Week 2 pre-season (transition) training schedule - 8/31-9/6

 Before explaining the week's workout plan it's important to share the latest from the MIAA (Mass. Interscholastic Athletic Administration) regarding the fall season. On Friday the MIAA published a comprehensive set of guidelines for all fall sports that will be contested in 2020, including cross country. These recommendations can be seen at this link. The first 3.5 pages of this six page document deal with general considerations while the remainder focuses on modifications specific to cross country. Please take the time to read over this document thoroughly. Currently the DCL Athletic Directors are in discussions about how the MIAA recommendations will be specifically implemented within our league. 

In a nutshell, we know more about how things will go this fall but the full details have yet to be ironed out. For now, I've taken the step of removing all meets from the tentative schedule. There will be meets, in all likelihood dual meets only, but until we know when those will be held I'm keeping the schedule blank, which means it's currently not to be found on the right of this page among the various sidebars. It will be updated and restored as soon as I have more information. Note also the changes suggested for practices. This season will be different of course but we aim to make it as fulfilling an experience as possible for everyone while following the guidance of experts. Before the start of practice we'll have a list of "COVID Adjustments" so that everyone will know before we meet in person on September 18th what the expectations will be regarding proper protocols. 

 On to the suggested training for the upcoming week. Like last week, the breakdown below is intended to be an extension of the summer training pattern, with little change from what you've been doing in Block 3 other than a slight uptick in the length of the shorter workouts. This week you should hopefully be doing a total of six runs (or mix of runs and cross training workouts) with a day off. The breakdown of the workouts is laid out below. Note the different length of the workouts depending on your level of experience (Level 1-4). These levels are explained in the "Breakdown" tab of the summer training spreadsheet.

3 short runs - for Level 1 athletes these should be 20-25 minutes in length; Level 2, 25-30 minutes; Level 3, 30-35 minutes, and Level 4 should be at 40-50 minutes.

2 medium length runs - Level 1 - 25-30 minutes, Level 2 - 35-40 minutes, Level 3 - 45-50 minutes, Level 4 - 55-60 minutes. One of these two medium length runs should include a series of 4-6 sets of running 2 minutes at pace somewhere between "good" and race pace with a 1 minute jog between each. Note the adjustment in pace here--the length of the repeats and the recovery jogs is such that you shouldn't try to run the repeats at race pace. After completing the 2 minute repeats, finish things off with 4-6 shorter faster repeats of 30 seconds at race pace with a 1 minute recovery between them. A description of how to approach the timed repeats can be found in the "workout descriptions" tab of the summer training spreadsheet

1 long run - Level 1- 36 minutes, Level 2 - 48 minutes, Level 3 - 60 minutes, Level 4 - 72 minutes. We alternate between doing Progressive Long Runs (PLRs) and Cyclic Long Runs (CLRs). This week is a PLR which means you should be gradually picking up the pace over the course of the run, starting out easy, picking it up after a time to a good pace, and then picking it up again to a "fresh" pace before the final few minutes back to an easy clip. It's fine to take a brief break once or twice during the run, just be sure to stop your watch while you've stopped. A more thorough breakdown of how this is done can be found in the "long run breakdown" tab of the summer training spreadsheet. 

Since we're not meeting in person, you have some flexibility in how you structure your week. That said I would avoid doing the timed repeats and long run on consecutive days, and in general it's best to alternate the medium and long runs with the short runs. The weather this week is generally favorable for running in the afternoon if that's what you prefer, the morning is even better.

Week 1 pre-season (transition) training schedule - 8/24-8/30

With the recent announcement by the MIAA, we now know there will be a fall athletic season which will begin on September 18th. That's almost four weeks from now. The questions are what to do between now and then and how to do it. The summer training spreadsheet which serves as a guideline for how to structure your training in the summer months has reached the end of its scope. The 2020 season overview, which is a nice reference, is thin on details. In a normal year, the next few weeks would serve as a transition between the summer training period and the in-season period when you'd be returning to school. This year will be similar with two important caveats: we won't be meeting together as a group, and you have more flexibility in how you structure your training since school is starting a little later than normal. 

This week's training will follow the pattern laid out in the season overview; you do have the flexibility to rearrange which runs occur on which days to best fit your own schedule. This week was intended to be an extension of the summer training pattern, with very little change from what you've been doing in Block 3 other than a slight uptick in the length of the shorter workouts. This week you should hopefully be doing a total of six runs (or mix of runs and cross training workouts) with a day off. The breakdown of the workouts is laid out below. Note the different length of the workouts depending on your level of experience (Level 1-4). These levels are explained in the "Breakdown" tab of the summer training spreadsheet.

3 short runs - for Level 1 athletes these should be 20-25 minutes in length; Level 2, 25-30 minutes; Level 3, 30-35 minutes, and Level 4 should be at 40-50 minutes.

2 medium length runs - Level 1 - 25-30 minutes, Level 2 - 35-40 minutes, Level 3 - 45-50 minutes, Level 4 - 55-60 minutes. One of these two medium length runs should include a series of 8-10 timed one minute repeats at race pace with one minute of slower running in between each of them. A description of how to approach the timed repeats can be found in the "workout descriptions" tab of the summer training spreadsheet

1 long run - Level 1- 36 minutes, Level 2 - 48 minutes, Level 3 - 60 minutes, Level 4 - 72 minutes. We alternate between doing Progressive Long Runs (PLRs) and Cyclic Long Runs (CLRs). This week is a CLR which means you should be changing gears between an easy (40% effort), fresh (60%), and good (80%) effort. A more thorough breakdown of how this is done can be found in the "long run breakdown" tab of the summer training spreadsheet. 

Since we're not meeting in person, you have some flexibility in how you structure your week. That said I would avoid doing the timed repeats and long run on consecutive days, and in general it's best to alternate the medium and long runs with the short runs. Also keep in mind that the weather will be hotter earlier in the week before cooling off as we approach the weekend; because of this I would plan on doing the long run later in the week and perhaps the timed repeats as well. 

Remember that it's still summer, and if we were meeting in person the first couple of days would have been in the morning before the heat of the day reached its highest level. Stay hydrated throughout the day. And of course, continue to follow social distancing guidelines in order to stay safe out there. Have a face covering at the ready even if you're not wearing it from your first step out the door.

Finally, a few housekeeping notes (AKA the "in a normal year" section):

Training Logs - In a normal year, I would be asking people to hand in their summer training logs over the next week. If you kept a log online, please share or forward it to me. If your log is on paper, you can either take pictures of it and send them to me or count up the number of workouts by type (runs, bike rides, etc), the length of time spent working out, and the average intensity number for your workouts and send that information along to me. We're most interested in the period from June to now, but include whatever time frame you've been keeping track of. 

Captains - In a normal year we'd know who the team captains are by the first day of school. That may or may not be the case this year but we'd like to be able to share this information at the first day of practice. If you're interested in being a captain, please let me know when you share your training log information. 

Pre-run warmup - In a normal year (sense a pattern here?) we begin practice with a fairly thorough warmup routine that includes various joint mobility and core strengthening exercises. If you remember this routine from past experience, you're welcome to recreate as much of it as you can reasonably do on your own. The hope is that you can at least do the plank, lunge matrix, and leg swings at the start of the day's workout. 

Post-run SAM - In a normal year we finish off each day's workout with a brief circuit of strength and mobility exercises (SAM). This is done mainly to help with injury prevention. If you've been on the team in the past you may remember how to do these exercises; some of them have links to videos that can be watched to explain what they are. Anything that you don't recognize or remember, either ask me for clarification or skip it. 

Burpees - We've established that burpees are an effective and simple way to build core strength in a functional way that can be helpful to runners. I would ask that for these first few weeks you begin a regimen of doing burpees on three non-consecutive days each week. Start by doing 4 burpees every 30 seconds. The best way to do this is to have a watch or timer set up to beep every 30 seconds, which is the signal to start. Whatever time is left over after completing the four burpees is recovery before the next round. For the first week, 5 or 6 rounds of this is sufficient. 

Watches - It should be clear from looking at the training guidelines that workouts are measured in time, not distance. I don't have athletes run for 2, 5, or 8 miles because this distance might take one athlete significantly longer than it would take someone else. In order to keep track of time you need a watch, more specifically a digital wristwatch with both a stopwatch and countdown timer function. The cross country and track teams share a supply of these watches that are available for use by team members who don't own one of their own. In a normal year watches would be distributed on the first day of practice to those who need one. If you don't have access to a digital wristwatch let me know and I'll see what can be done to provide you with one. 

Cross training - Exercise activities that are similar to running can be a valuable way to get a good workout without the pounding and injury risk that comes with running a high volume. In a normal year, we would be employing the elliptigo bikes and aquajogging in Lake Cochituate during the first few weeks of practice (and beyond). The elliptigo bikes are inaccessible for the time being but we hope to have them available starting the first full week of practice on September 21st. Aquajogging is something that shouldn't be undertaken without supervision by a lifeguard or adult certified in lifesaving techniques. If you have that kind of supervision then by all means take advantage of it, especially on hot days. Remember that when we do aquajogging it's typically for 10-20 minutes (occasionally more for athletes who are trying to avoid overuse injuries), this time comes out of the day's run. We also try to alternate bursts of higher and lower effort, for example 30 seconds easier alternating with 30 seconds harder. A watch with a countdown timer makes this easy to keep track of.  

Meet schedule - At this time, I honestly have no idea if the original meet schedule will be followed, even in part, or if everything will be reshuffled. The original schedule is still listed on this website but consider it very tentative and subject to substantial change. The likelihood is that meets will be conducted far differently from what you're used to. Stay tuned. When we become aware of when and how meets will be conducted that information will be shared here.