Appropriate middle school cross country training is not simply watered-down high school training.  

Our goals for these athletes are simple:  

• We want them to have a great experience running cross country. 
• We want them to become lifelong runners 

• We want to instill in them a love for racing so that they want to compete in high school. 

Finally, we must adopt the mindset that any injury for these athletes is unacceptable – save for a...

One of the biggest – and maybe the biggest – concerns for cross country coaches is “How am I going to keep the new athletes injury-free?” We all know that shin splints, tight IT-bands and Achilles tendons, and tight hamstrings can all be a problem for new athletes. 

I put this group of athletes – who either didn’t run track or haven't done a sport prior to joining the cross country team – into the “No Prior Training” plan. 

Before I explain thi...

If you’re a high school coach, you know that excellent cross country races in October and November are directly related to runners putting in intelligent training in the summer. 

I want to help you help your athletes with training that will a) keep them injury-free and b) have them fitter for the first important meet of the cross country season than they’ve ever been. Plus, I want to save you time in planning a progression of training days, whic...

For this runner to run a PR at a post-season national meet – be it the New Balance Outdoor Nationals or the Nike Outdoor Nationals – they must be mentally and physically recovered from the state meet.

A common problem – and one we can easily fix – is to make sure the athletes take a few easy days following the state track meet. Physically, they can handle decent training loads the week after state. But there is an emotional letdown after the sta...

Almost every serious distance runner will end the track season saying, “I know I could have run faster.” Even if the season ended with multiple PRs and great races in the final two weeks, serious runners always want to make the next jump in performance, which is why summer training has always been so important for distance runners. 

But before athletes start training for cross country, they need to fully recover from the track season.

Obviousl...

The 1600m is a fantastic event for high school runners because it teaches them how to “cover moves” and to accelerate when they’re fatigued, skills that also translate to faster cross country races in the fall. 

But a problem for many athletes is that the third lap is significantly slower than the other four laps. Kelly Christiansen, the coach at Niwot High School in Niwot, Colorado, calls this “the third lap problem.” 

In this article, I’m goi...

This is an article for high school track coaches, but athletes and parents may enjoy it as well. 

The long run is a key workout in my training most months of the year. Both cross country runners and 1600m/3200m runners gain significant fitness from weekly long runs (or a long run every 10 days). 

And... 

When an athlete only has three or four weeks left in their track season, however, the long run should not be a key workout. 

“But don’t we n...

What are strides? And why do cross country runners need to run strides to race faster?

Give me a few minutes and you’ll have the answer to both questions. 

Let’s go! 

A Stride is a Quick, Short, Controlled Sprint 

A stride is simply a quick, short, controlled sprint — anywhere from 70m to 150m — that’s faster than your race pace and much faster than your training paces. To be clear, this is not all out sprinting, but it’s also much faster th...

This article is for coaches of high school 800m runners, yet I’d use the same 800m workout for advanced middle school runners, as well as adult runners. 

We want to do three things in an 800m pre-race day workout. 

1. Get neuromuscularly ready to race 800m the next day. 

2. Get mentally ready to race 800m the next day. 

3. Avoid having any carry-over fatigue from this day to the race. 

You won’t have to worry about the third one if you simpl...

Here’s the deal – most articles about cross country training plans aren’t that helpful. The training suggestions are too general, the coach doesn’t explain the “why” behind the workouts, and they don't, therefore, end up clearly explaining how to train for cross country.  

In this article I’m going to explain exactly what a summer cross country training program should include, with a simple rationale for each workout. So, if you're looking for s...

Transcript - 5 min read time

This excerpt is from the Mental Skills for High School Runners course.

Jay: Your girls just finished second at the 2022 Nike Cross Nationals. What are some of the things you're doing all year long? 

Kelly: All year long to make sure that those same girls now...when we go into the track season, can run a really good 1600m. I think so much of the mile is rhythm and cadence and learning how to run a pace efficiently w...

Transcript - 6 min read time

This excerpt is from the Mental Skills for High School Runners course.

John O'Malley - MS - 800m Mentality for High School Runners 

Jay: I want to start this off with a very simple question: How does the mentality change from somebody who's successful in 5k cross country who's also going to be on a state qualifying or even a state champion 4x800m relay?  

John: Well, I think there's two significant things. There's...