July - Starting to Pick Up the Pace.

 As of Next Monday, We'll Have Been Going a Month

As we've discussed, in order to keep progressing your fitness, you can't just keep doing the same old thing over and over.  So, as we move into July, here are some suggestions for altering your training just a little bit.

1. Keep increasing the volume - If you are new, or if you are still low in mileage because you're coming off an injury or you just haven't built up your mileage very much yet, then your job is simple: Use our 2 week break to keep adding to your volume
2. Add a second "Hard Run" once every other week - Right now, we're running hard once a week on Tempo Thursday.  If your mileage is where you want it already, your next step can be to add one more hard session once every 2 weeks.  This means that over our 2 week break, you'd go hard 3 times instead of 2.  Simple.  Going hard is relative.  Nobody should be going "Race Hard" unless they actually run a race.

Speaking of Races

The Atwater Run for Independence is a good mid summer opportunity to check your fitness.  If you're a varsity athlete, I'd suggest running the 5 mile version.  If you're newer, or your mileage is still below 30 miles per week, the 2 mile race might be more appropriate.  

Some of your Predecessors in Atwater.