It’s getting close to one of the best times of the year, cross country season. Some of you, hopefully most of you, are deep into you summer conditioning; waking up early to beat the heat, building the foundation of miles that will set you up for a successful season. My best advice training-wise is to listen to your coach and keep showing up wanting to get better. Don’t become too focused on results or some “get fit quick” idea. Control the controllables; here are some of those controllables that I recommend you pay attention to this cross country season.
1- Record your training
One of my biggest regrets is not recording my training. My high school coach has a few records of some gnarly workouts I did, but other than that, I have no data to look back on. It would be nice to reminisce and see the progress I made. I really don’t have a clue how many miles I was running a week. I think there would be tremendous value in recording my training in a journal, or on a training app; Trackster, Strava, Garmin. I started recording my training in college and it was able to motivate me; seeing progression in mileage, dropping time off intervals in a workout two weeks later, race results getting faster and faster throughout the season.
Recording your training can also help you identify trends; “I felt bad on this day, lets look why.” It could be following a stressful day at school, a night you didn’t get a lot of sleep studying, or maybe you had an increase in mileage the week of or week before and your body is still trying to recover.
While it can become easy to over analyze your training and self, and I discourage someone from doing that. I believe some sort of training log helps you own your training, prepare better for the next day, and see and appreciate the progress you are making.
2- Make the grind enjoyable
The best memories I had in high school track weren’t even on the course, they were at practice, in the vans to and from meets, and team dinners. Invite your friends to join the team, invite everyone. The beauty of the sport is so many people can do it. The only cost is shoes and some running clothes, and the biggest hindrance is feeling inclusive. The more people on the team seems to produce better team results. Often, it can be put upon the coach to create the culture of the team. But, when the athletes take it upon themselves to set goals, agendas, and how they want practice, meets, and the season to go, it is a lot more powerful and meaningful to everyone else on the team. You can look at the season with endless potential, as an opportunity to accomplish some thing big. The saying “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together,” seems fitting here. The beauty of the sport is that it is a team sport built upon individual efforts. Trust in each other and put in the effort not only for yourself but for others.
One of my bigger regrets is not getting to know my competitors. I legit couldn’t have named any other kids until my senior year. While you want to beat them during the race, the camaraderie of competition and knowing you are both going out their to do the same painful hard thing brings runners together. Similarly get to know and hang out with your teammates. You have the potential to create an awesome community with a similar, niche interest. The great thing about running is you can do it almost anywhere. Plan some runs on the weekends, get breakfast after, grab coffee. Running has helped me find some lifelong friends who I am really similar to and will always have a bond with. From easy run chats to taking turns on tough interval repeats, you learn to be there for each other and to push one another for mutual growth. There aren’t many things like it! So, use it now to grow that community and enjoy it.
3- Replacing your shoes, and with the Right Shoes
Take a look at your shoes right now. How do they look? Is the tread wearing away? Does the foam have creases on the sides? Do your feet and shins and knees have some new aches and soreness that wasn’t there last month? These can be a sign you need to replace your shoes. I look back at my little injuries and realize those knee, hips, and ankle pains at the end of the season were probably due to my shoes being shot; and instead of finishing the season strong I was more so just trying to hold on. Yes parents like the idea of getting a pair of shoes for their kid and it will last them the whole season, some even hope that it will last through track. The truth: that is unlikely. Most shoes have a lifespan of 400-500 miles. Even if the athlete is only running 3-4 miles a day, which is on the low end. That would be 15-20 miles a week, at the minimum. This would allow for 20 weeks of this bear minimum running. 4-5 months would mean if you got your shoes in June, you would need to replace them by October. I believe the average athlete is probably closer to 30 miles on the low end, but as the season progresses, I’d imagine a decent amount of athletes work their way up to 40 miles a week, running on weekends too. Not to mention when the kids where their running shoes to more than just practice; A mile is a mile to the shoe- running or not.
I have organized the expected replacement time base on miles/week below. For Example, a low cushioned shoe would be a Brooks Launch, a New Balance Rebel, a Saucony Kinvara. While a higher cushioned shoe is more towards the Nike Invincible, Saucony Endorphin Shift, Brooks Glycerin, or New Balance 1080. An easy way to look at it is every brand has a ~130$ pair of shoes, anything under that cost is probably sacrificing something, typically foam stack height included. Those 140-170$ shoes have more foam, and they tend to last longer with the higher stack height and more/high quality foam.
|
Miles/week |
Low cushioned shoe (350-400 mi) |
Max Cushioned Shoe (400-500 mi) |
||||||
|
15 |
23 |
weeks |
5 |
months |
30 |
weeks |
7 |
Months |
|
20 |
18 |
weeks |
4 |
months |
23 |
weeks |
5 |
Months |
|
25 |
14 |
weeks |
3 |
months |
18 |
weeks |
4 |
Months |
|
30 |
12 |
weeks |
2.6 |
months |
15 |
weeks |
3.3 |
Months |
|
35 |
10 |
weeks |
2.2 |
months |
13 |
weeks |
2.9 |
Months |
|
40 |
9 |
weeks |
1.9 |
months |
11 |
weeks |
2.5 |
Months |
|
45 |
8 |
weeks |
1.7 |
months |
10 |
weeks |
2.2 |
Months |
|
50 |
7 |
weeks |
1.6 |
months |
9 |
weeks |
2.0 |
Months |
|
55 |
6.4 |
weeks |
1.4 |
month |
8.2 |
weeks |
1.8 |
Months |
|
60 |
5.8 |
weeks |
1.3 |
month |
7.5 |
weeks |
1.7 |
Months |
|
65 |
5.4 |
weeks |
1.2 |
month |
6.9 |
weeks |
1.5 |
Months |
|
70 |
5.0 |
weeks |
1.1 |
month |
6.4 |
weeks |
1.4 |
Months |
It can come off as crazy to think of replacing your shoes every month, but every step you take and mile you run is breaking down that foam in your shoe. When you aren’t wearing them the foam regenerates, but not 100%. Once the shoe cannot break down anymore, the forces start to go towards our body, bones, muscles, joints, etc. This is where the aches and pains come from when running on old shoes.
Just as important, maybe even more important is making sure you are in the right size and category of shoe. We measure each person to make sure they are in the right size, a half a thumb from your furthest toe to the edge of the shoe. This allows for your feet to swell a bit from blood flow when running. Width is important as well. Many brands offer a wide size, some are just naturally a wider brand. Lastly, the category of shoe you need depends on how much you overpronate. If you overpronate drastically to the point where you often get injuries when increasing volume, you should look at getting analyzed for whether you need a guidance or stability shoe. A little pronation is our bodies normal way of force absorption when landing and then taking off again. Whether or not this pronation hinders your performance and body will depend on factors like strength, flexibility, etc. Get a gate analysis and let us help make sure you’re in the right type and size shoe for you.
4- Stay Hydrated and Fuel Well
A topic many older runners can attest to is fueling and hydration. I think back on my diet habits in high school and wonder how the heck I did everything that I did. I did eat a lot at the school lunch, but I certainly wasn’t hydrating as much as I need to know. Proper hydration and fueling will help you have the best practices, workouts, races, and sleep as possible. You’ve probably heard a dozen times how our body is 60% water. Our muscles are 70-80% water, and that water has minerals and electrolytes to promote the muscles’ function. When we sweat a lot of that comes out; sodium, vitamin c, potassium, calcium. It is important to replace all that water, vitamins, and minerals and electrolytes after we lose them. It's something so easy to stay on top of but it can be fatal to that days training if you don't
There is a recommended window of 30 minutes after a training session, to refuel with carbs, protein and nutrient dense foods to optimize recovery. On top of practice, a majority of kids are also probably in a gym class each day for an hour. While this was my favorite class by far, there were days when I probably engaged in play a little too hard that it affected my practice later in the day. It is important to be hydrating throughout the day and eating a well-balanced diet for all 3 meals. Carry a water bottle around and drink 2-3 of them throughout the day. Some people who just can’t fathom drinking that much water might benefit by adding some powder or some flavor to their water. There are a lot of hydration options at Manhattan running company. Also bring some protein packed snacks if you have say- gym class or weights mid-morning and won’t have lunch for a couple hours after. I definitely had hot Fall and Spring days when I felt like I was going to pass out because of bad fueling and hydration.
5- Give it your all
Lastly, give it your all. There will be bad days and races. Don’t let them discourage you. Don’t let them deter you from giving it everything you have on race day; go out and run your perfect race. There is a super gratifying feeling when you finish the race; hands on your knees, catching your breath and realizing that you gave it your all; when it got tough you didn’t fold, you kept pushing yourself. You remember how heavy your legs felt at a point in the race and how your body tried to linger doubt into your mind. But you shut it out and kept putting one leg in front of the other, chasing down the next runner ahead of you. The pain and burn in your lungs fueled you on the home straight, increasing your pace and cadence, bringing up your knee drive, pumping your arms, feeling the pressure in your head. Another person, another one, and another one. You cross the line, you did it, the perfect race. Was it actually perfect? Perhaps not, how does anyone know?
The truth is, only you really know. Only you really know if you gave it all you had, if you finished left on empty. It’s not an easy thing to do. Something that is just as hard in my opinion though, is living with the thought and regret that you didn’t do all you could to make it a perfect race. “There are two types of pain in this sport, the pain of discipline and the pain of regret. I’m afraid of both, but I am more afraid of the second.” Sports are such an amazing part of high school, I know they were for me. It gave me something to work on and enjoy working hard. Finding enjoyment in difficult things gives you perspective on the challenges you will face later on in life. It teaches you that good things don't always come easy. It also gives you the opportunity to be a part of a team and community all working towards something in one of the most fun, accessible, and humbling sports.
