Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Red Rocks July 29th

The View:


The Stats:

KELSEY 10 20 30 40 50 45
195
BRIAN 10 20 30 40 50 60
210
KATELYN 10 20 30 40 38 45 45 228
CAROLINE 10 20 30 40 40 46 45 231
MELANIE 10 20 30 40 50 45 45 240
KELLI 10 20 30 40 47 46 50 243
RYAN 10 20 30 40 50 60 53 263
JAKE 10 20 30 40 50 60 61 271
ALEX 10 20 30 40 50 60 69 279
TAYLOR 10 20 30 40 50 60 69 279
PATCHES 10 20 30 40 50 60 69 279


The Commentary:

Look back to some of the June Red Rocks posts, that is when we started. Just some things that jump out at me from looking back at them. Kelli has improved by 43 steps!!! Melanie by 39, and Katelyn by 38!!! That is almost a 20% improvement for all of you! Awesome! On top of that, you ladies are doing up to three jailbreaks per session. Fantastic!

On the boys side, Alex has consistently gone up and down the ladder, as well as doing all of the extra jailbreaks and water pumps all season long. It's hard to improve when you start at the top, but Zach said we should time him, and that might be an idea for next week, as Alex can get up to the top very, very quickly! The other guys have not been slouching either. Patches has improved by 35 steps, Jake by 49 steps, Ryan by 21 and Cabbage by 41 steps! Amazing work, that is a HUGE improvement for everyone!! I am so excited to see this much improvement, that is great. Just awesome!

Red Rocks is a tough work-out, both mentally and physically, but this data goes to show you that hard work is the key to success. All of you have been working super hard this summer, that will translate into great fall season for all of you! One more Red Rocks to go, next week, I hope we get a huge turn-out!

Monday, July 28, 2008

Weather Delay

Last year, Ducky and Steve-O and I did the Teva Paint Mines 6 km race. Well, it looks like it would've been a little easier for me this year. :) I would have been able to keep up with them for a little longer!!

Weather Delays and Shortens Paint Mines 6k

SEP

Getting closer to school!

As the title suggests, we are getting closer and closer to school starting! That is going to affect the WTAFC weekly schedules by changing up the "normal" practice times. I apologize for any inconvenience beforehand, but hopefully everyone can make it work for their individual situation.

This week, we will do Red Rocks on Tuesday at normal time, but on Thursday, we will be meeting at 7:00 in the morning, not in the evening. Reason is, my parents are getting back from their New Mexico road trip Thursday afternoon, and since I don't get to see them that often, (and the will buy dinner!) I am switching that practice to the morning. We will be doing some shorter intervals, 200's, 300's, 400's, probably in a very random format.

Saturday will be an On Your Own day. (Beth and I are taking my mom to the Botanic Gardens that morning!) Since Thursday is going to be tough, I suggest Saturday be a long run at the Bluffs. No formal intervals, let the hills at the Bluffs will be the stressor. If you normally do easy runs on Sunday on flatter terrain, than two-three early laps at the Bluffs on Saturday will be perfect.

See you all Tuesday morning!

SEP

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Saturday Practice

This Saturday (7/26), let's meet at my place at the normal time (7:00 am, before it gets too hot) so we can get some good long intervals in. I am thinking about running them for time, not distance, to change things up a bit. My dad will probably come along, the original Seppala coach!

Hopefully this is not too late of notice, and we get a good turn-out Saturday morning.

SEP

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

A Public Apology


In the orienteering post, I mistakenly identified Taylor Eidt as Derek Eidt. I want to sincerely and publicly apologize for that. I have known both of these boys since they were in seventh grade, and frankly, it's embarrassing that I made that mistake. Taylor is the "King of Orienteering" (although Derek is not chopped liver), and I again am sorry for the mix-up. I extend my sincere apologies to all affected.

SEP

P.S. I had this website to help me out in writing this.

Red Rocks July 22nd

Another great day at Red Rocks today. (Yes, I know I sound like a broken record, but every Tuesday we go out there is a great day. Everyone works hard and pushes themselves, so that qualifies as a "great day.") The stat might seem a little skewed, but that is because The Police (the band, not the law enforcement officials) are at Red Rocks tonight, so the first 15 rows were cordoned off. Which meant, we had to start on row 15, right into the steep steps, and could only get 54 steps in before the top. We still did seven sets, but we did seven harder sets than normal.


Red Rocksne 24th












1st Set 2nd Set 3rd Set 4th Set 5th Set 6th Set 7th Set Total Steps



MELANIE 10 20 30 33 35 34 30 192



CAROLINE 10 20 30 30 35 34 33 192



KELLI 10 20 30 36 36 36 35 203



CABBAGE 10 20 30 40 50 54
204



JAKE 10 20 30 40 50 41 44 235



TYLER 10 20 30 40 50 54 42 246



RYAN 10 20 30 40 50 54 44 248



PATCHES 10 20 30 40 50 54 46 250



ALEX 10 20 30 40 50 54 54 258


Alex went above and beyond, not only getting to the top level by level, but also going back down level by level. Very impressive! Two alums were there early, due to work constraints, and they did the entire workout as well! After the main stairs, we all did three sets of water pumps afterwards, and everyone did two sets of Jailbreaks up the walls to the side. We noticed that some other groups there were mimicking our work-outs. I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, huh?

For Thursday, I won't be around, so you need to get the workout in on your own. (Actually, I hope you can get into groups and do them with friends, it's easier and more beneficial that way.) Go back a few posts to see the specifics of the work-out if you have forgotten. If you have any questions, please shoot me an email and I can answer it as soon as possible.

Great job today!

SEP

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Engagement

In case some of you have not heard, Coach Laster and his girlfriend are engaged to be married! Beth went out with them yesterday and took a bunch of great pictures for them, but this is my favorite.


If you have a chance, shoot Coach Laster, james.laster [at] gmail [dot] com, a congratulatory email, we are all pumped for him and Leigh Ann!!

SEP


P.S. I have to admit, my awesome wife is a pretty good photographer!

Orienteering Meet

Yesterday the WTAFC went to an RMOC orienteering meet down in Woodland Park. It was a long drive, but the meet itself was a blast. I personally had a TON of fun, and I can't wait to do it again. I think, for off-season training, orienteering is the best type of interval work you can get in. It is true fartlek. The landscape constantly varies, you're always altering your steps to adapt to what's underfoot. Your mind has to be turned up to level ten, to figure out where you're going, how you are going to get there, and how fast you can go. It's outside, in beautiful Colorado wilderness, and the whole atmosphere is laid back and welcoming and open. Just a great, great time, I strongly recommend it, I know I had fun, and I am sure the kids had a blast as well. Another orienteering meet is definitely on the schedule for WTAFC, for sure. And next time some of us have to attempt all three sprint courses, to get in the running for combined overall champion!!

Here are some pictures I tried to take during the meet. I didn't take very many, as I raced both the beginner course and the first intermediate course.

(And a huge shout-out to Christoph, the meet director. He took a big chunk of time out of his busy day to explain to all of us how to actually orienteer. Imagine if a track meet director had to take 1/2 hour before the meet to explain to random kids how to hurdle? Not happening, right? Well, the RMOC took excellent care of us. We weren't the fastest learners, but he was very patient and accommodating, as were all the members of the RMOC. Thanks again!)


Here is the parking lot before the race started. There really is no "official" start. You just go up to the line, they write down your staring time, and when you finish, they write down your finishing time and do some math. It makes for a real easy, non-stressful start experience.


This was the starting line, start at the tree, end at the tree. Since there were four or five different courses, runners took off in every direction. Once you sign up for a certain course, the guy in the chair gives you a map with all the flags marked on it, and off you go!!


Derek and Steven after Derek just set a blazing time on the intermediate course of 18 minutes. (Check official results here.) I was right behind him in about 24 minutes, but it took a while for Derek and Ryan to come in. :)


The ladies did the intermediate course as a team, which is totally cool to do, and they had a few "navigational problems". But, they finished respectably and had a fun time doing it!



Here are the ladies. When they reached the finish line, the crowd yells "Finisher!", and you hand in your punch card (that proves you made it to all the checkpoints).The volunteer writes down the official finishing time, and you are done your race. The cool thing is, many people race one course, rest up for 20 minutes or so, the then try another course. You can do as many courses as many times as you like, and each time, it just gets more and more natural. What a great way to run fast and think fast, it is such a great sport!!!


SEP

Weekly Schedule

This week's (July 21) schedule is going to be a little different than what we have become accustomed to this summer. Red Rocks as usual on Tuesday morning, make sure to hydrate more than enough, but after that it changes. Thursday night will be on your own, as my parents are coming into town that evening. I want the members of the WTAFC to do the following:

15 minute warm-up w/ strides and form drills
20 x 200 m dashes at R pace (1 min rest in-between)
15 minute cool down and stretch

I suggest you get together with athletes of similar ability level to do these.

Please do not do the first ten super fast, then the last ten super slow. Aim for consistency, make the number of intervals you do be the stressor, not the speed of the intervals. (Which means, if you want to do 25, go for it!)

Below are the speeds each athlete should be aiming for:

Alex- 34 sec (based on your race in Wisconsin)
Derek-37
Cabbage & Abbey-38
Company-39
Jake & Tyler-40
Josh, Ryan & Trey-42
Kelli & Patches - 43
Katelyn, Mel &Caroline - 44 sec

As for this Saturday, it is still up in the air. Like I said, my parents will be in town, so I don't know exactly what is going on that morning. Give me a few days to figure everything out, and I will let you know!

SEP

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Jumble of Thoughts

So, the Italian kid Ricardo Ricco, got kicked out of the tour this morning, for using a new syntehtic EPO. Instead of getting shots two-three times a week, you only need one or two a month. Pretty amazing drug, if you're anemic and a legitimate doctor prescribes it for you! Cheater. Everyone (especially my brother) says the Tour is dirty, but they really are just the sport with the best doping controls, so they are going to catch more athletes than other sports. And, Ricco's entire team, Saunier Duval, withdrew after they found out about their rider. Imagine if the entire Denver Broncos withdrew from their season is one player got busted for cheating? That would never happen, but it happens in cycling. Then there is Team Astana. They were not allowed to start in the TdF because they cheated last year? Even though that this years team is filled with guys who have never been caught cheating, who have passed all drug tests, and who contain the defending tour champ, arguably the best American cyclist and riders who have won countless other races around the world. But because they wearing the jersey of a team who got busted a year ago, the Tour did not invite them to race. Unreal, just unreal!!!

Back to track, after my Tour rant... tonight we are going to do a really hard track work-out. Bring some fast shoes, bring lots of water, it is going to be a long, hard work-out. Be prepared, both physically and mentally. I want to do lots of 500 m intervals and 1000 m intervals, with little rest. Should be fun, as I will be running around all over the place with ya! Plus, I think we will have some special guests tonight.

Today is really the last opportunity to sign up for the Orienteering race on Saturday. We have a lot of kids already signed up, but I am hoping we can get some more. There will be no normal Saturday practice, we will be attending that race instead. (I am really looking forward to racing!) If you have any questions, or concerns, shoot me an email, and we can figure everything out.

Here is the link to sign up:

Orienteering pre-registration

Here is the link to my post with all the details:

Orienteering explanation

See you all tonight at seven!

Coach Sep

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Hydration and why it is very important.

With the summer only getting hotter, July and August are the hottest months of the year here, it is very important that you are properly hydrated if you are to participate in any physical activity. Especially the strenuous physical activity that is demanded of high end track athletes.

I did a little research and discovered some interesting facts. Your muscular tissue is 75% water. In other words, once you start to get dehydrated, your muscles are feeling it big time. Average sedentary humans need about 2.5 liters of water a day. However, athletes working out at 70% of their VOmax for two hours (a normal Saturday workout) need 6-7 liters of water!! Just to take care of the fluid loss from that individual workout! Wow! Dehydration not only leads to decreased athletic performance, it can lead to some serious health issues. We don't want to go down that road.

Coach Monfre preached this in middle school, and it bears repeating here. You cannot hydrate yourself the day of your event. Proper hydration is something that must be a lifestyle choice. You need to be super hydrated all the time! Even on days where you are not working out, you need to be hydrated. You need to be properly hydrated on vacation, in school, before long runs, after interval sessions, all day you should be sipping some water to replace the water you lose due to heat and exercise!

Water vs sports drinks, whatever your tongue is a fan of, drink it. The great thing about hydration is that water in this country is easily accessible, and no matter what the media says, overhyrdataion (hyponatremia) is not going to happen to you unless you are drinking so much you are in the bathroom every two minutes. (Hyponatremia is an imbalance of sodium and water in your body. Anyone reading this blog should be working out enough to keep that balance in check.)

So, start drinking some water, start getting ready for tomorrow night, and stay hydrated!!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

MVP

I called it, I called it!

JD Drew for MVP, I called it 45 minutes ago.

Atta boy JD Spew! Nice job!!

Good night, good night, good night!

SEP

Close

Wow, that was CLOSE at the plate! I thought he was out! But I am glad it is over. As my wise wife says, "tie goes to the runner." Although replays show he was safe. So Tito does not have to wear his uniform anymore. Which is nice, as he hates wearing the uni, he likes the windbreaker pullover. I have nevr seen him in a uni for that long. Great f-in, game, great game. Even though it was 4:50 long.

How many people witnessed that in person, maybe 300 were still left in Yankee stadium. Blow that rat-hole up!! Yankees suck! But, in ten years, you will get 30,000 NY morons saying they were there, they were there. Just like Woodstock. I really hate Yankees fans. (With one expception.)

SEP

P.S. Good night.

JD Spew

JD Spew is going to end it with a game winning home run right now, I can feel it.

In other news, Paul "Fitzy"Fitzgerald is coming to Denver Sunday night, anyone up for meeting him?

SEP

Me and Otis


This is me and Otis watching poor Dan Uggla strike out.

I love this guy, I am getting a Marlins jersey!!!

On and on

Is Scott Kazmir coming out for the top of the 15th? To be honest, I hope so. He is young, he can handle it. Come on Tito, throw him out there, put some more innings in his arm, it might come in handy at the end of the regular season.

Although, to be honest, I can't remember the last time I watched an entire 15 inning game. It looks like the players are getting bored to me. I mean, I haven't seen Manny for 3 hours. Or A-Rod. Must be doing some kaballah thing.

See you in the bottom of the inning!

SEP

14th???

Bottom of the 14th, oy ve!

The AL HAS to score right now and end this, Sherrill can't go much more. The only guy we have left is Scotty Kazmir, and Tito does not want to burn him out, he threw 104 pitches on Sunday! That would be unsportsmanlike. :)

Should be interesting!

SEP

More All Star Thoughts

Top of the 14th, they are still going! What a game! It is odd that all the real "All-Stars" are out of the game and you have players like Ian Kinsler and Miguel Tejada deciding the game? Where's Manny, where's Chipper? It's just odd.

Go AL!

SEP

P.S. JD Drew for MVP!!!

All Star Attendance

It's the bottom of the 13th, tie game, 1:00 eastern time, and the bottom deck of Yankee Stadium is EMPTY! Says a lot about those diehard Yankee fans, doesn't it?

SEP

P.S. Poor Dan Uggla, he is going to be the scapegoat tonight. And he is from Schenectady, that sucks.

Red Rocks in Pictures

Our day at Red Rocks, in pictures

Warming up in the parking lot.


Stretching on the main stage.


Active warm-up on the side stairs.


Getting ready for the big stairs.


Great technique from Jake!!


Tyler driving his back thigh through, perfect!


Kelli and Katelyn teaming up.

Derek and Coach Hawk at the top, 279 stairs later!

July 15th Red Rocks

Wow! An eventful day at Red Rocks, to say the least. First and foremost, I know all of you are concerned about Trey, and that is what makes this team so great. I know you all truly care about each other, and that makes this group of kids such a great group of kids. Trey is totally fine, he took a wild and crazy ride back to Parker, and they diagnosed him as a little dehydrated and overtired. He told me he is going to rest up for a couple of days and he will be ready to go on Thursday! Excellent. We can't wait to have him back.

Here is today's data from the Red Rocks main stair session. We even had some kids, (Tyler, Derek, Tyler) do some extra stairs during the the down time. And, the girls all did two sets of jail-breakers, congratulations! Plus, we had two alums (Kelsey & Patrick) show up early to do the work on their own time. Awesome! Everyone who pushes themselves at Red Rocks ends up getting stronger, no matter how you finish. That's the bottom line.


1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 Set 6 Set 7 Set Total
Derek 10 20 30 40 50 60 69 279
Ryan H. 10 20 30 40 50 60 69 279
Tyler N 10 20 30 40 50 60 69 279
Tyler B. 10 20 30 40 50 60 69 279
Trey 10 20 30 40 50 60 59 269
Jake 10 20 30 40 50 60 54 264
Company 10 20 30 40 50 60 51 261
Cabbage 10 20 30 40 50 60 50 260
Ryan B. 10 20 30 40 50 53 50 253
Eric 10 20 30 40 50 50 50 250
Josh 10 20 30 40 50 48 50 248
Melanie 10 20 30 40 50 46 40 236
Kelli 10 20 30 40 40 45 44 229
Patches 10 20 30 40 50
69 219
Katelyn 10 20 30 40 35 41 42 218
Kirsten 10 20 30 40 35 40
175

Good job, as usual, hope to see you all on Thursday!

Monday, July 14, 2008

TdF

Wow,

If you did not watch the Tour de France this morning, you need to watch the replay tonight on the Vs. network. It's a classic, but killer, mountain stage, they rode up Tourmalet, then right into a mountain top finish on Hautecam. We have Christain Van deVelde, a Chicagoan, right in the thick of it, and without giving anything away, it was all the big guys throwing haymakers at each other the whole way up! Awesome!

See you on Tuesday morning for Red Rocks, and don't forget about signing up for the race this Saturday. Here is the link again.

Orienteering Race Pre-registration

Friday, July 11, 2008

Orienteering Info

That was a lot of fun last night, not only did we have great 1600 m times, speedball was a blast. It was a good number of participants, a good mix of alums and enrolled students, and we played for about 40 minutes. Good times, good times.

After the game, we talked about the orienteering race that is next Saturday, July 19th. I encourage all of you to go, I think it would be a great experience. Below is the link to pre-register. You need to pre-register by next Thursday, so they can make enough maps of the course for everyone. You can pay when you get there, but pre-registration is a must. Since we are all beginners, we will be signing up for the white/yellow beginner courses.

Registration starts at 12:30, since the race is in Woodland Park, 1.5 hours away, I suggest we meet at Lamar's Doughnuts on Lincoln at 10:00. (That gives us 1/2 hour lee-way time.) We will be doing the short beginner courses, but I still have no idea when we will be home. It should be a very fun day, though, and the links to pre-register are right here:

Pre-registration for July 19th race

Tidbits about orienteering

I am going to email the director right now, to see if he can get us a little extra help before the race in learning how to do this, we will need all the help we can get! :)

SEP

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Lots of Little Things

A day late with the most recent Red Rocks results, but here they are:


Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 Set 6 Set 7 Total
Alex 10 20 30 40 50 60 69 279
Derek 10 20 30 40 50 60 69 279
Patches 10 20 30 40 50 60 69 279
Ryan 10 20 30 40 50 60 69 279
Taylor 10 20 30 40 50 60 56 266
Tyler 10 20 30 40 50 60 51 261
Jake 10 20 30 40 50 60 50 260
Josh 10 20 30 40 50 50 50 250
Grimm 10 20 30 40 50 50 41 241
Bri 10 20 30 40 50 46 41 237
Mel 10 20 30 40 50 43 42 235
Kelli 10 20 30 40 40 40 41 221
Caroline 10 20 30 40 40 40 41 221
Katelyn 10 20 30 40 40 40 41 221
Dutton 10 20 30 40 40 40 41 221
Kirsten 10 20 30 40 40 35
175
Sep 10 20 30 40
100


I said this yesterday, but the consistency and the improvement that I am seeing week to week at these Red Rocks work-outs is astounding! Athletes are getting up and over more and more stairs, they are using better form doing it, and they still have enough energy and fortitude to do the other parts of the workouts. The girls did two sets of jailbreaks, one athlete not only got to the top, but then did the ladder the whole way down again, and we are seeing athletes getting to the top consistently week after week. This is great, and that's why I am thinking that this group is the best in the three years we have done Red Rocks. Congratulations!

And a big shout out to Coach Hawk for coming out, hopefully we see him next week!!

Next set of work-outs is Thursday night for the mile TT, to see how we have improved since that last mile TT a month ago. Then, some competitive speedball! (I am going to dominate at speedball.) Even though I have yet to change it in the weekly workouts sidebar, we will be meeting at my place on Saturday, 7:00 am, to run down to Englewood Dam and do a few Texas miles along the top of the dam. Your Texas mile times will be based off of your new mile TT time, so be ready to run fast Thursday night. No trips to Waterworld!!!

Last but not least, I am "published"! My article I wrote for Fasterskier.com can be found here. The article is about running vs. skiing training, and there are some great pics trying to illustrate what I'm talking about. Full disclosure: Fasterskier.com is a Nordic skiing website that is run by my old college roommate, Matt Voisin, and he asked me to write an article. I just hope he does not ask me for that money I owe him from senior year! :) :)

SEP

P.S. I am reading some dyestat message boards. Just be careful what you are saying on those things, your words never really go away.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Sweep :(

The Red Sox were ahead 4-1 in the seventh, and the bullpen blows it. Are we waiting for Mike Timlin to stop the bleeding? I seriously hope it has not come down to that.

Then, their comeback rally gets squashed when Lowell gets caught stealing second. Why was Lowell trying to steal second? Because it was a hit and run play, and guess who was hitting? 13-103 Jason Varitek? He has 13 hits in his last 103 at-bats? Are you kidding me? I understand he is invaluable behind the plate, when he went out with an injury in 2005, our pitching just fell apart. But 13-103? And he was up to bat at the end of the game? Tito, you have no other hitters on that bench? That is Clint Hurdle-esque!!! You gotta pinch hit for the captain in that situation, and you certainly don't put a hit and run play on.

So, Sox get swept for the seond time this year by the Rays, and now we head to NY to face the dreaded Skanks. Oy ve.

SEP

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Saturday's On Your Own Workout

Tempo runs (or cruise runs, lactate threshold development runs, anaerobic threshold runs, sustained runs, Dartmouth runs; there are many, many names for these) are crucial elements of a runner's overall training. Coaches from Daniels to Benson, Vigil to Galloway, Simmons to Wetmore, all espouse the value of continuous runs that are done at a pace you can sustain for 20-30 minutes. These are runs that get you a lot of "bang for your buck", as you can get a lot of improvement without having to do a lot of stretching, strides, speed. Just a simple run at this "comfortably hard" pace really kick starts a lot of systems in your body that let you run really fast when it counts.

We have done these before in the past, but I want to explain the reasoning behind them from a physiological point of view. I'll start at the beginning. The reason we train full-time is to teach our heart, our lungs, our muscles, our circulatory system; how to operate under conditions when our brain tells us we need to run wicked fast. When we run wicked fast, our heart beats faster, more blood is moved throughout our body, we breathe faster and harder; everything, including our rate of movement, speeds up. We need to teach our body to handle all of those things.

When our system speeds up, it consumes fuel (oxygen and food) and creates waste (lactic acid). This waste is what causes the "burn" to occur in our muscles when we are running fast. (Or when we use up all our fuel, we feel the dreaded "bonk.") The best athletes in the world (Phelps, Armstrong, Seppala) have trained their internal systems in such a way so they use fuel very efficiently and they can get rid of all the waste before it affects them negatively.

So, all the intervals, all the long runs, all the stretching, everything we do in training is designed to help our bodies become better at efficiently using fuel and getting rid of lactic acid. Simple, huh? :)

Where do tempo runs come in to all of this? Well, everyone has a point where you body goes from running aerobically to running anaerobically. In other words, there is a speed, (called your anaerobic threshold, or AT), and once you get faster than that speed, your body goes from being able to get rid of the waste before you feel it (aerobic), to getting overwhelmed by all the waste and it builds up to painful proportions(anaerobic). Now remember, this speed is different for everyone. The best athletes in the state of Colorado, this speed might be 5 minute miles. They can run miles at 5:05 pace without ever feeling the lactic acid burn. But once they run 4:55 miles, they start to feel that burn. In other runners who are just beginning, that pace might be 10:00 miles. Same concepts apply. That beginner runner could run 11:00 miles for a long time, but once they dip into 9:30 miles, they are hurting.

What tempo runs do, is they help you move that speed to faster times. Running tempo runs at a speed just below your AT speed allows your body to learn to get rid of waste faster and to use fuel better. Over time, your anaerobic threshold speed goes from 6 minute mile pace to 5:45 pace. The to 5:30 pace. Once you have achieved a faster AT speed, you can do you intervals at a faster pace. And we all know what faster intervals mean, faster race times. And that's the ultimate goal, isn't it? The secret is not doing your tempo runs at a pace faster than your AT pace. That's a mistake I have seen lots and lots of runners make. Patience is the key, you can't force or rush things.

So, on Saturday, I want all of the athletes reading this to do a 20-25 minute tempo run at your AT pace. Warm-up for 15 minutes or so with some easy jogging, then run 20-25 minutes at your anaerobic threshold pace, a pace that is comfortably hard. AT pace is similar to what we do on Texas Run days, of which the last one was when we ran around the tennis courts on that Saturday twoweeks ago. Another way to look at it is this is a pace you could race at for 45-50 minutes. But, only go for 20-25 minutes. Then, 15 minutes of easy jogging cool down, some stretching, and you are done. Remember, don't go faster, go about 85% of your race pace. Run on soft surfaces, grass, dirt, trails, and try to stay off the pavement. By doing these types of work-outs regularly, we can get into faster intervals sooner in the season.

So, run smart, run alert, run with great form, and listen to your body. Remember, patience is key, just run at your pace and the benefits will come! See you Thursday night, then see you Tuesday morning!

Red Sox Swoon

So, the Sox have lost the first two to the (I can't believe I am typing this) "division leading Tampa Bay Rays." Seriously? I really find that hard to swallow. The Rays pitching staff has shut down the tepid Red Sox offense, maybe the loss of Big Papi is finally rearing it's ugly head. Manny is not hitting well, he's flipping out in a very un-like Manny manner; Varitek is in a 3-34 slump; and JD Drew is slowing down as well.

Come on Sox, it's the freakin' Rays! You gotta be able to salvage one game out of this series! Dice-K is tonight, the domes in Japan are a lot like Tropicana Field, so it will be like he is back in Okinawa pitching in the Japanese League. Maybe that's what the team needs, some Dice-K magic.

Go Sox!!

SEP

P.S. Kelli, is this guy your cousin? I didn't know he played for the Washington Nationals.

Best Red Rocks in Two Years!

The title says it all, this was the most productive Red Rocks training session we have had in two years. All the men made it to the top, Alex even went back down the ladder to get a total of 489 total steps. The women all did better than they have previously, with all of them getting over 210 steps. We even did jailbreaks afterwards, and everyone did very well at those. It doesn't need to be spelled out, but great job yesterday! Red Rocks is a workout that build explosive muscle, combining steep hill work and speed. It is crucial that we take advantage of thee opportunity to train there, and we certainly did that yesterday, Again, congratulations, great job!

Red Rocks July 1








Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 Set 6 Set 7 Total
Alex 10 20 30 40 50 60 69 279
Derek 10 20 30 40 50 60 69 279
Cabbage 10 20 30 40 50 60 69 279
Trey 10 20 30 40 50 60 69 279
Company 10 20 30 40 50 60 69 279
Patches 10 20 30 40 50 60 69 279
Ryan 10 20 30 40 50 60 69 279
Kevin 10 20 30 40 50 60 69 279
Kelli 10 20 30 40 40 40 41 221
Caroline 10 20 30 40 37 33 40 210
Kateyln 10 20 30 40 37 33 40 210
Sep 10 20 30 40 50
150


Thursday night, intervals at CHS at 7:00 sharp. We are going to do something similar to what we did last week, but with less rest and differing interval lengths. See you then.

The Backyard







Beth and I bought this house in November of 2005, and we have been working very diligently on it (inside and out) ever since then. Yesterday, Frank and Mike helped me install some edging in the backyard, and I was pleased at how good it looked. But, when I was going through some old pictures, I found a few from the Yankee Swap party the track team held in April of 2006. I couldn't believe how bad it looked back then, I barely recognized it. The picture with the golf flag is one I took today, in June of 2008. 26 months makes a huge difference, huh?