The 2024 Cross Country season is here!
Tuesday is here!
Most of the country has held state meetings (California is the latest, on November 2). Many young people intercity
runners prepare for the NIKE NXN and 45th FootLocker Presented by HOKA Cross Country Championships.
We take some ideas from the great Australian trainer Pat Clohessy, who trained Rob De Castella and Steve Moneghetti.
Cross Country is the real key to developing as a distance runner.
Rob was a two-time Commonwealth Champion, World Marathon Champion and four-time Olympic marathoner.
In 1984 I was lucky enough to train with Rob a few times, running the 18 mile race at Nissen Marks with Dan Gruber and Rob and completing the 8 x 400m with Dick Telford while Tim Gruber and Rob De Castella did the 8 x 400m. 200 m swimming (swim in 40 seconds), 400 ms in 61-62. Dick and I ran 71-72 for a 400m and 45 second swim. It was difficult.
We learned a lot from Rob and Pat. Tim Gruber and I rocked our workouts. we went Sunday long, Monday easy, Tuesday, 8 x 400m, Wednesday, 16-18 mile fast, Thursday, hill day, Friday, easy and Saturday races.
After these eight weeks we ran PBs from 5k to marathon. We learned that consistency was the most important lesson from Rob DeCastella. Our finish also became a big part of our race.
Link to the NIKE NXN website. https://nxn.runnerspace.com
Link to FootLocker Cross Country Championships by HOKA. https://footlockercc.com/
Week 9, Day 2, Tuesday, November 12, 2024
good warm up
20 minutes tempo run (flat surface, run 20 seconds/ml slower than current 5k race face), 20 minutes moderate run,
8 x 400m hill repeats, charge the hills hard and work smart on the hills, then run back to the start for 400m and repeat 8 times.
cool well
Check your shoes and make sure your training shoes
ready for another 8-9 weeks of training. (Most boots make up a 12-16 week workout)
If not, go to a local running store and find a pair or two of good training shoes.
We will talk about that soon.