Building of the Base

So after shaking off a dismal end to a not too shabby season, I have begun the long road to November. Even after only a week I could not wait to get back on the trails and roll around Cheney and enjoy the summer sun. I don't know about you guys, but when I'm not running, my entire schedule/life goes down the crapper. I sleep in late, stay up even later and have a general apathy when it comes to class and homework. There is just something  about getting out for a jaunt, doing some light abs and pushups and spending a little bit of time in the training room that makes you feel accomplished, even if you really did nothing to contribute to society.

This summer I have some big expectations in terms of what I want to do to help me continue my rapid improvement and establish my self as one of our teams top runners. The one big thing I did differently this year then any other year was push the limit with my mileage. I think that was the biggest reason I was able to improve by leaps and bounds from my previous years times. So continuing the high mileage over the summer is going to be a priority. I have the green light to get up around the 110s, so we will see how I feel with that mileage later in the summer, but I have a feeling I should be able to handle that more than easily. One thing I did notice in my logs from last summer was a lack of tempos and too much summer racing. So that is going to be a big point of change for me, replacing the wednesday 3 mile club runs with more tempos and fartleks. I'm also going to try to build up more slowly than I did last year. I literally had zero left in the tank by the time conference rolled around, so I am going to try to be as fresh as possible while still stepping up my training.

While in college with 3 seasons, it is a delicate balance between setting your self up for racing well now and racing well in the future. My story this last year was I trained my ass of in the summer, was too tired for xc and then after some rest, had a huge winter and spring of improvement. So I have to keep my log in mind when I decide whether or not running 100+ in early/mid july is a good idea or not. Yes, my workouts did improve during xc, but my racing was not there and at the end of the day, racing and your results is all that really matters. Fortunately, even though I am moving back home, I have more than enough people to train with, which should make this summer my best one yet in terms of running and just overall quality of life. I'm motivated and I'm excited to really REALLY get after it this summer and take my running to the next level.

I just have to give a shout out to a website that has really helped me with all that I know about running and training and can be credited partially with my choice to run higher miles. Actually there are two of them. Both by the young genius himself Steve Magness, who is shaping a new generation of runners daily. Read as much as you can and enjoy your summer months!

http://magstraining.tripod.com/
http://www.scienceofrunning.com/


DO WORK!