Name: wrote:
Times are getting way faster for both boys and girls in the US. I was wondering what training looks like for your current varsity girls team (as a coach or athlete). My top 10-12 are averaging around 45-50 mpw during the summer. We have a few tempo runs each week but are focused on dropping our training pace which is around 8:00-8:15/mile except for easy runs. Thanks for taking the time to respond.
I'll contribute. I have shared your concern about dropping training pace. The conclusion we've come to is to make sure that any planned workouts are quality, and to not fret too much about about the days after. We also use 'medium' pace to designate days that should not be too slow. We realize that a slower, recovery-paced "friend run" can do quite a bit to help the culture of the team. Long runs are viewed as a workout, but not every week.
For our top 10 or so:
July/August - 2 week cycle, steadily increasing volume of overall mileage and volume of each workout:
1-2 hill sprint days (for example - 45' total minutes of easy/medium pace running + 8 x 8" hill sprints with 2' rest)
1 x hill repeat or flat 1500-pace repeat workout
1 x 20-30' fartlek with fast portions alternating between 5k pace and ~3k pace
1 x workout at ~90% of 5k pace - something like 5 x 1k, 1' rest or 4'/1' for the slower kids
1 x 4-5 mile hilly tempo run
1 x long run extending the previous cycle's duration (usually by increments of 10')
1 x long run with the last 20-30 minutes 'hard'
(so one week we'll extend from 75-85' easy for example, then the next week, 60' easy/medium and the last 25' 'hard')
The in-between days are easy/medium runs. We don't meet with them for those runs to keep it low key. Mileage currently for the top runners is ~40 mpw. The girls are also doing x-training doubles - lots of pool-running, spinning, and other stuff. The goal is to get at least 500 minutes per week combined of running and x-training.
Nothing special here - but consistency is king.
As we get closer to championship season, the '90% of 5k pace' workout will turn into continuous tempo runs (usually a low-key dual meet). We'll use a workout with longer repeats that'll start a little slower than 5k pace and work down to a little faster, and a workout with shorter repeats that'll start at 5k pace and work down to 1500m pace. We also won't abandon the hill sprints. This part of the season is not written out too specifically because it's important to base the training on the needs of each athlete.