The 2024 cross-country season looms, and with Labor Day in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to think about this year’s Saturdays on the Grass cross-country workouts.
So here’s the good news: they are back. The schedule is below, but please realize that this is subject to change depending, among other things, on the vagaries of weather and who knows what else. So bookmark this page, and return for updates.
Do to popular demand, workouts this year will now start at 10 am, at least initially, warmed up and ready for strides. So far, requests for a 10 am start have far outweighed requests for an earlier one.
Sept. 7. Glendoveer. Meet near the practice green, at the west side of the main parking lot off of Glisan. We will run 800m hill reps on chips. This is always popular.
September 14. Sellwood Park. Meet at the gate 1 1/2 blocks north of the historic church. Expect a 2K to 1.3 mile loop with pace changes and a steep hill at the finish. Great course for a solid workout.
Sept. 21. Mary S. Young. Upper parking lot. Not that it is “upper” by a lot. It’s on the left, just as the road turns right to swing past the soccer fields. We will do long reps with pace changes on part of the race course for next week.
September 28. Mary S. Young. RACE.
October 5. Sellwood Park. This will be a repeat of Sept 2. It’s the best course around for a hard trainer when there’s not a race the next week.
October 12. Fernhill Park. Meet near the track. We will practice the Fernhill race route unless people would prefer to go to Blue Lakes. The problem with that is it charges for parking. It’s course, btw, is extremely flat.
October 19. Blue Lake Park. RACE.
October 26. Fernhill. RACE.
November 2. Pier Park preview. Meet at the traffic circle near the start of the disc golf course, near where we have registration for the race.
Nov 9. Pier Park. RACE
Nov 16. Mary S. Young. Upper parking lot. Not that it is “upper” by a lot. It’s on the left, just as the road turns right to swing past the soccer fields. We will probably do a different workout from what we did last time we were here.
Nov 23. TBD. Pacific Northwest Regionals is in Tacoma this weekend, but we might have Saturday on the Grass for those not going up there for it.
Nov 30. Mary S. Young. Upper parking lot. Not that it is “upper” by a lot. It’s on the left, just as the road turns right to swing past the soccer fields.
Dec. 7. Wilshire Park. This is small enough we’ll easily find each other, but start on the Skidmore side. This is an all-weather chip course, flat, about 1K around. Great for a taper workout for nationals. Workout is 6 x l lap (very, very close to 1000m) at tempo effort on 45 sec recoveries. Plus 4 x 30 sec hard. This is what we always do for taper for nationals.
Dec 14. USATF Club Cross-Country Nationals. Tacoma, WA. RACE
After this, the schedule is uncertain. The “other” cross-country national championships is set for Lubbock, Texas on January 11, 2025, and there is some interest in it.