Two weeks and counting

Ladies,

In only two weeks we have our first meet. A lot of questions are going to be answered at that point, but it will probably raise as many as it answers. I'm getting pretty excited already!

New girls! I should leave more often! If we are going to get quality girls in my absence, well, I should be... absent! It's great to get McKenna back, and I'm very happy to see Kayla again, too. If you don't remember, Kayla ran with us a bit last summer. She's an athlete for sure, and should fit right in. McKenna is sure to be a great asset down the road as her fitness grows. Rumor has it we have another runner coming, too. It just keeps getting better and better.

We still have time to get enough practices in so that everyone can run the opening meet. I really want to do so, too. This is the one meet a year where there is no Varsity or JV - everyone runs! The top seven girls score, simple as that. There is no better way to compare you all to one another than to have you all in the same race.

Seniors... we are going to rotate the captain position starting next week. That gives the first girl a week to get us ready for the first meet. Take this seriously. I do!

Hills tomorrow. It's going to be hard. Don't be afraid, look forward to it. If you can't conquer hard, you can conquer anything.

The song I tried to freestyle today:

"Second time, we're 'round this track,
And the others teams, are startin' to crack,
They keep on fallin' back, girls,
They keep on fallin' back, girls..."

That gets you started. Let's hear this cadence out there, and add your own verse. That's how you play! 

Day 2 Post-Bill

Ladies,

Don't get too used to Coach Amy - I'm coming back on Monday, ready to go! I hate that I'm gone, and I'm sorry for that. Hopefully it will be worth it.

I'm not sure how things have gone with you the last two days. I'm sure it's been hot. Stick with it. The weather will cool soon enough. You'll get the reward then.

Someone contacted me today asking if we are still taking runners for the team. Yes! Of course we are - in fact, I was counting on the fact we would probably get a few. We're trying to get Coach Amy on the staff, paid... more runners makes that more and more likely. We can use the help, and she (and Coach Jo) has/have certainly helped a bunch.

Enjoy the Saturday off - I feel comfortable doing this because you've had a great summer, you are in a transition week moving to the tougher BNL course, and it has been unbearably hot. Sleep in if possible, and make the most of it. It likely won't happen again this season.

Take care, and I will see you all again soon!

General Stuff

Ladies,

I know it was hot today - I ran after you did. I know it was tough. Take heart. The heat won't last much longer. Stay after it, and you will be rewarded.

Today's workout got spread out over several subgroups, and that's likely to continue for a while at least. Between the multi-sport girls, the injured, and those that have chronic injuries, we are having to make adjustments to the plan. Not to worry. Things are still coming along quite nicely.

Our first meet is Monday the 26th. Bet on it being warm that afternoon. If we are pleasantly surprised by cool weather, all the better, but be prepared. So if we suffer a bit of heat right now, it's only preparing us for racing in the short term. I think once September rolls around things will quickly cool off.

Tomorrow you are going to do some pickups, the exact nature of which will be determined by our stalwart Coach Amy. Distances will be similar to today, but you will have a bit more speed involved. It shouldn't be terribly difficult, other than the weather.

Friday will be easy. Saturday will be off.

I will be gone the next two days due to Nationals. I really hate missing, but it's pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime deal for me. I hate that I'll miss school and practice, but this is when it's scheduled. Not much to be done about it.

Inspirational thoughts... I was talking with some folks painting their parking spaces, and I happened upon a young man, a senior, who is a member of one of our fall sports. I listened to him talk for a bit, and the tone got a bit odd. Ever one to delve into the absurd, I queried him on his viewpoint. The thrust of his comment was he had no responsibility to help guide the team because he didn't really care that much about the sport, and he would do better in this other sport he liked better.

Oh. Perfect. So it's okay to do a crummy job in your current position in life so long as it's not where you really want to be, right? Uh-uh. Crummy work is crummy work, no matter where you are. And if you have aspirations to move up from your, er, crummy position, doing crummy work won't get it done.

That's the beauty of sports - they perfectly reward/punish your relative effort. If you try very hard, you will get better - not always as much as you like, but you will get better. More than that, those around you will notice. Your teammates know who works hardest on the team - you know it too, right? Maybe you won't be the best, but you will have the respect of all the team, and the coaches too.

My comment to the seniors is you are all leaders - every one of you. You can choose to be a good leader or a bad leader, but you have no choice about being a leader. Accept that responsibility and rise up to it. Be worthy of the title.

Hills!

Ladies,

I know it must have come as a surprise to you today. We did hills, which shouldn't have shocked you, but you didn't know we'd do so many. The reason for that is simple; you are in much better shape this year than last. As a result, I will be expecting more from you.

Last year I didn't restrict your effort on an uphill because I knew it would take care of itself. It was enough for you to concern yourselves with getting over the top. Now we have to be more careful, to use ourselves effectively.

What you did today was a full 2 miles of uphill running. Let that sink in. Uphill for 2 miles. And you ran it with authority. Sure, it wasn't fun at all. But you did it. And you did it well.

You must start to believe in your training, and challenge what you can do. It will never be easy, nor should it be. While you are working hard you will from time-to-time ask yourselves if it's worth it. It is. Oh, it is! But what you get out of this whole process is directly proportional to what you put into it. The harder you work, the greater your gains. Time is our enemy, so we can't afford to waste a single opportunity.

So for now, consider what you just accomplished. It was sticky and sweaty out there this morning, and you completed what was probably the hardest workout we've done all summer. On top of that, the last one looked strong. Believe it or not, that was what I was waiting for, to see how well you'd run on the back end of the workout. Yes Danielle, I saw how powerfully you ran by on the last one, and I was duly impressed. In truth, I was impressed with everyone. Maybe I did wipe the smile off Danielle's face for a while, and maybe I was the topic of much hate speech on the way down each hill - wouldn't be doing my job if that didn't happen once in a while - but you gals channeled it the right way and turned it all into a positive. It'll pay off, sooner or later (or both!).

Before I close, I would like to reiterate something I mentioned this morning... on cross-country courses there is much variety in terrain - hills and flats, corners, trails, etc. - and as individuals you will find areas in which you excel and others in which you fall short. This helps to explain why you might always run well in a particular place and not so well in others. Courses sometimes just suit your style of running better. However, and don't forget this, we always have to race.

So, as I told Diana, maybe you can't stay with someone to the top of the hill, but read the course... almost always there will be a portion that follows that will allow you to get yourself right back into the race. You have to be aware of the points where people weaken. Runners on our course always try to smash the uphills and glide for a while after. That's when you hit them. Hard and decisively. Project strength and you will smash the will of people around you.

FWIW, this is one of the reasons running the course before a race is so critical. You should all be looking at the tactical possibilities provided to you that day. They will be there if you are sharp enough to spot and use them. 

First Day of 2013 Season!

Ladies,

It's here! The season has officially begun, (yes, that's grammatically correct). It's 13 weeks until State, 12 until Semi-State, 11 until Regional, around 10 until Sectional, 8 until Conference... you get the idea. We have had 9 weeks of summer training, and that flew by. You can bet this time will too.

Let me thumbnail this season for you as I see it... bear in mind I've not spoken to Coach Jo or Coach Amy about this yet, and my thought process may easily change. At least I can relate my logic as to how I construct a competitive season...

First, the goal race. If our primary goal as a team every year is to progress as far into State Series as possible (and that is our goal), then I must build the training around the choke point - that place in the series I believe where it's do-or-die. That's an easy call... Regional. We're too strong a team even in our tough bracket to get put out at Sectional, but as we know, we can get put out at Regional.

Back 2 weeks off that point for taper. Yes, we'll do a 2-week taper, because our base is very good.

Back 6-8 weeks off that point for speed work.

Back 2 more weeks off that point for hill workouts.

See where that puts us? That's right, that's the outline of our season right there. It might have seemed odd doing organized hill repeats so early, but you should now see why it was done. Those of you that ran practice today can really see why it was done - our course is pretty tough when you're not used to hills! Don't worry, it'll come back quickly.

The pattern established over the last few weeks of having primary and secondary stress days will continue throughout the season. Before the meets start they will both occur in practice. After the meets start, one stress day will be racing, the other will be a workout.

This would be an excellent time to review some team rules:

• Practice is required. We will practice 6-days a week, Monday-Saturday. Practice will last no longer than 2 hours, usually less than 1 1/2 (especially if you are dressed and stretched by the time I get there). If you can't make it, contact one of the coaches. 
• You must wear a shirt at all times while practicing. No jog bra-only running, no exceptions. 
• No drinking, smoking, or abusing drugs. There will be immediate punitive actions, including and up to expulsion from the team.
• You are students first, athletes second. Grades must be maintained.
• You are ambassadors for our school wherever you are. Behave as such.
• You will respect the rights and property of every member of this team. There is no room for bullying.

Other things to clarify:

• The top-7 runners at meet time run Varsity, all others run JV event.
• I don't know who the top-7 runners are right now.
• Any team member that completes the season doing all the practices as asked will receive Varsity points. 
• Only the top-7 runners and 2 alternates run after State Series begins.

To sum this up, complete the season doing what I ask and Varsity points are guaranteed. However, you have to earn the privilege to run in Conference and State Series. You MUST be running one of the top-7 fastest times, or be in the next 2 times as alternates, to be considered. 

This is something to remember every single step of practice... you all want one of those spots. You all have a chance to earn one. Give it all you have every day, and your odds of winning a spot really go up. Even if you don't succeed, you'll never look back and regret actions undone. 

Musings of a coach poised on the precipice of a new season

Ladies,

Excuse a tired old horse. The long train of winding thought about to pour through these tracks of virtual ink may seem disconnected, or at the very lease cobbled together in some inscrutable pattern. Be brave! In the end, perhaps, the train will pull into the station of reason, and quite possibly usable wisdom.

Those who've been around this team a while have no doubt heard it expressed, "One of the best ways to win a fight is to dictate the terms of the conflict". It's a core tenet of an ancient Chinese warlord by the name of Sun Tzu, author of "The Art of War" - essential reading for any military leader.

Ignoring the cliche of comparing athletics to war for just a second, it might be useful to ply the existential application a bit deeper. What is war? What is athletic competition? Boiled down to their essence, it's when people want the same thing and are willing to go to extreme lengths to get them. Simply put, these are venues when extreme selfishness is not only a virtue, it's glorified.

Wow.

It may sound mercenary, but the absolute truth is each and every one of you want the same thing. You want to have your hand raised in victory above all others, team members and opponents alike. You can't all have it; that's a mathematical certainty. Only one person can win. Yet you engage every day in the act of pursuing this goal, to be the winner. This would seem to be insanity defined, and it would be if things were so simple.

Yes, you all want the same thing, yet you also all understand none of you has a chance to get it on your own. This is the foundation of cooperation, the symbiotic relationship of shared need and benefit. Day by day you work side by side, everyone helping everyone, but it's understood that when race day comes, everyone goes for the win. Point blank, that's the way it has to be. Nothing personal, no hard feelings, but there can be only one.

Sun Tzu's most famous tenet of war is quoted as, "To know your enemy is to conquer him". The obvious application would be to learn the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent and then work the situation into your favor. Dictating the pace of the race is a great example, as are other tactical moves like sprinting over the top of a hill, surging late in a race, etc. There is however another enemy to be considered.

You.

That's right, the truth is you are usually your own worst enemy. You are the one in charge of you, and often you have failed to do something necessary or misapplied your energies or made a tactical error mid race, or simply broken down mentally. Your mind is your most powerful weapon, but if you don't use it properly, it's like turning the weapon upon yourself.

You must be able to think throughout a race. Clearly. You have to be able to assess the competition, review your race plan, measure your effort against that plan, monitor your form, urge yourself to endure the pain, be sensitive to changing conditions and adapt, decipher clues of weakness around you, all the while focusing on the goal - to win.

One thing is true; your mind will quit before your body does. Your body is dumb, it only does what the mind tells it. There are certainly limits to what the body will do, but mentally most people have a buffer zone, the difference between what you can do and what you are willing to do. Most of you have probably been in a situation where you knew you could do more, but you chose not to. THAT is the part of the mind that has to be conquered.

That brings us back to the body. Biologically, our bodies prioritize need at all times. Energy is distributed to where it is needed, but under times of stress the body will begin to limit energy from lower-prioritized areas and martial it for the most necessary regions. For example, this is why most of you can't eat and run at the same time. Blood that would be necessary for digestion is shunted away to the muscles so they can sustain effort. That's why your muscles pump up when you exercise - more blood is more oxygen and glycogen in the cells.

Put your body under enough stress, and another very vital organ begins to lose blood flow... your brain. Your higher-level thinking processes begin to take a hit, and focus becomes far more difficult. Some of you may have even run hard enough to experience tunnel vision. Instinct takes over at this point, overriding your cognitive processes. Now this is very important - whatever you have imprinted during your training is the most likely outcome at this point. If you have fought for everything in practice, you will fight for everything at this moment. You won't think about it, there won't be a decision, you'll just do it. The wild animal takes over.

While there is a time and place for the animal, your best race won't start there, nor will it be there mid race. You have to be able to think. How then to take advantage of both? Easy - "To know yourself is to conquer yourself". By the time we get to State Series, you need to know yourself so well that you know exactly where that line is between the thinker and the animal, ride that line, the very edge, until it's time to unleash the animal. When you can do that, you have reached the apex of what your body and mind can do. That may or may not place you on the podium, but it will have been an absolute victory in your private war, and in the grand scheme of things a far more substantial step in the development of you as a complete individual.

Swim tomorrow

Ladies,

Okay - you've earned it. Tomorrow is the last practice of the summer, and if you want to swim, then swim it is! That's simple and direct enough, no? No? BNL pool, 7 AM. There ya go.

Good workout today. It was slightly shorter than I'd planned, but that had to be... too many girls having to finish up errands before school starts next week. I get it.

We have really come a long way already in a few short weeks. I can only eagerly anticipate the growth that is yet to come. You should be proud - I know I am.

Get those physicals! Your count does not... er, COUNT, until you have your signed physical submitted. I know Coach Roberts has a few, but we are still short. Get it done.

Seniors, find a time when at least most of you can get together to make a decision on the uniforms. That has to be done ASAP. Make this a priority, or I will be forced to do the ordering. Nobody wants to see that...