Rob Murphy – Key Workout
The Alta Run
Distance: 6.5 miles and up depending on the number of campground loops.
Pace: “Survival Pace” going up. As fast as they can maintain without stopping to walk. As close to 5k race pace as possible on the run down – allowing gravity to do much of the work.
Every Thursday throughout the summer, we meet at Alta Ski Area for “The Alta Run”.
The run begins at an elevation of 8,500 feet and proceeds along the base of Alta Ski Area to what’s called The Summer Road. It’s a ski run in the winter. From that point, the run climbs about a thousand feet over 2.5 miles. This is some stressful running – especially early in the summer when the kids aren’t acclimated to the altitude. Our best runners struggle to maintain 9 minute pace. At the top of the Summer Road you reach the campground at Albion Basin. The entrance to the campground is 3.25 miles from the start so if runners turn back here, they have a 6.5 mile run – almost all uphill for the first half and almost all downhill on the return.
Our fit runners are encouraged to run “campground Loops”. The campground has a 2/3 mile rolling loop so each time you complete a loop you add 2/3 mile to the 6.5 mile run. Fortunately there’s water at the campground. We’ve had runners add as many as 10 loops but the general idea is to make this an 80 to 90 minute run.
On the downhill return runners are encouraged to approach 5k race pace for about 2 miles. I think the fast turnover on tired legs is really beneficial and the dirt road makes for less impact than doing something similar on pavement.
Unlimited chocolate milk at the bottom.
Rob Murphy – Alta High School (UT) – Season 2
Robert holds a BA in History and an MA in History Education from Furman University. He ran track and cross-country during college and recently ran a 1:15:26 half marathon at age 45. He placed second as a masters runner in the 2009 USATF LDR Circuit in Utah.
As head track and cross-country coach for Berea High School from 1996-2002 he led the cross-country team to four consecutive state top ten finishes (1999-2001). In 1998 they were the South Carolina 3A State Track and Field runners-up.
Robert has been coaching at Alta High School since 2002. While he was Assistant Track Coach they were Utah 5A Girls State Track and Field Champions in 2003 and the following year won the 5A Boys State Track and Field.
As head cross-country coach at Alta, they’ve won six region championships in cross-country (2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014). His 2008 accolades include Utah 5A Boys Cross Country State Champions, Nike Cross Nationals Southwest Region runner-up, Nike Cross Nationals qualifier, and Utah Cross Country Coach of the Year. He’s had Nike Southwest Championship race qualifiers in 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, and 2014. One of his athletes, Kramer Morton, was a Foot Locker Finalist in 2012 and 2013, a Region Champion three consecutive years (2011-2013), and a 5A State Champion in 2012. His team was ranked 10th in the Southwest United States in 2013.
Mark Lacianca – Key Workout
The Workout
Cruise Intervals – 6 x 800, 8 x 800, 8 x 1000 (depending on the age and fitness of the runner)
I prefer the cruise intervals over the tempo runs for most high school runners; it is a great team building workout and the workout is set up for everyone to succeed.
The Summer
Prior to the first time our team runs this workout, there is a slow summer build-up of mileage. This workout is not attempted until our team has maxed out our minutes of running.
The Varsity Workout
Our top runners will run 8 x 1000 with 40 – 62 seconds of rest. The different rest allows us to run our top 7 – 10 runners together, and gives the runners some flexibility to adjust their practice based on how their body responds. We are fortunate to have a grass campus with some room to run, and our track is circled by our cross country course. The breakdown of the 8 x 1000 workout is the first six 1000’s are on the course, and the last two 1000’s are on the track (standing recovery between all intervals). All of our workouts are “waterfall run” — run slow to fast, meaning that we always run our final intervals at a greater speed than our initial intervals.
The Specifics [Read more…]
Mark Lacianca – Unionville High School (PA) – Season 2
Mark Lacianca holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Biomedical Engineering. Mark has been teaching Physics and Chemistry at Unionville High School since 1993.
Mark started his coaching career as an assistant Track and Field coach in 1997 and he was named the head Girl’s Cross-Country coach later that same year. Mark was selected to be the head coach of both the Boys and Girls Track and Field programs in 2001 and he took over the Boy’s Cross-Country program in 2008.
Mark’s teams have finished in the top 10 in the state of Pennsylvania 14 different times. Mark has had the most success with the Girl’s Cross-Country team, which just completed their 13th straight undefeated season. The Girl’s team won the State Championship in 2004 and 2013, and Mark has both times been named the Pennsylvania Girls Coach of the Year. In addition the Girl’s team has been the state runner-up four times in the last five years!
The team also won back to back the Nike Cross Northeast Regional Championship in 2013 and 2014. This year they finished 4th (8 points from a 3rd trip to Portland), but did have two individuals finish in the top 50 at the NXN Championship.
Scott Bliss – Key Workout
Here is an example one of the staples of our xc training. It is kind of a combo of taking stuff from Scott Simmons book “Taking the Lead” and a workout I found in one of the running magazines done by one of the elites. We are trying to simulate a number of the things that they will experience in a race. We call it a combo workout and it includes three different training stimulus in the workout.
Warm up drills – lunge matrix, leg swings and dynamic warmup
Running warmup 15 minutes
First segment 10 minutes at tempo pace – we have a 1000 meter grass loop that is rolling that we will do this on for the full 10 minutes. We can change where we are doing this based on what we are wanting to accomplish with the tempo. This is followed by about a 4-5 minute jog down to where we will do hill repeats.
The second segment is hills and they will be determined by what race is coming up and what we want them to get out of the hills. We have a medium length stair step style climb, a shorter section with 2 hills that we call the “figure 8 hills” because they allow them to climb and then recover down to the next climb and they just keep doing them and it is basically in the shape of a figure 8 and then we have a much longer, hard hill that will do near our state meet. We again then jog for about 4-5 minutes to the last piece.
The third segment is very similar to strides to simulate the end of a race. We want them to change gears when they tired from the rest of the workout to feel what it feels like to do that when they are fatigued.
Cool down 15 minutes and any after practice work we will do if any.
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