I just finished my freshman cross country season. It did not go well at all. I ran 17:04 on a fast course and that was about the only good race I had. I finished the season with a disappointing regionals performance where I only ran 18:06 and finished outside the top 100 on a muddy, hilly course. I’m going to be using this thread to log my training from now on. Feel free to check in I’ll probably post it once a week. To start off, I’m going to take 2 weeks off with only cross training.
11/1: 15 mile bike ride, lift, and core work
11/2: 12 mile bike ride, core work and mobility
11/3: 14 mile bike ride, core work
11/4: Ran a mile pr of 4:53.03 but I wasn't racing and gave nowhere near max effort, core work
11/5: 5 mile bike ride, hike, core work
11/6: 22 mile bike ride, core work
11/7: 30 mile bike ride, core work, lift
11/8: 5k run (22:10), 5 mile bike ride, core work
It felt really weird doing a real run for the first time on Sunday. Aerobically it felt good but my legs felt bad running because they weren't used to it and they were sore from the bike ride and lift on Saturday. I'm running Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday this week just 5ks every time. Next week I'll do 35 miles of all easy mileage. I'm excited to start building a base for track.
Are you European, no?
Then say 3.1 miles not 5k
Great job on the PR! That sure is a lot of core work.? Keep it up!
Monday: 5k in 20:48, easy lift, core
Tuesday: 20 mile bike ride, core
Wednesday: 5k in 18:59, 12 mile bike ride, core
Thursday: 5k in 21:20, 4 mile bike ride, core
Friday: 2 miles in 14:10 + 3x400, 1x600 (74,73,71, 1:48), core
Saturday: 5k in 20:25, core
Sunday: 5 miles in 37:38
This week I wasn't forcing anything and I was just getting back into running. I have the chance to race in a 3200 on the 21st so I did a light workout on Friday just to move a little faster. I took it really easy on Sunday to make sure I am ready to go for this week. I'm really excited to start building up a solid base for track. My legs are finally back under me and I honestly feel like I lost almost nothing aerobically.
Any specific goal for the 3200? At this point even if you don't hit some arbitrary goal dont beat yourself up abt a November track race
Curiosity wrote:
Any specific goal for the 3200? At this point even if you don't hit some arbitrary goal dont beat yourself up abt a November track race
I'm not too worried about times. I mostly want to get the experience of a high school track race and get my training paces for my workouts. I have low 10s to sub 10 in mind but I'm not too worried about it.
Monday: 5.8 miles with the first 4 as a progression (6:58, 6:38, 6:18, 5:58), strides, core
Tuesday: 4.25 miles in 31:34, strides, core
Wednesday: 1 mile warmup, 3 miles easy tempo run (5:56, 5:43, 5:43), core
Thursday: 4 miles in 29:30
Friday: 4.5 miles with 6x30s surges throughout (31:49)
Saturday: 10 min morning shakeout, 10 min warmup, 3200 race (10:23), 10 min cooldown
Sunday: 7 miles in 54:50, core
Monday's progression felt really good. I felt like I wasn't ever giving more effort during it just feeling better and better. The tempo on Wednesday was supposed to be 6:05-5:55-5:45 but I ended up going a bit faster and only really started to get tired with 600m to go. The race went pretty well. I got out under control and in a good position but I did get outkicked by a kid I wanted to beat. I did beat the only other freshman in the race and he had a better xc pr than me so I feel like that's good. This race really helped me figure out what I want to do this season and that is to go sub 4:40 in the 1600 and be a top 10 freshman in the state in the 3200.
10:23 is a very good showing. Congrats on that.
This is something I would do, assuming you run with a GPS watch; on workouts like tempos or fartleks, turn it onto timer mode. You can analyze the pace after, but learning to run tempo off of evaluating the effort during the workout is a good skill to practice. The last thing you want to do is to be hammering a tempo to try and hit a certain pace on your watch.
Monday: Easy 10k (43:00) + Strides
Tuesday: Easy 4.5 (33:34)
Wednesday: 1mi warmup 1x1600 3x800 2x200 1 mi cooldown
Thursday: Easy 4 (29:15)
Friday: 1 mi warmup 2x300m 4x250m 10x200m 4x150m 1 mi cooldown
Saturday: 6 miles with 8x30s surges throughout (41:30)
Sunday: 8 miles with middle 4 @ Tinman Tempo (54:21)
39 total miles
On Monday I felt amazing and my heart rate was only 140. Tuesday I made sure to take it super easy because I had a workout Wednesday. This workout went super well. I hit 5:35, 2:40, 2:38, 2:26, 32, 32. I kept it under control the whole time except the last lap of the 3rd 800 because I wanted to feel it a little bit, still no lactic though. There was sideways rain the whole time and 15 mph winds down the final 100m of each lap. Thursday was just a nice easy run. Friday I absolutely hated the workout even though I was the one who made it >:( I was hitting about 4:40-5:00 pace on everything if that means anything. Saturday was good I tried to pick a hilly route but it only ended up being 200 ft. of elevation. Sunday did not go great. I was going about 5:58 pace for the first 2 then my arms started to feel really dead and I had to stop for a minute and then jog .5. After that I did do 1 more tempo mile at like 5:55.
What are you training for right now? Sorry if I missed it, but two interval sessions seems excessive for it being the beginning for most people’s track base phase.
Okay, I kind of read through all of what you posted so far.
You remind me of myself a couple years ago, and if I could go back in time this is what I would tell myself.
1. Run tempos off of feel, set the watch to timer and analyze later. Idk what “tinman tempo” conversion you were using, but you just got off of a break and the tempo pace seems a bit fast. Running them off of feel now, and learning the pace will benefit you greatly.
2. Keep the easy days EASY. Sure, some days 7 flat or under will feel good, and truly easy so run that pace. But with a PR of 17 flat, I think you would benefit with your runs being at 5k + 2 mins on those days between workouts, maybe even SLOWER - STOP STARING AT THE DAMN WATCH.
3. Save the intervals (aside from speed economy I.E, 150s-300s w/ long rest) for later. Do more tempos, thresholds, and long runs now. This will get you strong and build a much better base than being on the track 2-3x a week in the offseason.
JustAnotherRunner123 wrote:
Monday: Easy 10k (43:00) + Strides
Tuesday: Easy 4.5 (33:34)
Wednesday: 1mi warmup 1x1600 3x800 2x200 1 mi cooldown
Thursday: Easy 4 (29:15)
Friday: 1 mi warmup 2x300m 4x250m 10x200m 4x150m 1 mi cooldown
Saturday: 6 miles with 8x30s surges throughout (41:30)
Sunday: 8 miles with middle 4 @ Tinman Tempo (54:21)
39 total miles
On Monday I felt amazing and my heart rate was only 140. Tuesday I made sure to take it super easy because I had a workout Wednesday. This workout went super well. I hit 5:35, 2:40, 2:38, 2:26, 32, 32. I kept it under control the whole time except the last lap of the 3rd 800 because I wanted to feel it a little bit, still no lactic though. There was sideways rain the whole time and 15 mph winds down the final 100m of each lap. Thursday was just a nice easy run. Friday I absolutely hated the workout even though I was the one who made it >:( I was hitting about 4:40-5:00 pace on everything if that means anything. Saturday was good I tried to pick a hilly route but it only ended up being 200 ft. of elevation. Sunday did not go great. I was going about 5:58 pace for the first 2 then my arms started to feel really dead and I had to stop for a minute and then jog .5. After that I did do 1 more tempo mile at like 5:55.
Excellent.
Even more impressive in the difficult conditions.
You are on path to a very successful track season.
I agree with what you were saying colelilo. My friend wanted me to do a workout with him on Wednesday, and on Friday I was feeling thanksgiving dinner or I would’ve done hills. This week I’m doing 3x2k @ threshold on a dirt loop, and 3x800m hills just by feel as my workouts. Those are probably better workouts for this point in the offseason right?
Monday: 6.61 miles in 47:43
Tuesday: 40 mins easy (5.26) + strides
Wednesday: 3x1.17-1.18 mile loop (5:55 pace, 5:59 pace, 6:12 pace)
Thursday: 40 mins easy (5.44)
Friday: 3x800m hill with jog down recovery (2:53, 2:49, 2:46)
Saturday: 6 miles easy 43:23
Sunday: 90 min long run (12.72 miles)
Monday was a really fun run I ran with a teammate through a snow storm. Tuesday I decided it might be a good idea on my easiest days to just multiply the amount of mileage I wanted to get done by 8 min pace and run for that time without looking at my watch, so I did that on Tuesday and Thursday. Wednesday's workout was not the best but I should have realized that my pace needed to start off slower because I was doing the reps off of 1:15 rest between. Fridays "workout" went really well I tried to really focus on having good form up the hill and not losing focus on that or slowing down towards the end of the reps. Saturday I went on a hillier easy run so it ended up being faster because I normally try to run up hills at a faster pace than I had been running. The long run on Sunday was super nice. I started off running like 7:15-7:30 pace for like the first 4 or 5 miles then dropped down to 6:55-7:00 pace for the next 5 or 6, then 6:45-6:30 on the last two miles then just jogged in the last little bit. I tried to follow some of the advice I got from my post last week on here during this week, and I feel like it turned into a really solid training week.
Good week. Don’t worry about hitting splits right now, just effort and consistency baby.
Very good in poor weather conditions...that's the way it was for us, so all you can do is keep going until you run an indoor race. We could usually find one in late Dec and early Jan during the holiday break (we didn't have an indoor track).
Monday: 50 mins easy with 5x15s strides in the last 2 miles (6.76 miles)
Tuesday: 40 mins easy with 5x15s strides after (5.67 miles)
Wednesday: 1mi warmup, 4x2 on 3 off fartlek (5:16, 5:14, 5:10, 5:17 on the ons) 4x200 relaxed @ 33, 34, 33, 33, 1 mile cooldown
Thursday: 40 mins easy (5.41 miles)
Friday: 1 mile warmup, 4 mile tempo (6:04, 6:03, 5:59, 5:56) 1 mile cooldown
Saturday: 5.5 miles easy
Sunday: 13.05 long run in 91 mins
Felt pretty good about last week and I’m gonna take a slight down week this week to make sure I’m staying healthy. Starting to feel really good. Maybe slightly less sharp than I was a couple weeks ago because I was just coming off xc season. I’m doing a 1600 tt on the 31st.
Good week.
You said you are a freshman and it looked like that last week was almost 50 what do you plan on building up to I wouldn't go above 50 till sophomore year