Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Cross Country Training Plan

I survived 12 weeks of base training and the holidays so it's finally time to get down to serious training for the Best Cross Country (XC) Race on the Planet on Jan 27 and the USATF XC championship Feb 10. Both are in Boulder Colorado. The hard days are Hill repeats, Tempo and long runs. All weeks look like this: 3.5 m Easy MWFSun, 6x90 sec hills Tue, 2 m tempo Thu and 2 hour long runs Sat. This works out to 38.5 miles per week. I will increase my heart rate on the hard runs as the races get closer. I want to start with a heart rate of 150 beats per minute (b/m) and end with 160 b/m for the hills. For the Tempo I'll start with 145 b/m and finish with 155 b/m. For the Long run I will start with 120 b/m and finish with 130. This is an ambitious plan for me coming off injuries for the last 13 months. I have been running the hard workouts for the last 3 weeks but at aerobic heart rate of less than 140 b/m. If I can achieve this plan I will be in excellent shape to begin training for the Bolder Boulder on May 28. All the coaches say to run hills before 400 and 800 repeats on a track and that is exactly my plan.

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