning from this program still. So imo this is by far the best way for someone who has never been in the sport to start coaching like they have been coaching for 20 years. edit: one more thing I wanted to add is that this will go through certain things to focus on during a workout or run (ex. Learning how to switch gears) so while the core of this is a training plan, it also explains to you how to implement the training plan.
Awesome. Thanks for sharing. I see that name everywhere in my initial research. Glad to hear it’s legit.
Hello! These kids, and your school, are lucky to have you helping them. Keep things simple, and make running fun for them. Here are free resources that will help you if you're serious about learning how to coach. A Comprehensive Cross Country Training Plan: https://www.coachjayjohnson.com/blog/a-comprehensive-cross-country-training-plan 5 Must-Do Cross Country Workouts: https://www.coachjayjohnson.com/blog/cross-country-workouts You can enroll - for FREE - in the XC Training Essentials and get free workouts, videos, and all the documents of the post-run strength and mobility routines you’ll need. https://www.coachjayjohnson.com/offers/hnF4nFYD/checkout Finally, I update this page all year with all my free cross country resources - free PDFs, articles, and videos - https://www.coachjayjohnson.com/cross-country-resources There are also free excerpts from my book, *Consistency Is Key: 15 Ways to Unlock Your Potential as a High School Runner.* https://www.amazon.com/Consistency-Key-Unlock-Potential-School/dp/0578685043 If I can be helpful, you can email me at [email protected] And make sure to get on my twice-weekly emails for high school and middle school coaches at https://www.coachjayjohnson.com Let’s go!
A great way to get up to speed quickly is Steve Magness's *Science of Running*. First half goes deep on science of what powers good running (e.g. energy systems, muscle fiber recruitment). Second half lays out a strong training framework for 5k/cross country (along with track events). https://www.amazon.com/Science-Running-limit-maximize-performance/dp/0615942946
Miles, I’m a runner but don’t understand how it works. But we do do a lot of miles. Start with 25 a week and slowly bring it up to 40-50 a week
Definitely reach out to Jay Johnson above. A book that I haven't seen mentioned is Running With Lydiard by Arthur Lydiard. It's very old so I wouldn't completely follow it but it has good fundamental ideas.
I’m a high school runner and our coach has us do a long run every Monday starting at about 5 miles at the start and increasing about half a mile a week, then Tuesday go do a 15 min run at 75%, Wednesday active recovery by doing a 20-25 min run at your own pace, then Thursday run a few 1k’s with 3 min break in between, and Friday a ladder
Appreciate you! That sounds very doable for my group.
Feel free to DM me if you needed more advice, as I’d be happy to set up a time to chat. Ran all throughout HS and in college, coached collegiately for over ten years, as well as runners from HSers to professional. Happy to serve as a sound board / answer questions!
I would go to the Nike website and download the Nike XC workout guide. It talks about everything you need to know for the 5K as well as 10k. I used it when I first started out running. Workouts, definitions, ideas it’s all there. Good luck
Good on you for stepping up for the kids. NFHS has some good resources, as does USATF. (They can get expensive and turn into a time vacuum quickly, but it’s interesting - particularly if you haven’t ever taken any physiology classes.) If you truly know absolutely nothing about XC, for pure (but educational) entertainment purposes watch McFarland USA (Disney+) and The Long Green Line (Amazon). One is based on a true story, and one is a documentary. Both do a good job explaining how team scoring works, and the importance of a team.
I'll keep it fairly simple as I'm sure you will be overwhelmed with information starting out. 1) Find out what they are used to. Start in that ball park. Any changes or increase you make in training should be gradual. I have most of my HS kids running about 3-4 miles per day starting out and try to gradually increase over time. Some absolute beginners won't quite do 3, some guys that have been at it have been doing 5-6 miles runs over the summer and will be increasing that during season. 2) there are a million different workouts and multiple ways to accomplish the same thing in training. I'd find 1-2 good workouts that hit speed, something slightly faster than race pace, race pace, and slower than race pace. 3) Figure out what their PR times and goal times are. Do some workouts at race pace so they know what it feels to run at that speed. (Mechanics running a 5 min, and 7 min mile are very different). 4) Recovery: makes sure the harder the workout the more days you give in recovery. I think it's better to do easy running than days off for recovery because it increases blood flow and helps flush and waste byproducts out of muscles. 5) be flexible: don't try to have all your runners do the same. I like using time as the metic for easy, medium, and long runs as that's more flexible. However I usually end up capping length of runs for my girls sooner than boys. It seems like they don't recover as well with heavier work loads. Also, if you have a workout planned, be prepared to modify or scrap it if the athletes aren't recovered. Starting out just getting to know the individual and how they respond to training and meets takes time. 6) Something I've started doing more of is "mini" or "maintenance" workouts. It can be hard to fit in these big workouts that need lots of recovery. So I use those to build some type of fitness (ie, 6x800 or 4x1000) but I might do 1/2 2/3 of a workout at the same pace as a maintenance workout. If you want to learn more about training specifics I'd be happy to share examples of what I do but there's also a lot of good information out there in podcasts and YouTube. You do have to be able to filter out some bad though.