Workouts and training tips to help you conquer cross-country running cross-country running is that it’s not just you against the competition – it’s also you versus Mother Nature. With that in mind, you’ll need to do some specific cross-country training in to be successful at this raw but rewarding type of running.
In cross-country running, you’ll cover various surfaces – from grass and gravel to mud and asphalt – and find yourself negotiating sharp turns, short but steep hills, cambers, logs, rivers, tree roots and everything in between. This all combines to disrupt your rhythm in a way that no race on a flat, even surface ever would.
interspersed with maintenance and dictated by pace, cross-country racing is largely dictated by effort. Mile splits become almost meaningless in cross-country, and trying to maintain pace through constant changes of footing, elevation and direction can cause a mid-race tie-up that’s painful to experience and which places you far lower than your fitness merits.
‘A well-planned cross-country course will do everything possible to disrupt your stride, your pace and your focus,’ says Pete Magill, an author, coach and five-time USA Masters Cross-Country Runner of the Year. ‘So the trick is to stop worrying about stride or pace. Find an effort level that you’re confident you can maintain, then make that your guide.’
You can learn what that effort should be – and teach your body to maintain it – with cross-country training that is tailored to the demands of racing. Here’s how to get started.
What should I expect from a cross-country race?
Thankfully, a successful cross-country training block doesn’t ask you to do anything too farfetched – instead, it follows the same basic guidelines as training blocks for road races or long track events. Long runs, tempo work Best wireless headphones intervals interspersed with maintenance and recovery runs and long and short.
The difference with cross-country training, though, is that you’ll also need to think about terrain, elevation and the quirks of the course that you’ll encounter on race day. By regularly tackling the rhythm breakers of cross-country in training, you’ll adapt and learn how to dole out the appropriate effort for the length of the race that you’re running. The more course-specific your preparation, the better.
‘The thing I’ll do is scope out the course we want to run our best on and try to mimic that course with some of our workouts,’ says Armando Siqueiros, a coach, doctor and former elite runner. ‘We’ll run our fartlek or repeats over different ‘parts’ of the course. The kids can then imagine themselves running over the terrain that they’ll be racing on.’
Joe Vigil, who coached long-distance runner and former American record holder Deena Kastor, as well as many other US national cross-country champions, agrees with this approach. ‘If possible, survey the course that you’re racing and duplicate the challenges of it as much as possible within your surrounding geography,’ he says. ‘Make it tough – as hard as you can make it – then run a weekly workout on it hard.’
How to train for a cross-country race
Here are the key elements to take into account when designing cross-country-specific workouts.
Overcome hills
Although some cross-country courses are pancake-flat, these are the exceptions. Part of the appeal of cross-country is that most races take place in parks or other green spaces, which more often than not feature some slight to severe elevation gains and losses. As such, spending time becoming proficient at hills is the surest way to faster race times.
The Eccentric strengthening exercises of the Want to master the mud? Top coaches share strategies for race success:
Workout 1
Find a course that is roughly one mile long with a gradual incline, preferably on a softer surface. Run the uphill portion at race effort to build strength. Once at the top, take a three- to five-minute recovery jog before running back down to your starting point in a fast but efficient manner – not at your top speed. Do three to six repeats, depending on your weekly mileage.
After a few weeks of doing this workout, your times on the uphill sections will naturally start to improve. However, most people see a more dramatic improvement on the downhill sections. Early on in a cross-country season, the difference in times between the uphill and downhill sections of a race will usually be 20 to 30 seconds. By the end of the season, the difference is more like 30 to 40 seconds, indicating greatly increased skill in running downhill.
Workout 2
Start with a gradual uphill for 800m, then a downhill 800m return downhill, and repeat the sequence for the length of your normal tempo run. Similarly, maintain a strong but controlled tempo effort throughout. In the last few weeks of the season, increase the intensity of the workout by running the uphills at cross-country race effort while keeping the downhills at tempo effort.
Workout 3
This is an 800m tempo run over rolling hills or on grass, dirt or wood chip trails – anything but a flat, even, road-like surface. (And don’t even think about doing these on a track during cross-country season!) Ideally, here, each 800m repeat should have a short, steep uphill and downhill to negotiate.
Tackle grass, mud, muck and more
Running on tricky surfaces like soft dirt, thick grass and, of course, mud requires more energy than when you run on a smooth, flat pavement. Your knee lift is higher, the effort needed to maintain form on uneven surfaces is greater and your push-off is stronger. What’s more, the energy return from push-off on soft surfaces is much less than it is on the track or roads.
‘I train for things that I can improve and ignore things that I can’t,’ says Magill. ‘You can’t directly train to be better at running through mud, but you can run hill repeats and long hills to improve your knee lift, which, in turn, helps you with both hills and, voilà, running through mud on cross-country courses.’ Magill does half of his reasons why you should be deadlifting, too, as it uses all the muscles associated with a varied and choppy stride. Plus, trail running helps you to focus on where your feet are landing.
Siqueiros starts off with a simple fartlek on secure, even footing, then moves on to real cross-country courses or surfaces as the season progresses. ‘I’ll also just do our regular intervals, 400s, 800s, or mile repeats over cross-country courses and terrain, grass, dirt, or even sand,’ he adds.
Given the increased muscular strength needed for effective cross-country running, some supplementary work will help you to train and race more effectively. In particular, be sure to focus on your core, hip flexors and lower legs. Magill does this exercise to address all these areas: ‘I’ll lie on my back, hold up one leg and draw the alphabet with my foot to reintegrate all the muscles in my lower legs to better handle the uneven terrain of cross country.’
Sophie Raworth: Why calf raises rule Achilles tendon are also helpful, particularly for masters athletes who may have spent many years running in mostly heeled shoes on level terrain.
Secure a fast start
At the start of a cross-country race, you must be able to get out quickly and efficiently from the gun without undue stress. Being left behind at this stage could put you at a disadvantage later down the line as the course narrows and passing becomes more tactical. Do you need to be in the lead at the first turn? Not necessarily – but you don’t want to be last, either. You want to get yourself in the best position possible, as soon as possible, without exhausting yourself in the process.
Cross-country running: Everything you need to know Kara June does intervals of 200m to 400m on a flat grass field. She’ll do six to 12 repeats at a pace that’s five to 10 seconds per 400m faster than her cross-country race effort. This effort is plenty fast enough to improve her mechanics, efficiency, speed and strength, which translates to a better position near the start of a cross-country race.
Master obstacles
Most cross-country courses will feature an obstacle such as a narrow bridge, a sharp turn around a tree, a single-track path, or perhaps even a small river crossing. Either way, runners will be forced to slow into then accelerate out of the obstacle in question to maintain their position.
The runners in the top positions are at a significant advantage, as they have a clear path around or over these obstacles. As you move further back the pack, the slowing into each obstacle is more severe as a greater number of people attempt to negotiate it. Similar to being at the end of a traffic jam, those at the back lose precious time, and they’re then forced to sprint with greater effort after the obstacle to try to regain position. This then puts even more of a premium on developing the ability to slow into an obstacle and accelerate back out of it efficiently.
For her 200m to 400m grass intervals, June runs a square circuit. Unlike a 400m track, which takes the shape of an oval with gradual turns, her 400m grass ‘track’ is literally square, with 100m segments on all four sides and right-angular turns. She runs these repeats at a pace that is significantly faster than her target race effort and is made to decelerate into and accelerate out of each corner. This mimics the type of slowing down and speeding up that she’ll need to do in a cross-country race.
Cross-country race strategies
To fare well in cross-country, it’s important to learn how to adapt your general strengths as a runner to the unique conditions that you’ll face on the day – all the while minimising your weaknesses. Having patience and confidence in your race strategy is also a virtue.
‘What I first try to do is to let the kids know that a cross-country race is a race to the finish line – we talk about the ebb and flow of a race,’ says Siqueiros. ‘I remind them that what happens in the middle or beginning does not necessarily reflect what happens at the end. Therefore, don’t panic if things don’t seem to be going your way.’
Magill agrees, saying that when your effort level is disrupted during a cross-country race, try to calmly and patiently climb back up on the horse. Then, return to the proper effort level without exceeding it. ‘I’ve fallen twice in masters national cross-country championship races,’ he says. ‘In the first race, I tried to hurry back to the front of the pack and ended up dying, eventually finishing 30 seconds behind the leader. In the second race, I was patient. I returned to the correct effort level, caught up with the leaders a mile later and won the race.’
