Julia Pieper is a member of the Greater Texas Track Club Elite and is currently back home in Germany training hard for a big 2019!!! I had the opportunity to coach Julia at Dallas Baptist University for two years and enjoyed it so much that I have continued coaching her after graduation!!!
The thing that I enjoyed most about Julia was just how ‘coach-able’ she was. Coaches use that term ‘coach-able’ a lot…but for me, it’s when an athlete completely commits their goals to you as their coach and trusts you completely. Julia displayed this for the better part of two years and has carried that on into her post-collegiate career as well.
She also is so great at communicating; it’s very hard coaching someone via email and messaging, but Julia makes it so much easier with her constant communication and seemingly instant updates.
So, what is Julia up to now and looking forward to this year?
Well, after a great fall of training…a very consistent fall of training…and some fun German XC races in which she ran extremely well, we have been putting in the kilometers and building her fitness through the winter.
Typically, Julia will run a schedule that consists of the following each week:
Monday — Rest or X-training
Tuesday — 13-15km progressive…usually she is averaging sub 7:00/miles on this run, with the last 5km in the 6:15-6:30/mile pace range.
Wednesday — 10km AM // 6km PM — just easy running.
Thursday — 13-16km easy running — just a good medium long run to go with her longer session on Tuesday. We are building her UP…and looking to get better at the longer distances in 2019.
Friday — Speed maintenance (2 x 5 x 200 meters) AM // 6km easy PM — we try to keep our speed maintenance routine in there every week that we are not racing.
Saturday — 13-16km w/ hill work included. This is Julia’s ‘club’ day, where she has her old club teammates at home to train with and so we work this into a longer day (13-16km) where she has people to train with. The past month it’s been a hill phase and it’s gone really well.
Sunday — 20-24km long run — just being consistent with the long run.
Julia’s winter has been full of weeks just like the one outlined above…and I’m excited to see how the races turn out this spring! At the moment we are focusing on a half marathon in April and then the German Outdoor Track Season in the summer!
Stay tuned as Julia preps for more PR’s and more consistent training in 2019!!!
Phillips Running 