Summer Running Week 1 and 2–and 3 and 4!– Training Suggestions

Update June 20:

Here are some suggested runs for MVXC summer weeks 3 and 4…please read this entire blog post including the notes below about how to use these training suggestions!

If you are just getting started with your preparation for joining MVXC you might want to begin with week 1.

This could be a great time for our leaders to organize something fun for the week of the fourth of July!  Maybe a group trip to watch Toy Story 4?  A run in Nisene Marks (and get your parents to support you with a picnic lunch or a BBQ afterwards; or just a stop at Gayles for lunch)?  Coach might have some ideas to help with planning!

######Post from June 6:######

Here are some suggested runs for the first two weeks of our summer running!  

• These runs are only suggestions!  Feel free to modify based upon what you feel like running, and the group that you have.  Runners who are traveling can try to find runs that fit this plan.

• We will have a lot of new runners joining us for the first time!  Invest in our relationships. Make sure that new teammates feel comfortable; introduce yourselves, bring them to meet other juniors and seniors, take some time to get to know them, encourage them as they get started.  Remember we were all new runners once!

• It’s time to get new shoes for everyone!  Plan some group trips to Running Revolution or Runner’s Mind; if you contact Coach Flatow in advance he can let the store owners know you are coming and maybe plan something fun for your group.

Also–schedule your physical for next season!  And remind the new athletes that they need to get their physicals scheduled, too.  And please, please consider asking your doctor to add a serum ferritin test when you have your physical.  Iron is extremely important for endurance athletes, and our experience is that more than half of our athletes have iron levels that are low enough to effect their athletic performance and cause them to not enjoy running as much.   MIT and other college programs get their entire teams tested every season; please, please, please do this!

“People sometimes sneer at those who run every day, claiming they’ll go to any length to live longer.  But don’t think that’s the reason most people run. Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest.  It is far better to live with clear goals and fully alive then in a fog, and I believe running helps you to do that.  Exerting yourself to the fullest to extend your individual limits – that is the essence of running, and a metaphor for life.”

-Haruki Murakami