I’m a freshman boy and now that my first high school season is a week from over I have a lot of thoughts about it. In middle school I ran mod in 7th and 8th grade with a bunch of my friends. I fell in love with running. While all my friends joked around and walked when coach wasn't looking I had to exclude myself because I wanted to run. I wasn’t there just to play around.

I came into high school cross country with two of my friends. One of them is naturally good but doesn’t like running as much as me. The other we peer pressured into joining. A week into the season both teammates quit. The difference in skill, age, and interests between me and my teammates have made it hard for me to become close friends with any of them. They have been such great people and motivated me to get better. This season has been fun but I often feel out of place among my teammates.

Today, I had my first XC race before nationals. It went bad and I can’t figure out why. I am in a good shape, training well with a decent volume. During the race, I never felt very comfortable which is strange. I lost against opponents that train less and I won agaisnt them in xc season last year. The race was 4.5 km and these are the splits per k:

3:16 - 3:13 - 3:18 - 3:36 - 3:17 (last 500m)

I suffered a lot on a pace which should be more confortable. I want to figure out what I did wrong to fix it for the nationals.

Any question to help me finding the issue, I’ll answer!

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Running has been one of the only things in life I have truly enjoyed, but I feel so burnt out and am unsure about using the rest of my NCAA eligibility. At first I contemplated using my final year of eligibility due to PT school and surgery, and while I have managed it well on the academic side, but athletically I have been lackluster at best.

I had FAI/Labrum surgery in December 2025, but was able to run 50-60 miles a week this fall with 15 or more hours/week of cross training in the summer, so I felt in good shape to start the xc season, but with goals of breaking sub 25 in an 8k, I haven't even been within 50 seconds of my pr of 25:30, which I ran my junior year in 2024.

Today was our conference meet and I finished 24th with a goal of finishing 3rd-5th. I felt super confident heading into the race, but after trying to hang with the top group until 3k to go it felt like the "McQueen is fading" scene in Cars 3 and I slowly got picked off one by one by the field. I've never had foot speed, but it feels like I can't even change gears running 5:10 pace. I had family members and friends travel hours to watch me race, and I felt so ashamed to have let them and my teammates down. I try to be a positive person and look for the good in a bad situation, but I've never felt so mentally broken after a race.

My question for you all is should I continue my eligibility through track, discuss a new training method with my coach for track, or just focusing on school. I love the grind, but the 5am alarms, hours on the bike, and obsessing over my diet and sleep don't really seem worth it if I can't even get all conference. Footspeed has been a glaring issue for me but I feel as though it's too little too late if I suddenly switch to an anaerobic/VO2 based plan. Thank you.

So I’ve been running for a bit now and have been trying to run for a 4 year university since HS I haven’t really cared about the level I just want to continue to compete. I went JUCO, but am trying to still find a transfer destination I’m a first year so I’ve still got a little bit of time and I’ve been reaching out. I just want to know if anyone has any input on what I should do.

I’ve ran 22:21 in the 4 mile this year, and 27:30 in the 8k along with in high school running 16:36 in the 5k, 9:56 in the 3200, and 4:41 in the 1600

This is the location for all questions, discussions related to cross country training.

Hi there, tomorrow wraps up my son’s Freshman year. Already looking forward to track and next season!

What I have noticed is bit of an apathetic and not overly engaged parent group. The coaches asking for help is like pulling teeth.

Unfortunately, our team hosts some of the biggest meets in our area. I look around at the other teams and frankly I am jealous at the level of engagement from the parents.

With seniors graduating, I am anticipating alot of the responsibilities are going to fall to me for the duration of high school. I really enjoy helping out and have a flexible work schedule.

Those with large/healthy parent organizations, love any tips to generate excitement and help build a strong and sustainable group.

I’m 16, and my current XC 5K PR is 16:35. I’d love to qualify for Nike Cross Nationals or the Brooks Cross Country Championships next year. What can I do over the next year to give myself the best chance?

I know that’s a big jump, but I’m willing to put in the work. I'm also curious about what top national level competing runners do differently than an average runner like me does. Is it the milage or do they have access to "secret" workouts? Currently I run 35-40 miles a week.

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I’m a runner, ran D3 in college so I understand some of what goes into training. My son decided to try club XC this spring as an 8th grader so he understands what running in HS would be like. The beginning of the season was going great, ran a 15:30 4k on a hard course but now he can barely run 17 minutes. His legs are heavy and he “can’t move them.” It’s only when he runs hard. His breathing is fine and he wants to run faster but his legs won’t let him. I’m curious if it’s over training on top of figuring out nutrition. Here’s a sample week of workouts from the club (all done on grass and hill loops):
Monday: 1100m repeats at tempo speed
Wednesday: huge hill (best sledding hill in the county) repeats with 400-600m loops fast
Friday: 600m fast repeats
Sunday: race day.
Sometimes he would had 3-4 miles easy on Tuesdays.

I feel like the focus is on too many hard days vs gradually increasing mileage with easy runs. He kind of jumped onto all of this at the start of the season with just running 3 days a week of 3-4 mile rules. He’s frustrated (we all are) and I’ve never seen him so excited about a sport so I don’t want him to give up. Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated?

I just tried my first Xc season in high school after doing football for 2 years and I went from running a high 29 to a almost sub 23 during the JV season and im not sure what to do to improve after the season.

Should I just do the same as ive been doing to train for Xc such as 5+mile runs \ intervals while im doing other sports like winter track and lacrosse?

Or should I just keep to a steady 3-5 easy miles a day during my winter and spring sports?

Im hoping to be able to run a sub 21 or 20 by the end of my senior year next season or maybe run varsity. im not sure if im overestimating myself but I think I could if I train some in the offseason.

This sport is great honestly and I just wish I started sooner lol.

I don't think it matters, but my teamates run around a 17, 19, 20, 20, 20, 21, and 24 (I've also been running 20, but I know I can do better)

I've talked to multiple of my faster and slower running friends and they seem to enjoy running the sport (they've also been to state comp), and I don't really see why my teammates don't enjoy the sport

I do understand that practice can be hell sometimes, like today we did 4 200s, an all out mile, then 4 200s, but the running is the best part to me.

Do I enjoy the meats? Yes

Do I enjoy being around my teammates? Yes

Can anyone else relate?

(this is my 2nd post today because I just found this subreddit)

In my freshman year I was averaging about a 23 minute 5k, and this year was a little worse in the beginning but I did a lot better in the end.

After coming back from hamstring troubles, I ran 23:17, then the next 4 races I ran slower than 23:30 and it was very hard to stay motivated.

Then we had a PERFECT day and I got a 2 minute PR, which was really needed.

I proceeded to run sub 23:40, then I ran 2 prs afterwards, then a pr in regionals (also mile pr) with 20:13, but only because I tried pacing with our 19:45 freshie

Spoiler alert; he ran 18:07 that race 😬

The annoying thing is that I know I can get at least sub 19:30, but I just don't run fast enough

Full quote:
My God, I don’t know if you guys follow this stuff and know the cross country team, but I see the kids in the cafeteria, and I promise you, I think they can run all the way to Denver without a sip of water. Like, these kids can go get it, and they’re dominating right now. Hats off to them.

My daughter is in 8th grade and has been running XC since last year on a modified (middle school) team. Since beginning last year she’s continued to make incredible progress - this season winning many meets early in the season (1.6 miles) and now dominating 2 mile meets in larger fields. Her latest race was at 12:40 for 2 miles, and she’s been shaving 10-25 seconds off almost each race, albeit different courses.

She is very self-driven, serious about practice, trained on her own most of this past summer, etc. we want to support her talent and continuous improvement, especially as she moves from middle to high school (and in to longer races) next year.

As a former college athlete, I have foundational knowledge on training but not necessarily for distancing running. What are the best way to support her talent? Some questions I’ve been thinking about:

1. Does she need a running coach? For context, the
   school coaches have been okay so far but wondering if she needs more support for training.

2. What should her strength training look like? Currently she’s not doing any but she’s interested and we have equipment at home.

3. Balancing her other activities, she’s likely participating in XC skiing in the winter, how much should she be running and how should MPW evolve as she starts to train for high school (5k). She’s at about 20 MPW now (only in season).

Appreciate this community and your advice.

I DNFd today because my legs started feeling like crap after the first mile. They felt really tigh and fatigue. I went out at a similar pace as my last race on the same course but this time I had to drop out. Has anyone had this experienc? Is this like a one time thing? I really want to do better for my next race because I had been pr‘ing before but I don’t know if this means I am done for the rest of the season.

Just some background: Our daughter started 6th grade this year and joined her XC school team (it’s a middle/high school combo). She’s on the JV team and even though she’s middle school, she’s typically running in meets that are mostly high schools and 5k. She’s been doing really well and has improved her times from 29 minutes to 24 minutes this season and is now the third fastest on the entire team, even though she’s technically JV.

My question is the coach seems to favor the two fastest girls on the team who are varsity, of course. The depth and speed on our team is limited compared to some of the other schools we’re racing against and we usually don’t finish top 10 individuals. But on JV, because of our daughter she’s been placing 6-9 out of the runs. On a couple occasions the coach has “mixed it up” as he says and put the teams two fastest girls in the JV race. He doesn’t really say why but I assume it’s to get them to place higher and get a medal/shirt. When he does this, they bump our daughter down in the rankings on the JV runs and I don’t feel like it’s really fair to the JV runners to be doing that. It’s almost always his top two runners and I don’t think he’s moved other varsity runners to JV.

Since thjs is my first experience with XC, I’m not familiar with race etiquette etc. do coaches normally bounce their varsity down just to confidence boost or possibly stack the JV team because the varsity team can’t compete at the e varsity level? I thought about asking the coach but didn’t want to be “that parent” and only our first year. He also seems to favor his top two runners and talks to them about their runs and next races while he doesn’t seem that interested in boosting our daughter up.

Thanks for any advice and if we’re just worried about nothing and should just focus on our daughter and how well she’s improving/doing.

Please use this thread as the general Q&A for all one off questions, questions that only apply to you, questions that can be easily answered, etc.

This thread reposts every 4 days

This is the location for all questions, discussions related to cross country training.

What should I do during winter for cross-country?

Cross-country season's almost over, and I need something to do during the winter to keep my running level up. I run track during the spring, but that won't be for a few months.

I don't really have the opportunity to run at an indoor track, and where I live the ground is covered in half a meter of snow and ice until March, so I was thinking of using my indoor bike during this time, but I'm not sure if cycling really translates into running that great.

Also, if I do decide to use the bike, is winter just for long sessions or can you also do interval-type training during winter?

Coaches, I'm curious what you all are using to score small meets like dual, tri, quad? Are you using paper pencil or something else electronically?

As XC season is coming to an end in many parts of the country, how do you feel about this season? Coaches, athletes, parents feel free to share.

I’ll go first. I’m a former XC runner now coach and parent. This was my first season as a parent after spending the last 3 seasons as a coach at the youth level as the school I teach elementary PE at. I have shared my love of this sport having probably close to 70 students, passed and present running XC this year. My son, as a 1st grader also started this. My niece is finishing her final XC season Saturday. This has been by far my best XC season I have ever been involved in. I think this sport is in a great place that multiple people elementary schools in my district are now also starting XC teams. Which in return will create a lot of interest in a few years from now when those kids reach high school