St. George + Cross-Country for KIDS Details!

We are back from St. George!  It felt like summer while we were there.  I’ll share some pictures from while we were there before I get to the main topic of today.

8 miles @ 9:08 pace which strangely helped my soreness.

(shorts, top, bra, shoes, sunglasses)

Andrew got out for biking a few times!

He always sees the coolest things while he is out and I get very jealous.

Flake is another must in St. George.

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Cross-country has been going on for a little while now so I thought I would share a bit more about how it is going!  We have about fifty kids at practice ranging from k-6th grade.  These kids don’t even notice the temperature at practice, they are out there running when it is snowing, raining or hot.  I love it.  We have two 50-minute practices a week and the mileage ranges anywhere between 1-2 miles (some kids run it all and some kids run/walk) a practice.

We start each practice with some dynamic drills like high knees, bun kickers, skips, lunges and leg swings.  We then do a few static stretches and talk about our goals for the day.  We will throw in some planks, pushups and jumping jacks some days too.  I share a mantra or mental tip with them quickly (they are like racehorses and want to get right to running so I don’t have a lot of time where they want to hear me talk ha). We started the season off with a time-tested mile so that they could see their improvements by the end and for every other practice, we have been using running games in addition to laps to get in their runs during practice.

I have gotten so many good ideas from this blog.  IE one day we had these signs at the four corners of the field and when they got to each animal they would copy that animal’s speed until they got to the next sign.  Turtle = walk, pig= slow jog, horse= run, cheetah= sprint.  The kids LOVED this one and some of the older kids would run the entire time but go from a jog to a sprint throughout the animals.

We have done an Easter egg hunt that involved them running around getting eggs after some laps.

A few more of the things we have played:

We incorporated sprinting into playing four-corners.  We played musical chairs with a big circle of hula hoops around the field.  One day I had about 6 different beach balls for the kids to use while we play Sharks and Minnows (that game really gets them getting in some good fartleks).  We have done things like going slow on the short part of the loop and then speeding up for the longer part.  I love to stand towards the end of each lap and tell them my high fives will give them power/energy and it always does the trick for them:).   Everybody’s It tag is also a fun one!  I attempted to create a relay-type situation and used PVC pipes to make a bunch of batons but it didn’t work well and I need to figure out how to make it work!

In addition to having some sort of game, each kid gets a yellow foot before our run and they get a hole bunch on the foot with each lap/interval etc.  If they are able to fill up their card they then get to choose two new beads to add to their chain.  It’s amazing to me how much these yellow feet help to motivate these kids.  We also have shirts for the kids too, if they want to purchase them for a bit more!  On the last day of practice, we will celebrate with a race and otter pops.  The price for cross-country is $4 per kid with about 15 practices to cover the cost of the feet and the necklaces.  Parents/guardians are required to volunteer at two practices and they do so much to help the practice move smoothly.

Skye loves that she gets to be in with the elementary school’s team:).

I know I am dramatic a lot but take me seriously on this one, doing this so far has become one of my greatest joys.  I hope the elementary school will let me do this program forever.  Seeing these kids do hard things at each practice, watching them get the benefits from being outside, and feeling like I get to be their cheerleader throughout practice has helped me in a lot of ways.

My goal is to give these kids an experience where they feel like going for a run is fun.

The other day at practice it was really windy and Skye told me, ‘I’m a fan of wind.’  It will now be my new mantra whenever I am running on a windy day.

If you have the time in your life right now and you love running, I cannot recommend heading on this type of program enough at an elementary school.  I can email you the forms that were given to the students/school etc if you are wanting to, it really has been a blast and I cannot wait to see what all of these kids do with their running.

PS this program was started at our school in 2014 by an amazing woman and she has given me SO much help.  She had to stop in 2019 and we weren’t able to have it for a few years because of Covid but I’m so happy it was able to do it this year.

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Was anyone else running when they were in elementary school? 

Does your area have any programs like this?

Any other ideas of things I can do with my cross-country kids?

Have any close spots to you that you like to vacation to often?