Kevin Salvano: Summer Training Blog

Buffalo Grove junior Kevin Salvano burst onto the Illinois distance running hierarchy last year during the cross country campaign and emerged as one of the top runners in the Mid-Suburban League. Salvano would go on to place 20th place in the 3A state cross country state championship. After a solid track season that netted a state appearance and a 9:24 personal best, Salvano is ready for bigger and better things this fall. Kevin was kind to take some time out of his busy running schedule to share his summer running diary.


Week 5- Organized practice at the school Monday-Thursday.
This was the last week of organized practice I had this summer.  The rest of the summer is captain's practice, but then we have practice at the school starting August 13th.  It's been really nice to train with a bunch of dedicated guys who are in great shape.  My teammates have been dedicated since the first week of training, and we're really determined to reach our goals.  We try to run together at least six days per week.  It's obviously much more enjoyable of a run when you have others to do it with.

This week was pretty similar to the previous weeks, a track workout, hills or a fartlek session, and a few easy runs and a long run.
We had captain's practice Friday and Saturday, and I was by myself on Sunday.

Monday, July 7th
7 miles easy
10 strides
7.6 mile day

Tuesday, July 8th
Mile warm up
Track Session- 6 x 1000m
1.5 mile cool down
6.2 mile day
Upper Body Strength

Wednesday, July 9th
6.3 miles easy
10 strides
6.9 mile day

Thursday, July 10th
Mile warm up
Fartlek session (7.5 miles total)- 1 minute easy between each set: at a hard pace (minutes) 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1
Mile cool down
9.5 mile day
Core and Lower Body Strength

Friday, July 11th
7.5 miles easy
7.5 mile day

Saturday, July 12th
Mile warm up
10 mile long run
6 strides
11.3 mile day

Sunday, July 13th
7.2 miles easy
6 strides
7.5 mile day

56.5 miles this week


 

Week 6- Wisconsin Camp of Champs [Monday-Saturday]-
This was such an awesome week.  I met many great people from my running group, frisbee team, and just from hanging out in the dorms and other areas.  The counselor/leader in my group was the 2013 Big Ten XC Champ, Malachy Schrobilgen, the most relaxed and laid-back person I've ever met. It was fascinating to listen to lectures from Coaches Mick Byrne and Gavin Kennedy, and pros Reed Connor and Maverick Darling, plus the rest of the team.
 
Although the first couple days made my legs a little stiff, the training was great.  There were optional (somewhat) afternoon easy runs, but I only did two of them because I hadn't started doubles yet, only a few kids ran twice every day.  We ran on the trails and bike paths, Ron Zimmer XC course, and through Madison, plus a track workout.  In regards to Madison, we spent an afternoon there. It's a unique city to say the least. I'll for sure go back next year.

Monday, July 14th
Mile shake-out in the morning
Evaluation run: 3rd place by 5 seconds to a kid named Ben from Wisconsin and Ryan Clevenger
Mile warm up
Run was maybe 2.7 miles?
.2 mile cool down (all I had time for)
4.9 mile day

Tuesday, July 15th
Morning:
9.6 mile run
Afternoon:
3.2 miles easy
12.8 mile day

Wednesday, July 16th
Morning:
2 mile warm up
Track Session- 3200m tempo, 6 x 400m
.7 mile cool down
Afternoon:
4.8 miles easy
11 mile day

Thursday, July 17th
7.4 mile run
7.4 mile day

Friday, July 18th
6 miles easy pre-meet
6 mile day

Saturday, July 19th
Race day- 2.25 miles?
1.2 mile warm up
2nd to Ryan Clevenger by about five seconds
.9 mile cool down
4.3 mile day

Sunday, July 20th
6 miles easy
6 mile day

52.4 miles this week


Week 7- Captain's practice Monday-Saturday.
It's not easy getting high school kids to wake up early during the summer to run, but seniors Eli Hinkle, Montana Nimerfroh, and Tripp Wallner have done well getting as many of us as possible to meet together.  On Monday, I felt sick after practice for the majority the day, so I decided I should get some more sleep and run on my own on Tuesday.  There were a couple of workouts I really wanted to do, so I selfishly did them by myself on Monday and Thursday.  I am not sure why I did that, but I realized that it makes more sense to do the team's workouts instead of my own because that's obviously the right thing to do.

I wasn't sure if I was going to start running twice a day on a couple days per week yet, so I listened to my body and only did one of them in moderation.  For our long run, we went to the Des Plaines River Trail.  It's shaded, mostly flat, and has a great surface.  Try it out!
I almost got nailed by a truck on Thursday during my PM run.  This wasn't the first and probably won't be the last time it will happen. I've got to work on that.

Monday, July 21st
Mile warm up
6 miles of hills with good recovery- only hard on the hills
Mile cool down
Upper Body Strength
8 mile day

Tuesday, July 22nd
7.5 miles easy
7.5 mile day

Wednesday, July 23rd
8 miles easy
6 strides
8.3 mile day

Thursday, July 24th
Morning:
1.5 mile warm up
4 mile tempo run
.9 mile cool down
Core and Lower Body Strength
Afternoon:
3 miles easy
9.4 mile day

Friday, July 25th
7.5 miles easy
7.5 mile day

Saturday, July 26th
12 mile long run
6 strides
12.3 mile day

Sunday, July 27th
6.5 miles easy
6.5 mile day

59.5 miles this week

I'd like to thank my teammates for putting up with me, you runners for reading this, and the truck for not killing me.