Goals

I am a big proponent of setting goals. I think having something to shoot for at the end of your journey is important. It helps you get out of bed before the sun comes up to go for a long run, it helps you do one more interval, it helps you suffer for 30 more seconds in the ice bath. Enjoying the training and enjoying the journey is important, but the end-goal is a crucial part of the whole experience.

You all should want to improve your racing throughout this process, but I want to throw out some numbers that you all should be aiming for. You might not achieve these times this year, but I truly think all of you have the capability to achieve them in the future if you dedicate yourselves to it.

Below are the times of the 18th fastest person in 5A Track and Field for 2009 and 2010. Why 18th? The top 18 athletes in each event go on to the State Meet in May. And running at the State Meet is the truly ultimate experience in Colorado Track & Field.

Gender/Event/2009 Time/2010 Time

Women/400 m/60.34/58.39
Women/800 m/ 2:23.45/2:22.05
Women/1600 m/5:20.63/5:18.71
Women/3200 m/11:40.77/11:36.45

Men/400 m/50.32/50.06
Men/800 m/1:58.37/1:58.11
Men/1600 m/4:29.31/4:27.77
Men/9:54.56/9:47.67

Some fast times, for sure, but some attainable times. Print these times out, hang them on your bathroom mirror, or staple them to your notebook. Visualize yourself running those times. The journey to achieve these times starts now. It starts with getting out there and doing the running. It starts with stretching and with good nutrition. You all have a headstart on your competitors due to your participation in winter track, so take advantage of it. What's the silly cliche, "hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard" or something like that. It's a cliche, but it's true. Put in the hard work now, and you will be reaping the benefits later on in the season.

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Great First Day

Wow,

What a great first day of practice, we had a great turn-out of total athletes, a great cross section of track disciplines were present, and we had a surprising number of athletes complete the strength session.

Congratulations go out to:

Bryce Rich
Nate Purdue
Ryan Kwiatowksi
Hanna Barringer
Whitney Schultz
Cy Ferguson
Devan Foster
Evan Roberts
and Jonny Bacovin!

We will do this exact same workout again, at the end of the winter season, and hopefully we get a significant number of athletes completing our "Simple Monks" routine.

Remember, when chopping water and carrying wood, chop water and carry wood.

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Miles

This winter season, we are going back to basics. For the first six weeks of training, we will be trying to accomplish one thing, and one thing only. Getting as many miles under our feet as we can.

We will be progressively increasing our mileage, about 5% per week, in order to reach our goal of a solid aerobic base by the beginning of February. We are not shooting for 100 miles per week, but we are going to be able to consistently run for 60-75 minutes at a time.

Running lots of miles accomplishes many things. I blogged about this four years ago, you can re-read it if you want. But, in the time since that initial blog post, I have learned a few things about what I used to call LSD. (Long Slow Distance)

First of all, it shouldn't be automatically long, or automatically slow. It should start off at a distance that taxes you, then you should slowly increase that distance so it keeps taxing you. The pace should not always be super slow, nor should it always be super fast. The pace should change with the terrain, the weather, your overall fitness level, even with how you are feeling minute to minute. These runs should be fun, meaning if you want to pick up the pace a bit, go for it. And if you are feeling a little sluggish, don't be afraid to shuffle a mile to get warmed up.

Let your body tell you how fast to go. Don't be concerned with paces or miles or anything like that. Go out and just run. Have fun with it. Know that the time spent running now will help guard against injury and sickness, help prevent fatigue, enable you to do a greater number of intervals with shorter recovery, and allow you to get that top speed that much faster.

My old ski coach used to say, "You gotta go slow to go fast." and that applies here. Intervals, tempo runs, plyometrics. All that will come later. Build your foundation of aerobic miles now, so you can tolerate and utilize all of those speed and strength workouts.

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Bullet Points Galore

Good evening everyone, lots of quick thoughts, in no particular order.

*Keagan ran today in Wisconsin, he ran a 15:45, for 40th place, at the Footlocker Midwest Regionals. I am assuming it was freezing cold, so any time under 16:00 minutes is a great time. Good work Keagan, you deserve some time off, take it!

*Been up in the mountains for the holiday, getting in lots of XC skiing. Let me tell you, pulling a 23 lb human being behind you in a sled is not easy work. Wow my thighs are sore!

*The CHS coaches are meeting Monday night, gona finalize all of the winter track plans. I do know that the distance kids will be meeting twice a week(Monday and Wednesday), with training plans individually desgined for all. We will not go to any winter meets as a club, but you are more than welcome to go to any of the meets on your own. You will have to be a member of USATF (for insurance purposes) and there will be a nominal fee to join the club. We are hoping to start by the beginning of next week, so stay tuned!

*I classic skied over 12km today on my own this afternoon, I was laboring. My thighs were sore as soon as I was done, that's how I know it was a good workout. As I was finishing up, I saw the University of Denver nordic team heading out for a workout. I asked one girl what they were doing, and she politley replied, "Oh, just an easy hour and a half." (In skiing, training is measured by time, not by distance, for obvious reasons) I thought to myself, an hour and a half?!? After they skied this morning? I did some quick math, and at their T-day camp, they conservatively got in 15 hours of training in 4.5 days. Unbelievable. I guess that is why they are national championship contenders every year.

*And those D.U. skiers are awesome to watch. They just jump on their skis, a couple of hops, and they are already cruising along three times as fast as I can go. Maybe I used to be like that, but not anymore. Slow, chunky and winded, that's me. :)

*Beth got me this Garmin watch for Father's Day this spring, and I must say, it is the best girt I have gotten in recent memory. I have it set for running workouts, cycling/rollerskiing workouts, and skiing workouts. The best thing about it is for my skiing workouts, it gives me my "speed zone" I am usually in "squirrel" zone, but I occasionally go up to "greyhound". Nice. Ia m addicted to it, I am constantly tweaking it and using it to post workouts. It totally helps with my motivation, that and my iPod; I don't know how I lived without them.

*We have a new middle distance coach on the CHS staff, and I have been working very closely with her the past couple of weeks to set us up for some big time success this spring. He name is Janie Boymel, and she used to coach at Platte Canyon HS. She is a great coach, a great person, and will be a huge addition to our coaching staff. I am eager to work with her with all of the athletes, that's for sure!

*I hope you all had a great turkey day, and I hope all of you have been accumulating as many miles as you can. Heck, even I have gotten a good amount of miles in. My plan for the distance kids for the first six weeks of winter track is miles, miles, miles, and it certainly is easier to do that if you are already used to it. If not, no worries, we will get you up to speed quickly. (Track pun, you caught that, right?)

*That's all for now, ladies and gentlemen, gonna go relax on the couch with an adult beverage. I might not be as fast as those Pioneers, but I can at least enjoy a beer post-workout. I am pretty sure they cannot. :) :)

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Congrats Keagan

This was just brought to my attention, but over the weekend, Keagan Vargo was named to the Colorado All-State Cross Country team!

This is an incredible honor, and I know Keagan deserves it. He has worked hard all season long to turn himself into an elite runner and being All-State is something he should be proud of.

Great job Keagan, congratulations!

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Drury Running News

Over the weekend, we had two alums continue their fall racing seasons.

Over at Drury University, the Panthers competed in their regional championships. Katelyn Wojan ran in the women's race (a 6km, weird) and finished in 45th place with a time of 23:56 Those are sub-6:30 miles, excellent job Wojan!

Steven Busch competed on the men's side, and with a 7th place finish, garnered Grand Valley All Conference honors! Way to go Steven, that's fantastic! Steven ran the five mile course in 25:18, at 5:06 a mile. Impressive work, Steve-O!

The Panthers race in a couple weeks in Lousiville, for their Regional Championships, wish them luck!

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Winter Track

As I am sure most of you know, the Chaparral Winter Track & Field program starts up in late November/early December. The coaches will be meeting a couple of times this month to figure out exactly what it will look like, so until then, this is your training "assignment".

If you ran XC, take two weeks off from the time your last competition ended. Relax, rest, don't run, get your muscles and brain re-charged. It's a long track season, two weeks off now will make you better the last two weeks in May.

Once those two weeks are done, just get out there and run. Get lots of miles under your belt. No speed work, no tempo work, no strength work. Miles, miles, miles and more miles. See if you can run a little further or a little longer every day. Don't worry about running fast, worry about how many minutes running you can accumulate between now and December.

The more time spent running in November means the easier time you will have doing intervals and recovering from those intervals come April, trust me.

So, until then, happy running, enjoy yourself, and start getting psyched for a uber-successful track season!

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Percent Back Data

The actual data results from the State Meet have finally been posted!

I have the percent back data if anyone wants it. If you are interested, shoot me an email, and I will email you the numbers.

Or, you can always figure it out on your own.

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Regional Championship Analysis

Regional Championships were held yesterday, and both the CHS teams did pretty well yesterday. The boys came in second overall, qualifying for State, and the girls team came in 7th in their region.

Above is the percent back sheet, and here's a huge shout-out to the the one athlete who improved from League Championships to Regional Championships.

J. Kadolph: 7.45 to 6.58, that is improvement two weeks in a row, (he got faster from Titan Invite to League Champs as well), so awesome job James!!

A lot of athletes were close to improvement, they might have only regressed by a couple of hundredths of percentage points. The competition is getting tougher, but that is they way any championship season goes. You gotta improve along with your competition if you are going to do some damage at the State meet. I think this boys team can do that damage, they got one more week of hard training and then we'll see what happens!

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P,.S. As usual, for primary source material, head on over to co.milesplit.com!

Denver Marathon Highlights

A couple of shout-outs from the Denver Marathon, which ran through downtown D-town today.

Coach Hawk ran the half marathon version of the race, running a great time of 1:47, for about 8:15 miles. Great job Coach Hawk!

And most of us know the winner of the race, Mike Aish. He works at B.R.C. and is always willing to help out us much slower runners reach our goals. Congrats Mike, running a 2;30 at altitude, that's a great win!

Weekly CHS Alumi News

Couple of quick updates on the college scene....

Alex Balsiger ran with the Colorado State University JV runners at Wash. Park this weekend, heard he ran a 27:32 for five miles. Not bad for not racing all season, not bad at all.

Katelyn Wojan tried to compete for Drury this weekend, but a creaky knee made her coach shut her down. I believe Coach Van Arkel knows best, he is making sure Katelyn is ready for championship season.

And good ol' Steven Busch ran this weekend for Drury as well, running a 10km in 31:51, a new personal record. His comment was, "I can improve on that, easily." Wow, sprinkle in a little speedwork, and will he go under 31:00?? I certainly hope so!

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CHS XC League Championship Results

The CHS harriers ran their League Championships yesterday, and we have a League Champion! Keagan Vargo was the first place finisher in the boys race, by over 13 seconds. Nate Purdue also dropped a top ten finish, which is really great. But, let's look at the percent backs, which is what I think really tells the story.

Here is the %-back from the Titan Invite compared to two weeks later, here at the League Champs.

Vargo: -0.53 to -0.95 Improvement!

Purdue: 5.21 to 3.10 Improvement!

Kadolph: 7.7 to 7.45 Improvement!

Anderson: 7.97 to 8.82

Ingram: 9.2 to 10.95

Ferguson: 10.66 to 11.97

Harris: 11.00 to 11.90

Foster: 6:02 to 6.84

Ferguson: 10.6 to 7.14 Improvement!

Heard: 9.12 to 10.88

Nyiro: 15.59 to 13.96 Improvement!

If I may offer a little commentary here, the boys team yesterday came in third overall with 101 points, (and the girls came in 6th) which I think is a little bit of a disappointment for that boys team. I think they are better than that, but if you look at the numbers, it is up to those 4, 5, 6, & 7th place runners to push that team up into the higher place spots. The 4-7 runners did not improve from two weeks ago to today. Maybe that has something to do with training through this race, or maybe other factors I am not aware of within the team. (Not saying anything is going on, just saying I am not in the inner XC circle!!) But, this data shows that you can have two guys in the top ten, three in the top twenty, and you will not succeed as a team unless your slower guys race lights out. That has been, and always will be the key to XC; it's not the top guys, it's the 4-7 guys that make the difference in a race. I think if those 4-7 boys put in a fantastic solid week of training, then watch out, Colorado, CHS at State is going to do some damage!

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P.S. Here is the %-back sheet, as usual, head over to Coach Versaw's page for the primary source material.

Falcon Invite Percent Backs

Here are the percent back results for the latest race, the Falcon Invite. (I'm a little late, I admit, due to weddings and such this weekend.) As usual head over to Colorado milesplit.com for the primary source material from Coach Versaw.

But, overall, it looks like a lot of the JV kids stepped up pretty well running against some tough competition. These varsity competitions are more about racing, it's about preparing for your race, getting mentally ready to run the best race you an, and learning tactics that will help you eventually win some races. The more experience the younger kids can get at this level, the better.

Can't wait till next week at League, I wish everyone great luck! And I heard a nasty rumor that Alex Balsiger will be running a race at Washington Park Saturday morning with his CSU mates. Run fast, Bals!

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Collegiate Results

A quick post on some recent CHS alum racing news.

Ryan Bull ran in the Rocky Mtn. Shoot-Out up in Boulder this weekend. Over the difficult 8 km course, Ryan ran a very solid 30:14, which improves upon his 8 km time by 40 seconds! Wow!

In Chicago, in howling wind, blowing sand, and overall brutal conditions, Steven Busch ran a eight kilometers in 25:39 to snag a top 20 in the race and be the second runner on the Drury men's team. Katelyn Wojan, after a particularly stirring pep talk from her teammate, ran her five kilometer race in 19:44 to be the third Drury Panther to cross the line.

Excellent work everyone, those are some really great results. And if there are any other alums out there competing, shoot me a text message, I want to hear about how you are doing!

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EDIT: Go to Coach Whitenack's excellent blog for more alum news!

Titan Invite Data

The CHS XC team went down to the Springs yesterday to run in the Titan Thunder Invite. On the right is the latest chart of the finishing times, places and percent backs. Of course, you can get all the primary source information from Coach Versaw's wonderful and detailed Milesplit.com page, as well as a short little article, and a great picture gallery.

I want to say right now, I would love to have Mr. Anderson & Mr. Harris come run for the CHS track team in the spring. Consider this a formal invitation gentlemen, I know you love baseball, but both of you guys are very talented runners and you would help out the track team immensely with your running skill. To paraphrase Lebron, bring your talents to the CHS track!

Even though it takes a little bit more time than I always figure, I really enjoy crunching the number for the JV kids who run. If you look at the successful programs in track and XC, (Ft. Collins, TCA, Battle Mtn.) they all have very deep and talented JV squads. Look at the JV girls race, I think Ft. Collins took the top three spots, that is amazing. I think the key to long term success in track/XC is to always work on developing your JV runners, making sure they are valued, and to avoid a break in the pipeline from the middle school to the varsity level . I know that is one thing I plan on becoming better at as a track coach, as we need to build for the long haul, not just one year at a time.

Having just said that about the JV runners, I want to now focus a few varsity kids. I figure they have run three races so far, at the highest levels. Now we can start seeing if they are getting better compared to the leaders as the year progresses. That is what %-back measures, how close you are to winning the race (which is always the ultimate goal). The three races I am looking at are New Mexico, Liberty Bell and Titan Invite. Here is the data.

Vargo: 1.16 / -3.2 / -0.53

Purdue: 5.5 / 4.2 / 5.21

Kadolph: 9.4 / 8.7 / 7.7

Ingram: 10 / 13.1 /9.2

Ferguson: 12.1 /11.6 /10.66

Rich: 12.2 / NA / 11.66

Anderson: NA / 10 /7.97

Foster: 7.2 / 12.4 / 6.02

Heard: 8.2 / 9.6 / 9.12

Ferguson: 12.4 / 14.6 / 10.60

Mansfield: 12.5 / 15 / 12.51

Nyiro: 14 / 15.3 / 15.59

I am very psyched to see kids consistently improving over the course of the season so far. Runners like Kadolph, Ferguson, Rich, Anderson, all those guys have been getting better and better compared to top flight competition. That is excellent. And to see Foster, Ferguson and Mansfield come back and get those %-backs low again, that is a job well done. It's hard to be consistent from race to race, week in and week out. And when you are already a top-flight runner, it is hard to keep improving, to keep dropping that %-back. It can be done however, it just takes a lot of discipline and dedication, which I know you all have tons of.

So, have a great week of training everyone, I am eager to see what the coming weeks bring in terms of fast racing.

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P.S. And best wishes to Bills, I heard he fell victim to a stress fracture. I know he will bounce back stronger than ever for track season though, he is a tough, tough runner.