Westridge Tigers XC

This group is for the Westridge XC team--not for the all-school running club. Remember that you can still talk to me about running until the winter season. After that, you can't talk to me about your running because it would be a violation of CIF rules. Great season, everyone. We accomplished far more in the last 2 months than any other Prep League team. Take a week or two easy to let your bodies recover from the stress of intense training and racing, but then it's time to start thinking about track season. Last season, we spent half of the time doing base training and before we even finished that period, we had to jump right into intense intervals to get ready for the last meets of the season. If everyone does base training this winter, then we'll have a much stronger foundation as we begin the track season. We'll also have time to include a Lactate Threshold/Tempo phase between base training and VO2Max intervals. This will make you all much stronger runners in March and April. This winter, there's no need to worry about speed. Just get in the miles and enjoy running. Mileage guidelines: Come up with a mileage goal. Every cross country runner should be able to run 300 miles in 10 weeks. If you're a little more ambitious, go for 350. If you have been healthy and you're feeling really ambitious, 400 miles would be awesome. Increase your mileage by 1 each week. Thus, if you want 400 miles, you would start at 35 mpw and build up to 45. (This may sound daunting, but we actually did that much during the season, including tough workouts--you can do this.) Also, remember that life has a way of screwing up our plans. Some things will come up that will make it very difficult to run on certain days. In order to prepare for this, plan for a slightly higher total than your actual goal. This means that, if you're going for 400, you might start at 37, instead of 35. This will give you a little room for the unexpected. A few things to try this winter: Register for a few races (only if you feel like it). If some of you want a challenge, consider the Carlsbad Half-Marathon. You should be able to handle it without too much trouble, provided you focus on your weekend long runs. Run Geronimo a few more times and see how fast you can make it up. Get together on weekends and a couple of days/week after school to run as a group. Go out for breakfast after running on Saturdays. Get together as a team for social events. Just because it's not a competitive season doesn't mean that the cross team doesn't exist. Borrow some of my running movies if you want to. Read some books and magazines about running. Go online and start learning about the sport of pro running. Ask me for advice about this, if you're interested. Try driving someplace scenic, where you wouldn't normally run. Try running before school from time to time. If you only plan on going a couple of miles on a specific day, you can get the run done early without losing too much sleep. You'll also find that a morning run wakes you up better than a whole pot of coffee.