first week of xc aerobic conditioning

After four weeks of transition and re-adaptation, it's now time to turn our attention to aerobic conditioning. For those of you focused on the fall cross country season, the next ten weeks are huge. While we spent last winter in a very similar phase at school, all of these ten weeks are on your own! And as important as this phase is, paradoxically, maybe the most important concept is PATIENCE. This ten weeks requires methodical patience and consistently running the correct efforts. All efforts are still aerobic, but over the next ten weeks we need to push into high-end aerobic running at 80-88% effort. Refer to the 'summer'10 notes' tab of your spreadsheet for the weekly pattern. Sundays are long runs, Wednesdays are aerobic fartlek running, and Fridays are 80% aerobic runs. Mondays will vary depending on your status - upperclassmen, freshmen, and recently injured. See the summer'10 notes!

For the upcoming week, only the aerobic fartlek on Wednesday should be added. The following week you will add the Friday 80% run. The week after that, some of you will begin to add the Monday 80% run if you feel up to it. Again, all is explained in the summer'10 notes and if you are still not sure, email or text one of your coaches.

Use the pace chart tab on your spreadsheet and a conservative estimate of your current fitness to determine approximate paces for the high-end aerobic efforts. While the pace chart provides an excellent starting point, it is very important that you begin to understand what the different aerobic efforts FEEL like. For the aerobic fartlek effort, you can determine the structure or you can use an old stand-by - 5', 4', 3', 2', 1' w/ equal time recovery. The 5' and the 4' should be around 80-85% effort, and the 3', 2', 1' can at 85-88%.

Lastly, continue working on general strength as well as core strength! Make sure you can perform 3 x 45" for the front plank and the side plank.

POST WEEKLY MILEAGE ON THE BLOG!