I'd rather have an athlete run five days a week at an easy, conversational pace all summer than run three big hard efforts and skip the rest. Summer isn't when you build fitness through suffering. It's when you build fitness through showing up, over and over, without drama.

Track season's over and cross country feels far away, but the runners who build a real base this month are the ones racing confident in September. Here's what the next six weeks should actually look like.