Aug. 29, 2011

Senior Chris Derrick has spent the summer training for his final season at Stanford. The 10-time All-American should be one of the leading contenders for the NCAA individual title and hopes to lead Stanford to the team title as well. Derrick spent a few minutes to answer some questions about his summer and his hopes for the 2011 cross-country season.

GoStanford.com: Where have you spent your summer?

Derrick: "I've been a lot of different places this summer. I started off for a few weeks in Illinois with my family and then worked at the Stanford camps in mid-July. After that I went to Maine for a few days with some friends and then to New York with my family for a week. Since early August I've been training with a group of teammates in California and we've been doing some road tripping throughout California."

GoStanford.com: Where have you done most of your training runs? Have you been able to run with teammates much?

Derrick: "I've been running all over the place. Fortunately the places I've been have had some really nice trails. I've been able to run with my teammates a fair amount. I'd say about half of my training has been with them."

GoStanford.com: "What type of workouts have you been doing? What is your approximate mileage during the summer?

Derrick: "We usually have two workouts a week, which are some sort of tempo and a fartlek or hill workout. Its not anything too extreme just good solid work. I'm still building up but I've been at around 90 miles a week for the past couple weeks."

GoStanford.com: How fit will you be going into the season and do you have any individual goals?

Derrick: "I think I'll be in pretty good shape heading into the year. I've been able to train consistently without any interruptions since I started coming back from the track season. I'm looking to win Pac-10s again and hopefully NCAAs."

GoStanford.com: Is the team the national title? What will it take for the team to get there?

Derrick: "Running is a pretty simple sport, the goal is to get a bunch of guys to train hard, get in good shape, and then run well when in the big meets. The past couple of years we've been able to get the training part down. We've certainly been capable of being first or second at NCAA's, but we haven't been able to put it together at the national meet. This year we will just have race tough and smart at Nationals to bring home the trophy."

Also watch a video courtesy of flotrack.org where Derrick speaks of his philosophy for summer training during his recent trip to Maine.