Rising Senior's Summer Training Log

As someone who is a current D2 athlete and a female...this is what I have to say...

My PR's are faster than yours and 100% of the time I don't go any faster than 8:20min/mi on a recovery day. You need to slow your recovery days way down. It is hard to recover and improve when you're nailing every run.

The best Male XC runner/1500m athlete on my team is a several time NCAA All American and he goes around 7:45ish pace on his recovery days. He can run sub 25min for the 8k and his 1500m PR is around 3:45.

What you are most likely running every day is around the upper end of your aerobic range. You'll see so much more improvement by running paces true to where your fitness is at and being as that you're male, you'll drop a whole lot more time doing so.

I would slow your recovery days down and as many others have told you on this thread, the summer is for working on building a solid foundation. Therefore, don't go on doing a bunch of workouts until the 1st week of August. Focus more on short tempos and some short/light fartleks. Doing strides once or twice a week isn't bad and replacing one of those stride days with hill sprints would be beneficial.

Hope the rest of your summer training goes well and your senior year of XC/Track!

For my long run of 11 miles this past Sunday, I ran at 8:40/mi. Is that acceptably slow, or would you suggest going even slower? I don't want to plod, and I don't feel beat up running 8:00 pace (even for 10 miles or more), but I realize you have more experience and will take your advice into consideration.

FIrst, no one except a few misguided souls in the administration uses the name "Sewanee: The University of the South" . That was sold to the university by some consultants who believed that Sewanee needed to seem less southern to attract more students. As if that were possible -- call it Sewanee, or the University of the South.

Second -- your interval workouts are too fast for the summer, and too fast for your PRs. The 4-mile tempo was about right; that should be your key workout. Mix it up if you like by doing 2 x 2 miles, or 1 -2-1 with 3-5 min jog between. The plan should be to extend the length of the tempo, or to do the 4 miles faster at the same effort.

For easy days, quit watching your pace and just keep the runs at a pace you can hold forever. Run every day; consistency is the magic bullet. If you need a rest day, you're running too hard the other days.

This is the best advice I've seen anyone give anyone on here in a long time.

Read it carefully. Follow it.

Good luck!

dude just run more even if it has to be slower that isn't as much of a problem as not running that much.

your goal is to hit 40 miles per week consistently this summer. go out and do it bro.

wiz khalifa wrote:

your goal is to hit 40 miles per week consistently this summer. go out and do it bro.

I know. I've been trying. Feels like real life keeps getting in the way. I've been a lot busier than I expected to be. Feels like I've spent most of the summer commuting in a car.

Will do. I've started to run for time rather than miles. Do you think this is a good approach? Also, it's not really that I've needed the rest days. They've been forced on me, usually because I've had to leave town for that day and spent most of it in a car.

Sub5Hopeful wrote:

Will do. I've started to run for time rather than miles. Do you think this is a good approach? Also, it's not really that I've needed the rest days. They've been forced on me, usually because I've had to leave town for that day and spent most of it in a car.

Running for time is a good approach that should keep you from running too fast, and focusing on understanding effort. Some days you run faster, some days you run slower. But if you keep getting in 45-60 minutes a day, you will get stronger.

Do tempo work the same way -- easy for, say, 25 minutes, then 20 minutes rolling along comfortably hard. Typically, you'll start slow and speed up during the 25 minutes until you're closing in on tempo effort.

I don’t have much to share this week. I didn’t exactly measure mileage but did run for one hour each day. I definitely ran no less than 40 but no greater than 45 miles total. An alum of my school and executive of the local track club has offered to train me. He ran 1:58 and 4:28 in high school and still races competitively locally in the longer distances. Yesterday, he met me at the track and I ran some 400m repeats, so he good judge my current ability and map out a base building plan to help me achieve my outdoor track goals. I’m extremely happy that someone talented and knowledgeable is coaching me in the sport. The cross country coach at my school is mainly focused on soccer and doesn’t have all that much time left for us.

If you're checking this thread for updates on my training, you're looking in the wrong place.

I started a new thread with a more applicable title and better log formatting:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=8946153