THE WILL TO WIN IS NOT NEARLY AS IMPORTANT AS THE WILL TO PREPARE TO WIN
RUNNING GUIDELINES
1. Cross Country must be important enough to make some sacrifices.
2. The team should be able to depend on your competing. You should realize if you do not perform, you are hurting everyone else on the team.
3. You must learn to push your body closer to its upper limits. To do this, you must make your mind tough; then use your mind to make your body tough. You need to learn to deal with pain and fatigue.
4. When running long distance, always run the first mile slower, as a warm up. Try to run the second part of the workout faster than the first part. Many times when you don’t feel good starting out, you will feel better after a mile or two.
5. Try to meet your schedule, but also listen to your body. If you feel good, work a little bit harder. If you feel bad, go a little bit slower.
6. Run in the early morning or late evening to avoid the hottest part of the day.
7. Run on soft surfaces whenever possible. Cement sidewalks are the hardest surface and should be avoided. The asphalt of the road is better. Cinder trails, or grass, are the best for running.
8. If weather, injury, or other factors keep you from running one day do some other activity like swimming, aqua-jogging, biking, etc.
9. Learn your body so that you know the differences between being hurt and just hurting. Running distance will cause you to hurt, but it does not mean you are injured.
10. Running is about routine; make time for it in your weekly schedule. You should find excuses to run, not be looking for excuses not to run.
11. Find a few races to run over the summer. The 4th of July is a great time to run a 5K race and assess your fitness at the middle of the summer. Many towns offer regular races of varying lengths. Pottstown has a “Summer in the Park” Series on Tuesday nights.
12. Get a new pair of shoes for the summer. Old, worn out shoes are a major cause of injury. Go by Chester County Running Store in Pottstown on Rt. 100. Tell them you’re from Hill and they may give you a discount.
13. Pacing is an important component of racing and training. Hard-Medium-Easy pace should be roughly 1:00/mile apart. So if you’re Hard pace is 7:30/mile, Medium should be 8:30 and easy should be 9:30. Those are good paces for Advanced Runners.
14. Be sure your training pace is appropriate to your race ability and goals. If you race at 7:00 pace and train at 10:00 you are actually harming your internal clock and will not perform as well as you should come race time.
15. Map out accurate courses to measure your distance and calculate pacing. Here are two helpful websites: Gmap Pedometer, and Pace Calculator
16. Complete your running log and be prepared to turn it in when we begin the season.
17. Criteria for Varsity Letters will be the same as last year. Running in the Top 7 at States, MAPL, or LVille will earn you a Varsity letter. Other letters may be awarded at the coaches’ discretion.
Summer training schedules