Week 2 Training Plan - 9/3-9/9

This week is highlighted by the first meet of the season, at Newburyport's Maudslay State Park. This is a relay style meet with no team scoring and is a relatively low key way to ease into racing. In addition, there's a holiday on Monday with an optional practice in Lincoln on the trails near the MBTA commuter rail station. Finally, we have our annual "spike night" at Marathon Sports in Wellesley this Wednesday from 6-8 PM. More details on this will be forthcoming soon.

• Mon 9/3 - Optional practice at Lincoln, 3 PM. For this workout, we meet in the commuter rail station parking lot near the small shopping center. If using GPS to find the place, use the address 145 Lincoln Road, Lincoln MA. The workout will be to run at an easy pace over to Walden Pond which is a couple of miles away. Once there, aquajogging for 15 minutes (1 minute on, 30 seconds off). Following that, back to where we started, hopefully a little quicker than the trip out. For those not able to attend this practice, the day's workout is a 25, 35, or 45 minute run starting at an easy relaxed pace and finishing at a faster but still relaxed pace, building over the last 10 minutes.

• Tue 9/4 - Practice 3:15 @WHS. Everyone will run from the school to the Town Beach while doing a series of cycles, either 3 or 4 minutes in length. The 3 minute cycle consists of 1 minute at 40% effort, one minute at 60% effort, and one minute at 80% effort. The 4 minute cycle is the same as the 3 minute cycle with a fourth minute of walking. This cycle will be repeated five times or until you reach the beach, whichever comes first. Once at the beach, aquajogging 2 minutes at a time with a one minute break, repeated 6 times (total time in the water 18 minutes). Some people will then return to the school, others will be picked up from the Town Beach. The people that are running back won't be doing the same cycling of effort levels on the return trip. Total time spent running today should be in the 20 minute range for new athletes and more like 35-40 for experienced athletes.

• Wed 9/5 - Practice 3:15 @WHS. Today's practice will be a 45, 55, or 65 minute run with most or all of it along the Weston aqueduct heading east initially towards Weston. Most will turn back at some point to head back to the school, while others will connect to the Hultman Aqueduct via Rice Road. In the final third of your run you should mix in 5 pickups of about 10-15 seconds in length, at about an 85-90% effort. Take as long as needed between each of these  pickups to recover but keep running throughout. We hope to begin distributing uniforms today after practice

• Thu 9/6 - Practice 3:15 @WHS. Run to town beach via the Hultman Aqueduct and Cochituate Road (route 27) with a stop for hill drills on Keith Road en route. This is the same place we did hill drills last week, hopefully the road work in the nearby area that we encountered last week will be completed. Once at the beach, aquajogging 15 minutes, cycling between easy for 30 seconds, moderate for 30 seconds, and hard for 30 seconds. Some people will then return to the school, others will be picked up from the Town Beach. The people that are running back won't be doing the same cycling of effort levels on the return trip. Total time spent running today should be in the 20 minute range for new athletes and more like 35-40 for experienced athletes.

• Fri 9/7 - Practice 3:15 @WHS. 10 or 20 minute warmup followed by circuits. This will be structured similar to how we did the circuits last week but with run outs after every other exercise instead of after every single exercise. After this, the cool down will be a 10 minute jog. Any remaining distribution of uniforms will be done after practice today.

• Sat 9/8 - Clipper Relays @Maudslay State Park, Newburyport. There will be more details forthcoming on this meet in a later post. For now it's worth mentioning that the bus will be leaving at 7 AM (which means you should arrive a few minutes before that) and we should be returning early to mid afternoon after having lunch in Newburyport. The girls race at 9:15, the boys at 10:30. It's relay style with teams of 3 people carrying a baton around the course. In addition to the race itself, with warmup and cooldown everyone should wind up with 40-65 total minutes of running on the day.

• Sun 9/9 - off