One of my core beliefs in coaching is something called “specificity.” It means you train specific to your racing conditions. It’s a pretty straightforward concept. I do not follow it 100 percent … but pretty close.
As a result, the most recent post about the NY Times article questioning the efficacy of softer surfaces was interesting but not entirely relevant to what we do and what we will be doing in the coming months. During the cross country season, we train off-road as much as possible.
While it could be said that the softer surfaces are better at having our athletes avoid injuries, the more practical purpose from my perspective is this: In XC season, we race off-road; it makes sense to train off-road.
What better way to prepare for the Bowdoin Park hills then to actually train on the Bowdoin Park hills? The Vassar Farm road, not quite a fan favorite among team members, is excellent terrain-specific training for Van Cortlandt Park (although it could use a few more hills).
Again, we follow this philosophy almost all the time. There are a few exceptions. On occasion (very rarely), we will do a track workout in the fall. And at times during track season, we will be doing hill repeats. But not often. Why? Show me a track with hills on it …
I do agree with your post, but there is a track in Spain that has a hill on it, although I doubt the hill will be included in any meets:
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