Cross Country STRENGTH

My biggest weakness as a runner is undoubtedly my lack of strength over long distances. Guys who I would mop up on the track shitcan me on the daily over anything longer than 2k. So, my plan this summer was simple.

Run long distance, early and often. Up the mileage.

Now, there's a fine balance during summer training between the amount of miles one runs and the quality of said miles. If you do too much long miles, you may not get the speed you desire by the end of the season. If you do too much interval & tempo work, you may not get the endurance you want by the end of the season.

Well, I threw out a gamble this summer. I banked on my natural speed and just did as much volume as I could possibly handle. 75 mile weeks were my cap it seemed, as I could barely manage that. From a normal persons perspective, that's a lot. From a collegiate athletes perspective, that's a normal workload. Hence why I've been a bit behind these previous 4-5 years.

When I came into the season, I was totally devoid of any strength. The top guys were running 1k intervals in 2:46-7, and I was running them in 3:03-4, back at about 16th. They were doing tempo runs after long hard days in 23-4 minutes when I was doing them in 25-26. I was tired, beat, and my early grades suffered a bit.

But I had faith. My legs were 'empty' in terms of hard work, and I trusted that the rigorous program set out by Coach Goldhammer would get me there in time.

As we went through the season, I was running pretty well for my own right. I set bests here and there, I even ran 25:54 which is a huge personal best for me. Around the middle of the season, I was running those same 1k loops in 2:54-5, hanging around 10th-11th on the team. I was doing those long, 10mile hard runs at around the same placement as well.

And the work kept coming. Push today, catch my stride, workWorkWORK. Throw up maybe. Ice daily maybe. Stay injury free. It'll come. It'll come.

Please come in time.

And about a week ago, something clicked. Those 1k loops were now 2:45-47. I was up with the top few. I even LED a couple reps. Staying close on tempo runs, running 23:54 for my tempo, which I ran in 25:14 earlier.

Drifting along the grass at 5:35 pace, feeling like a dream. Smooth. SO smooth. It's coming together nicely.

And hey, this Cross Country shit doesn't feel too bad after all.