2025 Fall Cross Country & Racing Season, September 15, 2025, Week 3 Day 1, Monday is an easy day!

2025 Fall Cross Country & Racing Program, Mileage, Week 3, Day 1, September 15, 2025, Monday is a recovery day!

Cooper Lutkenhaus is running beyond his years

Czech Indoor Meeting: Five Take Aways from the Ostrava Indoor Meeting!

Habz 3:33.36, Hunter-Bell 4:00.04 WL, Mahuchikh 201 lead Karlsruhe Indoor Meeting (WIT Gold), January 8, 2026

Our program will be built around a tempo run with some hills on Tuesday, fartlek on Thursday, race day or repetitions on Saturday, Long run on Sunday and easy days on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You can juggle around if you need and also consider keeping Saturdays an easy day in weeks you are not racing! Ask your coach before adding anything to your daily training.

Monday, warm-up, 45-60 minutes of easy running, keep it relaxed after Thursday’s fartlek, 6×150 meter stride-outs, cooldown.

In this hot weather, remember to hydrate. 2-3 liters a day of water, watch out for carbonated beverages, and caffeine (in moderation). Do not take sports drinks with caffeine, ginseng and things that you have not discussed with your coach and family physician. Those drinks can cause heart issues. They are not a joke!

Many steeplers have cross country backgrounds!

Cross country is universal. It has been around for nearly three hundred years. Cross country is a good sport for the 400 meters runner on up! I loved getting hurdlers to run cross country. All of our steeplers learned how to high hurdle on the grass, and then, when I was really devious, they did 400 meter hurdles. They never complained about the hurdles again.

Mark Rowland, long time coach of Oregon Track Club and Olympic steeplechase medalist (bronze in Seoul 1988 and silver in 1990 Split Europeans), told me over dinner one time that he trained over the 400 meter hurdles to better prepare for the steeplechase.

Samuel Firewu (ETH) wins the Men’s 3000m Steeplechase with a time of 8:05.61 in a new Meeting Record at the Wanda Diamond League Red Star Macalline Xiamen on 26 April 2025

#SummerMileage, #hillrunning, #RunBlogRunSummerMileage, #running, #crosscountry,

In his sophomore year of track, Steve Prefontaine did not make the state meet. He was embarrassed and upset with himself. That summer, he planned, with his coaches, a ruthless series of training runs over the summer. He not only did mileage, he made himself stronger. He made himself tougher. That fall, Steve Prefontaine was ready for his junior season of high school cross country.

Steve Prefontaine, during summer of his sophomore year in high school, photo courtesy of Marshfield High School/TFN News

Will. you be ready? Follow our daily training suggestions, and daily athlete stories and you will be ready to race in the fall!

NIKE Pegasus PLUS, photo courtesy of NIKE running

The NIKE Pegasus PLUS may be the perfect NIKE shoe for summer and fall high school running. It is light, sturdy and built for miles! I would recommend it for speed days, fartlek days, hill days and if you have just one shoe, a good trainer/racer. Nike is back on track with this shoe, part of the Pegasus 41 evolution. I recommend two pairs of training shoes for the fall, such as a NIKE Pegasus PLUS and a NIKE Vomero 18 (shown below) for easy days and long days. The Pegasus PLUS is well constructed, can handle dirt and mud and gives you a stable, comfortable ride without overdoing the cushioning. As always, we do not recommend that you buy your running performance shoes remotely, but go into a real live running store. If you need a suggestion, email me at [email protected] and I will help you find one!

One of the shoes we are liking in Summer 2025 is the Vomero 18! Check it out at #NIKERunning

The Nike Pegasus PLUS is a great entry shoe for high school cross country. You should consider it, and learn more about it at nike.com. It is light, cushioned, a good summer mileage shoe. If you need a little more cushioning, try the Vomero 18. The Vomero 18 has more cushioning that the Pegasus PLUS. If you like NIKE, I would suggest high schoolers use the NIKE Pegasus PLUS for Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I would suggest the Vomero 18 for Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I always suggest two pairs of training shoes. Why on Vomero 18? It is a cushioned shoe that feels great and is good on the roads and trails.

If you need a more cushioned shoe, try the Vomero 18 and the Vomero 18 PLUS, for great cushioning, a more sophisticated ride. Check them out at your local NIKE retailer or NIKE running store.

Do you want to be a better cross country runner than you were in the past? Focus and follow our training. It is all about the consistency.

For Great Summer reading! Self Made Olympian by Ron Daws, A Clean Pair of Heels by Murray Halberg, Pre! by Tom Jordan, Quicksilver, The Mercurial Emil Zatopek, by Pat Butcher, The Destiny of Alain Mimoun, by Pat Butcher (a monograph)

Remember, one day at a time!!!! #SummerMileage, #CrossCountry,

Author

Larry Eder

Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys.

Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."

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