Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Beth, it's been a pretty awesome past year, huh?

I love you,

Brian

Who is Running What this Week?

Here are the line-ups for the Rocky Mtn. Round-Up in Ft. Collins this Friday. A few changes since practice, but I am still very happy with the line-ups we are putting out there.

Here are the line-ups for the FR/SPH Championships at Ponderosa Wednesday afternoon. Again, a few changes, but just like the varsity line-up, I am very happy with what we are rolling out.

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P.S. Really, really great practice today everyone. We practice like that every day, we are going to kick some major a$$ during our championship season.

Rocky Mtn. Round Up Time Schedule

Our varsity meet this week is on a Friday, so that means we will be missing all day of school. Make sure to take care of things with your teachers! Talk to them early and often, you will have plenty of time to do work during the meet and on the bus.

Here is the meet schedule, it is finally a traditional rolling schedule, which means it will probably go late. :) Friday is going to be a long day, remember, after the meet is done, we still have a long bus ride home.

Meet line-ups will be announced today at practice, as well as plans for training for this Saturday.

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Thoughts on Saturday's Run-Off

Today was a tough day for me, these run-offs always are. We have conducted them in the past, as we have the luxury of having a very strong and deep distance team, and even though it's a "good" problem to have, I really do hate it. I wish there was a way to get five or six man teams out on the track, our incredible depth would be winning us races left and right!

I want to commend JB and KV and BB for running so well this afternoon. JB and KV ran the fastest, they will be on the team with RB and NP, and BB will be running open events, keeping his edge as sharp as he can. All three of them are excellent runners, it is a shame that one had to come in third.

This week was a stressful week, with lots of drama, but I think we persevered and we will become a better team for it. In the words of Coach Laster, we need to D.Y.J. (Do Your Job) every day and things will work out for the best. We have the Freshman/Sophomore Championships on Wednesday, and the Rocky Mtn. Round-Up on Friday. Enjoy your easy day tomorrow, and we have a little bit of a practice schedule change this week (check the sidebar), so I'll see you after school Monday. We got two big meets, one big week of training, so let's work hard, focus on our roles & jobs, and make ourselves as fast as we can!

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Saturday's New Plans

With tomorrow's varsity meet being cancelled, we will be having practice instead to keep our legs fresh.

Practice will be at four o'clock, at the track, and we will be doing intervals that combine some tempo with with some pure speed work. It will be fun. :)

However, the boys four by eight team that was slated to run will be competing. Ryan will hand off to Brenden to Justin to Keagan. They will have to avoid the other athletes that are running their intervals, and splits will be gotten on all of them. From this run-off, the boys 4 x 8 team will be determined. Running this way, in more of a time trial fashion, will insure full speed, and not let the race unintentionally turn into a tactics race, a race with a 600 m jog followed a 200 m kick.

So, see everyone at the track at four tomorrow!

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Weather Cancellations

All after school activities today (4/23) are cancelled.

JV meet at Gateway is cancelled.

Varsity meet has been pushed back two hours, but it is still on. Be at CHS at 8:00 am.

For a workout, all distance runners should go on an easy jog, with a few short pick-ups.

More information will be dispersed as I hear it.

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STACKED Sub-Varsity Line-Ups

The JV Meet this Friday is at Gateway HS, in Aurora. (I-225 to Mississippi, east on Mississippi to Sable, south on Sable a couple blocks) Coach Hawk and Coach Neale will be attending. The bus will leave CHS at normal time, so remember to get any work you might be missing Friday morning. Weather looks rainy, so be prepared.

Since I only was allowed 2 entries for open events at the varsity meet, the JV meet line-ups are pretty stacked. Not only do we have the normal deluge of super-speedy freshman, but we also have some older kids who have been used to running varsity get a chance to show what they can do on a Friday afternoon. It has been proven, time and time again, that fast times on Friday equal running on Saturday, so prepare, race, recover. I hope to make it up there after practice, hoepully to see some really great racing.

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Dakota Ridge Invite Schedule

Above is the meet schedule for the Dakota Ridge Invite this Saturday. (I just don't understand why they can't run a normal track meet, instead of switching all the distance events around. Oh well, we will just have to deal, I guess....) The meet is being held at the state-famous JeffCo stadium, where the Colorado State Meet is held every year. With the coaches meeting at seven, and field events starting at eight, you can expect a very early bus departure. Probably something in the vicinity of 6:00 am. This has ballooned into a huge meet, from 8 teams to over twenty, so we will have some great competition, and winning this meet with be a challenge. One we certainly are up to, however.

See you this afternoon, we are picking up 10 km relay teams before we start practice, don't let me forget.

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Triathlon Alumni News

Wow, CHS distance alums are really tearing it up on the college scene, in all areas!

Will Nabours, class of '07, state champ in the 4 x 800 that year, is up at CU, on their powerhouse triathlon team (You know, the swim/bike/run team.) They had their national championships this weekend down in Lubbock TX, and Will texted me to thank me for training him to handle adverse weather conditions. I guess it was raining so hard, the area was getting flooded. We never experienced flooding, but I remember that spring, we had some brutalweather days.

That did not deter CU, however, as they got three spots in the top 25 and won the overall national title! University of Colorado, national champs in the triathlon! Awesome!!

You can check out results on the link below, and you might want to scan down to 21st, where Will was the third man for the Buffs, which is fantastic. Great job, Will, I know how hard triathlon is, those are some impressive splits!

COLORADO TRI TEAM

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Dakota Ridge Line-Ups

Above are the varsity line-ups for this weekend. Yep, they are kind of early, but the meet director at Dakota Ridge needed them last night. Things might change over the course of the week, but I do not see them changing much. Sub-varsity line-ups will be up as soon as I finish them!

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Weekend Re-Cap

Some short thoughts about this weekend:

Friday night at the JV meet was great. Lots of PR's from the distance side, and Rangeview HS were very gracious hosts as always.

No athletes, coaches or anyone without a Valor logo on the field, even before the meet started? That is a little too much.....

Two huge PR's in the women's two mile, yeah Janey and Janelle!

Two close PR's in the men's mile and two mile, yeah Alec and Keagan!

The goose was loose in the 400, Zach is **this** close to breaking 54 flat!

Julia was second in the shot, which was great, but was the discus champ!!

As was Paige in the high jump!

And finally, it was fantastic to see Katelyn run a blazing 400 leg to get the sprint medley team ranked to third in the state, awesome!

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More Alumni News!

So, my embedded correspondent in Kansas sent me alumni update about Kelsey Grimm, class of 2008, competing in the prestigious Kansas Relays in the heptathlon. The link below has some video of Kelsey running the hurdles and high jumping, putting herself in a very respectable 14th place after the first day. Very, very awesome! She was a super talented athlete at CHS, now she is doing it for the Jayhawks!

Jump started: Ex-Husker leads decathlon; Lincoln senior top heptathlete

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Line-Ups

Even though it has been a super hard week of practice, we still are competing this weekend, both on Friday and Saturday. Here are the line-ups for the distance kids, both JV and varsity.

The wind has been tough, the intervals have been tougher, plus weights, ice baths, long runs, and everything else, trust me, the coaches know you all have been busting your butt this week. We got two easy days in front of us, and that will allow all of this hard training to soak in. Let's start getting our relay hand-offs down, our glycogen stores nice and full, and our brains mentally prepared to race. This will be a great weekend, and not just because of prom!

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Nike/Valor Invite meets CHS Prom

I have texted as many athletes as I can, but I wan to ask again. This Saturday is the CHS prom, and I am sure many of you are planning on cutting a rug. Since I never went to prom in high school, I never really realized what an all day endeavor it truly is. Hair appointments, nail appointments, make-up sessions, (and that's just the guys) along with pictures, limos, dinner, it is a pretty big deal!

What I need from all of my athletes is that open line of communication again. If you have things scheduled for this Saturday, please let me know via text or email, as soon as you can. This meet's entries are due on Tuesday, and if you need to leave early to go vacuum out your parents station wagon, please let me know so I can make arrangements on the track side of things. The only time I will be upset if there are surprises, please keep me in the loop so I can make everyone as happy as possible.

And of course, DON'T do anything stupid. You all have my phone number, and you all know you can call me if you need anything over the course of the night at any hour. No questions asked, no parents told. I don't want anything bad to happen, so use your brains, just like you do when you race.

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Weekend Improvements

Wow, that chart above is pretty impressive!!! It just goes to show that hard work, dedication and preperation will awlays result in success. I have coached nationally ranked college scholarshiped state champions, but seeing improvement like this across the board is what makes me the proudest. Great job, distance kids, let's keep it up!

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Mullen Minor Mistakes

In the Mullen invite line-ups I listed the start time as the check-in time. Oooops! :) Anyway, I have uploaded the official Mullen Invites, with check-in times and start times listed. The line-ups stay the same, but the start times are actuall 30 minutes later than what I listed. Thanks for understanding.

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Distance Line-Ups

Here are the distance line-ups for the JV meet this Friday at Chaparral.

Here are the line-ups and order of events for the Regis Invite on Saturday. Bus leaves at 7:15 from CHS.

Here are the line-ups for the Mullen Runner's Roost on Saturday. Bus leaves at 6:15 sharp!

And of course, pasta dinner at Carino's on Thursday at 5:30, hope to see you all there.

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Guilty Pleasure

One of the guilty pleasures is my subscription to Esquire magazine. Yeah, I'm already such a fashion, politics and ladies expert, so why read it, but I still like flipping through it. This past month they had this great article on Usain Bolt, and the editors finally linked to it on the web. (I actually got the link from the runnersworld tweet account, so thanks @runnersworld)

Even though Usain is not a distance runner, (although I bet he could easily go under 2:00 in the 800) this is a fantastic article to read, it really sheds some light on how Usain got to be so fast, how he approaches his training, and how he balances his life with his running fame. Take a couple of minutes and check it out, you won't be disappointed.

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Alumni News

Steven Busch, a Drury Panther, texted me yesterday, saying he had run a 9:24 in the 3000 m steeplechase, which provisionally qualifies him for D-II Nationals in Charlotte! Wow! That is fantastic!

Last week he also won his steeplechase race, you can read about it here:

Steven Busch Wins 3000 Steeplechase in Day One at Mizzou Relays To Pace Panthers

In other news, Kirsten Lake ran a 2:17 open 800 yesterday for the Drake Bulldogs, which is a fantastic time, especially this early in the season, yay Kirsten!

Is there any other alumni news out there? Let me know!

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Windy Day Yesterday, huh?

Meets like yesterday are crucial in the development of you as a runner. Yep, it was windy, and by the end of the day, I was pretty drained. But, learning to run in the wind is a skill we all need to learn. Learning how to draft in a pack, when to move up places, when to lead, how to run with wind-cutting form; those are all pretty important running tactics, and I thought we got a good dose of them yesterday. So even though you might not have PR-ed, or you might not have won a race you expected to win, take the positives out of yesterday. and the next time it is super windy at an interval practice, or a Saturday meet, use what you learned and hold that as an advantage over your competition. After all, wind is just a bunch of air molecules, really nothing to be afraid if!

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Mustang Invite Distance Line-Ups

Here are the distance kid line-ups for the Mustang Invite this Saturday.

Not an April One Joke

Even though this is a blog for distance runners, I am so excited about last night's development, I have decided it belongs out in cyberspace.

We put my 10 month old daughter to bed last night, and as of 6:40 this morning, she was still sleeping through. In other words, she finally had her first entire night of straight through sleeping!!! Not five hours, not eight, but close to twelve hours of sleep! Beth and I woke up this morning, looked at each other, realized Chloe had not woken up during the night, and almost broke out the champagne! We were so pumped, hopefully this develops into a habit and she starts getting good sleep every night. If you are a parent, you understand this was an AWESOME occurrence.

Yay Chloe!!!!!

Chloe and I cross-country skiing. She hits me like a jockey.

Chloe climbing on the monkey bars, pretty soon she won't need my help.

Chloe in the baby swing at the park, she can go for hours in this thing.

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