Wednesday Workout: Craftsbury Running Intervals

Craftsbury Green Racing Project nordic skiers and biathletes doing uphill running intervals on a dirt road in Craftsbury, Vermont. (Photo: Pepa Miloucheva)

For a mid-summer Wednesday Workout, we reached out to Craftsbury Green Racing Project head coach Pepa Miloucheva. In addition to sharing a running workout, Miloucheva told us what and who is new to the team based out of Craftsbury, Vermont.

“All is good here in Craftsbury, everyone is healthy and training is going well,” she wrote in an email in early July. The nordic team joined last month’s U.S. Ski Team (USST) training camp in Lake Placid, N.Y., and also plans to attend the USST’s on-snow New Zealand camp in late August.

Ida Sargent, of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project and U.S. Ski Team, during dirt-road running intervals in Craftsbury, Vt. (Photo: Pepa Miloucheva)

Craftsbury’s roster additions include Corey Stock and Akeo Maifeld-Carucci. Returning to the nordic squad are Ida Sargent (U.S. Ski Team), Caitlin Patterson, Kaitlynn Miller, Liz Guiney, Adam Martin, and Ben Lustgarten.

The workout itself, one Miloucheva explained the team does this time of year, is 6-8 x 10-minute running intervals with poles. They do so on a gradual, mile-plus-long hill on a dirt road in Craftsbury. To replicate, find a climb that takes at least 10 minutes to run up, and repeat six to eight times.

“This is a lactate threshold workout, important for improving our sustainable speed,” Miloucheva wrote. “Threshold workout improves both lactate production/recruiting more fast twitch units and lactate removal, ability to minimize the negative effects of lactate while having the benefits.”

“Athletes run with poles up and I drive them down as quickly as possible to shorten the time between the interval,” she explained. “Goal is to maintain speed for all intervals and keep lactate between 3-5mmol/l, depending on the athlete.”

Male and female athletes all start at once, just at different starting points so they finish in the same place. Miloucheva recommends focusing on controlling speed during this workout to ensure a productive 50-plus-minute workout at Level 3.

Upon repeating the workout later in the training season, athletes are instructed to push the pace at the end of the interval to Level 4.

The workout: 6-8 x 10-minute running intervals with poles

Need: A hill that takes at least 10 minutes to run up, poles.

Warmup: 30 minutes easy running, with a few accelerations and functional movements

Then: Run uphill for 10 minutes at Level 3, return to starting point, repeat 6 to 8 times. Pace at end of interval can be increased to Level 4 later in the season.

Cool down