Training Camp

Pretty much every college cross-country program in the country has their own version of a training camp.  At Loyola we drove north - into south-central Wisconsin.  We stayed at a boy scout camp not too far from the Ice Age trail.  Our lodgings consisted of a large building that had a kitchen - where we took turns making meals and which had plenty of space for us to lay down our sore bodies in our sleeping bags at night.  Training camp was about volume of running over quality.  It was also when our coach sniffed out who had been working out over the summer.  It was a time to bond with teammates and it was also a time to be reminded that the extremely long competitive season of a college distance runner lay before us.

Although this is technically the third week of training for my upcoming season - Wednesday-Sunday has the feel to me of training camp.  During this period I'll be working out 16.5 hours over 5 days - which is a lot more than my body has been doing since about August of last year.  A week from Sunday is also my first "race" of the year.  I'm running the Lincoln Half Marathon on the 5th of May.  It's actually a pretty large race - there are about 10,000 runners.  I'm not going to be running all out - it's still early in the season.  The plan is to bike the 50+ miles to Lincoln on Saturday - stay over night - and run the race on Sunday.  I'd like to start out easy - but push myself just enough to break 1:20.

With cross country that the first month of racing is really about getting prepared for October and November.  And for me - May is really about getting ready for June, July, and August.  My first "real" race will be Kansas 70.3 on the second Sunday in June.  Craig Alexander (multiple World champion) will be there - along with several other top pro's.  I did fine there last year - but I'm excited because I think I can shave off ~15 minutes from my time - most of it from the swim.

4/8-4/14
Monday: 3 hour bike 30 min run
Tuesday: 1 hour swim
Wednesday: 1.5 hour run
Thursday: Day Off
Friday: 1 hour swim 2 hour bike 30 min run
Saturday: 45 min swim
Sunday: 2 hour bike 45 min run
Total: 7 hour bike 2 hour 45 min swim 3 hour 15 min run 13 hours

4/15-4/21
Monday: 1 hour swim
Tuesday: 2 hour 30 min bike 45 min run
Wednesday: 1 hour swim
Thursday: 1 hour run
Friday:  Day off
Saturday: 1 hour swim 3.5 hour bike 30 min run
Sunday: 1 hour swim 2 hour run
Total: 14.25 hours 6 hour bike 4 hour swim 4 hour 15 min run

Planned 4/22-4/28
Monday: 1 hour swim
Tuesday: 1 hour run
Wednesday: 1 hour swim 3 hour bike 30 min run
Thursday: 1 hour swim 1 hour 15 min run
Friday: 1 hour swim 4 hour bike
Saturday: 2 hour run
Sunday: 2 hour bike 45 min run
Total: 9 hour bike 4 hour swim 5.5 hour run 18.5 hours