cross country

**bulldawg_28** · 03-06-2005, 11:04 PM

Hey guys, do any of you run cross country? Or some kind of distance running in track? My gf needs some advice on training, diet, supplementation, etc for next year's cross country season. Thanks!

**bulldawg_28** · 03-07-2005, 09:02 AM

For supplements I was thinking CEE, citrulline malate, b12, and a multi-v. Does anybody else have any suggestions for her diet?

**Endurance** · 03-14-2005, 09:01 PM

I was a CC runner in high school. The normal endurance athlete eats (as you probably know) lots of carbs. the 40 30 30 diet always seems to work. Depends on how many miles she is going to log a week, how old she is, how much she weighs etc. ive run anywhere from 25mpw to 112mpw at my peak in college so it varies. Need some more info.

**LL08** · 03-16-2005, 03:14 AM

OK training wise I've got a lot of experience with this. I've been nationally ranked xc since I can remember, hate it though hence I've taken up track and now I can't run xc for f^%*. Ah well. I'd say supps def L-Glutamine, Multi V's, B12 might be overkill. Creatine can help in the pre-season with interval training but not needed.

Now before I talk about actual running the following I've done with several Olympic athletes. hard to describe in words but I will try. Exercise 1) stand upright with weight on the ball of your feet not on your toes. now lift either foot off the ground and make a right angle with your knee and midsection. keep this position and do 50 squats keeping your shoulders held low. repeat on the other side. You want to minimise movement except the lateral movement and make the squats fuller as you get more balance and control.

As well as this get her to lye down on her back - and no i wasn't thinking that...Now do leg raises when she gets stronger add leg weights and build the number upto 50. This will increase stride length through higher knee lift each stride.

Finally to get her to train her body to waste as little energy over the cross country as possible get her to do 10 x 100m strides with her hands on her hips, making sure there is no tension in the upper body. She should be able to get within 1 second of her 100-200m pb when she perfects this.

Now the foundation of her training should be 3 x hill sessions a week. Find a 400- 500 hill and get her to do a time trial up it, now when she has done this let me know what time she runs and I will let her know what time to run the hill in from there on.

Now, for her long runs make sure she never just kicks back, make sure she has at least 2-3 1 minutes hard throughout her longer runs just so as she keeps her body trained for race pressure. Also for 1 of her runs per week get her to run out for 20min and back for 20min making sure that each week she gets out a little bit further but still gets back.

If i had more time I could tell you more, but I didn't really know what detail you wanted in terms of training. Let me know, i'm here ever day or so.

Cheers
AL

**LL08** · 03-16-2005, 03:16 AM

THe reason for the L-Glutamine is that it is so important in keeping a highly aerobically trained athlete healthy. When you train aerobically more and more of your natural glutamine stops its imune system function and focuses on muscle repair. I'm sure from this you can work out why it is handy. Also thinking about it if she is really serious get a blood test from the doc see what is up and down. Iron is very important, zinc is handy too.
C
-LL

**bulldawg_28** · 03-21-2005, 11:44 PM

Thanks for the reply guys. Sorry I didn't reply sooner. She's 17 years old, about 5'6" and around 120 pounds. I'm not really sure how many miles she's going to be running a week. Hey LL, if you have more training advice let me know. Thanks again.