Preparing for the Fall Cross Country Season w/ Coach Jacob Phillips

The summer time is when Champions are made for the Fall Cross Country season! So, as we dive into summer, that is what we are talking about on this month's episode of The Next Level Running Podcast! I've been a head coach for Cross Country at the NCAA level for 20 years now and on this episode I talk through what I believe your summer should look like if you are preparing for a high school or collegiate Cross Country season! 

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Transcript

unknown 0:00

Oh, yeah.

Jacob Phillips 0:18

This is the Next Level Running Podcast brought to you by the expert coaches that run Doyle, helping runners of all levels trust their goals on race day by matching with the perfect coach or training plan. Hello and welcome back to the Next Level Running Podcast. I'm your host, Jacob Phillips, and this month, I'm going to be talking with you about training during the summer for that upcoming cross-country season. This episode is dedicated to those high schoolers, those college athletes, those coaches out there who are getting ready for a fall cross-country season. For most of you, the track season's finished. And so that's what we're going to talk about here this month on the Next Level Running Podcast. But before we jump into the topic, uh, I wanted to point you to the show notes below. As usual, I got the contact info for myself there. Look, if you've got questions for me, whether that's podcast topics that you would love to hear about, uh, or you're looking for a coach, you can connect with me uh through that link below. Um, but I've also got the rundoyen.com website pulled up as well for you down there. Look, if you're looking to take your running to the next level, if you're looking to crush your running goals, look no further than rundoyen.com. We've got a roster full of world-class expert run coaches uh who are ready to help you. They're gonna help you crush your running goals, they're gonna help you tell help take you to the next level. So check out runjoyen.com. Uh if you're not quite ready for a coach, the next best thing is the Doyen Dashers. For$39 a month, you get a training program that's written for you by one of those world-class expert run coaches from Run Joyen. Look, there's less accountability and there's more flexibility. You're still getting a program written by a professional coach. I tried it just past spring. I loved the flexibility, I loved the variety of the workouts. It was really fun for me as I was trying to get back into shape. It was really good for me. I didn't have to worry about the accountability of a coach, and more so just kind of move at my own pace with the schedule. Anyhow, Goyan Dashers, if you're not quite ready for a coach, uh it's a great program to follow and to join. I want to also point you below to the at Rundoyan Instagram account. If you haven't clicked that follow button, do so. Lots of great content there, whether it's running advice, encouragement, inspiration, fun running media stuff, go check out the Run Doyan Instagram account. And if Instagram's not your thing, uh then Facebook uh has the next level running community group. It's basically uh what we're pumping out on Instagram, but the Facebook version, uh Facebook is a little more interactive, you're able to leave comments, ask questions, those sort of things. Um if you uh haven't yet joined that community group here on Facebook, check out the next level running community group. Look, let's jump into this topic. We're gonna talk about what to do this summer to prepare yourself for the best cross-country season that you can possibly have. This is a conversation that if you're a high school runner getting ready for cross country, if you're a college athlete getting ready for cross country, if you're a coach who's coaching cross-country next fall, this conversation is for you. So let's jump in. Can you feel it? It's summertime. The fall, it's not quite in the air yet, but cross-country season is coming. Let me tell you, as a coach, one of my favorite times of the year uh is the summer when you are building that base for the upcoming cross-country season. For my adult runners out there, you you might not be dreaming about the cross-country season uh right now, but for those high school runners, for those college runners, for my coaches out there, uh, you're probably getting fired up for this fall season, but you can't have a great fall season without setting the foundation in the summer. And so that's what we're gonna talk about uh this month on the Next Level Running Podcast. We're gonna talk about uh kind of some fundamentals uh to racing fast in the fall, what you need to do this summer to have yourself or your team ready for a fast fall season. Uh and I'm gonna try to keep this as simple as possible. I'm gonna just basically try to tell you like we're gonna we're gonna talk about strength, aerobic strength, and we're gonna talk about speed, running fast. And that's really the two ways that that I'm gonna approach it uh for you this month as we uh as you start to think about what does training look like for your athletes this summer getting ready for a fall cross-country season. But I want to give you a little background. Uh I'm the host of the Next Level Running Podcast, Jacob Phillips. I'm also one of uh many coaches on the Run Doyan roster. Um I've also been a uh an NCAA cross-country, head cross-country and track coach uh for now the past 20 years at Dallas Baptist University. In that time, we've been a pretty good cross-country program. Uh our women have won 15 of the last 17 conference championships in cross-country. Uh, they've gone to the NCAA championships four or five times in the last, I think, seven years, six or seven years. Um we've we've had a really uh we've had a tradition of success in cross-country, and and and I think that one of the reasons that we've been great in the in the in in the fall is because our athletes go into the summer understanding what they need to do uh in the summer to get ready for a great fall. And so that's what we're gonna talk about here. I want to start I want to talk about uh the idea of aerobic strength. That's gonna be number one. We're gonna talk about aerobic strength and we're gonna talk about speed, running fast, right? And we're gonna start with the basis of aerobic strength, building aerobic fitness. And that's gonna typically be things like your easy running, your mileage, your long runs, runs that are over Hilly courses, uh, and then kind of starting to get into those uh those quality type of runs, progression runs or fast finished runs, tempo runs, tempo repeats. Uh some people might call them lactate threshold runs or aerobic repeats or uh whatever, these types of workouts that will really help you build uh aerobic fitness, that will really help you build the engine. Um but most of what you're gonna do, the majority of what you're gonna do, not just in the summer, but throughout the whole year as a runner, um, will be what we call easy running. Just going out and getting in that mileage. And and I I try to emphasize this idea that easy runs are just as important as any other workout that you do. Like when you go out and you run easy, you are getting better at running. And those easy runs, since they are the majority of what we do, you can't go hard every day, right? They're pretty important. And so uh for my coaches out there, for my athletes out there, um, learn how to run easy. Easy doesn't mean slow. Um, easy means running relaxed, running easy. And so that pace will differ depending on how you feel, depending on the weather conditions. Uh, it'll differ uh depending on your your mile PR versus someone else's mile PR, etc. But uh the first step to building that aerobic base is just getting out there and putting in some good easy runs. And when I say good easy runs, I don't mean a certain pace, but just learning how to run easy and relaxed on your daily runs, building your mileage, trying to run more this summer than you ran last summer. You know, I say it all the time is if you want to be a better runner, run more this year than you did last year. The next piece of building that aerobic engine, building that aerobic fitness, building that base, uh are your long runs. Long runs are one of the most effective ways to build that aerobic engine, to build that fitness. I feel like in the summer, uh long runs should be done once per week. And then, you know, coaches, as you get into the season, you can go every other week or however it fits into your program, your racing schedule. But I feel like in the summer, when we're building that base, long runs should be done each week. And there should be no more than 25% of your weekly volume. Uh so like uh if you're a runner trying to put in a 40-mile week, uh, then that's about a 10-mile long long run, right? Um so you want this to be done once a week at least. More experienced mature runners can probably get away with doing two long runs a week, but no more than one long run per week, uh, or sorry, no less than one long run per week during the summer, 25% of your total weekly volume. Uh, you can run it over hilly courses, and as you get fitter, uh you should really focus on running like your fastest over the last third of the run, the last you know, uh portion of the run. You want to negative split those long runs. The next step for uh I think when you're trying to build that aerobic engine, when you're trying to build that base uh progression runs, I love progression runs. I think that progression runs are the best indicator uh for aerobic fitness. And I'll be honest, uh in our program, I always say, I think that when we uh when we make progression runs easy, when we've gotten good at progression runs, that's when we're ready uh to start racing. And so I love progression runs. Um I don't think you need to jump into other workouts until you've um successfully run some progression runs. And so that's just a simple run where you're gonna start easy and get faster throughout. Um, you know, and and uh one of my coaching buddies, he's a great uh uh high school coaching mentor, uh Coach Jay Johnson, he says you need to go fast, faster, fastest over the last part of your runs. And so uh he always says you should be able to say that you could have gone further and faster, and and I couldn't agree more. Um progression runs, you want to get fit aerobically, this is the best bang for your buck. Uh insert one to two progression runs per week after you've had a few weeks of easy and long running in there, and uh and and watch yourself just transform uh your fitness. The the next step, so the next step of intensity as we're building that aerobic base would be your tempo runs. And so uh tempo runs are continuous runs of 20 to 30 minutes at a sustained effort. Um and and again, I don't think you should start these until you can successfully do some progression runs. But these should be um at the fast end, uh about 60 seconds per mile slower than your mile PR pace. So if you're a five-minute mileer, then six minute pace is kind of the goal there. Um but you might want to start a little slower and work down to that, uh, especially with the first one or two tempo runs that you might run. Um and again, these are one of those workouts that I feel like you should be able to progress uh your pace throughout. You should be able to go fast, faster, fastest throughout. Um, it's another one of those workouts where it's like, hey, I could have gone faster and I could have gone further, right? This is not a workout that you empty the tank. This is one that you're hopefully filling that aerobic tank. And then uh we've got tempo repeats, and and those are repetitions um that are sort of at that tempo effort, so very similar to the tempo run, except you're gonna have some rest periods and so a rest interval in there. And so um I typically say at the fastest end, these can be about 45 seconds per mile slower than your mile PR pace, but you probably want to start a little slower and work into it. Um and I typically will give one minute of rest per mile of running. So if you're wanting to do four times a mile at that tempo effort, then you would take a one minute rest between each rep. And just like with everything we've talked about before, the long run, the progression run, the continuous tempo run, this is another workout that you want to be able to go fast, faster, fastest in. You want you want to leave it in the tank. You don't want to have completely just emptied the tank on this workout. So when we're talking about the majority of the summer, when we're talking about getting yourselves ready for this great cross-country season, um, let's talk about some periodization. We talked about the aerobic workouts, the aerobic base workouts, like when we're trying to build that aerobic fitness, we talked about your easy runs, your long runs, your progression runs, your tempo runs, your tempo repeats. Uh the periodization is you want to work from the most general side of things to the more specific side. And so obviously the most general in terms of um like your effort is going to be easy runs, right? And then you're gonna progress to the long runs, uh, from that to progression runs, from those progression runs to some continuous tempo runs, and then from those tempo runs to the tempo repeats, because they're a little faster, right? So you're really progressing from easy uh to faster paces there. What I would encourage is I would tell you, like what you do in June, you don't want to put a crack in your foundation. We want to build a good base. We want to be running our best in the uh championship season of the cross-country season, which is typically October, November. And so June should be more so of learning how to do these easy runs, building your easy run mileage, uh, introducing those long runs week to week and building those long runs. And then as we get into either the latter part of June or the early part of July, start introducing a few weeks with some progression runs and start building that progression run. You know, for us, for our college women who are preparing for basically a 5K, the the postseason they'll be running 6K, but let's just call it a 5K. Um, we typically will start with a six-mile progression run, last two miles kind of at a steady effort. Uh, and then we might build that to an eight-mile progression run and try to hold that for a couple weeks. And and once they're really good at doing eight to ten mile progression runs where they're able to continue to get faster, but still keep that in a really strong aerobic effort, that's when we will move to tempo runs. So by the end of July, we we might start with our first um kind of kind of easier tempo run, 20 minutes, three miles, uh, at about a minute per mile slower than their uh their mile uh PR pace. And we might actually start that a little slower than that and work down. Um but we'll do a couple weeks at tempo runs, or we'll alternate. We'll do a tempo run and then a progression run, a tempo run, progression run, and then once we kind of feel comfortable with the tempo runs, um, say mid-August, as we're kind of finishing up this summer base, we'll we'll probably introduce our first tempo repeat workout. For me, tempo repeats are um are pretty specific to cross-country, maybe not pace-wise, but it's it's a long rep with short rests, and so I think it gets you really ready for the rigors of cross-country. And so that periodization would be you know, early part of June, most of June, you're gonna really go easy runs, long runs, build that volume. As you get towards the end of June, early July, we're gonna start introducing those those progression runs and building those progression runs, and then as we get latter part of July, um start introducing the tempo workouts, the continuous tempo runs, the tempo repeats, uh, etc. Some people like to do the uh tempo repeats before the tempo runs. I like just keeping the tempo runs a little slower and then the tempo repeats a little faster and building towards faster. I think that gets you to be a little bit more specific there. So that's the aerobic workouts. When we're talking about uh speed, running faster, that's something that's like building that muscular uh fitness there. That's something that we will do uh starting very early uh in the summer, and we will do that all through the summer and even into the cross-country season. You the you've got to be strong to run 5 to 10k continuous over hills, over grass, over you know, through mud, etc. Um, but the fastest runner will still win the race, right? And so we want to make sure that we are practicing fast. And and so with that periodization, just like we do with the aerobic stuff, we do that with the fast stuff as well. And we start uh early in June uh when we start our easy mileage and and our easy runs, we start with strides and we finish easy runs with some short, fast uh strides and and really um too many runners neglect strides, but trying to be really intentional with you know four to six to eight reps of 15 to 20 seconds of faster running with some really good recovery. And when we talk about fast running, we want to really focus on the rhythm. Uh we want to be smooth, we want to be efficient, we want to be mechanically correct, we want to have good form, uh, and we want to do those as often as possible without overdoing it. So two, three times a week on easy runs, um, you know, we we will try to do strides. Once we've done strides for a couple weeks, we'll start introducing, we call it speed maintenance to Dallas Baptist, but typically it's just just some longer stride repetitions. And so something like two uh two sets of four to five times of 200 at mile effort, and so it's just a just a longer stride where you're really focusing on being smooth and being efficient and running relaxed. You know, we'll do a good warm-up, a good cooldown on this workout. And and I love this session because we typically will do it on a Friday before the long run. Um, and it kind of breaks up the monotony of the mileage. It kind of breaks up the monotony of these continuous workouts that we've been doing. And so they'll they'll do a warm-up, they'll go through some drills, they'll put on either some flats, some racing flats, or their spikes, and they'll do they'll do eight to ten times a 200 kind of broken up in sets. And and man, we'll we'll we'll try to run the last one to two reps of each set, you know, quick and feel good. And it's a fun workout uh that as you're doing these continuous easy runs, these continuous long runs, these continuous progression runs, kind of breaks up the monotony of that. And so um we typically will run a 200 with good form, feeling really good, really good, you know, smooth and efficient, jog a 200, go again, and then we'll usually jog, you know, two to two and a half laps between the sets and and uh and keep it continuous a little bit, but it's kind of broken up with with fast, slow, fast, slow. Um, and that's a that's a the next step of that speed intensity. And then uh as we sort of end the uh the summer base period, we will start doing some hill work. And so um we've been doing, I didn't really mention this during the aerobic stuff, but but we've been doing hilly runs throughout the aerobic stuff, right? With maybe a long run over a hilly course or runs over hilly courses just to um uh one, just to to introduce hills, but hills are just awesome, especially when you run them over like a continuous run over a hilly course. They are great to just building that aerobic and that muscular strength at the same time, but we'll start easing into some hill repeats. And and hills are speed work in disguise, right? And they they they almost force you into a good running form. Uh running uphill should reduce injury, um, and it really builds running specific strength. I I like to run 400 meter hill repeats with my team, and I feel like we get a really big stimulus from that aerobically and muscularly. We'll do eight to twelve or eight to sixteen times a 400 meter hill, and we'll we'll run up strong, not sprinting, but strong, maybe, maybe starting around tempo effort and working it down to kind of cross-country race pace or a little faster. But we'll run strong up and then we'll jog easy down and we'll go back and forth, back and forth. I mean, if you do eight reps up, you're doing eight down. That's four miles uh of continuous running. It's almost like a fart look on the hills, right? And so it's just a great workout, but we're really focusing, uh, we're taking that stuff that we've done with the strides, that we've done with those 200s, and we're putting it on the hill. We're really focused on good form, we're really trying to uh work our way into the workout and really trying to finish faster there. So we're not necessarily sprinting, but we are um getting some really good running specific strength work that will make you faster. Um and eventually you can move from those hill repeats to some specific race pace repeats, you know, like you know, your your typical five times a K at 5K pace or four times a mile at 5K pace, those traditional, but you need to periodize that where you're gonna go for us, anyways, strides, you know, and you'll do the strides year round, but strides starting early, which will build into those 200 meter repeats I call speed maintenance, which will eventually for us build into those hill repeats, and then eventually those those traditional race specific type of repeats. And so that's that's how we do it, that's how we do our summer. Uh we look at the periodization. Of the aerobic fitness, the periodization of getting faster, and how we're going to line that out. And we use all of June, all of July, and into August to really build the engine and then really focus on revving the engine, right? And so that's kind of how we do it training-wise. But I tell you, you know, more importantly than that, if you're an out athlete out there, be coachable. Because what I'm telling you is just how we do it. You might have your own coach that you're that you're following advice from. If you're a high school or college athlete out there and and you're you're getting fired up for cross-country, let me tell you, be coachable. Um follow your coach's plan. They've thought it through. They want the best for you, and uh, and and they know where it's leading, right? And so be coachable. Live a good life. Good sleep, good nutrition, good hydration, making those good choices in training. Um, like though that that cannot be understated. How impactful if you want to have a great fall season, just setting those habits of good sleep, good nutrition, good hydration, good recovery, those sorts of things. Um and I think, you know, outside of that, have fun. The summer base uh should be fun. My fondest memories of running uh in high school and college were those times where we were preparing for the cross country season. You know, you've got a team that's counting on you, you know, you're kind of there's no stress of of class or too much class or school, and you're just getting out there and you're building fitness and and you can really transform yourself over a summer. And so that's what uh I got for you tonight with cross country. I love cross country. I hope you enjoyed this topic. And uh yeah, I'm excited to uh to join you all in this summer of building a base and getting excited uh for a fall cross country season. And that does it for this month's episode of the Next Level Running Podcast. Thanks so much for joining us. If you're getting ready for cross country, uh I hope you found some good pieces of advice on what to do this summer to set you up to have the best cross-country season you could possibly have this fall. I love cross country. Uh I hope you can tell that through just the conversation or the topic tonight. But uh hey, join us again. We'll be back on June 26th uh with our next episode of the Next One Running Podcast. And hey, it's getting hot out there. Stay cool, hydrate, uh, be smart. Uh run early in the day or late in the evening. Make sure you're hydrating well. If you can find shade, run in shade. But uh take care of yourself uh out there. Uh and until next time, have a great run. Thank you for joining us here on the Next Level Running Podcast, your source for training advice from the expert coaches at Rundoyan. If you're ready to take your training and racing to the next level, head over to Rundoyan.com and get matched to your ideal coach who will provide you with the highly customized online training you need for crushing your goals on race day.