Cross Country Summer Training out of the country?

Question

I plan run cross country for my inter-college team but I'm not in very good shape. I ran in high school and my PR for a 5K was around 25 minutes but I know that I am capable of breaking 22 minutes this year.

I only have 1 week left at home this summer to train and then I will be traveling not to any place I can run. I have a jumprope and can do jumprope 30 minute cardio workouts whenever possible but that will be rare. Then I'm home for one more week to train.

In those 2 weeks - 1 now and 1 later after I am back from my trip, what can I do to build endurance and get faster? Should I just repeat a 4-5 mile run daily and try to get faster each day? Or should I do speed workouts? Whats the best way to improve considering I have very little time. I don't want to be slower than the freshmen when school starts. I want to be one of the best runners on the team. I know I can do it.

Any training help? I've been doing runs at 10 minute mile pace.. but thats not pushing myself.

Answer 1

do abb work too; crunches, sit-ups, leg lifts, v-ups, ect. good luck!

Answer 2

well it seems like you already have the endurance but summer is meant to build a good base of mileage in for the upcoming cross country season

The problem is the body gets out of shape fast, If i were you I would try to increase my mileage to 8 miles a day and one day a week is the long run of 11 miles, I would also start pushing yourself more, because 10 minute miles is slow

here is a workout I made for someone else but i dont know if u can use it because where you will be

First you want to build up your mileage for the first couple weeks get it to maybe 30-36 miles a week

-1st week 2 miles 6 days that week ---sunday rest

-2nd week 3 miles 6 days that week--- sunday rest

-3rd week 4 miles 6 days that week ---sunday rest

-4th week 5 miles 6 days that week- sunday rest

-5th week 6 miles for 5 days, on the 6th will be ur long run make it 7-8 miles dont cheat urself---sunday rest

-6th week do what you did in week 5 except on the 6th day ur long run try and make 9-10 miles--sunday rest

remember if ur in pain, rest, resting is a humongous factor in running well

now after u created a good base you do interval training and hills

this is a basic week of interval training, with this you will gain speed fast but higher chance of injury, each of the interval days needs 10-20 warmup run and stretch

-1st day 6x400m, 100m jog in between each 400, you can make it more, if you want, this is the time to recover from run, 5 minute cool down and stretch

-2nd day 4X800, 200m jog in between, 5 minute cool down and stretch

-3rd easy 5 miles, stretch ice or heat if needed

-4th 3x1mile repeats, 3-4 minute rest in between sets or jog/walk 400-800m

-5th easy 5 miles, stretch dont ice may cause stiffness on hills on the 6th day

-6th hill workout either find a hilly course and run a nice 7 miles there or you can do the 10 minute warmup, stretch, then find about a 100-200m hill and sprint up it 10 times, then easy cooldown jog and stretch (another good exercise is sprinting down the hill, it will teach you how to widern your stride a lot)

I cannot stress stretching or rest enough tho, if this is to hard take a day of rest. Trust me you do not want to overtrain. Stretching and properly warming up will reduce injury and stretching will also help give you a wider stride