Love the question Joey. The fact that you run the 200, 400 and 800 but are willing to run cross country says a lot about your mentality. 5,000m is a long way for someone who is competent at 200m. Also, congratulations on your 1:56 split. Running that as a freshman means you have a bright future in the sport.

I think the biggest thing you need to consider is this. What is the balance between gaining aerobic fitness to run cross country well while maintaining your speed and athleticism? Could running cross-country make you slower? Theoretically, yes. If all you did this summer was run slow and build your mileage up to the same level as the seniors on your team, you might lose some of the speed or pop that you obviously have. The flip side is that you can improve at both 400m and 800m if you have a bigger aerobic engine, so cross-country is a great way to become a better track athlete.

Here a couple of thoughts on what to do. Consider running summer track as part of USATF, assuming there are meets in your area. But just run the meets and do one track workout a week; the other days of the week, train with the cross-country team. You'll get a little bit of many types of training - you'll get aerobic foundation to run a decent cross-country season by training with the cross-country athletes, yet you'll be doing one track workout a week and you'll race a few times, which should allow you to maintain your speed and remind your body that you're still a middle distance runner. My other recommendation is to keep your mileage low but do a lot of general strength and ancillary work. We've got several videos on this site that will show you what to do, but the point I want to make is simple: while you shouldn't do the same mileage as the older runners who are long distance athletes, you can train as many minutes a day...you'll just go for a short run and then do more general strength. Rarely do I meet a good high school athlete who can't benefit from more general strength, so as good as you are as a freshman, you'll be well-served to invest some time into non-running exercises.

Best of luck Joey and thanks for the question.

Jay