Wolverine Racing & Training

Athlete Groupings

2012-01-31T09:59:00.000-07:00

This winter we have a very diverse group of athletes training with us. We have some pure sprinters, we have some pure two milers, and we have everyone in-between. The training ages of all of these athletes is quite broad as well. Actual age does not factor in here, training age is what is important. In other words, I don't care what grade you are in, I care about how many miles you have gotten under your legs. Some kids have been running consistently for over five years. (Which is a long time for HS kids!) Others have just started. Which presents some unique challenges that we are going to address starting this week.

We'll see how my new athlete groupings of SPRINT, SPRINT/DISTANCE and DISTANCE work out. My biggest fear is overtraining, but I think I have taken into account all of the important factors and come up with some ideas to prevent that. My goal with this is to maximize the results of the athletes involved, to train them as precisely as possible with limited resources. I'll let you know how it turns out at League Relays.

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Collegiate News

2012-01-29T07:01:00.001-07:00

Quick winter track alum news before my daughter wakes up for the day:

Keegan Vargo from Western State ran a 9:14 3k
Nate Purdue at Ft. Hays ran a 4:36 mile
Ryan Bull from Colorado School of Mines ran a 2:06 800 m
Steven Busch from Drury ran a 8:41 3k, good for third place with perfect splits of 35 seconds
Katelyn Wojan led the Drury Distance Medley Team to a third place
Alex Balsiger helped Colorado State to an overall team victory with his individual victory in the 800 m, running a 1:52!

Very, very impressive, especially for early season on an indooor track! I am pretty proud of all those results!

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P.S. High school kids reading this, I know for a fact that all the above atheltes religiously did their long runs! Wink, wink.

Long Run Benefits

2012-01-27T11:04:00.000-07:00

Many, many times have I extolled the virtue of long runs. The physiological and psychological benefits can be found in one of my older posts, entitled On The Importance of LSD. Check it out, it's has sound research on why long slow distance is important.

However, times and ideas change, and if there was one thing I could add to that post, it would be this. Long slow running, where the distance tires you out, not the speed; makes you a tougher athlete. One that can wake up super-early in the morning and be ready to compete. One who works through the initial aches & pains of loosening up without getting discouraged or losing confidence. One who does not mind exercising for over an hour, and therefore does not mind a long 12 hour track meet. One who has the mindset that a goal must be reached, and nothing will stop them from reaching it.

Racing well is not just physical task, it is a mental one too, and long slow distance runs, where you deplete all your glycogen reserves, are a crucial aspect to being fast. Some people disagree with me, but there are no such things as "junk miles". Any type of running is better than no running, so make that your goal for this weekend! Lots of time spent running!

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Missing Practice

2012-01-26T08:26:00.001-07:00

Even though I missed practice yesterday, I have heard from multiple athletes that everything went really well. It was a little windy, but athletes fought through the microscopic moving air molecules, and still hit their pace times consistently. I assume, even with the cube closed, the simple leg circuits went well too. Remember, speed is important, but without strength, speed will not hold up. But, you guys were awesome, working hard and making the time training productive is really a sign of a mature team. Even though we are young in age, times like this show high levels of experience and maturity and that really bodes well for the upcoming season.

With intervals yesterday, a nice easy long run today is crucial, with a short recovery run Friday and a quality overdistance run on Saturday/Sunday. And by overdistance, most of you should be close to a 90 minute run. The weather looks good for Saturday, so get out there bright & early and get those miles in.

Unfortunately, I am going to have to miss Monday's practice as well. I know, I know, I talk about commitment, and I miss two practices in a row. But my excuse is good, Beth and I have a baby appointment at the midwifery, as Thing2 is due at the end of Spring Break.

What that means in the long run, is I will be relying on all you guys to continue being mature, being responsible and taking ownership of your training. You know me, I was the the State Meet the day Chloe was born, so I will do my best to be there for you as much as humanly possible. But, Chloe cannot fend for herself just yet, and you guys can, so she gets first dibs. There will be days when I am there late, when I have to leave early, or when I am not there at all. But, I promise I will be in constant contact with all of you, I will always have training plans, race strategy and critical analysis for you, even from afar, and I promise this will not negatively affect your championship season. It is just a bump in the road early in the season.

So, for Monday's practice, it will be on your own, and it is another Dartmouth Run. Head out a a decent pace for 20-30 minutes in one direction, then turn around and push it back in. We're looking for negative splits, a faster "back" than the "out". When you finish, do the simple leg circuit routine. Wednesday will be intervals, maybe a kenyan run, or perhaps some type of ladder workout, but it will be a fast day, just like yesterday.

Question, comments, observations? Shoot me a text!

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EDIT: I forgot to mention, after your Dartmouth Run, head back to the Grandview Hill, (or a similar long not-too-steep hill) and please do 7 wind sprints, with the last one being as hard as you can go. And since this Dartmouth Run did not involve any strength work, you will need to do a push-up pyramid after the wind sprints. This can be done at home, but since we are entering into February, we are going to start at 15, not 10. Added difficulty for added strength. Do not neglect your strength!

CSU Rams

2012-01-19T12:22:00.002-07:00

We got some fast alumni running through the winter season right now, and one of the fastest is a State Champ named Alex Balsiger.

Click this caption for the original article

He ran the Air Force indoor meet last weekend, winning the open 800 in a 1:53.06, which is wicked fast. I need him to send me some facebook pics so I can show all of you guys how to "get out" in an 800 race.

Yay Alex!

EDIT: And this past weekend in New Mexico, Alex ran negative splits to drop a 4:12 1600 for the win. Hey Alex, when you gonna start racing slow and stop taking over my blog?? :) :)

Hard Workout

2012-01-18T18:02:00.002-07:00

Great job today on the VO2 max intervals. Everyone ran hard, some people hit the times, some did not, but everyone put in a stellar effort, which is great to see this early in the season.

Awesome job on the 200's. That was a guts workout, to see who had the guts to push themselves, and I was very pelased to see that a lot of athletes had a lot of guts. Great job!

Gulo gulo T-shirts. I have a lot of leftovers. If you have not recieved one, see me at Sierra or at practice on Monday. You have earned one, you deserve it!

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Monday Workout

2012-01-15T13:10:00.001-07:00

With no school on Monday, we will not have an official practice. That's OK, as the practice that was scheduled is easy to do on your own. I call them "Dartmouth Runs", after the urban legend of the Dartmouth XC team "kidnapping" an unsuspecting freshman athelete in the middle of the night, throwing him in the back of a truck blindfolded, then dropping him off miles from school. He has to run back to campus in the early morning light, and the last few miles were always faster than the first. Now, this is an urban legend, there is no truth to it, but imagine being in a place you have never really been before, a college campus the first few weeks. You get absconded, and when the blindfold is removed, your last sight is a car of upperclassmen driving off into the sunrise. I would run pretty fast too, expecially in the wilds of central NH!

For tomorrow's Dartmouth Runs, there will be no abducting, no blindfolding, no breaking of laws. I just want you to do an out-and-back, at least three miles total, with the "back" being faster than the "out". Don't go super slow on the way out, but I do want you to try to pick it up on the way back. Running negative splits like this will train your gold system, as well as teach how to run faster when you are more tired, whjich is what needs to happen in a race. You can do this run on the bike trail, on some quiet roads, wherever, just make sure to run faster coming back than you did on the way out. Text me with any questions, I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Now, the Tues/Thus kids should not really try to do this. I would recommend an easy jog, with lots of form drills, some hurdle drills, and some core work. Your Tuesday practice will be tough, so we need to save your energy for that.

See some of you at gymnastics on Tuesday night, and all of you for a normal interval practice on Wednesday.

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Updated School Records

2012-01-10T08:51:00.002-07:00

Look to the left, school records (even sprinters and field events), have been updated! Check on the Important Blog Posts.

Now we just gotta update the record board in the gym!

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Sprinter Specificity

2012-01-10T08:20:00.000-07:00

We had a great coaches meeting last night, we hashed out a lot of stuff. Everything from schedules (not a lot of "away" meets) to unifrom dispersal to time trials to coaching models, we hammered out a ton of stuff.

The big thing we took care of was getting more 200/400 athlete specifc workouts incorporated into winter track practice. In years past, the focus has been on the long distance kids, as that was what the coahcing staff was comfortable doing. Now, with some new blood and some new ideas, we can focus on those middle distance kids and get them ready for the season as well.

I don't know much about sprinting, but I do know that you need ot run less, but faster, than my the long distance kids do during the pre-season phase. So, on Tuesdays and Thursday, some kids will be working on just that, running less, but running faster. I think those kids have a great base, and we can start working on some critical speedwork with them. And who knows, maybe some of the long distance kids will jump in to those workouts!

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Alpha Gymnastics

2012-01-05T14:02:00.000-07:00

Alpha Gymnastics season is upon us! One of our secret weapons to being super strong and super fast at the end of the season. Gymnastics is encouraged for all eligible athletes, as it makes you more flexible, stronger physically, and tougher mentally. It really is a great program and I can't wait to start going again.

Critical Alpha Gymnastics Information

Located at 10490 S. Progress Way in Parker Colorado

Six week session starting Jan. 10th

Tuesday and Thursday nights

8:30-9:30 pm

$110 for twelve sessions

(financial aid is available, just talk to Coach Sep)

Open to 8th, 9th and 10th graders only

All ability levels

Download the above paperwork and bring it filled out to the first night on the 10th.

Every track & field state champion Chaparral has produced has been involved in winter gymnastics, continue the tradition!

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1600 m TT Analysis & Thoughts

2012-01-05T08:51:00.000-07:00

January 1600 m TT Results (sorted by percent improvement)

The chart above is the data from yesterday's 1600 m TT, but instead of sorting it by fastest time, i sorted it by improvement. As you can see, we had three kids improve their 1600m times by over ten percent, which is an AMAZING amount for such a short race as a mile. Granted, some of the improvements from all the athletes could be due to the perfect weather conditions to run in, but I think a lot of it was due to getting in lots of miles over the past two months. The athletes did almost no formal speedwork, only a few fartleks here and there, and to show the gains that they did is a testament to the commitment to running over the last few months and especially over winter break.

January 1600 m TT Improvement Amounts

And this is just a graph that shows how many athletes made certain amounts of improvement. Not really useful, but interesting nonetheless.

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January Time Trial Results

2012-01-04T18:48:00.000-07:00

January 2012 1600m TT Results

I will comment more tomorrow morning, as I am in kind of strapped for time n ow. Real quick though, great results from this afternoon's TT. Even with no formal speed work, the majority of kids improved significantly over the last two months in their mile times. Excellent job, way to show that commitment!

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Wednesday Time Trial Start List

2012-01-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

2012 1600 TT Start List

As I mentioned in the previous blog, we will be doing a 1600 m T.T. on Wednesday. The weather looks perfect, upper 50's and no wind (knock on wood), so this will be a great chance to see how much we have all improved since the time trial in November. This will also allow me to dial in your training paces to be more specific to your current fitness levels. In January and February, we will be introducing red speed work, hills and orange intervals into the training mix, and making sure we all do them at the correct speeds is crucial to long term success.

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Break's Over

2012-01-01T19:32:00.001-07:00

I hope everyone had a great X-mas and a thrilling New Years Eve. The Seppala family had a great holiday, with family coming into town, a wonderful Christmas morning, and tons of cross country skiing up at Devils Thumb Ranch the past few days.

Petter Nothug courtesy of FasterSkier.com

One thing I tried to work on when I was skiing, other than having fun of course, was my tempo. I tried to quicken the pace of my skiing, not going faster, or working harder, but just a quicker turn-over. I found it helped my skiing quite a bit, especially when I focused on it. I went faster, using the same amount of energy. The same translates for running. Sometimes smaller steps,with your hips more under your center of gravity, can translate into more efficient running. Technique and efficiency are going to be main subjects of study and practice for the next couple of months. We will not totally re-work your running form, but we will try to make you more efficient at it.

So, I hope everyone got lots of miles and lots of strength in over break. To see how well everyone did at their training, we will conduct a mile time trial on Wednesday. Until then, do a short fartlek tomorrow, and an easy shake-out run on Tuesday. See you all after school on Wednesday!

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P.S. If you see Coach Whitenack, congratulate him on his engagement!

P.P.S. Everyone who sent me their shirt sizes, thank you! I am ordering some late gifts, hopefully they will be in soon!

Snow, finally!

2011-12-22T05:04:00.001-07:00

I went out with an alum last night, and when we got home, there was four inches of the white stuff on the ground. This morning, a little over seven, in my estimation. What does that mean for your training today? Well, nothing different, really. You get to go out for a good snow run!! Get all those hip flexors, ACLs & MCLs and extensor digitorum brevis muscles (yeah, I googled that last one) good and sore by running in the deep snow for a while. And instead of doing push-ups, go shovel your driveway, as well as the neighbors on each side of you. Seriously, skip the push-ups, do the shoveling instead. It's a great total body workout, and wonderful way to help our your neighbors. Don't let a little weather get in the way of your consistent training. Just make some small adjustments; in clothing, pace, and mode; and get the job done.

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Clean Cage

2011-12-19T16:41:00.001-07:00

I didn't get in a 40 minute fartlek today, even though I was hoping to. Instead, I spent quite a while cleaning out the cage, and organizing all of our soft goods for the upcoming season. The good news is, all the winter track kids will get to do some "Shopping" when they get back from break, as we have some extra shorts, some wind suits and some rally towels that need to be moved out.

Hopefully everyone did their lunges to warm up today, and is making sure to get lots of sleep. Medium long aerobic run tomorrow!

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Winter Break Training

2011-12-14T10:56:00.000-07:00

I want to keep it very simple for winter break training. I will not have any personal contact with anyone, so I want to keep the training simple, but effective.

We will have one speed day a week, one overdistance run a week, multiple strength sessions, as well as multiple recovery days. I suggest staying on the schedule I put out, but if you need to make slight modifications, then don't let the schedule get in your way. Just make sure to get in lots of quality miles, quality strength, and a dash of speedwork over the winter break.

All of these workouts should be preceded by a short warm-up and the lunge routine. Do these workouts early in the morning, before you have time to figure how how to procrastinate them away.

Mondays - 40 minute Fartlek off-road (trails)
Tuesdays - 45 min EZ Aerobic run w/Push-Up Pyramid
Wednesdays - 50 min Creative run w/calisthenics every ten minutes
Thursdays - 60 min EZ Aerobic run w/Push-Up Pyramid
Fridays - 20 min Recovery run
Saturdays - 75 min OverDistance run
Sundays - Off Day w/focus on Hydration, Nutrition and Relaxation (HNR)

Even though I will not be around in person, I will be reachable at all times. If you have any questions, if you start to feel injured, if you need any clarification on anything; please let me know. We can work on it via text or email or blog comments and keep you on the right track! You all have been working very hard since October, we don't want to let it waste away in the next two weeks!

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The benefits of eating those EZ peel oranges

2011-12-09T10:46:00.006-07:00

California Cuties

In addition to being loaded with vitamins and minerals, Cuties are free from fat, trans-fats, cholesterol and sodium.

Vitamin C

Cuties are a good source of vitamin C, an antioxidant that may help boost immune function1, keep skin looking youthful, enhance iron absorption and protect against diseases like cancer, high blood pressure and stroke.

Folate

Cuties contain folate, which some research shows may play a role in maintaining a healthy heart. Consuming folate during pregnancy has also been shown to reduce the risk of birth defects.

Potassium

Cuties are high in potassium, which helps the body maintain proper fluid balance, transmit nerve impulses, improve muscle contraction and maintain normal blood pressure.

Fiber

Cuties are a good source of fiber, with nearly 14% of the daily recommended amount in one serving.

(reproduced from the California Cuties website)

In college, my ski coach would leave out a box of those mini-oranges in the ski locker room every Monday. He encourage us to eat a box a day, as a team, and he would replenish them as soon as they were gone. High in vitamin C to prevent colds, full of water for a little hydration, and easy to take "to-go", they were (and are) a perfect winter snack. Eat two or three a day, eating healthy fruit is one of those little things that help you become a champion!

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Frozen Beard Run

2011-12-03T13:32:00.001-07:00

Great run this morning; super cold, windy, heavy snow that turned wet as the temp rose throughout the day tried to stop us, but 8 hardy runners forged on. By the end of the run, I ended up sporting a great ice beard, a couple of kids got frozen hands, but for the most part, everyone made it unscathed to the bagel store. It wasn't snot freezing weather, but it was close.

So, even though the roads were pretty hairy, (which is why I do not fault anyone for running at home), huge props got to Janey, Laura, Julia, Johnny, Zach, Ciara, Charlyn and Jess, for getting in seven great miles in a little over an hour up here in the DTC. Running through moderately deep snow is a great workout, it adds a hint of resistance, but it also forces you to stay balanced, to stay alert, and keep those secondary running muscles engaged to prevent slips and falls. It was a great workout, one you can look back on when it is windy in the spring and say, I ran for an hour in that, a little wind is nothing!

Great job everyone, see you all Monday, with a sparkling cleaned out cube!

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OverDistance Run

2011-12-02T09:40:00.001-07:00

We're bringing back the #chstrack Saturday morning runs in the Tech Center! Yay, these are some of my favorite workouts. Starting at my place at 830, we run up to nine miles. Sme groups run a little more, some a little less. All of us need to run for over an hour however. Running for over 60 minutes will develop those tiny little muscles, streamline the mitochondria that power those muscles, as well as make the bronchioles and aveloi in our lungs more efficient at transferring oxygen and carbon dioxide. Also, running for an hour makes the bagels taste that much better! I plan on being done with the run and the bagels by 1030 or so, if that helps with planning rides.Chloe Beth and I will see you all tomorrow!SEP

Creative Run

2011-11-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

Another great practice today. (I hope this gets to sounding like a broken record.) We ran a creative run, where you stop every ten minutes to do some type of calisthenic. I started with the whole team, but by the end, I was running with the 8th graders. The 8th graders and I ran 6.3 miles in just under an hour, which is a pretty good pace. I was psyched to feel better after yesterdays horrible run, and I was very pleased we had so many fast kids out there dropping me like a sack of potatoes!

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Tempo Ladders Details

2011-11-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

For those of you that have a Runkeeper.com account, (and it should be ALL of you), we ran about 7000 meters today. Probably about 600-800 meters in warm-up/cool-down, and a little over 6400 meters of gold pace intervals. Sure, it was in a circle over and over again, but running is running, and you should post in your training logs, be proud of it, and build from it.

I really liked how the recovery breathing went. I like the fact that we are actively recovering, focusing on our bodies, instead of just mindlessly paying attention to the watch. When you run, you have to be in charge of your body. Not the watch, not the coach, racing is something you control.

Excellent job everyone, have fun on the captains run tomorrow, and see y'all for an epic creative run on Wednesday!

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Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T19:58:00.001-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you had a great day spending time with your family and the people who love you. I also hope you got outside and got some fresh air. I got about 20 minutes of trying to mountain bike through the snow. Not very aerobic, mostly just spiking the heart rate, but it got me off the couch for a little bit. Anything to help break up the monotony of eating and watching football has got to be good for me, right?

See you all Monday, tempo ladders! Keep up the good training this weekend. I hope to get some quality Nordic ski time with Beth and Chloe!

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Tying up Loose Ends

2011-11-22T10:25:00.000-07:00

47! Wow, we have 47 athletes signed up for Wolverine Winter Track, that is fantastic! 47 kids all at practice working hard, being dedicated, achieving excellence; that is awesome! (However, only 41 have paid the appropriate fees. If you are one of the six, make your checks out to CHS T&F, or you will not practice next time out.)

I am missing USATF membership numbers and Wolverine TC paperwork from Coleman, Corrina, Devin, Emilie, Fred, James, Jaylene, Jess, Kaylee, Kristen, Mariah, Nolan, and Olivia. I am missing just a USATF membership number from Ryan. I am mssing just Wolverine TC paperwork from Gracie.

No USATF membership or no Wolverine TC paperwork, no practice, no exceptions. I gotta have that proof of insurance and emergency numbers before I can let you practice, it is for your safety first!

Please sign up for Runkeeper.com, so I can help with your training over Thanksgiving Break. The prescribed workouts are on the left sidebar, make sure to find the time to complete not only the running portion of the workout, but the lunges to warm-up with, and the push-ups to finish with. Running is important, but so is general strength at this stage of our training. General strength prevents injuries and allows us to train harder in the spring. Don't neglect general strength! It's just as crucial as running!

Have a happy Turkey Day everyone. See you next Monday!

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Online Training Log

2011-11-18T09:12:00.000-07:00

Training logs are super important, especially during the off-season. I still have handwritten training logs from my high school days, are they are a valuable resource to my training and racing. They were valuable to me to look at, but uber-valuable for my coaches to look at to see how my training was progressing and how it can be made even better!

Nowadays, however, the online training log options are spectacular. If you have a GPS watch, or you run with a smartphone, you can automatically track and upload all of your training instantly! You run with your fancy watch or phone, plug it into your computer, get online, and zoooop, up it goes into your training log!

So, your homework for this weekend, other than the running of course, is to get going on runkeeper.com. Register on that community, send an invite out to me for your street team, and use it to enhance your training and racing!

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Tempo Repeats

2011-11-16T19:37:00.002-07:00

Training in the gold zone makes you rich!

Today we did tempo intervals, in groups based upon ability levels. I was pleased that each group ran about 18 min worth in the "gold zone", which is great for pushing that lactate threshold up. Running right below the "orange zone" in a controlled comfortable manner will make you a better runner in so many ways, it will take a separate post for me to explain. So, you'll just have to trust me, today was a great workout for everyone, and you all should be happy with the important deposit of gold running you made in your training bank today.

Excellent work from everyone, but make sure to get me your paperwork and fees and such on Monday! You cannot have another great practice without all of that turned in. You need Wolverine Track Club paperwork found here, a USATF membership number found here, and a check for 50 dollars written out to CHS T&F. Thanks go out to the athletes who have already taken care of that.

Have a great captain's practice, see you all Monday!

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Great First Day!

2011-11-14T20:00:00.002-07:00

WOW! With almost 40 kids showing up to practice today, I was very excited about our first day of practice.

I was pumped to see all the returning faces, and excited to see some news ones as well. Hopefully everyone gets signed up at Runnkeeper.com and we can all become "street teammates". As I told one athlete today, we are a team, and the goal is to make you, the athlete, fast. Open communication between coach and athlete is the only way to achieve that goal. Online training logs are a great way to keep that communication open. Sign up to Runkeeper.com now, don't wait!

For practice today, we ran a 1600 m time trial today in some chilly blustery conditions, and I though all the runners did extremely well. This is our baseline data point for now, the one we will build all of our tempo intervals and Kenyan run paces from. (Yep, we're doing Kenyans, but not for a while.)

Nov. 14th, 2011 - 1600m TT - CHS Track

Remember, BRC shoe night is Tuesday night, hope to see lots of you there! And one last piece of logistical info. I got some paperwork from some kids, some checks from some kids, some USATF numbers from some kids. All of the paperwork and fees need to be in by Monday the 21st, get it down now, so you don't have to worry about it!

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Winter Running Gear

2011-11-08T08:12:00.000-07:00

I ran yesterday morning before school started, (12 hill repeats!) and it was pretty chilly outside. When I left, it was 27 F, when I got back, it was 28 F. I was very grateful that I had proper running gear, such as gloves, a thin hat, some good synthetic long underwear, and a nice running top. If it was colder, or if I was planning on not doing hills, I would have worn some long pants and warm socks.

Proper running gear is important, because throughout the winter, we will be training outside no matter what the weather. As the old Scandinavian saying goes, "there is no bad weather, only bad clothing".

So, if you have all this gear, dust it off, make sure it fits, and put it in your gym bag and leave it there. Warm clothing is no good if you leave it at your house. If you don't have this gear, don't fret, you can always get it at the Wolverine Winter Track Club Shoe Night on November 15th, at the Boulder Running Company - DTC. Shameless plug, I know, but they will have all the equipment you need at great prices. Early X-mas gift perhaps?

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Winter Track Club Registration Form -- UPDATED

2011-11-04T09:14:00.001-06:00

Above is the Winter Track Club registration form. If you can bring this, filled out completely, on the first day of practice, that would expedite things tremendously for the club. Any checks should be written out to CHS Track & Field.

Make sure to sign up to become a USATF member, it's only 20 bucks for students, and it lasts until December of 2012!

All athletes, regardless of events, should be there on the 14th. If you can't make it that specific day due to prior commitments, please see me or Coach Bowman and we can make alternative arrangements.

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Update - Our club name is WOLVERINE TRACK & FIELD and our club number is 0269.

Winter Track Shoe Night

2011-11-03T18:16:00.001-06:00

Boulder Running Company in the Denver Tech Center has graciously allowed our Winter Track Club to have a shoe night on Nov. 15th. I am pretty excited by this, as it will allow all of our athletes to get in the best shoes for winter training leading spring race season. Pete, Mike and all the big guns at BRC DTC will be there to help everyone out and get them in the best shoes for you and for running style.

With chili, lemonade and deals galore, if you need new shoes, or you need an early X-mas present, be at the store on Nov. 15th at 7:00 to get that all taken care of.

Directions are easy, I-25 to Arapahoe, then west on Arapahoe about 500 meters. You can't miss it!

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Finally, a running post...

2011-11-02T19:18:00.000-06:00

Coach Whitenack tweeted this link about the history of barefoot running. Not just the history of the famous race in Central America, but the real history, dating all the way back 100 years. As an aside, if you are on tiwtter, you should follow Coach Whitenack. He does not tweet a lot, but when he does, it is worth your while. Follow him @Ryannack

Check it out here: NY Times Magazine, The Once and Future Way to Run.

Even though it is written by Chris McDougall, who is the most famous proponent of barefoot running, what I got formt he article is about form, not footwear. How you should land on your forefoot, not your heel, no matter what type of shoe you are wearing. How ankle angle, and keeping your head up contribute to good form. It references the Pose method, which is related to the Chi method, which is related to the Evolution method. (See a great write-up of these methods here.)

So, read the article, tell me what you think. And get ready to try and do the 100-up on the first day of practice on the 14th!!

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Music Post

2011-11-02T12:58:00.001-06:00

Sitting in front of the computer on a snow day. wow things have changed since Pearl Jam was the only thing I would listen to. Back in those early 90's, snow days meant skiing, skiing and more skiing. Driving crazy-a$$ roads to the trails, trying to get at least three hours in, then a strength session, then tiredly driving home. Man, those were the days, huh? :)

And all we listened to was Pearl Jam, who is featured here: (Grantland.com alerted me to this YouTube clip, but I have spent twenty minutes digging though more.)

I think a lot of bands can be instantly recognized by one aspect of their music. The Police with Stewart Copeland on drums. Or Primus with Les Clapyool on bass. But Pearl Jam, to me, is all about Eddie Vedder's voice. Just watch this song, my favorite one from their first album.

Just awesome, just frickin' awesome!

This has nothing to do with track....

2011-11-01T19:42:00.001-06:00

but I bet Jimmy Maroney will get a huge kick out of it!

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MWC Alum News

2011-10-31T11:43:00.001-06:00

I love hearing about all this alumni news, it gives me great joy to see Chap alums running so well in college!

This weekend was the Mountain West Championships, and Alex Balsiger competed for Colorado State. He ran a 26:34, good for 6th on the team (he is usually 7th or 8th) and 32nd overall. He went through the 5 km mark in 16:02, which beats his HS 5 k PR by one or two seconds! Not bad, for an 8 km race!

Percentage wise, it was a tight race, as Alex was only 5.5% back of the leaders, who were in the low 25's.

Great job Alex, that's an awesome performance!

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WTC Random Thoughts

2011-10-31T10:05:00.000-06:00

Some random thoughts, musings and ideas while we get ready for winter track.

8th graders: I am issuing a challenge to all 8th graders, do you think you have what it takes to hang with elite HS athletes? Are you ready to run, run, lift weights, and then run some more? If so, come on out for winter track at Chaparral. So far, over 15 8th graders have expressed interest in participating in the club, which is awesome! The more 8th graders, the better the program will become now and in the future.

USATF membership: The main reason we need you signed up for USATF is for insurance purposes. If you roll an ankle and shred your tendons while training with us, USATF has insurance that covers that. I did some more digging in the USATF membership website, and it is only 20 bucks for a youth, and if you sign up after Nov. 1, but before Nov. 14th, you get a free month of membership. In other words, instead of expiring on 12/31/11, it would be good for the rest of 2011 and all of 2012.

All HS XC athletes: Take these next two weeks off. Rest, heal, catch up (or get ahead) on schoolwork. The potential to get run down and injured by not taking two weeks off between seasons is for outweighed by the potential benefits and gains you can make by being rested and ready to go. Trust me, relax, get rested, you won't lose a ton of fitness, and be ready to go on the 14th, physically and mentally.

Nov. 14th: Bring clothes to run in. Bring in any fees (payable to CHS T&F) or proof of membership. Bring water. Bring good running shoes. Bring a positive attitude. Bring a willingness to work.

Schedule: It is looking like the distance kids will be training Monday and Wednesday. It looks like the sprinter kids will be training Tuesday and Thursday. Athletes can also create custom schedules with their coach on the days that they can come. All fees and membership information will be due on the 21st or the 22nd, depending on the athlete's schedule.

Any questions, feel free to email me. I am really excited for the first practice, I think we have a group of athletes that are going to be super fast in the spring!

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Winter Track Club

2011-10-23T19:24:00.000-06:00

Over the hills and through the woods......

Even with the falls sports gearing up for their championship meets, the track coaches have been hard at work getting the winter track club ready for the 2011-2012 season.

You should see signs popping up around the high school with more info, but it will be a similar set-up as last year.

We plan on starting Nov. 14th, meeting two-three days a week, having "captains practices" on the days where we don't meet officially, and offering not just running instruction, but all sorts of cool stuff that will make you a more complete athlete.

The club fee is 50 bucks, all of which goes back into the track account, and you will need to be a USATF member, simply for insurance purposes.

And we will be meeting outside, at the track, no matter what the weather is, for daily practice. (Would you expect anything else from me?)

So, start getting psyched for winter track!

SEP

P.S. I assume most of you who read this blog are distance kids. So, please, tell ALL athletes that they are welcome at the club. Sprinters, jumpers, throwers. Freshman, sophomores, juniors, seniors (We are even opening up the club to 8th graders this year!) I found out at League Championships last year that we need a complete team to compete at the highest levels. So, if any of your friends have a desire to become better athletes, have them come to that first meeting in the 14th! They are more than welcome!

More Alumni Racing

2011-10-23T19:14:00.001-06:00

After some more digging, I found out that Ryan Bull, who is an Oredigger, ran a PR of 28:03 for an 8k at altitude. (His PR for an 8k at lower elevations is 26:46.) This was in the open race at the RMAC championships, won by Western State Univ. on both the men's and women's sides. This time would've put Ryan in 52nd place in the varsity race, which is pretty awesome!

Fantastic job Ryan, a 28:03 around Willis Case GC is not easy at all. i've golfed there and there are some hills there to be sure!

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Western Kansas Alumni News

2011-10-22T18:30:00.001-06:00

Just heard that our old friend, Nate Purdue, went 26:17 in an 8km regional championship race today. That works out to a low 16:00 5k, which is quite fast, especially for 8k pace!

Congrats Nate, way to run fast when it counts!

Any other alum news out there?

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15 Foods

2011-10-05T10:10:00.004-06:00

Here is a list of 15 foods every runner should be eating. I think I eat about ten of them regularly, which is pretty good. The only one I can't stomach, yogurt. Blech!

Via: Runnersworld

Enjoy, this is good reading, and a good list to take to the grocery store. But of course, if you buy it, you gotta eat it!

Weekend of Running and Philosophizing

2011-09-19T09:30:00.001-06:00

Philosophizing, is that even a real word???

/checks middle school dictionary
//discovers it is a real word, even with a "z" in it.

This weekend I was lucky enough to participate in a 12 km trail race up at Devils Thumb Ranch up in the mountains. It was a really difficult race, as it was all on narrow or wet or rocky trails, it started at 8600 ft, eventually climbing up to 9000 feet, and the competition was pretty stiff. The results are not posted online, but according to my Garmin watch, I ran the 7.6 mile course in one hour and thirty seven seconds, for a nice even pace of 8 min/mile.

Beth and I nordic ski pretty regularly at DTR, so I was knew what the trails and what the steepness would be. The race started out pretty flat, but then was going to climb two monster hills. One hill I have skied a number of times, and I knew it was moderately tough, and the other hill was an unknown to me. This presented a little bit of a conundrum during the race. I didn't know how hard to push myself on the opening fields, as I didn't want to burn myself out for the two hills at the end. I ended up not really pushing it until 3-4 km into the race. The race turned onto a flatter trail that was after a short little steep climb. By then, the all the racers had really thinned out, and I just felt it was time to get going and start reeling in racers before the big hills. I might not pass them, but I felt I needed to be close to them at the start of the hills to be able to make my move going up the hill.

So, my plan of saving for the hills was somewhat thwarted, as the first hill was bypassed, and the second hill was not as brutal as I thought. That meant I had tons of energy for the killer downhill off the unknown hill, and it was a BLAST! Right at the start of the downhill, I passed two people, then I was behind a guy in red, and I just couldn't get around him. It was a narrow, rocky, tree-y trail, and we were just bombing down it. It was more of a free-fall than a run, and it was so exhilarating. We were leaping off rocks, flying over streams, dodging a horse in the trail (yeah, there was horse and cowboy in the middle of the trail). I felt like I was 15 years younger, when I used to run off the mountains in NH as fast as I could. We ran at this breakneck pace for at least two kilometers, then it opened up into the meadows again. We were about 3 km from the finish, so I just took off as hard as I could. I had one mini-hill to lose red guy, then tried to chase down gray guy. Those last two kilometers, I was redlining it, and when I finally finished, I was 100% spent. All I remember is slowly falling to my knees, then rolling over onto my back, then Chloe launching herself up onto my stomach. It was a tough race, but it was more fun than tough, which is how races should be. Huge shout out to Igor and the crew at DTR, the put on great races no matter what season it is.

So, where is the "philosophizing" you might be asking? It hit me during the race, that I, as well as others, are too caught up in results of racing. Sure, it is great that James Kadolph ran a 16:05 at Liberty Bell, or that the Sierra 8th gr. girls went undefeated in 2011, or that the CHS boys 4 x 800 team was State Champs this spring. I do not want to take anything from those accomplishments. However, when I was trying to strategize during the race, when I was tapping before the race, when I was flying down that hill at the end of the race, I realized it didn't matter what place I got, all that mattered was that I was having fun and I was pushing myself to get better.

Sometimes websites and coaches and parents and athletes can get too caught up in "What was your time, what was your place?" instead of worrying about "How did you race?" Bode Miller once said (and I am paraphrasing) that it didn't matter whether he got a medal or not, what mattered was how he raced. He likened a ski race to a work of art, and I really can see where he is coming from now. I might not have won the race this weekend, but I was really psyched with how I raced, with how I fought, with how I prepared. And I think we need a lot more of that in running. We need more of focusing on the total picture, not just the end result.

SEP

/commence hammering me with "you hypocrite" comments. :)

The snow-capped mountains are much more impressive than my struggling form.

Chloe with her hot cocoa, a veteran of the race watching circuit.

The best support team anyone could have!

Slavins Invite Pics

2011-09-19T08:21:00.000-06:00

Here are some pics from the Slavins Race on Friday afternoon.

Jess in the water, Char above the water.

Mariah and Kat splashing through the gulch.

Emilie leading Ashley through the water hazard.

Sierra Boys - 3rd place overall

Sierra Girls - Undefeated 2011 season

Lots of trophies, lots of ribbons, even more smiles.

More MS XC Bragging

2011-09-16T20:19:00.000-06:00

Today we took the athletes to the Slavins XC meet up at Harvard Gulch GC today. It was a HUGE meet, with over 850 athletes running. Without a week of disciplined practice, the boys got an astounding third overall, and the girls came in first! One of the boys mentioned it today, but our 8th grade girls won every race they competed in. They went 6-0 in dual meets, then won their district championship, then won this prestigious invitational meet against schools from all over the city! I think that is a feat that has never been accomplished, and most certainly will never be duplicated. Just amazing, this class of female, and male runners, they are just amazing. We certainly will miss them next year.

Middle School XC Champs Results

2011-09-12T13:22:00.000-06:00

8th grade girls repeated as division champs again this year, as well as the 8th grade boys. Winning the DougCo division title two years in a row is a very impressive feat, so huge congratulations are due to those guys and girls.

The 7th grade girls came in 3rd, the 7th grade boys came in 4th, which was a great showing out of nine teams participating.

Overall the Sierra Eagles came in third, which we are very proud of. It was a great year, and it bodes well for running at Sierra and at Chaparral.

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Jenny Barringer Simpson World Champion

2011-09-02T08:37:00.001-06:00

This is a great video of JBS winning the 1500 m gold in the world championships the other day. People are commenting on her shock and disbelief after she wins, but what I notice is her calmness and composure the entire race. There is a fall, right in front of her, she avoids it without breaking stride. And during her delayed slingshot, there is not tightening up, no tenseness, just smooth striding it out home. What an awesome race, yeah Jenny!

Sierra MS XC Results

2011-08-19T07:58:00.000-06:00

Everyone that has asked me about how the middle school XC season has gotten the response of "Great, just wonderful. This is a great team, one of the best we have had in years." or something to that effect. We have a great group of 8th graders who are wonderful leaders, and a great group of 7th graders, who are talented and eager to learn. That leads to some pretty good results, as you can see below. We raced Cimmaron MS yesterday, at their place, and we won by over 100 points int he combined score. Not a bad way to start the year!

7 Boys

7 Girls

8 Boys

8 Girls

Started Running

2011-06-30T11:16:00.002-06:00

Despite the fact that we were unable to make the run at my house work, it was a great start to 2 good weeks of training for me. I hope you have all decided to start a "revolution" in your training too. You know 4th of July coming up and all. We are into the time where we only have 6-7 weeks of "summer time" so I hope we can do some serious training this month. Just get out and run, 5-6 days a week even if it is 10 minutes, write your days down and start challenging yourself. I have and feel so much better these days. I ran in Niagara Falls Canada and in Buffalo New York this week.
Hope to see you all soon

Alternate Run Option

2011-06-15T10:58:00.005-06:00

Since Sep will be busy for the next 2 weeks, I would offer up a run in the mountains at my house. Flying J open Space in Conifer backs to my house. It will take about 10 minutes longer to get to my house than to get to red rocks.
9:00am Boymel's house./ Wednesday 6-22

Carpool from Chap meet at 8:10-8:15
It is some great ease into altitude running with not a ton of hard hills. A 6 mile and 4 mile loop are easy from my house. I have even been known to make smoothies for these occasions.
email me and let me know if you are coming. Then I can hit you with an email on how to get to my house.

Red Rocks

2011-06-14T14:40:00.000-06:00

The good news: We had a great turn-out, and a great workout today at Red Rocks!

The bad news: Due to prior engagements, I will not be able to attend the next two weeks of Red Rocks sessions.

However, you are more than welcome to head up on your own, just be careful and be hydrated!

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"The Jump"

2011-06-09T19:50:00.000-06:00

More blatant stealing from coachjayjohnson.com

Jay wrote an article for Running Times magazine on how to make the leap from decent track star to excellent cross country star. I think his ideas a re fresh and innovative, but still appeal to my old-school sensibilities.

It's long, but it's worth it. Read it, take Jay's advice, get super fast for the fall.

The Jump - By: Jay Johnson

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Lazy Afternoon Thoughts

2011-06-09T14:58:00.000-06:00

Went out to dinner last night to Carmine's on Penn, with the 4 x 800 5A State Champions from this year. We had a great dinner, the five of us devoured multiple baskets of bread, and then almost three plates of excellent pasta. IF you have ever been to Carmine's, you know that one plate can feed 3-4 people, so we were just chowing down. It was a lot of fun, I am glad the guys could come out, and I love the tradition of treating a state champion relay team to a nice dinner. Been out five times now, would love to go out some more!

Just got back from a killer run. (to work off all that spaghetti, I guess.) I went over 13 miles in about 1:45, for an 8:08 mi/min pace. I was just feeling it, so I kept going, and going, and going. I was hurting the last 1.5 miles, but the rest of the time, I was just cruising. Longest run of the past ten years for me, I am pretty psyched!

The Seppala's are going to be pretty busy this Saturday, we got a huge crawfish boil Saturday night, and before that, there is the Great Divide 17th Anniversary party. I hear there is going to be a real live Yeti there, that gets to dance on stage, hang out for picture ops, and generally create major mayhem and mischief. I can't wait to get my picture taken with the beast, hopefully it dances like the guy in the suit on the right of the stage.

Finally, lots of people have been blaming ME for their inability to get to Red Rocks last Tuesday. :) :) Here is the final word on it! If you have ever run for me, be at the CHS Track at 8:30 on Tuesday! Alums, present runners, anyone is welcome! We're gonna change it up a bit this week, park in a lower lot and get right into some small stair warm-ups. Should be fun! See you all there!

Gymnastics in the Summer

2011-06-08T12:27:00.001-06:00

I have been communicating with Coach Tom about the best way to keep up your general strength over the summer. We were trying to figure out how to incorporate gymnastics into that, and this is the plan.

We both think the most efficient method for summer gymnastic strength training is the Sunday Open Gym sessions. Since most of you are experienced gymnasts, this session will allow you to work on your routines, which will build your overall strength the best. If you are not an experienced gymnast, that's OK too, as there will be plenty of coaches and assistants there to help you get into the swing of things. (pardon the pun.)

The first open gym is this Sunday, the 12th. I will be there, so will Chloe depending upon her nap schedule (the open gym is from 11:30-1:00, right during Chloe's naptime), and Castle View's own Will Bakemeyer (pole vaulter and gymnast extraordinaire) will be in attendance as well.

This session on the 12th is free, however other Sunday Open Gym sessionswill cost 10 dollars. If you are under 18, and you have not previously worked out at Alpha Gymnastics, bring a parent to help with waiver and sign-up forms.

The schedule for the rest of the summer is:

July 10th (whoops, I said the 19th earlier, typo!)
July 17th
July 24th

All of these are Sundays, all of these sessions are from 11:30-1:00.

These gymnastics sessions are open to all past and present high school athletes, no matter what school you are from or what sport you play. Coach Tom and I firmly believe that gymnastics can be beneficial for all sports, so we want as many athletes there pushing each other to greater heights. Summer training is about getting not just faster, but stronger too, and gymnastics has been proven time and time again to just for all athletes!

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Sep's Summer Training Guidelines

2011-06-04T06:46:00.002-06:00

The summer is a great time to stockpile some serious training. I think the summer is perfect for accumulating miles, keeping your tempo speed up, gaining overall strength & flexibility, and most of all, having fun while running. I love training in the summer, I still have some training logs from the mid-90’s, when I was in high school and training for ski season during the summer. The summer was where I got a jumpstart on my competition, and it is where you can start laying the foundations towards achieving your goals in the spring. Remember how crazy and fun State meet was? If you want to be right in the middle of all that, you need to have a great summer of training.

I am not going to give you a day-by-day training plan, but I will be able to suggest some general guidelines that you can modify to fit your needs and your schedule for the summer, so you can go back to school in better shape than you left school in!

The first rule is each week you need to take at least one total rest day with no running at all, and one day where you do an easy 20 min jog. (Like we would do on Thursdays when we would jog to the pool and back.) Recovery is the most often overlooked phase of summer training. Do not neglect your sleep, your hydration and your nutrition. I repeat, do not overlook your sleep, hydration and nutrition.

So, that leaves 5 days a week of serious training. One of those days we will be organizing trips to Red Rocks. This is your serious speed and strength day, treat it like an interval day. This will be Tuesday, and we will be meeting at the Chaparral track at 8:30 to carpool over to Red Rocks. Make sure to bring a big bottle of water and a little bit of money in case we stop for Gatorades on the way home as well as your training shoes and an extra shirt. Don’t forget to eat a light breakfast beforehand! A banana, some oatmeal, something needs to be in your stomach for this workout. This is a “red” day, where you will go until you are exhausted, so be prepared!

One other day during the week should be tempo running. These can be intervals in a park, fartleks along a trail, anything where you pick up the pace just a little bit for 1.5 to 4 minutes. Remember, tempo running is not “all-out” (that’s what Red Rocks is for), it is just a slight uptick in speed. Don’t take a lot of recovery between these speed sessions; if you need a lot of rest, you were probably going too fast. Email me, and I can give you your paces for track tempo intervals. If you want to do one or two of these on the track to get a feel for it, that’s probably a good idea. But, don’t do all of your summer tempo work on the track, just do enough to get a feel for the pace. Most of your summer tempo work should be on trails, in parks, or on dirt roads.

The other three days are straight-up running days. One of those days should be a medium length day, one should be a long day, and the other should be a super-long day. Make sure you have a difference between the length of your long run days, but keep the pace appropriate. These are your long run days, not your race days. I usually try to do a creative run on my medium run days, that’s where you stop every five minutes to do some type of calisthenic, either push-ups, sit-ups, tricep dips on a bench, tuck jumps anything you can think of to get some general strength in. My long runs and my super-long runs are just that. Straight running, no stopping, at an easy pace.

And you already know this, but before all of those workouts, you should warm up with the form drills. After each workout, cool down with the lunge routine. I’m not a big proponent of strength in the gym in the summer, I think through Red Rocks, creative runs, and lunges, you can get all the running strength you need.

Let’s look a typical week, just to give you an idea of what your schedule might look like.

SUN: Super-Long Run (60 min)

MON: Day Off

TUE: Red Rocks

WED: Medium Run (30 min)

THU: Long Run (45 min)

FRI: Tempo Running

SAT: Active Rest (20 min)

Now, you won’t be running the same distances all throughout the summer. Or maybe you will start off with longer runs already. That’s fine, but make sure to progress appropriately. My guideline is, increase each run length (except the active rest day) by five minutes every two weeks. That will give you the stress you need to to keep up with your fitness level.

You can change this weekly schedule around to however you want, but look at a few principles. I never have two interval days back-to-back. I made sure you had a day off before the hardest day of the week. I also made sure that the runs were all of differing length. When you set your schedule, make sure you follow these rules. Summer is meant to be fun, not rigid and stressful. Set up your schedule to make sure you get the most fun and the most running in that you can.

One more thing. I strongly suggest keeping a training log. I have always kept one, and not only does it allow me to look back and learn from my experiences, but it also keeps me motivated. I now use an online training log, www.runkeeper.com. It’s free, and it really perfect for the type of training we do. Plus, it allows me as your coach, to keep track of what you are doing from afar so then we can make necessary adjustments if needed. It also allows me to motivate, communicate, cajole, and encourage, even if I am in Long Island, or Winter Park, or wherever I happen to be that week. Go check out that site, sign up (it’s free!), and allow me to be on your “street team”. Signing up for runkeeper, plus a watch and www.runningmap.com, (an online mapping program that allows me to see the length of my run in miles), is all you really need to maximize your efficiency this summer when it comes to your training. Isn’t technology amazing?

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Lao-tzu said that hundreds of years ago, and it means you gotta start your training today, and keep running one day at a time. You will notice the difference by the time school starts, I promise, if you are diligent and consistent with your training. If you have any questions, please email me and I will get back to you as soon as I can,

SEP

EDIT: This post is a work in progress, check back often for more ideas, thoughts, comments and musings about summer training.

Training

2011-06-03T11:43:00.002-06:00

I am not one to say I am putting in a lot of miles, I've done that in my life and now I run to stay healthy, in-shape and not look too much like a "mom". However, I have found that I can set a few minutes aside each day to run, I may have to get up really early or go on my lunch hour but I can do it. It is time for you all to set time aside. You don't have to run a ton of miles but make your time count. If you only get 15 minutes in, it is better than nothing. Get 15 minutes in, trick your body and run 3 really hard 1 minute speed changers. or do the last 5 minutes at an increased pace. This will not make you have a great base or increase your ability to produce speed in May next year but it will make your body and mind feel better about the ability to run and train. We will need to start running, we will need to start training but for now, just set your time aside and go for a run.
I am and boy do I feel better when I do.

Reflections

2011-05-25T09:38:00.002-06:00

Sorry I couldn't be at the Banquet to get some closure on the season. I will finish all the splits for the season and give them to Sep by Friday so he can get them out to you all on the blog. I normally get that done and hand it out at the banquet.
I want to tell you how impressed I was with the transitions, growths and improvements you all made. It was fun to be a part of your individual achievements. Track is such a great balance of individual efforts and team achievement. The boys finishing 3rd in state is a great example of that. Gavin top 3 in all 4 events? 4 x 800 with a state title, Austin with an amazing PR and 4th place finish:)
You all were such an important part of team and individual growth. Thanks for being a part of the team and letting me watch and participate in your growth.

Chloe's Second Birthday Party

2011-05-25T06:49:00.000-06:00

Here is a great picture of Chloe at her second birthday party a couple weeks ago. Yeah, it has nothing to do with track, but it's still a funny picture.

"What? Only a stinkin' cupcake???!!!"

Summer Training Guidelines

2011-05-23T11:49:00.000-06:00

I read this, and it sounded really, really familiar. I have been preaching this philosophy for years now, but Jay explains it much more eloquently.

So, after you've had some rest, shoot me an email, and in a few days turnaround, I can get you a training program for the summer if you wish.

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Thoughts on State Meet Track Day Three

2011-05-23T08:43:00.000-06:00

(Sorry these are a little late, I went to bed pretty late after a coaches celebration party....)

We wrapped up the Colorado State Track meet with fantastic weather, and some great results. We had Gavin McHenry going top five in all three of his races, which put him on the podium in all of his races, an impressive feat indeed! (So impressive, it got a scout from Stanford asking me LOTS of questions about him, very cool!) We had Keagan racing in the mile, and running at ought race to finish just out of the podium spots. And, in the highlight off the day for me, we had Brendon Austin absolutely nailing the shotput to come in an astounding fourth! I am not a throws coach, although I pretend to be sometimes, so I will quote Coach Whitenack, who certainly does know a thing or two about putting the shot.

From NackforTrack.com:
"I loved seeing Brendon Austin(Chaparral) throw the shot the most. Brendon is one of my favorite track athletes, because he had all the opportunity and temptation to solely pursue another sport (football), but did not. I honestly have no idea why. It's never come up in any conversation. I like to think it's because he likes to compete, and he'll take competition in any form, whether it be on the field or in the ring. I would also hope it's because of moments like he had on Saturday. Brendon started the day as a #13 seed, but ended in 4th because of a 4ft 8 3/4in PR throw. That is insane! He basically had a 10% improvement in the span of one throw. That might not sound like much, so for some perspective that is like a 100m runner slicing off 1.1 seconds in a race, a miler cutting off :27 seconds from there already fantastic 4:30, a high jumper reaching a height of 6 to 8in higher than they have previously seen, a 3 to 4ft PR in the triple jump, or a 1.5ft improvement in the boys pole vault. Simply amazing! As a former thrower I wish I had video, because the PR throw was a thing of beauty. Oh, and by the way, despite being a multi-sport athlete Brendon is still going to college to play football. He will be playing at an obscure little place called Stanford. Glad he could still put the pieces back together to slide in there."

Coach Whitenack, I couldn't have said it any better myself, I am so proud of Brendon, his accomplishments not just yesterday, but for the past four years deserve major respect.

As a boys team, we came in a tie for third overall, which I am very pleased with. I would've been happy with 5th, so third is a real bonus. I thought everything we did all year, including winter training, to extensive tempo running (in meets and in practice), and pure speed days; then mixing in a high level of discipline and team sacrifice; all of this contributed to our great showings at State, both for the men and women. I am eager for a break, but I am eager to start it all up again. I wish Coach Hawk the best, I think he is has been one of the most even-keeled and professional coaches I have ever met, so I want to build on his legacy and make this team even better next year. We are losing some stud seniors, but we have some up-and-coming studs rapidly rising through the ranks. That all starts during the summer. If anyone wants a training plan, shoot me an email and Coach Boymel and I will formulate you one. I want to start up Red Rocks again, I want to expand gymnastics, I want to go to summer camps, I want to make sure all of you have done the work necessary to have an even better season in 2012!

Enjoy your break, keep checking the blog every once in a while for random summer updates, and keep running!

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Musings on State Track Day Two

2011-05-21T05:35:00.001-06:00

With all of the rain and lightning from yesterday, the second day of the state meet was a loooong one. Our first event was the 4 x 100 prelims at 1:35, the last was the 4 x 400 prelims at 6:45. I will give the meet directors, officials and volunteers credit though, the meet yesterday ran very smoothly, and I noticed no problems with trying to shoehorn in 50% more meet into one single day.

With Thursday being full of high points, I felt Friday we had our share of more high points, but unfortuntaley, we had some low points too. I thought the girls sprint medley ran fantastic. We came into the event ranked 13th, we left with medals and standing on the podium in 8th place. That is really, really awesome, I am so happy and proud for those girls. I thought the Devan ran a really good race in the open 800. She ran a 2:15, came in 8th, got on the podium, and had a very good showing in her first state meet. I am excited to see how she builds on that for future years. And our boys 4 x 400 team, which was comprised almost totally of younger kids, represented themselves very well too, gaining valuable experience and getting that first State meet race under their belts.

Even though they were really expecting to win and they came in second, how can you not be proud of our boys 4 x 200 relay team? Second place is the highest place CHS has ever scored in that event at State, we bettered our time by 2-3 seconds, and we were right in the mix of things the whole way through. Excellent job men, you represented CHS to the best of your abilities and that is all we can ask for. Watch out for them in that 4 x 100 today. I got a feeling they are going to race lights out.

The last race I want to talk about is the open 800 for the men. Nate Purdue had high expectations for this race, but ended up finishing out of the medals. That was a big disappointment, but Nate learned a lot about himself in that race. I still say the open 800 is the toughest race out there, it is an unlaned sprint, with pushing, shoving and tripping going on for 799 meters. Add a wet track, and 18 guys just getting after it, and you are gonna have a Castle View kid getting tripped up and flying out of the pack, or a Poudre kid getting pushed off the track on the backside. To anyone that saw it, it was just a brutal, slugfest, Nascar style of race, and kudos to Connor Winter, who ended up victorious. I think Nate knows that this race does not define who he is as a runner though. Nate is defined by the entire body of work, not just one single race, and the body of work says he is a true champion who will be remembered as one of the best runners CHS has ever produced.

We got one more day, one more day to set some school records, win some medals, and get on the top of that podium! I think today the weather will finally be good track weather, and if you can avoid the traffic revolving around the U2 concert this afternoon, it's is going to be a prefect day!

See everyone at JeffCo or tonight at the banquet!

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Reflections on State Track Day One

2011-05-20T05:30:00.004-06:00

Reflections is certainly a good title for this post, as you were seeing reflections in puddles everywhere by the end of the day. On the track, in the bleachers, on the mats. The rain came down just as we were about to start our heat of the 4 x 4 relay, and it came down in buckets! Lightning, thunder, torrential rain; we experienced it all under the cover of our Taj Mahal-esque tent. When they finally postponed the meet, getting out of the parking lot was a disaster, and of course traffic was pretty rough too. A tough end to a really successful day.

Because of this rain delay, the schedule got changed around quite a bit. Updated schedules can be found here, at Coach Whitenack's site, as well as at the State CHSAA site. Please check those schedules out, and if you have any questions, get in touch with one of your coaches.

Other than the monsoon, though, I would say it was a very successful day. We had both throwers climb up onto the podium and we had all of our sprinters and sprint relays qualify for finals. The girls 4 x 800 ran a season best with that particular line-up, and the boys 4 x 800 won the 5A state title outright! This win was achieved through a special combination of DEDICATION, TALENT and SACRIFICE. All of the runners had been working on getting fast since Halloween. The talent level was amazing, as each guy went under 2:00 on their leg. The sacrifice shown was critical, as they committed to this race and to each other above all else. I am very proud of this group, I feel that they deserved this win, and that they were truly the best 4 x 8 team in the State.

This win is a testament to the team culture we have built at CHS. Without everyone chipping in, we would not have been on the top of the podium. Without Zach and Ryan, the two alternates who pushed and encouraged and cheered those guys in practice and races every day, we wouldn't have won this race. Without all the JV runners, who brought so much to workouts and to the team that allowed them to reach their potential, we wouldn't have won this race. Without Boymel and Jimmy and Harris and Dianne and Cory and Craig and Katie and Eric and Tom, who contributed in so many ways every single day to get these guys faster, stronger, tougher, we wouldn't have won this race. Without the athletes families, who are truly the backbone of these these guys, we wouldn't have won this race. Without the support and legacy the CHS alums have left, we wouldn't have won this race.

And I wouldn't have been able to contribute to this the way I do without my wife Beth, who for 8 months out of the year, supports, encourages and helps me in so many ways that allow me to do what I am truly passionate about. She is my rudder, she keeps me on course and focused, she is the best friend/wife/mom anyone could have, and I am truly grateful to her. Thanks doll.

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P.S. As the tradition goes, I get to take the 4 boys out to dinner anywhere they want to go, my treat. We have been everywhere from Hooters to Vesta Dipping Grill. So, Keagan, Justin, Johnny, Nate, you figure out what you want to eat, we'll figure out a date, and we'll do it!

P.P.S. One more thing. If anyone out there (Susan, Cheri, Karen, anyone...) has some pictures of not only the race yesterday, but of these guys racing at all this season, could you please send them to me? I would love to have copies of them! I'm gonna comb through the awesome CHS website, but if you have any "hidden" ones, I would love to see them. Thanks!

State Meet Logistics (UPDATED)

2011-05-17T08:28:00.004-06:00

We qualified 26 kids to the State Meet this weekend, in a multitude of events. I am not sure if that is a record, but is a number we are pretty proud of!

We start on Thursday morning at 8:15, and hopefully end on Saturday afternoon at 4:15. That makes for a long three days, so make sure you are rested and ready to go.

State Meet Schedule for Chaparral is:

THU

8:15 SMR (P), 8:30 Discus (F), 8:35 100m (P),
8:55 3200 (F), 9:25 4 x 200 (P),

11:20 4 x 800 (F), 12:25 200 (P), 1:30 4 x 400 (P)

FRI

10:05 4 x 100 (P), 12:00 SMR (F), 12:50 800 (F),

1:40 4 x 200 (F), 4:10 200 (F)

SAT

10:30 100 (F), 10:30 ShotPut (F), 2:50 4 x 100 (F),

3:10 1600 (F), 4:15 4 x 400 (F)

Women compete right before the men do, (P) stands for preliminary round, (F) stands for final round.

Like I said, a busy three days, and that doesn't even consider the banquet on Saturday night at 6:00 pm at Chaparral!

If you are not competing on Thursday, Friday or Saturday, please make sure to get your uniform turned in to Coach Hawk as soon as possible. You don't want a exorbitant fee on your CHS record.

On Thursday, there will be a bus to the State Meet, and we expect all the competing athletes and the alternates to be on that bus. The bus leaves CHS at 6:15 sharp. I will not be on the bus, I will already be at the stadium setting up our camp in an ideal spot. To say it is going to be crowded is an understatement!

So, make sure you are getting some sleep, eating well, and staying hydrated. This is going to be a big weekend for us, I think we are primed for some awesome performances at State!

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UPDATE: My mistake, I thought the discus events were one right after another, with the ladies going first. It is actually men throwing the disc at 8:30 on Thursday, then the women throw the disc at 11:30 on Thursday. Can't wait to watch Brendon and Mia compete Thursday morning!

League Championships Overview

2011-05-15T01:20:00.001-06:00

Wow, 107 points. The CHS boys team scored 107 points... and came in third. If you had told me at the beginning of this week we would score 107 points, I would have taken it in a heartbeat. I guess that just goes to show you how deep and strong the Continental League is in Track & Field.

I thought we did everything we could on to try and win the championship on the boys side. The distance kids were run into the ground, but scored points in all of their events. The sprinters were in up to six races over two days, and were not only scoring points, but winning their events. I am so proud of the vaulters and the throwers for getting valuable points in their events. We did everything we could; we let no stone unturned from a coaching/planning point of view, and the athletes all did their jobs better than I could've hoped. I am very proud of everyone, sometimes you can do your best and not come away reading your goal, and this was one of those times. But, we can be proud in saying we did our best. Men, we can look in the mirror and honestly say we gave it our best shot, not just in the competition, but in the preparation as well. Good job, excellent job.

Not all is sadness though, we have a long, long list of League Champions. Let's start with the women, who had a very fine showing at these League Championships. Even though we were thin in some events, I thought the girls out there represented themselves and their school very well, and I am very proud of them too.

2011 Continental League Champions Women

Mia Davies Shot Put 33-10.5

Devan Foster 800m 2:15.95

Mia Davies Discus 112-8.5
(Yep, Mia is a DOUBLE League Champion!!)

2011 Continental League Champions Men

Gavin McHenry 100m 10.83

Gavin McHenry 200m 21.74

400m Relay Ian Campbell, Ty Whipple, Curtis Ray, Gavin McHenry

800m Relay Ian Campbell, Ty Whipple, Curtis Ray, Gavin McHenry

3200m Relay Justin Bills, Johnny Bacovin, Zach Young, Nate Purdue

(Ummm.... yeah, Gavin has FOUR League Championships on his belt, that's not a typo.)

I want to throw a big shout-out to all of the parents and volunteers who helped us pull this meet off. We were hosting the meet, it is an important meet to host, and I thought everyone who pitched in did a fantastic job. Big thanks to Greg & Karen Grimm, Ivan & Cheri Whipple, all of the timers, officials and announcers, Chris Clemensen, Linda Cherry, and Gary Thompson. I am sure I forgot a few people who helped, but thank you to everyone, it was because of you that we beat the rain on Saturday afternoon!

Now the question is, where do we go from here? Looking at the CHSAA rankings, it seems to me that we got a lot of athletes and relays qualified for State Championships. However, it is still relatively early in the weekend. Things can change on that varvee board on Sunday afternoon. Scratches, name corrections, all sorts of funky stuff goes on the day after League Championships. Here is my advice. If you are an individual athlete who is in the top twenty of your event, plan on being at practice on Monday. If you are on a relay that is in top twenty, be at practice as well. (If you are an alternate, which is a very important part of that relay, your coach will be in touch with you on Sunday evening.) I see qualifying for State as an opportunity not only for one more week of Sep facetime :) , but also as chance to compete on the biggest stage Colorado Track & Field has to offer. More on this later in the week, but CHS T&F has done very well at these State Championships in recent history, and their is no reason to expect that we will not do very well this year. We need to re-focus our efforts for this week, as shining on the State Meet stage is truly an honor!

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Deleted Posts

2011-05-13T10:59:00.000-06:00

I apologize if you were looking for some posts that seem to have been deleted. To be honest, I have no idea why or how they were erased. The information in them was important, but not crucial, so it really isn't a big deal.

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A little later

2011-05-12T10:25:00.000-06:00

In some ways, this is better for us. The work outs are done, there is some time for fine tuning and teamwork but no need to work out hard again. We will use our League meet to finish out our hardest work outs and best performances. Last night was the most important night of sleep for a Friday meet and tonight is the most important night of sleep for a Saturday meet. Rest up, visualize all the speed and power you have put into your work outs and know they will come out in the next 2 days. We will use this delay to our advantage and be more prepared.

League Championships Postponed

2011-05-12T09:50:00.000-06:00

Well, it looks like I was wrong. With so much standing water on the track last night and this morning that crews could not stay ahead of it, with the discs and shotput rings being slipperier than a Alaskan pond in the middle of December, with the high jump pits and pole vaults pits soaking up water just sitting there, the meet has been pushed back 25 hours to Friday afternoon. (Yep, twenty-five hours. We originally planned to start at 3:00 pm, now we are starting at 4:00 pm.)

Everything else stays the same. Meet schedule, meet venue, Saturday's schedule; everything is the same, Thursday is just pushed back into Friday.

We will have practice today after school, we will do some easy starts and hand-offs to stay on point for this weekend. Do not let this be a distraction for you, take it in stride, and be ready on Friday.

Any questions, shoot me an email or a text,
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Can't Ignore It

2011-05-12T05:39:00.000-06:00

The weather here in the Tech Center at 6:00 am is rainy, cold and a little windy. Don't believe this meet will get postponed, if I was in charge, we would be racing in this stuff for sure. (And I am in charge, even if it's just a little bit.)

What that means is, bring plenty of warm clothes to the meet today, something dry to change into after your race is a big deal. Bring backpacking tents, we will set up a CHAP tent city somewhere if we have to. Racing clothes need to be layers, and need to be NOT COTTON! Warm drinks and food is important to bring as well. Be prepared to race your best, no matter what the conditions. We have trained in far worse than this, so take advantage of the bad weather. Use it is an opportunity to get an advantage on your competitors. Mind over matter, if you believe that the weather is not an issue, then it is not an issue.

See you all this afternoon,
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P.S. Here is the latests weather report. Like I said, we have certainly trained in worse conditions than these.

Wed 1pm	2pm	3pm	4pm	5pm	6pm	7pm	Wed 8pm
	1pm	2pm	3pm	4pm	5pm	6pm	7pm	8pm
Forecast	Rain	Rain	Rain	Rain	Rain	Rain	Cloudy	Rain
Temp (°F)	38°	37°	37°	38°	37°	37°	37°	37°
RealFeel®	27°	27°	26°	26°	23°	22°	22°	22°
Wind (mph)	16 NNW	15 NNW	15 NNW	16 NNW	17 NNW	20 NNW	20 NNW	20 NNW
Humidity	94%	93%	93%	90%	92%	92%	92%	92%
UV Index	2	1	1	1	0	0	0	0
Cloud Cover	100%	99%	99%	99%	99%	98%	98%	93%
Dewpoint	36	35	35	35	34	35	35	35

League Champs Info

2011-05-10T19:31:00.000-06:00

Above is lots of information for the upcoming League Championships this week at the new Parker Stadium. I have posted an updated schedule of events for both Thursday and Saturday. (The middle school meet is having thier championships on Friday, so that makes for a full weekend of track if you want to watch it all!)

I have also posted all of our entries for this meet. They are not in meet order, and of course they are subject for last minute minor changes, but they are 99% set in stone as far as I can tell.

I hope we get a big crowd of athletes, family and friends this weekend, this is the first major meet that is going to be right in our backyard!

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Parental Involvement

2011-05-07T19:46:00.000-06:00

I had a couple of moms ask me at the meet today what they can do to help get their kids ready for the upcoming League Championships. I was more than happy to answer H-N-R. (Hydration-Nutrition-Relaxation)

So, moms and dads of our outstanding athletes. If you want to help make your kid successful this weekend, get them to bed early! The number one thing an athlete needs when "peaking" is lots of rest/sleep/relaxation. I heard coach Jay Johnson speak, and he told a room full of coaches that if all things are equal, he would rather have a kid who eats at McDonalds all the time and gets good sleep before one who eats at Whole Foods every day but never gets a good night's sleep. Crazy, but it's true. I see it in my own family life. When Chloe sleeps well, she is in great spirits. When she does not, we are in for a tough day. These kids are like babies, make sure they get their sleep!

The nest thing is nutrition. I have blogged extensively about this, so I won't say much more other than to direct you to this old blog post. Please click on the Nancy Clark link as well, she is the guru of sports nutrition. I don't want kids carbo-loading the night before a race, I want them eating well every night!

The final piece is hydration. I saw three runners collapse today in the 800, two more in the 200. Why? They were de-hydrated, I bet. The first really hot meet of the year always seems to sneak up on kids. Staying hydrated is not a day-of-race thing. You need to be hydrated all the time. Plenty of water, fruit juices, water, chocolate milk, and more water. Like Coach Monfre says every time you pass a water fountain, take a drink from it. We will be providing coolers of Gatorade this week at practice, but please be sure to always have nice clear pee!

So, moms and dads. I want your kids to race well, and I know you do too. I will work them over at practice like a speedbag, you gotta make sure they have the proper H-N-R at home to be able to grow from the training stress and become stronger and faster athletes!

Thanks!!

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Weekend Highlights

2011-05-07T19:28:00.001-06:00

There is a lot of them, so hold on.....

Caleb Long being the Continental League 400m JV Champion at 55.7 seconds!

Kaleb R. and Brian S. throwing out huge PR's in the mile, 5:12 and 6:04.

Steven R. and Daniel G. running season bests in the two mile, at 12:04 and 14:14.

Keagan V. coming within 1.5 seconds of the school mile record with a 4:25.38.

Devan F. smashing the old school record by two seconds in the mile with a 5:18.81.

Bryce R. and Coleman H. running season bests in the two mile, at 11:09 and 10:53.

Kendall W. and Zach Y. just keep getting faster and faster in the half mile, running a 2:25 and a 2:01.

So do Kristin S. and Chelsea N, they ran 2:39 and 2:43 for season bests.

Finally, Nate P. had a break-out race, coming within 2/3 of a second of the longstanding half mile record, running a 1:55.86.

Excellent work form everyone over the past two days, now we gotta keep it running fast for League Champs!

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P.S. Even if you are not running at League, you are welcome to attend practice all week. Please bring your uniforms to Coach Hawk as soon as you can, but we want you to keep training and get you rolling into the summer if you wish.

8th Place at Continental League Championships

2011-05-06T09:08:00.000-06:00

At League Championships, the key to placing well as a team is by getting multiple atheltes in the top 8 of events. While winning an event is great, that gets you ten points Getting a 3rd and a 5th, that gets you 12 points. This adds up quickly, so the focus is multiple placers. E

Everyone reading this needs to take a close look at that 8th place mark. Can you be better than that 8th place mark in a week? Are you willing to do everything you can, in practice and in competition, to be swifter, higher, or stronger than that 8th place mark? Of course, it always comes down to competing, on the track, so these marks are not set in stone. But, they give you a good idea of where you need to be to make a difference in the point totals a week from now. Start believing in your mind that you can be better than that 8th place mark, and you body will follow

Here is the data, take a good long look at it. Study it, convince those marks to memory. Then go out there and be better than those marks.

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Banquet Time

2011-05-06T08:19:00.000-06:00

The Saturday of State Meet is our traditional end-of-year banquet. Below is a flyer you can print out and return to any of the coaches to reserve your spot. The banquet is open to ALL athletes and their families, and we would love to see everyone there.

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Huge thanks to all the parents who put our banquet together!!

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Friday Practice

2011-05-05T13:21:00.002-06:00

Friday afternoon, I will be at the JV Championships at Parker Stadium. Boymel will be the the Twilight II meet at All City Stadium. If you are a distance kid who is not racing on Friday, you need to get to one of these meets. Once there, find either of us and we will give you the race prep workout you can run while the meet is going on.

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Gavin Article

2011-05-05T05:57:00.000-06:00

A little CHS sprinter love can be found here.....

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Three Big Meets this Weekend (Updated)

2011-05-04T12:42:00.001-06:00

Below are the line-ups for the weekend. Since it is Wednesday, some things could change, but I feel confident that the kids listed here will be doing pretty much what is shown.

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JV Champs @ Parker Stadium on 5-6

Twilight Meet II @ All-City Stadium on 5-6

Cherry Creek Invite @ Cherry Creek HS (Stutler Bowl) on 5-7

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UPDATE (5/4): At the JV Meet, SBills and TMcMillian will be jumping for us.
UPDATE (5/5): Nope, SBills and TMcMillian will not be at the JV meet, they will be at the varsity meet, along with Nate Thrasher and Tim Helmuth. Also the only pole vaulter at the JV meet will be Mark Ingram. The others will not be vaulting.

Highlights from Liberty Bell

2011-05-03T14:42:00.000-06:00

A quick post about the highlights from yesterday and Friday.

Two new season bests that catapult them into the top 8 of our league, Keagan and James running 9:38 and 10:04 in the 3200.

Devan getting faster and faster in the 800 with a 2:15.81.

Both the boys and girls 4 x 400 running their season bests at 3:30 and 4:10.

Gavin taking only 21.2 seconds to run the 200. (More on that tomorrow....)

The boys 4 x 100 running a 42.3 with still room for improvement. That's *really* fast as it is.

My voice is still gone from this race: the boys 4 x 800 going sub 8:00 in a 7:58.63!

Here is a great picture from that race, I love the look on Bacon's face.

Pic courtesy of Jeff McCoy via milesplit.com

Great job everyone, that was an excellent showing this weekend. I might have missed some highlights, as we were running fast, throwing far, and jumping high all over the place!

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Missing Today

2011-05-02T10:49:00.002-06:00

It has killed me to miss the morning work out and the beginning of the meet today. I have been thinking about it for 3 days now, so I wanted to say: I am so proud of your dedication and hard work to make it to a 5:30am practice, if I didn't live 1 hour away and had been at my new job more than a week and knew where I could have showered, I would have been there. Also, 4 x 800m Relay and SMR. I am so looking forward to hearing about how you raced. I can't wait to see your times improved and your individual contributions to the relays making an outstanding team effort possible. Know that I will be thinking about you and sending positive thoughts your way.
As I always say: Good luck & Have fun

Early Morning Practice

2011-04-30T19:55:00.002-06:00

Since we have a varsity meet on Monday afternoon, we will not have distance practice after school.

Instead, we will do race stressors on Monday morning, before school. Practice starts at 5:30 am (no, that's not a typo) at the CHS track.

If you are racing on Monday afternoon, you do not go to practice.

Bring your fast shoes, a watch if you got it, and your water bottles! It will be chilly, so bring plenty of warm-up clothes as well.

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Weekend Changes (UPDATED)

2011-04-29T04:50:00.002-06:00

As I am sure you have all heard, Saturday's competition has been moved to Monday due to weather concerns.

Friday stays exactly the same, no changes there.

Monday at 3:30, we will have a bus leaving from the school at two, all of Saturday's events will start.

We will most likely have a practice on Saturday at the CHS track, but I am not sure of the details just yet. (It is 4:40 in the morning!)

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UPDATE: All varsity distance kids will be expected to be at the track at 8:30 on Saturday morning. All other athletes are encouraged to come work out, but not expected to.

Freshman/Sophomore Championships

2011-04-28T08:34:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was the FR/SPH Championships for our League. We brought a stacked team, we had competitors in every event, and below are the results. Lots of champions scattered in there, I am psyched!

I am very excited with everyones effort yesterday, I am delighted with the high level of intensity at practice this week, and I am ecstatic with all the varsity kids that showed up to cheer on their teammates yesterday. Let's keep this up, the preparation and the results, all the way to League Championships!

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Liberty Bell Invite

2011-04-27T09:42:00.001-06:00

Our biggest meet of the year to date is this Friday and Saturday, at Littleton Public Schools Stadium.

Prelims are Friday night, finals are Saturday day.

No bus for Friday night, but on Saturday, the bus leaves at 8:15 from Chaparral.

I am psyched for this meet, I think our practice has been outstanding this week, we should have some great performances this weekend!

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UPDATE: J Miller in the open 200 is being replaced by K Bacovin

Great Work Out

2011-04-25T21:09:00.002-06:00

Great job today with work outs. It is now time to think about the goal times for the end of the season we talked about. Now we start doing part of our goal race pace in a work out. I saw many great pace changers and that s what this is all about. Time to transition from pace and current pace work to faster than we've run before pace/ speed. A couple of tips for this week and next as we transition to speed: Protein right after a hard work out is very important, bananas during the day for the potassium, water during and after the work out, perfect form, move your arms when the legs are tired. You are ready to speed up and drop those times.

Dakota Ridge Invite (UPDATED)

2011-04-21T07:49:00.001-06:00

Dakota Ridge is turning into a major meet this year. It was snowed out last year, but if we get good weather this year, then there are going to be some really fast times. The bus will be leaving early from CHS, probably 6:15-ish, so don't be late. Bring plenty of food and water and warm clothes, this is going to be a long day, from 7:50 to 5:30 if they stay on time.

CHS Distance Entries

Dakota Ridge Invite Schedule

I heard yesterday was a great practice, and I know there were lots of fast times at the JV meet yesterday. Awesome job everyone, way to keep training hard in preparation for championship season!

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UPDATE: We have a sprint medley team of Bacovin, Edginton, Hanrahan and Carney.

Meatloaf

2011-04-21T07:38:00.001-06:00

When Chloe wakes up, either from her nap or first thing in the morning, she has developed a unique way of announcing herself to the world. She sits in her crib, half-awake, and just screams "Ma.....Maaaa!.... Mama... Ma!" until we finally go get her. It's a funny scene; a dim room, Chloe sitting in the corner of the crib, hair all over the place, yelling in a short clipped voice.

Beth finally figured out what it reminds us of, the following NSFW-langauge clip from Wedding Crashers. She sounds *just* like Will Ferrell.

That's pretty funny.

SEP

Slingshot!

2011-04-18T13:22:00.002-06:00

Wow, you wanna see a slingshot?? Watch this race of Russ Brown beating Chris Solinsky in the 1500 m at Mt. SAC last weeknd. Wow!

Solinsky did not run slow by any means, but Brown just flung himself around him, classic!

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CHS Distance Results

2011-04-17T05:24:00.001-06:00

Here are my hand-timed results from this weekend's two meets.

The first one was a breezy night up in All-City Stadium by D.U. The second was a gorgeous sunny day over at Legacy Stadium by Southlands.

I mentioned Friday's highlights already, but I want to throw a shout out to Chelsea Neilsen, Kaleb Roosa, Fred Campbell and Coleman Harris, who all had double digit PR's in the mile yesterday. Jill Hanrahan also made a splash in the mile, running in the low 6:00's, and Alec Richards, Caleb Long, Zach Young and Johnny Bacovin all improved in their 800 times.

All of these PR's, after a hard week of training with hills, long repeats, speed-work, make me want to do it all over again. So, Monday will be tough, and so will Wednesday. Get ready for another killer week of preparation!

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Weekend Alum Highlights

2011-04-17T04:53:00.001-06:00

This weekend was the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut California. This is a meet we flew out too in 2007, and we did pretty well there as a school, winning the 4 x 1600 relay, along with lots of other great results.

Two alums who were on that championship 4 x 1600 team went back to Mt. SAC this weekend with their colleges, and had some pretty good finishes. Steven Busch PR-ed in the 3000 m steeplechase, running a 9:14. Alex Balsiger PR-ed in the half mile, running a 1:53.

Great job men, glad that track is treating you well after a four year absence!

Update: Found some footage of Steven's race on flotrack.com.

Watch more video of 2011 Mt. SAC Relays on flotrack.org
(Steven is in the dark blue uniform with a thin white stripe down the side.)

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Friday Night Distance Highlights

2011-04-15T23:08:00.001-06:00

Nate Purdue and Keagan Vargo dominating the open 800 by coming in 1-2 at 2:00 and 2:01.

Justin Bills smashing the 4:50 barrier with a 4:47.91.

Janelle Mansfield running a gigantic PR in the 800, over ten seconds.

Corrina Carney also having a huge 800 PR by over 10 seconds.

Ashley Lundell doing the same, but in the mile, PR-ing by ten seconds.

Devan Foster posting the third fastest time in the state so far, with an extraordinary 2:16.93 in the open 800.

Jaylene Miller stepping up and running in the mid 62's in the 4 x 400.

And I just found out that Keagan is has been accepted to Western State College, in Gunnison Colorado. Congrats Keagan, the Mountaineers just got a really fast runner and a great leader!

I hope we have the same amount of highlights after tomorrows meet!

SEP

Great Week

2011-04-15T08:01:00.002-06:00

Wanted to reiterate what Sep already said. This week and next week will be hard, be sure to use your rest when it is appropriate. These 2 weeks are so important for the end of your season and they must be executed well. We have started to do some repetitive speed which should help bring your times down. We are keeping miles pretty high but have dropped since the 1st few weeks of practice. All of this is in preparation for a great time at State or Leagues if you are not qualified for state yet. We are all ending our season soon but some of us are ending with Cross Country and Winter training and some are ending only with Spring training. Tell us how you are feeling, explain how the work out was for you and let us help you get your best race at the end of your season.

I have to say, I am so impressed and have really enjoyed working with you all. That is not an end of the season Thanks but a mid season check in. Your work ethic and ability to complete work outs is fabulous. Your commitment to getting better is impressive. I have enjoyed this team so much so far and want to offer up any help, advice etc. you may need in the coming weeks.
I have learned a lot and appreciated coach Sep's insight so much and just want you all to know we are willing to help in any way we can to make you better. Thanks for the goal updates. Men Seniors and Juniors I still need to check in with you.
Best of luck this weekend in your many chances to reach a goal time.

College Acceptances

2011-04-14T08:28:00.001-06:00

I want to throw out real quick some college acceptances from my seniors that I know of.

Jutin Bills has been accepted to the Universtiy of Colorado @ Colorado Springs, home of the Mountain Lions! Congratulations Justin!

Nate Purdue has been accepted to Ft. Hays State University, in Hays Kansas, home of the Tigers. Congratulations Nate!

And Janelle Mansfield (this years valedictorian) has been accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge Massachusetts, home of the Beavers. Janelle does not get a ton of recognition on this site, so I want to make sure that everyone knows how prestigious this acceptance is. The smartest kids in high schools across the country all apply to M.I.T, and 90% get rejected outright. The coursework is some of the most demanding in the country, and for Janelle to be accepted is truly an accomplishment. Congratulations Janelle, I am so proud of you! Go Beavers!!!!

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Recovery

2011-04-14T04:53:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone began their recovery last night, as soon as Wednesday practice is over, the recovery phase begins. Ice baths, draining your legs, stretching, eating whole healthy foods, super-hydrating; all of that stuff helps your body grow back stronger from the hard training that broke it down.

Distance training is a delicate cycle of stress and rest. You stressed your body really hard from Monday to Wednesday. Now is the time to rest and recuperate. The end of the week is when you really get faster, so make sure to work as hard at recovery as you do at intervals and long runs!

SEP

Univ. of Colorado - Triathalon - National Champions (again!)

2011-04-13T04:19:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was rough, to say the least. A lot of things compounded to make it a pretty tough day. But, every day is a new day, and when I woke up this morning and read this, I truly started to cry tears of pride. This is an original piece by one of my ex-athletes, and it's perfect. Take the next ten minutes and read it. Especially if you want to know what being a champion at the next level is like.

By CHS alum Will Nabours, 2007 State Champion 4 x 800, member of the National Champion Univ. of Colorado Triathalon team, and one of the toughest athletes I have ever had the honor to coach.

Hey Sep,
It was good to hear from you yesterday. We need to get the old team back together one of these nights once school is out... Here's how the race played out for me if you're interested. I'm far from a good writer and it's pretty detailed so feel free to skim down to the bottom to just check out the results.

Race Day, April 9th, 2011. USA Triathlon's Collegiate National Championship was about to get underway. After waiting in line to enter transition zone - wasting invaluable warm-up time - CU Boulder split up to find our individual bike rack positions. I felt unnoticed as I racked my bike in position 499, the number corresponding to which wave you were in, mine being the 4th. I set up my gear, threw on my racing flats and went out for a warm up jog with fellow teammate Corey Hazekamp. We ran a portion of the race course and threw in a few accelerations to make sure the legs were awake and ready to go. I ran through a mental checklist in my head to calm the nerves, "alright what hurts? Shoulders, arms, back? No. Quads, hamstrings, calves? No." I was ready to go.

I was warming up in my "lucky" t-shirt. Before every championship race for the last 4 years, I have warn it to sleep in the night before and to warm up in the day of the race. To this day, it is 3 for 3. I took off the shirt halfway through the warm-up run to reveal the CU uniform. I started noticing people looking at the uniform, eying the black and gold "CU" logo inlay-ed across the chest. People know CU. They know we are the school to beat and if you're wearing that logo, you must be pretty damn good. It gave me an immense feeling of pride and made me pumped to know we were here to defend our title from last year.

One hour until go time. I grabbed my bag out of transition and proceeded down to the swim start where hundreds of people lined the shore of the Black Warrior River chanting, screaming, and preparing for the pain that was to lie ahead. I saw the group of CU athletes and went over there to put on my wetsuit. We suited up and hurried down to the river for a shorter than needed swim warm-up. I threw in some accelerations in the cold water and made sure my arms got moving. It was 10 minutes until the first wave, 22 minutes until the fourth wave. Everyone was ordered out of the water and back up the banks.

My face grew serious and I could only focus on one thing - the race. I tried to shut down the brain to all other distractions except for what I could do. If I couldn't think about anything else, it meant I couldn't think about the pain that was to come. Each wave entered the water in separate intervals with the roar of the crowd. The first wave was underway. The race had begun. The horn then blew for the wave ahead of me and wave 4 was ordered down into the water. I jumped in and swam about 10 meters out and returned to the dock where we started from. 10 seconds!! The horn blew and 100 or so athletes from around the country took off. Arms flew everywhere, I swam over the top of two guys, and got my head punched. The swim starts are arguably the worst or best (whatever way you look at it) part of the triathlon. It is just a mayhem of people flying fists, pulling legs, spitting up water, and swimming out of shear fear. I got into good position near the front but the pack was so !
spread out, I couldn't find anyone to draft behind. I swam out to the first buoy about 550m upstream and turned right ninety degrees, swam a hundred meters or so, and took another ninety degree turn. By this point I was passing a bunch of athletes who had started in the waves ahead of me. In a way this was good because it gave me drafts to leapfrog to, but bad because it meant I had to navigate through large groups of slower swimmers. I remember after taking the turn to head downstream that my arms were feeling too good. I decided to pick up the pace a bit and see if I could make them hurt a bit more. I could see another swimmer just ahead of me with the same yellow swim cap on, indicating wave 4. I set my eyes on catching him. We finally turned the last buoy to head back to shore and I caught the guy I had in my sights. We sprinted the last 200m or so back to shore where I left him behind on the run into transition, T1.

The run back into transition was further than I had remembered, but tried to tell myself that it was in my favor. I found my bike rack position easily after having visualized it during warm-up, ripped off my wetsuit, chugged some water, threw on my sunglasses, snapped on my aero helmet, took my bike, and sprinted out of transition. I had a clean mount and heard fellow teammates cheering me on.

I took it out easy, giving my legs some time to warm up. It was a highway of people and I was in the fast lane - passing one person after another, too many to count. I remember finishing the first of two loops on the bike and thinking to myself, "you are going too easy!" I looked behind me on one of the climbs and saw a guy from Texas A&M trying to make a pass about 10m back. I got out of my saddle and went. I was done letting guys pass me only to be passing them right back 10 seconds later. I laid it down to the top of the hill and held it over the other side. I thought about clean, powerful pedal strokes, but my mind was fading. I remember riding out on the highway bridge to the turn around and seeing Corey coming back towards the finish. I was shocked that I was so close since he had started 4 minutes ahead of me. I tried to count the seconds from where he had been until I got there and got something roughly under 2 minutes. I put my head down and prepared for the best seco!
nd half of a bike I would ever had.

I remembered Coach Dave saying something in the car ride from Birmingham to Tuscaloosa two days prior, "there are two things humans fear most: the first being public speaking and the second death." He said humans would rather be the one in the coffin than the one giving the eulogy. For some reason that stuck with me to that point and came out when I needed it most - something to fear.

For the rest of the race I thought about death. I thought about how I would never forgive myself if I ever gave up or didn't give it everything. I thought of the insignificance from one life to another, and thought how I don't want to end up living a pointless life - that, like most, terrifies me. I thought of how I was given this opportunity that I would never ever have again and I needed to seize the moment. I compiled all this built up emotion and transferred it into my legs. Pedal stroke after pedal stroke, I was flying past people, dropping people like I was racing le Tour. I felt emotion during the race that I had never felt before and drive more intensely than I ever had. I was racing the race you remember for the rest of your life.

I came into T2 having increased my placing significantly. I was happy with my bike. My legs felt tired, but good enough to make it through what was to follow. I had a quick transition onto the run and saw Corey a hundred or so meters ahead of me. Now I was on the hunt. I was passed by a Michigan guy on the first hill and stuck on his back as we passed through mile one. He quickly fell apart and I left him behind. I now knew I could catch Corey. I knew he was a fast runner - if I did that, my run split would have to be good and my overall place even better. I remember being in terrible agony through the neighborhood loop but tried to stay positive and keep the emotions rolling through me. We ran past the finish and out onto the highway portion of the run. I knew this was it. I hit mile 4 and turned around towards the finish. Corey was still ahead of me with about the same distance as before - maybe 10 seconds. I tried to look ahead and spot the finish with the feeling that I would never make it. I remember hitting mile 5 and started having my mind shut down on me. I remember my legs just shutting down, having to walk a couple steps and then force myself to keep running. I remembered a terrible youtube video Jess Broderick had sent out to be motivational. It was of these two women in Ironman Hawaii staggering towards the finish line, eventually collapsing, and crawling across the line. I was determined to not let that be me. I remember coming in and out of consciousness narrowly running over a cone and a voice screaming in my ear. I later learned that that voice was fellow teammate Steve Richard who had graduated the year prior. He was told by Coach Mike to come out on the course to cheer Rudy in because some guy from Cal was gaining on him. It just so happened to be he stayed for the other runners to come in.

The following I don't remember and this is what Steve told me what had happened. He said I looked terrible but was in my face trying to encourage me to keep moving - I was only 600 or so meters from the finishing chute. But, there was nothing he could do. I was stumbling off coarse into a parking lot. I was going down. My body shut off completely and he grabbed me before I had the chance to smack into the asphalt. He yelled at some USAT officials to radio in some help. Another athlete, who I am so grateful for, even stopped his race to make sure I was okay. He and Steve waited for a golf cart to get to me, which I guess took about 10 minutes. Steve had enough time to call the team back at the finish and Eric Nancekivell, also a graduate from last year, came out to help. I was loaded on a golf cart and driven to the medical tent where I was put into an ice bath and hooked up to an IV. My internal body temperature was measured at 108 degrees.

The next thing I remember is waking up in the medical tent. I could hear cheering from the finishing chute and looked around to see where I was. I wasn't really sure what had happened, but I was sure it wasn't where I wanted to be. I thought about my teammates and my coach. I looked over and saw Steve. I asked him how the team did and he told me 2,3,4, and 9 to round off the scorers. I couldn't believe it. Never before had a team scored so low. We had made history. I then started to feel curious to what had happened. Steve and some of the USAT officials explained what went on and that I would be okay but would have to be rushed to the hospital. Next thing I knew, I was loaded onto a stretcher and into an ambulance.

I was introduced to some doctors and good looking nurses who started hammering me with questions. My memory felt hazy and I had to pause and think out the questions they were asking. I was stabbed in the arms over and over, hooked up to IV's, had blood drawn, copious amounts of other fluids injected into me, and my chest hooked up to living machines.

I sat in the ER for what seemed an eternity, being questioned and visited by nurses needed all sorts of information and vitals from me. One of the coolest things I've ever seen was the echo cardiograph. Basically, a doctor put a stick over my heart that projected it onto a computer screen. Right in front of me was a moving picture of my heart. We could see the valves opening and closing, pushing each drop of precious life through me. They even recorded and played the sound of the blood swooshing through each ventricle, something I will never forget.

So then I was done with the fun stuff and was sent back to the ER where a doctor notified me that I had to stay overnight. I was pissed because I knew what that meant; I would miss the awards ceremony and the traditional festivities to follow. I was sent upstairs to where I was supposed to stay for the night. I was greeted by two nurses who seemed to be in unusually good moods - I tried to play my cards. I put on the saddest face I could and asked if there was any way I could get out of the hospital in time for awards. I made sure they knew our team probably had won the title, it was my senior year, my last race, and with my team. I had to be there. They felt bad for me saying, "we'll talk to the doctor and see what we can do."

A bit later, I was on my way to freedom. Bryant Mason and Coach Dave came to meet Steve and I and take us back. What was supposed to take 15 minutes of paperwork ended up taking an hour and a half. We waited patiently for things to play out and finally they said we could go, but I HAD to wait for the wheelchair. No way in hell was I being wheeled out of that hospital, so as soon as the nurse left, we all booked it out of the room and onto the elevator.

As Dr. King, Jr. once put it, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty we are free at last!" Not that it had any comparison to the significance of its original use, I deemed it appropriate.

The race was over. The team had won. We had all survived the race of our lives and were more ecstatic than ever before. The CU Triathlon Team added another one to the national title count, bringing it up to 12. That would be all ten fingers and both pinky toes for some of you.

I am so proud of the team and everything we accomplished over the weekend. I will never forget the race and how much everyone put into it - from Rudy taking home the Big W to the thought of our man Nate Diaz falling to his hands and knees to hurl all over himself at the finish line. I will never forget this team and all it has done for me. I owe our coach, Mike Ricci, and the members of the team so much. Without them, I wouldn't be the person I am today.

My results:
Swim w/ run into transition - 22:43:00
T1 - 0:56.09
Bike - 1:02:11
T2 - 0:38.01
Run - N/A

I'm pretty confident I would have finished well into the top 15 had I been able to finish the race. The following shows how the other teammates ended up finishing. We got tagged with a bunch of bullshit penalties, but were able to not let them hurt us.

Men's Team Results:
1 Rudy Kahsar - 1:57:04
4 Chris Braden - 2:00 - 1:59:20
5 Ryan Bice - 2:00 - 1:59:23
13 David Bobka 2:00 - 2:02:30
(44) BRYANT MASON 2:08:00

Women's Team Results:
3 Jessica Broderick - 2:15:53
6 Tess Amer - 2:20:24
25 Caryn Maconi - 2:27:39
26 Maggie Scanlan - 2:27:44
(39)Courtney Clark - 2:30:57
(54) Molly MacInnes - 2:34:41
(63)Bryn Morales - 2:00 - 2:36:54

Top 10 Schools Scores:
http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_plain_text.php?race_id=18389

Not finishing the race has had me pretty down the last few days, but has also given me motivation for what is to come. Now when I am out on a cold, wet training ride I can think back to that moment and understand why we do what we do. Some things don't go the way they're planned, but that's the glory of life. We wouldn't be living it if we knew what was around every corner. (emphasis mine-SEP)

Thanks for reading through this Sep. You have been an inspiration to me not only throughout high school but into college as well. I'll never forget what we were able to accomplish back then and I know you have done a lot for me - much more than just building the base of my racing career. You helped me build the base for who I am. I learned how to suffer from you. Thank you Sep. It means more than you'll ever know. See you soon.

Will Nabours

Early Unofficial Preview of League - Boys

2011-04-12T06:08:00.000-06:00

From a Chaparral Point of view, this is what I am thinking for C.L (Continental League) Championships for the men. This is all very unofficial, I am looking at stats at 4:00 in the morning. I am sure I made a few errors, and I know these marks are only going to get better as the year goes along. But, it gives us all something to shoot for, to work towards. If we work hard every day, then Saturdays results will fall into lace. But, you need to bust your tails every day in practice. We have been doing that very well so far, but we need to ramp it up now. Listen to your coaches, execute their instructions, inspire the younger kids, push the older kids. Every guy in this team is of equal importance, and every guy on this team can contribute to a championship. If you choose to do the work, the results will speak for themselves.

100m - Gavin is tops, but the 8th place guy in C.L. is running a 11.57 right now. We can sneak one of our guys in there, right?

200m - Gavin is tops here again, and we got Curtis at 5th in C.L.. The 8th place guy is running a 24.00. Can we get one more guy in that final at league? I think so. Three guys in that 200 final would be HUGE points.

400m- Our best guy here is Nate, at 3rd. 8th is running a 52.8. That's totally do-able, we can get at least one more guy under that time by League Champs.

800m- Nate is our best guy here again, 2nd in C.L. The 8th place guy is at 2:03. We might get two guys faster than that, we just have to keep working hard every day in practice.

1600m- Nate and Keagan are 5th & 6th in C.L. 8th place is 4:44. Not out of reach, but I want to see Nate & Keagan move up those rankings a little bit more. They can do it, I believe in them.

3200m- Keagan is tops here, but 8th is a only 10:30. I know we got two or three guys that can crack that number. Scoring even one point at League could make a huge difference, I've been saying that all year.

300H- 8th palce in the C.L. is a 44.14. Cam is going to smash that number, so I need to start betting on him. :)

110H- We are a little thin here, but all teams have one area of weakness. I am confident we can make up for that.

PV- Ryan is 6th at 12-0, but 8th is 10-6. I think we got three guys that can get in the top 8 at C.L. there, right Jimmy?

HJ- 8th place is 5-10. Do we have someone that can high jump 5-10? I don't know, but I think we can get someone there in the next five weeks. Any takers?

TJ- 8th is 40-3. That's a big mark. I think we got some guys that can go over that mark though.

SP- Brendon is 3rd in C.L., 8th is 42-1. That seems like a very attainable mark for our second and third guys, I know that is what Nick throws in his sleep.

DC-Brendon is 2nd, but 8th is 118-6. Again, do we have any sexy heavies who are gonna get in the top 8 at League?

4x100- We're ranked 2nd, and we can move up into 1st by League. We got the thoroughbreds to do that for sure.

4x200- We're ranked 1st in C.L., and that is great. Now, let's keep working hard to stay there. No complacency.

4x400- 8th in C.L. is a 3:37. If we want to achieve our goals, we need a strong 4 x 400 team. We got the horses, now let's start racing it like it means something.

4x800m- We're ranked 2nd in C.L. We can move up; again, it just takes total effort and commitment at pracitce.

Wow, that is a long list, but I am glad I looked at all those numbers. It gives me a great feeling about this team. But, right now, these numbers count for nothing. In fact, they mean nothing even the day before League Championships. It is all about how you actually perform on that weekend. I am confident we will perform well. These stats should give you hope. We have a really good chance to do a lot of damage in May. If we continue to work hard and continue to improve every day, I like our chances, a lot.

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Varsity Meet Distance Line-Ups (4/15 & 4/16)

2011-04-12T06:05:00.000-06:00

We have two varsity meets this weekend, one on Friday night at All-City Stadium and one all day Saturday at Legacy Stadium.

Here are the distance line-ups for both meets, if you are on one of these lists, you will not be competing in the JV meet Friday at Highlands Ranch HS. Those JV line-ups will be up on the blog soon.

Friday night's line-ups

Saturday's line-ups

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Hard Week on the Horizon

2011-04-10T19:37:00.000-06:00

Great job by everyone at Mullen, and your reward for that is a super hard week of training. Be ready to be exhausted Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We are really starting to build for the championship season, and that begins with tearing everyone down this week.

Be rested, be hydrated, keep those grades up, this week is going to be fun!

(This is the state you should be in after practice this week!)

CHS JV Meet Distance Line-Ups

2011-04-07T11:54:00.001-06:00

JV Meet this Friday at CHS at 3:30.

Here are the distance line-ups!

Great job out of everyone yesterday, BTW.

4 x 800:

Trembley

Long

Allen

Geerdes

Nyiro

Sjobakken

Lundell

Neilsen

400:

Trembley

Long

Allen

Geerdes

Nyiro

Sjobakken

Lundell

Neilsen

1600/800:

Vargo

Barlow

Ferguson

Smith

Lasater

Roberts

Jenkins

Rummler

Reynolds

Roosa

Campbell

Harris

Rich

Mullen Entires 2011

2011-04-05T10:02:00.001-06:00

Whew, just finished composing the CHS entries from the giant start list Mullen sent us. I searched for CHAP in the file, and found us in 36 events! Wow, that might be a record for us! I have sent the entire file to Coach Hawk to double check, but I am fairly certain we are in 36.

I'm sure you all know this already, but the Mullen Invite is a very important, high-end track meet. It will have the best competition we have faced so far in the season (even without Castle View HS, a strong League rival), and even though there are no team scores, state qualifying marks are ready to be had if you bring your "A" game.

Anyone who is not on this list will be competing in the JV meet at CHS on Friday. Unfortunately, not everyone we entered made it into the Mullen Invite, as the standards are quite high for open events. However, the JV meet on Friday will have some excellent competition, and I am confident the JV participants will run very, very well.

So, start getting some sleep! Make sure you eat lots of whole foods! Stay super-hydrated! This is a focus meet, one we have been training for. I expect some great marks on Saturday, continuing our progression towards elite status by the end of the season!

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Great Steeplechase Picture

2011-04-05T05:22:00.000-06:00

(http://www.columbiatribune.com/photos/2011/apr/02/26704/)

In the lead is Steven Busch, CHS alum, running for Drury University at the Missouri Relays this past a couple weeks ago. Steven ran a 9:34 to come in second. Excellent work, Steve-O!

On the women's side, Katelyn Wojan led the Panthers with a second place in the 800, with a time of 2:19. Way to go Katelyn, must have been those slingshots you practiced with us over break!

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Weekly Training

2011-04-03T09:29:00.002-06:00

With the halfway point of the season upon us, it is time to start really focusing on our specific events we want to do well in. In order to do that effectively with over 40 athletes, Coach Boymel and I have devised a system all athletes get the necessary speed work and endurance work they need for their events.

One day a week (usually Monday, in this week's case Wednesday), I will have ALL the 400m and up kids. They will be doing MY workout, and it will be hard. One day a week (usually Wednesday, but in this case Monday) Coach Boymel will have ALL the 400m and up kids. They will be doing HER workout, and it will be hard. The workouts will be differing lengths, stress differing systems, but both will be very difficult, both will require lots of guts, and both will make you faster runners.

I am really excited about this plan, I have been waiting for a while to implement it, and I know it is going to get us even faster for the championship season.

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Personal Bests

2011-04-02T20:06:00.004-06:00

What a weekend for some 2011 personal bests. Between the expertly coached JV meet on Thursday, and the big time varsity meet today, I wagered over 15 individual and relay 2011 personal bests fell. That is fantastic news, considering this week was a hard week of training in our yearly cycle.

Take a close look at the sheets above, I keep track of all events from the 800 and up. Coach Boymel has all of the data for the 400 kids, and tons of 2011 P.B.'s fell there as well. Ots of times with 3/31 and 4/2 as the dates!

Looking forward to another good solid week of training, Coach Boymel is running the show Monday with "Death by Quarters" and I am in charge Wednesday with "Race Repeats on Grass". Her workout sounds a lot more gruesome than mine, but both will make you super fast for this weekend's racing.

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Mtn. Range Varsity Line-Ups

2011-03-31T08:56:00.004-06:00

Be at the school at 6:30 am on Saturday!

Be ready for a nice warm day!

Be ready to run fast, jump high, throw far!

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Hard Training

2011-03-29T07:21:00.003-06:00

Yesterday's practice was tough, looking at the checkmarks, only three runners out of 26 hit anywhere near to ten kilometers at VO2 max pace. Wow, talk about thinning of the herd!

However, I kept everyone running, I sent no one home, because these intervals were not about time, they were about effort. Even if you weren't hitting your times, as long as you were running fast, you were accomplishing the goal of the workout. To train your body to effectively run at high speeds without experiencing a total shut down, both metabolically and structurally.

So yeah, it was a tough workout. But it was a beneficial one. (Hopefully you made it even more beneficial by resting, hydrating and eating well last night!) Today is going to be a tough workout too, 90 min run, at a pretty good clip. Take advantage of these tough workouts, soak them in, embrace them, attack them; and you will be that much of a faster runner for it.

SEP