training for cross country

jrdnufc · Post by **jrdnufc** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 6:00 pm

i'm going to be running high school cross country next school year and want to make the most of it so i figured i'd better get to training. i'm looking to get endurance/stamina levels as high as possible but i still want to hold on to the muscle i've put on, don't wanna become a string bean... the meets are all 5Ks (3.1 miles i believe) and i'm hoping to be in the 18 minute range by the time the season starts, if not lower. question is, what kind of plan do i need to be on to get there, and how can i keep the muscle without hurting running performance? can anybody help a kid out? thanks in advance

HOUSTON TEXAN · Post by **HOUSTON TEXAN** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 6:06 pm

Run.

You're in cross country its going to be pretty tough to put on muscle.

swanso5 · Post by **swanso5** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 7:25 pm

keep training heavy with low voume and and keep you cal's up, you might lose a little muscle (none if you do the above oproperly) but you definately don't wanna lose any strength

jrdnufc · Post by **jrdnufc** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 5:36 am

thanks swanso, figured i'd lose some muscle but never really thought about strength.

any runners have good plans for building endurance and stamina? right now i'm looking to do about 5 days a week; 2 HIIT days, 1 long run, and 2 other days... just not sure how to organize it. any help in that area would be great. thanks

swanso5 · Post by **swanso5** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:08 pm

i'm no runner but you'll want something like this:

day 1 - sprints but over medium distance...maybe 200, 300, 400m
day 2 - easy run
day 3 - wts 1 / intervals
day 4 - off
day 5 - intervals
day 6 - wts 2 / medium run
day 7 - off

something like that...do a search on running sites and see what you come up with..i don't think you need 5 days of training for 5km runs