counting down

A week until the freshmen return, a week and a half before we're all back together...

This is the last week before we move into a new phase so make sure you follow your plan and let your mileage (and cross-training) lower so that we have a good consolidation week.  If you need some scientific rationale to take an easier week...see SUPERCOMPENSATION

You should have received emails from our compliance office and the Athletic Training room with instructions on how to fill out and submit forms that are needed before you can start practice.  These forms should be completed and submitted by the end of this week.  IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THESE FORMS, CONTACT US!

Workouts for this week:

Tue:  5' + 4' + 3' + 2' + 1' @ ~80, 85, 90, 95, 100% effort, all with 2' recovery
Fri:  8-10 x 1' @ either 6k or 8k goal pace with 2' easy recovery

*make sure you are taking the full recovery and running EASY during the recovery, OR you can run a hill fartlek if you have a hilly route, just run strong up the hill and again make sure you have plenty of easy recovery between.

Things to note (repeated from last week):

The rosters on our website will be updated soon, check to make sure your info is correct.  

*FRESHMEN: will move into your school year housing assignment early when you arrive for the Jump Start Jackets program on Monday, August 13th.  Any early move-in charges you incur from housing will show up on your bursar's account, along with a credit from the Athletic Association to cover those charges.

*UPPERCLASSMEN: should move in on Thursday, August 16th, and those in housing will incur early move-in charges from housing that will show up on your bursar's account, along with a credit from the Athletic Association to cover those charges.

*we will have our first team meeting along with a required team dinner late in the afternoon on Friday August 17th.  Physicals will be on Sunday morning, August 19th, and then we will have our mandatory Compliance meeting on Sunday, August 19th at 2:00 PM in the Edge Athletic Center.

Most important now is that you are checking your email as you should be receiving information from compliance and the training room to fill out forms online.  It is important that everyone fill out and submit all required forms before arriving back on campus.  If you have any questions, make sure you reach out to someone to get whatever info you need!

First official practice will be 6:00 AM on Tuesday, August 21st!

dog days of summer

Workouts for this week:

Tue: 5' + 4' + 3' + 2' + 1' @ ~80, 85, 90, 95, 100% effort, all with 2' recovery
Fri: 10-12 x 1' @ either 6k or 8k goal pace with 2' easy recovery

*make sure you are taking the full recovery and running EASY during the recovery; you can follow the structure of the above workouts, OR you can free fartlek them by just running up to one minute efforts at goal race pace followed by sufficient easy recoveries for forty minutes or more, OR you can run a hill fartlek if you have a hilly route, just run strong up the hill and again make sure you have plenty of easy recovery between.

Things to note:

The rosters on our website will be updated soon, check to make sure your info is correct.  

*FRESHMEN: will move into your school year housing assignment early when you arrive for the Jump Start Jackets program on Monday, August 13th.  Any early move-in charges you incur from housing will show up on your bursar's account, along with a credit from the Athletic Association to cover those charges.

*UPPERCLASSMEN: should move in on Thursday, August 16th, and those in housing will incur early move-in charges from housing that will show up on your bursar's account, along with a credit from the Athletic Association to cover those charges.

*we will have our first team meeting along with a required team dinner late in the afternoon on Friday August 17th.  Physicals will be on Sunday morning, August 19th, and then we will have our mandatory Compliance meeting on Sunday, August 19th at 2:00 PM in the Edge Athletic Center.

Most important now is that you are checking your email as you should be receiving information from compliance and the training room to fill out forms online.  It is important that everyone fill out and submit all required forms before arriving back on campus.  If you have any questions, make sure you reach out to someone to get whatever info you need!

First official practice will be 6:00 AM on Tuesday, August 21st!

annual iron post

About this time of year is a good time to touch base on the importance of iron!  Below is a link to a really good article, for those of you who want to read up on this very important topic...

http://www.runningwritings.com/2017/04/low-ferritin-and-iron-deficiency-anemia.html

For those who don't want to read, because it's summer and all, here are some important bullet points:

*one study showed by the end of a cross country season (i.e. the point in the season where you want to be your best), iron deficiency had increased to 17% of boys and 45% of girls.  And in those who were not classified as iron deficient, the majority had a decrease in their serum ferritin levels.

*the above numbers were found in using the conservative standards for iron deficient serum ferritin levels used in the general population of less than 12 ng/mL.  A case can be made that for endurance athletes, serum ferritin levels less than 40 ng/mL should be consider iron deficient.

*ferrous sulfate, taken with vitamin C, is the weapon of choice to raise serum ferritin levels; while tea, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and antacids should be avoided as they inhibit the absorption of iron.  One study showed that simply putting a slice of cheese on a hamburger reduced the amount of iron absorbed by 50-60%!

*because of the above, the iron in a multivitamin is almost useless.

Suffice to say, your serum ferritin levels are very important to your aerobic performance.  If you are not managing your iron intake and absorption, you are putting your season at serious risk.

Now, on to training, this week's workouts:

Tue: 8-10 x 1' @  6k or 8k goal pace with 3' easy recovery
Fri:  10 x 1' @ Threshold (~85%) with 1' easy (~65%) recovery

*make sure you are taking the full recovery and running EASY during the recovery.

change it up

Time to switch gears a little and enter a new phase of training...aerobic short specificity.

Aerobic, because we want to stay aerobic, not anaerobic
Short, because the repetitions will not be long
Specificity, because generally repetitions are at 6k/8k goal pace

We're just trying to get used to running a faster pace again and you will need complete recovery between repetitions, so do not start another rep until fully recovered from the previous one.  The short repetitions combined with the long recoveries will prevent the build-up of any oxygen debt.

Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday stay the same as previous weeks.  The only exception would be Thursday where you could substitute 6-8 short (~10") hill sprints with a walk-down recovery for the 6-8 x 80m fast strides, if you want to.  Tuesday and Friday now become, for the most part, fartlek type workouts.

For this week:

Tue: 8-10 x 1' @ either 6k or 8k goal pace with 3' easy recovery

Fri: 5' + 4' + 3' + 2' + 1' @ ~85% effort w/ equal time recovery @ ~65%

For the women to determine their 6k pace, figure out your 5k pace in terms of minutes per mile, then add about 3".  For the men to determine their 8k pace, figure out your 5k pace in terms of minutes per mile, then add about 10".  These are off your XC 5k goal pace, not your current race pace.

For the 85% and 65% efforts, choose a current 5k time from the pace chart that you are confidant you could run right now, then look at the 85% and 65% columns for that 5k time.  You should adjust your times slower if your are running in hot and/or humid conditions.

Lastly, read the Tolstoy quote above...patience and time are always important, but certainly so at the beginning of a new phase.  Do not work too hard too soon!

almost to full volume

"Most battles are won before they are fought." - Sun Tzu

Patiently building volume through the summer and training at the appropriately level is the preparation that will lead to a successful fall season.  This is the last week of just easy running and building our volume up before beginning the next phase, which will consist mostly of short fartlek-type efforts at xc distance race pace with sufficient aerobic recoveries.  Keep working to intentionally add cross-training volume, and sending pictures for the facebook summer roll call.

\\\life

First week of camp in the mountains of North Carolina, so some long days in store!  But love being here sharing what we do, and learning from others about what they do.  Never stop learning!

Mileage is climbin'...stay thirsty my friends :)

Summer '18 roll call

Time to get the annual summer roll call going on our facebook page .  We're hoping for 100% participation!  It's always great looking through the roll calls of previous summers, so we can't wait to see this year's!

You may receive an email with instructions, but it's simple.  Send a picture of you wearing something Georgia Tech to Coach Megesi.  The idea is to take the pic somewhere and/or doing something that is representative of your summer.  We'll upload the pic to the Georgia Tech Track & Field/Cross Country facebook page.  Include an explanation of the trip so Coach Megesi can include some info with the pic when it gets posted.