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.
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.
moving on in the state series now mimics how golfers advance
ReplyDeleteTHG