Summer Training
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The goal of summer training is to build up mileage to lay a foundation for race season. The emphasis this year is on completing your easy runs at the correct pace. If holding a conversation with someone, you should be able to say one or two sentences at a time. If you have a GPS watch, you should be 1.5-2 minutes slower than your target race pace. Running too fast will increase the chance of injury or wearing your body down. Running too slow will not benefit personal improvement. Be sure to stretch after all workouts!
Almost all training will be time based, so a watch would be a great investment. It does not have to be fancy, just something to track time if you don't like holding your phone when running. Running shoes are discussed more on the injury prevention page.
Hills should be attacked on the way up. Lean into it a little, pump your arms, and drive your knees. On your easy run with hills, attack them and then settle back into your pace- not slower. Hills are one of the quicker ways to get in shape and build strength.
For the workouts the week of July 7-14, do the warmup for your age group. You can choose a short or long hill. If it takes 1 minute to get up and 2 minutes to go down, only the 1 minute counts towards your overall time. For the high school, 16 minutes should be spent running up a hill for the workout. Then do your respective cooldown.
A tempo run is meant to increase your ability to keep a fast pace over a longer distance. Ideally, this is 30 seconds a mile slower than your average race pace. For example, if you have a 5:20 mile average during a race, you should run your tempo at a 5:50 pace. If you don't have a watch, this is probably being able to speak 1 or 2 words at a time.
Fartlek is a Swedish word for "speed play". For this workout, you alternate paces based on the length of time you are running hard. For right now, you can choose to run hard for 1, 2, or 3 minutes at a time. If you run for 1 minute, you should be closer to a mile pace or faster. If you run 2 minutes, you should be closer to your race pace, and 3 minutes should be at your tempo pace. However long you run hard is your recovery time. If you run 1 minute hard, you jog for 1 minute. If you run 3 minutes hard, you run 3 minutes easy. You should mix up the hard run times and do not let your easy running be too slow. Start out with a 3-5 minute warmup that does not count towards your overall time.
Below is a conversion chart for your easy run paces. The 1st three columns are race times, and the 4th is what your average mile race pace would be. The last 2 columns are your easy pace ranges if you have a GPS watch or can track your mile times. For example, to run a 16:32 5k breaks down to a 5:20 mile, which means you should complete your easy runs between a 6:50 and 7:20 mile pace.
Grades 3, 4, and 5
Grades 3, 4, and 5
Grades 6, 7, and 8
Grades 6, 7, and 8
High School
High School
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