How many people advice only having two speed workouts a week in high school? Say for example they run something like this early in the season:
M- 45 minutes
Tu- 6x1k
W- 45 minutes
Th- 45 minutes
F- 5 mile tempo
Sa- 45 minutes
Su- 60 minutes
Then once racing starts, just replace the workouts with races. So for example, if your team has a duel meet on a Tuesday and an invite on a Saturday, should those be the only speed days of the week?
You could get something in on Thursday, unless you want to add some work at the end of the dual meet to make it a solid day. If your just doing Tu/SA then make Wed. a medium distance day or long progression run. TH/Fr can be easy recovery days, but put some emphasis on W/Su.
I am in my fourth year coaching and over time i got the schedule changed so that we only have meets on friday and saturday. And we have an off week before championship meets start. High school kids are raced to much in my opinion. No kid or parent really wants to go watch a race the coach is calling a workout all the time either. But personally i go with three hard days, three easy, and sundays off with my kids. The third hard day being a race usually.
dr. pepper wrote:
How many people advice only having two speed workouts a week in high school? Say for example they run something like this early in the season:
M- 45 minutes
Tu- 6x1k
W- 45 minutes
Th- 45 minutes
F- 5 mile tempo
Sa- 45 minutes
Su- 60 minutes
Then once racing starts, just replace the workouts with races. So for example, if your team has a duel meet on a Tuesday and an invite on a Saturday, should those be the only speed days of the week?
This implies you can get your team to run on their own on Sundays (which is always a tricky thing, unless your state allows Sunday practices).
Anyway, you can try Daniels' approach of back-to-back hard days. You know, for example, tempo run on T & mile repeats on W. I wouldn't do that all the time, but you might be able to once a month. Just make sure the workouts are NOT two hard workouts. You could do a medium workout, then the next day do the hard one.
And, don't forget, you can add something to the end of a workout. For example, do the five mile tempo run. Full recovery, then hill sprints.
Also, you can always use that dual meet as a workout. I like to use them that way. I'll have my runners do, two miles at tempo pace, then the last mile fast.
Good luck!
Don't have your kids race twice a week. My top runners race once every two weeks for most of the season. We either do two workouts and a race or three workouts, depending on the week.
Why bother, any program that includes 2 5k races per week is doomed for failure.
Trying to help optimize a schedule for it is like seperating crap into creamy and chunky. Why bother.
Is this a normal training week for high schoolers in the U.S.?
It just seems really low on mileage to my eyes.
dr. pepper wrote:
How many people advice only having two speed workouts a week in high school? Say for example they run something like this early in the season:
M- 45 minutes
Tu- 6x1k
W- 45 minutes
Th- 45 minutes
F- 5 mile tempo
Sa- 45 minutes
Su- 60 minutes
Then once racing starts, just replace the workouts with races. So for example, if your team has a duel meet on a Tuesday and an invite on a Saturday, should those be the only speed days of the week?
I agree with the over-racing situation, but it's reality unless you have a gigantic, deep team and can swap kids in out of meets.
I would recommend structuring your training with 2 week cycles. That way you can keep two easy days between hard days (which I like doing) and add in other types of workouts too.
Right now, our system is basically (over 2 weeks):
- 2 long runs (one easy, one hard with a fast-finish progression built in),
- 2 races (the top kiddos will use these as workouts like work the 1st mile/last mile, steady then work the last mile, etc.)
- 1 'economy' day - faster than race-pace reps with generous recovery(400s, 200s, etc.), or short repeats @ race pace with short recovery
- 1 'aerobic' day - a fartlek, progression run, longer intervals, etc.
- 1 "speed" day - short/fast hill repeats - usually on the second of two easy days
- With about 10-12 weeks out, every 2nd week we are doing a progressive 'race-prep' workout with longer intervals. The first time was 5x1000m (2:30 rest) starting at race pace and making the last two faster. Today we're doing 4-5 x 1200m, same pace (or faster if they have been racing well), same recovery. The next time will be something like 4 x 1500 or 3 x 1600 depending on how the kids look. I hope to get up to 3 x 2000, but it all depends on the kids.
The rest of the days are regeneration days - easy runs with hurdle walkovers, abs, stretching, etc. We really try to ebb and flow with the kids too. If they are tired, easy days stay easy, but if they are recovering well from workouts and are doing a nice job with regen days, then the 2nd of 2 easy days may be a 'medium' pace run. All easy days have strides at the end as well.
We also try to keep in mind that the top kids have it easier during dual meets, and the rest of the team is working harder, so we make adjustments. We also are not afraid to give days off in advance of big meets or important workouts.
Hope this helps!
I am a little confused, because I don't truly see any "speed" days in your workouts. The tempo runs are typically thought of as Lactate Threshold runs designed to increase tolerance for lactate build up and the 1k would again, normally be considered a VO2max workout, not true speed.
Referring to intensity, they are great, and I would keep them up. Once season starts and they are racing, the races will be all that is needed besides the easier days between races.
"Why bother, any program that includes 2 5k races per week is doomed for failure."
This is one of the biggest lies told regularly on Letsrun and that is saying a lot.
First, many high school kids are crazy resilient and really could run 16 races in 8 weeks as long as they ran the rest of their mileage at slower than 5kXC pace + 2:00. But this might not be optimal and certainly would hurt some.
More importantly, the reason to ALWAYS have 2 races in a race week is so that you can have weeks that have ZERO races. That way you can have two races in 4 or 5 days and then have 10 or 9 days devoted to training.
As was said, you don't really have any "speed" workouts in that schedule...
but as far as intensity goes, I like to have 2 hard days, 1 medium day, and 3 easy or longer distance days. Once the season starts, races take up "hard" days, and as far as scheduling goes: most weeks it's one race a week, so that you can still have a hard workout without any problems.