Mid-Week Musings

We are working very hard in practice this week. A meet on Monday, very difficult intervals on Tuesday, and almost as difficult intervals this Wednesday afternoon. If your legs feel dead, you are doing it correctly! Make sure to do all the little things when you get home, such as stretch, ice, eat well, stay hydrated, etc. etc. This is tough training, but it is all in the master plan. Keep working hard every day, and the results will come, you juct need to believe in it! Like Laster used to say, half the plan is sticking to it!

We are heading up North again this weekend, to Mountain Range HS, which is a little bit

west off exit 223, for the Mustang Invite. I will have varsity line-ups up on Thursday, as I want to see how everyone does in the JV meet today before I set line-ups. The meet schedule is to the right of this post, but it is essentially a rolling schedule, and you should not pay too much attention to the times listed.

Weather looks good for the rest of the week, let's take advantage of it! We already have a couple of athletes ranked in the top ten for their respective events, but a lot can change between now and the end of the season. We need to keep working hard, taking full advantage of every work-out, and doing the little things to get us prepared for the work-outs and the races.

See you all this afternoon!

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Old, but Important News

So, I get this email from UNH, it's the press release about the ski team exploits at the National Ski Championships in Steamboat a couple weeks ago. Here is the paragraph that caught my eye, emphasis mine.

Dylan McGuffin, who garnered All-EISA First Team accolades earlier this month, raced to 10th place in the men's 10K classic race to earn All-America honors. He completed the course in 30 minutes, 17.9 seconds. The most recent UNH Nordic skier to garner All-America recognition was Chris Wolski in 2000.

I got major shivers when I read that, that is so freakin' cool!

Still got you in our hearts Chris!

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Ft. Collins Meet Schedule

As far as I know, the meet schedule will revert to a typical rolling schedule, with field events starting at 10:30, and track events starting at eleven.

That makes for a very long day, picture a normal Saturday track meet starting two hours later. Uff-da!

Please see the sidebar to figure out when you will be racing, but remember, we have not been given any start times, so you need to pay attention to the events on the track to figure out when you are racing!

See you all tomorrow morning bright and early in the athletic hallway!

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EDIT: Coach Hawk sent me a "time" schedule. However, these times are tentative at best, please use the system of watching the track to see whn you should start warming up.

More Meet Postponement Details

Good morning,

As I am sure most of you know, the meet for tomorrow has been pushed back to Monday, March 29th. While I disagree with this, Ft. Collins has spring break this upcoming week, so it was an easy choice for them.

We are leaving the school at 8:00 am, we will be missing a full day of school.

It is the athletes responsibility to get to school early, find as many of you teachers as you can, and get as much of the work you are going to miss. This is a long meet, with two long bus rides on either end, so you will have plenty of time to do any school work.

We will be back very late, if the meet starts at 10:30 am, I can see us finishing under the lights.

Bring plenty of food, water and clothes. The weather is forecast to be much nicer than Saturday, but you never can tell.

We can see this as an obstacle, or as Coach Whitenack mentioned, an opportunity. We get a chance to get one more practice in, we will be running under better conditions, and we will be with high quality competition. We will have practice tomorrow at my house, 8:30, for a long run with some tempo intervals.

See you all in a couple of hours!

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Ft. Collins Meet Postponed

The meet this Saturday is postponed to Monday. We are attending, and are leaving at 8:00. If you cannot miss that day of school, you need to let the coaches know ASAP. The Ft. Collins coaches are postponing it because of weather concerns. Any questions, please email me.

The weather here in Denver for Saturday looks good enough to practice. We will be practicing in DTC, so meet at my house at 8:30, ready to go for a long run with some hill work. And of course, Einstein's afterwards! Everyone is invited!

See you all tomorrow at 9:00 for practice as scheduled.

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10 km Fundraiser

Every year, CHS Track & Field does a fundraiser during the season. Following tradition, we are doing the 10 km fundraiser. This is a great moneymaker for our program if each athlete does their part. The task is pretty simple, think of ten people to whom you could ask for a donation. Fill out their addresses on an envelope, and bring it back to the coaching staff by April 6th. Then, later in the season, we will run a 10 km relay race to justify the donations. That's all the athletes have to do, the coaches will do the rest. Simple, huh?

This fundraiser is important, because it allows us to get new equipment every year, to have the best looking uniforms and gear in the state. It allows us to purchase all of the recovery and nutritional supplements we provide. We also use this money to buy training and competition shoes for athletes who need them to preform at their highest level. In fact, 0% of this money goes to the coaches or the administration, it all goes back to the athlete.

Coach Hawk and I spent a good portion of tonight prepping the packets, and when we hand them out on Monday, please do your part and fill out the envelopes. We will explain in greater details how all this works, but it is a very important part of the T & F season. Bottom line is, this is a simple task for you to complete, and we hope that you will give back to the program that has given a lot to you by taking care of this.

Thanks!

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Three Minute Eggs

Today for practice, we did our traditional spring break Sierra MS workout, three minute eggs. We did 13 of them this year, through snow that was over 18 inches deep in some places! I was very psyched to see 15 kids at practice today, it is days like today that we get a leg up on the competition. Congrats to all who worked hard today, you all did a great job. Now, onto the fotografias!

Warming up in the parking lot

Water bottle shelf

Awaiting the start of the first interval

Heading into the first uphill with Otis the pace dog

Purdue and Vargo striding out the flats

The minivan pilot finishing fast

Vargo and Burt coming down the finishing straight

Rich, Bacovin and Young headed towards the finish

Awaiting the start of the the second to last one

Epic workout today, I was very pleased with everyone's effort. Good job all around!

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Ft. Collins Runners Roost Line-Ups

Here are the line-ups, with start times, for the meet this Saturday up in Ft. Collins. Unfortunately, we are only allowed two entries per open event, so there are some deserving kids who will not be going this weekend. Weather looks like we might get a little bit of snow, and it will be cold (it always is cold in Ft. Collins at this meet) so make sure you bring plenty of layers. The bus will be leaving super-early, and getting back super-late, so be prepared for a long day of racing fast!

Check back later for pics of the practice today, epic!

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EDIT: Please add S. Bill and R. Reasoner to the boys High Jump. Late additions are good additions!

Distance Spring Break Practice

The distance team Spring Break practice schedule is as follows:

Sunday (3/21): Easy Recovery Run, On Your Own, 30-45 min

Monday (3/22): Easy Aerobic Run, On Your Own, 60-75 min

Tuesday (3/23): Captain's Practice, Meet at Bluffs @ 10:00 am, 60 min Fartlek w/Watches

Wednesday (3/24): Coaches Practice, Meet at Sierra MS @ 2:00 pm, Three Minute Eggs

Thursday (3/25): Coaches Practice, Meet at Chaparral HS @ 9:00 am, Easy Aerobic Run

Friday (3/26): Coaches Practice, Meet at Chaparral HS @ 9:00 am, Slingshots, Hand-offs, Starting Blocks

Saturday (3/27): Runner's Roost Invite @ Ft. Collins, Meet at Chaparral EARLY!

We have family coming into town the first part of Spring Break, so I will be unable to practice. However, the captains will have the watches and the workouts available on Tuesday, and I will be ready to go Wednesday afternoon. Please communicate with me if you are not going to be at any of these practices.

Spring break is where a lot of athletes either slack off and do not improve, or work hard and improve immensely. Even if you are not in town, make sure you are the second type of athlete, the one who works hard, gets plenty of rest, eats well, stays hydrated, and gets faster. The stretch run of the season is beginning, we need to be firing on all cylinders!

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Panther Invite Postponed/Canceled

The track meet at Harrison has been pushed back due to freezing ice on the track to the Tuesday after Spring Break. We will not be attending the make-up meet, so for all intents and purposes, Saturday's (3/20) track meet is canceled.

Athletes who would have attended will still receive varsity letter credit.

It looks like there might not be after school activities today (3/19). If that is the case, enjoy your day off by doing some neighborhood driveway shoveling. Good exercise and good karma, it's a win-win situation!

Tomorrow we will not meet as a team. My gamble of practicing hard on Thursday paid off, so Saturday should be a highly active rest day. In other words, go sledding, go cross-country skiing, go snowshoeing, go for a fun bushwhacking run. I have no idea what the weather will be, so I do not want to make plans for everyone to drive and meet somewhere. I trust that you will find 90 minutes of activity to do in this wonderful state of ours. Some ideas: XC ski on a golf course, snowshoe in Castlewood Canyon, or go for a nice easy run on the trails in Cherry Creek State Park. Get out, get active, enjoy the rest day, but do not sit on the couch and play video games. Use this day off to refresh your running mojo and have fun with it!

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Panther Invite Distance Line-Ups

Here are the line-ups for the Panther Invite for the distance kids. These are pretty much set in stone, however we are still working on trying o figure out some of the sprinter relays.

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Thursday JV Meet Line-Ups

Our JV meet this week is Thursday, not Friday, at 3:00 at D.C. Stadium in Castle Rock.
Here are the race line-ups. Let's see some more breaking of early season goals!!!

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Panther Invite Track Line-Ups

100 G: Grimm, Hughes

100 B: Ray, T.B.D.

200 G: Edginton, Yeager

200 B: Batt, Ray

400 G: Larsen, Yeager

400 B: Bills

800 G: Hine, Wojan

800 B: Burt, Bacovin

1600 G: Barringer, Hine

1600 B: Heitmier, Richards

3200 G: Heard, Nielsen

3200 B: Lake, Vargo

4 x 100 G: Sant/Vazquez/Hughes/Grimm

4 x 100 B: T.B.D.

4 x 200 G: Sant/Vazquez/Edginton/Wojan

4 x 200 B: Barringer/Whipple/Purdue/Petty

4 x 400 G: Scratch

4 x 400 B: Barringer/Bull/Petty/Batt

4 x 800 G: Heard/Mansfield/Neilsen/Barringer

4 x 800 B: Burt/Bills/Bull/Purdue

Check back later tonight for any updates in the 100 or the 4 x 100.

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Panther Invite Information

Our varsity meet this Saturday is at Harrison HS, here is the school webpage, for directions and such. The bus will be leaving CHS very early, well before seven!

We also have the meet schedule, but as usual, the directors rarely stick to these things. Events could be early, events could be late, gotta be ready for anything!

Also, the weather looks good, but it is early in the week, and forecasts can change.

"Mostly sunny. Slight chance of showers. Highs 44 to 51. Chance of precipitation 10 percent."

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Sunday Evening Thoughts

That is my data sheet from Saturday's meet at Mullen. More complete data can be found here, via Alan Versaw's MileSplit.com site.

Again, I am very pleased with how everyone is improving and running such fast times this early in the year. That is really, really awesome.

Well, between the clock-time change, an extra long meet yesterday, and a ton of number crunching, I am exhausted Time to get some sleep. See everyone this weekend in the Springs, or at the JV meet Thursday at DC stadium!

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Meet Highlights

Some distance-biased highlights from the meet today!

In no particular order of importance:

Katelyn in a 5:29 mile

Ryan in a 4:45 mile

Keagan in a 9:59 two mile

Nathan in two strong 4 x 200 and 4 x 400 legs

Patches in a 54 quarter mile

Wow, I can't wait to crunch the data and see how we have improved!

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ThunderRidge Varsity Line-Ups

The second meet of the season, we traditionally mix things up in terms of events and athletes. The coaching staff wants to get a clear picture of what an athlete can do, so we will throw them into races they are not used to running. This gives us a more complete picture of the athlete's fitness, ability and weaknesses, so we can design their training in the most efficient way possible. With a home JV meet on Friday, and a local varsity meet on Saturday, I bet we will get a lot of support from the hometown fans! See you all this weekend!

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ThunderRidge Invite Schedule

Our next varsity meet is the ThunderRidge Invite, held at Mullen HS this Saturday. Here is the published schedule given to us by Coach Reyes, who is also the meet director. He runs a pretty tight meet, so I would guess we will stay on schedule pretty well.

JV Meet Line-Ups

Here are the JV line-ups for this Friday at CHS. Just like the varsity meet, kids are running different events so the coaching staff can get a complete picture of their racing ability. Hope we get a big crowd to cheer them on! If I have made any mistakes, please let me know at practice, I know the meet director and things can get fixed easily!

League Relay Distance Results

Here are the distance kids results from League Relays on Saturday the 6th. Girls came in first overall, boys were thought to be second, but were actually a couple points back in third. Two great results!

League Relays Weather

Below is the forecast for Littleton HS for Saturday, March 6th.

Even though the forecast looks favorable, bring plenty of warm clothes, just in case our Colorado weather turns nasty without warning.

However, it does look like a great day for running fast!

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2010 JV Meet Schedule

Today is our first JV meet! It is down at Ponderosa HS, and we usually do pretty well at these meets. Hopefully that trend continues this year. Coaches Whitenack and Maroney are in charge, the other coaches will be down after the varsity practices are done. For those of you that are interested, here is the complete JV meet schedule for 2010, with the coaches in attendance.

March 5th-Ponderosa HS-Whitenack & Maroney

March 12th-Chaparral HS-All

March 18th-Douglas County HS-Neale & Bowman

March 31st-Regis HS-Hawk & Whitenack

April 9th-Chaparral HS-All

April 16th-Rangeview HS-Maroney & Seppala

April 23rd-Gateway HS-Hawk & Neale

April 28th-Ponderosa HS-Maroney & Whitenack

May 7th-Heritage HS-Neale & Seppala

Of course, all of these dates are subject to change, due to weather or other extenuating circumstances. If/when they do change, I will try to update as soon as I can on this blog.

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More League Relays Information

Below are the results form the jump-offs and throw-offs this week. These athletes will be competing in the field events at the League Relays.

Girls Discus

Costin, Karmac, Maisen, Krepinski

Girls Shot Put

Costin, Maisen, Karmac, Krepinski

Boys Shot Put

Austin, Callahan, Maisen, Bowman

Boys Discus

Austin, Maisen, Callahan, Bowman

Girls Long Jump

Follett, Hughes, Thorpe, Cottingham

Girls Triple Jump

Follett, Lindell, Cottingham, Barringer

Boys Long Jump

Whipple, McHenry, D. Miller, Reasoner

Boys Triple Jump

S. Bills, Helmuth, Thrasher, J. Bills

Girls High Jump

Follett, Grimm, Hughes, Lee

Boys High Jump

Brandes, Bills, Reasoner, Thrasher

Girls Pole Vault

T.B.D.

Boys Pole Vault

T.B.D.

Remember, uniform hand-out for varsity athletes it Friday, after practice. All other athletes get their uniforms today!

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League Relays Information.

Below is some information for the League Relay Meet. The schedule is pretty set in stone, but the track line-ups are subject to change (as always).

The field line-ups are still being determined, check back later this week for that info!

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