CHARLESTON, S.C. - Most people believe that training for cross country is quite simple, and the majority of the time they are right. Our coach, Jim Stinzi, likes to tell us at the beginning of every season there are two ways to get better at distance running; run farther or run faster. While this might be a simple approach it doesn't make the training required to compete at the NCAA Division I level any easier.

In the buildup to the 2021 cross country season, we had many guys on our team who took the "run farther" approach. Certain members of the team were running upwards of 110 miles, week in and week out. To put this in perspective 110 miles is between 15 and 16 miles each day, seven days a week.

However, the team generally runs between 70 and 90 miles a week depending on their specific event and how much their body can handle. Running the amount required to be good at the division one level is a constant balancing act between injury and being in phenomenal shape.

If you push too hard it's easy to find yourself in the training room plagued by nagging injuries that are often not even treatable. With this balance between fitness and injury on our mind, we headed into one of the hardest weeks of training we would encounter in our buildup to the 2021 Big South Cross Country Championships.

Sunday, February 14th
The week started with a long run on Sunday. We like to drive out to dirt roads in the Charleston area because the surface is softer than running on concrete streets and lessens the impact on our legs. During a long run, we hold a steady pace around 6 minutes and 30 seconds per mile for anywhere from 13 to 18 miles.

The older guys on the team will generally go longer and faster as they are used to the grind of a long run, and can handle the beating their legs take. Personally, I have always liked long runs. The comradery of having your team all together chatting and telling jokes is one of my favorite things about running. 

15 miles - Weekly Mileage 15

Monday, February 15th
Mondays are what we like to call base days. A base day is faster than an easy run but still at a slow enough pace to let your body recover for the hard workouts ahead. The whole team will run together or we will break off into groups of three or four depending on who wants to run where. Some days we run a 5-mile loop around the trails on campus or we will head out into the neighborhoods just off campus for a longer run.

12 miles - Weekly Mileage 27

Tuesday, February 16th
Every week Coach Stinzi sends out a detailed plan of what workouts we will be running. That Tuesday he had us run eight-by-1000 meters starting at around three minutes and five seconds and working down to around two minutes, fifty seconds.

After a brisk 20 minute warm-up, we headed to the track for his explanation of the loop we would be running for our repeats. It was a combination of running part of the track and heading out the back gates before doing a larger loop around the pond by the weight room and finishing back on the track where we started.

We packed up with the ten men we would be running at the conference championships, switching leading each repetition to break the wind that had kicked up to nearly 20 miles per hour that day.

The times started to drop after rep number four and the pack broke up with me, Alan Deogracias,  and Jaymee Domoney pulling ahead of the rest of the pack. "2:55, keep it right there,'' coach Stinzi said as we crossed the line finishing our fifth rep. We kept the pace fast as we progressed through the workout ultimately finishing our final rep with a time of 2:51 for the kilometer.

I stopped my watch and looked down to see that we had covered the 5 miles, just over the eight-kilometer distance we race, in 23:48, 4:45 per mile. High fives and fist bumps ensued as the rest of the pack surged across the line with all ten of us under three minutes. It is so encouraging when you see your whole team have a solid workout. We knew we were in for something special that season.

12 Miles - Weekly Mileage 39

Wednesday and Thursday, February 17th and 18th
The next two days were extremely easy as we let our legs recover from the brutality we had put them through on Tuesday. It is imperative that you allow yourself to listen to your body and run whatever feels comfortable the day after a workout. Running even ten seconds a mile too fast can put you in a state that will not allow your body to fully recover and repair itself before the next hard session.

24 Miles - Weekly Mileage 63

Friday, February 19th
We finished the week off with a workout that we had all been anticipating and joked that would be nearly as hard as a race. On deck, we had three by two miles on the track with a five-minute recovery jog between reps. Coach has told us he wanted us to start slower and work the pace down to finish in 9:30 for the last rep 4:45 pace for two miles.

After our usual 20-minute warm-up, we gathered around the start line for final instructions. "I want the first rep in ten-flat," Coach Stinzi said, a time that many high school runners dream of breaking.

We lined up with the intention of switching off the lead every 800 meters to share the workload. The pace started off easy as we clicked off 75-second laps like clockwork. After dropping a 74-second lap we came through the mile in 4:59 right on pace.

The workout was going well and we had all ten athletes locked in running under five-minute pace with ease. We covered the final mile of rep one in 4:59 as well, to complete the first rep in 9:58. After what felt like 30-seconds we were back on the line ready to take on our second two-mile run. This one was supposed to be considerably faster, 9:45 or 4:52 per mile.

The second rep went much like the first, consistent pace, everyone working together and helping pull their teammates through what was supposed to be one of our hardest workouts of the season. It was oddly easier than the first despite the increase in speed.

The team was smooth, strung out in a train-like formation and floating around the track as if we were under no strain at all. We finished the rep ahead of pace again in 9:42, 4:51 per mile. I turned and fist-bumped Jaymee who had led the final 800 meters of the rep in affirmation of the job he had done to help pull the team through the middle part of the workout.

With only two miles left, we jogged our five minutes of recovery fully anticipating the final rep to be the hardest and most grueling part of our week. The week had all built up to this one repeat. I knew that If we could get five guys through that last one we were set for our conference championship in just over two weeks.

I took the lead for the first part of the final rep determined to hit the pace and pull as many guys through two miles in 9:30 as I could. "68," yelled Coach Stintzi as we came through one lap, "Don't freak out, stay calm." I had gone out too hard and I knew people were going to pay the price.

68 per lap would be 9:04 for the full two miles way faster than the pace coach has prescribed. I slowed the pace down to just over 70 seconds for the next lap and moved over to let Matt Inman through for his share of the pacing.

People were starting to fall off the group because of my quick opening two laps. We cruised through the next two laps slower hoping to let some team members rejoin the shattered group.  With one mile to go, we had six athletes still together and I took over the lead again and pushed the pace once again to make up the lost time from our slower third and fourth laps.

After what felt like a lifetime we had one lap to go. Jaymee, Matt, and Alan were all right behind me with all of them looking to finish the workout strong. We cruised around the track finishing in 9:31 just one second slower than the coach wanted but the workout was still a success. Our two freshman phenoms Gavin Kuhlenbeck and Micah Gilpatric were right behind us finishing maybe five seconds off our pace. This was our final tough workout before the conference championships, the work was done, and we all knew we were ready to race.

13 Miles - Weekly Mileage 76

Saturday, February 20th
With our legs having been brutalized the day prior we headed out for an easy eight miles to polish off a solid seven days of training. Eighty-four miles on the week with two hard workouts and a long run, we went into the next two weeks confident that the work we had put in would foster a good result come March 5th on race day.

While we may have gained some physical fitness from our weeks of training I also think that more importantly, we gained the confidence to race as a team knowing that we had ten athletes who all had a shot at being All-Conference.

Eight miles - Weekly Mileage Total 84