Jan 5th Analysis & More!

The second shipment of red Gulo Gulo tights have been mailed.  If you ordered them, they should be here by the end of this week.  Please bring in your thirty dollars to me as soon as you can.  I will be honest, I do not have the list of who ordered them and who did not.  So, if you ordered them, please step up and pay for them. I still have a few people who have not paid for their tights from the first shipment. :(  If there are extras, I will do my best to sell them to other kids on the team at the end of this week, so we do not lose money on them.  I love my pair of tights, I have worn them for almost every running workout I have doen this winter, they are perfect for these chilly winter days!

Disney Athlete Assignments

I have planned out what I think the best events for the athletes going to Disney World would be.  I tried to balance it out with your goals (or what I think are your goals) as well as scheduling of events that day.  If you want to do something different than what I have listed to the right, please let me know by Monday at the end of practice.  I need to get everyone signed up sooner than later to avoid a significant late fee.


Speaking of goals, there are a good number of people who have not yet filled me in as to their goals for the 2013 track season.  If that is you, please go to the GOALS blog post and fill that out.  Without knowing what your goals are, I cannot make smart decisions on how to effectively train you.  No goals, and we go to the lowest common denominator of training... junk miles. Ugh.


And while you are filling out your goals, if you could fill out your media guide biography, that would be a huge help to me as well.  I only have a few people who have sent me this biography, and I would like to get all of you dedicated winter track athletes some positive press this spring!

Jan. 5th Results

We had a great day at the indoor meet this afternoon, I was so excited to see all 19 athletes compete.  I will have some action shots up soon, but for right now, here are the raw results.  I went off of my watch at the finish line, as I discovered that some of the official results were not as accurate as they could have been.  I saw your first race as the real test of your fitness, and your second race as a workout with competition   To say I was pleased with the results would be an understatement, some of these times are the best January times anyone Wolverine has have since I have begun coaching here.  But, no one gets medals for January times, we have to keep working hard every day and keep improving all the way through April and May, that's the goal.  And that starts on Monday with some long road tempo work.

Gulo Gulo Improvements

One thing Coach Harris and I wanted to get from this indoor meet was to see how we have improved since we all did that mile time trial back in October/November.  That is why I encouraged everyone to go to this meet, and I will not be pushing any other indoor meets this winter.  While you are more than welcome to go to them on your own, I want to spend time with my family, Coach Harris wants to spend time with his family, and I think that too much competition for athletes from January to May is not that beneficial. (Maybe that going skiing for a Saturday might be even better for you!)  Anyways, I digress, because what I wanted to talk about how so many athletes improved from that windy cold time trail to the race today.  I have attached the improvement sheet, and almost everyone has gotten significantly better in the past couple of months.   That is really fantastic, like I mentioned, we have some really fast kids on this team, and it bodes very well to my goal of getting one athlete in every distance event at State this year.  Now, if you were not one of those improvements, don't get down, but resolve to keep working hard in practice and keep yourself healthy, because there are going to be plenty more races for you to show your speed!

Distance Athlete Groupings

I took all of these times and incorporated them into the new distance groupings spreadsheet.  We had some kids make some significant jumps up the ladder, into new groups that are training pretty fast.  I hate to admonish over the Internet, but I must say this.  The athletes who raced today and who moved up that training level ladder were the athletes who I have seen at practice every day for the past five weeks.  Not just the past couple of weeks, although those practices are important, but the athletes who were there during finals week, during the freezing windy days in December and who were around during Thanksgiving week.  The key to running fast is really simple.  The secret is consistency. (Guess it's not a secret anymore.) You cannot just randomly show up to practice inconsistently and expect to get any better.  You need to show up every day, no matter how you feel, no matter how tired you are, no matter how tough of a day you had, no matter what the weather is, no matter what your other workload looks like; and be ready to practice to the best of your ability, EVERY DAY.  In the winter, we are efficient and we follow a pretty standard routine so we can be done practice as quickly as possible.  You need to balance your schoolwork, your job, your family, your social life and your training if you want to become an elite top flight runner.  Being a successful runner on this particular team is not a hobby, it is an adjustment to your lifestyle and a therefore huge dedication.  The athletes that improved by 3, 4, 5 percent and jumped up the training ladder understand that and accept that and embrace that.  We have a very, very, very competitive group of athletes this year.  If you want to reach your goals, you need to be as dedicated as everyone else, and if might have to figure out a way to be even more dedicated.  Now, can you still move up the training ladder?  Of course.  There are plenty more meets you can attend on your own.  Sign up for one of them, race really fast, and I will move you into the appropriate group after verifying your time on the Internet.


Thanks for reading everyone, enjoy your Sunday of easy walking for about 20 minutes with the Kwiatkowski's dog.


SEP