The popularity of cross-country racing and the proliferation of competition for at least six months of the year provides athletes of all levels from international class to novice with plenty of opportunities to improve their performances.

This is achieved by a combination of diligent training, a judicious choice of races, and intelligent planning.

This article provides an idea of the type of training you can do to ensure you get the very best out of yourself when you embark on races over surfaces ranging from flat, parkland courses to wet, muddy terrain with plenty of hills.

First of all you must be fit to achieve maximum performance and fulfil your potential. Not all the tactics or clever ploys in the world will see you across up to 12 kilometres of testing terrain if you have not trained properly.

The high aerobic demands of cross-country running mean you will have to put in the miles in training if you want to do justice to yourself. This will include lots of steady running to develop a sound aerobic base, improve cardiac output, assist capillarisation (the oxygen-carrying capacity of tiny blood vessels in the cardiovascular system), and train the body to convert chemical energy in the form of stored glycogen in the muscles and liver into the mechanical energy which stimulates the efficient, rotational movement of the arms and legs around the shoulder and hip axes.

Aerobic endurance is not just acquired by steady running. It can be developed by running long repetitions at 5K/10K pace with short recoveries. Remember not to run too fast during these aerobic intervals otherwise you will defeat the objective of the session by accumulating lactic acid and oxygen debt.

Typical aerobic interval sessions include 6 x 1000 metres at 5K pace with 60 to 75 seconds recovery or 6 x 1600 metres at 10K pace with 45 to 60 seconds recovery. Note that 10K repetitions are longer and recoveries shorter than those used at 5K pace because the tempo is slower and the aerobic content higher (90 per cent in 10K sessions/ 80 per cent in 5K sessions).

Your weekly schedule will also require short steady runs at a pace just below the onset of lactic acid threshold. These will be of approximately 20 minutes' duration at slower than 5K but faster than 10K pace.

The objective of this type of workout is to improve your capacity to run at a fast steady state pace without incurring the development of lactic acid which is caused by the oxygen requirements of a given effort being greater than the oxygen extracted from the air inspired into the lungs.

Oxygen debt and lactic acid reduce the contractile efficiency of the muscle groups responsible for motion and ultimately result in the athlete slowing down and eventually coming to a stop.

Another essential ingredient of your cross-country schedule is hill-running. As well as benefiting the cardiovascular system, this develops leg strength and the muscular endurance so necessary to keep going in races when clinging mud and steep inclines start to take their toll in terms of energy cost.

Over a three-week cycle you could run (1) long hills e.g. 6 to 8 x 3 minutes sustained effort uphill with a brisk jog down recovery; (2) short hills e.g. 12 to 20 x 30 seconds uphill sprinting with slow jog down recovery; and (3) 800 metres uphill/ shallow downhill circuit x 6 to 8 repetitions with 1 to 3 minutes recovery.

The remainder of the training schedule should include rest days and easy recovery running to allow the regeneration of mental and physical energy resources as well as consolidating training gains.

Try to do some of your running off-road on woodland trails, park paths, canal banks, and over the country. As well as protecting your muscles, ligaments, tendons, and joints from a constant battering from the hard unyielding road surfaces, it gives you a feel for the country and teaches you how to negotiate areas of mud, soft ground, forest tracks, and uphill and downhill sections as economically as possible and with the lowest possible energy expenditure.

The precise format of the weekly programme will depend on your age, fitness, health, experience, and stage of training and racing cycle. The amount of work which can be done by a top-class athlete is exemplified by a typical training week for Scottish cross-country champion and GB World Cross Country Championship representative Robert Quinn who finished fourth in the 1998 World Mountain Race championship on the island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean.

Sunday: 12 to 15 miles steady cross-country run with club members

Monday: (a.m.) 30 minutes easy

(p.m.) Club Fartlek -- 1 minute at 1500/3K pace (60 seconds jog recovery) to simulate fast start during race + 8 x 3 minutes at 10K pace (jog 60 seconds recovery) to develop aerobic capacity + 1 minute at 1500/ 3K pace or faster to simulate fast finish.

Tuesday: (a.m.) 30 minutes easy

(p.m.) 20 to 30 minutes lactic acid response steady run.

Wednesday: (a.m.) 30 minutes easy

(p.m) 10 miles steady road run

Thursday: (a.m) 30 minutes easy

(p.m.) Track session -- 12 x 400 metres (25 to 30 seconds recovery) at 3K/5K pace + 1 x 200 metres 30 seconds after final 400 metres to simulate race sprint finish. OR 6 x 1000 metres at 5K pace (60 seconds recovery)

OR 8 x 800 metres at 5K pace (45 seconds recovery)

Friday. (a.m.) 30 minutes easy

(p.m.) 30 minutes steady

Saturday. (a.m.) 30 minutes easy run

(p.m.) 6 to 8 x 2.5 minutes uphill on road or country (brisk jog down recovery) + 2 miles warm-up + 2 miles cool down

A suitable programme for younger athletes is illustrated by a typical week's training done by Claire Gibson, Heather Gordon, Susan McGrenaghan, and Jeniffer Queen of Kilbarchan Athletic Club who won the under 15 event at the 1998 UK final of the Nike 4 x 2000 metres cross-country relays at Durham as well as the team event at the 1998 and 1999 Scottish cross-country championship.

Sunday. 60 minutes cross-country run

Monday. 4 x 800 metres on flat-uphill-flat-downhill-flat road loop (2 minutes recovery) + indoor circuits e.g. press-ups + sit ups + half-squats using own body weight x 3 x 20 secs work/ 20 secs rest with 2 minutes rest between exercises.

Tuesday. Rest

Wednesday. 20 to 30 minutes steady road run + indoor circuits e.g. press ups + sit ups + squat thrusts or burpees x 2 x 30 secs work/ 30 secs rest with 2 minutes rest between exercises.

Thursday. 8 x 400 metres track session at 3K pace (45 seconds recovery) 0R 10 x 300 metres at 3K pace (35 seconds recovery)

Friday. Rest

Saturday. 3 to 4 miles steady off-road run

Intelligent training for cross-country is of paramount importance but equally vital is your pre-race preparation in the days, hours, and minutes leading up to the event -- and, of course, what you do during it. Here are 10 tips to help you get the very best out of yourself in competition.

ONE -- Taper down 10 days before a major competition. Your final hard session should be the second last Thursday before a Sunday competition or the second last Wednesday before a Saturday race. This will conserve your body's glycogen and haemoglobin reserves and sharpen you up mentally as well as physically. The final two days before competition should consist of complete rest or easy running to ensure you line up in peak mental and physical condition.

TWO -- Try to visit the course before the race -- especially if you are aspiring to a high placing -- or find out as much as you can about it from athletes who have competed there. Remember, though, other people's opinions about the severity of terrain and hills might differ from yours. What is easy or level ground to one athlete could be hard and hilly to another. But it does no harm -- and generally a lot of good -- to canvass opinions and treat the feedback objectively.

THREE -- Long-term planning should take weather into consideration. Find out the direction of the prevailing wind and climatic factors about the race venue such as its susceptibility to rain, frost, snow and cold. These factors will determine what you wear, your choice of running shoes, length of spikes, and your tactics. Remember there can be quite marked climatic differences between the north and south of Britain. To be forewarned is to be prepared.

FOUR -- Pack your kit the night before the race and get to the venue at least two hours before it starts. This lets you have a light carbohydrate snack and enables you to collect your number without having to rush about at the last minute expending nervous energy in long queues.

FIVE -- Arriving early gives you time to walk round the course before your event and get to know its every intricacy. Familiarise yourself with its undulations, sharp corners, single-file pathways, and hazards such as drooping branches, tree roots concealed among fallen leaves, trail markers half-hidden in long grass, and protruding fence posts. Identify wet, muddy areas but remember -- a course which is firm and dry during your inspection can become a veritable quagmire if the weather changes or after hundreds of athletes in earlier races have churned it up. Make sure you know the lie of the land over the final 800 metres to enable you to plan your finishing effort and follow the line of least underfoot and wind resistance.

SIX -- Make sure you have your number, vest and shorts on beneath your tracksuit or waterproofs before you line up at the start. Incredible though it may seem, a number of athletes, including internationalists, have been known to discover essential items of wearing apparel missing just before the starter's pistol was due to go off.

SEVEN -- If you are aiming to place highly you must be well up with the leaders right from the gun. Although this will inevitably mean setting off at faster-than-steady pace, it is a tactical necessity if you want to avoid being well adrift of the leaders and blocked in behind a medley of runners on single-file paths or narrow parts of the course. You can be assured the pace will settle down after the first 800 metres or so once the athletes have sorted themselves out and established their places in the pecking order.

Run within reason, however, and avoid setting off at a suicidal pace! If , like most of the competitors you are not among the elite, your best ploy is to run at a steady pace from start to finish as this conserves energy, is more economical, and prevents you from incurring oxygen debt or lactic acid because you ran at a pace faster than you could handle aerobically.

EIGHT -- Once the race gets under way, try to avoid getting stuck behind a mass of runners in single-file situations. This may mean having to increase the pace for up to 100 metres to get into a more favourable position. Keep to the drier, firmer parts of the course as far as possible as this is more economical and conserves energy otherwise lost in extracting your feet several times from heavy, clinging mud. If you have to run through muddy areas, keep to grassy tufts, make minimal ground contact, lean forward a little to distribute your body weight more evenly, and remain mentally relaxed by visualising yourself floating and gliding over the surface like a deer crossing a marsh rather than running through it.

NINE -- If you are competing in a team race do your best to finish ahead of as many rivals as possible. Even if you are well down the field you can still make a contribution to your own team's success by picking off rivals in the closing stages and minimising -- therefore enhancing your club's score. It is amazing how often championship events end on tied scores and the eventual race outcome being decided by the performances of the lower-placed scorers.

Give yourself an objective. It will provide you with incentive and help you to get the best out of yourself. Depending on a realistic appraisal of yourself and your abilities, your objective could be victory, a silver or bronze medal, placing in the first 10, 30, 50, or 100, being a scorer for your club, beating certain rivals, or getting closer in time and distance to athletes who normally finish ahead of you and getting farther away from those who normally finish behind you.

TEN -- Obtain a copy of the results and evaluate your performance. Analyse your race subjectively and objectively -- preferably with your coach -- and identify your strong and weak points and how you felt at various stages of the race. Too fresh at the finish means you could have made a greater effort earlier on. If you found the start too fast you may have gone off too quickly or not warmed up sufficiently. Intelligent evaluation of races provides you with vital information and feedback to plan future training sessions and set targets for your next competition.

Good luck and enjoy your cross-country season!

-- by Derek Parker