Cicero North Syracuse (NY) senior Kate Putman has a big season ahead of her. The New Yorker finished 14th at the New York Cross Country State Class A Championships in 2021. During her junior season, she earned an indoor state title in the 1,500m before she finished fourth at New Balance Nationals Indoor in the two-mile, where she clocked the fifth-fastest time in the U.S. with a personal best of 10:15.18. We've asked the New York native to give us some insight on her training this season, and this is the second of a four-part training blog heading into cross country.
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Week 2 (August 23 - August 28)
Monday, August 22: 7 miles
I went into today with mixed emotions since it was my last-first-day of practice at CNS. Luckily, my legs felt fresh for the usual first-day time trial. We did our usual half-mile jog as a team to get the legs moving and then headed into dynamics. The weather was not in our favor today, as it poured down on us for the last three miles of our four mile time trial.
We had 4x1-mile repeats for the time trial, with a mile warm-up and a mile cool-down.
I was targeting right around 5:20 pace for all the miles and was able to pull through on that with the help of my teammates in the rain! It was a day to remember for sure.
Tuesday, August 23: 7 miles
Today I forgot my watch for the run, which I ended up liking because it was an easy run. Sometimes it's nice to just run, without knowing what pace you are going for 24/7. It also helps to motivate a lot of fun conversations with my teammates, especially since my legs were feeling it from yesterday. I also had PT today. We pushed it a little more since I didn't have a workout, and since I knew I wouldn't have one tomorrow.
Wednesday, August 24: 8 miles
Travel day!
Today we did a hillier run at Green Lakes (a local state park).
Before I started doing PT, I would have pain in my knees due to a muscle imbalance. This, however, I have been able to fix with the help of my awesome PTs. Now I am able to comfortably run down hills without pain, so today's run was a big success in that part. The legs felt a little tired and heavy because it was the second-day post a hard workout, but the run honestly blew right by. Of course we had to end practice with a post-run selfie.
Thursday, August 25: 6 miles
Today we were back at the high school for workout two-out-of-three for the week. We had some tempo miles. Since it's still early in what my sister calls the "6-month long season" we have kept our tempo around six minute pace. We have some longer stretches in our mile field loop that can be pretty hard to get through once you hit miles three and four, but that's also where the teammates around me really help. I have been trying to focus more on that third mile in my workouts, so I can mimic a good mindset when it comes to the third mile of a race. So today was a nice day to practice that since we had a mile warm-up and cool-down, with 4xtempo miles. Today was also a PT day, and since I had a workout today they lightened my load a little bit to compensate.
Friday, August 26: 8 miles
Another travel day to Green Lakes!
Today's run was pretty regular with just seven miles, and 5x200s (with a 200m active recovery). We did decide to adventure on this run and found a nice two mile add-on loop. Some trails after a while can get pretty boring, so a slight change in scenery is always nice. This run felt pretty good and average, as did the 200s. Again, had to end with a post run selfie and a jumping video.
Saturday, August 27: 8.5 miles
Time for the last workout of the week. Today was a fartlek run in our one-mile field. This run was more about running with people and going by effort and feel rather than time. My goal for this run was to imagine I was in a race on the stretches of speed we did. I would just look at my teammates' back and allow them to pull me through. Then on other stretches, I would take the lead to build up confidence with leading and trailing. I felt really good for this workout!
Later that day, we had some team bonding at the New York State Fair. My team and I rode some rides, watched barrel racing and drank way too much chocolate milk!
Sunday, August 28: Rest day (sort of)
Today was supposed to act as a rest day, but it turned into a (extreme) tubing day. I had a few of my friends go tubing and hang out on the water, which turned into two hours of us doing donuts and catching air in the waves. Then we took my friend's Jeep out to get ice cream and closed the night with a nice bomb fire!! Honestly, a pretty fun "rest day" to me.
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Total Mileage: 44.5 miles
This is the second of several training blogs written by various athletes as the 2022 cross country season begins to ramp up. Check out our training blog series page for more content.