Summer Cross Country Training Schedule

A good summer cross country training schedule is almost entirely easy-to-moderate running that builds your aerobic base (the stamina foundation your faster running later sits on), with weekly mileage growing by no more than about 10% (a rough ceiling, not a target). Add one tempo run a week (a steady, comfortably hard effort) once your base is established, take a lighter cutback week every third or fourth week, and fold hills in as easy running rather than hard repeats. Save intervals (fast repeats with rests) for the season itself. Below: why base building comes first, what the weekly mileage looks like, how hills, the 10% rule and cutback weeks work, and where summer training fits in the season.

Get this stretch wrong and you won't feel it in July; you'll feel it in October, as sore shins, stale legs or a team that peaked too early. That's why I want you to see a real summer schedule from a team captain who wrote in to me, along with exactly what I'd keep and what I'd change.

On this page:

1. Why base building comes first, and where the tempo run fits
2. What the mileage actually looks like, including a cutback week, one tempo session and summer heat
3. Hills, the 10% rule and cutback weeks
4. Where summer training fits, and how to handle the August doubling
5. Frequently asked questions

1. Why Base Building Comes First: and the Tempo Run Debate

Speedier work like intervals is best saved for real race preparation, once you're closer to the season. Tempo running is where I sit in two minds.

Traditional training, the kind you'll find in Jack Daniels' Running Formula, is clear on this: easy and long runs only in the pre-season, full stop. Modern training tells a different story. Look at a book like More Fire, which looks at how Kenyan runners train, or listen to former Olympian Marius Bakken talk about threshold training, and tempo-style work shows up regularly. Some training weeks carry several threshold-type sessions.

I lean modern. I build at least one weekly tempo run into my own base building blocks. It breaks up the monotony of base building, and it raises your lactate threshold right through the summer — a real fitness gain, not just variety for its own sake.

Here's the piece that the traditional-versus-modern debate usually skips: what a base-building tempo run should actually look like. Once you've banked 4-6 weeks of consistent easy mileage, add roughly 20-25 minutes at a comfortably hard, controlled effort, not race pace, not a track effort. You should be working, but still able to hold a short sentence.

Your lactate threshold is the effort above which your muscles produce lactic acid faster than your body clears it. It's the point where a run stops feeling comfortable and starts feeling like work. Tempo running sits just below that line, and training there pushes the line higher. You can then run faster before it bites.

Fartlek is Swedish for "speed play": surges of random length, thrown in whenever the mood takes you. It's fine for variety, but on a team it turns into a race to the next lamp post. I'd rather a team plan one tempo and keep everything else easy.

Intervals are a different animal: hard repeats with recovery jogs, usually on the track. Your legs need a solid base to absorb them. Bring in one session a week for the last three or four weeks before your first race, not before. Hard work stacked on thin mileage is how a captain ends up leading an injured team.

2. What the Mileage Actually Looks Like

Billy's table starts at about 32 miles a week: an 8-mile long run, three medium-easy days of 4 miles and two medium-hard days of 6. It finishes around 46-47 miles — a 12.5-mile long run, three 6s and two 8s. That's roughly 45% growth.

Spread over 10-12 weeks, that works out at about 3-4% a week. It's well inside the 10% ceiling, so a plan like this isn't aggressive. Don't use the spare room. Add a mile to one or two runs a week and leave the rest alone.

A cutback week is a lighter week that lets your body absorb the training you've done. Aim for roughly 75% of the week before. At 46 miles, that's about 35. Shorten the long run, trim the medium-hard days, keep the same shape. Then return to where you left off, not below it.

Your weekly tempo lives inside one medium-hard day, not on top of it. Run 10-15 minutes easy, then 20-25 minutes comfortably hard, then 10 minutes easy. Early in the summer that fills most of a 6-mile day. Later it sits inside an 8-miler. Your other medium-hard day stays steady and conversational.

Summer heat changes the easy days. Run early, before the day's heat builds. Slow your pace, not your effort. The same effort is slower in humid weather, and that's normal. Drink extra water before and after, and plan the long run past a fountain or carry a bottle.

For August, I'd add the doubling as a second easy run of 20-30 minutes on two days a week. That's about five extra miles in total. Count them in your weekly figure, so your other runs stop growing while the doubles settle in. Never make the second run harder. It's extra aerobic volume, nothing more.

3. Hills, the 10% Rule, and Cutback Weeks

Get hills into your summer running too, if you can. Still easy running, no hill reps. It breaks up the monotony further, and it conditions your legs for the terrain you'll actually race on come autumn.

Pick a rolling route and keep the effort even on the climbs. Shorten your stride, let the pace drop and keep your breathing steady. Walk the steepest bit if you have to.

On the 10% rule: everybody uses it. I don't like it. Treat it as a rough ceiling, not a number to chase. See my page on increasing mileage safely for why.

The trouble is that 10% of a 10-mile week is one mile, while 10% of a 40-mile week is four. Same rule, very different load. It also ignores how you actually feel.

The cutback week you're already building in every 3rd or 4th week isn't an afterthought. It's a genuine part of the schedule. Rest and recovery earn their place on the calendar just as much as the hard days do.

Listen to your body, and take the cutback early if you spot trouble. A niggle that lingers more than two or three days, heavy legs on easy runs and flat motivation are all warning signs. Don't wait for the calendar, and see a doctor or physio if a niggle won't settle.

4. Where Summer Training Fits in the Cross Country Pillar

This page covers the summer base-building window specifically. For the full season strategy and race-day tactics once you're through it, head to the full cross country season plan. Once your base is built and you want it laid out week by week, a sample weekly training structure shows one in full. Running a high school programme with its own scheduling constraints? cross country tips for high school teams covers that ground directly.

And on the August doubling: tacking it on without a plan behind it is exactly how teams pick up an injury heading into the season. Fitting in doubles safely covers how to add a second run without it costing you elsewhere.

In Short

Keep a base-focused summer schedule like the one above, add the tempo run once your base is solid, and don't skip the cutback weeks.

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