Friday, May 28, 2010

Let the summer begin ...

OK. Time to start looking ahead to the late summer/fall 2010 and cross country season. Here are a few topics to go over with everyone …

Summer training

I met with most returning men about summer training, which should be slowly under way at this point. As a reminder, please email me weekly (Sunday night or Monday) with your previous week’s training. This will keep me updated and also will enable me to give you weekly feedback on what you are doing. A few basics …

Long run: Even in the early stages of summer buildup, you should be getting in a run that is 20-25 percent of your weekly mileage. This means that even at lower mileages, you should be getting a long run of 9-10 in at the beginning of this training cycle.
Post-run strides: Very important. Do them 2-3 times per week.
Mix it up: Don’t do the same amount of mileage every day. You should have a long run and a very short run (or off day) each week, and then fill in the blanks from there.
Hammer time!: As discussed with most of you, later in the summer training cycle (July/August), we will be introducing a long, continuous run of moderate intensity into the workout regimen. Basically, you can consider it “planned hammering.” This will occur one day per week (at most). And it will be PLANNED. Regular hammering, as always, is strongly discouraged.
Rest weeks: Every 4-5 weeks should be a “down” week in which your weekly mileage buildup will take a break. Often, it works out if you are on vacation, or we get a killer heat wave, etc. The key is to try to plan these out and not have them be forced upon us by illness or injury.

More specific details on summer training will follow in personal emails to each of you, and here at the fancy Blog Central.

Team captains

For men’s cross country and track, we will have four captains for 2010-2011, based on team voting and other factors. Congratulations to the following team captains for the upcoming year:

Adam Vess, Pat Duggan, Matt Flint, Tim Keegan

We have a lot of upperclassmen leadership on the men’s team to go along with this fine roster of captains. I trust and expect that all of you will do your part to keep the tradition of strong running and strong citizenship that has been evident in our program for a long time.

Cross country schedule

For alumni, parents, friends, etc., to help with planning, here is a quick look at our fall schedule. Note that not every runner will run every meet. We will be splitting the squad more than in the past, mostly because the squad is so darn big! It will all work out, and we look forward to the challenges that this schedule will bring to us.

Saturday, Sept. 4: Marist Invitational at Bowdoin Park. Teams committed to attending: St. Peter’s, Fairfield, Siena.
Saturday, Sept. 18: Iona Meet of Champions at Van Cortlandt Park
Saturday, Sept. 25: Fairfield Invitational at Fairfield University, CT
Friday, Oct. 1: Paul Short Run, Lehigh University
Friday, Oct. 8: Metropolitan Championships, Van Cortlandt Park
Saturday, Oct. 16: Penn State National Meet
Saturday, Oct. 16: University at Albany Invitational
Friday, Oct. 29: MAAC Championships, Hamonasset State Park, Madison, CT
Saturday, Nov. 13: NCAA Northeast Regional
Saturday, Nov. 20: IC4A/ECAC Championships, Van Cortlandt Park

Obviously, the squad will be split on Oct. 16, when we have two meets on the same day. Again, more details on this as we get closer.

Save the date!

Red Fox Trot 5km: For alumni, friends, etc. ... keep Saturday, September 11 free. That will be the date of the Red Fox Trot 5K race, starting and finishing at the Marist Riverfront. The race is a benefit for the Red Fox Club. The track/xc team will be on hand to provide course support and cheer on the runners.

Also: We have made tentative plans for an Track/XC Alumni Reception at the new boathouse (it's really nice). Hope to see many of you there ...

Enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend, and we'll be back on the blog next week.

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