Championship time is here. NCAAs, state meets, NTN, Footlocker. I have had pretty good success getting runners to hit a peak in track, but cross has been pretty hit and miss for my squads. I'd like to throw out what my girl who will be running the CA state meet this weekend has done (which is only slightly different from previous years) and let the wisdom of the board analyze it. I will include sample weeks from earlier in the season as well.
This is for a freshman girl who is in her first year of cross but has a 5:30 mile under her belt from junior high.
Summer: Built to about 25 miles a week. Week included
1. 1 day of moderate tempo, about 3 miles worth
2. 1 day of a short run followed by 1200 worth of drills and 1200 worth of stride the straight and jog the turn, followed by 4 x 200 @ mile pace
3. 1 longish run which was up to 6 miles
Practice prior to the racing season and into the first 3 weeks of racing (up to end of Sep)
M: 2.5 mile warm up to hills 3-4 sets of 300-200-100m hill with a jog back down. Jog back to school
T: 15 min jog, stretch, drills, water, 4 miles easy, weights
W: Cruise intervals totaling 3 miles or time trial. 1.5 mile w/u and c/d, or league competition
Th: Same as tues
F: Cruise intervals (if tt on wed) totaling 3 miles or short run (3-4 miles) then a small amount of work at 5k pace (1x1200, 1x800, for example)
S: 30 min easy (progressed to 45 as the season went on)
S: Off
Mid Season: Starting with Clovis Invite, sat 10/11.
Sat: 5k in 20:14. Splits of 6:03, 6:57, 7:14 for last 1.1
Sun: Easy or off.
Mon: Steady state run on an 1100m hill loop with 1 monsterous hill. 25 min + 15 min wu, 10 min cd.
Tue: 4.3 miles easy + weights (drills are over now)
Wed: 2 mwu, 16x200 @ mile pace, 40 sec recovery (my girl missed the workout and had to run easy on her own this day)
Th: Team went long and easy, the girl we are referring to went 4 miles + 8 x 200 @ 41, with a 40 sec rest.
F: Girl went easy on her own again while team did 30 min easy + 3 x 400 @ mile pace with 400 jog.
S: Invite race where we practiced going out slow then moving up through the pack. Girl placed 12th of about 150 after coming through the mile in about 100th place.
"Peak" season
10/29 2nd place at league finals meet (21:01)
10/30 30 min easy + light weights
10/31 6 miles easy
11/1 2 mwu, 2 miles hard at 12:43 (6:33,6:10), rest 10 min, 1 mile at 6:07
11/2 Off
11/3 3.8 miles easy + 1 set of weight circuit
11/4 4 x 1200, 4 min recovery (4:37, 4:43, 4:32, 4:24 (spikes on last one)), 1.5 mile wu, .5 mile cd
11/5 Hill repeats, 8 x 200 with a 400 easy run back to the start. 2 mile wu and cd
11/6 30 min easy + 1 set of weight circuit
11/7 2.8 miles easy + 8 x 200 @ about 40 with 40 sec recovery
11/8 Sub Section meet. 3 miles on hard course 20:14 (times run pretty even with flatter 5k courses)
11/9 Off
11/10 4.4 miles easy no weights
11/11 1.5 mile wu,cd 3 x 1k (3:34, 3:35, 3:57) The girl was running way faster than she was supposed to, but I let her roll with it because she looked like she was handling it until the last 200, where she basically slowed to a jog.
11/12 1.5 mile wu, 4 x 1200 with 1 min rec (tempo effort) (4:58, 4:48, 4:54, 4:40) I was on her case to take it easy, and she said it felt like the easiest workout ever.
11/13 3.9 miles easy
11/14 2 miles wu + 6 x 200 with 40 sec recovery @ 40-36
11/15 Section Championship Meet @ 20:31 (course runs 63 seconds slower on average than our state meet course, plus it was really warm) 5th place
11/16 Off
11/17 6 miles easy
11/18 2.8 easy + 1200m of drills, + 1200 of stride straight, jog turn + 5 x 200
11/19 1.5 mile wu 4x1200 with 4-5 min recovery (4:45, 4:36, 4:43) cut it short due to upset stomach
11/20 3.9 miles @ 27 min
11/21 2 mile wu, 2 miles hard in 12:22, 10 min rec, 1 mile in 6:00
11/22 30 min very easy
11/23 off
11/24 2 mile wu, 6 x 400 with 300 jog (78,84,81,82,80,75)
She races this saturday. The last "workout" will be a moderate 2.8 mile tempo. Other runs will be 30 min easy with some possible 200's on the state course on friday afternoon.
Thoughts?