Lucy Running up hill at a World Championships in 2006.

Monday Morning Hills!

Wow! 50 kids out again for cross country practice. This is awesome and I am so happy to see all the kids from grade 2 as well: I see a lot of Maia’s classmates!. We got the practice underway with a warm up game of fox and hounds around the school loop. I sent the grade four and five ‘hounds’ off first to give them a head start on their 2 laps. I could hardly keep the Grade 2 and 3’s ‘foxes’ back, they were so eager to get running. With the warm up over, we talked about hill running and did some fast running on the grass hill.

Running well up hills is an important part of cross country running. In track and field the racing is on a flat surface. Cross country is like adventure running: there will always be corners and hills and you never know exactly what sort of hill it will be: it might be long or short, steep or not so steep, rocky or flat. Cross country runners practice running hills so that they get strong for uphill running in races and so that they feel confident and happy about racing on hills.

Hill running:

Drive your arms up the hill.
Drive your knees up the hill and be quick.
Be positive about the hill! It’s a chance for you to be tough and strong.
Look to the top of the hill and run over the top…don’t stop and rest before the top!

The kids were awesome when we did the hill running loops! Again, I saw lots of smiling happy faces, and kids who were trying really hard to do a good job. What a fast bunch of runners we have at Lochside!

What elite athletes do:

Elite athletes always learn the course they are going to race. This way, they know what route to expect in the race and they can get prepared for the hills and course! How do they learn the course? They jog the course while warming up (a lot of cross country races are run in loops so you can run one loop in warm up and learn where the hills are!). They look at the hill and make a mental note of where it is on the course so they know when it will be coming up in the race.

Eating to run:

On the morning of a race or practice, eat a good nutrition breakfast. Some examples of a good breakfast: oatmeal and bananas, toast with peanut butter and jam, cereal and milk (but not that chocolaty sugary kind!). If the practice is before lunch, choose a healthy snack for your nutrition break: fruit or veggies, yogurt, crackers. Save your cookie treat for after your lunch!

On race day, you will have to make sure you eat a good lunch at school that day too! Again choose food you can run well with: a good sandwich and some fruit, milk or juice. To make sure you aren’t hungry before your race at the park, bring a banana to eat an hour before your race!

See you Wednesday!
Lucy