Uniforms and such

Ladies,

I took the liberty of looking up a website to test some color combinations. The website is GTM Sportswear, and it has a way to build your custom team uniforms. I really wanted to find a way to show you what I was talking about earlier.

As you see, the tones of the blue and red are so closely matched it becomes almost disruptive. A thin white line separating the two panels would have gone a long way to make it look far more polished, but I don't see a way to make it happen. This is your call, but I ask you to test a few combinations out before you make your decision. Click on the image on the left for a larger view. You'll see what I mean.

Two of the places recommended by the Athletic Office were GTM and Dick Pond Athletics. They both have websites, though only GTM allowed you to build your order. I would recommend going to a place that allows custom graphics, because we might be able to whip up something that would work nicely. It would be an option anyway.

If you guys have some time after practice tomorrow, we could meet in my lab at BMS. I could log you all onto your own computers, and you could sit in the room and hash it out. It may get contentious, but at least the decision could be made in short order. I still want this to be your decision ultimately. I apologize for interjecting, but I also have to live with the decision you make for the next few years.

We will do some quality work tomorrow girls. I'll pull the covers off that workout when the time is right - say about 7:05 AM tomorrow.

What I see

Ladies,

It's interesting to watch you run from all perspectives. I enjoy running with you, but it's also useful to watch you run from a stationary position once in a while. This allows me to analyze your fitness and form and evaluate progress throughout the summer.

What I saw today...

You are all definitely stronger. Much stronger. At the beginning of summer you all looked ragged when we were climbing, or at least more so. Now there is power and authority in your motion. You are able to hold that speed over time, whereas before you would have fallen apart halfway through the workout. You have focus, evidenced by your faces as you climb. You have motivation, which you proved by challenging yourselves to finish the last one stronger than the first.

Yes, I was very impressed the last two weeks.

Now we have some health issues starting to creep in. Remember - ice is your friend. No one likes to do it, but precautionary icing can stave off a lot of problems before they get too serious. Do it. Change your shoes out if you have any sudden pains in the knees or hips. Stay on your stretching. This will help prepare you to run the workout. Run the workout as it is intended. If I say rest day, it's a rest day. Racing your rest day backfires, because I will be asking you to run hard on hard days. And you will run hard.

I am still trying to contact Mr. Callahan. I am assuming uniforms are a go until I hear differently. Seniors, you are in charge. Be inclusive, but steer this. 

I know, I know, it's getting old

Ladies,

I know you are sick of Washington Avenue. I know. Really. I know. I. Know.

Think of it this way though... after this week, some of you will never have to run on it again. Let that sink in. Ever. Again. And you'll miss it.

When the season starts, our options are limited. We have to run on or near the course at all times. The course is pretty hilly, really a bit too hilly to run every single day. We'll need to find some flatter runs to give your legs proper rest. We're stretched pretty thin on flatter options out there. And that's when you'll miss Washington Avenue.

Hang in there one more week!

Tomorrow we are working hard again, probably hills. I like to leave myself out in case I get an epiphany, but don't count on it. We are still in transitions phase as of now.

I'd like to remind everyone to get those physicals in! This would also be a good time to mention shoes... if you've been in the same pair for a while, it might be a good time to get a new pair for the season. Food for thought: I only put 300 miles on a pair of shoes. At my weight, I wear out the cushioning that fast. You won't get much more than that either. Remember, it's cheaper to buy shoes than visit the doctor.

I picked up a couple of catalogs from the Athletic Dept. today. I suggest the seniors head up the selection committee, unless you'd like me to pick the uniform. Don't worry, if you don't want to do it, I have my eye on some red plaid shorts and green polka dotted tops. I think they'd be excellent. I'll even get a set for myself if you want.

Ponder this

Ladies,

Ponder this...

• Eight weeks of your summer are gone
• For you seniors, this is your final summer
• Season officially starts a week from Monday
• Your first meet is four weeks from Monday
• Everyone runs Varsity in the first meet - no limit to team size
• I have no idea who the top-7 is right now, much less the top-3

It's crazy for me to think how quickly the summer has passed, and painful to think how quickly the season will go (and with it a truly terrific group of girls). I want to freeze this moment and keep it forever. And you haven't even raced yet.

You have something truly special - protect it jealously. Coach Jo hit on it yesterday in her comment section... the importance of understanding the worth and value of every member of this team, and more importantly, the absolute necessity of supporting every single girl as if they were your most valuable runner.

I've coached a lot of teams, both boys and girls. In some respects it's great when your numbers swell, because the odds of finding a successful combination of athletes goes up as the participation level rises, but there is also a risk. The more girls you put in a room, the more likely it is you will have drama. It's a fact, no getting around it.

This is where I have to call on your maturity, appeal to your ability to give of yourselves for the common good. See, THAT'S where girls usually shine above boys - you understand that others have feelings and want to be wanted. You also have a much better communal understanding and are usually far more willing to cooperate than are boys. Boys will follow leaders because they are regimented (mainly); girls follow leaders because they want to be part of something (mainly). 

That oversimplifies the issue I know, but as a rule of thumb you can follow that logic. So... if you are a leader (or hope to become one) how does this help you? Easy. Be the person you would follow. Do you like it when people are negative to you all the time? Do you like it when people yell at you? Do you like it when people exclude you?

Answer is obvious - no! You follow people because you respect them. You respect them because they imbue qualities you wish you had, and hope to develop. Leaders inspire you, make you feel necessary and more importantly wanted. Leaders can be fun to be around, are forgiving of human nature when possible, understand we are all limited in our own ways, and forgive. Leaders lead by setting a good example, by seeking the best in themselves, never taking the easy way out. 

Think of anyone you really admire and respect, anyone at all in your life that fits the bill. Could be an older relative, a friend, a sibling, but have you ever thought about what makes you want to listen to them? Those can be the qualities of leadership. 

This sport has an individual component, true enough, but the truth is nobody on this team is going anywhere without the team. No one can do it on their own. Day-by-day, each and every one of you benefits by being surrounded by all these girls. 

You absolutely can and should compete with one another to be the best on the team, but even if you reach the goal, the very next thing you should reach for is the hand of the girl behind you, so that you may help lift her up to a higher place. A true leader wants each and every girl on the team to be their very best, even if it means that girl may knock the leader out of the top spot. Only in this way can the team progress as far as possible by season's end. A leader is a servant, always looking for ways to make things better for the team. 

I mean this sincerely when I say developing your potential as a leader is of far greater importance to me than developing your running. Sports are the great metaphor of life, and believe it or not, the original purpose of sports was just that - to develop team-building, leadership, cooperation... skills that are necessary for life. We sometimes forget that in pursuit of the win. Don't lose focus of what's truly important here - your development as a productive adult, someone to be admired and respected, and someone who has a great deal to contribute to our society.

I'm so proud of you ladies, I truly am. You all have good souls, and I think you do care about one another. Every now and then, I think it's worth reminding you that we need to make the effort to show one another.

Great workout!

Ladies,

Taking the blessing of fine weather, we were able to complete a quality workout today that was extremely encouraging. We are in a transitional phase of our training now, moving from the base period onto strength and ultimately speed. Yes, there has been a plan all along.

I touched on this during the run, but probably all you heard was, "Wah wah wah WAH, wah wuh-wuh WAH!" Let me put it into words that you can re-read (if necessary). ;)

Base phase is exactly what is suggests - you are building up endurance and time on your feet. This will take weeks to accomplish if done properly, and I think we've done a pretty good job of it. We didn't quite hit the numbers I wanted - we never do, I never do - but I think we got what we could. Moreover, I think we arrived to this point relatively healthy (definitely more so than last year).

Next phase is strength. This is a transitional phase, and absolutely necessary as a means of getting to the speed phase. Running is a repetitive motion activity, and your body learns to be very efficient at things it does repetitively. You've become optimized to run efficiently at a slower pace. While we needed the slower pace until your strength and endurance built, it's not optimal for racing. So we now find ourselves in the place of fulfilling step one and moving to step two.

Today's workout would be more accurately described as a form workout. We haven't spent much time talking about running form, but expect that to change. There will be a lot more focus in the coming weeks on proper techniques all around. But to the point... your running form will change as we run faster. It will be uncomfortable at first, not because you aren't strong enough to do it, rather because you're not used to it. Don't worry, it will zero in quickly, especially if you've been faster before.

I know you ladies want to swim or do something fun tomorrow, but the truth is we need to run some miles. We are in the midst of a very rare opportunity, that is to build some mileage without a high level of suffering. I don't think we need a bunch of miles, but we definitely don't need a swim. A five or six mile run will be fine, practice will end quickly, and you should all feel pretty good about it.

Another reason to run - we need to pump some toxins out. While today wasn't a super stressful day, you're going to feel it. It will manifest as muscle soreness in areas you're not used to feeling sore. We need an easy run to begin flushing the toxins that will be causing that pain. We won't go as far, we want it to be active rest, but we need to run.

You ladies have built a summer to be proud of. Let's make sure we finish it the right way.

Wasn't it great?

Ladies,

Ahh... the sweet respite of a cool summer morning. It was cold enough to force me to don a jacket while waiting for you to arrive. Perfect.

The run itself went very well. It was good to see all of you out there, and it was also good to see the miles getting done. Hey, and we even got off Washington Avenue!

Tomorrow we'll run again of course, some up-tempo stuff, though not as hard as Tuesday. I'll tell you when you get there. Don't freak, and don't worry about it. It'll be another cool morning, so it will feel fine no matter what.

I did stop by the Athletic Office today, and they gave me the schedule as it stands. Now this may change, but for now, this is what we have:

Aug. 26 - BNL Fall Invite
Sept. 5 - North Harrision Invite
Sept. 14 - Brown County Invite
Sept. 21 - Crawford County Invite
Sept. 28 - BNL "Ted Fox" Invite
Oct. 3 - Middle School Invite
Oct. 5 - HHC
Oct. 8 - N.E. Dubois Invite
Oct. 15 - Sectional
Oct. 19 - Regional
Oct. 26 - Semi-State
Nov. 2 - State

Get the physicals in!

Hills were ablaze

Ladies,

That was a really nice hill workout this morning. No kidding. I was impressed with how you handled yourselves on it. It's one of those workouts that everyone hates, but you have to try your best to do. They make you stronger, no doubt about it.

It's going to be really important as we move through the remaining time in summer that we hit as many practices as possible. Missing days early in the training cycle aren't that important - they are now. Consistency is what makes runners great. Try your best to drag yourselves out of bed, no matter how tired you are. You'll be thankful later you did.

Physicals must come in. I will be getting loads of hate mail very soon on the topic, so don't wait.

Easier day tomorrow!

Rainy Monday

Ladies,

Get your physicals in. Get your physicals in. Get your physicals in.

Oh, and while I'm at it - get your physicals in.

It was a fine morning to run, if nothing else. One great benefit of rain is it greatly diminishes the suffering scale of excessive heat and humidity. Sure, it's uncomfortable, but it isn't suffering. Big difference!

We are in a very good place after a fine summer of running. I'm feeling so strongly that we're going to have a great season. More than that, this group of girls seems to be gelling well, and it's so fun to be a part of it.

We are one month away from our opening meet. One. Month. Can you believe it? It's true, and it's really time to start thinking numbers.

I always think in terms of State Series. Here are a few goals I have for the team:

• Top-3 in Sectional
• Top-5 in Regional
• Top-6 in Semi-State, or as many top-10 girls (after teams) as we can get
• State Meet Appearance. 

I'd probably add to that a Top-3 finish in Conference, but that's a little harder to see this far out. It's at Madison this year and I have no idea of the course and how that may favor/disfavor us. It's also outside our season focus (slightly). Priority always goes to State Series. 

You may not believe this, but I don't own a crystal ball. I can't see the future, but I can read trends. With the data I have now, I know we're a much stronger team than last year. It's not even close. I am extremely confident we can get through to Semi-State if we stay healthy. That fires me up - a lot! 

Yes, we have a couple weeks of summer left. Let's make them count!

Limestone 5k

Ladies,

I hope the soccer players did well today. I didn't get a chance to follow them, so I'll have to wait until Monday to find out. I know how the runners did. They did great.

Today dawned another muggy mid-July day, and race conditions promised to be challenging. They were. With 100% humidity, dew points in the mid-70's, and ample sunshine, there wasn't any escaping the warm blanket thrown over the throng of runners.

Your instructions were to use this as a hard training day, a tempo if you will, with the proviso if you felt good in the third mile you could let go. I was glad to see (and hear later) you followed those instructions. This was never a race you were intended to post big numbers. This was intended to be a solid run in a race atmosphere. For some, this might have been the first time you toed the line for a race.

I don't have all the times, only general ideas of where you were. I was helping put the race on so I couldn't write things down, and I don't want to put up imprecise times publicly. I do know Danielle was just this -->][ <-- close to beating Coach Spence, and that Chelsea Scott slipped in for a P.R. The rest we'll hash out on Monday.

Carlee, way to go. I know that was a tough run, and you started feeling pretty rough by the end. It happens to everyone if they compete hard/long enough.

Carrie, the knee will be fine. Pain in the patellar tendon almost never develops into anything serious.

Madison, simply put, good job.

Keeley, get consistent with the training. It takes a lot of sting out of racing if you do. You ran today on pure talent, of which you have loads.

Zoe, solid job, as always. You are so going to be an anchor on our team next year. As in, "no way the team succeeds without you" sort of stuff.

Now to the fun stuff...

Fastest high school girl in the race - Danielle Page
Fastest girls high school team - BNL Girls
*EDIT*
Zoe was 3rd in her age group, Chelsea 4th. Sorry!

Wish I could post pictures, I really do. I got some great ones today. Oh, and ladies... my family really loved the Stack Rock photos - especially you guys bowing down to your Tiki god (me). 

Stack It Up!

Ladies,

That was fun, wasn't it? The squeaky wheel gets the grease they say, and your coaching gods heard your wails from on high. As we started today, the heat and humidity made me think the smartest thing to do was to get off the streets if we could. And that's why we hit the trails.

Stack Rock... a local legend, an icon of high school-aged kids for generations, is one of the must-see attractions of our area. It's a living monument to all times, as each new crop of students add their snapshot of youth to its face. It's a work of art that transforms with each viewing, yet remains remarkably the same. It's as ageless as the old-growth hard maple, hickory, and sassafras trees around it.

We picked a decent day to visit. We haven't had a lot of rain in a week or so, so the trails were decently dry. Good thing. As hard as the trail was to navigate down to the site, can you imagine what it would have been like if it had been slick? The bugs weren't bad either - which surprised me. I expected by this time to be eaten alive.

After visiting the rock, my second goal was to get a peek at the railroad bed. I'm glad we did. To me, the abandoned rail line (site of the new proposed rails-to-trails project) is runnable as of now. It will hopefully improve over time, but the bridges are in and the large gauge rock wasn't a problem (at least to me).

True, I'd planned a longer run, but sometimes you just have to let art flow (William Hurt, "The Big Chill"). We were on an adventure, an instant memory. This run had wheels of its own, and had to be given leash to take us where it would. I guess I was also considering the hard efforts you girls are going to put in Saturday. The weather is very harsh right now, actually some of the most dangerous weather we've had this summer. We need to be a bit careful.

Hopefully by Monday it will be cooler!

Hill Repeats, WELL DONE!

Ladies,

I was very happy with what I saw today. Despite it being so warm and muggy, you ladies persevered and did a great quality workout. I was able to watch form (along with Coach Jo), and you all responded properly and worked on the techniques we offered. Great job!

I could see the strength in a few of you in particular, the authority with which you moved your limbs. It's great to see that already at this point of the training cycle, and that tells me you are on the right track.

Tomorrow we are going to run from BNL, then head to the trails. That's right, Foote's Tomb, here we come!

The Heat is Up

Ladies,

Now comes the trying time of the summer, when the humidity pops up and we have to struggle through the runs. It's not fun at this point, but we have to make the best of it. Your competition is out there suffering through it too! Just remember, once it cools off all will be much, much better. Tough it out!

Hard to believe, but we are in the last two weeks before season. I know, right? (sarcasm face here) We have reached one of the goals of the season... to be able to run 8-milers on a daily basis. No, we haven't technically done that, but you can. When weather conditions become severe I always reserve the right to curtail practices for safety reasons, but trust me, in regular conditions you girls are 8 mile per day runners.

That's an excellent foundation for the fall! We will be starting hills pretty soon, and you all should have the requisite strength to hold up to it. I'm looking forward to this, because it will tell a lot about where we are as a team.

The IHSAA has made a critical change this year... in State tournament (starting with Sectional) the top 5 teams and next 10 additional runners advance. At first glance this sounds bad... last year top 5 teams and top 15 runners went. But read very closely. In the past, if those top 15 came from teams advancing, it effectively cut runners out of advancing. The way it works now, if your team goes, even if you finish in the top 10, it doesn't cut out runners.

How does that help us? Easy. Let's say Bloomington North and South both advance from Regional. South will pack all their girls in the top 15. In the past that would have guaranteed a very difficult road for us to advance. Now those girls don't count toward the next 10. This means you don't necessarily have to be in the top 10 to advance, only be one of the top 10 girls beyond the advancing teams' higher placed girls. Conceivably this could mean girls as far back as the top 30 or so could advance as individuals. In short, it practically doubles the odds we could send individuals to Semi-State (assuming we don't advance as a team, which I feel strongly we will) or even State!

Of course there is still a lot of work left to do, but your chances of advancing down the State path just got a lot better. Watching you gals run daily, I feel very good about your training. You've been pretty darn good about showing up and putting in the effort. Hopefully (very) soon we'll see the fruit of that labor.

Car Wash = $$

Ladies,

Well, you've done it again. The fund raising efforts of the summer have not gone unrewarded, and by now you should have ample monies to do whatever it is the team decides it should do with regards to warm-ups and such. This is completely up to you, I want no part of it! I trust you anyway, and know you will make wise decisions. Please, no team tattoos.

It certainly was a long day out there. We're fortunate it wasn't hot, but it sure was sunny. All. Day. Long. A few of your fairer skinned girls are going to feel this in the morning.

We now have three weeks until school starts, two weeks until season begins. May I remind you to get your IHSAA physicals completed ASAP? If you took the spring physical with the school, it counts. Short of that, you will need to visit a doctor very soon. No nurse practitioners either, IHSAA doesn't allow that.

One of you mentioned I have been a bit mean here over the last few posts... reminds me of the question, "Do you like coaching girls or boys better?" In this respect, boys are better. Boys would have understood the context of my comments without clarification. This is my limitation, being a quote/unquote boy, failing to be as clear as I should.

I would never intentionally step on someone's dream or box them into a set performance range. I hate it when people do it to me, especially when I feel they are wrong. But part of my job as coach is to give you perspective, hopefully from the decades of experience I have as an endurance athlete and runner. We set goals, as discussed in a previous post, for the now, soon-to-be, and ultimate levels. When I set up workouts, it definitely falls into the "now" category.

When I say we have no 18-minute 5k runners on the team, that is bluntly true - we don't. This doesn't mean someone couldn't become one, but today, no one is. That today is very important when you are looking at workout or racing goals. Because your best time is limited by a number of factors, we have to be realistic when setting a particular goal for the now. One thing is always certain - there is a limit to your performance every single day. Learning where that wall is, or at least being able to quickly sort it out on the spot, can be the difference between a great day and a disaster.

You have to be honest with yourself. Does this particular time fall within possibly achievable levels? If it doesn't, don't chase it. You don't EVER get your best time by blowing up a big first mile followed up by two semi-walking miles. Your best time comes when you push yourself to the edge of your limit and hold it - right - there. High schoolers always struggle with this, but trust me, the sooner you figure it out, the sooner you will see your best times.

It doesn't hurt to dream. It doesn't hurt to occasionally say, "Let's see what happens" and just go flat out from the start. Breakthroughs do happen! By and large, your practices will show you where you are. That's most often the best way to set goals.

I will share this though... when I first started running, one of my buddies, a very experienced road racer and cross-country coach, asked me what my goal time was for 5k. I told him I wanted to run in the 15:30's. He looked me up and down - I'll never forget this - and said, "Deckard, you might wind up being one of the best runners in the county some day, but I don't know about that time." I knew what he was thinking. I was a power-lifter at the time, and in my first months of running. I was nearly 200 lbs., and had just run my first 5k. There was no logical reason (from his perspective) to believe I was capable of running like that. He was being nice, though in a patronizing fashion.

And that's when I decided no matter what else happened in my running career, I would run in the 15:30's for 5k. And I did. Three years later I ran 15:33.

No coach is perfect. No coach can look into every athlete and know how it will all turn out. I've been surprised before and I'm sure will be again. Some of you will go on and continue to be competitive runners. You are all certainly capable of doing so. For some of you, your best will come long after you leave high school. I was 33 when I ran my fastest.

I try to keep things in the positive. I really think I am, though this stuff recently may not have sounded as such. The positive part of knowing and understanding your limitations is this knowledge gives you power over your weakness! Use this power to limit or eliminate your weaknesses.

Enough preaching. See you on Monday!

Spring Mill after all

Ladies,

Thank Coach Jo. Without her, Spring Mill would not have happened. As it worked out, it was the perfect day to be there and we had a perfectly good workout. I wish we could do it all the time. If we were the Mitchell team we might, but we're not, so we can't.

It was great to be able to break into groups when necessary. I'm glad we could send girls out in groups alone as well... that allows me to work through the group and get to see everyone run a bit. Helps me be a better coach!

For those of you that didn't do the Donaldson part, you missed the long series of stairs that lead from the cave to the campground parking lot. You also missed Alli's expression when I suggested we go down and do it again. I was just about to take us back down and I rethought it. Everyone is healthy right now. Last thing in the world we needed to do was go back down and cause a problem. Let well enough alone, thought I.

We did get some good roly-poly on Trail 3 near the end. It's not particularly tough unless you run it hard, which we did in places. All the girls did well. Alli in particular wasn't going to allow any daylight between us as the run went on. That was pretty consistent all practice.

I'm sorry Wendy's wasn't open. Not for you... for ME! I love Wendy's, and I LOVE their frosties! Alas, it was not to be (and I didn't much appreciate the tone from the semi-snotty worker).

Car wash tomorrow. If you can be there, be there. If you can't, don't. We'll be fine either way. 

Cross training

Ladies,

Before you start thinking today was a lost day to training, slow down. Cross training is a very viable aspect to endurance athletics, and swimming especially transfers very well to running VO2 fitness. In fact, it's hard to find an activity as good as swimming to develop VO2.

Swimming incorporates a great deal of hypoxic training, that is exercising at regular or high levels with a reduced breathing pattern. Essentially this simulates altitude training, which in turn forces the body to adapt and become more efficient in its use of oxygen. The results are obvious; the better your body can use a volume of air, the more free energy is available for the body to use. Since your performance is limited in part by the volume of oxygen your body can provide per breath, using each breath better results in better performance.

Resting muscles, tendons, and joints is another benefit of cross training. Running involves a great deal of repetitive stress, which can accumulate into an injury over time. Giving the body periodic breaks may provide enough rest to circumvent such injuries.

An interesting side effect of cross training is discovering a different hierarchy of athletes - that is, while some runners are dominant on our team, in swimming it might be completely different people. The same thing would be true in cycling. For those who typically run behind others, it may help make them aware they are good athletes. For the ones used to being on the front of running, it teaches them to never be complacent.

Tomorrow we go to Spring Mill. Coach Jo will be there, so we can do it. Parkview, 7 AM.

So, THIS is summer!

Ladies,

The luck had to run out. It's July, and it's always hot in July. Boy, has it been July this week!

Yesterday was an outstanding workout. We had very good quality efforts from everyone, top to bottom. It was a great way to come back from dead week and hit the quality.

That leaves us with a discussion of the meaning of the words "quality" and "hard". Sometimes you can quantify both with numbers, such as minutes per mile, heart rate, or distance. The trick is knowing when to use a particular measure.

Yesterday was effort. I was looking for an 85% effort day. The easiest (and most accurate) way to do this is through heart rate. Since we don't have team heart rate monitors, we have to use a less scientific measure - conversational pace. An 85% effort usually lands a bit above the ability to talk. Once you are running hard enough you have to gather breath to speak, you're there.

What that does is change how you position yourself in the run. In a race, things would appear to be greatly simplified... be the first across the line and you win. However, that ignores the obvious - that there can only be one winner. A more reasonable goal then is to have the best time on the run you can. That comes from understanding your limits and pushing them just hard enough to not quite go over.

So, back to the effort... You don't all have the same level of conditioning, talent, or experience. You cannot and should not all be running together on a quality day. The odds of all of you being in perfect sync are beyond remote. There will be girls in the front, there will be girls in the back. That's as it should be. This is the part that's hard to accept... everyone, front to back, as long as they run the 85% effort, are getting the same workout.

Would I want to see someone come in first running 95% effort on this type of workout? No. It's not the goal of the workout. The most important part of the workout is the proper stress level for your VO2. We'll worry about who's first when we do actual speed work. What we are doing now is setting the stage for that later.

The other part of controlling your effort is race control. It's easy to get caught up in what's going on at the front of the race. Danielle asked if I could run 18 minutes in a 5k. The answer is yes, I can run in the 18's. Why did I bother telling you this? Because you can't. That sounds mean, but sometimes things have to be put bluntly to make the point.

I ran off the front of the workout because I wanted to see how you would react to me leaving you. Some of you had the discipline to not follow, but some of you didn't. You almost buried your run by chasing something you could not catch. That's why I told you at State there will be girls who can run 17 and 18 minutes. We don't have anyone that can do that today. So why would you try to catch someone who can? See what I mean? It would only destroy your time to try.

Your best time only comes when you stay at the level you can sustain. Find that level, and you find your best time. Then we can work on pushing that level up in a more methodical nature. I am not saying I don't want you to work hard - far from it! I want you to work smart. That's an incredibly important distinction.

A word about heart rate and the theoretical maximum... generally, the formula goes 220 - [age] = max heart rate. You then multiply your max times the percent of the workout requirement. So, on Tuesday it should have gone something like this:

Danielle: 220 - 17 = 203, 203 x 0.85 = 172.5

I promise, after the first mile you were above that. Control, control, control.

Today was supposed to be an easy recovery day. It wasn't. How can I tell you (besides the obvious)? Easy. I took some pulses from about a half dozen of you. Everyone was 180 and above. On a rest day. When it should have been 65% effort. Do the math. If you wonder why I cut the miles, that's why. What you wound up with, because of the weather, was back-to-back hard efforts.

We will swim at BNL tomorrow. We have to rest and recover. Spring Mill on Friday!

Alright!

Ladies,

I was very, very glad to see fitness was maintained over dead week. Great work! It's much easier to keep fitness than to rebuild it, so it was smart on your part(s) to keep up with your running.

It was warmer today. It will warm up a bit this week as well. No worries - it won't be as bad as last summer (yet), but it will be hotter than the last couple of weeks. Take care of your hydration after your runs, and you should be fine. Wear lighter clothing that wicks during your runs. Simple summer maintenance.

Sports physicals need to come in. So far I have Carli's and Madison's. Eleven to go! Let's get this done ASAP so we can move smoothly into the season without any hassle.

I was asked about the Limestone 5k forms. You can download your entry here.

Limestone 5k

We will do a quality workout tomorrow. Don't sweat it - I will make it easier than our last one. 

New Week Starting

Ladies,

Miss my voice? I was true to my word, disappearing from your lives for the entire week. I hope all went well. I hope the bake sale was successful despite the poor weather conditions. At least it wasn't too hot.

Hard to believe, but there are only three weeks until the season officially begins! Our main emphasis in the remaining days is to build our base. To that end we will be extending our runs. This will mean practices will be getting longer, but it has to be. I know some of you have work - if you have to leave, leave. We still have to try to work in as many miles as possible until time runs out.

Our car wash is this coming Saturday. Make your plans accordingly!