My daughter is running XC and this season is moving from 3k to 5k races.  She is currently able to run a 23:30 5K (3.1 miles at 7:35 avg mile pace).  I can definitely tell the extra distance whoops her, as she was a really good 3k runner.

She has aspirations of running College XC several years from now which would require a sub 20 min 5k.  Shorter term, she wants to take 2 minutes off her time (21:30).  

I ran XC in HS but that was long ago and I am not a coach.  She is putting in miles (3-6 milers) but isn't really pushing the pace and is frustrated she isn't getting faster.  She's at a small school and they do not have a mature program.

Any guidance/resources for creating training plans to help her hit her goal? Ex:  How many days to run long mileage and fartlek runs (and at what pace), how many days to rest etc?

What was her 3K time?

Changing up running routines. Running for 45-60 minutes straight for a few days. Running hills at intervals (we would run to a park with trails, then do 6 steep sprints, 6 medium hills, and 6 longs and then run home). The speed work intervals really helps once you have the long distance stamina worked in. The faster girls would run with the boys team to really push their comfort zone.

Low 12s

As and old guy and never-competitive casual runner (so take this with a grain of salt), the best way I’ve found to get faster is just to run MORE.

I’’m usually only running 3-4 times a week -10-15 miles - with some fast and tempo in there. But if I pick up mileage to 20-25 a week to train for a half or just for fun, my 5k naturally gets much faster in a way that any amount of speed training on lower mileage just won’t accomplish.

I haven’t really begun to dabble in it, but I know a few people who have gotten great results from a more data driven approach. a garmin  running watch can offer a *lot* of insights and enables you to target a desired heart rate when working out instead of a pace. They can also alone with their phone app generate workouts based on your own performance. Tell it your target time and it’ll put together a plan.

Steroids will help.

Not much of a runner myself, but some experience writing training plans that happened to include running as a strength coach. I’m sure more accomplished runners will drop in with the particulars of training, but here are a few recommendations:

1) Track and record data. You can only evaluate performance that you track. You can use distance or time to track volume.Use another  metric to program training intensity.  Devices are available to track pace, heart rate, and estimated running power. Each has advantages and disadvantages in terms of cost as well as the accuracy of the device or the metrics’ actual ability to reflect how hard the athlete is working at a given moment.

2) Pay attention to total training volume (I.e weekly mileage) as well as acute training load (daily mileage or other volume/intensity metric as compared to weekly). Increase either too sharply and you’ll risk some negative outcome. I recommend no more than ten percent increase in time/volume each week, and that no more than twenty percent of total weekly volume be allocated to training at race intensity or faster. The other eighty percent should be easy runs or even cross training.

3) Do not neglect strength work.

If you don’t want to think a bunch or invest a bunch of time planning ,get her a running-specific smartwatch (recommend Garmin) and trainingpeaks subscription. A decent training program combined with good metrics and analysis from something like strava premium or trainingpeaks can take someone a long way. Heck, even Garmin’s built in training programs can go a long way.

I have no idea, but just wanted to say good for her. It's a lot of hard work and dedication.

My oldest son ran XC in middle school, HS and currently in JC.

Have her VO2 Max tested. They can give her specific exercises and techniques to increase it. More oxygen, more fuel for her muscles and faster times.

I’m on the other end. Ironman and long distance mountain bike or trail run races. Concepts are similar tho…

3 week training blocks with 1 week of rest.
11-13 hours per build week and 6ish hours rest weeks.

You can cut that to probably 9-11 or so since you don’t have the super long runs and rides on weekends.

If I was doing that, I’d be following something similar to below.

Monday: strength and flexibility

Tuesday: intervals / strides (15 min warmup. 4 min at zone 4/5; 1 minute at zone 2/3. Rinse and repeat 6 times. 5 min cool down.

Wednesday: swim/bike. Low impact; different muscles, builds endurance. Strength.

Thursday: intervals / strides as above

Friday: rest

Saturday: 10k trail run at zone 3/4. Something with elevation.  Build max VO2 and endurance. Strength through trail elevation.

Sunday: 1-2 hr bike at zone 2/3


Stretch muscles and do nerve glides daily.

Running longer distances....my most recent PR 10k came in a half I can for fun on a Sunday evening.


Once you get used to running 5miles or 8 miles instead of 3 the pacing comes way easier....


Tracking is nice too, I love my garmin watch it's makes tracking pacing way easier.

Trail running up hills. The uneven terrain and constnt stepping and changing pace helps. Throw that in with some wind sprints from time time.

No idea but that's a pretty bad pace.  Age?  I was doing 7:30 pace when I was 35.... for 5-7 miles.  In HS my 5k PR was 18:06 and that was firmly JV territory.

I'm pretty sure she needs to be closer to 6:30 pace if she wants to be competitive.

She needs to mix it up- one long distance day (like 6-8 miles), one short day (usually day before race), one wind sprints or hills day.  Minimum 5 miles a day.  And she can't just zone out with her radio. She needs to push herself

Don’t know much about coaching kids, but I used to run in a lot of local races. Ran my best 5/10k times over age 30 (18:01/37:48) when I was in marathon training mode and doing 60-70mpw. For most people more base mpw consistently is the best way to get faster, increasing slowly over time to avoid injury.

Get her in the habit of logging everything. Runningahead.com is what I used but there are lots of apps for this. Make it fun.  Good luck.

She'll speed up naturally as she ages, dad.  Peak speed will come in college.

She just moved from Jr high to high school, she won't be running senior times til - her senior year.

She has a coach.  Get w/ her coach.  Run during the off season.  Run in the summer.

There's a decent chance she won't even be interested in cross country her senior year - or college.

College aspirations? She'll need to be in the 15-16s by junior year.

Speed work and slow long runs will get her times down. 400 repeats at the track at 80-85% twice a week in the afternoon and 40-90 minute runs in the morning, gradually getting longer. Honestly, it's a bit late in the summer and her HS xc team should have been cranking for at least a month by now.

I ran cross country in college.  Those were 5 mile races and would kick your ass.  Guys would run them in the very low 20-something minutes (~22 minutes).  If you did not run under 24 minutes, you were hopelessly behind everyone else.

Those are my only qualifications.

Speed training - Teach her to run one mile in 6 minutes or less (75 second laps around a track, 4 times).  

She will learn what the pace feels like and she will build the lungs and legs for it.

If you're coaching her.  Keep her split times.

Warm up.

Run the one mile.

Rest & recover.

Run one mile again.

Rest & recover.

Do it again.

Rest up a bit.  

Do some cool down and stretching, then go home.

Don't kill the kid, especially at the beginning of training.  Let her work up to it.

Even so, she has to be able to run a mile in the 6 minutes, at least one time, even if it is only one lap at 75 seconds to start with, then two laps, then 3, then the full mile in 6 minutes.


Fartlek Training - lots of videos on this, look it up.



That's what I know.  That's all I know.

Cross country can be fun because the courses vary so much and are not traditional, circular tracks.

I am encouraged by how many do NOT just sit on their couches.

The latter part of this article delves into the training regimen a bit:

https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a60333835/elizabeth-leachman-high-school-5k-record/

My youngest is a freshman this year but she's been running 5Ks on the HS XC team for two years already. The team are state champs but my daughter is JV. Her coach should be setting training goals, they have different levels depending on experience, usually in the 20-30 miles a week range. They run various courses and speeds and do sprints and weight training. They run all summer, as a team, early in the morning...guess who gets up and drives her.

She should take an iron supplement. At this age they often can't keep up with the red cell loss from running that much, some of the girls had significant PRs after they started taking iron.

Your daughter's times and progress sound just like mine in her first year. She didn't get her letter (21:30, right?) until the end of her second year in 8th grade. They hit plateaus and 23-24 is a common one.

Overtraining can lead to injury, she had setbacks/joint pain late in her first season. It's also insanely hot here so there's often a couple runners who fall out, and times get faster as the season goes on and it gets a little cooler.

ETA-There's a huge difference between competitive HS times for girls and boys, the boys are 3-4 minutes faster. 20m is typically in the points and 18m is often good enough to win for varsity girls, and that's at state champion level.

I think some of you are recklessly throwing around male times.