Summer Training Blog: Maria Carberry (Entry #5)


Urbana rising senior Maria Carberry will be a favorite to compete for the Maryland 3A West Region and 3A Class state title this upcoming coming cross season. Prior seasons, she had teammate Emily Muhern to run with, but now is Carberry's time to run solo out in front. Carberry has been a state runner-up twice in cross country the past two years, while winning the last two Maryland 3A outdoor 3200 titles (10:59 PR). Carberry's shares her summer training blog with MileSplit below. (Photo by Tim Dillistin)

Maria Carberry's Summer Training: Entry #1 (July 12-18) - Entry #2 (July 19-25) - Entry #3 (July 26-August 1) - Entry #4 (August 2-8) - Entry #5 (August 9-15)


Entry #1: Maria Carberry's Summer Training, Week of July 12th to July 18th

Sunday, July 12th - Coming off of a higher mileage week I ran 6.5 miles at the C&O canal. I recommend running here if you have a long run because it's so flat and peaceful, it makes the long runs go by fast. I usually run here for my super long runs.


Monday, July 13th - Still trying to recover I had another easy 6 mile day.

Tuesday, July 14th - This was my "off" day with 2 super easy miles just to keep moving and it's good to be able to add those miles on at the end of the week even though I consider it an off day. Every other week I like to take a completely off day.

Wednesday, July 15th - Today through Saturday are all 2 a days because when I start to up my mileage of it's not my long run I like to be able to rest and stretch in between runs. I ran 10 miles, all easy.

Thursday, July 16th - Another 10 miles, 5 in the morning and 5 in the evening.

Friday, July 17th - Again another 2 a day and 10 miles. I would recommend this to runners who are either new to the sport or are doing a lot of miles and they may not be used to running all of their daily runs at once.

Saturday, July 18th - In the morning I went to the track so I had a flat area to do my threshold run, which I learned from Jack Daniels' running formula, he thinks it should be 20 minutes at about a minute slower than your mile pr. So I ran about sub 6 minute pace, it was probably one of my best workouts, it's not supposed to be a comfortable pace but I definitely recommend a run like this at least once a week. If I could recover faster I would definitely like to be able to fit in 2 of these a week. So then later in the day I ran a super easy 6 miles so that equaled 12 for the day. The 6 miles in the evening was a lot of fun because it was at Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, luckily I was driven to the top so I didn't have to suffer running up a giant mountain for 2.5 miles but once I got to the top I started my run and it was beautiful, it's runs like this that make me remember while I love to run!

Weekly Mileage: 56.5-57 miles

Entry #2: Maria Carberry's Summer Training, Week of July 19th to July 25th

Sunday, July 19th - Coming off of my highest mileage week I decided to take a rest day to recover for the upcoming week.

Monday, July 20th - Still trying to take it easy, I ran a 2 a day-12 miles. 6 in the morning and 6 in the evening.

Tuesday, July 21st - I ran 7.5 miles in the morning, I was planning on having another long run today but the lower part of my leg started bothering me so I have been icing before and after each run as well as rolling the inside of my leg on a baseball. Baseballs or any type of harder round object will most likely help with knots.

Wednesday, July 22nd- I ran 7 miles (same story as the day before) had to ice before and after to make sure my leg pain doesn't worsen.

Thursday, July 23rd - I ran 12 miles in the evening down to Sugarloaf Mountain which was beautiful. I live about 4 miles from Sugarloaf and I ran 2 miles past the base of the mountain so I had an even 12 miles altogether.

Friday, July 24th - I ran another 8 miles in the morning and iced my legs directly after to help the inflammation go down and then in the evening I ran 4 miles to equal 12 for the day.

Saturday, July 25th - Today would normally be my speed work out day (I would do intervals of some sort) but my leg still wasn't healed completely so I just ran 6 easy miles.

Weekly Mileage - My goal going into this week was to go a bit higher but due to my leg I tried to be cautious so I stayed at 56.5 for the week.

Entry #3: Maria Carberry's Summer Training, Week of July 26th to August 1st

Sunday, July 26th - Completely off. I have a love/hate relationship with these days.

Monday, July 27th - 5 easy miles, trying to recover from the past 4 weeks at 50-57 miles.

Tuesday, July 28th - Back at high mileage days. I ran about 8 miles at 6:30 am with one of my best friends and favorite running partners Emily Mulhern. We were even accidentally matching! Then later that day I ran 2 easy miles to get 10 in.

Wednesday, July 29th - Second 800 work out down for the summer! 8x800 repeats at about 2:35 pace with 1:15 rest. These types of workouts are what you will be showing in your races. It's like money in the bank! I just did about 5-6 miles.

Thursday, July 30th - I was planning on making this a 2 a day but unfortunately I woke up pretty late and didn't have time to run twice before I went to work so I just cranked out 12 miles. Took me about an hour and 1/2.

Friday, July 31st - My goal was to run another 12 miles but Saturday I wanted to do a 20 minute threshold run and I felt tired so I just stuck with 5 easy miles.

Saturday, August 1st - I did a 2 mile warm up on the track very easy. Then I started my 20 minute threshold run at 5:51 pace for the first mile. I could tell I was still not recovered from Wednesday's workout so I could only do this for 13 minutes. I then just did a long run and ended up doing 14 miles extremely easy. These were purely just for recovery and to add them to the end of the week. If your body is too tired for a workout or even just a run, don't push yourself through it because it will thank you for the rest later!

Weekly Mileage - About 51-52 miles. This is my 5th week at 50+ miles. Next week I'm planning on coming down substantially in mileage to give my body a break for a bit.

Entry #4: Maria Carberry's Summer Training, Week of August 2nd to August 8th

Sunday, August 2nd - This whole week is meant to be a rest week before cross country season starts. Today I was completely off, but now looking back on it I probably should have done an easy shake out run as I was in the car for most of the day traveling to North Carolina.

Monday, August 3rd - I visited High Point University today and it was beautiful. After my visit, I ran 6 miles at least at the Piedmont Environmental Center a couple minutes away from High Point University.

Tuesday, August 4th - I ran 8 miles today, In the morning I visited VMI which was really cool, they definitely treasure tradition there. In the afternoon I visited JMU and this college is the biggest one that I'm looking at but I enjoyed the visit.

Wednesday, August 5th - Today I took completely off, it's very rare that I take 2 days off in a week but I think being in a car for a significant amount of time in the past couple of days threw me off.

Thursday, August 6th - Today I visited Towson University which is another large campus but I got the feel of a town which gave me a homey feel. In the evening I ran 6 easy miles.

Friday, August 7th - I decided to do a 14 mile run on the C&O canal while my dad rode his bike next to me. It took me about 1 hour and 45-50ish minutes.

Saturday, August 8th - I ran another 6 easy miles. This week was just about recovery from the past 5 weeks and preparing me for my next threshold run which I will be doing this upcoming week.

Entry #5: Maria Carberry's Summer Training, Week of August 9th to August 15th

Sunday, August 9th - I was feeling kind of tired so I decides to run 3 easy miles today.

Monday, August 10th - I ran 4 miles still easy.

Tuesday, August 11th - I ran 7 miles today. I was going to use today as a longer run but I wanted to do a threshold run on Wednesday, so I kept it easy.

Wednesday, August 12th - At 12:30 AM, I woke up to my shoulder out of it's socket. A pretty scary way to wake up! I am so thankful that my parents took me to the hospital right away, but unfortunately it took about 3 hours for the doctor to put in back in its socket. With my shoulder being extremely numb and a bit unstable I decided to not run today. :(

(The picture was just after the doctor put my shoulder back in its socket, along with the presence of my silly dad's bunny fingers.)

Thursday, August 13th - I attempted to run today but I only ran about 3 miles easy at XC practice.

Friday, August 14th - I just started to feel better so I ran 8 easy miles at XC camp with my team. My shoulder physically can't be raised up that much, so my arm kind of just stayed at my side the whole run.

Saturday, August 15th - I ran 10 miles today at camp. Each day my shoulder feels better. It is still very numb but I can move it more.

Weekly mileage - 32 (really low for me at this time but I had to make an exception)