Post-Collegiate Running

The post-collegiate runner finds him or herself in quite the interesting situation. No longer tied to the rigor and demand of the collegiate running schedule, completely free to run when, where, how fast, how long, and with whom the runner pleases. But no more team, no more competition every weekend, no more putting it all on the line for your team, running outside yourself. It does not have to be that way. The former collegiate has an opportunity to compete beyond the collegiate level, and the timing of national championship cross country for USATF actually lines up with training segments very well.

Consider this: US Club Cross Country Championships are in December and USATF National Cross country is in February. If you set your season up to peak in February it would look like this:

September: Base Phase
October: Base Phase Early / Threshold Phase Late (Lines up with NCAA XC season)
November: Early Threshold / Late Long Speed
December: Early Long Speed / Late Repetition Speed (Club Nationals)
January: Early Sharpening / Late Taper (Lines up with NCAA indoor track)
February: Taper (XC Championships)
March - May: Maintenance after recovery (Lines up with NCAA Outdoor track)

So you can see that the NCAA seasons line up very well with the training cycle for USATF Nationals. Naturally, you'll take a bit of a beating in the NCAA XC season, because you would be coming out of your base phase when they are trying to race and eventually peak in November.

5k-21k:
Easy 4-8 miles depending on distance racing

21k+:
Easy 7-12 miles