I was talking to my friend who coaches track at a local high school but does not coach cross country. She was telling me about what the workouts were for the cross country and how she is frustrated with the shape her girls are coming into Track. Below are some of the highlights of the training plan:
Week 1: 1 mile everyday
Week 2: 2 miles everyday
Week 3: 3 miles everyday
Week 4: 3 miles everyday
Etc. to reach 6 miles per day at week 10
Week 11: 5 miles everyday
week 12: 4 miles everyday
Ect. to be at 1 mile per day everyday the week of state.
Now I asked about workouts because it doesn't seem possible to get workouts into a 3 mile day a month out from their state meet. She told me that they just fit them in; so a month before state they will do a 1 mile warmup, 1 mile tempo, 1 mile cool down. For long runs they will do 1 mile more than they do the rest of the week (5 mile week they do a 6 mile long run). So a week would look like this in week 12:
Monday: 4 mile relaxed run
Tuesday: 1 mile warm up, 2 mile of some type of workout, 1 mile cool down
Wednesday: 4 mile relaxed run
Thursday: 1 mile warmup, 5K race, no cool down because they are already over 4 miles
Friday: 5 miles relaxed
Saturday: 5 mile long run
Sunday: Off
The pace of their runs are all determined by a "calculated" VDOT based on recent races so girls are never training together although every person on the team runs the same distance every day.
Now I thought this was the stupidest training plan I had ever read. She wanted to emphasize that this is completely serious and this is exactly what they do. Thoughts?