Week 1 Training Plan - 8/27-9/2

NOTE THE TIME CHANGE FOR PRACTICE ON TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY DUE TO EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH

This is the first weekly post outlining the scheduled training for the upcoming week. Each weekly training plan begins on Monday and covers up to the following Sunday. Typically the plan will be posted by Sunday evening, but certainly no later than lunchtime Monday. Remember that while each week's plan is a good outline of what we plan on doing, there are sometimes unforeseen factors that change our plans. When this happens we'll do our best to get the word out quickly. In addition, note that many days there's a wide variation in the length of the workous. 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.

The forecast this week is for hot weather at least through Wednesday. As a result, we're planning on meeting at the Town Beach at the end of Parkland Drive on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for practice. Please note we won't be meeting at the high school on those three days. Don't show up at the high school for practice on Monday, no one from the team will be there! We will be meeting at the high school on Tuesday and Thursday.

With all that out of the way, here's the plan:

• Mon 8/27 - Practice at the Town Beach @3:15. After doing the warmup on a nearby ball field, 15 minutes of running for new athletes and 30-35 minutes for more experienced athletes. 5 pickups of 10-12 seconds on the ballfield before aquajogging 10 sets of 60 seconds hard, 30 seconds easy.

• Tue 8/28 - Practice at the High School @7:00. Everyone will run from the school to the 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 5 times (total time in the water 15 minutes). Some people will then return to the school, others will be picked up from the Town Beach. Total time spent running today should be in the 20 minute range for new athletes and more like 35-40 for experienced athletes.

• Wed 8/29 - Practice at the Town Beach @7:00. Everyone will run over to a nearby hill for hill drills. From there new athletes will return to the beach directly while others will take a less direct route back. Overall time for today's run should be the same as yesterday, 20 minutes or so for new athletes and 30-35 minutes for more experienced athletes.

• Thu 8/30 - Practice at WHS @3:15. 36, 48, or 60 minute progression run. This is the longest run of the week. It's structured in a very specific way, such that the first 1/3 of the run is at an easy conversational pace, the next 1/4 is at a moderately quicker but still manageable pace, the next 1/4 is at a higher intensity that feels "uncomfortably sustainable" (80-85% effort), and finally the last 1/6 of the run is at an easy conversational pace again. For example, for the 48 minute run the first 16 minutes are easy/conversational, the next 12 are moderate/manageable, the next 12 are uncomfortably sustainable, and the last 8 are easy/conversational.

• Fri 8/31 - Practice at WHS @3:15. 10 or 20 minute warmup followed by circuits. For those who have been on the team in the past, the same 24 exercises will be done but instead of running 300 meters at a time after every third exercise, you'll be running 100 meters after each exercise. The overall distance covered is thus the same but in more digestible bits. After this, the cool down will be either a 10 minute jog or aquajogging for 10 minutes, whichever you prefer.

• Sat 9/1 For those not coming along for the Western Mass. day trip, either:

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

- a run of 25-45 minutes with the last 5-10 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.

Sun 9/2 - off