Summer Conditioning for XC Runners is the Best!

Summer conditioning is where it’s at for cross country runners. Why? Because summer is the best time to build miles in a non-judgmental environment where pace doesn’t matter, mileage doesn’t matter, but time on your feet with your friends does! Read on for more on why summer conditioning builds great fall cross country runners.

Three reasons why summer running is important for XC teams:

Building your aerobic engine first will set you up for success later.

Successful summer conditioning programs will focus on miles (or minutes) rather than workouts. Why? Because you need to build your aerobic capacity in order to run faster for a long period of time. This is why endurance runners can run far for a long time, and why sprinters cannot. Sprinters don’t focus on an aerobic base — they focus on speed. If you’re a track athlete, you’ll notice that for most sprinters, a 400m race is their absolute limit in terms of distance.

What’s so important to understand about building the aerobic base is that pace doesn’t matter a whole lot, and one could argue that mileage doesn’t matter a whole lot either. But what does seem to matter the most is time on your feet. By running a manageable, steady pace for duration, you’re able to build your cardiovascular system without putting too much stress on your body. Why doesn’t mileage matter? Because the human body has no idea how far 5 miles is — but it does know how long 50 minutes worth of work is.

By running a manageable, steady pace for duration, you’re able to build your cardiovascular system without putting too much stress on your body.

With persistent easy, conversation pace running, the heart size increases, resting heart rate decreases, stroke volume increases, and runners will experience increased blood flow, volume, and composition. Muscularly, the amount of capillaries increase, the size and quantity of mitochondria increase, and slow twitch muscle fibers, which are fatigue-resistant, increase by 7-22% through endurance training.

In short, when all of these changes occur, you’re able to run more efficiently, faster, for longer.

Once you’ve built a reliable cardiovascular engine, you can add strength and speed workouts. Without a base, your body will only let you do so much aerobically. You may be able to complete some workouts, but you won’t get the full benefit of the workout and you won’t reach your full potential in the fall when it matters most.

Likewise, if you decide to implement speed workouts too early (say, in the middle of the summer), you’re likely to peak too early, risk injury, or risk burnout. This should be an entirely separate post in and of itself, but it’s worth mentioning here. In other words, sometimes less is more. Save the hard workouts for later.

Running in the summer encourages team bonding.

There’s nothing better than running in the summer with your team. Cross country runners learn how to run as a pack during summer conditioning runs — because it’s always more fun to run with a friend! Team bonding also occurs after a run when everyone decides to stop at the neighborhood pool after a hot run. Summer team bonding is the best.

Summer running is much more relaxing than winter or spring running.

And last, but certainly not least, with school being out for the summer, or for students in summer school and taking only one class at a time, most athletes feel they can relax and really enjoy running during the summer. Enjoying the training lends itself to enjoying racing later on when competitions begin.

Summer Running Spells Success!

Once you build the foundation of an aerobic base, enjoy team bonding, and find the joy of running, you’re primed to have a much more successful competitive season when meets start in the fall. You’ll be ready — mentally and physically — to take on the rigors of hill workouts, speed workouts, tempo runs, and more. Running in the summer is paramount to a successful fall cross country season for high school (and collegiate) athletes.

Happy trails!

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