Joan Hunter – First Four Weeks of 2018 Boys XC
Joan Hunter has put together a 37-page document, with details for every day from June 19th to the state cross country meet on November 10th, for members of Season 3 of HSRC.
Here is the first four pages of that document, the training from June 19th to July 1oth – click here to download the document.
Joan has shared the training of two different groups of athletes, based on age and ability, allowing you to see what the boys did, a group that not only won their state meet, but convincingly won the Nike Cross Nationals for the second year.
Joan and I shared a few emails after she sent this document. I’m including them here that provide insight into critical velocity (CV) paces. Tom “Tinman” Schwartz has had a big impact on Joan’s coaching and a cornerstone of his coaching a significant amount of work done at CV pace.
“Also, it would probably help if people knew I use Tom’s pace calculator to get kids’ paces for CV, threshold, etc. Everyone loves to think of CV pace as 10K pace (which makes them think that it is like Daniels cruise intervals or something) but really, for slower kids, CV pace is almost 5K pace since it is really 30-35 minute max effort race pace! So a beginner girl who runs 29 mins for 5K is going to run her CV reps fairly close to her race pace. Using the calculator for paces is a very important piece of our training.”
“One thing when working with CV pace, if you are using shorter races to plug into the calculator, you will get skewed results. Shorter races almost always spit out too fast of a pace. 5K is great, 3200 is OK, but Tom has formulas he uses to get CV pace for kids who race 800/1600 or shorter stuff. I usually look at CV pace using all the different formulas for a kid based on events and then sort of figure out a range. Tom explains his formulas in his DVD training programs.
“…CV pace is the pace of a 30-35 min max effort and equates to 90% of VO2 max pace (don’t ask me how he calculates all this…)”
If you want to watch an 8-minute video of Tom talking about CV pace, click here.
And if you want to watch an 8-minute video of Joan talking about basic training concepts, click here.
To get the 37-page document, you need to become a member of Season 3 of HSRC. Click here to become a member.
Joan Hunter – Key Workout and Typical Training Week
Joan and her husband, Marc, are in their 4th year of coaching cross country at Loudoun Valley HS, in Purcellville, VA. For 10 years in the 1980’s and 1990’s, Joan coached at James Madison HS and South Lakes HS, where she and Marc had the privilege of being Alan Webb’s 9th grade coaches. During this time, they coached numerous state qualifiers and a handful of state champion relays and individuals.
After an 8 year hiatus from coaching while raising their many kids, Joan and Marc started a youth running club, NOVA Athletic Club, which enabled them to be involved in the sport without the huge time demands of high school coaching. However, once their son Drew began running in 9th grade, the Hunters saw his potential and wanted to ensure he would have every opportunity to develop, so they began volunteering at Loudoun Valley and eventually took over the distance program spring of Drew’s sophomore year.
The Hunters have led the Viking boys XC team to 3 consecutive state team titles, and 3 Viking boys (Drew Hunter, Peter Morris, Sam Affolder) have won the last 6 individual state titles. In 2017, the Viking boys scored 15 points at their state meet- something no Virginia team has ever done. That team went on to win the 2017 Nike Cross Nationals. Drew Hunter qualified for Foot Locker in 2014 and 2015, winning in 2015. Last year, Peter Morris qualified for NXN. The Viking girls have been state runners-up in XC for the last four years, have had one individual state champion (Natalie Morris, 2017) and have had one individual girl, Ciara Donohue, qualify for Foot Locker in 2014. In track, the Viking boys have won 2 outdoor state team titles. Last year, in Loudoun Valley’s first full official indoor track season, the Viking boys were state runners-up. Other important wins include the 2016 NB indoor nationals DMR and the 2016 Penn Relays DMR.
Key mid-season workout: CV reps plus hills
Warm-up (Ebbett’s drills, posture check, joint rotations, lunge matrix, runner’s touch, 100 ups, heel flicks, easy jog about 800 meters, skips, strides, and dynamic flexibility). 10 mins of running plus 3 mins tempo. All this takes about 30-35 minutes.
1st season kids:
8 mins easy run, then 2 mins at tempo effort.
4-6x 800 meters at CV pace, with 90 second jog recovery (about 175 meters or so, I don’t worry about how much ground they cover.)
3-4x 200 meter hill, mile race effort, with easy jog down for recovery.
Easy run till they get to 55-60 minutes, total time.
Veteran, but non-varsity level kids:
10 mins easy run, then 2 mins at tempo effort
5-6 x 800 meters or 1000 meters at CV pace, with 90 second jog, same as above.
4x 200 meter hill, same as above.
Easy run till they get to 60-70 minutes, total time.
Varsity level boys and some girls (freshman girls would do 800s or a mix of 800s and 1000s, most girls have 90 sec jog recovery)
10-12 mins easy run, then
5-7x 1000 meters at CV pace, with 75 second jog (about 175 meters)
4-5x 200 meter hill, same as above.
Easy run till they get to 65-70 minutes.
CV, or Critical Velocity pace, is about 90% of VO2 max pace. We estimate this using our kids’ current 5K race times, or a time trial in the early season. We also adjust the times based on what we think they could run the day of the workout, based on weather, terrain, etc. We use Tom Schwartz’s pace calculator: http://runfastcoach.com/calc2/index.php
Typical varsity week of training, late September, early October, no race that week:
Total mileage for my top boys was about 60-67 miles, depending on doubles. My top girl was about 55 miles on single runs, and my other girls were between 38-45 miles on single runs (freshmen were less.)
Monday: 50 mins easy [Read more…]