Maddy Monday: Tempo Day, Science Class, NXN South, and More!

Texas Athlete Training Blog (XC 2015)
Bryan Deibel

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Maddy Mondays Week #4

Guest Blogger: Alec Blair

Monday Fun Day:

Today was our long run day, and coach tasked us with running our longest run of the season thus far. The mileage in my group varies so Cole and I went the farthest: 14 miles in the morning on one of our usual loops. Afterwards, we stretched then headed to the locker room to blast some "Enya Monday" music; seriously, look up Enya, she is a Marcus xc musical favorite. In the afternoon I had some study groups so I ended up getting my second run pretty late in the evening with 4 miles at an easy pace.

Total mileage: 18

Tuesday recovery:

Today was an easy recovery with extensive drills and strides. We had an easy warm up then began our run into some nearby neighborhoods, my group had anywhere from four to eight miles depending on individual mileage. After the recovery we regrouped to do 200 meter strides and stretches. We were blessed with extra shower time today and it was also the iconic "taylor swift Tuesday" in the locker room so you know it was a good day.

Total mileage: 9

Wednesday Fartlek:

Today was a great day to be a marauder. It was our first Fartlek of the season, which also means it was our first team hat tag. Hat tag is the magic that brings our team together. Each year for the past twenty two years (as coach t tells us), every member of our team brings a hat and we run to the local park. The run there is roughly 1.5 miles, and we split the run between 1 minute hard (5:04 pace) then 1 minute slow (6:59 pace) then 2 minutes fast followed by 1 minute slow. We repeated this until we were at the park. at the park we began hat tag which is basically just everyone has a hat on but one group, that group tries to tag everyone, as you get tagged you join them until only one person remains. I am proud to announce that the varsity boys broke the record for fastest group to get everyone out in a blazing 1:58.2. After some intense hat tag and a few wipe outs in the mud, we regrouped and "Fartleked" back to the school. This week is our first week off of base training so coach gave us a finisher 1000. Our varsity guys had to go through each 200 between 37.5 and 38.5; we lost a few guys in the middle but got everyone back on for the end. In the morning we ended up getting 11 miles. After the run we stretched and hit the showers for "whale noise Wednesday" on the aux. in the afternoon we had weight room followed by a pack run of six miles with Telaneus.

Total mileage: 17

Thursday Tempo:

It's everyone's favorite day of the week: tempo Thursday. Our team met at the track nice and early to warm up 1.5 miles to a local park. Our blessed managers had carpooled there earlier (shout out to Shanna and the gang) to put flags down on the 800 meter loop for us. When we arrived we did speed drills and light stretches before we ran our respective distances. The goal of the tempo was to maintain a heart rate between 180-190 or around 5:40 pace. All the varsity guys had either 3 or 4 miles and we kept a great pack through the first two miles then broke off for the last two. We ended up having four guys within forty seconds at the finish which is an improvement for us. After the run we waited for the rest of the team then cooled down back to the track. At the track we did extensive stretching then hit the showers for "throwback Thursday" on the aux, it was lit. In the evening I got a little bit of cross training at the local gym with some swimming and biking then knocked out about 4 hours of homework.

Total mileage: 7

Pre-race Friday:

Blessed Friday. This morning we had mile repeats at our steady state pace (between 5:30-5:50 for my group). We had four reps where we did well to hit pace each time. We then had full drills and strides. After that, we had four 400's at 1-2 seconds faster than 5k goal race pace. Cole and I ran those together between 73 and 75. We finished with a mile cool down and stretches then it was time for locker room fun. Today was "freedom Friday" on the aux cord and our team went all out. Every possible rendition of the national anthem was in fact played. God bless America.

Total mileage: 6

Race Day Saturday:

Early morning with team, we met at the school at 5:15 to head to McKinney Boyd invitational which is the same course as our district meet. We had a strategy to try to get five guys together through the mile and we ended having all 7 within ten meters at the mile. The race went well and we ended up having a few p.r.s, most notably my boy Cole Klashinsky dropped a 16:13 to take 2nd overall and lead us to a third place finish. I was happy to come back from a rough race at Marcus 1 and run a 16:52, but I've still got a long way to go to be where I want and need to be. The third place finish was exciting for us as we had a lot of district competition today and were able to gauge the improvement that we will need when district comes around. The race was a great benchmark for us and we are excited to get back to the course again in two weeks for Love joy to take on even more district competition.

Total mileage: 7

Sunday Rest Day:

Today was an easy rest day for me; I went out to the track before tutoring a student and got an easy barefoot two miles followed by strides, drills and stretches. In the evening I got a decent swim in and felt ready to take on the next week.

Total mileage: 3

Weekly Mileage: 67