Sprinters running XC...

[thsrunner06]

I am asking this because we have some sprinters who are thinking about running xc next season. Is it a good idea? What are the effects?

[ryantrack2]

Well, we had a few 400 hurdler guys train with us this past cross country season and they are all a lot stronger for their races than they were last year, so it helped them out. If the guy wants to do it, then I think it can only help them, as long as the coach adjusts the workouts (example: sprinters don't need to run 90 minute long runs). If the sprinters are being forced to run, then I wouldn't agree with it.

[KS Roadrunna]

for the caliber of guys you're talking about... it will only help them. Because, if they weren't running x-c they probably wouldn't be doing anything. When I was down in NM.... we had this sub 11 soph sprinter come out for x-c.... but he quit after a week, because he was a pansy. He thought that if you were sore, then you didn't run until you were fine again.

[eliterun]

Nate Thiesfield of Gardner Edgerton is a 2-time XC state medallist who has run 49.2 for the 400.

[barton_hurdler]

I ran four years of cross, but sprinted on the track. I always felt like trying to get the quickness/speed back in the winter took a really long time. I would say for the majority of high school level sprinters it wouldn't really effect them, just make sure that they aren't running with the high volume guys like ryan pointed out. On the other side i always have wondered if i would have been faster had i not done cross...

[Jayhawk]

In your legs there is only room enough for a certain amount of muscle. So if a sprinter does cross he is replacing the fast twitch muscle with slow twitch. A 100/200 runner should never run more then 3 miles at once. It's the same thing that distance running hurts your verticle jump. Its a good idea that they do something but not cross. It would be like a 10k guy spending three days a week in the weight room.

[kmc333]

[QUOTE=Jayhawk]In your legs there is only room enough for a certain amount of muscle. So if a sprinter does cross he is replacing the fast twitch muscle with slow twitch. A 100/200 runner should never run more then 3 miles at once. It's the same thing that distance running hurts your verticle jump. Its a good idea that they do something but not cross. It would be like a 10k guy spending three days a week in the weight room.[/QUOTE
do you think that it is a bad thing that i run cc because i run the 400? i noticed that it helped me for the 800, but it took me a while to get my speed back for the 400

[eliterun]

do you think that it is a bad thing that i run cc because i run the 400? i noticed that it helped me for the 800, but it took me a while to get my speed back for the 400

Not really. It will help you out to some degree, and as for the harmful effects, as you've probably noticed, it does take a little bit longer to round back into speed, but that's nothing a few hardcore speed workouts won't fix. By the end of the season you should have that pop back in your legs plus a bunch extra.

[barton_hurdler]

Nathan Lepper refuses to do anything over 12 minutes long, cause of the effects it causes on his jumping ability (7' 8 1/2").

[KS Roadrunna]

[/QUOTE
do you think that it is a bad thing that i run cc because i run the 400? i noticed that it helped me for the 800, but it took me a while to get my speed back for the 400[/QUOTE]


How often did you do accelerations during the off season? Doing those at least 3 times a week, will help keep speed in your legs.

Ultimately, you are a distance runner that happens to be able to run a quick 400, because of one main reason... your endurance enables you to be able to hold your all-out speed, or close to all-out, for much longer than if you didn't have that endurance base. Look at the some of the top 400 runners in the state the last couple years.... like Trisa Nikoley & Keyon Harrison... they both ran x-c & accelled in both. If you didn't have that x-c base, then you'd be more limited to what you could run well & wouldn't be as good in the 800 & up.... which in my opinion, you're better at.

[Jayhawk]

[/QUOTE do you think that it is a bad thing that i run cc because i run the 400? i noticed that it helped me for the 800, but it took me a while to get my speed back for the 400[/QUOTE]

I dont know if you run over the winter... but as a 400/800 runner I would do Cross, then over the winter start lifting some weights and finish my distance runs with a good sprint, followed by some,(6) 100 meter strides/buildups on grass. That helped me stay sharp so I could still sprint when March came around.

[jerrry]

well said KSRoadrunner, I was just about to say the same thing...I have seen this before even at the college level where a distance runner has been "mis-identified" as a sprinter simply because they have good speed. For anybody who doesn't know the way to tell the difference is look at the amount of time it takes to recover from say a 400. I saw this WSU runner years ago, a "sprinter" doing repeat 400 in 63ish and was able to recover in 3 min. = that is no sprinter! Once she realized this she moved up to the 800 and only getting to run it one time before the season was out ran around 2:10.

If there is one thing that colleges do that I don't like (mostly done at the bigger schools D-1: and I understand it from the need to put athletes in the event where they have the best chance to score) they specialze the distance runners so much...that a miler will not even think of themselves as being capable of running a good 800 or 5,000. Sometimes when they go out for CC (and I've heard them say this) well, I'm not really a CC runner. That's crazy - if you can run a good 800 in hs (especially girls who only run 2 miles)you can run CC and should not consider yourself "not a cross country runner". And a college runner who can run a good mile = same thing. CC is the perfect time to build a base for track or basketball or whatever.

I don't think I have ever seen CC hurt a middle distance runner...and it might only harm a sprinter if they get injuried which if properly monitored is aviodable. As per Nathan Lepper, well he is obviously smart enough to know what works and what doesn't. That is the real answer here...each person must decide and figure it out for themselves as there are no hard and fast rules. As for muscle fiber...this goes beyond my knowledge, but I have never heard of losing fast:slow twich - I always understood that you are born with what you got. You can develop your speed, but you can't change you pysiological make-up.

For example, does anyone remember when Flo-Jo after setting world marks in the 100 saying she was going to go for the marathon world record? well, it didn't happen...as just about every distance runner in the world already knew...why, because there is a very big difference between sprinters and distance runners. But both need base work.