Long Sprints / Mid Distance

Hello guys.  Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.  Hopefully your winter running has been going well and you're looking forward to another week off with family.  Hopefully you're also looking forward to a great track season and have been putting in some easy miles, strides, etc...

Special Announcement: It's 99% certain that we'll be brining in a new horizontal jumps coach, which will free me up to work with the mid distance crew.  I've got a number of ideas how to prep some of you to race from 400-1600m.  Please take a look at the season training template.  Bear in mind this is a rough draft and the weeks listed below are only samples.  The most important thing is that you guys are doing stuff now to get ready for what comes next.

Here's the plan, linked in a Google Doc

Track and Field Off Season Training.

Cross Country is over and Track still seems like a distant oasis on the horizon.  As we head into this season or rain, wind, and school holidays, remember this.  There is almost as much time off during the winter as there is during the summer.  This means that

Winter is the yang to summer's yin

If you believe that your success was due to the work you put in this past summer, then you should be excited about having a great winter of training and then following it up with a great track season.  The following will be a general template for how to structure your off seaosn so that you will be the most ready for track season.

1. Right now, there is no need to differentiat groups (distance, mid distance, long sprints)  Right now, the main goal is to start back with some easy running and light workouts at CV (90% vVO2 max) pace.  You built tremendous fitness during cross.  Re-introduction of running now will keep you from losing that fitness and having to start all over again in February.
2. Go to the team's Summer Mileage spreadsheet.  Find you highest 3 week block of training mileage and take the average of those three weeks.  Then add 5 miles to that average,  Boom!  You've got your goal for peak volume during this upcoming off season.
• For example, Rene's highest 3 week block was week 11 through week 13 with totals of 63.7, 55, 64.1.  This gives us an average of 61 miles per week.  Add 5 miles to that, and Rene's goal for peak volume during the winter will be 66 miles per week.
3. Do either 1 capillary run or one long run per week.  Don't go crazy on these.  Right now, your goal is to re-establish peak training volume.  Tinman recommends adding some 20 second striders during the last few miles of an easy paced long run, just to shake the legs out a little 
4. Throw in a small amount of CV work.  You can do this on the track or as a fartlek run.  Don't exceed 15 minutes of total CV work until after New Year.  Don't go crazy on these.  Right now, your goal is to re-establish peak training volume.
5. You don't need to run peak volume every week, as a matter of fact, back off from it periodically.  If you see an 80% week, that means that you should only do 80% peak volume. so for Rene, that would equal 52-53 miles

Put it all together, and you might have an off season that looks like this (for an athlete that just finished the season at the State Meet) I've listed the two main sessons for each week.  Fill in the rest of the week with mileage, strides, accelerations, weights, core, etc....:  

Week 1 - Dec 2: 0%-50% Off or very easy shake out runs.

Week 2 - Dec 9: 50%, no long run, 3x3 min fartlek

Week 3 - Dec 16: 70-80%, 1. 70 minutes easy with striders included, 2. 3x3 min fartlek

Week 4 - Dec 23: 90%, 1. 80 minutes easy with striderers included, 2. 4 x 3 min fartlek

Week 5 - Dec 30: 100%  1. 90 minutes easy with striders included, 2. 5 x 3 min fartlek

Week 6 - Jan 6: 80% 1. 70 minute capillary run, 2. 6 minute test

Week 7 - Jan 13: 100% 1. 90 minute easy run with striders included, 2. 6 x 3 minute fartlek

Week 8 - Jan 20: 90% 1. 70 minute capillary run, 2. 6 x 400 @ 6 min test pace,  90 seconds recovery

Week 9 - Jan 27: 100% 1. 90 minute easy run with striders indluced 2. 7 x 3 minute fartlek

Week 10 - Feb 3: 100% 1. 70 minute capillary run, 2. 8 x 400 @ 6 minute test pace 90 seconds recovery

Organized practice would start on Week 11, just like it did after 10 weeks of summer.  The first week of organized practice will probably be only a 70% week.

If you didn't run the state meet, you can jump right in on week 2 or 3.  

Fall Sports Awards Night

Parents

A letter was sent out Monday regarding our team sports awards night.  Apparently something happened and none of the letters made it home.  Please see this last minute info about our special end of the year evening. 

Dear Cross Country Parents:

11/8/2019

We have come to the end of another successful cross country season.  I would like to invite you all to celebrate your sons’ and daughters’ team at our year end award ceremony to be held on Thursday, 11/14/19.

All sports will meet in the Theater at 6:00 PM for department wide awards.  Then, once that is done, we will move to the cafeteria for our team potluck and team awards. Since the dinner is a pot luck, I’m asking each family to bring something to the event.

Use the first letter of your last name to determine what you should bring to the banquet.

• A-C, Drinks (2x2 liters or 1 gallon)
• D-H, Salad (Green, Potato, Pasta, etc…)
• I-M, Dessert
• N-Z, Main Dish, (enough to feed your family and at least 4 other people)

Athletes: You need to return your uniforms before the banquet.  If you have not turned them in by the time of the banquet, you will not receive your letter or patch. You may bring your uniforms on the night of the banquet.  If you are still competing, this does not apply to you.

It has been a great season for Hughson Cross Country.  We always seem to have highs and lows. This year was challenging in many ways and we definitely had both highs and lows again.  However, this group of kids is so positive that their good attitudes outweighed any difficulties we had. I hope you will join us to celebrate our season.

Again, I apologize for the late notice, I'm not exactly sure why none of these letters made it home. 

Sac Joaquin Section Championships

This Saturday is the SJS cross country championship meet.  We've qualified teams in 6 of the 7 divisions running this weekend: Varsity Girls, Varsity Boys, Frosh Soph Girls, Freshman Boys, Sophomore Boys and JV Boys. Our top 7 athletes from each one of those groups are entered into the meet for this Saturday. I'd like to share a brief itinerary:

• 9:15 AM - Meet at HHS back parking lot
• 9:30 AM - Bus Departs for Folsom High School
• 11:30 AM - Arrive in Folsom
• Races Proceed throughout the afternoon according to the schedule listed in the meet format.
• 4:00 PM - Awards Ceremony in Folsom High School Ampitheater
• 5:00 PM - Dinner (there is a shopping center across from the high school)
• 5:45 PM - Bus Departs from Folsom
• 7:45 PM - Arrive at HHS, tired but satisfied.

In the varsity races, qualifications for the State Championship will be on the line.  In the varsity girls race, the top 2 teams will qualify for state.  Our girls have made it 3 of the last 4 years and are currently seeded 3rd for Saturday.  In the boys race, 3 teams from our section will qualify for the state meet.  Our boys last made state in 2011, and are seeded 4th going into the meet.  

Our frehsman boys and our sophomore boys are both the top seeds going into their respective races.  As a matter of fact, our Freshman boys are the #3 group out of all divisions heading into this Saturday's meet.

Hope you all can make it there.  Folsom High School map

Volunteers Needed

Our 2 biggest fundraising opportunities are fast approaching

On October 19th, we will host 34 high schools and a handful of middle schools at the Hughson Supercross Invitational.  Successfully hosting this meet requires in the neighborhood of 30 volunteers.  

On October 25th, we will staff the snack bar at the homecoming game.  Although we don't directly get to keep any money from the game, our kids can sell raffle tickets in the stands and monies earned at the snack bar go directly to the boosters club, which then donates back to us and other programs at HHS.  The booster club donates over $40,000 a year to HHS athletic teams and over half of that money comes from the snack bar.  

Please sign up at one or both of these events on the spreadsheets attached below.

Supercross Volunteers Sign up List

Snack Bar Volunteers Sign up List

Esme Campos and Elizette Ysias at the 2017 Supercross

Woodbridge Invitational

Tomorrow morning our two varsity teams leave for Southern California and the Woodbridge Invitational, where we will match up against some of the top small school teams from across California and the United States.

Parents, please see the trip itinerary

For more information about the meet, see the meet website

This year, instead of staying an a hotel near the meet (which last year cost over $1,500 and was less than satisfactory), We'll be spending $400 less and staying in two cabins in Big Bear Lake California.  As a bonus, we'll be meeting up socially with members of the Big Bear High School cross country team.  BBHS has a tremendous history of success, notching division 4 state titles on both the boys side and girls side as well as producing 3 individual state champions, including American Record Holder in the Marathon, Ryan Hall. I'm really excited to be able to offer this exciting trip to our kids.  I'm sure they'll have a great time and great results.

Kim Duyst Invitational

Hello Husky Parents:

We're getting ready for another pretty cool early season meet.  This Saturday evening, our kids will compete at the Kim Duyst Invitational at River Oaks Golf Course in Ceres.

Meet Info on Athletic.net

The first event of the evening will be the Frosh Soph girls at 7:30 PM.  We're asking all athletes to show up at the golf course by 6:30 in order to help set up camp and begin their warm ups.  We will be setting up our team area on the bluff just to the east of the clubhouse.

River Oaks Golf Course

Congratulations to Michael Morrett

Michael Morrett was named last week's Stanislaus County Runner of the Week by the StanCo Distance website

Michael was not even our top JV runner last year, but over the past 10 months has trained diligently to the point where he is now our top runner and 3rd in the TVL.  Part of that training included an 800 mile summer.

Great job Michael, keep up the good work.  Go Huskies

Michael with 800 to go at TVL #1

Athletes of the Week and Time Trial Results

Our athletes of the week for this past week at Michael Morrett and Tori Kelly.  Read about their performances on the Athlete of the Week page of this blog

Times and splits are now posted on our Results and Splits page.  Please pay attention to whether or not you sped up, slowed down, or kept even pace during the time trial.  The best results usually happen when people run even splits or slightly negative (negative means running faster in the second half of the race).  If you ran a positive split, you probably went out too hard.  If your negative split was too big (more than 20 seconds difference between the first and second miles) you probably went out too easy.

This first time trial was a learning opportunity for many of our young athletes.  Let's adjust our effort levels for the upcoming races this week.

Wednesday we compete at Legion Park in Modesto for the TVL opener

Saturday we race at the Lowell Invitational in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

I will post more details about the meets later this evening.

Upcoming Meets. Help Wanted!

Hello cross country parents and athletes.  We are getting to the start of our competitive season.  As I write this, we are preparing for a season opening scrimmage with Pitman High School (we're going to do great!).  Next week, we have 2 meets and I want to put out some information about these events.

1. We will provide transportation to all meets.  Fortunately/Unfortunately our team is really big this year and we have outgrown one bus so now must take two buses to meets.  For next Wednesday's meet, I am assuming that many of you will transport your kids home after the meet, so we will have only one bus pick us up to take us back to school.

2. For the meet in San Francisco on 9/7, we will only be able to take one bus.  It is very expensive for us to take one bus to a meet 100 miles away for an entire day.  Taking two buses is cost prohibitive.  What I am hoping for is that we can get a couple of parent volunteers to drive either school vans or personal vans to transport kids.  If you are able to do this, please let me know.

3. All students who will ride with parent drivers must have filled out a special transportation request.  I will hand out copies of these to the team today.  These forms are also required for students who want to ride home with parents after meets.

3. While we are at the meet in San Francisco, I traditionally provide food for the athletes to eat during the meet.  We will leave Hughson at 5:30 in the morning and won't return until after 6:00 in the evening. I feel that providing healthy food for the athletes will allow us to be competitive all day long, whether we have a race at 9:00 AM or 2:00 PM.  If you are interested in helping oversee our team area and making sure kids are getting their fair share of the food, please let me know via e-mail or text.

4. After the meet, we will drive down to Ocean Beach for a picnic and frisbee and just a little fun hang out team time.  I plan to provide the kids a post race meal at the beach as well.  If you are interested in helping me purchase and organize the post race meal, please let me know.


I guess this got a little long winded.  Let me summarize

I need parent volunteer drivers for Saturday 9/7
Kids need to fill out special transportation requests
I would like someone to help me organize the team area and food during the meet on 9/7
I would like someone to help me set up for a team picnic on the beach after the meet on 9/7.

You can get hold of me at jbernard@hughsonschools.org or respond via text/remind app.

Thank you for your support!  Let's make this a great season.

Athlete of the Week

Rene Madrigal was named our athlete of the week for the summer and week 1 of pre-season.  Read about Rene on our Athletes of the Week page.  Congrats Rene.  Keep up the good work.

First Week of Practice.

Welcome to another season of Hughson Cross Country!  

I will be using this blog and the remind app to put information out regarding our team.  If you are new to the site, please check the individual pages for information on our team.   

Week 1 Schedule

Monday - Friday, 7:00 AM  AND 3:00 PM.  

Athletes who have been putting in a good summer have proven that they are able to handle double sessions during our first week.  

New athletes and athletes who have not put in the work this summer will come ONLY at 3:00 PM.  

You know which group you fit into.  

• Monday: AM 6 minute time trial + Weights - PM 400m time trial (experienced easy run + weights)
• Tuesday: AM Easy Distance + Weights - PM Easy Distance + Strides
• Wednesday: AM 400m TT + 4 x 3 min @ 90%. + Weights -  PM Easy Distance + Strides
• Thursday: AM Easy Distance + Weights - PM Easy Distance + Strides
• Friday: AM 2 - 4.5 mile Tempo + Weights - PM 6 min TT for Newbs + Game Day.  
• Saturday: Optional.  Easy LONG RUN.

Requirements

All athletes need to complete the following before they will be allowed to compete

• Sports Physical - athletes will not be allowed to practice with the team if they have not completed their physicals.  If you still need a physical, forms can be picked up in the office.  Athletes without a physical are still expected to show up to practice to check in with me. 
• LOH Code Night and signed Code of Conduct - I attribute much of our success over the past 5 years to the fact that our teams have embraced the LOH code more than any other group on campus.  Code Night is not just another hoop to jump through.  It helps us set the culture for the entire athletic department.  If you attended the Code Night in May, you do not have to attend this one.  
• Team Rules - As we get our team together, our Captains will develop team rules.  All athletes need to adhere to these rules for the duration of our season.  

Threshold Training

There is no "most important type of training" in cross country.  Each training type has its place. However, there are training types that have more "bang for your buck" than others.  Some of the most effective training that we do is running at paces that are right around the Anaerobic Threshold.  There are a ton of names given to this type of training, but the one that gets thrown around the most is TEMPO

Tempo is kind of a meaningless term if you don't know what benefit you're supposed to be getting from it.  Before you go any further, go back and read The Lactic Acid Boogeyman from last month.  Then look at this chart again.

Tempo training, in general, means training done right around the intensity that brings you to LTP2 on this graph.  I would like to be a little more specific when I assign workouts to you guys, so I want to give you some more terms to add to your training vocabulary.

Arthur Lydiard introduced the
world to Tempo Training, but
called it HSS (Highest Steady
State)

Tempo:

Tempo means that you should run at a pace that does not cause lactic acid to continue to build with every minute you run.  A well trained marathoner could run at this pace for over 2 hours. I'll usually ask you guys to run somewhere around 30-40 minutes at this pace.  For most of you guys, tempo pace is probably equal to 75%-82% of the pace you achieved on your 6 minute test runs. Please use our team PACE CHARTS to find your tempo speed.


The reason that tempo running is valuable is that the cells outside of your leg muscles are getting used to dealing with lactic acid as it is produced by your running muscles.  Tempo pace is great for this because you can hold it for a relatively long time and your cells can get lots of practice dealing with the lactic Acid.

For a quick reference, we'll use 80% on the pace chart for Tempo.  An assigned Tempo run might be "30 minutes @ 80%"

Threshold:
Threshold is the pace that corresponds the the speed that will cause your body to reach LTP2 on the chart above.  For most of you, threshold is likely from 80%-88% on our chart.  The benefits of running at threshold are pretty much the same as running at tempo effort.  However, at threshold, you get the added bonus of developing a sense of when your body actually reaches LTP2.  Feeling that borderline is tough.  It takes a lot of practice to feel that borderline, but being able to feel it in a race is SUPER important.

For a quick reference, we'll use 85% on the pace charts for Threshold.  An assigned Threshold workout might be "20 minutes @ 85%"

Critical Velocity

This is a pace that is just a little bit faster than threshold.  The magic of critical velocity (CV) is that when you run at that pace, you are going fast enough that your body cannot process all of the lactic acid your legs are producing and the acidity of your blood begins to build.  As a result of training at this pace, your body will get good at dealing with the lactic acid produced in a race.

The beauty of CV pace is that it is still slower than most of your race paces, so you should be able to do a fair amount of work at that pace without it being too hard. For most of you guys, CV pace should fall somewhere between 85%-92% on your pace chart.

For a quick reference, we'll use 90% on the pace charts.  Because we're running at a pace fast enough that lactic acid levels will rise unchecked, we'll need to take breaks in the workout. An assigned CV workout might be "6 x 3 minutes at CV with 1 minute of rest"


In Summary
These paces are valuable because

1. They aren't super fast so you can do them for a long time
2. Training at these paces teaches your body what to do with the lactic acid that is being produced.
3. In general: Tempo is just below LTP2, Threshold is right at LTP2, and CV is just above LTP2

Happy running everyone. 

Goal Setting

I've always believed that you can't get to the mountaintop, if you don't know where the mountaintop is.

In our sport, we have the luxury of defining our own mountaintop.  For some of us, it might be to make the varsity team.  For others, it might be to simply complete 20 minutes of running without stopping.  For a few of us, goals such as winning a section or a state title might be realistic.  I am a huge fan of goal setting....in other words, defining what our own personal mountaintop looks like. 

In setting these goals, we need to understand the difference between Process Goals and Outcome Goals

• Outcome goals are the ones we all understand well.  "I want to win a league title".  "I want to make a varsity team".
• Process goals are the goals that help lead us to the outcome goals.  If the outcome goals are the mountaintop, the process goals are the pathway that leads upward.  Accomplishing process goals is a pre-requisite for accomplishing outcome goals.  Please see the Attached Goal Sheet for some examples of goals we have for Hughson Cross Country.

I encourage all of you to set your own process goals.  Make a copy of the list I've provided and add your own goals to it. Your attainment of these goals will make your summer training far more enjoyable.  Being able to work toward short term, tangible goals is a huge motivator to keep going when you really don't feel like it.

Each one of you needs to be able to find reason behind what you are doing out here.  The reason is what will get you going when you don't want to leave your bed or keep you going when you are tired and want to stop.  For me, my outcome goal is just to stay fit as I approach 50.  In the pursuit of fitness, I enjoy setting and achieving short term process goals along the way.  Right now, its to do 100 push ups a day for 30 days.  Later it might be to get back to 25 miles per week without becoming injured.

Trust me on this, once you start setting and achieving realistic goals, you will feel really good about yourself and about your running.  

The Lactic Acid Boogeyman

Lactic Acid gets blamed for all kinds of problems in sports. From fatigue, to soreness, to pulled muscles, this boogeyman gets a lot of blame.  What is Lactic Acid and why is understanding what it does important to us in cross country? In this post, I plan on laying out for you exactly what this mystery substance comes from, what it does in your body, and how we can use our knowledge about it to our advantage.

Lactic Acid (LA)is a waste product that is continuously produced in the cells.  It is produced as a byproduct of the normal process of turning blood sugar into ATP (energy). As we work out at levels of increasing intensity, the level or LA in our blood rises.  Rising levels of LA are most closely associated with anaerobic exercise. Anaerobic exercise is exercise at a level that the heart and lungs cannot supply enough oxygen to the muscles for them to produce ATP optimally.  There is some debate as to whether LA causes muscles to fatigue or is merely present in the muscles as they fatigue.  Whether LA actually causes fatigue is unimportant, however.  What is important is that certain levels of  LA are associated with well identified levels of fatigue. 

Many coaches and physiologists will mistakenly say that LA is only produced as a result of anaerobic exercises such as sprinting.  It is incorrect to say this.  LA only BUILDS UP as a result of anaerobic exercise, but it is always being produced.  When the body is at rest or performing easy exercise, LA is converted back to a molecule called pyruvate that can then be used to make ATP. At rest or during easy exercise, the LA is converted and used in the same cells in which it was produced.

It is when we start exercising harder that interesting things begin to happen with Lactic Acid in our bodies.  Please refer to the chart below.

The stair step line across the bottom of the graph represents work intensity
The blue line represents Blood Lactic Acid levels at that given intensity.
Intensity is represented on the X axis and Lactic Acid levels are on the Y axis.
LTP1 stands for Lactic Acid Turnpoint 1
LTP2 stands for Lactic Acid Turnpoint 2

This graph is only hypothetical but it illustrates a couple of very important concepts:

1. At exercise intensity from resting to 40% max effort, no LA accumulates in the blood, because it is being converted in the muscle cells that produced it. If we were running, we would call this "very easy" or "shake out" or "cool down" type of intensity.
2. At exercises from 40% to 75% max intensity, the muscles that make us move are producing more LA than they can remove and some of the excess LA leaks out into the blood and circulates to other parts of the body (such as the liver). These other parts of the body then clear it from the blood stream.  As you work harder in this "Zone II" intensity, blood LA levels gradually rise with increasing workload, but if you exercise at a constant workload, LA levels will stay steady.  Zone II is known as "Steady State".  At the low end of Zone II, exercise will still feel very easy.  At the high end of Zone II, exercise will feel pretty tough.  The bulk of your easy mileage will be in zone II
3. At LTP2, your systems are working at maximum efficiency when it comes to removing LA from your blood.  Once you cross LTP2, you begin to surpass your body's ability to clear LA from the blood.  Even if you keep running at a steady pace, LA levels in your blood will begin to rise and eventually, when they get high enough, you will be forced to stop or slow down.  

For high performance training, some of the most important paces are those that are right around LTP2.  If you are a well trained marathoner, you should theoretically be able to run just below LTP2 for over 2 hours.  You should also be able to run right at LTP2 for about an hour.  At levels just above LTP2, you can still maintain effort for 30-40 minutes.  A little faster and you can only hold that pace for 20 minutes.  The faster you go, the less time you can hold that pace....you get the picture.  Sprint as fast as you can and you can only maintain that pace for a few seconds.

Our goal in training is to spend as much time as possible at a pace that will bring you very close to LTP2.  As you do work at that pace, your body will adapt and soon you will be able to run faster without crossing LTP2.  Working at paces much beyond LTP2 can have a counter productive effect because the most important variable we are trying to manipulate is TIME at the right intensity

For further discussion of how to choose the right pace for you, I will be posting another article that explains our HHS pace charts.  

Paces by Distance

Paces by Time

New Page for Newbies and Parents

For all of you beginners out there and for all of you parents of beginners (or any parent for that matter), please visit the team's new Tips for Newbies and Parents page.

Summer Training Guidelines 2019

I just got a text message from one of our veteran runners asking me how much to run.  I'm going to answer that text message by referencing the graph you see above.

Before I write about this graph you see up here ^.  I want you to go back and read the post from November 22nd.  It shouldn't be that hard to find because this is the first post since then.

Scroll down, read the post, then come back to this point.......

Ok, now that you're back let's talk about the graph above.  The graph above shows how much any given run at any given pace will take out of you.  When reading the graph, you need to assume that at the end of workload 4, you are totally exhausted.  To make the math easy, I'll use a total beginner who can only run one mile and then will be sore for the next two days.

Scenario #1
To make the math easy, I'll use a total beginner who can only run one mile and then will be sore for the next two days. That beginner's performance at the end of the one mile would be all the way at the bottom of the graph, where it says "Clear Fatigue".  48 hours later, that beginner might be recovered enough to run another mile.  So, in the first 3 days of this newbies's cross country career, he would have covered 1 mile total

Scenario #2
If that same beginner were to stop his run at say, 3 laps, he wouldn't have driven himself into the ground and could probably recover enough to run another 3 laps the next day, and then probably another 3 laps the day after that.  By the end of his first 3 days of running in this scenario, our newbie would have covered a total of 2.25 miles.  Even if the beginner would have stopped his run after 2 laps each day, he still would have covered a total of 1.5 miles in his first 3 days of running rather than only 1 mile.


So - How does this graph apply to everyone else?
The graph above is totally relative.  While 1 mile in 10 minutes might be enough to put a beginner on the floor for the next 3 days, it wouldn't even be a warm up for an experienced kid.

The graph above represents the percentage of maximal duration at any given pace.  For an experienced varsity boy, running a "TEMPO" run at 6:00 per mile, maximal duration might be 1 hour.  For the same boy running an "EASY" run at 7:00 per mile, maximal duration might be 2 hours. To make a little more sense of the graph above, please see the table below

Table 1

Definition of specific duration domains for endurance-type exercise (modified from Platonov, 1999).

Workload	Phase	Duration	Targets
Low	1st phase of stable performance	15–20% of maximal duration until clear fatigue	Maintaining exercise performance and accelerated recovery
Moderate	2nd phase of stable performance	20–60% of maximal duration until clear fatigue	Maintaining exercise performance
Sub-maximal	Phase of compensated fatigue	60–75% of maximal duration until clear fatigue	Stabilization and moderate increases in performance
Maximal	Phase of clear fatigue	75–100% of maximal duration until clear fatigue	Distinct increases in performance

Using the Platonov's definitions listed above, for our pretend varsity boy.

Zone 1 - Low Workload (shakeout) 18-24 minutes at 7:00 pace.  Aids in recovery or prevents de-training when cutting mileage before a big race

Zone 2 - Moderate Workload (Easy Run) 24-72 minutes at 7:00 pace.  This type of run would be a bread and butter run and would make up the bulk of his training.

Zone 3 - Sub Maximal Workload (Long Run) 72-90 minutes at 7:00 pace.  If you do the math, this works out to be 10-12.5 miles.  Our guy would do this once a week.

Zone 4 - Maximal Workload (Very Long Run) 90-120 minutes.  If you did the math on this, our guy would reach exhaustion at a little over 17 miles!  Our hypothetical varsity boy probably wouldn't ever need to do a 17 mile run in 2 hours.  It would be too stressful and it would take him too long to recover

What if I want my guy to run at say 6:30 per mile?

Well, then all of those times are shorter than at 7:00 per mile because our guy will reach clear fatigue sooner....If he runs slower than 7:00 per mile, those runs can be longer....you get the picture.  

Dang it, Coach!  You still haven't told me how much to run!

If you read the post that I put up on November 22nd, you'd know the answer to that question....RUN MORE THAN YOU HAVE RUN BEFORE!  Aim for an increase of about 10 miles per week per year of running.  So, if you averaged 40 miles a week last summer, aim for an average of 50 miles per week this summer. Make most of your runs fit into your own personal moderate workload zone.  

You'll progress much more safely and smoothly with lots of smaller, manageable runs.  The really elite runners of the world usually run 10-14 times per week.  Some of the Kenyans, when they go to training camp leading up to a major event will train 3 times per day.  The majority of their runs also fall into the moderate zone.  It's just that what is moderate to them would seem impossible to you.

Happy running this summer, team.  I hope you had a good first day!

P.S.  If you have questions for me, post them in the comments section below. That way, the rest of the team can see the answers I give.  You all have google accounts, so you should be able to post below.