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.

Week 6 (August 26-September 1)


Note: The fair finally ended, and I got to sleep in my own bed!!

Sunday, August 26: Off

Finally a Sunday off; well, not really. Today was the class show for my goats. I was going to be on my feet from 8 a.m. until early evening, so today was definitely the day to take off. My goats were all clipped and squeaky clean. They all did pretty well, but most impressively my favorite goat was Reserve Best Doe in Show. Plus, one of my Nubian kids was Best Jr. Doe in Show.

Monday, August 27: Highberg Forest 4x 1 mile intervals, 10 min warm up and cool down.

This definitely is the worst place to do a workout, in my opinion. Like last time we did the workout here, we warmed up for 10 minutes. I somehow manage to hit the same root every time we do mile intervals. But this time it was way worse. I ran into a spider web and one was on me. I can handle a lot of things, but when it comes to spiders--and not crabs or contortionists--I cannot take it. I almost had a mental breakdown, but now everything is fine. Yeah so, I felt like I normally feel during workouts. After all this went down, I did a 10 minute cool down with the team.

Tuesday, August 28: Labrador Pond, 4 x 200 rep

It was a humid day, and I definitely was feeling the workout from the day before. Lab pond is usually pretty hilly, so that may have been why I felt dead, too. We ran a consistent easy pace for the whole run, which was about 55 minutes long. We then did 200s at rep pace on the boardwalk. I almost slipped and fell on my face, but luckily I was coordinated enough to stop myself and look graceful doing it. Too bad no one saw it because I must have looked like a swan.


"I ran into a spider web and one was on me. I can handle a lot of things, but when it comes to spiders--and not crabs or contortionists--I cannot take it. I almost had a mental breakdown, but now everything is fine. Yeah so, I felt like I normally feel during workouts."

Wednesday, August 29: 45 min run at home

I ran for only 45 minutes to make my legs feel better for the race the next day. It was a boring out and back. As usual, I passed the cows and then the fields and then more cows and more fields. Other than the heat, I felt pretty good. Also, I got an arm workout from my annoying goat, Doodle. I was just trying to milk the goats when she decided to pick the slide lock and let every goat in the barn out. I had to put all the goats back and some didn't even have collars. So thank you, Doodle, for making me more buff.

Thursday, August 30: Cazenovia Trail Run (3 mile race)

We always go to this Caz race just to get in some practice. We warm up for 10 minutes and then we do some dynamics and start the race. I felt pretty good up until mile two. Then I realized it wasn't such a great idea to eat pizza a couple hours before. I thought it would digest, but I was definitely wrong. I finished in a pretty good time considering it wasn't all out. After finishing, I cheered on the rest of my teammates. Everyone was pretty happy with their place and time. We then cooled down for 10 minutes and ate popsicles.


Friday, August 31: 8 mile extremely hilly run at Song Mountain Ski Resort, 5x 30 seconds up Jupiter (steepest hill at the resort)

Thankfully, this run was not up the ski mountains, but parts of it seemed as if it was. It was a really nice run until we got to the hills. They were pretty steep, and it was pretty humid. Up the hills, I felt like I was going so slow. The good thing was that after I got up the view was amazing. Once we finished, we had to do hill sprints. Coach Mom asked us where we wanted to do them and I thought it was a great idea to do them up Jupiter (the steepest hill). We did five of them for 30 seconds. It burned so badly. I am glad that I am alive to type this because my teammates almost killed me, for suggesting where to run hills. I still think it was worth the story.

Saturday, September 1: 6 mile run on dirt roads around my house

I ran with my dog, Sully, on the dirt roads around my house. I procrastinated, so by the time I ran it was super hot. We ran around 7:30 pace the whole way. Luckily I could take Sully off his leash for most of it because he took a lot of breaks to smell things. Every time I take him on a run we pass the cows, and every time he growls at them. Once we saw the driveway, Sully started sprinting. He was pulling me until we actually got in the driveway. Then he just laid down, and wouldn't move. I started walking up the driveway, because it is about 400 meters long, and he still was laying there. I had to go pick him up and carry him back. Runs with Sully are alway fun.

- - - 

Weekly Mileage: 40 miles

That's it. My final journal. Last week's summary: 6 days of running, 7 days of goats. Next up, season!!!