Longer run, but watch the dog!

Ladies,

Great workout today! We had at least four girls make the 5 miles today, and most of the rest did 4 or more. We're edging up, and that's what we should be doing. Just remember, when we make a mileage adjustment such as today, we want to watch pace closely. This is especially true under our current weather conditions. As of this writing, it's 84 degrees, dew point is 75 degrees, and relative humidity is 79%. By now you are probably hearing, "Whuh WHAAH, whuh-whuh WHAAAAH!" Let me break it down so you understand why those numbers matter.

The human body is a remarkable feat of natural engineering. You have a built-in coolant system based on water. By shedding water to the surface of your skin, the evaporative process carries heat from your body. Each little drop of sweat potentially carries a portion of heat away from you. Thousands of sweat drops carry away most of the heat, leaving you at a more comfortable temperature.

Now enter weather conditions. When dew point and relative humidity levels exceed a certain level, the evaporative process is hindered. Air can only hold so much moisture at any given temperature (relative humidity), and at a certain temperature it can't hold any more at all (dew point). If the actual temperature is near the dew point, sweat won't evaporate. You don't cool. Your body tries harder to produce sweat that doesn't evaporate, and soon you are soaked, and after that dehydrated, and after that either heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

Obviously we have to be careful. It may not be that "hot" yet, but you better believe these conditions stress you. We will reduce pace when conditions dictate, and today, they did. Let's see if this sounds familiar... you were running fine at first, maybe for the first two or three miles, then suddenly you felt awful. As you begin to dehydrate, you will feel sudden drops in energy, cramping in muscles, and maybe even nausea.

There's more. Since air can hold water, when it's humid, a lungful of air holds less O2 (oxygen) by volume. Think about it. Your lungs hold a set capacity of air. If I add water to that air, there's less O2 in the lungful I get. That means I have to breathe harder to get the same effort I would get under lower humidity. Now add that to dehydration, which lowers the ability of your body to deliver the little oxygen you can take in to the cells, and you get shutdown.

tl;dr - hot and humid means hard running.

Safety: stay together whenever possible. It's the best possible practice for all of us. Safety in numbers!

Physicals: I have two. Nineteen to go!

Stretching: do it.

Stuff

Heh... in case you think I've forgotten you, I haven't. There are a lot of girls on the team this year, and there are a lot of elements. Something fits you. Find it! I'm curious to see what you gals can make of this.

We are in the middle of the third week of summer training, and things are beginning to take shape. With so many girls I don't get to interact personally with each of you every day, so let me take a little time here and run down a list of some specific observations I have so far. I'm going to use my brand-spanking-new iPhone 6 Plus (my 5 died) so this will be in whatever order my contacts is currently using.

Kate Albertson - tons of potential. Running so far has been spotty for medical reasons, but you have been able to run anywhere from the middle to the front every day you've made it. You're strong and fast, as you showed in the pick-ups yesterday. It will be great to see what you do going forward.

Alannah Alexander - you are another speedster on the team. This distance is new to you, and we will have to watch a couple of growing pains issues with you (knees, asthma) but you have tons of upside. Stick with it!

Ali Allen - you have made a couple of practices, but I like that you appear to be staying in shape. Run when you can, and run with us when you can.

Sarah Brewster - you might easily be the fastest sprinter on the team. The challenge for you is to remain focused on the distance, and don't let the numbers blow your mind out. Fast-twitch runners can be taught to run long. Slow-twitch runners cannot be taught to run fast - they can only get stronger.

Ani Brock - you are a TON faster than last year. Keep pressing forward, and keep that stride open!

Katlyn Eagan - it's been a challenge this summer with your injury, but keep the faith. Sports always include comebacks, and you will. Just don't lose contact with us. You are an important part of this team, and we need you.

Carrie Flinn - I've never seen you look better than you do right now. You are leading all the runs, you are running good paces, and you look comfortable. Stay on top of the ice and stretching, and if we can avoid injury, you are going to go pretty far either with the team or as an individual.

Payton Flynn - you never quit, and I love that. We will work on form and pace, but you keep plugging. I love your attitude and your work ethic!

Amber Foster - work has made practicing difficult, but it meant a lot to me to receive your text about organizing fundraisers. Leaders are leaders, whether they are the fastest runners or not. I love it, and please, keep it up!

Cynthaney Hignite - your talent is undeniable, but I hope you are getting some running done when you are not with us. You have looked strong so far this summer. Just know I'll be tapping you very early in the season to carry some weight for the team. You have the goods, we need to use them.

Halle Hughes - it was your first day today, so there isn't much to say yet other than I'm confident you are in good shape from basketball conditioning and you are a great athlete. I am looking forward to seeing what you can do!

Danielle Kittaka - you are a blue-chipper, no doubt. You are able to hang with the front of the group for most of the runs already, and that's a great sign for the season to come. More than that though, you are a thoughtful and introspective person, which helps you to be analytical about training and racing. Great racers have the ability to think while racing.

Melissa Lewis - come back!

Molly Mitchell - girl, you are tough. It's not many girls that would come day after day while frequently landing in the "no man's land" between groups of runners. It takes some tough mental resolve to run alone like that, but it also makes you a tough racer. Like Danielle, you are very smart and focused. In this game, the edge often comes down to who thinks quicker, believe it or not. You may not know it yet, but you are a diamond in the rough.

Delaney Myers - the final of my trio of deadly assassins from Oolitic, you too have a strong competitive spirit. You fight it out alone, you chase those ahead of you, and you are focused. Keep doing what you are doing, and soon you will be running in that front pack.

Maddie Patterson - come back!

Baili Peterson - word on the street is you are running this fall, which I certainly hope is true. Basketball is taking your time for now, but I am confident you are getting your training in. Coach Jo often brags about how hard you work. I can't wait to see it play out.

Sara Peterson - you have looked great this summer. It's good to see things under control and you running the way we all knew you could. There should be some huge drops right away as the racing season comes.

Kayla Pritchett - you have been a lot tougher this summer, running much farther than ever. I know it gets hard toward the end of a run, but that's normal at first. As your conditioning improves it will bother you less and less.

Jennifer Ramirez - you are tough as nails, as always. That's a lot of raw talent you have in that little body. Never take it for granted!

Ashley Rubacha - you must be so proud to be able to hang with these girls as you have! You are extremely talented, and will almost certainly be at the top of the middle school races this fall.

Madison Ryan - the miles are starting again, and so far, so good. It feels good to be able to run again, doesn't it? Easy does it though... the most important thing here is a healthy Madison.

Chelsey Schofield - while it's been hard to hang with the front, you've been a solid runner these last two weeks. We will have to mix riding and running as we go on, and in large part I can leave that up to your discretion. We just need to stay on the cardio one way or another.

Chelsea Scott - you are getting bigger and stroner... and FASTER. You are not in the stage where you can run with pretty much anyone you choose to. So choose to! Every day, make up your mind to be close to the front. You are a hard worker, you are talented, you just need to believe in yourself.

Joslyn Wever - just like last year, the heat hits you hard at first. You're starting to come out of it though. I also believe your foot must be healing, so things are looking better all the time. For now though you're just going have to know when enough is enough. Don't worry, you are still the great runner you always were.

Alannah Zollman - the thing that has impressed me the most so far is your mature attitude. You want to work, you want to get better. You remain positive no matter how things go, and you never quit. Hang with it, and you will see how much better it gets in no time.

Zoe Zollman - you are a beast. No, I mean that. You, like Joslyn, are a triple-threat, but you have never looked stronger or more confident. If there is any member of this team that looks at ease in her skin as an athlete, it's you. When I watch you run, I get the feeling you could move forward or back in the pack at will, and that takes confidence.

Whew! Long enough!

Sorry about that

Ladies,

My posts have gotten a bit erratic lately - sorry for that. A lot is happening behind the scenes you aren't seeing, and it seems I haven't yet developed the habit of sitting right down after practice and getting it done. I will try to do better.

Today, because of my ignorance, I missed most of practice. Coach Jo told me it went well, but we talked a bit about running pace. I mentioned something about that at the end, but let me talk about it a little here so we have it on the record.

There's a lot more science the this game than might be obvious at first glance. The thing I mentioned today was the relationship between training pace and racing pace. The rule of thumb on this is your training pace should be between one minute and one and a half minutes from your goal racing pace. That means if you plan to run a 21:42 (7-minute pace) you should be training between 8:00-8:30 per mile on average. Yup, it's pretty much that cut and dried.

Of course we aren't starting there. The thing that makes this all so complex is timing training to peak at just the right time. We want to peak in October, so right now we are in building phase. I haven't said much about pace because I want you all to be able to cover distance safely. Here's the thing though... we can't just run forever. At some point we have to start introducing quality.

One of the things you can do every day is pay attention to your form. If your feet aren't landing under you (as we discussed before), you may need to make adjustments. You also need to try to open your stride a bit but relax while doing so. Often we play it safe and cut our stride lengths down, but in the end spend more energy slowing down than we would if we used a more optimum stride.

Anyway, we're going to work on this. Don't worry, things are going great. I'm very pleased with how it has gone. Still, we will ever move forward and upward. There will always be challenges! 

Thursday on the Trail

Ladies,

As promised, today was easier. We went a bit shorter for most, and a couple rode. Tomorrow will be a different day - it may be easier in some ways, or harder, depending on you.

I will split the workout. Those that bring bikes will ride. Those that don't will run. It's not that I'm trying to split the team as much as I'm offering different methods of training. If it works we'll do more; if it doesn't, we will do it differently, but there will be cross-training options throughout the summer.

One of my wishes was that I would be able to add additional workouts for those willing to come, but that so far has been a more difficult thing to arrange than I previously planned. One way to go about that would be to extend Thursday workouts to include a ride. There are logistical problems with that though... as in, where do we put the bikes until we ride? I would hate to see someone get a bike stolen. For now, I'm stewing on that one.

I could have a later workout, but that's another stress on parents that have to drive, or runners that work or have other activities. Then there's supervision. If the group is small, I can easily supervise. If all 21 runners ride, that could be another matter. At that point it's almost worth having a SAG vehicle. Anyway... I'm working on it.

As for tomorrow, it will be a short ride/run, then we will play. It's a nice way to end the first two weeks, and a nice change of pace. I'm also looking forward to learning a new game!

See you in the morning!

Cross-training

Ladies,

Though we have large numbers, I have no desire to see anyone hurt. Injuries will happen no matter what we do, but we don't have to go looking for trouble. For that reason I'm trying to be somewhat cautious with your training this summer. I will adjust numbers up and down as I see fit, so be patient.

One of the big changes this summer is cross-training. I want to incorporate more into what we are doing for cardio fitness. This Friday I'm going to call for the first foray into that area. I am planning on a riding component to the training. This is voluntary! If you would rather run, by all means, come and run. However, if you want to try something new, bring a bike and helmet to practice. I'll keep it short, and we'll reserve some time for Frisbee Football or whatever game it was Alannah was talking about. It should be fun either way. Plan for practice to be 15 minutes longer so we can train and play.

Tomorrow I will likely pull back miles on a few of you girls. We've done well, and I don't want to get greedy. You gals are such hard workers it's easy for me to get carried away.

Hey! Get your physical yet? How about stretching? Ice? Shoes? Don't think I've forgotten. 

Warming Up

Ladies,

So today is beginning to feel a bit more like early summer. It was warmer and more humid, and when that happens you are going to feel it. It feels harder to breathe, to move, it's just... harder. Don't worry, that's normal. Some of you will be bothered more than others, and that's normal too.

Best thing to do is to hydrate all day long every day. Electrolytes are the key, and that means salt, magnesium, potassium, etc. Bananas are a good dietary source of electrolytes, but in general you want to take more salt in your diet.

I am splitting the group into differing plans because as much as possible we need to individualize training to fit your needs. We've been fortunate to have enough supervision to do this, so the plan would be to continue in that vein. What is important for us is that we know all the training you are doing outside of running with us. We need to know about injuries, or pain, or anything else that could impact your plan.

There will be times in your training you will be frustrated. That is normal. Things don't always go the way we plan or think they should. Keep at it, keep trying. Keep pushing. Keep coming.

We are still planning to have biking on Friday for those that are interested. Helmets!

Rainy Monday

Ladies,

Though it was rainy, today's running conditions were actually kind of nice. It was cool with a drizzle, but for running, that's far better than sunny, humid, and 90 degrees. I'll take it.

I blame no one that didn't come for staying home. One peek at the radar might have been very misleading, because the storms appeared on the horizon. However, if you watched the radar in motion, you saw it dissipating before it reached us. That's the way it turned out throughout the morning. I want to be clear though - safety first, always. It is your parents' call whether or not to send you, and no workout is worth someone getting hurt.

We had 8 girls show, 4 of which did 4 miles, the other 4 did 3. It's the second week, and while some are ready to advance, some I feel need to be brought up a little slower. We will get everyone's mileage up, just not all at the same time. It's easier if you think of it in minutes of activity. Right now, because of the variation of running speed, while the mileage is different, the overall time running isn't so much.

Example: Group A  runs 4 miles at 8:00 mpm. Group B runs 3 miles at 9:30 mpm. Group A runs for 32 minutes. Group B runs for 28 minutes 30 seconds. That's a difference of only 3 minutes 30 seconds. See what I mean?

Naturally we want people to run fast - we are after all a racing team. But with endurance sports you have to have patience. New runners have to give the body time to adapt. You will be vying for spots. I will eventually turn you loose to chase. Now simply isn't the time.

Great work today girls. I am excited to be part of this!

Oh, something I used to do last year... I would post my Garmin data on Strava and share that with you. Click the link below if you are interested.

Rainy Monday Run

The thing to look at would be the last 2 miles. I ran those with Zoe and Carrie. Chelsea and Danielle, this is why your group broke up. You weren't slowing down - they sped up. Look at that last mile... it dropped 30 seconds per mile!

Week Two

Ladies,

Twenty-one girls attended practice last week - that is, twenty-one high school girls. We had three additional middle schoolers, so that was the biggest week of runners I've seen in my latest stint as a cross coach. It's very exciting, because not only do we have numbers, we have talent. 

I continue to encourage you to come. Consistency is your best friend - it helps you grow, it keeps you healthy, and helps stave off injury. The more sporadically you come, the more problems you will have. 

Think of it like this... you are filling a gallon container with a table spoon. The container has a very slight leak as well. So long as you keep pouring in the spoonfuls, you will eventually reach the goal of filling the container. If you take a few minutes off, the leak quickly undoes your work. Here's the point: your fitness is the container, and each day of training is the table spoon. Steady work in small increments will get you where you want to be when season starts. 

Shoes, physicals, ice, stretching. 'Nuff said.

Tomorrow the weather forecast is not good. It's supposed to start storming tonight and may well continue through morning. I've said it before, but let me say it again; we do not practice in thunderstorms. We can run in rain and drizzle, but we will not run in storms. Ever. So if it's storming tomorrow morning, practice is canceled. Right now I'm planning on being there, but if it's storming STAY HOME!

One more thing... if you have a friend you think might want to run, ask them, bring them, or tell them about it. The more runners the better I say. Maybe they are going to do another sport in the fall, that's okay too. We (the coaches) are here for you, and we want to help you be better athletes no matter where you wind up. We do not take it personally if you try it and decide it's not for you. We don't mind if you use it as summer conditioning. We love running and racing, and we love the opportunity we have to share it with you, but most of all we are here to help you. 

The tired begins to set in

Ladies,

By now some of you new girls are beginning to notice you don't have the same zip in your legs you had on Monday. That climb at the end of the run today might have even caused your quads to burn a bit. That's normal. For the next week you will likely feel a bit more tired than normal, you may find your appetite increase, and you may need more sleep. All normal. Don't worry, soon enough you will acclimate.

A little physiology... exercising damages muscle. Every flex of a muscle causes tiny tears the body has to repair. The body has a wonderful defense mechanism though - it always defends itself by making the muscle bigger than it was before. The reason for this is so the same level of stress can't hurt the muscle again. So once you are used to a level of stress, you add a bit more. You damage the muscle, it repairs, then you raise the stress again. It's the same in all sports. Think of body builders. That's how they get so big.

Now we don't want to get huge, and don't worry, you're not going to roll out of bed one morning with the body of Arnold Schwarzenegger. It takes a lot longer than overnight. You will notice your quads and calves begin to tighten over time. Again, very normal.

Stretch! Ice! Shoes! These are your friends!

See you all in the morning.

Wow! Even more coming!

Ladies,

It was another cool morning, and yet again we were blessed to get more runners. I cannot even begin to tell you how fired up I am about our numbers and talent so far this summer. We have quality AND depth, and that's a winning combination every time.

Today's course was a loop, something I like to do occasionally. We have a number of girls that haven't been running much for a while, and I want all of you to get a chance to break into this again. This week's running will continue to be relaxed, so no worries. We'll be upping distance and quality as the summer progresses, but for now, enjoy the getting started phase.

I talked a bit about shoes today. Please, be sure to keep yourself in good shoes. Of all running equipment, shoes are most vital. A good target number is 300 miles on a pair of shoes. That may not sound like much, but trust me, you go beyond that and if you have any sort of physiological problems, they will start to surface. Prevention is your best friend in sports, and this is an area where staying ahead of the problem is always the wisest move.

Stretching is also your friend. The first 10 minutes before we run we should be stretching. No one ever wants to do it,  but you really must. Like being in good shoes, even light stretching can prepare your body for the work ahead. Ignore this area of training and you risk pulled muscles and tendons, which are much more difficult to overcome than your desire to not stretch.

Ice is your friend. If you have anything sore at all, put ice on it for 15 minutes after the run. If it continues to hurt, ice 15 minutes on, 15 minutes off for an hour. It's tedious I know, but it's the little things that add up - you can do little right things and do well, or little bad things add up and you can be out with injury. You only get to choose which path of little things you want.

Finally, on the issue of injuries... there are two kinds of runners; those that are hurt, and those that will be. You are high school athletes now, and the level of competition is high. You will be pushed, and sometimes you will break. More often than not that will be minor stuff, but sometimes it will be longer-term. You can always come back, and by that I mean when you are hurt it seems like you are lost, everything is over, there is no point. It's not true. It's a pain, it's a hassle, but it can be overcome, and often you can be a smarter and better athlete because of it.

Last summer at this time I was on crutches. I'm a triathlete, and a dog darted in front of me while I was riding my bike in training. I flipped over the bars at 25 mph and hit the pavement hard. My hip took the worst of it, and for about a week I was on crutches. For a month after that running was a real struggle at any distance. I kept after it, and did cross-training on weights and biking.

Now I lost the entire summer racing season to rehab, and that was a downer. Mentally it was tough to take, because I was poised before the wreck to have one of the best racing seasons of my life. After getting past that reality, I started looking forward again. I put a marathon on the calendar as a goal and pointed at that.

Though I wasn't able to train as much as I would have liked, I did what I could. Progress was slow but steady. By the end of cross season I was running reasonably well, though I had practically no running base for a marathon distance event. What I DID have was biking miles. Both are cardio activities, so if my bike mileage was high enough, I had a chance to complete the marathon.

In the end, not only did I complete the marathon, but I finished in a time that was probably the best I'd run in 10 years. It was a complete surprise of course, but looking back on it I understand it. When you have a layoff it hurts to get going again, but it's really more mental than physical. If you were fit when you were hurt and you can maintain any training at all in a similar sport, you will likely be fine IF you can stay mentally up.

We have girls hurt now. It will always be so. Have faith. Do what you can. Contribute where you can. Stay involved, stay motivated, and you will get your reward in the end. 

First Day of Summer

Ladies,

It's not the day I would have picked to start the summer - cold, wet, and gloomy - but we had a strong turnout nonetheless. Twelve dedicated ladies braved the way too cold for this time of year conditions for the first run of the summer conditioning season. Way to go!

We had some new faces, and that's always good to see. Welcome to Amber, Molly, Melissa, and Ashley! Of that group, Amber is a senior, Molly a freshman, Melissa a sophomore, and Ashley a 6th grader. There'll be more new faces too; Danielle, Delaney, and maybe some more I don't know of. Then there are a few of the regulars who could not make it today. The bulk of the girls this year are high school aged, so if this holds true, we'll have a very large group of girls running this fall.

Our first week will not be hard, or at least not intentionally. For the new girls it might seem hard as they adjust to the routine, but there will be no quality work this week. I want to take this time to assess where everyone is. This is also an organizational week, so that some of the clerical work can be done.

We have four seniors so far, and I will be leaning heavily on them for leadership. Let's face it, that's who you listen to anyway. It's your team, and it should be lead by you. My part is to facilitate that leadership and guide it (somewhat). I will remind you of things you might need to take care of, but for the most part, the seniors are the leaders.

In that vein, it isn't too soon to start thinking about whether or not you're going to order team gear this year. That would mean fund raisers. Best to get dates on the calendar sooner than later. Venues will book quickly. This activity is totally up to you ladies though. If you don't want to mess with it, don't. Just know if you want personal uniforms or warm-ups, you'll either do fund raisers or you have to pay out of pocket. The school cannot cover those costs.

Physicals - get them done! If you didn't get a spring physical when they were free (and why wouldn't you?), you'll have to have an IHSAA physical before the first day of practice in August. I cannot let you practice without one, period. This is not negotiable.

That's probably enough for now. I will close with a few general guidelines:

1. Safety first! 
2. We never run alone ladies, ever.
3. We practice Monday-Friday at 8 AM, Parkview. Any variation from that will be arranged in advance.
4. We will run in rain, but we never run in storms. If it's lightning, don't come. Refer to rule #1.
5. Let me or one of the coaches know about pain. Feet, knees, hips, anything and everything.