High School Cross Country

As I was thinking about what to write today I thought about the Summer. I thought about all the Seniors in High School that graduated this year. Then I thought about all the kids getting ready for their first season of High School Cross Country. I thought back to my Summers preparing for Cross Country season and they were wonderful--Defining Summers of my life. I thought, What would I do differently if I could go back? Here's what rushed into my mind:

1. More running on grass and barefoot running. I had a lot of injuries in high school. Lots of tendinitis. I'm not saying all of my injuries would have disappeared, but what I am saying is that I think they would have been reduced significantly. Running on grass can be troublesome. If you're wearing shoes there's a concern for rolling your ankle. One of the reasons for that is because you're higher up. Get down lower and you begin to solve that problem. That's where running barefoot comes in handy. (Go to my Barefoot Running page to learn more about barefoot running.) Yes, you can step on things. Yes, it's not the safest thing. But neither is running on the street. I think the benefits heavily outwiegh the limitations/cautions. I run primarily in my Vibram Five Fingers. You can run in sandals, or something that get's you close to the ground. I definitely would have experimented more with this in high school.
2. More miles. I had some pretty high goals in high school, but I didn't achieve them. I think part of that was because I lacked the knowledge I have now. I would have run more miles. Longer warm0ups and longer cool-downs. In an upcoming post I will address why great runners of almost all distances need to put in a lot of miles, and it's not as simple as increasing aerobic capacity, maximum oxygen uptake or VO2 max. Stay tuned!
   
3. More 2-a-days. What I'm doing now is, in my opinion, the best thing. I get up at 6:00 or 6:30 and I read the scriptures for 30 minutes. I try to drink as much water as I comfortably can while I'm reading and then I do a 20-40 min run. Then at 10:00 a.m. I do my second and primary/main workout. Before noon on most days I have done anywhere from 8-17 miles. Check out my Training page to see what I do and for more ideas.
   
4. Better nutrition. I would have eaten less sugar and more vegetables. There are so many important vitamins and minerals in vegetables that our bodies need. I felt like eating sugar took the place of other things. Have you ever eaten so much that you're no longer thirsty? Maybe you were thirsty before, but now that you've stuffed yourself you are no longer thirsty. I think that happened with my efforts to eat healthy--they were thwarted by my addiction to sugar and unhealthy food.
   
5. More stretching. I would have taken 10-30 minutes after each run, specifically and especially after the hard workouts to stretch at least the main muscle groups.
   
6. Better planning for better rest. I think I would have tried harder to do certain things earlier in the day so that I wasn't staying up at night trying to finish them and then going to bed late. I think the optimal time for running is in the morning so that requires getting up early and THAT requires going to bed relatively early (and/or a nice nap during the day:)
   
7. Pool running when injured. When I started feeling hurt or pain I would have gone to the pool and done pool running. (This post is giving me a TON of good ideas for future posts like when I got back from my two-year mission in Argentina and I got sesamoiditis and how to stay in shape I pool ran...cool!) Also I would have taken more advantage of both a regular and exercise bike.
8. Swim team during the Winter. That's what I did my Sophomore year and it was great, then I went full-time, year-round running and I had more injuries--imagine that.
   
9. Less ignorance, more knowledge. I would have read more books on running, learning as much as I could about EVERYTHING about it. Knowledge is empowering especially about something you love to do or want to do really well at. My Bio-mechanics professor won the St. George marathon in 2009, Iain Hunter, and knowledge has definitely empowered him. (I ran into him running one day, not literally, but at a park in this is the advice Iain Hunter gave me.)
   
10. Racing often. I would have picked a race at least every month to see where I was at, if I was improving and what I needed to improve on. Racing for me is always a time of learning. It is a powerful tool for teaching I think.

I hope that was helpful to all, if not, sorry. Have a great day and run fearless! Yeah!