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Cross Country: How Should I Run Strides?

By Coach Jay Johnson, 04/20/18, 12:00PM PDT

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Bottom line is that high school coaches and athletes need to agree that strides should be done the first week of summer practice.

Strides should be an elemental part of all high school training programs. Why? First, you don’t know how fast a high school athlete is until you’ve asked their neuromuscular system to work.

Doing 800 meters with a 200-meter jog on the track two weeks before the regional cross country meet, when the athletes haven’t been doing fast strides up this point, isn’t going to tell you what the athletes are really capable of.