Friday starts my third training cycle of the year. This one targets the Atlanta Track Club’s (ATC) Grand Prix Cross Country (XC) 5k in October.

My previous training cycle ended with last week’s ATC Grand Prix 1 Mile. My performance at that race was good enough to increase my Jack Daniels VDOT. I ran a 6:32 in 82°F temps which is a VDOT of 45.8. I had been training at VDOT 41.3 paces. 45.8 is a big jump. I plan to only increase my training paces by a point, to 42.3. My new paces are:

Threshold (T)

7:50/mi (up from 8:00/mi)

Interval (I)

7:13/mi (up from 7:22/mi)

Repetition (R)

6:49/mi (up from 6:57/mi)

A XC 5k is a very different from a track mile, but VDOT 42.3 equivalent 5k is 23:00 while a VDOT 45.8 equivalent is 21:29. Whatever my fitness at the end of this training cycle, I expect the race to be slower than a road 5k. We’ll see how the time shakes out.

The General Plan

This training cycle will be 18 weeks long, which is a good time frame for me. I like to be between 16 and 24 weeks. I will be following Jack Daniels’ Cross Country training plan, which of the plans in the book is much less specific. The first half of the book (I have the 3rd edition of Daniels’ Running Formula) is his training methodology and the second half are sample plans. Most of the sample plans have specific workouts, but the Cross Country plan is more “do an R workout, do an I workout.” All of that is fine. The methodology half is very detailed and his guidelines are very clear.

As usual, his first phase is easy running, the second phase prioritizes R work, the third phase prioritizes I work, and the fourth phase prioritizes T work. My first and second phases will each be four weeks, my third phase will be six weeks, and my fourth phase will be four weeks. I’ll do my usual fourth week down week at about 75% volume, aligned with the final week being a 50% down week for a taper. During phase 1 I'll do a very modest volume increase.

I’ll do the same strength training plan I’ve done the last two training cycles, where phase 1 focuses on aggressive strength gains, phase 2 less aggressive, phase 3 holds, and phase 4 deloads. It has worked okay so far, though it does mean that phase 1 is tough where it used to be a nice easy phase when only running easy and not strength training at all.

With the race being a XC course, I intend to do at least one of my runs each week on trails. Once I start doing workouts, I’ll do one of my workouts on the Legacy Park XC course, which I expect will be the race course.

Because the race is on a Wednesday, I’m going to shift my training week to run Friday through Thursday. This better aligns with my normal Monday through Sunday training week for Saturday/Sunday race. I’ve done this once before for a Thursday turkey strut, and it was only a mildly confusing to keep track of.

Phase I

Phase One starts Friday and will consist of all easy running.

1. Week 1
   1. Friday: 30 min Easy + 8 Strides
   2. Saturday: 60 min Easy
   3. Monday:40 min Easy
   4. Tuesday: 30 min Easy + 6 Strides
   5. Wednesday: 40 min Easy
   6. Thursday: 30 min Easy + 6 Strides
2. Week 2 (planned down week)
   1. Friday: 20 min Easy + 8 Strides
   2. Saturday: 45 min Easy
   3. Monday:30 min Easy
   4. Tuesday: 20 min Easy + 6 Strides
   5. Wednesday: 30 min Easy
   6. Thursday: 20 min Easy + 6 Strides
3. Week 3 (volume increase: adding 5 minutes to my two “medium” days)
   1. Friday: 30 min Easy + 8 Strides
   2. Saturday: 60 min Easy
   3. Monday:45 min Easy
   4. Tuesday: 30 min Easy + 8 Strides
   5. Wednesday: 45 min Easy
   6. Thursday: 30 min Easy + 6 Strides
4. Week 4
   1. Friday: 30 min Easy + 8 Strides
   2. Saturday: 60 min Easy
   3. Monday:45 min Easy
   4. Tuesday: 30 min Easy + 8 Strides
   5. Wednesday: 45 min Easy
   6. Thursday: 30 min Easy + 6 Strides

I’m ready and excited for a new training cycle!