It was a hot week! Unfortunately that meant the cancellation of our race. But we stacked another solid week of training, and we have cool weather plus races this week, including our first hyper local race at Durham Academy (for middle school)!
On Monday we will have practice at Blackwood Farm Park. We’ll start at the normal time, but extend by 15 minutes - this is our tough practice of the week. I know not all can make it, but we want to make it available. We will not have regular practice Wednesday morning or Thursday afternoon because of our meets. We WILL have a pseudo practice (easy race prep) for high schoolers at the meet on Wednesday at Durham Academy. On Thursday, any middle schoolers who come to the HS race can do a light post-race shakeout with us.
A note about the racing this week - we didn’t plan on splitting the team between two meets & days. There was a scheduling issue (or… maybe they just lost our emails), DA left us out of the HS competition, the meet filled, and we couldn’t be added. We want to build that relationship for the future, so we are racing in the MS race and we hope both HS and MS will race there next year. But it does make the schedule a bit more difficult this year, I’m sorry parents.
See the training spreadsheet for training plan details, terminology, and resources
800m WU, dynamics.
Tempo intervals:
V: 8min / 3min jog - 3x (will split into groups, red group doing 8min, orange doing 6min tempo / 5min jog)
JV: 5min / 3min jog - 3x
4-5x 20-30s hill sprints.
strength / core ?
5min CD
V: 25-40min easy including 5x 20s surges at 1mi race pace, or 5x 15s strides to 95% at the end
JV: 15-25min - easy pre-race shakeout with 5x 20s surges to race effort near the end
Race for MS at Durham Academy! First race at 4:00, course walkthrough at 3:20pm.
HSers: If you come to the race, we will do an easy 20-30min run plus some race prep stuff - if on your own, do 20-30min, plus 5x 20s strides to 90%.
HS Race! First HS race is at 5:45pm, please arrive at 5!
MS: If you come to the race we will do an easy 15-20min shakeout together, if you are on your own, do the same to help flush the legs from racing.
V: 20-30min easy shakeout
JV: 20-30min easy + 5x 15s strides at the end to 95%.
Long run -
V: 50-65min steady with 4x30s surges at 3-5k pace near the end.
JV: 30-45min - just more time on the feet!
MS - If you feel good, finish with 10min progressively faster, until the last minute or so is 1mi race effort (it'll feel all out). HS - you are only 36hrs removed from your (longer) race, so no fast finish for you.
Rest
September 4th (Wednesday): @Durham Academy (MS ONLY). 3601 Ridge Rd, Durham, NC. 3:15-5:15pm
September 5th (Thursday): Lighthouse Homeschool Invitational (HS ONLY). 601 W 3rd St, Wendell, NC 27591. 5-7pm
September 9th (Monday): @Discovery Charter School
September 19th (Thursday): Chatham Homeschool meet @Haw River Christian Academy
We’ve had a number of questions about nutrition and sleep. First off, neither Tim nor I are nutritionists or medical professionals of any kind. But what we can help emphasize to your kids are the well known basics. First, of course you need quality sleep! Both as a growing human, and also even more as an athlete. But don’t listen to me - Eliud Kipchoge (arguably the best distance runner in history) says that he sleeps 10 hours per day! (See: https://x.com/INEOS159/status/1146796221958369280).
Food wise, I’m mostly concerned that we eat a wide variety of as whole as possible foods. One of my kids would choose a diet of pastries, boba tea and ice cream, and I’m sure some of you have the same child. :) I never say anything to my kids about eating too much - it’s about eating a balance of nutrients - you can’t just eat carbs or fat or protein - you need it all. Replacing a poor food choice for a better one - replacing as many processed items with unprocessed, and encouraging all the nuts, fresh fruits, and vegetables you can. As I mentioned previously, you should eat a balanced snack with protein within 60min after a hard workout to aid in recovery and help lock in gains from the work (See: https://lewis.gsu.edu/2021/10/13/fact-or-fiction-the-anabolic-window).
As most know, eating disorders are a common risk for both male and female who get serious in endurance sports. It can start young - I know a local 11 year old runner (an AAU national champion) who suffered Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) and a bone stress reaction, and had to stop sports and work with a nutritionist to recover. NCAA champion and professional runner Allie Ostrander has been quite open inspirational to many regarding her long struggle and recovery from an eating disorder: https://run.outsideonline.com/people/allie-ostranders-radical-transparency/. And Allie is already a faster athlete post recovery! I personally emphasize being a strong athlete with my girls. I want all our athletes to be strong and healthy, we will perform well by our strength and power, not our lack of weight. Both for today’s performance, for injury prevention today and tomorrow, and for overall health longevity. Again, let me emphasize that we are not a medical professionals and there are people on this email list (maybe most of you!) who are better qualified to speak to this! :)
So, kids, your coaches think you should get 9hrs+ of sleep, eat your vegetables and put down that soda!
Some more informative links on the subject:
Risk Factors, Diagnosis and Management of Bone Stress Injuries in Adolescent Athletes: A Narrative Review: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8073721/
Low BMI Can Increase Risk of Stress Fractures in Female Runners, Study Finds: https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/mediaroom/pressreleaselisting/stress-fractures-bmi
As this pretty good article in Runner’s World says: “The goal with pre-race nutrition is to optimize fuel stores while avoiding gastrointestinal distress. You optimize fuel stores by carb loading in the days prior to race day and by having a carb-rich breakfast the morning of the race.” Don’t worry so much about 5+ hrs before your race. Closer to race time, eat light, not too much fiber or fat, but enough food to give you energy for your race. Too much food or liquid and you risk cramps or worse. Personally, I prefer yogurt/fruit/oatmeal for morning races. If you want an extra jump start, that cup of coffee (or some caffeinated energy chews) is proven to not just help you drive to the race safely, but also to help you perform better: https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-020-00383-4
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