Graham Blanks REVEALS the KILLER workout that let him know he was ready to repeat as NCAA XC champ

LetsRun.com wrote:

Blanks revealed that in 2023 he did some 800s then 3 x 2 mile in 9:15, 9:00, 8:36 "on this loop that's like kind of a hill." What did he do for an encore in 2024?

Link:www.letsrun.com/news/2024/12/graham-bl...

So we started off with a hard K and I ran 2:31 on the grass and that freaking hurt. I did not expect that to hurt that bad. And then we just did some K's. We did four K's, I did them at like 2:50 on the grass with a minute rest. And then we went on the loop and did a 3k and I ran a 7:57.

And that was without Acer. So that was the best workout I probably had. And then I went back and ran a cutdown mile and ran a 4:14. But the 3k, that was the hard rep. After the K's, everyone kind of knew what was coming up. Everyone's like, all right he's about to give us something where we just need to run hard. The guys on the team ran that [rep] fast too. I'm pretty sure most, if not half, ran sub-9:00 pace for the 3200 --

jcwoijfea;d wrote:

Warren Workout wrote:

I thought distance runners aren’t supposed to kill ourselves in workouts. Have we been misled?

You're not supposed to kill yourself in regular workouts, but you also need at least a few full efforts (either with prep races or workouts) in order to perform at your best when it counts the most.

Many college programs now only really race hard 1-2 times before the Championship season, and then run their conference and regional meets in a way that they believe will best set themselves up for success at NCAAs (meaning if they have an opportunity to not go full-bore but still get what they need out of a meet, they will likely take it).

There is also no indication that Blanks runs workouts like this very often. It reminds me of the Nico Young workout where he blazed at 2k at 7000ft (amongst some other reps) in preparation for his indoor 5k record. Mike Smith said they don't do work like that often, but when they do, it is pretty serious business, and pretty much only en lieu of a prep race.

Cisco55776 wrote:

jcwoijfea;d wrote:

You're not supposed to kill yourself in regular workouts, but you also need at least a few full efforts (either with prep races or workouts) in order to perform at your best when it counts the most.

Many college programs now only really race hard 1-2 times before the Championship season, and then run their conference and regional meets in a way that they believe will best set themselves up for success at NCAAs (meaning if they have an opportunity to not go full-bore but still get what they need out of a meet, they will likely take it).

There is also no indication that Blanks runs workouts like this very often. It reminds me of the Nico Young workout where he blazed at 2k at 7000ft (amongst some other reps) in preparation for his indoor 5k record. Mike Smith said they don't do work like that often, but when they do, it is pretty serious business, and pretty much only en lieu of a prep race.

I don't know, I'm somewhat familiar with Harvard's training, and while this may be a somewhat harder than usual workout, I think they do hard workouts like this pretty often.

I think it's worth acknowledging that Harvard's training is actually pretty different from the way most teams train and what most would consider conventional training wisdom.