Cross Country

Program Information
PRE-SEASON Conditioning FAQ’s
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- Faster. You will be if you train with easy-moderate effort in the off-season. Consistent distance running/practice improves endurance, physical resilience and mental strength.
- Fun. You’ll meet yet-unknown, wonderful people, you’ll have more fun and challenge while running together, and you might like the optional team-bonding experiences too.
- Fall. A beautiful time of year to be out running! Runners who improve their fitness by joining summer training are less prone to injuries and enjoy their racing more during the fall.
- Fear not. Pre-season running groups vary in pace and distance. Start within yourself. Take on more mileage and faster speed as you improve.
- Flexible. Come as often as you can to the summer organized workouts, and when you can’t, train on your own, or with family. Coaches will help younset up a plan.
- Friends. Get to know some teammates. Many unexpected friendships are made through BIXC.
- Free.One of the best deals around. Running shoes are the biggest cost. Let us know, we’ve got some extras.
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Quality training/running shoes with less than a season of running (<300 miles) are your most important and largest training expense. Shorts, t-shirt, sports bra, socks, warm layers depending on the weather. Some runners opt to purchase cross country spikes for competitions. Shoe scholarships and running clothes available via our BIXC parent booster club.
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Coaches will give you a basic plan and a calendar to log your running miles and all other workouts. You should also keep track of what you do in a personal training journal.
You can log your workouts on paper or online using our google sheets document. Everyone needs to train on their own sometimes! Everyone is responsible for starting the season ready to go!
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80-90ish people, of all genders, 14-18 years old, with a wide range of abilities and talents, who develop common team goals and unique personal goals for training and racing.
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Large meets that take place on Saturdays. These include more schools across multiple divisions than we face in our regular season meets. These meets may include relays, underclassmen and/or
JV/Varsity races. Invitationals are an important part of team bonding and are not optional.
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The team runs on trails, grass, beaches, fields, parks and open space around Bainbridge Island, reducing but not eliminating running on pavement. Varied training from endurance/distance runs to strength training on hills to speedwork to mystery fartlek. Challenging runs, including racing days, are balanced with recovery days. Cross-training is a staple of our program via spinning, pool running, elliptical, swimming, hiking, strength training, yoga and pilates.
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Practice 3:30-5:30pm, M-F, 5-6 weekday meets (out of school mid-day), 3-6 Saturday competitions (including invitationals and championship meets), and a few Saturday workouts for more advanced runners. For recovery/rebuilding and to avoid injury, burnout, stress and over-fatigue, student-athletes must have one rest day per week (no workout), should get 8-10 hours of sleep each night, and refuel adequately. For best results, we highly recommend not concurrently participating in other competitive sports and limiting commitments to other activities during the short XC season. Team policy limits the total number of planned absences during the regular season to 4, excluding illness and family emergencies.
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The BHS season sports fee is $250, to be paid before the first XC meet.
Scholarships and payment plans available via BHS front office. Cost should not prohibit anyone from running XC. Summer pre-season conditioning is free and no registration required, as it’s not BISD nor BHS affiliated, and not supervised by coaches at all times.