Conner Mantz from Sky View High School in Utah blogs for us with summer training schedule as he returns for his senior season of cross country as a two-time Foot Locker All-American and New Balance Nationals Indoor 5K champion. Mantz nearly made the World Junior team in the 10K with a 3rd place finish in the US Junior Nationals. Mantz also ran 8:52 for 3200 meters at the Arcadia Invite and posted a 4:07 PR for the mile in the adidas Dream Mile. With still having to train in early July just in case he was needed for the World Juniors team as a 10K alternate, Mantz started up his summer cross country training on the final full week of July. His second week included a trip to Oregon to train with some of the nation's best at the Nike Elite Camp.
CONNER MANTZ (UT) TRAINING BLOG
Week 1 (7/21-7/27) - Week 2 (7/28-8/2) - Week 3 (8/3-8/10) - Week 4 (8/11-8/17)
After a long, but fun, season, I decided to take a break before getting ready for cross country. After I placed 3rd at USA Juniors, I kept training for a week to be ready if someone dropped out. After that week, I started my break. I took one week to mentally and physically recuperate before jumping back into my training. My first week I jumped into my training much too quickly. I tried a few tempo runs, but the mileage alone was still hard. I got a lot of hills in my runs, so that was good for my speed.
July 21st: PM - 10 miles
July 22nd: AM - Good 4k tempo and 2 mile tempo, but had problems holding them. 7 miles
PM - 4 miles
July 23rd: AM - 3 miles on a trail in Wyoming.
PM - 5 miles.
July 24th: AM - 6 miles.
July 25th: 10.1 miles on another trail in Wyoming. I usually don't like trail runs, but this one was beautiful.
July 26th: 5 miles tempo, 5 miles easy.
July 27th: Day off.
July 28th: Long run around Smithfield, in the canyon for a lot of it. Went farther than planned. 11.5 miles
July 29th: AM - It was our team XC camp, and we had some 30 second and 45 second sprints. 4 miles total
PM - 4 easy miles.
July 30th: First day of Nike Elite Camp. Not sure on the distance (somewhere between 10 and 12 miles). Pace was pretty easy for most of it, except when Tanner started to pick it up near the end. 11 miles
July 31st: Workout on the track. It was a 600m break down. Since it was so early in the season, the paces weren't too hard. 7 miles total.
Aug. 1st: Ran around a lake near Mt. Hood. 8 miles.
Aug. 2nd: AM - We had a 5K race. It was fun, and not everyone took it seriously. Mikey Brannigan won it in 14:40. On the cool down, we saw Luke Puskedra, and got to run with him. 8.5 miles.
PM - Pool running workout.
It was a hard week of miles for me. I tried to hit 60, but ended up adding wrong in the week, and was just short.
Aug 4th: Had an interval workout on the grass, but part of the course was under construction, so I don't know the distance of the repeats. 5 miles at practice, 5 miles when I got home.
Aug 5th: 5 miles tempo, 5 miles easy. Good to get a tempo run in.
Aug 6th: AM-The team was doing cruise-intervals, but since I did tempo yesterday, I ended up pacing some freshman. 5 miles.
PM-5 easy miles later.
Aug 7th: Ran 12.2 miles on some trails. I was able to meet up with an old rival/friend, Jerrell Mock, who runs at Colorado State now. He is a great runner and will do something awesome these next few years.
Aug 8th: We did some hill repeats. They were great for me because I haven't done hills in a long time. 4X3 different hills. 7.5 miles for the run.
Aug 9th: 10.2 miles. Was planning on a tempo run, but had to change because the hills yesterday took too much out of me.
Week 3 Total Mileage: 59.9 miles
Summer Total: 159 miles
A good week, I can feel myself getting used to the higher mileage.
Aug 11th: 6X1000m repeats at a park with the team.(6.5 miles) 5 miles after practice. 11.5 miles total.
Aug 12th: 5 miles tempo, then 5 miles easy. 10 miles total.
Aug 13th: 12 mile long run with Jerrell Mock again. We got some good trail running in.
Aug 14th: 6.1 miles with some teammates before making waffles.
Aug 15th: AM - We had our inter-squad meet. I ran pretty controlled, but still put in a good effort. It was good to see where everyone on my team is at. (5.75 miles total)
PM - 5 miles.
Aug 16th: 10 miles easy.
Week 4 Total: 60.35 miles
Summer Total: 219.635 miles
