Cross Country or Soccer?

by Monique

My name is Monique and I love to run. It is my passion, joy, sport and feeds the competitor inside. Although I strive in cross country throughout school and state levels I am noticing a plateau in my times this year. I am in year 7 and first started running in year 5.


Do you think that I should continue to look towards running competitively hoping to make it that step further to nationals, or not focus so much on running. I also play soccer which I also very much enjoy, though notice it is consuming most off the time.

My family cannot afford for training lessons for running or any squad so I was wondering if I could have some advice training wise as well. :) ;) :) Thankyou very much.


Answer by Dominique:


Hi Monique,


Thanks for your running training question. I can't possibly tell you or ask from you to give up one sport for the other! Soccer and high school running are luckily quite compatible. For both you need a high degree of fitness, strong legs and a good aerobic base. Obviously, specializing into one sport has got its benefits, but if you like both sports, then why not continue both?

Soccer is more dominated by short sprints, but then again, in cross country you often have hills to battle and tough terrain, so a bit of extra power in the thighs can only help.

I do not know which training you do now. And you are still a young lady, not fully grown yet. So I can't give you any training program or specific further advice. I can however point you to a few articles on my site which may help you further:

Building a Strong Base

Increasing Mileage Safely

Cross Country Running Tips

Improving Running Performance

And have a good browse through this site for further info.


Best of luck.
Kind regards,
Dominique