Training Blog: Lexa Barrott kicks off her season !


Week 2 - 8/17 through 8/23

This week I'm at camp with my team at camp leelanau just outside of glen arbor. We're here until Friday so most of this weeks training will be done here. We run twice a day usually, with the afternoon run being light and easy normally. This is always one of my favorite weeks of the summer even though it's always very tough.

Monday: This morning we got up around 5:30 and were running by 6. We did a distance run around some of dirt roads near camp. I ran with my teammate Emma and we did 8 miles at just under 7:00 pace. We did ten miles total for the morning workout. In the afternoon we did about a half mile worth of strides on the camps soccer field in spikes after a half mile warmup. After strides, we went down to the beach and did an ab set and swam in Lake Michigan.

Tuesday: This morning at about 6:30 we ran 8 miles on the sleeping bear dunes heritage trail. This was a long run and we did about 7:00 pace picking up the last few miles. I ran with four of my other teammates. We did ten miles total. In the afternoon we went back to the dunes to climb them and swam in the lake. Later on after dinner we played some team games. We managed to undo a human knot with half the team!

Wednesday: Getting up bright and early again this morning at 5:30, we started our run from the Homestead resort. There is a long path that runs from the end of our camp road to Empire so we picked up the path at the resort and took it all the way home. The run was 7 miles and we did it at 7:30 pace. This was a slower recovery run. I ran with the same four girls as yesterday. We did 8.5 miles total in the morning. In the afternoon we did the "women Olympics". This has been a team tradition for a long time. We divide up into teams and do about six events. This year we did an egg toss, pull-ups, and egg race and a few other events. After this I did a core workout, stretching routine and hip exercises by myself for about 30 minutes.

Thursday: Today we got to sleep in (much appreciated) and we ran late morning. We ran our new time trial course just to see where it was so that we know it for the actual time trial tomorrow morning. The total mileage for this run was about 7 miles because we did a little bit of extra mileage . We did the run at about 7:20 pace. After we did an ab set as a team.

Friday: Today is our last day at camp and every year on the last day we do a 5k time trial. This is our first proper timed race of the season and it's a good indicator to see where you're at with your summer training. The course this year had small rolling hills through out and I ran it in 18:31. I felt very good running alone, now I'm just itching to race against some other teams. Overall, camp week was so much fun and I think it got our whole team ready and excited to get the season underway.

Saturday: Today I ran up north at my friend's cottage. We did a 4 mile shakeout run at 8:00 pace to get rid of the soreness from a hard week at camp. I'm driving back to Northville today after a long, hard week. Looking forward to going back to school and to start racing!

Sunday: I took today completely off to give my body a rest from camp. I was even able to relax by the pool for a while! Tomorrow my team and I start practice right back up again as we begin preparing for our race on Friday.

Total weekly mileage: 43.1