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Cross Country Running
Running
exercises are going to take a lot out of an athlete, especially when
that athlete is a cross country runner. Cross country runners devote
their lives to learning how to run over long distances and over many
different kinds of terrains with ease. To be at the top of the field in
cross country running you need to have perfect running technique as well
as a lot of strength and elasticity in your muscles and a very large
work ethic. The former tends to spring from the latter and for this
reason every single successful cross country runner in history has been
a person that has not been afraid of hard work. In general athletes
really need to put their time in to be successful and in cross country
running especially you really need to spend hours perfecting your
technique. Keep in mind that cross country running is going to be over a
long distance and every little mistake you make in your technique will
add up until the end of the race where all of your mistakes will
determine how far away you are from your best finishing time.
Cross
country training is not generally practiced by people that run long
distance races, such as in a marathon. The reason for this is that long
distance races are still run over a long track or paved surface whereas
cross country races are going to be over a diverse amount of terrain.
This can end up being disadvantageous to train on because of the
differences in the hardness of the ground and can actually serve to be
detrimental to the technique of the long distance runner. Cross country
running instead is used by people who run cross country races or
additionally to add an cardiovascular exercise into their workout
regimen. Some athletes simply detest machines like treadmills and for
these athletes cross country training can be an excellent way for them
to get the workout they need and enjoy doing it as well.
One of the
biggest points regarding cross country technique is that the terrain is
often softer and at times can also be slippery so to compensate for this
the athlete must alter their stride to make it shorter or else risk
skidding along when their foot hits a soft or wet patch and potentially
injuring themselves. Because of the nature of the ground there is less
elasticity in the collision between your foot and the ground and
therefore this translates into the fact that you need a higher leg speed
and therefore stronger leg muscles.
Another
consideration the athlete needs to make in the transition from hard
surface running to cross country running is the energy conservation
principles. Collisions between the athlete's foot and the ground in hard
surface running are more elastic in nature and therefore more energy is
conserved; the same does not hold true for cross country running. To
make up for this the cross country runner needs to incorporate into
their running technique a slightly more bent over stance at the knees as
well as at the ankles and the angle at which the foot hits the ground.
Basically this all serves to say that the athlete needs to work a lot
harder to make each stride efficient in cross country running and this
requires additional ability in both strength and endurance training for
the lower part of the athlete's body.
One final
consideration that the cross country runner needs to make is altering
their technique slightly away from optimal form in order to compensate
for the terrain that they are crossing. During runs across hard surfaces
the toes should always be pointing directly forward in the direction
that the athlete is moving but during cross country running it may be
prudent on very slippery surfaces to keep the toes pointed outwards very
slightly. This serves to provide more stability and in some cases can be
the difference between an athlete getting through their run without
incident and an athlete taking a severe fall.
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