The Distance
Blog
The Importance of Training
Training in the off season is probably the most important things a runner can do to ensure that they will have a great season. How will you train in the off season often determines how well your performances will be in your upcoming season.
As a distance runner myself, I know from experience that this is most definitely true. As a freshman in high school, I didn't train for cross country ot track. I kind of trained for the cross country season my sophomore year, but really trained for my sophomore year of track. You could definitely tell that I put in the work for track that year based off my times and competitiveness.
As a freshmen, my 1600m time at the end of the season was 6:48.38. I went into my sophomore season running 6:44.40. That alone proved to my coaches and my teammates that I had trained in the off season. At the end of the season I was fortunate enough to compete in the 1600m at Regionals. I finished in eighth place with a time of 6:00.93. It was one of my best performances and it wouldn't have been possible without my off season training.
I spent the summer before my junior year training for the upcoming cross country season. I would wake up at seven in the morning at least six days a week to run so I could get my run in before it got too hot. Three of those days, I would wake up, run, and then go and lift and train with a local training team right after. I went from running 24:20.1 at the end of my sophomore season, to running 22:46.4 at beginning of my junior year. My coaches were already amazed with the improvement I had made, they couldn't wait to see what I was going to do throughout the season.
Yes, I really did run the times mentioned above. Yes, I did make that much improvement. Yes, It was because I put in my time in the off season. The hyper links will take you to my profile on athletic.net that has my times published on them officially. If you don't believe me when I say that off season training will help you, then try it for yourself adn see the results in your own times. Just remeber to be safe and avoid injury the best you can.