by Larry Eder
RunBlogRun provides daily cross-country training to 16,000 high school coaches and 550,000 high school boys and girls. The program is called the 2022 RunBlogRun Fall Cross Country Training & Racing Program. RunBlogRun began this in 2006, and we have published cross country training online since 1998 at American Track & Field. This is week one, day 6.
Our photo story today is of Grant Foster. Grant went to Stanford University and ran quite well. After that, Grant joined the Bowerman Track Club and was the youngest guy on the team. Grant is a hard worker and has begun to excel on the team. At present, he has 4 American records to his name. Last winter, Grant Foster set the American indoor record at 5000 meters at 12:53. In March, Grant broke Galen Rupp’s AR standard of 26:44 with a gut-wrenching duel with Olympic silver medalist Mo Ahmed (his teammate) in 26:33. Just a few weeks ago, Grant set his third AR at 3,000m (7 1/2 laps on a 400m track), running 7:28.
Last night, 2 September 2022, in Brussels, Belgium, Grant took second to WC silver medalist & Commonwealth bronze medalist Jacob Krop, running 12:46.96, breaking the AR at 5000m with his 12:46.96!
This is Saturday, September 3, 2022. It is either your first race day of the early cross-country season or a track day. If you race, warm up slow and long and know that you will be shaking some of the proverbial cobwebs out. Once you get away from the start, begin to pick off one competitor at a time, pick one off, then look at the next set of shoulders and get that one. When you hit about two and a half miles, begin to pick up the pace, and with 150 to go, let er rip. Afterward, cool down, talk to the Coach and your teammates, and take a lesson or two from the first race.
If you do not race, then warm up slow and long, and go to the track and run 6 times 800 meters at race pace, with a 400-meter jog in between, or go to a park and run three minutes hard, five times, with 90-second jogging in between, then cool down.
