July 1, 2005

July Cross Country Workouts
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July is a time to build your mileage, while also increasing the intensity of some of your runs. It is important to be consistent and progressive. Your body will respond to the increased stress of higher mileage and faster runs if you bring it into your program slowly. You can't make big training jumps; either in volume or intensity.

Here's a general training plan for July:
Mondays:  Easy Distance (Zone 2) women 5/6 men 7/8
 Tuesdays:  Steady State run (Zone 4) women 3-4 men 5
*distance refers to how far you run at Zone 4; doesn't include warm-ups
 Wednesdays:  Easy Distance (Zone 2) women 5/6 men 7/8
 Thursdays:  Light Speed Workout women 8 x 200m men 12x200m
*these 200's should be like long striders (36-38 sec.) (33-35 sec.)
 Fridays:  Recovery Day (Zone 1) women 3-5 men 5-7
 Saturdays:  Long Run (Zone 2) women 8-10 men 10-12
 Sundays:  Medium Distance (Zone 3) women 5/6 men 7/8
*not a hammer, just a better effort run (30 seconds/mi. faster than Zone 2)

Morning Runs:  Only those that have 6 weeks or more logged should consider adding a 2nd run. Those people should go with 2 mornings per week -- 3 to 4 miles for women; 4-5 miles for men
 Strength Training:  At this point everyone should be doing some kind of weight training, or at least a core development program, twice a week.
 Mileage:  Those not on morning runs will be 10% less than these numbers, but this program will give you these approximate numbers:
Women - 44 to 54 miles per week Men - 60 to 70 miles per week
* as always veterans can do an additional 10-15% higher than this