The Whole Focus of XC Seems To Be Aimed at Peaking...

for two races: the ACC and NCAA's, when you have the horses. And, if you don't, kids run a lot of races.

When I ran XC for two years in high school, our coach used the dual meet season as workouts. He's has us run reverse splits (faster in the second half) or focus on hills, if we were coming back to that course in the playoffs.

Still, we ran the meets. Nowadays, many teams hold stars like Naguse out for all but the big races.

I didn't know if he'd face in the Piane -- after all, it's a national race -- but was surprised none of our A team took part.

That saiid, Carlson guided this squad to an ACC title and 2nd place NCAA finish last year....different world.