NEED ADVICE ON TWO-A-DAYS

Whatever you can do is helpful. My only recommendation is that only do this if you are doing high mileage. This summer I would do 4 in the AM and 4 in the PM. I regret this becuase I think it wasn't very helpful, but if you are trying to get 70-80 then a day like 4-8 would be good. Get as many in singles as you can though, and then add doubles.

run faster than a 9 minute pace if you wanna be 16 mids. better yet dont even think about yet you have track to worry about.

I was just going to do the afternoon 4 miles in the 9 minute pace range. My normal runs are in the high 6's for 6 miles and low 7's for 8-9 miles

i'd suggest increasing your mileage by about 5-8 miles each week, with the following:

1. one long run each week. 18-22% of your weekly mileage. example: 50 mile week is a long run of 9-11 miles.

2. day after your long run, run 5-6 miles and finish on the track. take your shoes off and run 2 miles barefoot, pushing 100m (at 400m pace) with 300m jog recovery. do a 1 mile cool down (barefoot or in shoes, your choice).

with these 2 workouts you will be working on aerobic development and speed/ anaerobic-glycolysis development.

so let's say you do your 10 miler on sunday, and your 6 mile run with 100's and cool down on tuesday, you're at 19 miles for the week thus far. that leaves you 5 days to run 31 miles, which is an average of approx. 6 miles a day. i'd alternate between 5 and 7 for the remainder of the week. as the summer progresses, add a 3 mile tempo run. a tempo run is also referred to as a threshold run. run for 20 minutes at about 85% maximum heart rate. do a warm up and cool down also. that could be about 8 miles total.

a 10 week progression would look like this:

week #, mpw, long run, additional workout:

week 01 35; 7-8

week 02 40; 8-9

week 03 45; 9-10

week 04 50; 9-11

week 05 55; 10-12 20 minute tempo run

week 06 60; 11-13; 20 minute tempo run

week 07 65; 12-14; 20 minute tempo run

week 08 70; 12-15; 25 minute tempo run

week 09 70; 12-15; 25 minute tempo run

week 10 70; 12-15; 25 minute tempo run

notice that a 9 mile long run is sufficient for weeks 2,3, and 4. however, increasing it will help you greatly. same thing with the 12 mile long run, which is sufficient for weeks 5 through 10. it may seem like a lot now, but if you gradually build up, your body will adapt and acknowledge the stimulus and prepare itself. it will learn to handle the newly acquired stress, and after 3 weeks will become accustomed to the long run, as well as the tempo runs. talk to your coach too. if your coach doesn't know anything about coaching cross country, find a coach in your league who might allow you to train with his team during the summer. he'd probably appreciate having an extra runner to work with.

Thanks for the extra advice, also is it bad if I "only" run 6 times a week. I find that if I pull a 7 day week my body burns out. In fact 3 times during my track season build up alone, I "burned out" so to speak which set me back by about 10 days each. My body just seems to have a hard time with high mileage

Try a real slow relaxing jog on your seventh day or maybe a light cross-training session if you'd rather not run. I often do not run on sundays, just to relax and let my body recover.

just curious, I love going on long walks, are there any benefits to that, I would think on the recovery aspect, that it would boost circulation in the legs

XCMiler wrote:

Thanks for the extra advice, also is it bad if I "only" run 6 times a week. I find that if I pull a 7 day week my body burns out. In fact 3 times during my track season build up alone, I "burned out" so to speak which set me back by about 10 days each. My body just seems to have a hard time with high mileage

what's your pace been as you've built up and burned out? maybe you need to build up more conservatively

Do the math. One day off every week means that you start your yearly calendar with a minimum of 52 off days. It all depends on your goals. If you really want to be good, you have to run; a lot more than 35 mpw and more than 6 runs per week. Where do you run? Don't you have a coach? That's the best place to start with these issues.

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what's your pace been as you've built up and burned out? maybe you need to build up more conservatively[/quote]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking, I build up pretty quickly

google "summer of malmo"

I'd slow down your easy days; sub-7 minute pace isn't recovery mileage if you're racing 3 miles at 5:20-5:30 pace. If you back off and do your recovery days in the 7:30-8:15 range, I bet you find that the "burnout" problem you've been having disappears.

My recommended 50 mpw high school summer base schedule:

M-6 steady, strides

Tu-8, alternating weekly between these two workouts:

1) 20-30 mins 50-55s/mile slower than current 5k race pace

2) 3-4 x mile 25-35s/mile slower than current 5k race pace w/ 90s recovery

W-8, w/ 4 mile warmup progressing from easy to steady, then 8 x 100 w/ 300 SLOW jog recovery starting @ 1500 pace and working down to 400 pace (although if that causes the athlete to press, he/she should back off to 800 pace or as slow as is necessary not to press), finishing w/ 2 mile easy warmdown

Th-6 steady, strides

F-3 easy

Sa-8, alternating weekly between these two worklouts:

1) 5-8 x long hills (at least 400 meters long, but 600-800 would be ideal--and if the hills around you are shorter, be creative: continue over the top for 200 meters if your hill is 300 meters. Or go to a parking garage!) done at an effort slightly harder than workout two on Tuesday. Take easy jogdown recovery.

2) 10 x 400 @ current 3k pace w/ equal time slow jogging recovery.

Su-11 easy, strides

To reach 70 miles, add 5 4-mile morning runs. This last part is VERY important: Be honest with yourself about your fitness and don't run your workouts too hard and you will have a killer XC season. Run your workouts too hard and your season won't be as good as it could be, and you could suffer from burnout again.