The first full week of practice is a busy one, and includes the eagerly anticipated first appearance of the prize bag and the only scheduled practice at Lincoln on Saturday (this is an optional practice). First a few housekeeping issues, this will be a long post but the information needs to be put out there:
- Practice Time: unless otherwise noted (see Saturday), practice will start at 3:30 PM. More on the length of practice can be found in the Team Policies and FAQ document under Useful LInks on the right.
- Shoes: In the past, the team has had an optional "Spike Night" at Marathon Sports in Wellesley where WHS team members got a 20% diiscount on all purchases. Among the running related items for sale at this store are training shoes, accessories, and racing shoes, AKA "spikes" because they can accommodate metal spike elements in the sole for better traction on race courses. Race shoes are not a requirement for participation, and Spike Night was never a mandatory event. However if you need a new pair of shoes, socks, hydration tablets, sunglasses, clothes, even racing shoes it might be worth your while. There is no specific night for each participating school this year like there has been in the past. Instead, for this week only they will be offering a 20% discount on purchases by high school runners. I assume this applies to all locations throughout the area and not just the one in Wellesley. Note that the Wellesley location is a small store with limited occupancy and they will most likely have you wait in line outside on the sidewalk until there’s room inside.
- Masks: Board of Health regulations stipulate masks must be worn at all times while on school grounds. On the first day of practice there were athletes who encountered difficulty with running at anything faster than a jog while breathing through a mask, with the mask fabric collapsing inward and obstructing breathing. Most of the home course is on school grounds and I have no expectation of the Board of Health modifying their policy; in the meantime we're actively pursuing various options. One intriguing possibility is wearing a mask bracket under the mask to create space between the mouth and nose and the mask itself. This would prevent the mask material from collapsing and obstructing breathing when inhaling. While nothing has yet been decided it's possible we will purchase brackets for team members to wear under their masks. More details to come. In the meantime if you'd like to have a bracket of your own feel free to order whatever looks best, they're typically not that expensive.
- Pods: Finally before getting to the week's training, a reminder that the pods need to be named no later than Thursday of this week. The members of the pod with the best name will be rewarded at practice on Friday. The composition of each pod is listed in the post preceding this one.
Monday 9/21 - Team warmup routine followed by cyclic long run. Remember the pattern is to do the first segment at an easy intensity, the next segment at a fresh/moderate intensity, and the next segment after that at a "good" intensity. On a scale of 1-10, the effort would be 3-5-7 or 4-6-8. The easy/fresh/good cycle gets repeated three more times over the course of the entire run. Level by level it looks like this:
Level 1: 36 minutes (3 minute segments)Level 2: 48 minutes (4 minute segments)
Level 3: 60 minutes (5 minute segments)
Level 4: 72 minutes (6 minute segments)
The site for this run will start out along the Hultman Aqueduct for all groups. There will be at least one water stop for everyone. At every water stop and road crossing where you stop running, be sure to stop your watch as well. Many of you will run out and back along this prominent landscape feature; Level 4 athletes have the option of visiting some trails near the Aqueduct in the Wayland/Weston town line area.
Tuesday 9/22 - Team warmup including burpees followed by a short run at a mostly easy to moderate intensity. Ideally the pace of the run should pick up gradually in the second half, but not to a crazy degree. Total length of the run today is as follows:
Level 1: 20-25 minutes
Level 2: 25-30 minutes
Level 3: 35-40 minutes
Level 4: 45-50 minutes
Wednesday 9/23 - Team warmup then Tempo run. The plan is to split the overall length of the run into three equal parts by time--a warmup segment to start, the tempo segment in the middle, then a cooldown segment at the end. The warmup should start easy and gradually work up to a moderate effort. The cooldown should be easy. The tempo segment in the middle should be run at a 7.5-8 out of 10 effort level. The overall length of the run will be as follows:
Level 1 - 25-30 minutes
The site of this workout is TBD, but I can say it won't be on campus.
Thursday 9/24 - Team warmup including burpees followed by a short run incorporating hill drills. In all likelihood we'll do the drills on Wallace Road. Total length of the run today is as follows:
Level 1: 20-25 minutes
Level 2: 25-30 minutes
Level 3: 35-40 minutes
Level 4: 45-50 minutes
Friday 9/25 - Team warmup followed by a medium length run at an easy effort for those planning on going to the practice in Lincoln tomorrow. Those not planning on being at Lincoln tomorrow will do the following:
Timed repeats of 3 minutes in length. Each repeat should follow this pattern: first two minutes "CV pace," next minute at race pace (hard). The CV pace is the same 85-90% effort you were running on the track last Friday. Race pace should be 90-95% effort. The recovery after each repeat is 3 minutes of very easy jogging/fast walking. Number of reps as follows:
Level 1: 4 reps (warmup and cooldown of 5-6 minutes apiece)
Level 2: 5 reps (warmup and cooldown of 5-6 minutes apiece)
Level 3: 6 reps (warmup and cooldown of 6-8 minutes apiece)
Level 4: 6 reps (warmup and cooldown of 8-10 minutes apiece)
We'll do this workout on the fields on either side of the football field/track area, where much of the home course is as well.
Sat 9/26 - For those attending the practice in Lincoln, meet at the Lincoln Station parking lot (address 145 Lincoln St. Lincoln MA) at 9 AM. From there we'll jog over to the field next to Mt. Misery and do the workout listed below (the same workout the rest of the team did yesterday):
Timed repeats of 3 minutes in length. Each repeat should follow this pattern: first two minutes "CV pace," next minute at race pace (hard). The CV pace is the same 85-90% effort you were running on the track last Friday. Race pace should be 90-95% effort. The recovery after each repeat is 3 minutes of very easy jogging/fast walking. Number of reps as follows:
Level 1: 4 reps (warmup and cooldown of 5-6 minutes apiece)
Level 2: 5 reps (warmup and cooldown of 5-6 minutes apiece)
Level 3: 6 reps (warmup and cooldown of 6-8 minutes apiece)
Level 4: 6 reps (warmup and cooldown of 8-10 minutes apiece)
Sunday 9/27 - off
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