In high school, I was sixth/seventh man at Bellarmine, my senior year. In college, (Santa Clara University) I went from sixth man to second my junior year, and first/second my two senior years (another story). My first senior year, I developed blisters, which went to achilles pain, which gave me a month to race gingerly, gaining points for the team, and run gently around a soccer pitch at night. The gentle runs at the Bellarmine soccer pitch, then located behind the infirmery, in the cool nights of October, allowed me to consider my predicament. It all came to a glorious end, when the trainer pushed my leg down in a hot tub, which was just below boiling. As I screamed, the scar tissue on my achilles came off my achilles, releasing the constant pain from said achilles, and my legs were back to running. I also had lost all the hair on my leg, but that was again, another story. With 2 weeks to go prior to conference, I found my form, with a couple of tempo work outs and a 3 mile drill on the track, where I gently jogged the turns and sprinted the straights, until, over the last mile, we hit race pace. The easy month of running, while full of anguish, had allowed me to gain the benefits of the tough summer of running. Conference was a strong meet.
One mile at the FootLocker, NE, photo by Photorun.net
Wednesday: 30-45 minute run, relaxed
Week 21, Fall XC Training week 21, a time to really race
Monday: 50 – 60 minute park run, 4 x 150m strideouts
Tuesday: 30 minute run, 20 minute tempo run, pace is 30 seconds per mile above current 5k race pace, 4x 150m strideouts, 20 minute cooldown
Wednesday: 30-45 minute run, relaxed
Thursday: 20 minute warm up, 2 x mile, , jog 1/2 mile btw, 10 minute jog, 30 minute fartlek, 10 times 2 minute, 5k pace, 1 minute easy, 20 minute cooldown
Friday: 30-45 minute minute park run, relaxed
Saturday: warm up, 5k race, similar to league or conference race, jog ten minutes, then 8 x 150m strideouts, cooldown
Sunday: 85-90 minute long run
