Dodging the technology boom?

Cross country may be the simplest of all sports.

Put on shoes, run for a few miles, stop.

The equipment used hasn't been part of the overt technology changes that have brought aluminum baseball bats, graphite tennis rackets, metal woods and hybrid golf clubs.

But technology has subtly changed the sport both on and off the running path. From subtle changes in the running shoe to a wealth of information that can be processed on computers, the sport has been affected --although perhaps not with the fanfare that came in the early 1970s when Bill Bowerman invented the waffle sole for Nike.

"There have been some advances in shoe technology," said Larry Cleair, coach of defending Class 1 champion Saxony Lutheran, "but very little."

"The main piece of equipment is shoes," said Bryan Kelpe, an assistant coach for Oak Ridge and one of the area's top road runners. "The advances have been minor. There are lighter shoes and shoes with better cushioning, better arch support to prevent injuries, but they haven't remade the wheel by any means."

Bowerman's invention was inspired by Nike founder Phil Knight, who ran at the University of Oregon where Bowerman coached. The two went into business together in the 1960s to make more comfortable shoes. Bowerman's tinkering led to him pouring rubber into the family waffle iron, which led to the invention of the Nike Waffle running shoe.

"That was the first shoe other than the leather spikes that were used for distance running," Cleair said. "This was something that protected the feet."

Nike added a wedged heel, a cushioned mid-sole and nylon uppers for what became the most popular training shoe.

The current tweaking in the shoe comes with orthotic devices that fit an athlete's foot and are designed to reduce injuries.

Southeast Missouri State cross country coach Eric Heins, a top distance runner himself, said two schools of thought currently exist on shoes. One supports the cushioning and arch support while the other claims less shoe is better, bolstered by the international dominance of African runners in distance running.

"It's based on the Africans that have grown up running barefoot and develop fewer injuries," Heins said. "I think most people who have had foot problems are better off with orthotics and arch support.

"Companies put a lot of money in research for shoe support, and the technology has developed, but it doesn't seem like injuries have gone down at all."

Southeast is one of the many college teams that have dabbled in another area of technology -- the running uniforms. In some places, the old singlets are being replaced by Lycra and materials that move sweat from the body and dry fast.

"They've developed a material that sweat will go through the fabric and dissipate into the air," Heins said. "When you train in a cotton T-shirt, you could be wearing 3 or 4 pounds of sweat."

"They even have socks that wick and move sweat away from the body," Notre Dame coach Bill Davis said.

Davis' runners saw one team wearing high-tech uniforms Saturday in the Class 2 District 1 cross country meet. Herculaneum's girls team ran in tight-fitting Lycra uniforms this season. Davis prefers the loose, nylon-treka jersey.

"It breathes and it's loose fitting," Davis said. "You see a lot of colleges going to the tighter-fitting shirts. I don't know. I'm kind of an old-fashioned guy, and it works well for us."

Cleair also agrees the uniform is not a difference-maker on race day.

"It's more in your head than anything else," he said. "Our varsity team actually has the less technologically advanced uniform -- the JV team has a stay-dry material -- but the varsity kids wouldn't trade their uniforms because it's the varsity uniform. The weight difference is so minimal."

Davis and Cleair note there are several places off the course where technology has made a difference.

"The stopwatch has really improved," Davis said. "There's a digital watch that will print the meet results to the hundredths of a second, with splits. In big meets, it's so hard to get results at the finish line."

Larger meets have been able use technology, such as chips in the runners' bibs, to compile accurate results faster.

"Everyone is probably going to be using that or something like it in the future," Cleair said.

And with Internet, those results end up getting to the public much faster, whether it's state meet results posted right away or the results of an obscure meet that coaches can use for comparing runners.

"There are two Web sites for Missouri high school running I look at," said Heins, who keeps tabs for recruiting purposes. "Every state has something like that. With the Internet, the results are out there. It used to be you could only get results from the state meet unless you ran across something random from a newspaper."

Coaches like Davis and Cleair will find ways to compare times and figure out who their top competition will be at this weekend's state meet.

Davis also gives all of his athletes printouts to help them prepare for a meet.

"It becomes mental food," Davis said. "Each kid gets a handout with past performance at the meet and goals for the meet. You've got to give kids goals."

But the key to success in cross country always has been the work done before and throughout the season.

"Some of the training techniques have developed a little, but not a lot," Kelpe said. "Hard work is still the main thing. The basics are still having a base mileage and speed work.

"There are lot of different schools of thought on training, from high mileage to quality mileage," he added. "It all depends on the athlete and what their body can take. And it's up to the coach to know his runners."

Added Heins: "There's not much technology that can make you better. You just run more to develop your cardiovascular system and maximize the leg muscles' ability to turn oxygen into energy until you get to a point of diminishing returns. It comes down to training.

"In the 1980s and 1990s, people started to go away from the long runs and did shorter, faster stuff. And runners lost their endurance. Then somebody came along and said there's a need to do more interval training, and now there's a shift back to high mileage early on."

Cleair, who coached cross country in the 1970s in Illinois, said he has noticed more reason behind workouts and more teaching of athletes during training.

"The neat thing that's changed is more specificity in training," Cleair said. "You know what your workout is going to accomplish. It's not just the coach saying, 'How can I punish you today?' There's different targeting of different skills, and development throughout the season."

With that said, don't be surprised if the Crusaders are being punished by hills this week in anticipation of the state meet course at Oak Hills Golf Club in Jefferson City, Mo. He had his team run at Jackson City Park, site of the district meet, several times before last weekend's meet.

"Oak Hills is too far away," Cleair said, "so all we're going to do is try to find some good, salty hills and train on those hills."