Zach Dale is the ultimate team player as this New Balance Outdoor Nationals 4x800 relay proves (Mary Ann photo)
Zach Dale is one of the top returning distance runners in the United States. As a junior at Conant High School in Hoffman Estates, Dale had a breakout year in which he bust personal bests of 14:29.95, 8:56.35, 4:09.96y, and even a swift 1:56.11 for 800m. Dale finished 4th in last fall's 3A cross country final and will return with a dead aim to take the crown against equal stallion Jesse Reiser of McHenry. This season will be very interesting to follow between the two aces. Dale has agreed to share some of his summer training. Below is a snap shot of his training to date.
Week 1 (6/23-6/29)
My track season went pretty late into the summer for what I’m used to, I needed a good break but didn’t want to waste too much precious summer base building time. I took a week off after New Balance Nationals before starting out my mileage very low. I could still rest a little while starting up my summer training. This first week consisted mostly of short easy runs (despite the team time trial that Shujaat Sultan and I were surprised with).
Monday- 4 miles (easy)
Tuesday- 4 miles (easy), Leg strength, General Strength
Wednesday- 4 miles (easy)
Thursday-5 miles (team 2 mile time trial)
Friday-Day off
Saturday-7 miles (easy, pickup at the end)
Sunday-Day off
Week 1 Mileage Total: 24 miles
Summer Total: 24 miles
Week 2 (6/30-7/6)
After a week of light running, I was ready to ramp up the training just a little, but I was still gradually building up to normal mileage. I started to add General Strength and Leg Strength workouts into the mix. These are mostly bodyweight/core/mobility exercises that I do. During camp with our team, sometimes the weight room would count as a substitute for this.
Monday- 5 miles (easy, strides), General Strength
Tuesday- 6 miles (progressive hills), 3 miles (easy,strides), Leg Strength
Wednesday-5 miles (easy)
Thursday-7 miles (cutdown fartlek), 3 miles (easy), General Strength
Friday-Day off, General Strength
Saturday-4 miles (stroke volume hills)
Sunday-9 miles (tempo work), Leg Strength
Week 2 Mileage Total: 42 miles
Summer Total: 66 miles
Week 3 (7/7-7/13)
This week I finally built back up to my somewhat normal mileage. It was a good week, with lots of aerobic work as well as some stroke volume hills to help with the explosiveness. I’ve started to make strides a habit on the easy days or sometimes on my doubles. We try to get on the grass as much as possible.
Monday- 6 miles (easy), 4 miles (easy)
Tuesday- 9 miles (easy, strides), General Strength
Wednesday-6 miles (fartlek on grass), Leg Strength
Thursday-6 miles (team circuits), 4 miles (easy, strides)
Friday-4 miles (stroke volume hills), General Strength
Saturday-12 miles (progressive), Leg Strength
Sunday-5 miles (easy, grass, strides), General Strength
Week 3 Mileage Total: 55 miles
Summer Total: 121 miles
Week 4 (7/14-7/20)
This was my first higher mileage week of the summer. It’s after weeks like these that you feel that good type of exhaustion that you know you’re getting fit! Every week at camp we do team circuits, which is typically 5x800 with a bunch of exercises in between each run. This week Coach Powers threw us for a loop when he told us to do an all out 400 on the third rep (to get us tired and see how much we could have left). I went 57 and my teammate Shujaat went 59. We were pretty happy to know our speed was still there… but the rest of the workout was a lot of fun :-). My last sentence contained a hint of sarcasm.
Monday- 8 miles (easy)
Tuesday- 5 miles (short 400’s workout), 3 miles (easy, strides), General Strength
Wednesday-10 miles (Rolling hills with surges), Leg Strength
Thursday-5 miles (team circuits), 4 miles (easy, long strides)
Friday-6 miles (easy), General Strength
Saturday-12 miles (tempo work), Leg Strength
Sunday-5 miles (easy), 6 miles (easy, grass), General Strength
Week 4 Mileage Total: 64 miles
Summer Total: 185 miles
Week 5 (7/21-7/27)
After two weeks of higher mileage/workload, I typically take a down week to recover so I can build back up again. If you haven’t noticed in the previous weeks, we usually do some sort of workout for our long runs. It’s usually a progression run/ tempo work, or a fartlek with pickups. I’m more of a strength runner, so I work well off of these types of long runs, plus it makes them go by faster physically and mentally.
Monday- 6 miles (800 workout, grass), General Strength
Tuesday- 7 miles (easy), Leg Strength
Wednesday-6 miles (team 2 mile time trial), 4 miles (easy, strides), General Strength
Thursday-8 miles (easy)
Friday-Day off
Saturday-12 miles (progressive), Leg Strength
Sunday-6 miles (sprint work), 4 miles (easy), General Strength
Week 5 Mileage Total: 54 miles
Summer Total: 239 miles
