Stuart Laughlin

[Stuart Laughlin @Laugh_Stu]

@RonDeSantis No

[PentaHealth @phdocs]

PentaHealth Family Practice West Chester has a new provider accepting new patients. Call 610-431-1210 today to schedule an appointment with Dr. Sony John! Walk-In Appointments are also Monday through Thursday from 4:30pm – 6:30pm, please call for additional details.

#pentahealth

[Phillies Player Development @PhilsPlayerDev]

No. 9 @Phillies prospect Carlos De La Cruz extended his on-base streak to 32 games with a big home run for the @ReadingFightins 🔥

[Jay Johnson @coachjayjohnson]

5 Must-Do Cross Country Workouts

Cross country is a simple sport, and so it makes sense that cross country runners need fun cross country workouts that they can do in any environment.

I’m going to share five must-do cross country workouts that every cross country runner should run in the summer. Several of these workouts should also be done during the season.

This article is primarily for coaches, but any serious high school cross country runner, or parent of a serious runner, will get a lot out of this article (though runners need to consult with their coach before doing these workouts – follow your coach’s plan).

All five workouts “build the aerobic engine,” which is crucial for success in cross country. Ninety-five percent of the energy needed for an athlete to run a 5k cross country race comes from the aerobic metabolism. I explain this in detail in A Comprehensive Cross Country Training Plan – check out that article if you haven’t read it.

I’ve included the table at the bottom of this twet as a reminder that 5k training differs from 1600m training and 800m training, and that the workouts your athletes need to do to run fast in cross country are different than what your 800m runners need to do in the track season.

Before we start, it’s probably worth mentioning that I’ve had some success coaching cross country...

I’ve coached two different professional US athletes who made the United States national team and ran at the IAAF World XC Championships (both ran for Nike). One of them, Brent Vaughn, won the US championships. I was also an assistant coach for three NCAA Division I National Championship cross country teams – two men’s and one women’s – while coaching at the University of Colorado.

And I was fortunate to be the sixth runner on the team featured in the cult classic Running with the Buffaloes.

This is a comprehensive article, and I’d argue your athletes deserve you taking the time to read it, even if you decide this approach to training isn’t for you...which is fine! I’m not for everyone, though this training works in any environment, for girls and boys, in schools big and small.

The read time is about 25 minutes, which is shorter than virtually every workout you'll assign your varsity runners this season. It’s concise, but we’ll need to go step by step through each workout so you know how to assign them.

Ready to dive in?

Let’s go!

Challenging Aerobic Workouts
We’re doing these workouts to build the aerobic engine. Period.

One of the best things about the aerobic metabolism is that a serious runner can build it year after year. We want the new cross country runner to embrace these five workouts as fundamental to their success in cross country over the coming years.

These workouts also “build their attention span for hard work,” a concept from Consistency Is Key: 15 Ways to Unlock Your Potential as a High School Runner. We’ll be careful not to make these workout days too long for the younger athletes. Yet for older athletes, these workouts are essential for building the mental skills needed for the singular task of a cross country race: running fast while being uncomfortable. It takes a great deal of focus to do that, and these five workouts start that process.

Running by Feel
All five of these workouts will teach your athletes the skill of “running by feel.”

Every runner needs to hone this skill if they want to stay injury-free, and gain fitness season after season, yet this skill is crucial in cross country.

Unlike a 3200m race where athletes can get accurate splits every 200m and 400m, cross country runners must learn to groove a pace in the first two miles of the race that’s fast, but doable. In the last mile, or the last 800m, athletes need to be able to accelerate. Let’s teach athletes to run by feel in the summer with these challenging aerobic workouts so when the race pace workouts begin, they’re able to execute those workouts well, and then translate that into a well-run race.

Farther or Faster (or both)
Here’s a key concept from Consistency Is Key that you’ll need to teach your athletes for the five workouts to work. Feel free to share this excerpt with your athletes, as it’s phrased for them.

“The consistent runner wants to run hard in workouts, while also holding back a bit. How do you make sure you’re running hard enough to build your engine without running race effort in practice?

You need to finish workouts being able to say one of the following:

“I could have gone farther at the final pace if I had to.”
“I could have gone faster at the end if I needed to.”
You should be able to say something along these lines at the end of almost every workout (the only exception being a time trial, where your coach instructs you to go “all out”).

It’s even better if you can say both – that you could have gone farther and gone faster.

If you can finish a long run, for instance, knowing you could have gone another mile or two at a faster pace than you were running at the end, you have successfully completed a controlled run.
But if you’re unable to go farther or faster after most of your race workouts, you won’t be able to properly practice race effort.

On occasion, you’ll end a workout completely spent, especially if you’re getting serious about training and are motivated to work hard. A dedicated athlete will almost certainly finish a calendar year with one or two workouts that accidentally became race efforts. But don’t let that become your normal.

If your Saturday long run turns into a long race, that’s a more serious problem: your body isn’t mature enough to handle the hard long runs that a collegiate or professional athlete might incorporate. If that happens, it’s not the end of the world; you’ll simply need more time to recover from the intense “stimulus.”

To be clear, if your athletes are going to: (a) stay injury-free, and; (b) keep from overtraining, they need to finish their summer workouts and long runs being able to say either: “I could have run farther” or “I could have run faster.” This terminology needs to be part of your program’s vernacular.

Now let’s talk about the workouts.

A Progression of Workouts
These five workouts are in the following order/progression for a reason.

Long runs are easier to execute than fartlek runs, fartlek runs are easier to execute than progression runs, etc. When your athletes learn to run by feel in long runs and fartlek runs, the chance that their progression runs go well increases. While we don’t expect a new runner to have these workouts dialed in during the first 2-3-4 weeks of the season, we do expect veteran athletes to be able to run by feel at the end of the summer (assuming they are consistent with their training and follow the progression of workouts you lay out for them).

Rotating through these workouts for a couple of months, coupled with “revving the engine” with strides, will put your athletes in a position to have the best cross country season of their life.

For each workout below I’ll explain the Frequency, Distance or Time, and Intensity. I’ll explain if athletes need to be able to say Farther or Faster (or both). I’ll finish by explaining the most Common Mistakes for each workout, and I’ll share how I use the workout in the XC Training System.

Ready to learn these five workouts?

Let’s go!

[Stuart Laughlin @Laugh_Stu]

What a great race today! #BostonStrong

[Christopher Huffaker @huffakingit]

Some runners cross the finish already thinking about the next Boston marathon. Stuart Laughlin, 56, of King of Prussia, missed qualifying again by about 25 seconds, he said. But he'll be back — "I'm going to do another marathon," he said. "I'll qualify within a couple of months."

[Jennifer Slay❤️ @jennwilliams23]

It’s SuperBowl time so let’s do the new Grey Slay SB jerseys! 🔥🔥 RT for a chance to win! I’ll pick 2 winners Monday! #FlyEaglesFly

[Jacob Soboroff @jacobsoboroff]

Here’s a truly wild story. Maybe the most unreal I’ve ever reported. A cardiologist running a CA half marathon in November saved two (!) men who suffered heart attacks while running the race. I was with them when they all gathered for the first time.

[Penn State WRESTLING @pennstateWREST]

NWCA All-Star Classic // Exhibition Recap! //
Kerkvliet, Brooks and Starocci all grab impressive wins in Texas! //
Read it...
#PSUwr
https://t.co/bRmS196fXu

[Stuart Laughlin @Laugh_Stu]

@Matt_Winkelman I appreciate all of your commentary on the future & current Phillies. Keep it up!

[Stuart Laughlin @Laugh_Stu]

@chrisnickinson Tola & the kids were awesome.

[Stuart Laughlin @Laugh_Stu]

@ptoc134 Congrats Par! Penn Manor is fortunate to have you!

[Gary Martin @gary_martin20]

If anyone happens to have a full video of the mile yesterday, please let me know because it would be appreciated!

[Stuart Laughlin @Laugh_Stu]

@ChiMarathon @BankofAmerica Let’s go!

[Stuart Laughlin @Laugh_Stu]

@trfoley Congrats on training & finishing!

[Casey Cunningham @cwcunningham1]

Champs!

[Stuart Laughlin @Laugh_Stu]

@2008Philz Phillies World Series Champions over Blue Jays in six games.

[Stuart Laughlin @Laugh_Stu]

@Seeen_Ls Take your shot! You’ve got this!

[Stuart Laughlin @Laugh_Stu]

@RomanBravoYoung Yes

[Stuart Laughlin @Laugh_Stu]

@ShipUltimate @Seeen_Ls Good luck 🍀!

[Stuart Laughlin @Laugh_Stu]

@kylegriffin1 Say the name!