Q: I’m a first-year distance coach at a high school in Missouri. I am super passionate about this and I want to become the best long distance coach for these kids, cause they deserve it. What I really need is workout plans on what I should do with them through the week during practice.

A lot of my athletes do cross country in the fall. We start track offseason in January, so every Tuesday and Thursday we do workouts after school. Our first track practice is February 25^th. JV kids will have track meets on almost every Monday sometimes Thursday in week. Varsity will have meets on Tuesday and Thursdays and sometimes Fridays. Some weeks we have one meet, some weeks we have two a week. I just want to give the kids the best workouts for them so they can be the best they can be. If you could give me ANY info on what workouts I should do on each day, off season workouts, anything that would be helpful… I will take!!

A: It’s so great that you want to do a great job for your athletes. Here are my general thoughts on how the off-season and season should go:

Off-Season, beginning in January:

Since you have them twice a week, I would take them through workouts on those days. They need to be building a strong base, so speed is not very important yet, but strength and endurance are. Great workouts for this time include tempo runs and hill workouts, such as:

Hill Workout:

1 mi warmup jog (or 10 minutes)
25 minutes of running uphill hard and jogging down
1 mi cooldown jog (or 10 minutes)

NOTES: Grass hills are great, maybe if you can take them to (or they can run to) a hilly park, but road or sidewalk hills work too – you just have to watch out for traffic. A hilly park is ideal because it’s safe and hopefully there is more than one hill to choose from, so they don’t get too bored. Make sure to include the warm up and cool down, as it’s important for injury prevention AND adds easy mileage, Make this fun! Put them in groups based on fitness level, and tell them to take turns leading up the hill.

Tempo Run:

1 mi warmup jog (or 10 minutes)
3 mile tempo run at Tempo Pace
OR 20 minutes at “tempo run effort”
1 mi cooldown jog (or 10 minutes)

NOTES: In my presentation that you found, I talk about figuring out each athlete’s Tempo Pace. You might not get to do this until track season, so just explain to them that “tempo run effort” is about 85% of full-on race effort. And then let them run. If they end up racing each other, it’s OK. The point is that they’re running hard for about 20 minutes without stopping! I pretty much raced all of my tempo runs in high school.

On the other 5 days of the week, give them an outline of what they should be doing, which should be something like:

Monday – easy 3-5 miles (25-40 min) + core work (the core work could be as simple as 50 pushups, 100 crunches, and planking for 1 minute (work up from there))

Tuesday (workout with the team)

Wednesday – Medium distance day: 4-6 miles (30-50 min) depending on fitness level at the pace that feels good. Note that if someone hasn’t been running consistently, 6 miles is a lot! They should start at 4 and work up.

Thursday (workout with the team)

Friday -Day OFF for kids who haven’t been running much. Others can repeat Monday.

Saturday/Sunday: One day should be a long run, and the other a day OFF for everyone. It’s very important that the long run is a manageable distance for each kid, so they don’t get hurt. Some may start at 40 min, others are ready for an hour +. Anyone who hasn’t run longer than 40 min should start there. Wherever the starting point, each kid should increase their long run by 5 minutes each week until track season starts.

Track Season, starting Feb 25:

In general, you want to get in 2 workouts during the weekdays each week. However, a MEET counts as a workout day. So if the JV kids have a meet on Monday, they need just 1 other “workout day” that week. If the Varsity kids have 2 meets in a week, that’s their speed work for the week! The other days should be easy 3-5 miles with core, a “medium distance day” or if it’s the weekend, a long run. 

Some notes:

– Workout days (non meet): You are working on speed endurance – the ability to run fast for sustained periods. This is different than pure speed, which we will get to later in the season.

– Meet days: Early in the season, let the middle distance and distance kids “double” to make the most of the meet as an opportunity to get better. Typical doubles are 3200/1600, 1600/800, 800/400, 1600/400 or 3200/800. It is great for their “speed endurance” to run two hard races in a night. You can also have the distance kids do the 4×4. If an athlete only does one race, make sure their cool down is 20-25 minutes long, to get some extra miles in

.- Non meet/workout days: Recovery is so important! The other days of the week should be at an easy, recovery pace. Make sure they continue to do their core work, as it is very important for form.

– Weekend: Make sure they continue to do their long runs! Keep the distance of the long run the same as it was when off season ended. This will help maintain their strength

– Each athlete should take one weekend day off (long run one day, off the other)

Last Month of Track Season (May?):

The last month of track season is when you want to sharpen their speed and bring the mileage down. 2 workout days a week still, with a meet counting as a workout day.

– Workout days (non meet). You are working on speed now, especially that finishing kick! You also are helping them build confidence in their speed.

– Meet days: No need to have them double anymore unless someone can score points in both, and the team race is important. You can let them focus on their main event.

– Non meet/workout days: Recovery is more important than ever! Bring the mileage on these days down a notch. Fresh legs are important; the hard work has been done.

– Weekend: Keep the long run, but cut it back to about 75%. So if an athlete had been doing an hour, they can just do 45 minutes. The long run should ALWAYS be at an easy pace.

– Each athlete should take one weekend day off (long run one day, off the other)