PLANNING: SUMMER TRAINING & COLLEGE VISITS

Perhaps you’ve heard the terms periodization, mesocycles, and microcycles.  Periodization involves dividing your entire training program into smaller segments and assigning to them methods and levels which best prepare you to meet your training and racing goals.  Periodization can cover your entire four year high school career.  Your Cross Country training program is an example of a macrocycle which starts at the beginning of your season and ends with the beginning of the next (Indoor Track, for example.)  The beginning of your season by the way is the point at which you start your summer training.  The macrocycle for Cross Country has three major periods, Preparation, Competition and Transition.  Within this macrocycle are mesocycles which consist of three to four week training cycles.  Microcycles consist of even smaller segments of a week or two.  And finally within these microcycles are your single, specific training workouts.  As you might guess, creation of this general framework is merely the initial step in planning out the entire XC season.  Additional planning, scheduling, analysis and decision making necessarily follow.  This process is not dissimilar to the search for the right college.  That process too, if carried out properly, is best done by planning appropriate cycles during your four years in high school.  You’ve all seen teammates who, for any number of reasons, decide to participate in Cross Country for the first time as seniors.  While some may achieve a measure of success, it is rare that a new runner makes an impact on the success of a team.  So it is too with the college search. Wait too long to start and the process may not be as successful as it could have been had you begun it earlier.  Of course, the first step in this process is research.  While you may not know precisely what you hope to do as an adult it is never too soon to know what is out there and where you can best study to do it.  It is important to know for example, if you want to be an accountant you might not consider only liberal arts colleges.  Your parents and guidance counselors are most likely your best source of direction, but nothing beats the internet for current, accurate information.  Every college and university has a website which will answer virtually any question you might have about it.  It is never too soon to start looking.  I once read that youngsters who have a poster or a pennant from a particular school hung on his/her wall while very young actually have a better chance of attending it.  Now I’m not suggesting you go out and purchase MIT or Princeton posters, but you see the point.  The sooner you show an interest in a particular college, the closer you are to making an informed decision.  You may be interested in what the Collegeboard says about the timing of visits.  If so, check the link: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/find-colleges/campus-visit-guide/when-to-visit . 

All that said freshmen have some time to grow and mature both in athletics and academics.  You upperclassmen have to get to work.  Whatever class you are in, NOW is the best time to get to work on your college research.  It will provide food for thought as you train for the upcoming season, maintain those training logs and prepare to be your very best.  See you on the road!