Coaches, what do you do with a Tuesday/ Saturday race week?

Two hard sessions a week is enough. Two races are certainly hard sessions. So just do them. There’s no such thing as a race being a “tempo.” Even so one tempo and one vo2 max run a week is plenty. Easy runs and strides is all you need in-between.

M- Easy + Strides

T- Race

W- Easy Longer Run

T- Easy + Strides

F- Pre Meet

S- Race

No one says you have to race your A Team on your Tuesday race, esp. if your Saturday race is important. Depending on the size & depth of your team, hold them out (if you want to).

But, using the Tuesday meet as a tempo run (in trainers) is also a really good option.

Here's a variation, your team tempo runs the race for two miles, then the last mile is a one-mile time trial. That's a good one!

Another variation: your team practices group running on the Tuesday race.

There's lots of options. The more talented your team, the more leeway you have.

high school xc coach wrote:

Say you are on a schedule of 40 to 50 mpw

What do you do on a week with a Tuesday/Saturday race week?

2 different scenarios.

a) both races are balls to the wall

b) Tuesday race is against weak competition, and is a glorified tempo. Saturday is still balls to the wall.

what do you do with the rest of the week, including any miles, strides, intervals, threshold, etc. I've gone in a couple different directions with this, but like to here how other coaches approach this.

assume the runner is strong and has been injury free for several months.

I'm not a coach (for what it's worth). It's hard to answer because it depends on so many things. Like where are you at in your season, where are your athletes at in their development, how do they mentally/physically recover from the stress of racing. I would take it on an athlete by athlete basis.

For a developing athlete more racing is probably a good thing if they can handle it. But you need to keep their emotions in check so they aren't drained after a few weeks.

For a more developed athlete they need to more carefully select their race efforts. If they can get through a weeknight race without pushing too hard then let them do it as a workout. But if not then just hold them out (and do something else).

In the scenario where we have to have the same kids race Tuesday and Saturday I would just treat the races as workout days.

Monday - easy with strides or XT

Tuesday - race (2 mile wu, 5k race, add in more workout if necessary, cd)

Wednesday - easy longer run with strides or hill sprints

Thursday - easy with strides

Friday - pre race easy with strides

Saturday - race (2 mile wu, 5k race, add in more workout if necessary, cd)

Sunday - easy long run with strides

a couple things I should mention. with the exception one kid, I have a really terrible team this year, just a bunch of nice kids who decided to do cross for whatever reason. I don't even think of doing any real work outside of the actual races.

in the past I have done 2 to 3 miles within an 8 miler at hypothetical m pace on a Thursday between races. I have also done things like adding 4x200 @ 800 to 1500 pace after the race.

I have also had kids who are 15:xx runners win a dual in 1830 and then do 2 more miles after the race at 6:00 pace.

we had 2 of these weeks this year. the first week there was no quality added to race days. we will have another double week in two weeks. 5 weeks before states.

it is a time trial type flat fast invite, so I will almost definitely do nothing but easy mileage between races. should be a feel good pr day for most of the team

high school xc coach wrote:

Say you are on a schedule of 40 to 50 mpw

What do you do on a week with a Tuesday/Saturday race week?

2 different scenarios.

a) both races are balls to the wall

b) Tuesday race is against weak competition, and is a glorified tempo. Saturday is still balls to the wall.

what do you do with the rest of the week, including any miles, strides, intervals, threshold, etc. I've gone in a couple different directions with this, but like to here how other coaches approach this.

assume the runner is strong and has been injury free for several months.

I was forced into that situation with a very small and inexperienced team when I first started coaching.

I approached it as a long run knowing they weren't doing much mileage. Monday was a short run with strides, Tuesday (5k race) was a long run which meant running the course twice, or 3 times for my better runners. Wednesday was an easy run and Thursday a quality day depending on what they needed. Saturday's races were usually 4ks.

When I coached better runners I liked doing quality runs back to back on Tuesday and Wednesday. I liked the extra day of recovery before a Saturday race day.