Week 1 Training Plan - 8/28-9/3

With the first full week of practice set to begin, this is the first post outlining what's scheduled for training. Each weekly training plan begins on Monday and covers the week up until the following Sunday. Typically each week's training plan will be posted by Sunday evening, but no later than lunchtime Monday. Remember that while each plan is a good outline of what we plan on in terms of training and racing, there are sometimes unforeseen factors that change the planned workout on a given day. When this happens we'll do our best to get the word out quickly. In addition, note that there's a wide variation in the length of the workout on each day. As previously stated at practice, this is because we have a diverse group of athletes on the team with a wide range of experience and incoming fitness levels. If you have any questions about how far or how hard to go on a particular day don't hesitate to ask one of the coaches. With all that out of the way, here's the plan:

• Mon 8/28 - Practice at WHS @3:15. Warmup 5-20 minutes, followed by the circuit workout, then 5-20 minute cooldown. The circuit workout is a series of 8 runs around the practice soccer field (a length of 300 meters) followed by 3 strength or mobility exercises. The list of exercises can be found in the Training Links sidebar under "circuit workout." Some may be familiar, others will be just names until you see them demonstrated. For those that are certified on the elliptigo, either the warmup or cooldown can be done on the elliptigo bike. After practice if there's enough interest there will be another orientation for use of the elliptigo bikes.

• Tue 8/29 - Split practice, either 3:15 @WHS or 3:45 at the Town Beach. For those meeting at the school, the workout involves a round trip to the beach, whle those meeting at the beach will do a shorter run around the neighborhood. Both groups will then go aquajogging for 12 minutes (alternating 1 minute on, 1 minute off). The aquajogging is optional for those not comfortable with going in the water. The elliptigos azre available for makng the trip to or from the beach.

• Wed 8/30 - Split practice, either 3:15 @WHS or 3:45 at the Town Beach. Hill drills, followed by a similar run to yesterday. 10 minutes of aquajogging, 1 minute on 1 minute off. Like yesterday the elliptigos are available for making the trip to or from the beach.

• Thu 8/31 - Practice at WHS @3:15. 40-60 minutes with hill repeats. Today everyone will head out towards Framingham on the Weston aqueduct (this is the aqueduct behind and above the school). Once across the Sudbury River via the HDB, everyone will do 3-5 hill repeats. These are done as a form of resistance work and are not intended to be all out sprints; the point is to build strength in the legs and not be totally gassed. Following this, some people will head directly back while others will continue on either via the Getchell Trail or further west along the aqueduct.

• Fri 9/1 - Practice at WHS @3:15. 25-50 minutes starting out at an easy pace and finishing with 4 or 5 bursts of 10-20 seconds at a faster speed in the last 5-10 minutes of the run. These pickups should be done on one of the ball fields near the school.

• Sat 9/2 and Sun 9/3 - No organized practice during these two days of the Labor Day holiday weekend. On your own, I'd like for you to pick one of the two days for either:

- a cross training workout of 30 minutes to an hour plus (depending on what the activity is)

or

- a run of 30-45 minutes with the last 10 minutes being run at about a 75-80% effort. Up to that point, take it easy.

Regardless of which workout you choose to do, please remember to do the warmup routine beforehand and SAM afterward. The specifics on these can be found in the "Training Links" sidebar of the team website.

Finally, looking ahead to the first day of Week 2 which is Labor Day; there will be an optional practice at 2:30 PM but it won't be held at the school or the beach, but rather at the Lincoln Commuter Rail station which is the trailhead for a large network of nice running paths. More information will be forthcoming on this practice later in the week.