Summer XC Training Log: Key West's Matysik Puts In Miles In Poland


Something you may not know about me is that I'm Polish. Most of my family lives up there, so my brother, parents, and I try to go up every summer. I absolutely love going to Poland. I love seeing all of my family and spending time in the cool, mountainous landscape which is a lot different than Key West!

The hills, elevation, and countless beautiful trails allow for great training. Training up there always fills me positive anergy and provides a solid base for my upcoming season. I did many of my sessions with a track club that's close to where I live, which is a little town called Jasło.

Most of the runners were at the same point as I was in their training so I ended up logging a lot of miles with them. It was a really great experience to be able to compare their training to mine, I definitely have plenty of takeaways.

I especially loved their strength training circuits. I for sure will continue doing those throughout my season. This early in the season my training is mainly volume and strength, so it was a perfect match! Another really beneficial routine I found to be very helpful was their detail oriented drills. I will continue incorporating those in my training.

I'm going to miss running on all the hilly courses in Poland as well as the amazing training group I had, but I'm excited to be back to training here in Florida as well as the upcoming season. Up next on my schedule is a week of training in Clermont !

- Wishing everyone happy running

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