He is in 8th grade. Small school so he ran for varsity. Crazy proud of him. Never got down about any race.Positive attitude. Just kept practicing. Teamwise he came in 2nd in every race to a Senior(coaches son, who is a really good athlete).

My twin girls are 16 1/2 years old and both do well at XC. However, their eating/nutrition habits are terrible, 1 worse than the other. Extremely picky eater who usually only eats 1 meal a day and only pizza or spaghetti. I make her eat a PB&J if she doesn’t like what’s for dinner. She absolutely will not eat if she doesn’t like the food. I am concerned she isn’t getting the proper vitamins and minerals to be successful. She is also very weak so I want to introduce strength training this off-season. What are recommendations for vitamins or supplements that may help them fill the void they’re not getting from diet?

I ran a 21:37

Finished with a 17:32 which is a new 5k pr and a school record for girls by 1:30! I also placed first overall. Looking forward to state and my senior szn next year!

This is my first year I started as a sophomore

The freakin 23:40 I was sick and it was a hard course so yknow the plus 3 mins is uh kinda justified 😅

Freshman to senior 🫡 i remember when i was a freshman asking this reddit how do i get better lol i appreciate yall

This is the location for all questions, discussions related to summer training.

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(After spending 5 years retired from athletics, I returned to track and field as a thrower on a whim this past spring. I have one semester of eligibility left, and my choices were to run cross country or to retire. I was 305 when I got that news. I now sit at 284 3 months later, despite multiple short term injuries and a bout with COVID. Our first time trial is in 2 weeks. Our first race is in a month. Anybody got some advice for me? I’m excited, but scared shitless.)

We won the Conference Championship! I ran in 4 races and finished 3, I only didn’t finish one because I sprained my ankle. But it was a ton of fun for me. I got a lot closer with my teammates and got the respect and admiration of a lot of my fellow athletes. Medalists would walk up to me and shake my hand telling me I motivated them and that I was working harder than most of the people I was competing with. And I actually avoided coming in last a few times! In the last race everyone was yelling my name and my school as I crossed the finished line. It was amazing. That being said, fuck running a 8-10k through the woods and up hills. Never again LMAO

I’m a senior currently and before I leave for college at the end of track season I wanted to give my coach a gift of some sort and a letter to thank him for everything he has done. If anyone has any ideas for relatively cheap gifts, homemade items, or anything else please mention them! If any coaches would be willing to say what they would enjoy that would be great.

Male senior runner qualified for state yesterday, so they'll run next weekend. During yesterdays race he had some unusual soreness/tightness in his feet and calves. It did go away shortly after the race. What race prep can you guys suggest? He trains 6 days/week and does okay with hydration. He usually takes 2-3 epsom salt baths per week depending on the weekly schedule. I just don't really know if he should be doing ice baths, how often, or something else? All guidance appreciated!

I'm a senior. Every year since I was a freshman, we've automatically qualified for upper state. Even when we were the worst team in the state. Even when we only had 3 people running regionals.

The last 2 seasons we made a lot of improvements and were no longer the worst team.

This year we started with 7 girls. 1 girl got kicked for cheating. 2 had serious health issues. At regionals we only had 4 female runners.

Yesterday, I found out after regionals that we will not be able to qualify for upper state due to only having 4 girls run at regionals.

My teammates don't know yet (I can't go into details on why I know but my teammates don't).

This season had already gone pretty badly for me after I got hurt and ran nowhere near my PR. Now it has gotten much worse.

I have districts coming up and where I am from the top 7 in your district make it to state. I am ranked 10th with a 16:35 and 7th has a 16:25. Everyone else has raced on this one really fast course except for my time so all their times are fast. Is there any advice for this race you guys can share? It also is gonna be around 45 degrees and rainy.

I’m 16 and a junior in high school, and I started cross country my sophomore year, with no prior experience in athletics. My first 5k race last year I ran a 22:35, and I finished that season with a 20:40 pr. I did track in between the seasons and that brought my first race time this season down to a 19:41, and a couple races after that I Pr’ed again with a 19:26. I thought that was going to be where I stopped for the season but I just ran my region race today and I finally found whatever was inside me and ran an 18:29 and got 9th at the race, and my team is going to state. I’m just so happy I had to talk about it somewhere. Freaking started this season with a minute pr and ended it with one.

Freshman to Senior Progression. It’s been a wild ride guys 🫡

im new to xc and ive never really done anything athletic before as i have always gravitated towards arts more. this year i wanted to get into it so i could get some exercise and stay consistent. when i first joined, i couldn't even run the full baseball field lap! now, two months later, i can run the 5k without stopping. my normal time was around 45-47 mins, now i have 36 mins!!! i just wanted to share :)

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What are the pros/cons of accepting follow requests on social media from college coaches for an underclassman? Kid does not drink/party. Posts minimally as it is and never about running. Though I have no concerns about future content, is it all downside risk? Or are coaches looking to social media to learn more about the whole kid that could be a positive?

I am a middle school coach who recently moved to a state that allows middle schoolers to compete at the varsity level. What are others’ experience in this? I feel like this could lead to burn out and in the long run only benefits the high school team, not the individual athlete? What kids is this good for, what kids would it negatively affect? My goal as a middle school coach is development and teaching love for the sport, not winning like the high school so maybe I’m biased.

This is the location for all questions, discussions related to summer training.

I'm a senior running at Regionals this weekend. By PR, I need about a 30 second PR to make it out and to state. I'm proud of what I've accomplished, but state would be awesome and has been the dream. I've been bullied a lot over my time in HS and want to accomplish this to show everyone that I'm capable and valuable. (Don't worry, I'm okay mentally, really, but this would be a nice exclamation mark, statement.)

PR seeding is a ridiculous comparison because each course and day is different, but it sure looks like I need to beat about 20 other girls with faster PRs than me. I have PRd the last 3 races after a season where I didn't drop much time for a while.

I should add that until this year, I played another sport, so, this is new. I've fallen in love with XC and running and it has been so good for me. But, because of this, I am inexperienced at racing.

I am on the start line near one of the top 5 favorites in the race. So, I'm thinking about using her to sort of guide me through the first mile or 1.5 miles. She's a solid 2 min faster than me, but there's a big drop between 5/6 and say 20/25 in the race. My theory is having her take me through will position me ahead of the pack and then in a "fade slow" position where my grit and attitude can be assets. I am not going to win, but am looking for strategies to merely advance.

Basically, how do I drop :30 and 15 spots in the most important race I have ever run?

Thanks for the support and suggestions!

I'm a sophomore male and I'm going into my league championship on Saturday as the individual favorite. All the major competitors, including me, raced a major invitational last weekend which is on a very fast course and I came out with the fastest time of people who will be in this upcoming race by 20ish seconds. I've never won a race or even led for more than a few hundred meters at a time. I'm still recovering from that race last weekend and I expect to not be feeling perfect on race day. Any tips on how to handle this situation and attempt to insure a victory. Of course I'm also talking to my coach about this, I just think it's worth asking you guys as well.

Edit:

I forgot to include this. I'm, of course, very focused on stretching and foam rolling as well as getting proper sleep/hydration. I'm really just looking for strategy tips, but anything helps.

My son started freshman XC this year and I’ve been to a bunch of his meets. This might just be his school, but I noticed not a lot of parents show up, maybe 3-4 parents for 25 kids. The coach encourages kids to bring their own snacks but most don’t seem to. I was packing my son a bagel, banana, and protein bar and giving him a light breakfast before he goes and rides out with the team. The coach supplies ice water for their water bottles and encourages electrolyte packet donations which I have done.

What are some good snacks I can prepare for his team? They are often at meets for 5-6 hours that have 10+ races plus team pictures and awards. I want to be allergy conscious and also not give them something that would hinder their running performance. I was thinking about preparing fruit cups with berries/bananas, plain or vanilla Greek yogurt and granola. Would the Greek yogurt be a bad idea given that it’s dairy? What would be some other good options?

We’re doing a team building exercise before the next big race in a couple of weeks where we’re creating signs - Boys team for while the girls are running (vice versa); for the HS and younger ones, etc. I want to come prepared with some fun ideas (and appropriate). It’s less about someone reading the sign on the course while they’re racing than it is team building and knowing they have extra support out there. If you’ve seen a fun sign that’s school appropriate, please share. Thank you,

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I have been running for a few years now, and I have ran a couple courses, but here are my rankings. Maybe 2 & 3 can switch around, but it's debatable.

1. Holmdel Park (Holmdel, NJ)
2. Greystone (Morristown, NJ)
3. PTXC (Kutztown, PA)

hi all, my name is shelby and i have been running for a long time. i did a running club in elementary school and in 7th grade i started cross country. i never was a fast runner, but this year i’ve been really dedicated. i came into the season with a pr of 31:25.007 (i know, not very good)

one day in health class i was assigned to come up with a goal, and my goal was to become faster. it was what you would call a SMART goal:

S-Specific M-Measurable A-Achievable R-Relevant T-Timely

so to specify it i went with running sub 27 by the end of the season. i had a race friday and it was my second to last one. coming into it my pr was 27:25. so that itself was a big improvement from 31 but that still wasn’t my goal.

friday’s race had a big hill that had to be run up twice, and i thought it would deteriorate my time, but coming toward the finish line i saw the clock at 26 and i was shocked.

my final time ended up being 26:14.20 so that was amazing!

thank you for reading, i just wanted to share :)

Two questions that are likely silly questions, so thank you in advance.

1-How would you teach that kick at the end? We have kids who are a great pace, but that last stretch where everyone sprints to the finish, I don’t know how to describe it or teach it. Any help is appreciated.

2-How do you attack a hill? Does it matter if it’s at the beginning or toward the end of the race?