Is cross country running hard? I never ran a 5K?

Question

My normal mile time is 7:30 that would mean 22:30 on 5K but my coach said you will get better the more you practice, im not in XC yet but i will go to the meeting next thursday, is 7:30 a good mile time, its alright i guess, but with practice i can lower tha time

Answer 1

+2

Answer 2

You didn't say how old you are.

Generally for boys the mile times will drop with age and experience. At the varsity level in my area of the country the fast boys are running under 6 min miles for a course between 2.6 and 3.1 miles long. The courses all vary by terrain and distance at different high schools.

However younger boys are not that fast and they run well. You won't have any trouble improving your endurance to finish the distance as you will train hard.

One thing that I will tell you I noticed as a XC parent though: distance running is more of a religion than a sport to some. You will be in excellent condition by the end of the season.

Answer 3

a 5k isnt cross country... its 3.1 miles which is pretty short

Answer 4

If you run a mile in 7:30, odds are, your 5K is going to be a minute or so above 22:30.

It's harder than running just mile that's for sure.

Answer 5

That's a great starting time! When I started I was at a 11:30 min mile. Then by the end of the XC season, I was at 6:30 min mile. It's a really fun sport, you should def try it!

Answer 6

Cross country is all about conditioning. The more you practice the better your time will be. 7:30 is a good time for a mile but try to bring it down to 7 or 6:30 to be competitive. From your time it sounds that you have the potential to be good. Good luck!

Answer 7

7:30 is a great mile time. Keep at it, and you'll be at 7 minutes in no time. Cross country can be difficult for some people, but I think that if you are getting that low of a mile time, then you should be able to run longer distances without a problem.

Good luck!

Answer 8

your 22:30 5k time is assuming you can go faster than your mile time, 3 times, because 5k is longer than 3 miles.  7:30 is not a bad time if you've just started running.  To answer your questions, you get out of cross country, what you put into it.  if you train hard, you'll be good, but it'll be hard.  if you wanna slack, you'll run slow, but it wont be as hard.  Its a great sport, and you should really join the team!