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.