Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Less than a week to the US XC Champs: Last week's training

We're under a week now to the US Cross Country Championships in Boulder, CO. Be sure to tune in to usatf.tv at 1:00 PM Mountain Time to catch all the action from start to finish. The men's 12km will kick off at 1:00 PM as the last race of the day. While the race is on a well-manicured golf course, the several races preceding the senior men's race could leave it somewhat sloppy as the snow from this week melts. It looks like Boulder has had a decent amount of snow this week, but race day looks to be around 60 degrees and sunny, very close to the weather the Brooks Beasts and I have been dealing with in Albuquerque.   
With another week of altitude under my belt, I'm feeling better every day. Friday I was presented with my first more challenging workout with 8 sets of (800 meters, 300 meters) with 1 minute jog rest between reps and 3 minutes between sets. Albuquerque got some snow the night before and morning of, so the grass loop at the University of New Mexico was slippery and slow. I had the company of Garrett Heath and Matt Hillenbrand for the workout, which was very helpful. Intending to start in the 72 second per quarter range, we struggled in 2:31, 2:27, and 2:26 on the grass before deciding to move to the track. There we all felt immediately better and ran the last 5 sets in 2:17-2:19 and 45-47. Without the two Brooks Beasts there, the segment on the grass would have been pretty demoralizing, but fortunately they were struggling as badly as I was. Overall, the effort was just right; 8 days from the race is too close to really hammer something of this volume.

The strong and deep field for Saturday’s race is set, and I am as prepared as I can be. My fitness is as good as it’s ever been before a US XC Championship, but the altitude still poses an unknown challenge as I have little experience racing that high. I hope that I came to Albuquerque early enough to dampen the altitude factor, let my full fitness come through on race day, and make my 5th US World Cross Country Team. 


Later this week I will be announcing another Twitter contest, so stay tuned. Feel free to check out last week’s training below. Thanks again for reading, and follow me here on Twitter for more updates.






Week 11 AM PM Strength/Drills         Mileage
Monday 9.5 + drills and strides 4 20 minutes 13.5
Tuesday Fartlek (1 min, 2, 3)(1, 2, 3, 4)(1, 2, 3) Off 30 minutes 14
Wednesday 9 5 14
Thursday 11 5.5 40 minutes 16.5
Friday 8 x (800 meters, 300 meters) rest = 1 min and 3 min Off 14
Saturday 7 5 30 minutes 12
Sunday 14 Off 14
TOTAL 98



1 comment:

  1. Big thing is not going out too hard. Once you're in oxygen debt at altitude it's almost impossible to recover

    ReplyDelete