I've been trying out the Jack Daniels' Running Formula with my Distance runners on our T&F team this past season and have seen some great results. I'm trying to use it to prep a summer program to get ready for XC, but I'm honestly not sure how they're supposed to be reaching the suggested mileage based on the guidelines.
For example, Phase 2 of the XC program suggests one Long Run, 3 Easy Runs (with strides), and 3 Quality (Speed/Repetition) workouts each week. It suggests that the long run be no longer than 25% of the weekly mileage and that each Repetition day be no more than 5% of the weekly mileage.
So for a 40/Week runner, that's a long run of 8 miles and 1.5 miles of speedwork three times per week, for a total of 12.5/40 miles. That's 27.5 miles that needs to be spread over the remaining three "Easy" days, but that's over 9 miles per day, which ends up being longer than a long run. My assumption is that each Quality day should include a few easy miles as a pre-workout warm-up, which would cut the remaining mileage needed down to around 6 per "Easy" run, but figured I'd see if anyone has any experience or suggestions with it.
I was also considering trying out his White/Red/Blue fitness programs for some athletes; anyone have any recommendations here? I typically end up with several kids who are pretty inexperienced runners, and figure something like the White/Red plan would be great for easing them in to the sport and developing some basic fitness.
Thanks!