Week 3 Training Plan: 9/10-9/16

• Mon 9/10 - off if you're celebrating Rosh Hashanah or 30, 40, or 50 minute run with 5x15-20 second pickups in the second half of the run. We won't be meeting for practice today, this run is therefore on your own but you're welcome to get together with teammates if you can arrange a time and place to meet. Note that the forecast calls for rain much of the day with the highest chance of showers during the afternoon. Your best chance of staying dry would be in the morning. The pace of the run should be comfortable/easy today; the pickups should be at about a 90% effort level with as much recovery as you need.

• Tue 9/11 - Practice 3:10 @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 two weeks ago will be completed. Weather permitting, 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 25-30 minute range for new athletes and more like 35-40 for experienced athletes.

• Wed 9/12 - DCL Relays at Franklin Park in Boston. The bus will be leaving at 2:15. More detailed logistical information will be forthcoming in a later post. For now it's worth pointing out that this meet has no team scoring and is a very low key affair. For many of the teams in the DCL this will be their first competition so it's considered a way to break the ice. Much like last Saturday's Clipper Relays, this will be done relay style with teams of 3 people each running the same loop one after the other. The loop in this case is 3 kilometers or just under 2 miles long. Rather than treating this like a full-blown race we'll be treating this as a workout, alternating a minute at 90% effort with a minute at 50% effort for the duration of the time you're on the course. As part of the warmup everyone will jog the 3k course, while the cooldown will consist of an easy run of 10, 15, or 20 minutes.

• Thu 9/13 - Practice 3:10 @WHS. 20, 30, or 40 minute run with 5x15-20 second pickups in the second half of the run. The pace of the run should be comfortable/conversational today; the pickups should be at the same 90% level that you were doing during the meet yesterday but for much less time and with as much recovery as you need. This is a recovery day between two harder efforts. Aquajogging is a possibility today, a decision will be made on that by the end of the bus ride home from the meet Wednesday.

•  Fri 9/14 - Practice 3:10 @WHS. Those not coming to the practice tomorrow will do a progression run of either 48, 60, or 72 minutes. The first third of the run is to be at an easy/conversational pace, the next quarter of the run at a moderate/sustainable pace, the next quarter of the run at an "uncomfortably sustainable" pace near your threshold of being out of breath, and the last sixth of the run will be easy/conversational pace again. This is designed to be both the longest and hardest effort of the week, but the effort isn't all-out at any time. For those attending practice tomorrow the workout is a 30, 40 or 50 minute easy run with 4 short pickups of 10 seconds or so in the last 10 minutes of the run.

• Sat 9/15 - Optional Practice 9 AM @Lincoln Trails. The address for the meeting point is 145 Lincoln Road and we'll meet in the commuter parking lot just beyond the small shopping center. The workout will be the progression run the rest of the team did yesterday. After looking over a map of the Lincoln trails, we'll head over to the area around Mt. Misery and Old Concord Road to do this run. Those not attending this practice should do a 30, 40, or 50 minute easy run with 4 short pickups of 10 seconds or so in the last 10 minutes of the run.

• Sun 9/16 - off or same workout as what was posted for Monday if you didn't run on Monday.