by Larry Eder
The 2024 Cross Country season is here!
Tuesday is here!
Most of the country has had state meets (California is the latest, with November 2). Many young cross-country
runners are preparing for the NIKE NXN and the 45th FootLocker, Presented by HOKA, Cross Country Championships.
We are taking some ideas from the great Australian coach, Pat Clohessy, who coached Rob De Castella and Steve Moneghetti.
Cross country is a real key to developing as a great distance runner!
Rob was a two-time Commonwealth Champ, World Champion in Marathon, and four-time Olympic marathoner.
In 1984, I was fortunate to train with Rob a few times, running an 18-mile long run in Nisene Marks with Dan Gruber and Rob and completing an 8 x400m workout with Dick Telford, while Tim Gruber and Rob De Castella ra 8 x 400m with 200m float (float in 40 seconds), with 400ms in 61-62. Dick and I ran 71-72 for 400m and 45-second float. It was difficult.
There were many lessons we learned from Rob and Pat. Tim Gruber and I shook up our training; we went Sunday long, Monday easy, Tuesday, 8 x 400m, Wednesday, 16-18 miles fast, Thursday, hill day, Friday, easy, and Saturday races.
After eight weeks of this, we ran PBs from 5k to marathon. We learned that consistency was the most critical lesson from Rob De Castella. Our finish drives also became a big part of our racing!
Link to NIKE NXN site: https://nxn.runnerspace.com
Link to FootLocker Cross Country Championships by HOKA: https://footlockercc.com/
Week 9, Day 2, Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Warm-up well,
20 minutes of tempo run (flat surface, run at 20 seconds per mile slower than current 5k race face), 20 minutes of moderate running,
8 x 400-meter hill repeats, charge hills challenging, and work downhills smartly, then jog back to the start of 400m and repeat 8 times,
cool-down well,
Check your shoes and make sure that your training shoes
are ready for 8-9 more weeks of training. (Most shoes make it 12-16 weeks of training)
If not, go to a local running store and find one or two good training shoes.
We will speak about that soon!
JSerra High School, San Juan Capistrano, CA
March 4, 2023, photo by Kevin Morris
