The Most Important Article on My Site

Published May 24, 2026

Hello,

I'm honored that in the crazy, hectic last days of May you're taking a minute to read this.

Today I'd like to share what I think is the most important article on my site.

​A Middle School Cross Country Training Plan for Every Environment​

If you only read one thing in this email, let it be the section on volume, which applies to high school runners.

Invert, Always Invert

Charlie Munger, the investor and thinker who passed away a couple of years ago, was famous for a piece of advice he borrowed from the 19th-century mathematician Carl Jacobi: invert, always invert. Instead of asking how to succeed, ask how to fail, and then don't do those things.

I think this is a useful frame for coaching middle school and early high school runners.

The question most coaches ask is, "How do I get a senior boy to handle 55 to 60 miles a week in February and March of his senior year? How do I get a senior girl handling 45 to 50 miles a week that same winter?"

That's a good question - let's invert it.

"What would cause a 12-year-old who loves running today to not be running fast as a senior? What would cause her to walk away from the sport at 16? What would keep him from running his fastest at 22, or being an Olympic Trials Marathon Qualifier in his 30s?"

Once you ask the question that way, the answer becomes obvious. You don't get greedy with mileage too early in their career. You don't water down a high school program for a sixth grader. You don't extinguish the fun.

The middle school article walks through a seven-year progression of volume that gets a senior to 60 miles a week the winter before their senior track season, starting with a sixth grader running 0-10 miles a week in the summer. Even if you're not coaching middle school, the progression is worth thinking about now, because the trajectory you set in seventh, eighth, and ninth grade is the one your athletes are still on as juniors and seniors.

Where I'd Apply This Right Now

If you coached a freshman boy who had a great freshman year in cross country and track and trained decently this winter, you can take the kid gloves off this summer. He's ready for more. Let him run more this summer than he did last summer.

If you coached a freshman girl who had a great freshman year, be cautious for another six months.

Don't get greedy this summer before her sophomore cross country season. Keep the volume modest, let her have a great fall built on consistency, and then bump the volume up this winter and let her have a faster sophomore track season.

You're going to have to trust me on this one. I've been in the sport close to 30 years, and the same patterns are still there. Girls who run really fast as freshmen and sophomores, then can't run as fast as juniors and seniors. Often it's not lack of talent but short sighted coaching that was too aggressively too early.

The article goes deeper into the why. Check it out.

Here's What's Coming Next

Here's the schedule for the next six weeks as we wrap up track and look toward the summer.

We're about a week away from shifting fully into cross country mode. Next week I'll be sharing three new articles with the exact training that's in the XC Training System.

I'll have bonuses worth hundreds of dollars for coaches who enroll that week.

The first XC Training System webinar is Sunday, June 7. You can still join later in the summer, but June is a great time to get started with the system and to set your program up for its best season every.

I'm going to follow my own advice and take a couple of down weeks starting in July, but only after answering questions for coaches in the XC Training System all of June. Then it's back to work full force in August, helping coaches fine-tune their training before school starts.

Thank You

Thank you for working so hard to make both track and all the spring end-of-the-school-year activities awesome for kids. As a parent, I see how much time my kids' teachers and coaches put into these last couple of weeks, and it's a real gift.

I'll be in touch Sunday.

Let's go!

PS - The biggest mistake I see coaches make with seventh and eighth graders isn't too many miles. It's too many hard workouts during the week, with races on Friday or Saturday.

Read the section in the article on circuits and fartlek runs. The workouts are simpler, more fun, and more effective than what most middle school athletes are being asked to do.