New Winter Track Schedule

Winter track starts tomorrow! Check the weekly schedule to the left for all the details. See you all in 504L Monday after school.

Race Photos

Here are some selected photos from the race on Saturday. If anyone wants a copy of all of them (about 140 or so), shoot me an email and I can easily burn you a CD of them.

The team in front of the lake we raced around.

Coah Hawk, the ladies, and I casually heading to the start area.

Keagan charging up All-America Hill. Keagan's leg drive is very impressive, and that helped him finish with a fantastic time of 16:29!
Derek hammering up the long steep hill in the last mile. Notice his eyes, looking right where he should be, the top of the hill. Perfect! Derek ran a PB of 16:41!

Tyler flying over the top of All-America Hill. Tyler finished with a time of 20:05, and if he can run that for a 5000, imagine what this truly 400/800 man will do in the spring!

Post-race congratulations from me for the men, as they all ran huge PB's over this tough course!
Katelyn with great form and arm swing coming up the long steep hill. Katelyn finished with a time of 20:12, a new PB for her!

Kelli had very quick turnover every time I saw her, here she is on All-America Hill. Kelli finished with a super fast time of 20:27!

Melanie look so strong with such great loose form. Her hips are forward, her foot strike is perfect, she looked awesome. That propelled her to a great time of 21:27.

Here are the seniors patiently waiting for the medals presentation. Sharp hat on Mel.
This is Keagan getting his 8th place medal!


And here is Katelyn getting her 9th place medal!

Again, I am so proud of all the runners who competed this weekend. You guys made a huge sacrifice and a huge dedication and I hope you feel it has paid off. It has truly been a pleasure to be able to coach such great hard-working kids, and I can't wait for winter track. Take some time off, go shopping, go to the skate park, you deserve it. And I will see you next Monday!

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Easy Weekly Schedule

This upcoming week of training is a RECOVERY WEEK! No working out for a few days. Active rest for a few days that does not involve running. (Walking the dog, basketball, swimming, lifting weights) And then some easy running to ease back into it.

Things you can do this week instead of run and train:
Get caught up on your schoolwork.
Make your parents dinner when they get home.
Be nice to your siblings.
Bring in your paperwork for winter track.
Go Christmas shopping.
Pick up litter in your neighborhood.
Get caught up on schoolwork.


Those are jsut some of the things you can do with your newfound spare time. Because the week of December 1st, we start right back up again, and you guys will be all rested and ready to go!

What A Day!

Well, there is no other way to say it other than we had an extremely successful day this afternoon. We had PR's falling all over the place, on a very hilly course. Now that we are finally unwinding by chilling at the pool, (Thank you 75 degree Phonenix!), let me try and re-cap the day.

The boys raced first, against a very large strong field. I wanted them to go out conservatively, as there were three huge hills in the last mile of the course I wanted them to have strength for. The start was pretty tight, so they had to get out fast, and all of them went through the first mile pretty quick. Between 15 and 40 seconds too fast, but by then it was too late to slow them down, they could only hold it the rest of the race.

After the first mile mark, they had a long run through "No-Man's Land" and then the first time up All-America Hill. This is a very steep, 40-50 m long grass hill. After descending as fast at they could, they cruised around the lake, then into some rolling terrain that ended with a long steep 80 m hill. Right after descending that hill, they went up All-America hill again, then it was 1200 m to the finish. I saw none of the finish, but I am very proud to report that Keagen came in 8th at 16:29, Derek was 15th at 16:41 and Tyler finished 137th with a 20:05. All HUGE personal bests, even when you account for the altitude. The course was hilly, with all of the hills coming at the end like a Tour de France stage, and to have the boys run that fast is incredible!

The girls race went off right afterwards, but not before I had a mile sprint to the start line to make sure the girls were all set, and then a mile sprint back to the first mile mark after the gun went off to get some times. The girls all went through that first mile fast, about 30 seconds fast for all of them, but since the boys went through fast and were OK, I wasn't worried. I watched all of them head off to No Man's Land, then got to the top of All-America Hill to cheer them on. They cleared that hill like they had been running it all their lives. It was great. At DeKoevend Park, we struggled at those hills, now we were passing people on them! I couldn't believe it, we were all running so well!

Beth and I then headed over to the long steep hill to watch the girls tackle that. And they didn't just tackle it, they destroyed it!! I was so psyched. The results bore out the great racing, with Kateyln in 8th in 20:12, Kelli in 15th in 20:27, and Melanie in 33rd at 21:27. (That's pretty amazing considering she was battling a stomach cramp the whole last mile. She went through the first two miles in 12:57!!!!)

I was just amazed and so happy for all of the runners. These kids dedicated 4 months of their time to work towards this race, and they all have great times to show for it! That is just awesome, just awesome! Katelyn and Keagen got medals for finishing top ten, which is great, but all of the kids just ran spectacularly. We got some of the fastest times in Chaparral history today on a very hilly course with some pretty high temperatures out there. These athletes are primed to keep running fast all through winter track and spring track and that was the goal of this whole endeavor.

So, on to Delux Burger for a well deserved celebratory dinner. We certainly deserve it!

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P.S. My ace photographer wife Beth got some AWESOME shots today. I am going to try and get those posted up as soon as I can.

Nervous Sleeping

I couldn't fall asleep to save my life last night, I was so nervous. Hopefully the runners had an easier time that I did.

The course looks fast! I am glad we toured it last night, as we got a little turned around a few times. Better to do that the night before than during the race. It is mostly rolling terrain, with a couple of pretty big hills near the end to really test the kids. This should be a great day of racing, I think we are more than ready, so I am eager to show it!

Off to Dunkin' Donuts for coaches coffee, and then off to the races. Wish us luck!

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Landed Safely

Well, here we are in Arizona. Flight was uneventful, (I got some work done on the com-puter), the hotels let us check in early, and we cruised around the Mill St. Mall for a while this afternoon.

Now everyone is chilling in their hotel rooms, we are leaving to tour the course in half an hour, and things are going smoooooothly. :)

More after dinner!

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Clean Up Post

After a very busy weekend, I finally feel like we are ready to head down to Arizona!  Lots of quick random thoughts for you this morning.

New training plan this week, check it out on the left.

HUGE shout-out to Kateyln's mom.  Without her, we would be staying in cardboard boxes this weekend.  I know she went though a lot to set us up with hotel rooms, and we are very grateful for that.

Make sure to pack a water bottle.  The dry air is going to dehydrate you quicker than normal.

I emailed a specific itinerary to your parents yesterday, and I also sent one to each of your Facebook inboxes.  Please make sure both you and your parents know what the plan is for this weekend.

Re-vamped the Links to Check, I put a few more running specific ones in there.

On November 18th, head to Hawk's room after school.  Pick up all the paper work you need to fill out for WTAFC winter session.  Have it ready, so you can be cleared to practice on Dec. 1st.  Make you life easier by getting things done early.

How is everyone getting to and from DIA this weekend?  We need to discuss this.

Here are the tentative starting fields for the races.  We are in the open races.

Big shout out goes to Kelli as well, for helping Beth and I find cool things to do after the races are over.  Delux Burgers, yum!!

Seriously Manny, 6 years?  No one is going to give you that many years...

Let's have another good week of practice, and we will race very fast on Saturday morning.

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The Laster!!

Out in Lawrence, the Turkey Trot 5 km was contested last weekend.  Check out the Male 25-29 Division!

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Shout-Out on the Web

The word is out, WTAFC is officially heading to NXN SW.  (Not that we weren't already.)  Click here to see our "official declaration".  Cool!  Should be some good competition down there.  I am getting more and more excited!

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Mayne Street

Kenny Mayne, one of the funniest anchors on ESPN, has this new internet show on the .com side of the Worldwide Leader. The below video is the premiere, and to be honest, I think Scott Van Pelt really steals the show.



Hilarious, just hilarious, especially the part in the dark. Hee-hee.

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Weekly Schedule & Arizona Check

What a great week of practice, so good, that we are going to do pretty much the same thing again.  Check the sidebar to see all the details.

Two weeks from tonight, we will be arriving home from a successful trip to Arizona for the Nike Cross Nationals Race.  Wow, it seemed like just a couple of days ago we were months from leaving, but the time is upon us.

Please double check your airline confirmations.  Hopefully most of us are flying Frontier Airlines #855 to Phoenix on Nov. 21st at 7:00 am.  Hopefully most of us are coming back on Frontier Airlines # 852 on Nov 23rd that lands in Denver at 11:23.  If you are not on these flights, let me know ASAP so we can arrange to get you to and from our hotel.  I am not sure about all of the restrictions on checked baggage and everything, but I would suggest packing light.  I can't see anyone needing anything more than a carry-on packed very tightly.  Just make sure to not forget your racing flats and your 80134 singlet.  Anything else that is forgotten can be dealt with in Phoenix.

The hotel we are staying at, (girl athletes in one room, boy athletes in another) is the Residence Inn at the Phoenix Airport.  The phone number there is 1-602-273-9220.   We are all set for check-in there, (thanks Krisi !!!), so that will be the home base.

Almost everything is paid for, you will just need to bring spending money.  As we decided earlier, I am going to pay for everything, then split up the costs when we get back to Parker.  We are all signed up for the race, and I have all print-outs and emergency forms already packed.  Just double check you travel arrangements, figure out how you are getting to and from DIA, and get ready for a great week of practice!!

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P.S.  An informal description of the course was written by Coach Versaw of The Classical Academy.  You can check it out on his website here.  The second to last paragraph was very interesting, I thought.

What I Learned From Saturday...

There are more hills in DeKoevend Park than I thought.

That our training has to mimic our racing more closely.

I sometimes set my expectations a little too high.

That the Sierra Road Race course is no way 5000 meters long.

That too much short speed work is not the best way to get ready for a 5 km race.

The kids who train with WTAFC are some of the toughest kids around.

Walking up Antelope Hill needs to stop.  High knees instead maybe.

It can get hot in Colorado in November.

There really is no substitute for experience.

Getting frustrated and down on yourself is very unproductive.

RollerCoasters tomorrow, Predator Runs on Wednesday and 3000 m Pace Changers Friday.  Tempe is three weeks away, we WILL be ready for it.

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