Monday, September 1, 2014

Training Plan for Week 1: 9/1-9/7

The season begins in earnest this week with the beginning of school and the first meet. Also, this week will feature the first timed, structured workout, on Wednesday. Note that the temperatures will continue to be on the hot side this week; as such, there will be visits to the town beach on Thursday and possibly Tuesday as well. In terms of training volume, the pattern for this week from Tuesday through Saturday is A-B-C-A-B where A is a shorter run, B a medium length run, and C a longer run. For workout and race days, the overall time of everything added together--warmup, workout/race, cooldown--should fall in the appropriate time range.

Also worth noting, when a run is indicated as "easy" it means you should be able to carry on a conversation with your training partners/teammates without getting out of breath! Running too fast on days that are intended for recovery will sabotage your fitness gains. Knowing when to push it and when to back off is key in this sport.

Finally, we will be distributing uniforms and voting for captains this week so it will be busy.

• Mon 9/1 - last day of Labor Day weekend. As per the instructions in the previous post, this was either a day off, a medium length run, or some form of cross training.

• Tue 9/2 - 25-40 minutes easy. Hill drills between the warmup and run, core circuit after the run and before stretching. It's going to be hot today, so omit the 5 minute jog from the warmup and go straight from the lunge matrix to line drills. If your run is long enough and you want to go to the beach to cool off as part of an out and back run you can do so. Also, after doing the hill drills we will be playing the ever-popular game "What's In the Box?" which will hopefully educate people on the importance of proper post-workout recovery nutrition.

• Wed 9/3 - 5-10 minute mini-progression jog, then 6, 8, or 10 x 400 meters with a 100 meter jog recovery. 10-15 minute easy jog cooldown. This is an example of interval training, i.e. bursts of faster running interspersed with recovery periods. While most people on the team who've run competitively have done repeat 400s, perhaps you haven't done them with this kind of short rest. How many repeats and how fast they should be done will vary from person to person but in general the repeats shouldn't go any faster than your 5k race pace, and likely will be a bit slower particularly if the forecast for hot weather holds. Best to start conservatively at a speed you know you can hold for the entire length of the workout and if that feels totally controlled think about picking it up later on. Don't forget tonight is the Spike Night at Marathon Sports in Wellesley (225 Washington St.), after practice until 8 PM. If you're planning on going please arrive by 7:30 at the latest.

• Thu 9/4 - 40-70 minutes easy with 10-15 minutes of aquajogging mixed in. Core circuit before leaving the beach. This is the longest run of the week. Don't overdo it on the pace today. Some people will be driven part of the way to and possibly from the beach, but everyone will be getting there. You might want to wait to take off your shoes until you've reached the dock if it's still there or the water's edge if the dock's gone. That way you can avoid having to walk in sand to get back to your shoes and socks afterward. Just saying!

• Fri 9/5 - 25-40 minutes easy, with 4 sets of (30 seconds race pace/90 seconds jog) near the end on the fields near the school. Hill drills between the warmup and the run. Again, easy. The days of jogging 15 minutes the day before a meet simply because it's the day before a meet are over, for reasons that I'll explain. Also, captains will be announced today.

• Sat 9/6 - Clipper Relays at Maudslay Park in Newburyport. Between the warmup (which will be a jog of the 2 mile course for most people), race and cooldown you should total somewhere in the 35-55 minute range. Be at the school at 7 AM to meet the bus. We should be back by 2 PM at the latest. More information about the meet will be forthcoming on this blog later in the week. The bus time is definitely quite early, but please don't plan on sleeping on the bus for the trip there as you'll still be groggy when it's your turn to toe the line, which of course has a negative impact on your ability to race well.

• Sun 9/7 - off unless you took Monday off, in which case do a shorter length run (25-40 minutes) on your own.

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