Saturday, June 7, 2014

Summer Cross Country Training

First Practices/Off-Season Training for Cross Country:

Our first cross country practice will be  Saturday, August 16, at 4:30 pm. All runners must have hard copies of athletic training/insurance/medical forms on file with the athletic trainers (Erin/Summer) and NCAA code of conduct/consent forms signed online with Drury Compliance (Bryan Beatty) before practicing. All incoming freshmen and juniors must get a physical with the Drury Athletic Department physician (Dr. Woods) before practicing. Dr. Woods is on campus most Mondays during the summer and will be available for a brief time on Saturday, August 16, to complete physicals for those runners coming in from out of town. We do not have any special permission from Housing to move in to dorms or College Park early.

After taking a break from track season, we're now ready, beginning June 8, to set up a formal ten week off-season summer training plan to prepare for the cross country season. Plan to spend the next 10 weeks building an aerobic training base for the harder running we will do when cross country season starts at the beginning of the fall semester. We'll do an easy run August 16 as a group, but will do a long run (90 minutes) together the next morning on August 17.

6K and 10K cross country races are 80%-85% aerobic, so mileage, volume and aerobic fitness are the most important elements and are necessary before we add speed work and more intensive running during September and October and November.  For our first week of summer running we don't need to be too concerned with mileage or pace, but we do need to start thinking about consistency and establishing a daily running routine. An easy run every day averaging about 40-50 minutes/day is sufficient for now. We'll add other elements (mileage goals/strength/speed) to our training later and I'll post a meet schedule in a few weeks.

Coach Van Arkel

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