Cross Country Running

Well, I've finished my first 3 weeks of cross country practice, and while I have improved a lot, I still have a long way to go. I ran my first 5K last week in about 33-35 minutes (don't remember which), but I really really want to get down to at least under half an hour. While the incredible heat doesn't exactly help with my time, would it help more to do more distance runs or shorter, faster ones? I'll do pretty much anything, but I only have weekends for extra practice, as we practice every day otherwise.

Also, I get really sharp pains in the inner arch of my feet when I'm running- any suggestions for what on earth is causing this? I'm flat-footed, but I do have running shoes that have helped before.

Thanks!

On the weekends, you're probably not going to want to do more than one longer run and one easy, short run, and that depends upon what you're doing on Friday and Monday.  If the weekend is sandwiched between a hard Friday (a race) and a hard Monday (another race--high school athletic directors have their heads up their butts with c-c and track scheduling), then you're looking at two easy days Saturday and Sunday so that you can recover.

The time to do the most good for cross-country season is from about 2-3 weeks after track season ends in the spring until the start of cross-country in the fall.  You rack up lots of distance in this time to build up a strong aerobic base.  There is no short-cutting your way into this kind of fitness once the season starts, and you will injure yourself if you try.

As for your feet, use your running shoes.  A mild arch support should help tremendously, as will relaxing your toes at the toe-off of your stride.  You should not be clawing at the ground with your toes.

I'm in almost the exact same boat as you =]  About same 5K time/goals, and everything.  My coach always switches it up.  Some days are distance some are more of track workouts.  If you have a place to do this to practice for a race I'd say on your weekends, combine some speed& distance.  If you live near your school, maybe run 2 miles on hilly roads at a good pace, then (without stopping) finish a third mile on your track going all out.  So you can practice finishing a meet as fast as possible for the last mile. 

 

The person above me has better advice if you have meets friday & monday.  My meets are usually wednesday & saturday so I don't really have that problem.

About your second Q.; Its probably your shoes but I'm no expert.

I actually just finished a great year at my university in cross country and track and field. In cross country I got down to 18:14 for a 5k in cross country and 17:54 for the 5k in track. But I had to practice hard to get there, I'm not a natural runner, and I'm not as light as my other teammates. Our coach had us doing 70 miles a week sometimes, meaning 8-10 miles a day. Like one of your replies, we also did track workouts every other day, and then long and easy runs the other days. When you have to do 70 miles a week, it's hard to take days off so we run everyday. Sometimes I would run on a treadmill at night for a second run of the day.

I am not sure if you are in highschool or a university, but if you want to get your time down my advice is to increase your mileage if possible. If your doing 30 miles a week, increase it to 40. And try not to take a day off, just make weekends fun easy runs. It was very hot where my university is, but I made myself get used to it, drinking tons of water. Also make sure you eat very healthy, lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, and low fat dairy. And if your coach give you times to get say a 7min mile in a workout, push yourself to beat that by a little bit, whatever time he/she gives you. And what really helped me from preventing injury, we were required to do weight training every other day. Lunges and squats with dumbells along with lat pulldowns, and lots of arm work, and lots of core exercise like sit ups and planks. Ask your coach to give you extra workouts or advice on how to improve your time. I always asked my coach to do that for me and it worked. :)

Also about your arches, I get those pains too occasionally. I would guess you need arch supports and new shoes. I get the pain in my arches when my shoes are worn down. If you have a good running store nearby ask then to help you pick a new running shoe. They should look at how you walk on the ground without shoes. Make sure you tell them exactly where it hurts and what kind of practice you do. Hope that helps. Good luck with everthing, and remember that if you believe it , it will happen.