Summer Miles Part II

Now it's time to set Goals for the summer. Many high school cross country programs have summer mile clubs. For example, the 500 mile club or the 1,000 mile club. The general goal is to hit the specified amount of miles by the end of the summer. The set number of miles for the summer is your long term goal. To achieve such a goal, one must also set short term goals such as daily and weekly averages. In other words, how many miles do I want to average per day and on a weekly basis. With this in mind, let's start with the summer goal of obtaining 500 miles as an example.

A summer training schedule usually contains 12 weeks. 500 total miles would be an average of 41 miles per week, or an average of just under 6 miles a day. If this is what you want to achieve for the summer, write it down in your running log (see running log post). The most important thing to remember is not to start your first week at 41 miles. If you are not in shape to do so at this time, you will be asking for injury and/or burnout. The key is to start out at a lower weekly average and build up to the 41. Don't worry, by the end of the summer you will be running more than 41 to make up the average. You also don't want to run 6 miles every day. The week should be broken down into a periodized schedule to maximize training effort.

The following example is a 40 mile week using a periodized schedule. Again, this is not the week to follow right away if your goal average is 40. Periodization will be posted soon, which will be followed by more detailed schedules in Summer Miles III.

Sunday - 10 miles easy
Monday - 5 miles easy
Tuesday - 6 miles moderate
Wednesday - 3 miles easy
Thursday - 8 miles easy
Friday - 4 miles moderate
Saturday 4 miles easy
Total Miles - 40