Coach Budd:

I finished my cross-country season well but mentally exhausted. I took a few weeks off and now want to get started again. Problem is, I don't know what to do. My school doesn't have an indoor track program. I don't have any direction and outdoor doesn't begin until March.—Fiona B.

Fiona, you're not alone. Most high schools in the U.S. don't have indoor teams—a fact that the late Bill Bowerman (famed University of Oregon coach) would be happy about.

Now that you've rested and the itch to get out the door and run has returned, you can do just that. The first thing? Recall what your highest mileage week during cross-country season was (having kept a running log will help you do just that). You want to run half of that mileage your first week back. All your running should be at a comfortable pace, and if you kept a daily log, you can vary your runs according to what you recorded for that week.

So, say your highest weekly mileage total was 40. Here's how you may want to plan your first week back, with the total goal being 20 miles:

Sunday 30% of your highest mileage, or 6 miles

Monday 10%, or 2 miles

Tuesday 20%, or 4 miles

Wednesday 10%, or 2 miles

Thursday 20%, or 4 miles

Friday 0%, or no miles

Saturday 10%, or 2 miles

During your second week of training, increase to 75 percent of that highest week; on the third week, do 100 percent. Now, make sure all of your running is at a comfortable pace. If you try to build in faster running at this time, you can risk injury and over-training.

On the fourth week, head back down to 75 percent again and add your first quality run for the winter. For instance, Tuesday could be a run over moderate hills, or Thursday could involve a series of short strides (8-10 x 200 meter surges with one minute of easy running in-between). If you do this on the road or in a parking lot (which I do), run 40-45 seconds quick and 85 seconds slow. This way you can start an interval every 2 minutes.

Week 5 takes you back up to 100 percent of your mileag. After that you just want to vary between 75-100 percent until your outdoor season begins. Just make sure that your runs on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday are at a comfortable pace.

Have a great off-season.

Coach Budd

Have a question for Budd? E-mail him at askbudd@rodale.com