Running!! - Cross Country, Track, and Casual

This is such a cool thread!
I'm not sure what my sprites would be >.< aha xP
But, I've been running since junior year, just with sprints in track and I joined cross country during my senior year,halfway through the season. I really wish I joined freshman or sophomore year, because I enjoyed it so much! Now two years later, sophomore in college, I've barely ran at all, which sucks :/ I enjoy running with others especially competitively, but I don't have as much time to devote to an intramural running team, and I'm not fast enough for the school's team. I do occasionally run, but not very often. I just gotta motivate myself to run more, because I really enjoy it :p
Oh! And with the half of cross country season I was in, my fastest time for 3 miles was 21:40, and I finished 15th at my league finals for varsity with that time :p
 
@Lugia123: Alex's post covers just about all of what you'd want to get started. I might add that stretches are an essential part of running as well - ending a jog/run (especially if hard) with them helps lower the tension and lactic acid in your muscles so you aren't sore later. After speed runs and occasionally long runs, a brief cool-down jog helps for this same reason as well. If you wish to stretch before a jog/run, take a quick jog to loosen up first - though the distance of that varies, a stretch session with no prior warm-up can strain muscles from rest too much.

Also, upon reading Alex's description of the Brooks shoe (which I've heard a lot from runners at other high schools but never my own), I'm curious as to what shoe brands everybody here prefers. I've been a regular user of Nike for the past three years, but the last two and arguably best pairs I've had are those of the Adidas Boost series, for the comfort, the cushion, my foot size and high arch needs, and the spring it provides on solid ground. For spikes, I have Saucony brand cross country shoes and traditionally silver Nike ones for track but actually used the Saucony's last year because they were so comfortable and light :p
 
I might make a more detailed post later on this, because I was a shoe fanatic for a while and work at a shoe store, but I want to share some things about shoes and form, stuff like that.

If you like the shoes you have/don't need shoes, ignore the below information.

First, unless you know it's a good shoe at a ridiculously low price, don't buy a $25 dollar shoe for long distances :/ save up if you have to. If you are on a modest budget, you can find decent shoes (lower end asics for the most part, they seem to have the least difference between their high-end stuff and their cheaper stuff) for $50-80. I would check out runningwarehouse.com's liquidation section if you feel confident about finding the right size online, and their shoefitr helps with that. Secondly with shoes, you need to be sure you get the correct amount of support. Find out if you under or over pronate (look up over-pronation and underpronation) or if you have a neutral foot strike. Then buy shoes accordingly, getting mildly supportive and/or cushioned shoes for a neutral gait, get moderately to heavily supportive shoes for over-pronation, and just get really cushioned shoes for under-pronation (or shoes that are lower to the ground, that is, have a low heel/toe drop and are only a few millimeters thick. This also helps inherently improve form by making you want to put less impact on your joints, because of the lack of cushioning.) Running warehouse also tells you what category a shoe fits into so that makes it easier.

Will edit with form/habit stuff later, I don't like typing this much at once when I don't have to : P

Quick Edit: link to the sale shoes at running warehouse - http://www.runningwarehouse.com/salecatpage.html?ccode=SALEMS
 
Oh man, I don't even know what half of the stuff you said means, but foot support (and therefore comfort) is so important it's ridiculous. Even to someone barely knowledgeable on the matter. You know how I said I can barely run a distance without having to stop? Cut that distance in half. That's what I was getting in my uncomfortable shoes.

If you're not comfortable, you can bet that result will prooooobably improve just by changing that. Or, as those pesky ads would say...


"Improve your running with this one simple tip!"
 
Uralya said:
@Lugia123: Alex's post covers just about all of what you'd want to get started. I might add that stretches are an essential part of running as well - ending a jog/run (especially if hard) with them helps lower the tension and lactic acid in your muscles so you aren't sore later. After speed runs and occasionally long runs, a brief cool-down jog helps for this same reason as well. If you wish to stretch before a jog/run, take a quick jog to loosen up first - though the distance of that varies, a stretch session with no prior warm-up can strain muscles from rest too much.
Click to expand...

^^This

Stretching is very important and some beginning runners really don't do it very well
General rule of thumb if you are just starting; if you think you stretched just the right amount, stretch some more. Once you think you've stretched too much and now it is pointless to stretch more, you are on point. You'll get a feel for it later.

SotS said:
Oh man, I don't even know what half of the stuff you said means, but foot support (and therefore comfort) is so important it's ridiculous. Even to someone barely knowledgeable on the matter. You know how I said I can barely run a distance without having to stop? Cut that distance in half. That's what I was getting in my uncomfortable shoes.

If you're not comfortable, you can bet that result will prooooobably improve just by changing that. Or, as those pesky ads would say...


"Improve your running with this one simple tip!"
Click to expand...

Comfort is the most important if you stopped understanding what we're talking about as SotS said.
 
For whatever reason, I've still yet to post my times and details and whatnot in this thread, but I will later on today once I get back form our race - my last cross country race ever, actually! We're running at our state's State Championship race, so wish us all luck!
 
I ran cross country these last two years in middle school! My PR for 2 miles is 13:04 and my 5k PR is 22:06.
 
Haunted Water said:
I run every now and then. Back in high school, if I had the endurance, I would've had the speed to be one of the school's greatest cc athletes in long time. Now since I've started conditioning for Basic Military Training, I have seemed to even out the whole speed - endurance ratio. Not bad, but I wish I could've kept my speed. I'm always running though. I'm like the Doctor.
Click to expand...

What would you want me t put in the spoilers? I try to include everyone so if you have any times that'd be great. If not I can just C + P this into OP/

CuriousCleffa said:
This is such a cool thread!
I'm not sure what my sprites would be >.< aha xP
But, I've been running since junior year, just with sprints in track and I joined cross country during my senior year,halfway through the season. I really wish I joined freshman or sophomore year, because I enjoyed it so much! Now two years later, sophomore in college, I've barely ran at all, which sucks :/ I enjoy running with others especially competitively, but I don't have as much time to devote to an intramural running team, and I'm not fast enough for the school's team. I do occasionally run, but not very often. I just gotta motivate myself to run more, because I really enjoy it :p
Oh! And with the half of cross country season I was in, my fastest time for 3 miles was 21:40, and I finished 15th at my league finals for varsity with that time :p
Click to expand...

Same as above except I see you do have one time, I noticed you said you ran Track, any times for that? If not, you could write me a small bio for OP (or just modify this one a little bit, it seems a little all over the place)

Updated OP!!!!!
New Additions:
- Added a few people
- Added Middle School Sprite
- For each person they have member tags, so if you click their name you can go to their profile
- Modified a few things for times and such to make it more uniform~ish
 
I also run track! The field event records aren't relevant to this thread but I'll include them anyway :)
100m: 14.13
400m (before you look...I ran a horrible year...): 1:17.4
Shot Put (middle school boys/high school girls shot): 29'8.75"
Discus (1 kg): 89'6"
Long Jump: 15'4.5"
 
Just gonna'... bump this up..

The weather was really nice here yesterday. Wind was still a bit cool, but I figured shoot, why not! Decided to run for a bit, just to get my legs moving again after sitting around for the past two months.

Now my throat is sore and my nose stopped up. All I wanted was to move a bit, is that too much to ask, body? You couldn't take the cool wind for just thirty minutes?! D:
 
SotS said:
Just gonna'... bump this up..

The weather was really nice here yesterday. Wind was still a bit cool, but I figured shoot, why not! Decided to run for a bit, just to get my legs moving again after sitting around for the past two months.

Now my throat is sore and my nose stopped up. All I wanted was to move a bit, is that too much to ask, body? You couldn't take the cool wind for just thirty minutes?! D:
Click to expand...

I feel you
We run about 5-6 days a week now for XC and were lucky it hasn't gotten very cold

However it's windy as all hell and you can barely move without using all of your energy. I don't like winter running too much but eh well see how it goes
 
Yesterday I was at the McNeese Invitational in Louisiana. I was third in the mile and second in the half with 4:43 and 2:07, and I thought that was a day's work already. I found out not five minutes after finishing the half mile that my dad had signed me up for the two mile as well but given me the option of running it or not. I decided to do it, and the result was a 10:38 fifteen minutes after the half mile. That being my first timed two mile ever, I confirmed what my teammates said about it being a different animal entirely.

How do you guys that run distance track handle the two mile? Do you tend to lose focus and/or do you find it hard to maintain? I don't wish to be stuck in the two mile curse (as my team calls it) yet, but I'd like to get a handle on it for if/when I do. It's been very odd how I've been at the top of my team in cross country, been the fastest miler and half miler and still not done a two mile with them...
 
^^ lol funny you say that I'm also the fastest miler and 2nd fastest half miler but still haven't run the 2 mile. I'm hoping I can avoid it all together though
 
How has the track season been going for everyone?

Texas starts early (think late February) because of being so large, so I figure that most are still in their pre-district phase. I've completed that and am now going to Region next week (which is two meets after district in Texas due to Area meets in between), which I honestly did not think was going to happen. So far, I've lowered my time from 2:04 to 2:02 and on downward 2:01->1:58->1:57.42 and now hold the school record, so I guess I can say that this season has been a success.

/hypespeech How are y'all?
 
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