I'm 15 year old girl and do xc and outdoor track. But, I completely lost on what to do for off-season training. I have been running easy runs 5-6 days a week for the past 4 weeks. I have done a couple strength training sessions every other week.
Should I do any speed work? Would it be beneficial to do strides at the end of my runs? I really have no idea what works or what I should do. I do not have any resources around me, so any advice would be helpful!
Add 1 tempo workout per week and do 4-8 100m strides after your easy runs. gradually progress mileage and eventually make one of your easy runs a long run with moderate surges
Train like Jakob. All threshold, all the time. Buffer that lactate.
jabbathehut4444 wrote:
Add 1 tempo workout per week and do 4-8 100m strides after your easy runs. gradually progress mileage and eventually make one of your easy runs a long run with moderate surges
Perfect -- maybe not every easy run but 2-3 times/week. Make sure the tempo is a legit tempo -- i.e. you're not racing these workouts. Now is the time to build some strength. Start with ~5k-6k worth of volume & try to build to 8k. You can do straight tempos (5k-6k @ T), broken tempos (3 x 2k @ T or 3 x 7:00-10:00 @ T w./ short jogging rest), or cruise intervals (5-6 x 1k @ T w./ short rest). Paces shouldn't be anywhere close to your 5k. A session like that & a healthy dose of strides (can also do some 150s/200s/300s every other week around mile/3k pace) each week will leave you ready for the race specific workouts you'll move onto in the spring.
M- Tempo, alternating NERunner’s continuous tempo and broken/cruise tempo workouts above
Tu- Short easy day plus strides at the end, or cross train (bike/swim/elliptical), 10-20 push-ups and 50-100 crunches
W- Speed development day— 4-6 x 50m all-out, alternating weeks w/ 4-6 x 8-12 seconds all-out up a steep hill. Both with 5 minutes easy recovery in between.
Th- Medium distance day (second longest run of the week), with the second half run a little harder if feeling good.
F- Short easy day plus strides at the end, or cross train (bike/swim/elliptical), 10-20 push-ups and 50-100 crunches
Sa- Long run (longest run of the week) plus strides at the end
Su- Short easy day, or cross-train (bike/swim), or entirely off
Be sure to run your easy days truly easy and take days off from running when you need.
What the actual distances of your easy and longer runs should be, what volumes and paces of your workouts are appropriate, and how many days you should run versus cross train versus take off is dependent on tour training and racing history.
You should CC ski if it’s available to you. Better for running than running in my opinion.
Hey! I’d be more than happy to help you out if you’re in need of some guidance. Write me an email henry@runlinecoaching.com and we can talk through some more details.
What's this off season you're talking about? If you're even a semi-serious runner there isn't really such a thing.