Gettin' into summer with some good training videos and some info that needs to be repeated

Tempo Running

Other than regular, steady mileage, tempo training is perhaps the most important type of training in a distance runner's schedule.  The purpose of tempo training is to allow the athlete run fast without incurring fatigue.  The training sessions are fast but they should not be very hard.  The goal of the workout is to run as quickly as possible without the workout becomming very difficult.  This means that sometimes, in a tempo workout, you have to back off the pace.

One tempo run will not make you better overnight.  The way that tempo training will make you better is that every time you go out, your body adapts to the pace you are running.  The next time you go out, the pace that you ran on your previous tempo run will feel slightly easier.

To sum it up, run as fast as you can for the distance without allowing excessive tightness or tiredness build up.

Here are the University of Colorado teams doing an early season tempo run. Please note that most of these athletes could run this run much faster.  The top runners are probably 30-40 seconds slower per mile than their race paces for the same distance.

2013 Seniors at the Supercross

Long Runs

Long runs are another important aspect of training.  During the off season and the early season, these longer efforts prepare your body to endure the harder workouts that come later.  As a general guideline, Your long runs should be around 15%-25% of your weekly mileage depending on how many miles a week you are running and the distance of race for which you are training.

Here is the Air Force Academy team getting in a long run on a loop that was originally mapped out by 1500m world champion Jenny Simpson

General Body Fitness

Here is a good video from the Arizona Wildcats Womens' Team. Some of these exercises should already look familiar to those of you who have been coming to practice so far.  Coach Li, the man who is intereviewed first is also the coach of Bernard Lagat, a multiple world and olympic medalist.

The focus on this workout is on strengthening the muscles that create stability and balance.  The focus is not on trying to lift a lot of weight one time, nor is it on getting big, bulky muscles.  Bulky muscles are great if you are playing football or throwing the shot, but they don't help in cross.

Our focus is on getting stable, lean, and strong.

Nutrition

Please visit and read the Nutrition Page of this blog. It's not new, but I wanted to make sure you are all reading and digesting (pun intended) the material.

General Guidelines For Beginners or Injury Prone Athletes

The number one goal for this group is to build as much fitness and general athletic ability as possible.  If you have not seen the Girls Progression, please follow the link and check it out.

Right now, you should start to experiment with running, push ups, lunges, sit ups, and any other basic conditioning activity you feel you'd like to do.  We don't start practicing for another two weeks, so this is a good opportunity to gain a little bit of fitness prior to meeting with all of your teammates for the first time.

If you can do a 3 mile run comfortably, you should do some of those.  If you can run only 1 lap around the track comfortably, you should do that.  Do not feel the need to rush into any specific level of fitness.  You have the summer to build up and get stronger. However, DON'T WAIT to start.  If you wait, then you will feel like you are behind the rest of your teammates when we start practicing in a couple of weeks.  If you wait all summer, then you will be far behind and you might feel like it is impossible to catch back up.

If you wait all summer and don't run, you will be prone to injury once we start training.  Your body needs the summer to prepare for the hard training in the fall.

A week for a beginner might look like this early in the summer

• Monday (Practice): 1 lap warm up, extensive core and drills, bleacher runs, 1 lap easy, short sprints, 1 lap easy
• Tuesday: On your own: Push Ups, Sit Ups, Lunges, 1 mile easy around your neighborhood
• Wednesday (Practice): 1 Lap warm Up, Ramp Sprints, Game Day, Running drills, Core, 1 lap easy
• Thursday (Practice) 20 minutes of continuous running, go as far as you can without stopping.
• Friday: Take a day off or do some sort of other activity
• Saturday: You might go to the hills with your more advanced teammates, but focus on running uphill without stopping then walking back down.
• Sunday: Day off.

Totals 10 ish miles for the week.

Later in the summer, your weeks might be creeping up to 20-25 miles total.  Don't rush to get to bigger mileage totals.  Make sure your body can handle what you are doing before increasing.

General Summer Running Guidelines, Boys and Girls, Intermediate-Advanced (1 or more years of experience)

OK, Boys

Here we go. 2 days into summer.  Hopefully, you've had two good days of running so far.  I hope you've already perused the Boys Summer Progression.  I'd like to fill in a few more deatils about the progression.

1. Any athlete with aspirations of making the varsity team, or of being a good JV runner, should shoot for a 500 mile club shirt this summer.
2. We are meeting 3 days a week.  Each of those days will have a different focus: Tempo, Intervals, or Long Day.
3. Those meeting days ARE NOT the most important days of the week.  The most important day is EVERYDAY.  Your fitness will come from a steady, daily, diet of runs done at a comfortable pace.
4. The other days of the week, you should fill in with as much mileage as you can comfortably do.
5. The mileage should come in runs of 4-9 miles, depending on your ability, experience, point in the summer, and how you feel for the day.
6. I encourage you all to meet up on days that we don't have practice. I know that Alumnus and former captain, Wyatt Mitchell, is interested in doing some runs out in the hills this summer as he prepares to run in college. Go with him.

These guidelines should be able to accomodate all of our boys who have run at least one season at the high school

This is what a week for our top dogs might look like.

• Monday AM: (Practice) - 2 mile warm up, drills, 2 x 1 mile @ 8k pace, 1 mile cool down, core. Monday PM: 4 miles easy
• Tuesday: 7 miles easy + lunge matrix
• Wednesday: AM (Practice) 2 miles warm up, drills, 3.5 miles tempo, strides, Core, Stretch.  Wednesday: PM 4 miles easy
• Thursday AM (Practice): Long, 9 miles.  Stretch
• Friday: 5 miles very easy + lunge matrix
• Saturday: Meet with team for hill run, 8 miles hills
• Sunday: off or very easy 3-4 miles.

Total 48-52 miles depending on if the athlete ran on Sunday or took a day off.

This is what a week for a 2nd year runner might look like

• Monday: 2 mile warm up, drills, 2 x 1 miles @ 8k pace, 1 mile cool down, core
• Tuesday; 4 miles easy + lunge matrix
• Wednesday: 1 mile warm up, 2.8 miles tempo, strides, core, stretch
• Thursday: Long 6 miles
• Friday: off or easy 3-4 miles
• Saturday: Hills with teammates 5 miles
• Sunday: off or easy 3-4 miles

Total 24-32 miles depending on if the athlete took days off or not.