Commentary on comments:
# 2: “…running economy…” Perhaps valid but how are you going to observe more than a couple of sections over a whole run? (Are you running with them?)
# 6: ?
# 7: ?; where would these sprint coaches be/go?
# 16: ?
# 17: wants it all
# 18: first phrase; exactly my point
# 19: a reduction of 3.5 seconds in a year in the 200m and CC is to get all credit?
# 26: useless without a frame of reference (gender, age, “when” relative to what else)
# 28: agree with last paragraph
# 29: XC >>> sprint in spring (mean time W?)
The bulk of this appears to be “either or” proposition with some of the comments implying that there is no indoor season or, by extension, training per se. With another assumption, that we are talking about high schools, is this the norm?
And if it is, would not the longish “gap” in time negate much of what was trying to be done in CC?
Of course the method that has the most balance is going to usually work out the best and some of the terms I can not help but believe are different depending on who is using them. “Miles” for a 60/100/200 is not the same at all compared to “miles” for a 800m or 1500m, let alone at times of year when they may be doing cross country. From a discussion stand point, is it necessary for even 800m, 1500m and up to “do” cross country? Or is it just another place to get the school a championship or points? Or to fight boredom, compared to running laps at various rates.
Somewhere in there was the mention of doing say 5Km but, I am not all that familiar with the length of courses, is that 2 laps, 4 laps of race course? Or about half the total distance of a race? I guess what I am saying is the style of running (a mix of many aspects) I fully support for sprinters just not the total distances in a continuous run.
Say a nice 800m course with uphills, downhills, (of varying steepness) fast flats, log steps up, few twists and turns sort of like many stadiums have surrounding them or a short length of trail that if needed can be broken down into smaller sections and possibly observed nearly the entire loop. Call it a circuit and add in additional GS stuff and its not all that different.