HS XC Seaon: What do you do over the last 10 days for "sharpening"?

bump.. anyone?

7x9 hour sleep

Start 3 weeks before your most important meet. Depends on training & workouts during season.

3weeks+High mileage & hardest workout(4xmile, 1st 2@PR pace, last 2 @ GOAL pace)

2weeks EASY less mileage & less intensity...20 min Tempo, 8x400@5k pace

1week EASY

Race Week PEAK WHEN IT COUNTS A GAME

Save your best stuff for your races. Your hardest week will be 3 weeks before your most important meet. That gives you plenty of time to recover and be fresh at your meet.

PS- this is based on

Theory

…

Theory of Supercompensation

In sports science, supercompensation theory asserts that an athlete who pairs their training load with the proper recovery time will not only return to their performance base level, but will develop the capacity for a higher level of performance.

This would greatly depend on the team that I am coaching that year. It varies from year to year and what I have seen that brings the most success to the current group.

It’s high school, you race probability 8-12 times a season. You are already sharp.

Week of the race do like 4x1k at threshold and then 4x200m at mile pace and you are good to go

This is a horrible idea. You can look up some of the research and application done my Inigo Mujika. You want to keep intensity and lower volume. If you do not keep intensity, you will lose fitness. Volume should drop but frequency remain about the same.

Ever wonder how those athletes and teams always seem to come out of nowhere and beat the athletes/teams that should win??

It's not an accident.

Super Compensation. The work has already been done. Now you're ready to rock!

I really dislike the idea of just jogging around for a week. Seems like you'd go into the race sluggish. I want to do something up tempo just not a lot of it.

i don't think anybody is arguing about the idea of super compensation. they just don't agree with your path to get there. 10-14 days is fine. less volume, slightly more intensity.

Depending on the runner and the mileage:

Cut mileage by about 10-20%. Cut the long run a couple miles. Cut the easy days a mile or so. Gentle changes.

I’ll assume that you are racing weekly in high school, so no need for any additional hard workouts.

Maybe 5 days prior to the race, something like a couple 200’s and maybe 4-6x 800m tempo with a couple minutes rest. That assume that your regular weekly tempo is tougher/more volume than that.

Rest day two days prior.

Day before is a couple miles easy and some strides or warmup drills. That’s it.

Basically just do what you normally do, just a bit less for some extra recovery.

You've been training all season.

Summer mileage

3 week cycles during season;

easy, medium, hard

5 weeks with Tempo & 1500 effort

Into

10 weeks of Tempo & Race Pace Intervals

Last 3 weeks hard, medium, easy

Championship Meets

Training is for competing at your highest level during your championship meets; Conference, Section, State, Nationals.

TLDR: You've already done the work all season. You're ready.

It’s high school, so I’m assuming you’re racing a qualifier (regional/sectional) 5k the Saturday before your goal (state) 5k, which will also be a Saturday.

On the Sunday before your qualifier 5k, do 10-20% less than your normal long run (ie, if you usually run 10, do 8-9 instead).

Get in two decent workouts the week before the qualifier 5k:

-Monday: 400-800-1200-1600-1200-800-400 @ mile-5k-10k-tempo-10k-5k-mile effort (all w/ 90s recovery)

Wednesday: 3 x mile @ tempo effort, 4 x 200 (all w/ 60s recovery)

Do normal volume Tuesday, but the Thursday and Friday before your qualifier 5k should both be shorter than your usual easy runs.

Qualifier 5k on Saturday.

Drop your Sunday long run volume by 30-40% the Sunday before your goal race (ie, if you usually run 10, run 6 or 7).

Take Monday off.

Run a good sharpener with light volume on Tuesday: 3 x 800 @ 3k effort for 800 #1, then 3k effort for 600/mile for 200 for #2, then 3k effort for 400/mile effort for 200/hard for 200 for #3 (all w/ 3-4 minutes easy jogging recovery)

Run a normal volume easy day Wednesday, take Thursday off, and then run a shorter than usual easy day day the Friday before your goal race.

Blast your goal race.