Here is a cross-section of the life of a collegiate cross-country runner (me) during last two days of training during preseason.  Classes start the middle of next week.  Enjoy

Tuesday

7am: Roll out of bed and ride my bike up to campus for a breakfast of oatmeal with granola and raisins, orange juice

8am: Ride back to the house, relax on the couch and watch an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (great show), prepare for workout.

8:45am: Head off to practice

9am: Practice time.  Interval workout.  Warm up: 21 minute easy jog (3 miles), dynamic stretching and form drills (10 minutes).  Workout: 6 hill repeats (one mile continuous uphill, mostly gradual with a few steeper sections), with easy half-mile downhill recovery.  Started easy, 5:11 and picked up the pace each interval from there finishing in 4:50.  Ran solo.  Kept pace relaxed and under control, however practiced finishing hard while tired on the last one and pushed the last quarter mile. Post workout recovery drink.  Cool down: 15 minutes of easy jogging (2+ miles), dynamic and static stretching (40 minutes).  Total mileage: Just under 14 miles. 

12pm: Head out to lunch; bowl of cereal, turkey sandwich, bowl of pasta and banana.

1pm: Back down to the house to relax.  Fixed up the house with roommate.

3pm: Snack; PowerAde and orange

3:45pm: Head off to practice

4pm: Practice time number 2.  Stretching (20 minutes), form drills (1 hour), core and strength (40 minutes).

6:30pm: Dinner; Large salad with rice and chicken, bread, granola sandwich with honey and banana, green tea

7:30pm: back down to the house to hang out with teammates.  Movie 

10:30pm: In bed and asleep

Wednesday

7am: Wake up, breakfast on campus; oatmeal with Grape-nuts, banana and brown sugar, orange juice

8am: Back down to the house.  Another episode of “Curb”

8:45am: Head off to practice

9am: Practice time.  Recovery run:  easy 7+ miler.  Dynamic stretching, form drills (15 minutes), strides on the track in spikes, static stretching (30 minutes).  Post workout recovery drink.

12pm: Meeting

12:30pm: Lunch; pasta with vegetables, apple juice, cereal, apple

1pm: Another meeting (exciting, eh?)

2pm: Back to the house to take a nap

3:45pm: Head off to practice (things starting to repeat themselves aren’t they?)

4pm:  Practice time number 2.  Form drills (40 minutes), core (30 minutes), static stretching (25 minutes).  Normally would do another run at this point (5-6 miles) but taking a “down week” in mileage this week.

6pm: Dinner on campus; large salad with rice and salmon, bread.

7pm: Back down at the house, hang out with teammates

8pm:  UFC fight night.  Diaz is the man.

10:30pm: In bed and asleep.

Repeat.

“Whoa…” you might say, “this guy still has a blog on Fasterskier? We haven’t heard from him in months!” So yeah… sorry about that. It had been a rough spring, but after figuring a lot out about myself –both physically and mentally –I have finally been able to rebound and return to full time training. I moved back to Dartmouth College last week where I will be finishing up my senior year and rejoining the cross-country running team with the first race of our collegiate season this coming weekend. We recently returned from a training camp in the backwoods of northern New Hampshire where the entire team slogged through an onslaught of workouts, tempos and fartleks in order to test preseason fitness. I for once felt great, clicking off times and recovering far faster than I at first thought possible.

Getting back to training with teammates has been a great change of pace following an entire summer of solo efforts, slowly nursing myself back to health and cautious about over-exerting myself before being fully recovered. After last year’s… “mishaps” I sat down to reflect on what went right, what went wrong, and what I had learned from my trials and tribulations. The most important thing you can do after a… less than stellar year… is to learn from your mistakes and realize what you can (and cannot) do so that it doesn’t happen again. Through this self-reflection I was able to truly understand my goals in life, increase the fire burning within, and make my accomplishments and path to fulfilling my goals taste just that much sweeter. In order to do this, I have changed a lot in regards to my training over last year. These changes include mandatory days off regardless of how I feel, greater variation in week to week training loads, and greater emphasis on the purpose of each training session: train hard when it counts (races, intervals, up-tempos, etc.) and most importantly easy when necessary (recovery). Every day must have its purpose, as everyday is a chance to take you one step closer to success. I am currently focusing exclusively on running, something that is normal for me at this time in the year, and the miles are being to effortlessly fly by.

The return to college life has been smooth and painless as fall classes don’t start until the end of the month and other students and incoming freshmen don’t arrive for another week and a half, leaving the entire campus empty to just us preseason athletes, providing for a great location for some solid training without the hassles, commotion and distractions of normal college life. This upcoming week my training goals yield an 80-mile week (in six days due to Monday being an off day) with only a few easy workouts, so things are looking good. My coach and I have decided for me not to race in the season opener this weekend, trading it instead for some more quality training. The rest of the Dartmouth boys are looking great and all are anxious to see what the first race brings, with the older guys preparing to show off their summer fitness and the freshmen boys searching for how they might stack up with the rest of the team.

Until next time,

Ben

Well, the past few weeks have been a blur. Starting off in warm, sunny Arizona where I was getting in great training –right up to the point where I was hit hard by the worse flu bug I’ve ever had. Sidelined for four days, unable to get out of bed or consume any sort of food, I became extremely weak to the point were I couldn’t go the twenty feet to the bathroom without laying down to rest. Fortunately I was able to beat the bug, and for the past few days been trying to eat everything in sight to regain my strength. I’m back running now, abet not with the same luster as before, but look to see myself back at full strength within a few days. The other strange thing that happened to me was that I returned to classes. Whoa. Walking to class and trying to take notes, stay awake, and learn something is a new and unusual experience but of the few classes I’ve been to (three day’s worth) I would say I’m doing a decent job. Two out of three ain’t bad, right?

Here are a few photos, as I go from snow, to desert, and back to snow again…

Arizona: nice hot desert, perfect for trail running

Teammate Greg Haines logging in some miles

Yours truly after a pleasant 15 miler, two days before getting sick

The reality I returned to once back at Dartmouth

Scenic 16 miler in Vermont

Well, the time has come and I’ve hung up my skis for the remainder of the year. I have moved back to Dartmouth, and I am currently out in Arizona for some warm weather running. Switching between the two sports has been something I’ve had to deal with ever since high school and have learned from experience that these transitions need to be done with caution. Running is hard on the body and joints, and it takes awhile for your bone density to increase, the bursa sacks in your knees and hips to expand, and for your overall body to get use to the pounding and jarring of the sport.

Sorry for the wait. I’ve finally reached the land of reliable internet, and after three days, received my luggage. Gotta say, Italy was fantastic. Not only did we get to see Otzi, the 5000 year old man, we got in some great skiing and some good old fashion team camaraderie. Only way to properly bring you along on the journey would be through pictorial depictions, so here it goes…