Monster Training

What does my favorite old school boxer, Thomas "Hit Man" Hearns have to do with cross country running? Well, boxers are fit as all hell and John and I just started a summer training program to begin our build up for the USATF Masters XC Championships in SF in December. Our coach and teammate Josh Scully calls the regimen monster training because in his words, "It is a time to put on the gloves and workout! Take your fitness to the max." Good enough excuse to include a badass image of Hearns!

Anyway, here's the game plan:

Monday - Long run of 12-16 miles, pushing really hard on the last 2-3 miles.
Tuesday - 7 miles at long run pace -- kind of an extension of Monday's workout
Wednesday - 5 miles easy
Thursday - Interval workout @ 10K race pace with minimal rest -- i.e. 10 x 800 with 1 minute rest or 8 x 1000 with 1 minute rest
Friday - off
Saturday - 8 mile progression run on dirt trails
Sunday - 5 miles easy

Total each week is about 45-50 miles. I have 3 races planned for the summer: a 10K at the end of June, a 4 miler in mid-July and an 8K in early August.