New Lance TV Spot

I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE TOUR!


This is his new ad, makes me want to get out on the bike right now, at nine o'clcok on a MOnday night!


Here are some other memorable ads he has done, goosebumps from all of them for me!


No words on this one, great riding music!


On skinny tires!!!


He won seven tours after that press conference, amazing!


This might be my favorite one, it explans how every elite athlete makes it to the top.

Enjoy!!

Kenyan Run Pics

Early start time means no heat, but lots of wet grass.

Ten minutes later, the shoes are tied.

Melanie & Katelyn inspecting the start/finish line.

Otis the wonder dog.

Melanie charging up the hill on her last lap.


Derek flying around the trees.


Keagan starting out smooth.



Victory ride!

Official Track Club Account

I just got back from the bank, and we are one step closer to becoming an official USATF track club. I deposited all of your payments into the new Walnut Hills Track Club account. It is not a personal account, we are a "Gaming/Recreational Club" and the official WHTC debit card and checks should be arriving shortly.

It seems weird charging money, it seems like opening up a can of worms, as I have never charged for training in the off season. The main reason I am asking for payment is to cover the cost of insuring the club, so if we have an incident like we did last sumemr at Red Rocks with Trey, we are insured; to cover the cost of registering the club itself with the USATF; and to cover the costs of registering the coaches with the club. Like I have said earlier, the money will all go back to the kids in one form or another. No coaches will get paid, no administrators will be jetting off to Tahoe with the WHTC debit card, no Kenyans will be flown in to race under our name. Now, will athletes have to come up with some money for certian races and trips? Of course, but at least now we have some back-up cash to fall back on if kids need it. This is a good thing, it legitimizes what we do on many levels, and I am glad we have started this up the right way.

In other track club news, yet another great day today at Red Rocks. Some new faces, and lots of new personal bests in stairs for 2009. Great job, great job, great job. Saturday we will meet at my house at seven in the morning, to do some Kenyan Runs in the parks nearby. An hour earlier than normal, to accomodate some work schedules, and to accomodate the fact that I have family in town and want to spend some time with them on Saturday. Friday is an easy recovery day, spend some time recharging your physical and mental battteries tomorrow.

SEP

Red Rocks Results II

Another great day at Red Rocks today. All four boys made it to the top of the ladder, Derek, Tyler, Keagan and Trey, with 279 stairs. Melanie is picking up right where she left off last summer, getting up to a total of 232 stairs. Elizabeth, in her first time out, had an incredible day of 187 stairs! Wow! Now we just have to work on exploding up each stair, not just swinging our legs up onto each one. That will come with time though, it always does.

Next week, I want to modify some of the procedures we do at Red Rocks. We will break it up into phases, with specific exercises or warm-ups for each phase. Same general idea, just trying to get the most out of each trip to Morrison.

Great job everyone, see you all soon.

SEP

Weekly Schedules & Recording Your Training

Good morning everyone, just got back from a short walk with little Chloe and big Otis. Yesterday we went for almost two hours, about 6.5 miles, today was a quick 40 minutes or so. But, enough about my walking exploits, onto the real point of today's post.

Another great turnout yesterday, both at weights and at the track. As we discussed yesterday, the weekly schedule is going to be progressive and deliberate. Mondays is intervals/fartlek at CHS, with weights beforehand. Thursdays is Red Rocks, which is both a speed workout and a strength workout. Saturdays, starting this Saturday, paid members of the WHTC are welcome to come to my hosue for some longer intervals in the parks around my house.

(Speaking of paying, the fee is 40 dollars for the summer. Checks can be written out to "Walnut Hills Track Club", and the money will go towards covering the club registration and all necessary insurance. Please bring this to practice on Thursday if you are planning on working with us this summer.)

That leaves us with four days of the week you are on your own. Friday should be a short recovery day, 30 minutes of "walking the dog." Tuesday should be an off-road/trail run. Running not on the concrete/pavement is crucial to ankle & knee health, and should be done at least once a week. Make this run of a moderate distance. Wednesday should be another moderate distance run, it can be on or off road, but you should do between 4-8 "speed pick-ups" throughout the course of the run. Sunday is the traditional overdistance run, where you go slow, but really far, at least an hour for most of you. Speed will not be the stressor on this run, distance and time spent running should be.

The key to all of these long runs is record keeping. You need to keep a training log, one that can be as simple as a notebook with a couple lines recording each workout, or as complex as a online computer program. You need to know how far you ran the week before, and how you felt, so you can progressively build up in all areas the following weeks. We want to move forward, not stay static, and to do that, it is key to have good records of what you have done.

So, can’t wait to see you all on Thursday at seven sharp. Make sure you are hydrated and well fueled before any of these workouts, as a cup of coffee before you head out for a two walk is not the best idea. :)

SEP

EDIT: Coach Whitenack sent me a easy-to-use excel spreadsheet for a training log. If you would like an electronic copy of this, email me and I can send you one no problem.

Red Rocks Results I

What a great first day of Red Rocks today. We had a good turn-out and here are the results:

Tyler got up 258 stairs, Keagan got up 247 stairs, Josh got up 236 stairs and Katelyn got up 214 stairs. Pretty impressive for the first time out! Next practice is Monday, 3:30, hope to see you all there. (Unless you are in the Bahamas!)

There has been some confusion about the role of this club in the past couple of weeks, and I think anyone who has emailed me asking about that confusion has gotten a pretty clear answer. However, I just want to clear some things up, so I do not have to keep answering the same questions over and over again. I want to focus on being able to coach kids, not have to waste my energy on the politics that are always swirling around me.

The club I am running, the Walnut Hills Track Club, is a totally separate entity from any other program. It has nothing to do with Douglas County Schools, nothing to do with Chaparral High School, nothing to do with Chaparral Cross Country. We are a USATF certified club, we are charging just enough money to cover our insurance and club registration costs, the coaches are not getting paid, and we are doing to this to offer an alternative form of training for athletes that do not want to do a varsity fall sport at their high schools. We are focusing on building faster, stronger, fitter athletes using our methods and philosophies.

The WHTC will be doing some orienteering races in the next few months; we will be going to Red Rocks regularly in the summer; we will be doing some fun road races in the fall; and we are planning on heading to Arizona in November to race in the prestigious Nike Cross Nationals Series. The club had a lot of success in this race last year, even in the “B” division, so we are planning on moving up to the top division this year. I plan on making this club, and all our activities, fun and motivational; but at the same time, help athletes become faster, stronger, and get to a higher level of fitness.

The club will not train any athletes over the summer, in any shape or form, who are going to be competing for a fall sport at their high school. Even though it is still the pre-season, and fall HS sports do not officially start until August 17th, we strongly believe that those athletes need to follow the training principles of their high school coach. The club will not supplement or enrich any of the training you would get from your fall sport coach. For example, if you love running cross country then you need to dedicate yourself to the cross country program. Coach Ferguson, who can be contacted here, can provide you with any guidance in getting ready for the cross country season. Conflicting programs do not make you faster, dedication to one model of training does.

In the winter, the spring track program at Chaparral has multiple athletes that do not train with our winter track club program. They go to the Littleton club program or the Highlands Ranch club program and they have every right to. The CHS Track coaches do not restrict any athletes who are not competing with us during the winter. When these athletes come out for spring track, we coach them just like any other athlete we have on our roster. There are CHS cross country runners who run club track in the spring, not CHS track, and they have every right to do that. Athletes have choices these days and I try and honor all of the choices these athletes make. No athletes will be discriminated against by me because of the training choices they make in their high school careers.

In closing, athletes need to choose what athletes want to do. Either WHTC or a HS fall sport. Both is not an acceptable answer, unfortunately. In years past, there was no choice. I am offering a choice. Choices are good, and the choice is yours. If we get one athlete, if we get 100, we will coach them all up to the best of our abilities.

If you still have questions/concerns/observations, please email me, or make a comment, and I will do my best to satisfy your curiosity.

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Walnut Hills Track Club

So, during the State Meet a month ago, my basement was destroyed. We got some serious water damage down there, and we had to get a lot of work done to fix it. A new internal drain, I re-did one entire wall, replacing a bunch of trim, three days of repairing the tile and carpet, then Beth and I spent an entire day hanging everything back on the walls! It is always nice to hang some new stuff up, as we now have memorabila from the Boys 4 x 800 race this past year. But, now it is all back in one piece, everything is back to normal and looking great, and my infamous "Wall of Champions" is looking better than ever!

In order to get onto the wall, it takes a serious level of dedication, hard work and commitment. All of those things start in the summer, when it is 90 degrees, when you just want to kick back by the pool and relax, and track seems like a ship far, far away on the horizon. It continues in the fall, when schoolwork piles up, the leaves start to fall, and it might seem easier to stay inside on a cold blustery day. All the kids all on that wall, from Trevar to Taylor, Katelyn to Kirsten, they all dedicated their summers and falls to training harder than they have ever trained before.

It is not my place to tell anyone what to do in the summer. I encourage all athletes to talk to their parents about the path of training they want to take. Some kids love running/racing cross country, and those kids should train with the CHS XC team. Other kids are not as into cross country, and for them, I have developed some type of training that can benefit them. This training will be carried out as the Walnut Hills Track Club.

The Walnut Hills Track Club will not be perceived as “raiding” any talent from any other sports. If you have signed up for a fall sport, I insist that you continue with your commitment to that sport. You may not train with the W.H.T.C. if you have signed up for a fall sport. We will only accept kids that are dedicated to the spring track season. If you are one of these athletes, and you want to be the best you can be in the spring, then this club might be an option you want to discuss with your parents and family. This is not a decision to be taken lightly, it will be a major commitment of your time and effort.

The Walnut Hills Track Club is a USATF affiliated track club that will provide general training with a variety of coaching styles for all athletes. The W.H.T.C. is not connected to Chaparral at all. We will train in Parker, at Red Rocks, and in Walnut Hills in the DTC. We will train 2-3 days a week, with the goal of our training to be increasing our fitness. We will not attend any road races as an official club this summer. We do want to plan a trip to Arizona in the fall, as well as orienteering races and a few community races in the fall. Any alums of CHS or other schools are more than welcome to attend any of the sessions. Paperwork must be filled out, signatures must be obtained. The cost will be $40 for the summer, then $40 for the fall training. All money will go back to the athletes, as the certified coaches will receive no stipend.

Our first training session will be this Thursday. We will meet in the CHS student parking lot at 7:00 sharp in the morning. We will then carpool over to Red Rocks to get some training in. Please bring water, a little money as we stop at the gas station in Morrison for drinks afterwards, and an extra dry shirt. This is a tough workout, so be prepared! This workout is the core of the summer training, all other workouts are based around Red Rocks.

If anyone has any questions about the W.H.T.C., please feel free to contact me through email. I will be more than willing to answer any questions you might have. Thanks.

SEP