Alerts:
Next Team Run: July 25 , Camillus Middle School, 6-7:30pm
Quick Links:
Rolling along...
July 22: Hard to believe that even though five weeks of summer preparations are "in the books," another five weeks of building a sound aerobic fitness foundation still remains. Judging from the efforts of a lot of team members, it's going to be a large and strong foundation. They began a third seasonal progression, Alternations, on the Woods/Outer Loops, with 5k pace segments separated by slower general conditioning or steady-state paces in ratios that will change in the weeks and months ahead. This evening, with cooling temperatures, no rain and a large turnout of team members, they had a good start .
Time Marches On...
July 9: As the runners wend through the Inner and Outer Loops of our trail system, whether completing intervals or alternations, it's hard to explain how their course once looked. The trail system they now use, one of the better on school-grounds training venues in upstate, was not 'just there.' It had to be created over time, piece by piece, with a lot of help from the WG maintenance department. The Woods Loop came first, created back in the late 70's or early 80's as a nature trail for Camillus Junior High School students(a junior high school then). The field that now contains the Inner and Outer Loops lay beside the Woods Loop, and it was just that: a field. Once other trail possibilities were eliminated by soccer field expansions, Coaches Vermeulen and Delsole mapped out the field loops, an easy enough job due to the lack of vegetation. But once maintenance began mowing those trails, the rest was left to natural succession. Nature, of course, got to work filling in what was previously a field. Each new group of runners thinks their trail setting has always been that way. They simply have not been around long enough to note the changes.
1. Late 70's/early 80's 2. New Trails - 2008
3. 2014 - First birches 4. 2024 - Filled In
Progress is our most important product....
July 1: Progressions make the runner. After beginning their long interval progression at the prior Team Run, the team initiated the other important progression of summer: threshold runs, training designed to increase the intensity or time at which a runner can maintain a pace aerobically using their most efficient energy system. They chose the Woods Loop for the training, a roughly half mile ciruit that provides varied but essentially flat terrain. Theirs was a solid introduction on another comfortable, sunny summer evening, and it laid the runners' baselines of per/mile paces, which they will seek to lower throughout the summer months.
Wheels up....
June 27: Progessing workouts throughout a season is essential to overall racing success. On this comfortable, early summer evening, the Wildcats began one of their most important seasonal progressions: long intervals. Generally, progressions rely on steady and controlled changes in either the distance of the intervals, the speed at which they are run, or the length of recoveries between interval efforts. Sometimes, it is a combination of those three variables. The team members ran these initial 800m intervals around their Inner Loop by 'feel,' getting used to the perception of effort required to complete their targetted number under control. Things went well. The teams' progression of long intervals, one that will reach far into October, is under way.
Here we go.....
June 24: Wildcats XC 2024 begins. The veterans know what is meant by "The First Season" of cross-country. Their summer preparations will largely control their competitive successes in the Fall. So, first you have to 'win the summer.' Team athletes gathered for their first Team Run, although their individual runs are already into the 2nd week of accumulating mostly easier summer miles. The team runs serve the purposes of bonding team members and providing the higher velocity training that allows for a smooth transition to the rigorous in-season work. Our first meeting included some some alternation repeats to get used to different training paces and a quick "7 seconds" session of hill repeats. A good start.
