Friday, June 28, 2013

Training June 21 - June 30

Our training during June, after the no-contact period went as follows:
21 June (Fri).. 2 mile Warm-up, strides,etc.
   Then 6 x 150 meters up the Pamona Park hill on the grass.. jog down
    2 Mile Cool Down and Core
  
22-23 June... 2 days of base (4-5 miles) run on own (Sat, Sun)
24 June (Monday) ... decided to go to Balboa to run with the San Diego Track Club  on next day so we ran 45 minutes easy.

25 June (Tuesday): The SDTC workout consisted of 5x800 on grass with about a 2-1/2 minute break in-between. After that they did 10 x 100 meter strides and Core.

26 and 27 June (Wed-Thur): Base on-own 5-8 miles each day.

28 Friday...
From the school ran easy to 3rd, then to Tidelands Park where we did dynamics. Then we ran under the bridge and along Glorietta where we did several 10 to 30 second pick-ups increasingly fast with the last 20 seconds really fast. Then we jogged to Pamona Park. By the time we arrived there a little over 3 miles were covered. At Pamona we practiced downhill and uphill running on the grass before the workout started.
Pamona Hill Workout

For the workout we ran hard up the steep hill at Maria Place, maintained around the corner for around 10 yards, jogged to the start of the grassy downhill at Pamona then ran fast downhill on the grass alternating the steeper slope with the more gradual slope.  We did 4 of these with an Uphill Pamona 400 meter run after the first one. Expand the image to the left to see.
The Pamona uphill 400 meter run was at about 800 meter pace... see image below. Cool down was a 1.5 mile run back to the school. Total distance covered was around 6 miles. Sat and Sun were Base days (5-7 miles each day).


Pamona uphill 400 meters
 











Thursday, June 6, 2013

2013 Cross Country Phase I

OK... Track is over, school is out, and we're ready to start our summer training program for Cross County. You're probably all asking "what shall I run today?" Quarters? Sprints? Hills? The answer is none of the above. I'm writing this the day before our district's two-week no-contact period starts so I can't have direct contact with Islander runners until after June 21st. I can, however, post to this blog and keep the Islander Track website updated. At this point in the pre-season you should be simply getting in base training at "E" easy pace. Ok... so what's easy pace. That depends on the runner. For example if you're a 20 minute 5k runner your easy pace is around 8:15 per mile. If you can run 5k in 16 minutes your easy pace is around 6:43 per mile. To figure your pace look at the Jack Daniels VDOT tables accessible via the tab at the top of this blog, find your current level for either the mile or 5k, and your E/L (Easy or Long) pace will be in the first yellow column. Don't worry about the rest of the columns for now... just concentrate on this pace for the next couple of weeks. We'll get to the other paces after the no-contact period. The next question you probably have is how far should I be running? Again, that depends on the runner. Beginners should probably start with 20-30 minutes 3-4 times per week. Don't worry about distance at this point ... go by time. Someone running 5 miles at 8 minutes per mile will take a lot more steps than someone running 5 miles at 6 minutes per mile... it's time spent running that's important, not the distance. If you're starting back after the recent track season, there's no reason you can't run nearly every day. As Alberto Salazar indicates in the clip on the front of our website, it's the consistency that's important. That plus a long run every week. So... run longer one day, maybe shorter (or rest) the next day. Other days should be about the same. Say 30-40 minutes MTWTF ... 1 hour on Saturday... Sunday easy or take the day off.   Also these runs are best done on  grass or over rolling terrain ... like you'll find at Morley, Balboa, or nearly any place other than Coronado (Tidelands park is grassy but not hilly). When running around town, try to stay off the sidewalk and run on the grassy parking strips or lawns. Don't forget to subscribe to this blog so future notifications  will be delivered to your email address.
-Coach Green