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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