"Hard work equals Closing The Gap" Article By: Coach Fred E. Bosley Irvine High School, Boys Cross Country On the Irvine High School boys cross country team, we believe in two things, "hard work" and "closing the gap". "Hard work", the two most dreaded words in high school sports and "closing the gap", the gap of time between our one to five runners. We start every day with a one and one half mile warm up at an easy pace, then on to our stretching routine that lasts about 10 to 15 minutes and then on to our workout. In the summer we start when the rules allow us to do so. This year it was mid-July. We start by building a base. Most of our runs are in the 6 to 10 mile range. We do simple forms of speed work, five minute and ten minute tempo runs and fartleks (speed play). We also go to Big Bear Lake in California twice during the summer. Once in July for about three days and then in mid-August with other schools. Coach Tom Coffey of Tustin High School in California has been holding this camp for about 18 years. We do some very intense training in Big Bear and lots of "hard work" is done. Some of the runs are a 5 mile hilly time trial, a 9 mile distance run in the hills and on the 6th and final day, there are 8, 10, 12 and 16 mile runs around the lake. I limit the 16 milers to seniors and top junior only. These trips to Big Bear turn out to be great team bonding experiences. They also give us a chance to run lots of hills. The following is a description of an early competition phase in mid-September, one of our hardest weeks. We start every week with speed work. Monday: Warm up and stretch followed by a pyramid workout on grass. Starting with a 600 (rest in between each interval should equal approximately the time of the interval) then a 1200 and rest, 1800 and rest, 2400 and rest, 1800 and rest, 1200 and rest, and 600 then a 1 mile cool down. During this and all our workouts we are basically in three groups, "A" group, top 10 to 12 runners, mostly varsity; "B" group, upper JV and sophomores; "C" group, freshmen and some sophomores. All of these groups have "closing the gap" on their minds. Tuesday: A distance day, 6 to 9 miles, depending on your group. This workout is at a comfortable, hard pace. We concentrate on finishing hard much like a race, at about 80%. Wednesday: Depending on if we have a dual meet on Thursday, pre-meet workout is 4½ miles with 4 sprints, buildups start slow and by the halfway point full speed, slowing down to the finish. These sprints are about 100 meters each. With no dual meet, we run 6 miles hard. Thursday: Another distance day, 6 to 9 miles, concentrating on "closing the gap". Friday: If we have an invitational on Saturday, we do the same workout as Wednesday. If not, we will run 5 miles at a medium pace. Saturday: We are located in the flat lands, and whenever possible, we go to Peters Canyon, a state park in Orange County, California, about 7 miles from our campus that has about 9 hills. This course is about 6¼ miles long. Freshmen are limited to 3½ miles. We run this hard. Each day starts with a mile and a half warm up, so whatever the distance for the day, add on the mile and a half. We always work hard on "closing the gap". Coach Fred Bosley International Copyright © of CoachesEducation.com. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of CoachesEducation.com is strictly prohibited.