Sick of it

I am yanking Dyestat off my "links to Check" list. There's a lot of varied reasons why, too many to list here, but the main reason is that I am just so sick and tired of athletes throwing other athletes under the bus on the sick message boards. You rarely see the "studs" posting on there, they are too busy training. It has turned into a venue for negative and spiteful athletes who can't come through in the clutch, when it really should be a cool venue for posting and sharing ideas about running and training. Now the message boards are complete joke, the trolls on them embarrass themselves, and I refuse to help it out. Hey, the main news page is decent, but there are better places to get your running news. No more Dyestat here!!

SEP

Can't Read the Calendar

So, I was planning on contacting the meet director about the orienteering race this weekend, and when I double checked the date, I realized it was *next* week, the 6th & 7th of September, Labor Day weekend. D'oh!! Instead of emailing the R.D., I found there is online registration, as well as directions to Saylor Park, where the meet is being held. Wow, how simple! (It looks like the meet is held directly west of Palmer Lake, too bad there is no road over the mountains. The way to go might be through Deckers and Westcliffe, the proverbial "back way", instead of driving all the way down to Co. Springs and back up again. We'll have to see, I guess.)

I am still excited about going, I am these races are a blast! I hope everyone is still stoked to go, even if it is a holiday weekend. This race is a little different, it is a two day meet, and we will be racing on Saturday. There are a lot of varied length races on Saturday, look at the chart on the sign-up page and see which one (or "ones") you want to participate in. (I might give the green course a try.) Also, if your parents, your siblings, or other runner friends want to come along as well, that would be great! The more the merrier, I always say. And of course, any questions or clarification, email me and I will try to help.

So, it looks like this week will be a normal Saturday for us. I am thinking long intervals at Englewood Dam, probably kilometer repeats, with the times starting easy and getting harder as you get tired. Meet at my place at 7:30, and we'll go from there.

See you all this afternoon!

SEP

EDIT: This weekend is Labor Day Weekend, I really can't read the calendar. But the races really are on the 6th & 7th.

Hurting Back

Between the concert Friday night and the yard work Saturday afternoon, my back got royally screwed up. It is feeling a lot better this morning, thanks to ibuprofen and a heating pad, but it still hurts more than it should. This sucks, because after brewing today, Beth and I wanted to finish up the mulch beds we started. Grrrrrrr.

Great interval session yesterday up at Denver West track! Running on the cinders and gravel makes you mentally tougher, and physically stronger; the only track we won't run on is an asphalt one, although I have never seen one of those. :) :) This week of practice might be a little off, as we have a MS XC meet at Sierra on Monday and Tuesday. I would like to do roller coaster intervals again on Monday at Sierra, but expect a potential big crowd there. The race should be over by five, but you never can tell. Tuesday through Thursday is as normal, and Friday, let's meet at the school again, I want to do some dynamic strength work on the fields.

Saturday, orienteering meet? Still up in the air, but lets try to make a decision by Monday evening, so ican call the race director and get us on the start list.

Have a great Sunday everyone, get a nice easy run in, just to keep that aerobic components of your training up!

SEP

Orienteering Meet

On Spet. 6th, there is another orienteering meet down in Woodland Park again. I would like to go, is there anyone else who is up for making the trip down?

Check out the schedule here. (Halfway down the schedule.)

Surprise Workout

Make sure you get plenty of rest this evening. (Don't stay out to all hours at a punk rock show at Red Rocks!) Because tomorrow morning, we will be doing a pretty tough work-out. This week has been relatively easy in terms of speedwork, so we will try and get in a lot of it tomorrow. Bring your fast shoes, bring your water, and get plenty of rest after tonight's work-out.

If you want to meet here at Sierra at 5:00-ish, you are more than welcome to. Coach Hanrahan will be here, and if you want to run the neighborhood roads behind Sierra by the power station, those would be good roads to do a Dartmouth Run on. Senior leadership will be important today, to make sure you get the correct workout in. Have fun, see you tomorrow!!!

SEP

Improvement

I know I sound like a broken record, (that is an expression for someone who keeps repeating themselves, for all you youngins') but I am constantly amazed at how well everyone is running so far this fall. I mean, we improved by 15% over the exact same work-out last week. Following this simple progressive approach, I feel that the sky is the limit! I mean, Derek did 2 more intervals, in the same amount of time, than he did last week, Kelli and Katelyn came in tired and did one more, Mel took 10 days off and did seven total, and Tyler came in off a broken arm and no training for a month and banged out four at an average of 65 seconds! Unbelievable!!! I don't know what else to say, every new practice seems to open my eyes even wider!!!!

The rest of the week is pretty much on your own.

Tuesday, 20 min active rest day. Make sure to do your ankle and foot strengthening exercises.

Wednesday, long hilly run. Derek, try to go a little longer than you did last week, maybe by five to ten minutes longer. Drag Keagen with you if he makes it out. Tyler, you know I want you on the XC course three times. Mel and Katelyn, go or about an hour, but try to push the hills hard. Kelli will be with me at her first MS meet, she will get plenty of running around, trust me!

Easy long run for all on Thursday, then a Dartmouth Run on Friday. See you all bright and early on Saturday, I got a surprise lined up for ya!

So, time to crunch some numbers from the MS XC TT, we'll see what the next generation is up to. Gotta keep the program strong!

SEP

WTAFC Week Two

Great week of practice last week, I was talking to Coach Hawk on the way home Friday night that this is such an AWESOME group of athletes to coach. The small numbers enable to me to really focus on each kid, and the actual athletes are dedicated driven runners who truly want to get better. Can't ask for a better combination!

This week, we will meet again at Sierra on Monday afternoon for rollercoaster intervals. I believe everyone did six rounds, so this time, we will shoot for eight. We will keep the same times, just go for more volume. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday will be just like last week, but Friday will be a little different.

Friday night, my brother and his old college roommate and I are heading to Red Rocks for a punk rock show. So, Friday will be a "Dartmouth Run". Run for about 40 minutes, and run on an out-and-back course. The first 20 minutes, run at a good pace. Not interval pace, but make your breathing a little heavier than a normal long run. On the way back, try to start really ramping it up. Get faster and faster on your way home, so by the time you get home, you are going at a race pace. This is not a recovery run, this is a stressor run, so make it tough.

Saturday, meet at my place at 7:30, we will be going on a field trip to a track to do some ladder intervals.

See you all tomorrow night!

SEP

Olympic Swimming

Wow, Michael Phelps is a beast, isn't he? Amazing to watch him race, he just destroys the competition!

I have had a few emails asking about a female swimmer from Finland. Her name is Hanna-Maria Seppala, and as far as I know, she is my aunt. :) (Actually, I have no idea how we are related, but I am sure we are somewhere along the line.) She is a world champion, she won a gold at the '03 World Championships, and she is seeded fourth going into the 100 m freestyle finals tonight. I know I will be watching, seeing SEPPALA stretched across the pool is awesome, and I hope she does well and wins a medal, that will be fantastic!!! Go Finland!

So, that gives us now three famous Seppalas; Uncle Leonhard of dog sledding fame, Hanna-Maria, and my wife Beth. (Go check out her new photography blog here, she is really getting quite good at it!) I would count my brother Adam, but he is only famous in certain establishments on Broadway or Colfax. Ask about him, you will be regaled with tales of strength and courage!

Only a couple more nights of swimming to go, this is great racing to watch. Especially that 4 x 100, reminded me of a combination of the '07 boys 4 x 800 and the '08 girls 4 x 800, for the come from behind victory and the close margin of victory. Who knows, maybe we can get back there in '09. The way we are working, I think we have a great chance!

SEP

Great First Practice!

Well, after a very long day yesterday, (first day of school, first day of middle school CC practice, first day of WTAFC fall training) I have come to the conclusion that this WTAFC fall club is really going to be something great!

We have a small number of kids, more are always welcome, but the small numbers enable us to get in high quality work in a relatively short amount of time. Eliminating attendance, drawn out stretching, and unnecessary types of form drills allows us to get into the work-out quicker and utilize our time better. Also, it allows me a sa coach to really work with each athlete very closely. Each athlete gets a total dissection of their form, pace and all the other factors that contributive to running. It really is a close to ideal siutation for all involved.

So, the next time we meet will be Wednesday at 5:00 for a long hilly run, and that should be just as productive as yesterday was! See you all then!

SEP

Fall WTAFC Training

Monday the 11th, will be the first day of Fall WTAFC training. I had a meeting with some of the older girls the ohter night, and we came up with a great schedule that will meet everyone's needs in getting ready for winter and spring track season.

The main points are that any structured practice will begin at Sierra MS at 5:00. Meet out on the west fields, Kelli and I will be there, and we can practice in the cooler weather of the late afternoon. We will start this Monday with some longer intervals, over the varied terrain at Sierra.

Practice will not be every day, similar to what we did in the summer, as you will be expected to do some running on your own schedule. This will work well, I believe, as we have a real strong senior contingent that takes their leadership duties very seriously.

More details, more forms and papers to sign, more strength training, more form work; it all starts Monday night! See you there!

SEP

P.S. I am glad that I have not been recognizing any screen names as WTAFC members in all this recent dyestat message board nonsense. Talk about out of hand!!!

Last Red Rocks :(

Well, today was the last Red Rocks session of the summer, and I have to say, everyone that participated did one of the hardest workouts you can do in Colorado! A lot of people say they "Ran Red Rocks" but all they do is jog the length of the stairs and then step up to the next row. Bah, you can do that on your sidewalk with a couple of milkcrates. What we do, sprinting up the main stairs at full speed, is a true Red Rocks work-out and all of you should be proud of yourselves for doing so well at it.

Today, we threw a little curveball at the athletes, as we didn't do the famous "Jailbreaks". Instead, the girls and I walked all the way down to the lower road and ran up the long side stairs one at a time, hitting each stair. By about 1/3 of the way up, my thighs were burning! There must have been at least 250 stairs, I lost count early. It was a pretty brutal exercise and everyone was glad we did it only on the last session. Maybe next summer I will make it a regular thing.

We didn't have a lot of turn-out this morning, but here are the stats of who did make it. The girls all set some new female total stairs records!

	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Set 6	Set 7	Total
MELANIE	10	20	30	40	50			150
KATELYN	10	20	30	40	50	50	50	250
KELLI	10	20	30	40	50	50	50	250
CAROLINE	10	20	30	40	50	50	50	250

We also talked about the new direction the WTAFC is going to take this fall. We decided that meeting at six p.m. on Thursday, before we do Thursday night intervals (and maybe some speedball!), would be the best idea. So, if you plan on running WTAFC this fall, please come by the track an hour earlier than normal.

Have a great rest of your day, enjoy your last few days before school starts!

SEP

Changes

I was going to put the David Bowie song "Changes" on here, but I couldn't find a good YouTube clip of it. So I went a little more obscure, pulling out this Scorpions classic. Enjoy, all you children born in 1991.

The reason for the theme is that the WTAFC is going to be going through a few changes in the next couple of weeks. We are going to be moving out of the summer training phase and into the fall training phase.

This will require some adjustment on everyone's part. First and foremost, all HS runners need to make a choice. (If you are an alum, and you want to continue running with us before you take off to college, then you can skip this part.) If you plan to run cross country for your school, you need to attend your schools XC practice starting August 11th. You are not allowed to do both WTAFC and your schools XC program. Not only is that unethical, but you body needs to settle into one type of training, running two programs will only hurt you in your running. I hope that is clear, a choice needs to be made by all HS runners. As a personal courtesy, I would like it if you could inform me of your choice by the end of this week, so I can make the appropriate plans for the club.

Also, anyone who chooses to not participate in WTAFC in the fall is NOT ineligible for winter track or for spring track. As I have said many times before, WTAFC is an alternative form of training for those who chose to participate. No one will be excluded at later time of the year, no one will be penalized at any later time of the year.

I would like to meet with the seniors who will be running WTAFC and figure out what our goals, our schedule, our mission, is going to be. What do you, as runners, want to get out of this club? I certianly have some ideas, but I want equal input from the seniors in the club. This club has been founded on meeting the needs of the athlete, not necessarily meeting the needs of any coach. I would like to do this before school starts, so I can get going on solidifying any plans we create. Maybe we can meet Thursday before intervals, as I will be at Sierra all day. Please let me know via text or the comments section.

I am excited for this new phase of training. I belive we can keep captalizing on the fitness we have gained over the summer and translate that into some very eye-opening winter track times. See you all tomorrow for the last Red Rocks session!

SEP