Tag Archive | "cross country"

Robin Williams Track and Field – Run It Fast

Robin Williams the XC and Track Runner

As we mourn the death of comedian Robin Williams we are reminded that he was a track and cross country runner in high school with a personal record of 1:58 for the 800 meters according to Scott Fishman.

Williams donated much of his time and money to the Challenged Athletes Foundation as well and was an avid cyclist.

[@scottfishman]

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Sara Hall – Molly Huddle Cross Country Championship Photo Finish

Sara Hall Wins USA Cross Country Championship in Photo Finish

Sara Hall won the women’s USA Cross Country Championships in St. Louis just moments ago.

Sara beat Molly Huddle in a finish so close that the winner wasn’t known until several minutes after the race.  The judges finally decided that Hall had won the race by a nose.

Some on Twitter were saying that Huddle crossed the timing mat first but that Hall’s lean got her across the tape first.  Sounds like a Hollywood ending.

Sara is the wife of American marathoner Ryan Hall.

Follow Sara Hall on Twitter @SaraHall3

[finish line photo courtesy of Ryan Hall]

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Josh Ripley Carries Injured Cross Country Rival 1/2 Mile to Get Aid

Andover High School (Minn.) cross-country athlete Josh Ripley was running at a meet last week when he came upon Mark Paulauskas, a rival from Lakeview South High School, who was on the ground bleeding and in pain after being unintentionally spiked by another runner.

Ripley, instead of racing past Paulauskas or finishing the race and then sending help back to him, picked up Paulauskas and carried him back to the start area to his family and coach.

“I didn’t think about my race, I knew I needed to stop and help him,” Ripley said in the school district release. “It was something I would expect my other teammates to do. I’m nothing special; I was just in the right place at the right time.”

Paulauskas ended up needing a walking boot and 20 stitches for the wound.

Read More HERE at Yahoo!

Posted in Injuries, RunningComments (0)

Girl Cross Country Running

Building Strength and Preventing Injury: Lessons from Cross Country

Building Strength and Preventing Injury: Lessons from Cross Country

Jason Fitzgerald (or Fitz) is the founder of Strength Running, a 2:44 marathoner, and online running coach. He loves running the trails, strong coffee, and cycling. Strength Running unleashes Fitz’s passion for helping runners achieve their best and prevent running injuries. Subscribe to get instant updates from Strength Running.

Cross country is like the middle child of distance running: often forgotten and undeservedly ignored. Typically reserved for high school and college runners, cross country offers numerous benefits that aren’t often utilized by runners training for track or road races.

Nearly all aspects of cross country – from hill workouts, avoidance of the track, and a focus on a long base period – provide injury prevention lessons.

Here’s how you can learn from cross country and build running strength while avoiding injury:

Skip the track and hit the dirt. In college, we only ran about 25% of our fast workouts on the track. In high school, none of them were on the track. Instead, we chose to run on grass fields, wooded trails, dirt paths, and crushed gravel that gave our legs an even more forgiving surface than the hard track.

The more uneven trail and grass surfaces helped us improve our coordination and allowed us to run more total mileage. And let’s not forget that the consistent left turns on a track can cause muscle imbalances that often lead to injury.

Tracks are very useful tools to run workouts, but often you can spare your body by choosing other venues.

Focus your workouts on hills and tempo runs. For most of our cross country season, our bread and butter workouts were hill repeats and tempo runs. Cross country demands leg strength and a huge aerobic engine, both of which are improved with hills and tempo workouts.

Ideally, run your tempo on a soft surface off the track, like a dirt path. Tempos increase your body’s aerobic capacity – or put in a sexier way, they help you run faster without getting so fatigued. And everybody wants that!

Hills are perfect for developing leg strength (like you’d get from the gym) and speed (like you’d get on the track). There is less impact on your legs in uphill running and it reinforces proper running form, so they prevent overuse injuries and help you become a more efficient runner.

Run more volume! Too many runners think they can run fast on the track and in their local 5k without running a lot of miles. That’s simply not true. To maximize your potential for your goal race – and your long-term development as a distance runner – it’s important to run as much as you can within the limitations of experience, safety, and desire.

To increase mileage, back off on the intense workouts. Learn from the previous lesson and switch a fartlek or interval session to a hill workout. Replacing grueling interval workouts with volume will help you become a faster runner in the long-term. High total mileage was always reinforced during cross country season and often took a backseat to fast workouts during track. Don’t make this mistake.

Barefoot strides are your best friend. During the high school and college years, cross country training and racing happened over the summer and fall. We took advantage of these warm months and ran barefoot strides after most of our distance runs.

Barefoot strides are one of the most effective injury prevention strategies that you can implement in your training. They strengthen your feet and lower legs and reinforce efficient running form. Sprinting also recruits many more of your muscle fibers, improves form, and makes running slower seem easier. Start with two 100m barefoot strides on a well-manicured field and progress to 6-8 over a month or two of training.

Preparatory mileage is crucial to success. A lot of new runners don’t give the base phase of training enough attention, or devote a few weeks to easy running before they start with harder workouts. This is a mistake and they’re missing a big opportunity to improve their fitness.

A college cross country season starts at the very end of August, but training begins usually in late May. During these three months, the majority of focus is on easy running: building an enormous endurance base that will support the harder workouts and races that come in the fall.

This long period of easy base mileage includes strides, but rarely any structured workouts before August. It’s more difficult to get injured during easy mileage – and easier to get injured if you skip this base phase of training.

I’ve run 8 seasons of competitive cross country in high school and college (and another “season” after college with two more races). They’re by far my fondest memories of running: serene trails, long runs in summer heat, and the feeling of morning dew on your bare feet.

Cross country is sometimes the forgotten middle child of running, but let’s look at the lessons it provides and learn from them. I think we can all prevent an injury or run a little faster if we take these lessons to heart.

[image: easylocum]

Posted in Injuries, RunningComments (0)

Lance Armstrong Plano East Cross Country Running Photo

Lance Armstrong the High School Cross Country Champ

Here is a photo of a young Lance Armstrong in high school at Plano East High School during a cross country meet.

Armstrong has run three marathons (NY twice, Boston once) during his first retirement from cycling.  His marathon PR is 2:46:43.  He has also competed in several triathlons as well during his athletic career.

I am not sure if Lance was a high school cross country champ but with his drive and genetic disposition it’s a pretty safe assumption.

And on yeah, this young lad, in the photo above, has won cycling’s prestigious Tour de France seven times.

Posted in 5K, RunningComments (1)



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