Comments

Hey all anonymous people,

If you have a question about the blog, the distance team, the awards, the line-ups, anything like that, please just email me. Posting silly anonymous crap in the comments is immature and detrimental to the team as a whole. Just shoot me an email, and I will be glad to try and explain our thought process.

I know I have tons of enemies, I know that I ruffle lots of feathers, I know that I make decisions that might not be that popular. But you know what, everything I do, from June to May, is to try and make kids better runners. If you don't like how I do it, then ignore me. Don't try and slam me or my athletes, from behind an anonymous curtain, so you can feel better. Start your own blog, start your own training club, or even better, get your lazy butt off the couch and do some actual coaching and giving back to the running community, instead of trying to bring it down.

Grow up, get a life, get off the internet, and realize that all the coaches and athletes on this track team work their tails off and should not be insulted in such a fashion.

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State Qualifiers

Here are the 2010 CHS State Qualifiers.

Sprint Medley:

Sant, Hughes, Grimm, Larsen Alt: Vazquez & Yeager

4 x 200 m Girls:

Sant, Wojan, Hughes, Grimm Alt: Vazquez & Yeager

4 x 800 m Boys:

Bull, Bills, Vargo, Purdue Alts: Burt & Richards

4 x 100 Girls:

Sant, Follett, Hughes, Grimm Alt: Edginton

4 x 100 Boys:

McHenry, Petty, Henry, Whipple Alt: Ray

Discus Boys:

Austin

Discus Girls:

Costin

Shotput Girls:

Costin

100 Hurdles:

Follett

300 Hurdles Boys:

Batt

Pole Vault Girls:

Daily

High Jump Girls:

Follett, Bacovin

Triple Jump Girls:

Follett

3200 Girls:

Hine

3200 Boys:

Vargo

800 Boys:

Purdue

1600 Boys:

Vargo

For a complete schedule, please click here.

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Track Banquet

It's getting to be that time of the year again, championship season always brings the world famous CHS T & F banquet! This is our end-of-year celebration for all of the track and field athletes and their families. The food is great, the decorations are amazing, the tributes to the seniors are emotional, the senior gag gifts are hilarious and the all-team awards are the pinnacle of celebration.

The banquet is open to all athletes, male/female, JV/Varsity, freshman/sophomore/junior/senior. It will take place at Chaparral next Saturday night, in the commons/auditorium, and the more people that attend, the more fun it becomes. 6:00 pm start time. End time, later than you think. But it is worth taking the time to celebrate all the athletes achievements, as they have worked super hard all year and deserve all the lavish accolades.

Below is a form that you need to return to Linda Lake by the end of today. It is so she can order enough awesome Bennett's BBQ for everyone. I think the best way to do it is to email her at chstfboosters[at]yahoo.com to tell them how many people plan on celebrating If you want, you could print out the form, fill it in, re-scan it, and then email it to Linda. (I am sure Darren will be very impressed with that technological feat.) As for the admission charge, you can bring the check to me at the meet tomorrow, or bring it to me before the bus leaves at 7:15.

Save some BBQ for me though, I am going to be a little late, cause we are going to have some teams in the 4 x 400 finals, I can just feel it!!

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One Year Ago

As much as I hate looking towards the past when the future is so shining bright in front of us, I want to mention that today is my daughter's one year birthday. It was one year ago today, at 6:53 am, that lovely Chloe came into our lives. Screaming like a banshee, covered in meconium, with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, twice, she was the best thing to happen to Beth and I. We had lots of great visitors that day, Christina, Carolyn, uhhhh... I am sure there were more, but my memory is kind of hazy. :) But, I do remember crying out in joy at the sight and sounds of my beautiful new baby daughter.

Chloe one year ago.

Chloe today.

If you are really bored, click this link to check out this great movie Beth made of Chloe. Set to the stylistic musings of "Punk Rock Girl" by The Dead Milkmen, it's a short video of what Chloe does all day.

That was also a pretty cool day for the track team, we were lucky enough to come out on top in the men's 4 x 800 relay at the State Meet. Here is a great picture of that team.

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League Championship Schedule & Line-Up

The coaches have set the League Championship line-ups for this weekend. We are scheduled to go on Thursday afternoon and all day Saturday, but if weather prevents this from happening, we will go to a finals only format on Saturday. Let's cross our fingers for good weather, hope this storm comes in early and blows out quickly.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to email me, and thanks to everyone who has volunteered to help out with running the meet. Darren or I will be in touch with you soon!

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Great Weekend

As you can tell, we had a great weekend for running fast. This upcoming week is League Championships. We will be running the horses into the ground, as we are shooting to win a League title, both on the women's and men's side.

More details to come later in the day.....

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More Weekend Improvements!

There were so many athletes that set personal bests this weekend, I couldn't type them up. So, I just cut-and-pasted from my Excel files.

Set aside some time, this is a looooong list!

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Need Some Help

One week from today is the League Championship meet, hosted by Chaparral HS at Aurora Public Schools Stadium. The meet is scheduled for Thursday the 13th in the afternoon/early evening, and all day Saturday the 15th.

Since CHS is hosting the meet, we are responsible for providing some workers who can help to make the meet run professionally and smoothly. Everything from ribbon envelope stuffers, to athlete check-in clerks, to results runners, to gate attendants, we need lots of volunteers.

If you are an athlete, parent, or supporter of CHS T&F, please think about helping out the program. Coaches can't do these jobs, we need to coach. Coaches WAG's can't do it, they are too busy taking care of the coaches. CHS administrators cannot do it, they have to work with CHSAA to make this an official League Championship meet. So, we (the coaching staff and the booster club) are asking the CHS T&F community to please lend a hand.

Please email either me bseppala19[at]gmail.com or Booster Club El Presidente Darren Lake chstfboosters[at]yahoo.com with any questions or commitments. Thanks in advance, let's all work together to make this a great meet!

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Sports Drinks

Steven B. commented on the last post about how his pre-race routine includes drinking Pedialyte, a electrolyte replacement drink designed for infants. I have heard of athletes drinking Pedialyte, but I admit, I am an old school Gatorade fan. I did some research, and found some studies show Pedialyte is better than Gatorade, and other studies say the exact opposite. However, all studies are somewhat wishy-washy in their conclusions, stating both types of drinks can be effective for athletes.

The Gatroade/Pedialyte debate differs from what all of you were taught in middle school. Every time you walk past a water fountain, take a good long drink. Water is free; contrary to what sensationalistic media says, you CANNOT drink too much of it; and no one has an aversion to the flavor of it. Water is good stuff, can't go wrong with it in my opinion.

So, what should you do? Well, I would keep it simple. Drink plenty of water, at least three Nalgene bottles a day. Start drinking plenty of fluids now, as your body needs time to get totally hydrated. After practice, drink some type of electrolyte replacement drink. Stay away from empty calories (soda, coffee) that can dehydrate you. And make sure your pee is clear. The clearer the better! You need to stay hydrated, at all times, for optimal performance in training and in racing.

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Eating for Elite Performances

Coming into our championship season, it is really important that we not only keep our training at a high level, but also our eating and drinking and rest (Hydration-Nutrition-Relaxation)

Let's talk eating. While the pasta dinners at Carino's are a great source of merriment and entertainment and excellent spaghetti, it has been proven, time and time again, that simply eating well one night before a big race doesn't do a bit of good for you. You need to eat well ALL THE TIME, plain and simple. That means every day, three meals a day. That means you need to start today, to get ready for races weeks from now.

I subscribe to two simple nutrition rules. One, don't eat anything with ingredients you cannot pronounce. Two, eat lots of it. The training that we are doing requires huge amounts of energy and calories, and you simply cannot eat too much when you are training on an elite level track team. You can eat too many Cheeze-Its, but you can't eat too many apples.

So, do some research, talk to Coach Whintenack, our nutrition guru. Google "Nancy Clark articles" and you will find tons of great resources like this one, which will help you fine-tune your diet for optimum performance.

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JV Champs Date Change

Just talked to Coach Hawk, who just talked to the LHS & HHS coaches.

The JV meet is on THURSDAY of this week, not Friday. Everything else stays the same, please plan accordingly.

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Cherry Creek Invite Information

On Saturday, we are heading up to the world famous Stutler Bowl at Cherry Creek High School. First event is at 8:00 sharp, so we will be leaving early, I am betting around 6:15 or so. That's OK, as this will be a big time meet, one where we can get some super fast times.

Start times are a little funky, make sure to double check when you are running, and always pay attention to the track. They will run early if they can, so be ready to go at a moment's notice.

Let's cross our fingers that the weather and the timing system and whatever else has seemed cursed this year decides to reward our perseverance and diligence. Even if the weather is rough, fast times can still be run. Great athletes with great training, great form, and great mental toughness can beat anything anytime. And that is what we are, great athletes who have prepared better than anyone. I suggest we show everyone this weekend what we are all about!

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TJ Twilight Meet Information

We are sending a few athletes to the Thomas Jefferson Twilight Track Meet this Friday night. We feel that the athletes we have selected would benefit the most from an extra chance to run a race to move up the state ranking lists, without tiring themselves out for the meet the next day. The distance list is small, as our focus is the JV Championship meet as well as the Cherry Creek Invite on Saturday.

The meet is at All-City stadium, about 30 min from Parker. Go north on I-25, and get off at the Downing exit. Go North on Downing, then hang a right onto Louisiana. It's right there, you can't miss it, right behind Denver South HS. Just look for the statue of Jimmy Maroney, hero of Denver Public Schools athletics.

Remember, the start times listed below are approximate, better to be early and wait around than to be late and have to hurry through a warm-up.

All of the coaches will be in attendance, except Coach Neale and I, who will be coming up as soon as the JV championships are done.

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JV Championship 2010 Information

Above is the distance team start list for the JV Championships, hosted by Heritage HS at Littleton Public Schools Stadium. The meet will be this Friday afternoon, and I would like to repeat what we did last week at the JV meet, a first and a second.

Coach Neale and myself will be in attendance, and we hope that everyone competing can give it everything they have got. This will be our last time competing for almost everyone at this meet, so don't hold anything back!

The schedule is a traditional rolling schedule. There is no set times for the start of each race, so be ready and be prepared at all times!

Hopefully we get a big crowd cheering us on, we always seem to run fast at this stadium!

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Record Setting Weekend

I just got a tweet alerting me to video footage of Chris Solinsky's record setting 10km on the track from this weekend. He ran a 26:59, that works out to twenty-five sub 65 second laps.....in a row! He ran a 1:56 last 800. Just to let that sink in, he ran 23 laps at 65 or less, then he dropped a 1:56! Sure, Solinsky was a stud in college, but this performance is truly a testament to the hard work and pure joy he has integrated into his training and racing. Just listening to the announcers going berserk in the last 1600 meters gives me goosebumps!

How does this pertain to CHS track? Well, this is an example of what we all can do, because we all have this performance in us somewhere. We might not be setting American records, but if we celebrate and embrace our training, and we find the joy of racing, then all of us can go down in the record books in some shape or form. We just need to let the performances come, not force them.

Enjoy!

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