July is a huge month for any team that has aspirations to be great. It has to be. We are close enough to the season where we cannot afford to waste time, but we are still far enough away from the season that, if we overcook training a bit, we still have time for a few down weeks to recover for the start of the official CIF start date of August 12th.
We are 3 weeks away from the beginning of camp and 5 weeks away from the beginning of after school practice. We NEED to be aggressive with our training during this time, while at the same time, being as smart about it as possible. Now is the time to either leapfrog forward and become the best D4 team in the Sac Joaquin Section, or to stagnate and remain good, but not great. Let's be Great!!!
Thankfully, normal summer weather has returned for us. This will make it easier to do normal training at our evening practices. However, for those of you who are experienced and want to have a break out season, just doing the 3 evening practices and filling in the rest of the week with easy runs will not be enough. You need to force yourself to do a little extra during this time. The best way to do this is to DOUBLE ON THE DAYS WE HAVE PRACTICE. This means that you will need to go out and get an easy run of 4-5 miles on the mornings we meet for evening practice. It is that simple. By doing this, you will add an additional 12-15 miles to your weekly total, and help yourself leapfrog forward to better fitness.
Your weeks should look something like this:
Monday: AM 4-5 miles easy, PM Short run + drills and speed mechanics (5-6 miles total) + Core
Tuesday: AM 4-5 miles easy, PM Longish run of 8-10 miles + Core
Wednesday: 3-6 miles easy (depending on how you feel) if you are feeling good, do strides as well.
Thursday: AM 4-5 miles easy, PM Warm Up, strides + core + 3.5-5 miles tempo + cool down (6-8 miles total)
Friday: 3-6 miles easy (depending on how you feel) + strides if you feel good
Saturday: Long run of 8-12 miles
Sunday: Off or cross train or run very easy 2-4 miles
Totals for the week: 45-65 miles. This range should accommodate anyone on this team who has aspirations of cracking into our boys top 7.
HELPFUL HINTS
After 1 week of bumping up your training, you will probably feel really good. This is the body's normal reaction to increased stress. After the second week, you will begin to feel pretty fatigued. At this point, you will have one of 2 options. A. Press on with what you are doing. or B. Back off the training a little bit.
Option B is the better option here, because in the final week of July, we will be heading up to camp and we will be pushing pretty hard while we are there. So, taking an easier week after 2 hard weeks, will allow your bodies to catch up a bit before we hit them hard again at camp.
Now, lets look at option B a bit. In backing off the training, I believe that it would be better to do so in this order
#1 shorten your long runs. If you are doing 12, drop to 9-10. If you are doing 10, drop to 7-8. The fatigue that is the hardest from which to recover usually happens in the last few miles of long days.
#2 If shortening your long days isn't enough, drop the mileage of a few other runs. If you are doing 5 in the morning, cut to 4, if you are doing 4 in the morning, cut to 3.
#3 As a last resort, if you get to the end of the recovery week and you are not feeling good, drop one run.
I discourage you from dropping runs unless you absolutely have to. One of the things we are trying to accomplish during the summer is to develop good work habits. We are trying to make daily running (and sometimes doubling) something your body expects to do. Once your bodies have adapted to the frequency of the running we are doing you will have established the springboard from which to launch forward into the harder training that will allow you to perform at your top levels during October and November.
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