Watch out for Derick Peters in 2017. The rising senior at West Central High in South Dakota finished the 2016 cross country season as his state's Gatorade Cross Country Athlete of the Year. He competed at both the NXN Heartland Region, where he finished 31st, and Foot Locker Midwest, where he was 32nd, and won his first state title in South Dakota, posting a time of 15:37.67. Peters also went 14:57.18 at the Lennox Invitational in September, breaking 15 minutes for the first time in his career. He's quietly emerging as a national talent from the Midwest. Peters' hopes likely hinge on qualifying for NXN and/or Foot Locker to finish out his senior season. In the meantime, check out his weekly training as he prepares for the beginning of the season.
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WEEK 3 (August 21-27)
Monday: 10 miles -- two runs: 5 miles at 6:29 pace and 5 miles no watch
I started this week off with a really quality 5 miles. It felt great coming off my off day and I'm ready to work this week. It was very overcast, with rain every once in a while. I did my second run without my watch so I could really have a nice and relaxed easy run before my quality workout tomorrow.
Tuesday: 1 mile warm-up + 8x600m at 4:35-40 pace with a 1:30 walk recovery + 1x400m ALL OUT + 1 mile cool-down
Today's workout went very well. The wind was really blowing and the heat started off moderate. I felt pretty strong for the first couple of reps, but the last few were all mental. My splits were 1:43, 1:42, 1:42, 1:42, 1:43, 1:44, 1:42, and a 1:43. To finish off the workout, I ran a 59-second ALL OUT 400m. Finally, I went on the cool-down run and did some core. Besides the wind, it was a great day. I thought it was very productive.
Wednesday: 11 miles -- two runs: 5 miles at 6:39 pace and 6 miles at 7:06 pace
My first run was alone in the morning. It was kind of quiet with not a whole lot going on. It felt like a good pace and fairly steady. The second run was with the team. It went about the same as the run earlier but just at a slower tempo. Overall, the day was OK.
Thursday: 11 miles -- two runs: 6 miles at 6:38 pace and 5 miles at 7:10 pace
Nothing special happened today. It was cool throughout the day. I did not prep for the meet a ton. I had my first run before school and did my second as a pre-race day run. Both of the runs went by well and without any difficulty.
Friday: Race Day. 1 mile warm-up + 5K race at Madison + 6 mile cool down
The race went all right. My official time was a 15:26. I'm really not too excited about the time. Personally, I thought I ran slow. The course was a solid cross country course and the weather was hot, humid, and windy. The first race of the season is out of the way though. The cool down ended up quicker than I wanted it to be, but I made it through.
Saturday: 13 mile long run at 6:18 pace
This weekend I had the luxury of having my dad ride bike next to me while I ran. Unlike my last two long runs, I fell into a steady pace of about 6:15 to a 6:25. It started off decently cool, but progressively moved to blazing hot. The entire experience didn't feel like it took long at all. I was feeling great before, during, and after the run. There were a lot of great hills to work over, so I held on tough mentally. Overall, I had a great time with my dad.
Sunday:
OFF DAY!
This morning I tried to sleep in a little longer to stay ahead of the game this week going into school. I relaxed most of the day and stayed off of my feet so I'd say it was a pretty successful off day.
Overview: This week was pretty solid as a whole. I got some good quality miles and a little bit of speed work in. I felt better about my workout on Tuesday than I have the past weeks. As far as my race goes, I know it's still early in the season and my time will drop as the season progresses. I'll just have to keep on putting in the time and energy.
