Winter can be tough for triathletes, but as BTF X YJ Ambassador Katie Wright explains, cross-country races can provide an ideal and enjoyable (subjective) training option. Yours Katie!
During the winter months, when the suit is gathering dust and the turbo is floating in a puddle of sweat, I like to do a season of cross country. This may be a slightly misleading choice of word!
After the complexity of a triathlon season, I look forward to the simplicity of cross country. You put on your spikes and run – as fast as you can. That’s it. That’s all there is to say. This hasn’t changed in over 30 years since I first laced up my crampons.
Cross country may be simple in principle, but you need to be mentally and physically strong. What it lacks in complexity it makes up for in its sheer brutality. Yeah, it’s brutal! BUT It’s great for building resilience, you have to dig deep and learn to suffer – which is why (I believe) it’s fantastic winter training for triathlon.
Cross country is structured similarly to many other sports. It organizes league and championship races, spread over the winter season. The cross country league (like the superTri triathlon) is both an individual sport and a team sport. You race as an individual but you also score points for your team. At the end of the season, the top three teams (in each AG) can celebrate on the podium alongside the top three individual athletes (in each AG). There are no giant checks handed out and the places are a little less glamorous (than SuperTri) but it’s super nice and there is tea and cake.
The 24/25 season begins at the end of September with the county cross country relay championships – held in the south east at glorious Goodwood – famous for its motor circuit.
Three runners (in each club team) team up to complete the timed course as quickly as possible. The winning team is the one that crosses the finish line first. It’s muddy, the hills are a shock to the system, many legs turn to jelly and lungs feel like they might explode – but within an hour all the runners are lying in a heap arms and legs raised (near the finish line). thinking of those medals that will soon be awarded, and the tea and cakes that will soon be consumed.
Cross-country is a bit like triathlon: it can be terrible at the time, but you quickly forget. Looking at this shiny medal, you already think that you really want to do it all again. Which is fortunate since the league starts a few weeks later in Goodwood.
In Sussex, our league races take place in beautiful rural areas. Everyone tries to hide the horrors that are about to unfold.
The cannons fire (yes, they still use a rifle in cross country), there’s the initial push as the rider rushes to position before the single track descends into the woods. Down, down, but what goes down must come up, and up, and that goes up, before a vast loop of what looked like relatively flat terrain (but isn’t), after the start and do it again! It’s the race that makes your season easier! You could get away with wearing trail shoes for this race, I said you could!
THE SESSION: Hills and elevation.
Use the hills to build strength for the upcoming season. Push through the climbs and let the momentum carry you back down.
2 km warm-up, RUN, 3-5 hill repeats, 2 km cool-down.
Glyndebourne was a new course last season and it is completely unique. The beautiful opera does its best to distract you from the biggest hill I’m supposed to climb in a cross-country race (it beat many last season). There are gently flowing streams (from competitors’ tears) to jump on – which have the potential to become fast-flowing rivers depending on the type of season we are experiencing! Road shoes do not apply! Imagine roadies embarking on a cross tri race on their TT! Last season I glued my spikes to my feet before the race!
THE SESSION: The long, easy run with effort at race pace.
Run the route before recognizing the route as warm-up, RUN, cool down on the route
3 x RUNNING COURSE (easy, quick, easy)
Ardingly offers you the opportunity to return to your youth and play ponies while riding the horse course. This is probably the course with the least elevation change, but the hills are short and steep as you climb over ditches and through muddy bogs! Take your baby wipes!
THE SESSION: Speed endurance session.
1 mile warm up, RUN, 1 mile easy, do the course again QUICKLY, 1 mile cool down.
In January the league takes a month off for its championship season, which begins with the Sussex Cross Country Championships in Bexhill. There are no separate master categories in this event, so it’s an event I’m often tempted to miss. It also usually takes place just a few days after welcoming the new year and before the kids go back to school!
In mid-January, however, we Masters (over 35s) host our own Sussex Masters Cross Country Championships at the beautiful Coombe Farm venue in the South Downs (which also hosts a cyclocross race) , the start and finish are nicely nestled in the surrounding valley. by steep slopes. You’ll be glad you did your hill repeats!
The month ends with the South of England Cross Country Championships at Beckenham Park Place (there are no masters categories either, but) if you love cross country you have to do this race! It’s like taking part in a road race in a big city, but on grass. The standard is fierce, it’s super well supported and it’s real type 2 fun!
From race 4, we are in the middle of winter, mud up to our knees, fingers that we cannot feel and a red and shiny nose. The talk about wearing crampons or trail shoes early in the season has diminished and we are on the verge of surviving rather than thriving! Big hills, big sensations, big, big energy!
THE SESSION: Know when it’s best to go home and jump on the turbo trainer
Spin those legs, get the blood flowing to those frozen extremities.
The season (for me) will end at the National Cross Country Championships on Parliament Hill, home of cross country. There is nothing like this race, everyone has to experience it once. Make the top 200, you’re a legend, top 100 – WOW, top 10, you’re probably a British runner or professional triathlete!
Cross country is an “old school” sport that has been around forever, but it could learn a lot from newer sports like triathlon. Men and women compete in different races, often over different distances. Discussions are underway about equalizing distances, and some departmental leagues have started to introduce it! The progress I enjoy takes time, but I firmly believe that women are just as physically capable and therefore should have the opportunity to run the same distances as men. I don’t think it sends the right message to young girls if boys run further. But putting politics aside across the country can be a very pleasant experience.
