The distance runners have been crushing this season–the entire group has been consistent, putting in the work needed to improve. At Quicksilver last weekend, 20 out of 22 runners had personal or season bests! More than any medals, that shows that all of us are improving, week by week. As Steve Prefontaine said, success is not where we end up, success is how far we travel from where we started–and we continue to travel further and further down the road with each workout. And if you haven’t hit that PR you are aiming for, yet? Have faith…remember you are all running the same workouts. Not everyone will progress at the same rate, and I believe your race could be coming to you soon.
Break week is a time to bring out a quote from one of those old Greeks, Herodotus:
“Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal, while others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before.”
I come back to this quote again and again at this time of the season. We have all done so much work, and then we get a break–it’s easy to take the foot off the accelerator. But, but…the El Camino league meet will be on April 29 and May 1, that’s only 24 days from now. That means only 20 or so days of running, a couple of races, a handful of workouts–so every one of those workouts matters. Let’s all be like the person who exerts “more vigorous efforts than ever before.” I know we all have this capability within us!
Here is a workout plan for the rest of this week and for the break week. I’ll be away this week—heading to see Vivian Lau (MV 2022, Tufts University 2026) compete in one of her last collegiate track meets, visiting Angela Duckworth, and taking Coach Triya to a baseball game in DC—but I know the distance crew will support each other and have a great training week. If you are traveling, and I know several of you are, there are some suggestions for how to get in your training wherever you might be.
- April 8 (Wednesday). Post-race maintenence day, 30-50 minutes total of conversational paced running + 15 minutes of core exercises.
- April 9 (Thursday). Lactic threshold paced workout (I’ll be there so the workout reveal will be Thursday!).
- April 10 (Friday). Maintenance run. Let’s run to Jollyman Park via the RR tracks, drill, then runner’s choice on the way back to school (straight back on McClellan, Stelling XL through De Anza, or retrace your steps on the RR tracks). Then 6x100m strides, core, and bounce.
- April 11 (Saturday). Endurance/long run. Meet at 7 am on the MV track if you are in town. This is a great day for either Horse, Horse + Garrods, or REI. Run to Stevens Canyon Park, drill, group up and have a nice run! Enjoy the green grass while we have it…if you are traveling, you are looking for 45-90 minutes of conversational paced running, with hills if you can find them. Wherever you are, try to pick up the pace the last mile–a fast finish always feels good–and/or 2 to 6 strides so your legs remember they are meant to run fast. Stretching, and some time with your legs-up-the-wall, will feel good and help with recovery. Hydrate and have a nice breakfast! Post photos on Discord, you will connect with your teammates.
- April 12 (Sunday). Rest or cross-train (a nice walk or hike counts!).
- April 13 (Monday). CV paced workout. Warm up, drill, leg swings, strides. Then let’s run a simple classic–12 to 16 x 400m at CV with 200m recovery, with 2 to 3 by 150 HARD at the end. CV pace is roughly 50-60 seconds slower than your 1600m race pace; so if your season best 1600 was 6:00, you might want to start out running 1:45ish and work it down a bit. Remember, start out conservatively–you can always add on, so if our 6:00 person started at 1:55 and thought “oh, wow, that was too easy,” they can always add a couple of 1:42s and end up with 14 reps. I’d always rather you add on some at the back end rather than blaze the first reps and then be gasping at the end or tap out early. Recovery is a 200m jog that is no more than two minutes long. If you are out of town and don’t have access to a track…how about a Fartlek run with 3 minute pushes and 2 minute jogs, 8 to 12 reps? Legs up the wall, some core, and a good breakfast afterwards.
- April 14 (Tuesday). Maintenance/shake out. Warm up to Linda Vista Park, the cross-country way (out to Stevens Creek, back on the bike path past Blackberry Farm, McClellan Ranch, and the golf course). Drill, then choose your own adventure back to school (I think Regnart-Rainbow to the RR tracks or to Stelling should be the right amount for most people). If you are travelliing, a 30 to 40 minute convo paced run should do the trick.
- April 15 (Wednesday). Long run. While your parents are stressing over taxes (kidding, I know they got these in early), why don’t you have a lovely long run on Up and Over, plus either Garrods or Seven Springs?
- April 16 (Thursday). Maintenance. I still like Jollyman. See Friday the 10th above.
- April 17 and 18 (Friday and Saturday). A few people will be running at Top 8; those runners should do pre-race on Friday and go burn up the track on Saturday. For everyone else, let’s run a pre-race workout on Friday (for solidarity!), but you can add a few miles. Then on Saturday, a lactic threshold workout…a three mile tempo run on the Palm tempo route. You can take a 3 minute break and then either add on up to 1 mile on the track (400s, 800s, or a full 1600–choose your own adventure–at the same or faster tempo pace, then 2x150m hard, and a warm down. If you are travelling, we are looking for 20-30 minutes of fast-but-comfortable pace running. For most people, this will be about 60-80 seconds slower than their 1600m race pace.
- April 19 (Sunday). Rest or cross-train. In fact…why not get some friends and take a hike someplace interesting? Get your parents to drive you and your friends to Castle Rock park, hike, then get something to eat!
- April 20 (Monday). I’ll be BAAAACK!
General notes:
- You can reach me on Discord with any questions!
- The distance group will be meeting at the MV track at 7 AM all of break week (the practice times for the rest of the group have not been announced as I write this).
- Remember to post photos on Discord!
- During break, we will be working on entries for the Last Chance Invitational at Mt. View High School. Distance races will be on Friday night, April 24th, from 4 pm until 9 pm. This is the first time they have tried this format for the distance portion of the Last Chance meet, I’m hopeful that it will be a lot of fun for us! I have posted the entries you gave me on April 6, you can continue to message me with updates of what you want to race. I don’t know if they will take everyone but we can enter all of you and see what happens!
- I’ll be thinking of you guys, and telling stories about MVTF26 to everyone I visit this week. Everyone I am visiting has some MVTF connection! I wish I could be two places at once but please know that I miss you already.
