My high school cross country team is nearing the end of their season. Every year is tricky when it comes to the end of the year and trying to peak the kids to get the best race out of them at the right time. You have to plan out the whole season ahead of time and hope that you ideas and workouts will ultimately add up to PR's (personal records) and awesome races or the kids. We have our League Championship next week. I usually try to peak them for this race, but then we are dead for the Regional Championship the week after. I decided to try a new approach this year around a long peaking process. I usually do a one week, all in, peaking process. this year I've stretched it way out to try to avoid ruining their Regional race.
The last few weeks have been tough, though. My team is beat up. We aren't very deep on kids. We have talent in the top 5-7, then it drops. Don't get me wrong. I love all the kids and train them all the same and try to get the best out of each one of them. But if one of my top kids go down, I don't have any back up plan.
A few weeks ago, the kids had a couple of amazing races back to back. Really good times, awards, medals, etc. Then they almost all told me they were hurting. My top girl's leg goes numb sometimes and now its doing it a lot. Another top girl is just a mess everywhere. Another has knee issues. Shins splints are everywhere. Tendentious is becoming abundant.Tired, sore, etc. etc. With still a few weeks left in the season, I decided to implement a recovery week and recovery plan. I would usually never sacrifice the training plan like that, but what good are the trainings if we are hurt everywhere?
What follows is a plan that doesn't work miracles. My kids are still tired and sore, but they have run pretty well the last two races. Many of them are setting new personal records or season bests. I am hoping that this plan and these recovery tactics will help them hold on for one more race.
Recovery training plans: This recovery workout system might work, but it also might not. Ultimately, rest is the best, but if you must race on, maybe some of these ideas can help.
Our usual training plan has been to work on hard intervals near the beginning of the week, Monday or Tuesday. This would be followed by a long recovery run, between 6-10 miles, the next day. If we had time for one more workout that week, we might do a shorter run with hill repeats afterwards or 150m strides x 6 or so. If we had time, I would have the kids do some weight lifting after their runs for added strength. With recovery week, I took the same approach, but changed how we did it as well as the work we did after. So, after a Saturday meet, leading up to a Friday meet, here is what the week looked like:
- Monday
- Normal warm up (warm up includes 1 mile jog barefoot on football field, active stretches, training skips, etc.) We do this every day.
- 6 x 50m easy strides
- Full body stretch routine as a group
- Tuesday
- 3 x 800 at reasonable speed (not quite race pace), with 3 minutes rest in between
- 8 min break
- 4 x 600, same speed, same rest
- barefoot cool down (2 laps)
- Injury prevention stretches
- 1 leg squat dips of aerobic box, 2 sets f 10 each leg (for knees and glutes)
- Calf rockers, 2 sets of 15 (for shins and calves)
- Standing ABC's (while standing on 1 foot, write the ABC's with the other leg, good for balancing muscles in leg)
- Sitting ABC's (sit on floor, bend knees with feet on floor but put 1 foot up over opposite knee so its hanging off of it a little, then write the ABC's with your foot... good for shins)
- Myrtl routine (check out this link... http://www.njsportsmed.com/files/myrtl_routine.pdf) It works great for the hips, IT band, etc.
- Wednesday
- Easy recovery run (5-7 miles)
- Full stretch routine
- Thursday
- Warm up
- 6 x 50m form strides
- Injury prevention stretches (see Tuesday)
- Friday
- Race
That Friday the kids ran very well. I told them to ease into the race. Feel out the first mile or two. If they felt good, push it, if they were hurting, just stay at pace and use the race as a workout.
The next week, we also had a race Friday. The workouts were almost exactly the same, except I changed the intervals into 400's. and we switched the days we stretched or did injury prevention. We ran the 400's at goal race pace. For our top guys, that was at 85 seconds, or 1:25. That felt great. Not too fast, but not too slow. More invigorating than anything else. We did 2 sets of 5 x 400's with 3 minutes rest between and a 10 minute break between sets. It looked like this.
- Monday
- 3-4 easy miles
- 6 x 50m easy strides
- Injury prevention workouts
- Tuesday
- 5 x 400 at goal race pace, with 3 minutes rest in between
- 8 min break
- 5 x 400 (see above)
- barefoot cool down (2 laps)
- Full stretch routine
- Wednesday
- Easy recovery run (5-7 miles)
- Injury prevention workouts
- Thursday
- Warm up
- 6 x 50m form strides
- Injury prevention stretches (see Tuesday)
- Friday
- Race
At the meet Friday, I told my kids to back off if they weren't feeling it. My guys came up with a plan to pack run for as long as they could. Their times were slower, but they weren't dead after, which is fine. We need to run fast for Leagues, not this race. Here's the plan for next week.
- Monday
- 6 x 200's at stride pace with 3 min rest
- break 12 minutes
- repeat 6 x 200's
- barefoot cool down, 2 laps
- full stretch routine
- Tuesday
- Recovery run, 4-6 miles
- Injury prevention workout
- Chalk talk and race prep***
- Wednesday
- Warm up and easy strides at course
- Thursday
- League Championship race
***We will go over the course and discuss strategies for each section. We will also do something that has become tradition... race visualization. I have them lie down on their backs, close their eyes, and I walk them through the race visually. It seems to help them mentally. Then, since I'm not good at big speeches, I try to come up with one phrase to use. Lately its been "Have no regrets".
I am really hoping that next week's plan with added recovery helps. I have been feeling like a failure as a coach for putting the kids through this pain. Its been tough. Every year I feel anxiety about whether I trained them right or not. I feel like its my fault if they run bad times or are hurt or have a bad race. I am their trainer, coach, and health expert. If they can't perform, who else is there to blame?
This recovery workout system might work, but it also might not. Ultimately, rest is the best, but if you must race on, maybe some of these ideas can help.
UPDATE: My athletes all performed very well at our League Championship. My top boy got some terrible cramps part way through the race, but the rest of my runners either ran a PR or a season best. My girls took 2nd. Last year they won by a little bit, this year they lost by a little bit to the same team. I knew it would be a stretch to win it, but I'll take 2nd all day! My guys finished the best they ever have finished in the history of the school... 3rd. Last year we were 4th. We moved up a spot with a commanding lead over the 4th place team. It was a great race. Now on to Regionals to see what we can do there!
UPDATE: My athletes all performed very well at our League Championship. My top boy got some terrible cramps part way through the race, but the rest of my runners either ran a PR or a season best. My girls took 2nd. Last year they won by a little bit, this year they lost by a little bit to the same team. I knew it would be a stretch to win it, but I'll take 2nd all day! My guys finished the best they ever have finished in the history of the school... 3rd. Last year we were 4th. We moved up a spot with a commanding lead over the 4th place team. It was a great race. Now on to Regionals to see what we can do there!
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