How do you condition during the summer for Cross-Country and Track and Field?

Question:As summer break draws closer and closer, I have begun to brain storm ideas of my summer conditioning workouts. I am a 14 year old m. who runs a 5:25 mile. Obviously, I want my workouts to be extremely intense. I am currently enrolled on a track team, and will continue to shave seconds of my mile time during the season. Next school year I will enter highschool and be a serious competor in both Track and Cross Country.

If you have any suggestions of what TO do and what NOT to do, that would appreciated. In a period of about 4-5 months I am hoping to bring my mile time down around 5 minutes or lower. Also, if you would like to share your mile times and share your stories that would be, again, greately appreciated.

Answers:

My Final 4.5km Cross country run is on 18 April . wad must i do to run well on that day .. For expample ..?

Intense workouts throughout the summer will not be very beneficial. When I was 14 I ran about the same as you (my freshmen PR was 5:16), but now I am 16 and a junior running 4:35. My coach stressed putting in milage thoughout the summer. Save the hard workouts for Cross-Country season, building up endurance is more important than speed at this stage. From my own experience you probably aren't ready for real intense workouts (today's practice=4x600m with 400m splits at 60, 63, 65, and 60 seconds). Putting in the milage is key because "you need a strong foundation before you start building upwards." Just run about 30-45 min a day, 6 days a week in the first few week and then slowly build up the length of your runs from there. By the end of summer you should be able to go for about 70 min. Then you will be ready.

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Advise please!?

Well, I can give some pointers. Since its summer focus on the things that are important. Keep yourself hydrated and keep drinking water. Also stretch before and after your workouts. I would say for a mile, do a long jog than start doing sprints. Dont strain yourself at any moment. For sprints, I would say 400 seems alright, even a 100 is good. Just keep hydrated, stretch before and after and keep it up daily. If it becomes too easy, kick it up a few knotches, but not by too much.

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Has anyone run the Paris Marathon?

my mile is like 6:20, faster than me, and im in 8th grade so yea, but i barley starting to train, hope u get better

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Racing tips for a troubled mind?

Hey kid my time in High school was an average of 5:25, I then took up plyometrics and with in two weeks it was just under 5 min. Sorry for me it was my Senior year and it was district race.
I dont know of many distance runners who train with plyometrics or dont know what it even is, but it will give you an explosive star. I suggest doing intense 800ms repeats, and one that I like is five 50m sprints with 5-6 secs.rest. in between. Have fun man

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