Cross Country Stride Progression
A stride is a quick, short, controlled sprint. Strides allow athletes to maintain a quick race pace in addition to providing practice for picking up the pace towards the end a race.
New athletes should stay at Step 1 and Step 2 for 3-4 weeks each. Then one can progress through the remaining steps a week at a time. Returning athletes can advance through the steps a week at a time. If one misses a week due to sickness or injury then one should not advance. If one is struggling to complete the strides due to being tired then one should try one more stride and then stop. It is important to listen to one's body, and sometimes one just needs to take it easy. Talk with a coach about how you are feeling.
Stride progression should generally be done in the last 15 minutes of an easy run.
New athletes should stay at Step 1 and Step 2 for 3-4 weeks each. Then one can progress through the remaining steps a week at a time. Returning athletes can advance through the steps a week at a time. If one misses a week due to sickness or injury then one should not advance. If one is struggling to complete the strides due to being tired then one should try one more stride and then stop. It is important to listen to one's body, and sometimes one just needs to take it easy. Talk with a coach about how you are feeling.
Stride progression should generally be done in the last 15 minutes of an easy run.
Stride Progression Steps
- 4 x 20 seconds at 5k effort.
- 5 x 20 seconds at 5k effort.
- 5 x 20 seconds starting at 5k effort and squeezing down the pace to 3200m effort.
- 5 x 20 seconds starting at 5k effort and squeezing down the pace to 1600m effort. A recommend pace would be 5k, 5k, 3200m, 3200m, 1600m for the five repetitions, but simply run by feel and don’t time these.
- 6 x 20 seconds at 3200m effort down to 1600m effort.
- 6 x 20 seconds — 2 at 3200m, 2 at 1600m, 2 at a slower 800m effort.
- 3 x 25 seconds — 5k/3200m/1600m effort, then 3 x 20 seconds at a slower 800m effort. Athletes can take as much recovery time as needed to be able to run with good posture and good rhythm on the 800m effort strides. Note: This is a great day to start transitioning into spikes – you can run the first three in trainers, change into spikes, then run the last three in spikes.
- 3 x 25 seconds at 1600m effort, then 3 x 20 seconds at a solid 800m effort. Again, this is a great opportunity to change shoes between the two sets of strides.