The season has now officially begun. To be honest it’s nice to finally not be one of the new guys, as has been the case the last couple of years. The summer had been great for the team – last year we never got very close as a group. This year almost all of us stayed in Ft. Collins and trained together everyday so already there is a relaxed atmosphere to training. 

Week 1:

Mon: Easy 50.

Tues: 7x1mile w/ 3mins rest. (av. 4.47)                 Plyo’s

Weds: Am: 30 – Pm: 60.                                       Core

Thurs: Light hill strides– about 55mins total.        Weights

Fri: Am: Easy 30. Pm: Easy 50.                            Plyo’s

Sat: 9mile tempo

Sun: 1:45 over hills.                                           Core

The first week back was a great telling of what was to come. Bryan was going to be a lot tougher on us than last year. The hard days are very very hard, but the easy days allow us to get the most out of tues/sat.

Tuesday was a great workout: I was very comfortable at that pace which was surprising but encouraging at the same time. The last few were a great chance to stay focussed and really keep the pace on like I will need to in the latter parts of cross races.

The tempo’s here are always a great test of fitness as the course is challenging. I finished at 47.55 for 9miles and was a lot more relaxed than the week after camp. I think that is averaging just under 5:20 miles. 

Week 2:

Mon: Easy 50.                                                  

Tues: 11x 600m hills. (1hr 20 total)                     Weights/Core

Weds: AM: Easy 30. PM: Easy 60.                      Plyo’s

Thurs: Easy 45.                                                  Weights

Fri: RACE.

Sat: Fartlek.

Sun: 1hr 45.

Week 2 brought with it the first race of the season. That Tuesday however was an absolute shit-fest. On the hottest, driest day of the year we were out smashing 11x 600m hill repeats, by far one of the toughest sessions we do. I must have lost about 5kg by the end. 

The race was the Wyoming Invite (7000ft), held on Friday evening. We knew the field was weak this year so went in with our own goals knowing finishing high would not be a problem. The plan was to sit for 2 miles, then start moving after that. (The race is 4.25 miles). The course has two hills on it: one is long and the other short and steep, a lot like that at CU. Only a couple of guys have gone under 22:00 for the race (both were All-Americans if my memory is right), so the goal was to break that barrier. My team mate Jeremy and I are very evenly matched thus far, so Bryan had instructed us that if we were together with 800 to go, to just hold the pace and bring it in together, rather than try and smash each other in the first race of the season.

Jeremy is a tough bastard and loves to hurt, so he threw it down at 2miles. I waited back a bit then started moving and had him at around 3.5miles. I could see he was tiring up a bit and I was feeling great but I knew the plan so we came in together very relaxed in 22.10. We were both happy as we knew that if we threw it down that breaking 22.00 would have undoubtedly happened. Coming in comfortably we were 10secs ahead of 3^rd place, another CSU runner and NCAA 1500m rep; Wil Buchanan.

With the race not being stressful, Berryhill had us run a fartlek on Saturday consisting of 15,30,45,60,1:30, 2:00, 2:30, 3:00 then back down – all with equal rest. Sunday was another 1:45, reasonably steady over hills.

I am currently training harder than ever before. We are in the gym on tues/thurs and also do plyo’s weds/fri. It seems like a lot but it has been a few years in the making. I am also taking my easy days very very easy and just long enough as to properly recover. We get all our miles in our workouts which are very long, as well as Sunday, and like I’ve mentioned training at altitude is different than sea-level so being at around 80miles a week at the moment is perfect.

Keep it deep

d-wal

PS - check out my blog pics in the photos section.