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About cross country
I love the marathon and climbing all together so issues aboute "corss country runing" or "XC",
"trail running" and "mountain marathon" have been taken me. Who can explain for me differances among
them? Sometimes I wonder how I should train and which are fitable shoes for each.
About cross country
Group: rec.running Date: Thu, Apr 10, 2003, 1:30am (EDT-3) From: mitdich@hanmail.net
(Beneath-Oak-Tree) I love the marathon and climbing all together so issues aboute "corss country
runing" or "XC", "trail running" and "mountain marathon" have been taken me. Who can explain for me
differances among them? Sometimes I wonder how I should train and which are fitable shoes for each.
Hello Beneath-the-oak-tree. That's alto. marathon. 26.2 miles or 13.1 miles. cross country running.
Both are a lot of running. XC trail running. and mountain marathon. Lots of different terrains.
nature and Mountains. well That is also a lot too. Climbing again is a thing to be at too.
Some people like the arts, pictures paintings, Sculptures,and spend all or most there time in
museums,all ways fixing on there house and yards. working them self to wee too much. to have this
room changes in color and style. put them out in nature and they fold like a bagger (large rodent)
in sun light.
Some people like people. there whole life is base on humans, in all there free time most are spent
in with allot of people. lives in crowded cites, works in airports or bus depots, at entertaining in
creeds all or most of time. if was put out in nature would think a park in the city with 2 trees and
more grassy then he can throw a baseball. put him outdoor on a night campest. and they might end up
in a hospital.
Then there are rec people. got to train, got to move and grove, well got to be in nature.
For the running part you found a rec people area. You have probe found the 1 of the 3 groupies of
person you are meant to be and want to find out what you can do.
I think you got to learn to walk before you can run. some here has there own opinion on ea. what is
running. and what isn't jogging adjust motions. someone short and to the point, and not point a
right crude,rude and can get nasty too. allot of time can get off topic.
as far as shoes there are 3 kind of feet. as far as shoes and running. well you need to research.
gels, arch supports, how to wash and right size. there are a zillion kind of shoes out there. and
some act to weather funny, if gets mud on? sizes changeable wash. some people heed get mad after a
100.00 dollars spent and wash there shoes after a mud trail run and now can use them to go to a
movie and not run because of sore toes and smaller shoes. so trying another one and same thing
happens and trying another kind after buying too big and they don't get smaller. it can be costly.
.
mitdich@hanmail.net (Beneath-Oak-Tree) wrote in message
news:<a2323d3d.0304100030.231c0e3@posting.google.com>...
> I love the marathon and climbing all together so issues aboute "corss country runing" or "XC",
> "trail running" and "mountain marathon" have been taken me. Who can explain for me differances
> among them? Sometimes I wonder how I should train and which are fitable shoes for each.
corss country running is actually: Coors country running where water stops are replaced by that
swill they sell.
XC is more for shorter distances typically 5k and 10k. Mostly focused on high school and college
runners. But it does have a following with older runners also.
Trail running is a race (or just any old run) on a trail.
Mountain Marathons are marathons or longer run entirely or partially at altitude (around 12,000 feet
and higher).
XC has specific spiked shoes. A trail race may require a sturdier shoe but I've done a few in
regular racing shoes. A mountain marathon may require a sturdy trail shoe.
Training for each: run lots of trails.
Andy
amh wrote:
>
> XC is more for shorter distances typically 5k and 10k. Mostly focused on high school and college
> runners. But it does have a following with older runners also.
Anchorage has a fall evening series with 3 races - distance and course unknown before the actual
event - short ones for kids, medium mostly on trails for fun runners, and competitive with longer
and more challenging courses (sometimes off-trail).
Another fun race is orienteering where you run between checkpoints, and it's up to you how to get
there (on- or off-trail, up/down hills, etc). And even short official distances can be a bit longer
(time and distance) depending on how much trouble you have finding the controls. Learning map
reading of their style maps and compass work along with off-trail running would be beneficial
training here.
>
> Trail running is a race (or just any old run) on a trail.
>
> Mountain Marathons are marathons or longer run entirely or partially at altitude (around 12,000
> feet and higher).
Not sure about "marathons" per se, but mountain running and races usually just implies elevation
gain or loss, usually with steep ascents or descents (where I am grades of 10% to 54%, but usually
in the 10-20% range except for short pitches). Our local ones are all within about 5000 ft of sea
level (start at about 0 to 500 ft).
Skyrunning is about altitude. Events must be at or above 6000ft. SkyMarathon is marathon distance
and reaches to 14000 feet and SkyRace (longer or shorter than marathon) must reach at least 9800 ft.
These were taken from the Ultimate Guide to Trail Running by Chase and Hobbs, which BTW, is an
excellent book for beginning trail runners. Also has lots of neat pictures (many by Phil Mislinski,
my favorite trail photographer) to make one drool, if not already addicted.
Not sure if the original poster was more interested in the length or duration of marathon, but our
local 14 miler (9000ft of uphill and of course, the same amount of downhill, and you get some each
direction) has winning times over 3 hr, and last person was about 8 hr, iirc. (FWIW, I'm not even
interested in hiking that course and it's the view from my kitchen window.) Course record for a
hilly marathon (3000 ft climbing) partly on trails, partly on roads is about 2:45 (been run for 40
yrs). Course record for a 5k is about 45 min after 75 years of running it. With trail and mountain
running, you don't need to do as much mileage as longer races to spend the same amount of time for
your entry fee ;)
If interested in mountain running, then doing hills, esp. ones with steeper hills (10-20% grade) and
longer grades (couple miles or more of uphill) is extremely beneficial. Our local mountain runners
spend a lot of time training on the actual mountain since technique is important for top
competitors. And it's certainly helpful for non-competitors as well ;) With steeper grades, the
angle of foot placement has a lot to do with training, it's not just about running smaller hills for
a longer time, usually.
And if interested in skyrunning, then altitude training or acclimization is probably desirable.
Oh, and in any of these, train by time and effort. If I believe a recent article in a local paper,
our top mountain runner logs his "mileage" by altitude gain and averages 10,000 ft/week training -
and I doubt he comes down at same pace (min/mi) that he goes up ;) Whether that's truly average year
round or what he ramps up to before a race, I don't know since newspapers are likely to report those
types of things incorrectly.
Dot me?, interested in trail running?, you bet :) :)
--
"Success is different things to different people" -Bernd Heinrich in Racing the Antelope
>About cross country
Wow look at that, the loser managed to actually put three words together that make sense.
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