Summer Training Blog: Tully's Brooke Rauber


New York is stock full of great distance runners and phenomenal teams, but one athlete to watch out for this fall is Tully High School sophomore Brooke Rauber, who finished sixth at Nike Cross Nationals as a freshman in 2017. She's won the last two Class D cross country championships in New York, was second at NXR New York a year ago and owns a personal best time of 17:47.00 at the 5K distance. Rauber is quickly forming a national profile, but in the meantime check out her weekly training as she prepares for the beginning of the season.

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WEEK 3 (AUGUST 5-11)

Sunday: 30 min easy run before goat show

Usually I take Sunday off, but we were leaving for Maine on Friday, so I wanted to make sure I got enough running in with all the traveling we were doing. I just ran on our road with my dog Sully, and admired the wonderful cows I see every single day. Sully isn't such a great training partner, as he had to stop and greet the neighbor's dog, then he had to chase the calves that were out of their pasture, and then he was tired and didn't feel like running home. I knew it was going to be a rough run when I looked at my watch and it said three minutes. It was all worth it after my goats kicked goat booty again this weekend.


In between sets, she told me I should do "active recovery," so I laid on my back and floated only moving my arms because that counts as being "active." I thought I was hilarious, but I think I laughed harder at myself than she did. We then cooled down for 5 minutes. We had to dry off quickly because I was starving. About 10 minutes later, all of the bacon was gone from the complementary food bar ;) .

Monday: 7 miles at Labrador Pond 

It was my first run back with my team after being away for a week. We had to go very early in the morning (6:30 AM) because I had to babysit the triplet boys. I was glad to see my team, but I'm not so sure they were happy about seeing me that early in the morning. We ran for seven miles at Labrador pond, and for about 40 minutes of it we talked about my fear of contortionists. It wasn't until we were done when one of my teammates said, "Wait what is a contortionist?" SHE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT WE WERE TALKING ABOUT FOR MOST OF THE RUN. What a real goof, especially because she thought it was a "magic dude." Man, she makes things funny. And if she is reading this...just know I love you and appreciate you for who you are! It was cool on the run but humid. I felt pretty good other than the rock in my shoe. I think I was more tired after watching the triplets than after running seven miles. No joke.

Tuesday: 30 min run and hill repeats at home

I ran for 30 minutes and then did 5x 30 second hill sprints. After this, I did a 10-minute cool down. This day was rough because we lost a family member. I didn't run until late because of this. I had considered not running today, as I was emotionally drained, but running helped me cope with the emotions of the day. It was dark when I got to the hill sprints, so it felt like I was going really fast, even if I wasn't.

Wednesday: 6 miles at Heigberg Forest, 6x 30 step strides

I ran six miles with my team at Heigberg Forest. It's a pretty hilly run, with lots of uneven footing. It was pretty humid and hot, but we were in the woods so it hid some sun. Almost the whole run we played one of "Berry's games of useless trivia" as I like to call it. She prefers it to be called some name with words that I can't pronounce. I may have only gotten one answer right (if that), but it was fun. We did six strides after our run to get our legs turning over.


Sully isn't such a great training partner, as he had to stop and greet the neighbor's dog. Then he had to chase the calves that were out of their pasture. And then he was tired and didn't feel like running home. I knew it was going to be a rough run when I looked at my watch and it said three minutes.

Thursday: 6 miles at Labrador Pond, 6x 30 step strides

My teammate who is going to Cortland State this fall came to do one final run with us before she went off to college. We have been bugging her all summer to run, but for some reason she doesn't like getting up before the sun to meet us. She also says that "she has to work." Ew! working. We ran for six miles at a pretty steady pace. It was super humid. But the run went by pretty fast because of the amazing jokes that I tell. Everyone was dying of laughter, or maybe just me. Minor details. Also, this might be the first time my college teammate didn't roll her ankle 50 times. 

Friday: 8 mile workout on my road, 2x 10 min tempo pace, 2x 4 min at interval pace, 4x 200 rep pace 

We were leaving for Maine today, so I had to get up and get a workout done. I knew I was not going to want to run that night, so I warmed-up with my dad for 10 minutes and then stretched for a little bit. I did 2x 10 minute at tempo pace. My legs just didn't seem in the mood for tempo pace, but it was fine... it was fine.  I followed that up by 2 x 4 mins at interval pace, which felt a little better. My coach (mom) wouldn't let me wear my watch today, as she wanted me to go by feel, so I am not sure the exact pace of my runs. It was all effort based. I did 200s at rep pace and then cooled down for 10 minutes. Sometime morning workouts can just be rough.

Saturday: Water workout at hotel 20 mins easy, 4x 4 min hard vs. 4 min easy, 5 min easy

We stayed in a really nice hotel in the middle of nowhere. We weren't sure where I should run, so I decided it would be a good idea to aqua jog instead. My mom and I wore the aqua jogging belts so that we would stay above the water easily. We went for 20 minutes easy, and then did 4-by-4 minutes hard with 4 minutes recovery. For the first one, I kept my belt on. But for the rest I took my belt off to make it harder, and my mom left her's on (obviously I am superior). In between sets, she told me I should do "active recovery," so I laid on my back and floated only moving my arms because that counts as being "active." I thought I was hilarious, but I think I laughed harder at myself than she did. We then cooled down for 5 minutes. We had to dry off quickly because I was starving. About 10 minutes later, all of the bacon was gone from the complementary food bar ;) .

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Weekly Total -- 40 miles 

This week I did a couple of workouts along with my miles, in preparation for the upcoming se