For the next month, Marcelo Parra and Franco Parra, the elite twin distance runners from San Antonio, will take turns offering their training insights on MileSplit. Dual Princeton recruits, they are among the top runners in Texas and will return with national ambitions. A season ago Marcelo qualified for both Nike Cross Nationals and Champs Sports Nationals while Franco, the TAPPS Class 5A state champion, was one spot short of an NXN bid and finished sixth at the NXR South Regional. Both had stellar spring seasons, with Marcelo clocking a 4:11 mile while Franco ushered through a top time of 4:16 for the mile and 14:43 for 5K.
Next up is Week 2 with Franco. Check out his first week of training below.
Week 1 - Week 2 - Week 3 - Week 4
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WEEK 2 (August 14-August 20)
Monday, August 14: Double
Morning: 10 min easy warm-up + 600m threshold + 1-min easy + 4 strides; workout 5 x 1 mile (5:20-5:10); 1 mile cool-down
Afternoon: Lift
Night:1 mile easy warm-up + 4 strides; workout 8x1k on the boost (92-percent body weight) (2:52-2:48k's); 1 mile cool-down
Total: 15.25 miles
Easily the hardest day of the week. The morning workout itself wasn't so hard, though it was tedious. We then went to Lifetime to lift with Kenny (our coach) and by the end I was pretty exhausted. A few hours later, after grabbing something to eat and letting it settle down, we went to Kenny's house where he has a boost treadmill. That workout itself is pretty tough, but when factoring how exhausted we already were, it was pretty rough. We got through it though, capping off the day with 2 great workouts and a lift.
Tuesday, August 15: Easy
Easy 5-mile run
Total: 5 miles
I ran five miles with some of my school teammates at my high school, TMI Episcopal. We had a pretty easy run around 7:30 pace, though it was very hilly. It's a tradition that our freshmen have to carry a speaker so we can listen to music throughout the whole run. We pretty much just listened to Mako Road and Mt. Joy; I recommend that whomever is reading this, listen to both of those bands (right away), my favorite from Mako Road is Glimmer and my favorite from Mt. Joy is Silver Lining.
Wednesday, August 16: Easy
Easy 4 Mile run
Total: 4 miles
Really easy day at TMI. Ran the same route as yesterday, just one less mile. We started at 8-minute pace until we hit three miles. Then our freshmen got excited and dropped down to 6-minute pace.
Thursday, August 17: Workout + First Day of School
Workout: 10 min easy warm-up + 600m Threshold + 1 min easy + 4 strides; 4x100m hills; 25 min tempo (5:15 mile pace) (like 4.75 miles); 4x100m hills; 1 mile cool-down
Total: 8.25
We sprinted the hills and had no rest in between the last hill and the tempo run. Kenny claims it's for training, but I just think he's evil. The run got easier as it progressed because of this but the first mile was pretty rough. The whole run was evenly paced through a pretty hilly route but most of it felt nice. It was the first day of school today, the start of senior year. It was nice to see some friends I hadn't seen in a while.
Friday, August 18: Easy
Easy 3.5-mile run + 8 Strides
Total: 4 Miles
Super easy day; we ran at around 8-minute pace. I felt really slow on the run, so I wanted to get a little bit of movement in my legs. The eight strides felt really nice. We wanted to take today easy in order to recover for tomorrow's long run
Saturday, August 19: Long Run
10 mile long run
Total: 10 miles
The whole run was pretty nice, we ran at Mcallister Park through the "blue loop." Pretty scenic, through some bamboo, forests, and open fields. Marcelo, Adrian, and I took turns at the lead making it go by quicker. The last half mile of mile 9 was the only really fast part. We ran it in like 2:10 then ran mile 10 as a cooldown.
Sunday, August 20: Speed
WU 1 mi + 4 Strides; flying 5x40m + flying 4x50m sprint's; 2 mi cd
Total: 3.5 miles
Today we did an easy speed session, we do these weekly. The 2-mile CD was to cap off the weekly mileage and after the day, I feel really fresh and ready to start next week's training
Total Week Mileage: 50 Miles
This is one of several training blogs written by various athletes as the 2023 cross country season begins to ramp up. Check out our training blog series page for more content.
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