Marcelo Laguera thought he had done everything right. The Pomona cross country runner entered the 2013 state championship meet on the heels of a season in which he had consistently been one of the top Class 5A runners.
“I was expecting to finish in the top 10,” Laguera said. “… Then my body kind of broke down at the end of the season.”
Laguera trudged to a disappointing 71st-place finish, a result that forced him to take a hard look at his training and what went wrong. He realized there was more work to be done when no one was looking.
“This summer was all about base training, putting in a lot of miles every week,” said Laguera, now a senior. “It was basically about getting stronger for a season of races. You’re stronger and ready to go so that a 5K race shouldn’t be very hard. … It helps you a lot.”
After a dedicated summer, Laguera won the prestigious Cheyenne Mountain Stampede Invitational in August and believes he has a good chance to win the 5A boys state championship at the same course in Colorado Springs on Oct. 25, when he’ll face top contenders such as Zachary Alhamra of Pine Creek and Joshua Joseph of Thornton.
Laguera’s rise is evidence that, for cross country runners aiming to reach the pinnacle of their sport, there is no offseason. Training programs are designed to allow runners to reach their peak performance at the important end-of-season meets, which begin Thursday and Friday with regionals.
“Cross country is so different,” said Cherry Creek’s top runner, senior Daniel Book, who helped lead his team to the Centennial League championship. “In a lot of sports you can kind of coast by on natural talent. If you just naturally have great ball-handing skills, you can be good at a sport like soccer or basketball. With running, it’s all about how you train. You have to work every day. The good thing is, you can see the benefits of it.”
Cherry Creek coach Ethan Dusto splits the season into several phases in order to have runners peak at season’s end.
The summer and early-season phase is about building a mileage base, with long-distance runs at the forefront. It’s a vital piece of the training puzzle, one runners must be disciplined enough to apply on their own.
“The ones who don’t train in the summer just can’t hit that peak,” said Chaparral coach Rob Ferguson. “They just can’t get there.”
Added Chaparral assistant James Bateman: “Once you lose your lung capacity, you start over at square one. You have to get it all back.”
After building up their mileage base, the middle of the season gives way to the interval-training phase. Which means punishing workouts that can make even experienced runners cringe.
“(The workouts) make you wonder whether you’re going to pass out or not,” said Cherry Creek junior Lillian Markusch.
Coaches apply interval training in various ways, but the basics are the same. Runners are tasked with completing short- to mid-distance runs at a high speed, with a short recovery period before repeating the same distance or a similar one at the same speed or faster. The workouts are designed to build aerobic threshold, allowing runners to run at a faster pace for a longer period of time. Each workout is designed with an eye on race performance.
“You can feel the pace of the workout,” said Markusch, who finished 12th at state last season. “You then try to find that pace when you’re in a race so you can keep up with it.”
Dusto, who was a distance runner at Cornell, said the challenging interval workouts are also key to developing the mental toughness runners need to power through pain.
“When we do interval training, it’s really about mental focus,” he said. “I think that really helps them in a race. The workout isn’t as long as a race, but it can really help you in honing that focus for a set amount of time.”
Mountain courses, such as Cheyenne Mountain, where the state meet will be held, are common in Colorado. Therefore, many coaches combine their interval workouts with hill training to produce practices that replicate the environment.
“We do these things called ‘super hills,’ ” Book said. “You run hard up a hill, hard down the hill and then hard up again. It’s an 800-meter interval, and it’s all through hills. It’s hard to keep that pace, especially on the downhill.
“But the state course is a huge hill, so it’s obviously good to build those muscles and make sure they are strong when that time of year comes around. Working hills also builds up your leg speed so that you have a finishing kick.”
With the finishing-kick portion of the schedule on the horizon, some runners will no doubt look back and shake their heads at what they’ve suffered through to get to this point. But they also know those workouts are necessary to unleash a peak performance when it matters most.
“That’s just what cross country is,” Laguera said of the sport’s training programs. “I guess we’re pretty crazy.”
According to plan
While cross country workouts vary, many coaches follow a similar weekly training plan designed to achieve peak performance when regional and state meets arrive. Here’s a list of a common weekly training plan:
Monday: Hills
Runs up mountainous terrain that prepares runners for hilly courses while building leg muscles.
Tuesday: Distance
A long run below race pace that serves a two-fold purpose: recovering and adding mileage.
Wednesday: Intervals
Designed to build speed, the workout is comprised of short- to mid-distance runs at a high pace with small recovery in between repeats.
Thursday: TuneupThe day before meets, this run can be about 3 or 4 miles, with a pace below race speed, that serves as a long warmup. Many coaches “train through” races early in the season, meaning the Thursday run the day before a race could include more speed interval training or hill work.
Friday: Race
A 5-kilometer (3.2-mile) run across terrain that includes mountain trails, dirt roads, reservoirs and hilly parks.
Saturday: Distance
Similar to the Tuesday workout, with distances varying depending on the point in the season.
