This week was really not that exciting training-wise. After my 10k on Saturday, my legs were pretty much dead and didn’t really recover until much later in the week. Since we didn’t have a meet this week, I did a lot of rehab for my calves (I did exercises Tuesday-Friday), lifting, and our workouts were a little bit harder.

Sunday: OFF

Monday: 45 minute run, abs, lifting. I was supposed to go an hour, but my legs just could not do it.

Tuesday: The infamous ‘Rocking Chair’ workout. On our cross country course, we have a hill that begins with a very steep downhill, followed bu an incline and some flat surface…then you turn around, and get  a sudden downhill, a steep uphill, and another mini steep uphill, for an 800m hill repeat. We did a 15 minute warmup, 10×800 hills, 10 minute cooldown.

Wednesday: Aquajogging (easy for around 45 minutes), abs, lifting.

Thursday: Track workout! I did four sets, for a total of 7200 meters, of 1×1000, 2×400 at 10K pace. We started with a 20 minute warmup and 10 minute cooldown.

Friday: 45 minutes easy, drills, lifting, abs.

Saturday: OFF. I would have run today, but we had the philosophy conference from 9AM-8PM, and running just did not seem too fun before or after.

I ran a pretty big PR in the 10K this weekend, and I have no idea what about my training made that possible! I was really excited but today (Sunday) my legs are absolutely dead. I slowed down my easy runs a little bit since I’ve been having really sore calves this week. Lots of ice baths and foam rolling and compression socks will hopefully make it better.

Sunday: 30 minutes easy (3.5 miles), or what I call a ‘loop of the trails’ which is exactly what it sounds like – a loop of our trails. I DNFed my 5K last Saturday and didn’t particularly want to run, but it was a beautiful day. This was my first longer run in my new Newtons (never wore them before.

Monday: 50 minutes (5.75 miles). The girl I usually run with wanted to run alone, so I went out by myself too. My team’s paces are a bit weird – some are really slow, the ‘main’ group runs just a little bit too slow for me, and the girl I usually run with runs too fast. So running alone at my own pace was actually nice. Followed by plyometric boxes, and I lifted before!

Tuesday: Track workout Tuesday in the snow/sleet/some kind of precipitation. 1.5 mile warmup, 3x2000m (8:30, 8:36, 8:39) w/ 2 minutes rest in between, and a 20 minute cooldown on the bike.

Wednesday: Aqua jogging. We actually did a workout – 10 min warmup, 3 sets of 3:00 hard/2:00 easy, 3 sets of 2:00 hard/1:00 easy, then 5 sets of :30 hard/:30 easy, and a 10 minute cooldown. I also lifted before and did abs after.

Thursday: 5 minute warmup, 25 minutes tempo, 5 minute cooldown.

Friday: Premeet day – 30 minutes easy, followed by 10 strides.

Saturday: Meet day! Super rainy, but lovely! I did a 12 minute warmup, ran a 10k race in 42:56, and cooled down for 30 minutes in the mud. It was lovely!

My legs are really shot this week and I am definitely glad I’m not racing this week!

I’m excited to be sharing my first training log with everyone! I am currently in my third week of cross country and my first week of school, and I’m really happy to have my first meet out of the way. This week running-wise was a struggle. I had taken so few rest days and my legs felt burnt out of running, so when Wednesday rolled around and I was allowed to cross train, I hopped on it.

Note: My coach has transformed me into tracking my runs by minute and estimating paces. I find this to be a better way to run easy and long runs, especially when training on trails where you are ensured a slower time — our trails in particular are said to be super slow. I am also not a mileage buff anymore because it really stressed me out. My coach has me on a 40-45 MPW plan and may bump me up or down a little depending on how I’m feeling. I don’t actively count miles myself as a result.

Sunday: 40 minutes (4.85 miles) with my track teammate Sarah. Sadly, she had to take off this cross country season due to calf injury and is just starting to pick up the miles again. It was a good run and it was nice to sleep in after about two weeks of 6:30AM practice. I felt pretty tired due to a later night celebrating another teammate’s 21st birthday, but it was worth it.

Monday: 70 minutes total (10 minute warmup, 60 minutes trails, ~7.2 miles). Quick note — before every practice we do a ten minute shakeout run on the campus loop. It’s about a mile in total, then we come back to stretch. I ran with one of the new speedy freshmen, and it was great just to chat. We ran entirely on the trails, so our times certainly reflected that. Followed by a set of plyometrics on boxes and sprints. Followed by abs.

Tuesday: Workout day. 10 minute warmup, 20 minute pre-workout warmup, 8×800 course repeats, 15 minute cooldown…in short, a lot of running. The 800s were really, really difficult. It was a loop around the starting line of our meet on Saturday on our home course. It was either the heat or we were just slow or something was just off, since my group was slated for 3:16 and I consistently kept running 3:35-3:36, with my fastest split being around 3:25 I think. Needless to say it was not my best workout and I left feeling tired and frustrated.

Wednesday: 40 minutes on the elliptical. Easy, simple, watched soap operas.

Thursday: A long, long workout. 10 minute warmup and stretching, followed by an easy run of Saturday’s 5K course followed by a tempo run of the 5K course, so 10K in total. Followed by abs.

Friday: 10 minute warmup, stretching, 30 minutes easy, followed by 6x100m striders. Pre-meet day.

Saturday: Meet and we WON first! I ran a pretty slow time for the 5K, but the course was also apparently ~300m too long. I ran a 23:47 in the 90 degree weather. Our course is notoriously slow — my 6K PR is two minutes faster than the best time I’ve run on our course. I ran 10 minute shakeout, a 15 minute warmup, 23:47 5K, and a 30 minute cooldown. I like short warmups and loooong cooldowns!

Overall, it was a pretty solid week. Nothing out of the ordinary though we did spend a long time on the trails, which really ended up hurting my legs. The terrain is very rocky and not the typical ‘soft’ ground you think of when you’re imagining a running trail. Hopefully next week I will be able to get off campus a little bit more to change things up, because it was also very mentally taxing to run the same loop every single day.