Ladies,
The only way this could have ended better is if the whole team had come. We settled for 2nd best, and Carrie did not let us down.
Let me preface this post with some information I really didn't want to discuss too much before - that of taper. The way taper works is you time your rest for a specific day. The length of your taper, or more accurately, the duration of the taper effect is dependent largely upon the size and duration of your base. Think of the sculpture example... if you want a big sculpture, you have to start with a large piece of marble. It's pretty much the same thing. In my racing days I would run a 6-month cycle with high mileage the whole time. In the end, I'd brought my body to the near-breaking point. The rest came just at the crescendo of the training, and would give a reliable taper effect.
Our base wasn't nearly at that level, therefore the taper did not last as long. I could ride a taper for a few weeks; your taper wouldn't have lasted more than a week. You didn't have enough time or miles to do anything else. We could not be sure of getting out of Sectional, never mind Regional. I had to choose to taper you for Sectional. Some of you peaked there as a result. Couple that with a sloppy field and short turnaround time to the next meet, and well... easy to see why we got the results we did.
Now the lesson to take away from all of this is miles have to happen. Quality has to happen. It needs to happen from the start, it needs to be consistent, and it has to continue to the end. It's hard - of course. But if you want to be great, you have to train to be great. That's a choice we have to make going into the spring running.
This should not be taken to mean I don't think you girls worked - we were limited by several factors that were beyond your control. In the end though, it won't matter. You have the time/quality in the bag or you don't. The running gods accept no excuses. And this is where you resolve as an individual to do your part to improve yourself over the winter so you come out a terrifying specter of athleticism to all your rivals.
I don't care what you do - run, swim, pedal a bike indoors, go to the gym - but the worst thing you could do is nothing. Endurance athletics are a year-round proposition. You can mix your activities, but you must HAVE activities. You cannot lay around promising to start tomorrow, because tomorrow will never come. You have to drag yourselves out, get in groups, do something. The farther out you start, the far less likely you are to get hurt. Trust me on this - for 20 years I was never seriously hurt at any time, but neither did I take extended breaks.
You should take a couple weeks at the end of any season to recover, but after that, it's back on the horse. You gals have so much talent, and we still have a track season in the spring. I want to see you gals at State meet!
Okay... on to Carrie. The best plan under the circumstances, in my humble opinion, was to A) make certain Carrie was thoroughly warmed up, and; B) have her chase a known opponent. Let's face it, pacing herself has not worked. It's something we'll have to work on in the off-season. For now, a known opponent gives her something easy to chase.
We ran the whole course for warm-up, and I'm glad we did. At first it looked good, then it quickly turned sour a bit after half-mile. There was quite a bit of swampy goo that extended for most of second half of the first mile, then picked up again as we left the wooded portion. We were able to decide on a line that likely kept Carrie out of the bulk of trouble, but the conditions would definitely slow the race down for runners not in front (Carrie ran mid-pack).
From the jump, Carrie looked fine, but she was boxed in and could not find her targets. Nevertheless, she held the same distance throughout the race, itself a victory because it proves she can run their speed. She just can't let them get away from her in the start. Her overall time of 21:25 is solid - not her best, but as stated before, it was unlikely she would be able to run her fastest time today. Best of all, she was in the middle of the fight in a tough field and was moving up the entire race.
For me, I think Carrie gained a lot from the experience. It's a different animal altogether to run in this type of race, and we need someone with the experience to help guide the team next year. So, hats off to Carrie!
There will be a banquet of course, time to be set soon. I'll also need to start collecting uniforms. Yes, I want them ALL in this year - got that seniors? ;)
The only way this could have ended better is if the whole team had come. We settled for 2nd best, and Carrie did not let us down.
Let me preface this post with some information I really didn't want to discuss too much before - that of taper. The way taper works is you time your rest for a specific day. The length of your taper, or more accurately, the duration of the taper effect is dependent largely upon the size and duration of your base. Think of the sculpture example... if you want a big sculpture, you have to start with a large piece of marble. It's pretty much the same thing. In my racing days I would run a 6-month cycle with high mileage the whole time. In the end, I'd brought my body to the near-breaking point. The rest came just at the crescendo of the training, and would give a reliable taper effect.
Our base wasn't nearly at that level, therefore the taper did not last as long. I could ride a taper for a few weeks; your taper wouldn't have lasted more than a week. You didn't have enough time or miles to do anything else. We could not be sure of getting out of Sectional, never mind Regional. I had to choose to taper you for Sectional. Some of you peaked there as a result. Couple that with a sloppy field and short turnaround time to the next meet, and well... easy to see why we got the results we did.
Now the lesson to take away from all of this is miles have to happen. Quality has to happen. It needs to happen from the start, it needs to be consistent, and it has to continue to the end. It's hard - of course. But if you want to be great, you have to train to be great. That's a choice we have to make going into the spring running.
This should not be taken to mean I don't think you girls worked - we were limited by several factors that were beyond your control. In the end though, it won't matter. You have the time/quality in the bag or you don't. The running gods accept no excuses. And this is where you resolve as an individual to do your part to improve yourself over the winter so you come out a terrifying specter of athleticism to all your rivals.
I don't care what you do - run, swim, pedal a bike indoors, go to the gym - but the worst thing you could do is nothing. Endurance athletics are a year-round proposition. You can mix your activities, but you must HAVE activities. You cannot lay around promising to start tomorrow, because tomorrow will never come. You have to drag yourselves out, get in groups, do something. The farther out you start, the far less likely you are to get hurt. Trust me on this - for 20 years I was never seriously hurt at any time, but neither did I take extended breaks.
You should take a couple weeks at the end of any season to recover, but after that, it's back on the horse. You gals have so much talent, and we still have a track season in the spring. I want to see you gals at State meet!
Okay... on to Carrie. The best plan under the circumstances, in my humble opinion, was to A) make certain Carrie was thoroughly warmed up, and; B) have her chase a known opponent. Let's face it, pacing herself has not worked. It's something we'll have to work on in the off-season. For now, a known opponent gives her something easy to chase.
We ran the whole course for warm-up, and I'm glad we did. At first it looked good, then it quickly turned sour a bit after half-mile. There was quite a bit of swampy goo that extended for most of second half of the first mile, then picked up again as we left the wooded portion. We were able to decide on a line that likely kept Carrie out of the bulk of trouble, but the conditions would definitely slow the race down for runners not in front (Carrie ran mid-pack).
From the jump, Carrie looked fine, but she was boxed in and could not find her targets. Nevertheless, she held the same distance throughout the race, itself a victory because it proves she can run their speed. She just can't let them get away from her in the start. Her overall time of 21:25 is solid - not her best, but as stated before, it was unlikely she would be able to run her fastest time today. Best of all, she was in the middle of the fight in a tough field and was moving up the entire race.
For me, I think Carrie gained a lot from the experience. It's a different animal altogether to run in this type of race, and we need someone with the experience to help guide the team next year. So, hats off to Carrie!
There will be a banquet of course, time to be set soon. I'll also need to start collecting uniforms. Yes, I want them ALL in this year - got that seniors? ;)
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