Cross Country Running - Race Strategy

[@sophieirwin3691]

2 mins after I finish a cross county race I always think I could of done better and I want to do it again even through I did fine

[@nathanegan9813]

That's how I feel sometimes when I don't get a personal best

[@torir3967]

This is my fourth year doing XC and track, and that feeling will never go away. But you find things you like and dislike about how you performed and use those dislikes in combo with what you liked to fuel your next meet, especially when you just want to slow down or break your pace. In such a mentally tolling sport you need that fuel and motivation to get out there and do it.

[@yvetteroberts5833]

Same!!! I had a meet yesterday I came 11 out of100 but I felt like I came last

[@sunnybri__7463]

Sophie Irwin SAME

[@1raiderr103]

Sophie Irwin same

[@ethancozine9730]

How I was taught to run cross country: Sprint at the beginning and get to the front pack, then settle into your pace. Try and run with a teammate if you can, but if you need to go ahead then go. Run behind someone in head on winds. Pass on the outside of turns.(The natural response is to look back when someone is behind you. Looking back on the outside is a lot more difficult and can throw off their stride.) Don't look back for anything, and focus on passing the next person, not on what's behind you. Try to keep the same pace the entire race. Pass on hills and surge off the top of them. Even on flat parts, surge, because at some point your going to be going the same pace as other people. Let your legs go on downhill and surge off the bottom. 600 to 400 meters from the finish pick up your pace and the last 100 meters sprint like your life depended on it. Also, don't let the weather distract you in any way. If there's a puddle across the entire width of the course, run right through it. If it's raining or snowing out, run through it with a smile.

[@riceismyname9598]

Ethan Cozine We were told to not sprint till the last half mile ish. Edit: We, meaning me and my team.

[@ethancozine9730]

@@riceismyname9598 600 meters is half mile-ish I guess. Close enough anyways. My cross country season is over, and now I'm just keeping in shape for track.

[@riceismyname9598]

Ethan Cozine My season ended today. I’m only in middle school, and out middle school does not have a track team. :( I’m just gonna keep in shape for next season. Maybe I won’t be the worst on my team next year! 😂

[@ethancozine9730]

@@riceismyname9598 I'm in my last year of middle school. (6th-8th). At our school you can't start sports until 7th grade. Last year I was in the middle for all of my races. This year I was number two on our team. We ended up getting 2nd in state. I changed a lot over that year though. I grew another 4 inches and I practiced over the summer before the season began. Maybe the same will happen for you. Just have confidence. Find someone on your team who is faster that you but not by much, and just challenge yourself to keep up with them during practices and beat them on race day. If you tell yourself you can, you will. Edit: It also sucks that you don't have a track team. Track meets are a lot more fun, bc they are a lot more social. I would assume your high school has track, but I wouldn't know.

[@riceismyname9598]

Ethan Cozine My middle school starts in grade 5, but you are not able to start doing sports until grade 7. I’m currently in grade 7. Our highschool does have a track team! They just don’t offer it in middle school due to the lack of interest from students. Our CC is also falling apart. :/

[@rebeccajinfen7341]

I do cross county but when the season end I still think of it and sometimes when I think of running my heart starts pacingXD

[@xenome2839]

Rebecca Jinfen I know it’s a bit late to reply, but with cross country starting back up, I start thinking of my other races and I can feel my heart just pounding at the end of it

[@MaxBowyer]

Xenome bro same with me I’m starting my first year of hs cross country

[@markpeters2880]

Xenome same, I got one tomorrow. So nervous

[@lbozo7386]

@@MaxBowyer Let's go, Senior Year!

[@MaxBowyer]

@@lbozo7386 my senior year was great!Ended up running 16:14 and placing 14th at state!

[@valeriavillarreal8850]

I'm watching a lot of cross country videos because I have my first cross country meet on next Saturday so which me luck!!!

[@eatingisgr8134]

How did it go?

[@persian-k4i]

eating is gr8 y do u care

[@team3gaming749]

Valeria Villarreal How’d it go? What was your time?

[@julesmarie403]

Luck

[@rigouribe4242]

she probally pro now its been a year

[@brianyeager]

I really like the first tip to use other team mates during the race. The only problem is my team suffers a great deal of variety - all seven of us have different ranges of capability and rarely see each other after the half-mile mark

[@guesswho5314]

There is another person on my team that has the same times as me. We agreed to run together the past two races, and improved by 40 seconds and a minute those times.

[@max7823]

Find someone on another team and pace with them, I’m luck there’s a kid in my league who runs about the same time I do so I just pace off of him

[@lauraboge7655]

I did XC for the first time and I got 3rd!

[@carlotherunner783]

Good job keep it up 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️💪👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@marissalol9371]

WOW THATS LIKE REALLY GOOD my first one i got 25th lol

[@linckza186]

@@marissalol9371 same lmao

[@ozzyosbooone6995]

I was 200 out of 5,000 lol

[@libbymeraz3148]

I used to only start sprinting with about 80 meters left. Now, I pick up my pace with about 600-800m left. I think strides really help. You should gradually get faster when you have about 800m left and then be dead sprinting at the end. Just picking up my pace a little earlier really helped my time.

[@mattbarnes6691]

This race is just like track with grass and trees. British cross country is real. Mud, hills and poor weather :))

[@zoezvo]

Lol Arizona cross country is heat and dirt

[@tommy9390]

Wisconsin is beautiful, I always appreciate my states weather and terrain every time I run

[@ripgoldfish6395]

new York is pretty tough too, hills, mud, hot weather at the start of the season and usually snow by the end

[@JacobSmith-bi8pw]

Matt Barnes I agree, but try fell races😂

[@allisonwhelan6052]

Kentucky races are brutal, even in middle school. From 6th grade through Senior year, our races are through forests, woods, and mud pits.

[@lilyhardwick7986]

Please could u do a video on how to control your nerves before a race? Thank you 😀

[@rwasiel1]

You breath in and out and try to think about something wonderful

[@twentynebrendonuries5278]

What I do is think about what I look like during the race, or imagine the course. My team always gets together for warm ups and what we do before the gun goes off is shake out our hands and ankles and just take deep breaths. Breathing definitely helps FOR SURE.

[@PrachiRoy]

nerves are good. They guarantee a good start.

[@nickmudd1682]

Could you possibly make a video on how to kick hard a the finish in cross country. If you have time. Thank you.

[@SuperBaseballCrazy]

I think with the kick it all depends on your strengths for me I have very little extra speed, I just don't have that next gear. So I really try to start getting the speed up with a mile to go and get some separation, and truly kick at 800.

[@MissJessie801]

Yes! Running in a pack is the best!!!

[@JM-hl7zz]

No it aint. In the middle of the pack you gonna be tripping over everyone and people cutting you off.

[@brooke2026]

My biggest problem in XC is when I’m on the homestretch and get outsprinted 🙄

[@brooke2026]

Thank you so much! My first meet is on Saturday! Wish me Luck!

[@mattlukasik5282]

I always (start my kick) with 800-400 to go it helps me drop a lot of people

[@arianator1015]

My first XC race is tomorrow I hope this helps❤️

[@nerd_alert926]

I have a meet on friday. Thank you for this!

[@Alexischile10nz]

ANOTHER GREAT ONE: in the regional cross country in Taranaki, the rules were: two flags-run inside of them. One flag-go either side. And i skipped a lot of people simply by going off the mowed lawn and going on a little more challenging path with no people and literally cutting corners when there was only one flag. I got third and i am surprised nobody thought i was cheating. Lol. I am also surprised that nobody else did it; they were so innocent

[@sam111880]

great tips uses the runners to block the wind and also uses the shortest distance by ridding the tangent to the curve. Great tips

[@avakelleher]

gosh just thinking about my upcoming meets gives me anxiety lol i love xc but just thinking of meets gets my heart pumping and chest tight

[@nevaehkelso3809]

I’m really scared to do this for so many reasons

[@bxmully]

Those are legitimately great tips anyone can use

[@jber9569]

If you've got enough left to kick full out with 100 or 150 to go, you didn't run nearly hard enough earlier in the race.

[@chadhansen5057]

Man it must be boring to run in the Midwest because there's no large Hills

[@hdawg4404]

Chad Hansen Midwest has some of the largest hills

[@claireenglish619]

it’s easier without hills tho

[@hdawg4404]

Claire English exactly

[@demise1519]

Minnesota would like to speak with you

[@thatweirddragonlovingotaku5933]

The Iowa State course is the hilliest course I’ve ever ran on

[@dnyaneshwarthakre8076]

cross country race alwayas fine during race, your tips useful

[@katliu6879]

the narrator though, boiiiiiii

[@aamodpradhan9542]

My startegey:sprint at the start so you get a good lead or in the top five then in the middle find a good fast pace and regain energy near the end spring again (Try and keep up with a fast teammate and run together)

[@ChaseDougie]

Thanks for posting a new video I really missed it can you please try to make some on running form and for track and preseason training.

[@kitefn9330]

My cross country was today and I was in third but then with 5 seconds left and got first. Just have a final burst at the end.

[@christigimenez]

During a shorter race, for middle schoolers, when they races are anywhere from 1 mile to 2 miles, is your "kick" strategy the same? For 1 mile, should they kick in and start passing at the half mile mark and for a 2 mile race, at the one mile mark? Once a runner starts picking up the pace to start passing, do they stay at that faster pace for the rest of the race?

[@vapor7653]

I love running on practises but hate meets because everyone is a try hard and I always get last

[@ns19109]

I'm a 100/200m sprinter and came 4th in state but have no stamina for XC and came 97/126 any tips

[@br0ke803]

An idea I have is I was in 6th grade and I did cross country and quit but I rejoined I’m in 8th grade and what I did was In the beginning of the season try running for speed not like sprint but go at a faster pace a little out of your comfort zone then naturally you will stop walking go faster and repeat

[@wanokmorrisson3513]

Thank you very much.i will try to apply them in my first fourth coming x country race

[@Tips4Running]

Good luck in your race!

[@wanokmorrisson3513]

@@Tips4Running thank you so much

[@Adanijames]

Thanks this really helped me and my first meet is on Sunday

[@prozonetone2582]

Hey thank you very much for these helpful videos, their great!!!

[@bca-biciclindcuaxel7527]

Great video ! Hello from Romania !

[@byzfilms6939]

You probably don’t have this because I live in Aus. So I got into zone and the track is massive and I’m year 6 so it is 3km which is bad enough because I gotta go uphill as well!

[@bugx3403]

I was told that you shouldn’t sprint at the start of the race because everyone who does is wasting more energy than they need to and you’ll most likely end up passing some of them after awhile.

[@antoniopotter200]

I remember watching this years ago. And now, I know who those 2 MSU girls are. They looked familiar when I watched interviews with em. And I made that connection yuh.

[@youtubered7711]

Thanks so much my race is tomorrow

[@poopstick7809]

i have a 2 mi meet tomorrow against a really good school, im in the 8th grade. I get usually 5-15th place but this school has very good runners. I really have problems with pacing-- mostly in the start. For the first meet of the season, i kicked very early(~500m) and even though it hurt like hell for the rest of the race, i did pretty good, passed like 8 people or so and ended up 7th. However, the next race, i started out slow, and barely maintained a 300m kick. I am mainly a 400m and 200m runner for track, but i need xc for the stamina. Could someone help me with pacing? Keep in mind for the kick, if i start, i'm not stopping or slowing at all.

[@Alexischile10nz]

poopstick eat well and drink well. But not to close to the race. For pacing you just have to train and know what is right and what is not. Also a great training tip is to run more than the actual race so that you dont get that tired. Then is up to you to decide if it is sustainable to start fast at the start, i dont consider it a bad thing for trained people as it makes you skip all the slow people who will otherwise bother you.

[@sportsshorts5403]

Update us! How'd it go?

[@zoegreen905]

People who run xc are like ah it's so hard then there's me *i run fell 😂😓*

[@rebeccleney4353]

I did cross country and I came 1st

[@nathantheapeman8261]

Same but out of the whole of my year at school

[@joachimgutierrez3335]

Regionals Tomorrow 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

[@sleepsy1522]

My school holds the record for a mile and a half which is 4 mins he is now in high school a freshman

[@mymumoverwaterstheflowersd8071]

I literally had no idea what cross country was until i searched it up. I have my first cross country class tomorrow at school.

[@easterncollectables5226]

nice, i hope you get good!

[@mymumoverwaterstheflowersd8071]

Eastern Collectables thank you. I already had it and it was very hard. I realised I need to pace myself. Tomorrow is my second cross class.

[@easterncollectables5226]

@@mymumoverwaterstheflowersd8071 I have been running XC for a while now and i have one thing to say; when you are running it will not feel like you are pacing yourself and an "ok" time is running 6:40 minute miles for middle school!

[@mymumoverwaterstheflowersd8071]

Eastern Collectables okay thank you

[@abdulla93khalid]

i like the drawings 👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾🤣

[@iimoonlights3155]

What if your first by a distance? this happens at my school with me and u want to know some stuff to help me get a better distance

[@Tips4Running]

I'm not sure I follow. You're winning the race by a large distance, but you want to win by a larger distance?

[@mattdyer7885]

Hey, what do you recommend for a guy like me. I am seeded 1st at nationals this year and it's a flat course. What should I do

[@Joe18916]

Seems like someone like you would already know what to do. That is if you're telling the truth.

[@ethan3246]

Just got done with first cross country practice

[@attackontwentyonepilots5343]

Congrats i remember my first :) I was surprised i was 2nd in my team

[@easterncollectables5226]

thank you!

[@thetruth2258]

Idk what it is, but running in a huge group is fun

[@austenroy9210]

I'm in middle school. I'm the ONLY one in my grade that's running cross country. Wow. Kids these days

[@GregCalleja]

I'm proud of you:D

[@Joe18916]

That's surprising. When I was in middle school there were like 50 kids who wanted to do cross country.

[@alessandrog498]

JT Kehoe Depends on the school. Mine for instance has people running backwards so as to not do long distance races. They only want to do sprints. Guy in grade above me runs every long distance event. Also I'm in highschool and season we had two people, where as other schools came in buss loads 😂

[@anaalvarez02]

Austen Roy You do you! 😁

[@CrushSoccerStarz]

In our school we have 60 boys in 7 and 8th grade

[@channingharrell7252]

I want to try to do cross country next year when I'm a 10th grade

[@Olivia-yc1yp]

channing Harrell I'm doing it in 10th grade too but I'm worried

[@channingharrell7252]

I'm worried too because The first day of cross country when I go it's just working out what's the second time I have to go we have to like 10 Miles

[@Olivia-yc1yp]

channing Harrell I have training at my middle school everyday this summer so I hope it will help.

[@Shawn-b5m]

So you can't sprint just jog? I'm joining in a few months and Idk what to do lmao

[@enceofthewind4145]

Shawn Updike may be too late for this, but it’s recommended that you only sprint on the last 100 meters or so, or you’ll die out very fast. Pacing is extremely important, since the distance and terrain is seriously killer on certain courses.

[@michaelme1548]

Back in High School in cross country meets teams would have three or four runners make a U shape and block off the competition while their best runners went ahead. It got vicious. I witnessed guys getting pushed into gullies and run into barbwire fences. I was good but not great so it only happened to me once but I witnessed it happen a lot. Is this still common?

[@Tips4Running]

No. Not in any meets I've been to.

[@michaelme1548]

@@Tips4Running This was in the mid-eighties in Texas.

[@henanoa9777]

Damn y'all run hella

[@dragzthedestroyer]

Thx

[@m.s.sivaarunkumar8748]

nice

[@xsimplysarahx4038]

Watching this video because I just made the XC team

[@RioLFC829]

Good tips cause I'm doing cross country in 7th grade!

[@ethan3246]

Doing cross country in 9th grade. Only freshmen this year:(

[@dakimuchi]

Genius

[@KeanPlayzMinecraftMore]

Thanks.. i'll win it for you

[@rebeccleney4353]

BOOM!

[@willchadwick3807]

Is a 20:03 good for a 5k and being 14

[@leilanicruz733]

UES

[@aronoherlihy9190]

What if someone sprints the whole race and doesn't get tired

[@caidenlee5540]

Aron Oherlihy lol

[@jameslewis4434]

Please tell me you are joking.

[@diegocastro5351]

Are you talking about Captain America 😂

[@Sophie-yq7ht]

My cross country is 3km

[@massimodire5194]

I’m 11 and I’m the fastest person in the school I’m in six grade how do I beat everybody in the school and I’m also the oldest

[@Tips4Running]

That's good. Keep on running!

[@sachalsajid7507]

I use a strategy called fishing I fish while running catch the next person

[@noeffort3615]

make an amv

[@anonymousmask1208]

Some of the girls forgot to wear pants wtf how do you forget its winter

[@Bxl5]

Don’t lose ur energy because ur gonna run a lot and just jog and breathe deap

[@ltjuicegames1677]

After I heard this I did 1st in 15k with 13;45

[@iimoonlights3155]

thats impossible for 15km. nobody in the world can do that time for 5km

[@ITzYaBoiKingGamingAndMore]

+iimoonlights the record for 5km is 12:37.35

[@matthewrichardson922]

Col

[@boredperson147]

Why r they wearing gloves,

[@GregCalleja]

cause it's cold :0 idk I get confused by that too

[@destinedtobedifferent9921]

+Greg Calleja I ran on a cold day and gloves help.

[@jacobmaurer395]

best advice I can give to all of you: DON'T DO CROSS COUNTRY

[@andreaa3947]

amen

[@christigimenez]

During a shorter race, for middle schoolers, when they races are anywhere from 1 mile to 2 miles, is your "kick" strategy the same? For 1 mile, should they kick in and start passing at the half mile mark and for a 2 mile race, at the one mile mark? Once a runner starts picking up the pace to start passing, do they stay at that faster pace for the rest of the race?

[@Tips4Running]

+Christi Gimenez Just encourage the middle schoolers to make a move in the middle of the race. Most runners at that age go out hard and then settle into a much slower pace. If you can snap them out of that slower pace, it can't hurt.

[@dannyvuong1023]

Christi Gimenez Every runner has a different "kick set" I like to kick at the 800 since I know I can hold it off. It just depends on what your kids can bite off. Encourage them to start kicking at various distances at the end. And don't be afraid to get uncomfortable.

[@christigimenez]

During a shorter race, for middle schoolers, when they races are anywhere from 1 mile to 2 miles, is your "kick" strategy the same? For 1 mile, should they kick in and start passing at the half mile mark and for a 2 mile race, at the one mile mark? Once a runner starts picking up the pace to start passing, do they stay at that faster pace for the rest of the race?