Success in cross country begins in the summer when training is least complicated but most productive. While the physical conditioning cannot be underestimated, the psychological benefits athletes derive from "coaching" themselves are also important. Self-motivated running forms the cornerstone of our training philosophy.
Over the summer our women run about 40 miles a week while the men do 50 to 60. When school begins, we extend that steady paced mileage for another few weeks. After that, training intensifies as we incorporate long reps, hill loops, fartlek, and tempo runs into our program.
As we increase intensity, the need to individualize training becomes more important. In a system in which coaches work with many athletes and have numerous responsibilities beyond actual coaching, it becomes very difficult to prescribe and evaluate training on an individual basis. The athletes must take on greater responsibility for their preparation.
In group-structured training, the pace may be too fast or the recovery too short for some runners; and inevitably, certain athletes are killed off psychologically long before they exhaust their physical capacity. They struggle under the burden of comparison; they attempt to keep up. Even if they can, is it worth it?
Coaches sometimes resist allowing athletes to "self-direct" their training. It may be lack of trust or a hesitancy to give up some control.
The foundation of our self=directed training is fartlek. The athletes do fartlek workouts individually, taking full control of the training variables. They understand that they should be constantly challenging themselves with progressive increases in speed and/or distance, while striving for the shortest possible recovery period.
This way, chances are greater that the runner will find the proper combination of aerobic and anaerobic pace without fear of exhaustion, or the need to quit on a workout. Gradually, the runner toughens, enabling him or her to conquer any lingering self-doubt.
Since the runner trains alone, all fears and measures of failure are eliminated so the athlete is free to "test" himself and become more certain of his true potential.
Repetition workouts are done in a team environment without concern for exact distances. We have courses of roughly a mile to 2,000 meters with a set distance for recovery. Runners do the reps and recovery individually. Hill loops are treated in the same fashion.
When we do tempo runs (short, hardpaced efforts), coaches are stationed along the route to record splits and provide feedback after the runs.
From a coach's standpoint, the workouts may appear to lack structure or built-in intensity. However, we feel this approach relieves the tremendous burden of runners comparing training "performances" with teammates on a daily basis.
Our athletes come to practice eager and confident, knowing they will be successful since they will be setting their own standards. I have been amazed at the high standards athletes will set for themselves, if given the chance.
I have also discovered that with this approach, athletes seem more anxious to race, especially late in the season. After all, they have not had to go though a competitive training atmosphere that could leave them drained when they're needed most.
(Don Weber has been the Cross Country coach for the men's and women's teams at the University of Kentucky. His women's team won the NCAA championships in 1988)