Intervals During Base Phase

It's been a while since I updated this thread

For the boys, who the slightly more aggressive training was designed, the early season has been a bit of a dud. Early time trial only put this squad at #4 on our all time list (it was 100 degrees when we ran the tt, so take that with a grain of salt). When we should have threatened the #1 team time, we were over 2 minutes behind. It has been really difficult to put my finger on just why the early season has turned out this way, but it has. Some things for sure

1. One boy didn't show up all summer. He ran on his own early in the summer then faded off to nothing. He has been slowed by some sort of illness that is taking forever to clear up, so even his catch up training needs some catching up. Having him out (should have been our #2 guy) has kind of sapped some of the kids' mojo.

2. Kids who were running 20 seconds behind my #1 man for 3200 on the track are running 1:30 - 2:00 behind him on the cross country course.

3. #1 man is running very well. He ran a gutsy race to win our league opening cluster meet (all teams in league present)

4. On paper we should have a nice tight pack, that hasn't panned out with the boys

5. Girls on the other hand are running very well. They smashed the previous #1 team time on our pre season time trial by over 2 minutes and took our rival school (multiple consecutive league titles and state meet appearances) to the wall in our league opener, when our girls have never been close to that school since 2008.

I don't know if the physical aspect of the training was lacking or if my boys just haven't found their mojo yet. We were doing a workout on friday that I specifically designed so that we could begin to get our #4-7 runners to start catching up. The workout was supposed to be 5 x 1200 tempo interval on a 6 minute cycle with my top 3 running about 15 seconds ahead of my second group (4-7). Less than 5 seconds into the first interval, I see my top guy way ahead of the pack and my kids already stringing out. I called them to a stop, chewed their butts out and had them start the workout over.

After the butt chewing, they ran the workout perfectly. They ran in packs where each runner was in arms distance of the other runners in the pack, they were encouraging each other, and they hit the exact splits they should have. When they finished, they all remarked how easy the workout felt and that usually when we work out on that section of the CC course it feels like death. Really, the only thing that was different about the workout though was the fact that they ran with, and pushed each other, totally a mental thing.

I'm hoping that workout was a turning point for our kids because I know they are fitter than their early performances indicate.

Temps are supposed to be 103-106 all week this week.....ughh!

Workout for both varsity squads went very well despite 102 degree temps. Some of the kids decided to double up this morning so that they could cut the workout down this afternoon. The workout was a 2 mile warm up to. Walnut ranch by the river then 8x300 hill reps wit a jog down recovery. Much tighter packs with the boys with the top 2 boys groups running mostly the same times for the reps but doing the jog back a little slower so that they were getting 5-10 seconds more rest. Both groups finished the session within 90 seconds of one another.

Thanks for the update coach. Are you going to be down at Woodbridge next week?

No, that's a long drive for us. Instead, we'll go to a meet on our section championship course. The course is very hilly and full of twists and turns. Experience on the course is muy importante for us. The only other day with a meet on that course that we can run coincides with the day we host our own invitational.

The last couple of days went really well, despite the fact that the temps were 104 yesterday and 106 today.

Yesterday, I had to modify our planned cruise interval workout to be part cruise intervals and part reps at a pace that was more akin to 2 mile pace. Here were the last 2 days

Wed: 9/9: (Most of my varsity guys ran 4 miles in the morning), 1.5 mile wu, drills, 2 x 400 (1 min recovery)@ 2mrp, 2 x 1200 @ tempo effort (90 sec recovery), 2 x 400 @ 2mrp (1 min recovery). 0.5 mile CD. We ran the workout in the arboretum adjacent to our school so we could get a little shade.

Thu:

AM: 8 miles easy - steady. Their first mile was around 7:45 then they progressed from there. 10 boys stayed together. This is something totally new for the boys

PM: 21 minute aerobic weight circuit + drills + complete stretch.

Tomorrow is supposed to be 107-109 so I think I may just give them the day off or do a small warm up then go home. We are traveling to San Francisco on Saturday for a pretty good sized meet so I don't want to poach the kids out in the heat tomorrow.

That's a pretty solid workout in the heat. We deal with a lot of heat related issues down here so I know what you mean, except we have ridiculous humidity. I try and find shadier paths to run but that isn't always possible. Doing a circuit in the gym (obviously not the day before a race but other hot days) could be an option for you. I'm flying out to Woodbridge next week so I would have came over to say hi. Maybe another time!

Update again:

I haven't updated since the beginning of the season. I'll do boys team first then girls.

Boys:

Projected #2 man never quite made it back to school and transfered to a charter school where he only has to attend once a week. He went 10:22 on the track last year as a freshman in his first year of running, so the loss of his talent was a major blow to our team.

#1 boy won all 3 league cluster meets and PR'd by 25 seconds when we went and ran the state championship course at the Clovis Invite in early October. He is looking pretty good, but just yesterday was complaining about some calf pain before our last real "workout" of the season prior to our section meet. We are home from school today and the kids have the day off from practice but are supposed to run 30-40 minutes on their own. I told the kid to make sure he gets some biking in just to keep his legs moving.

#3 projected boy had a huge second half of the season. He took 3rd in our home invitational (30 schools present) then placed 2nd behind my #1 kid at league finals. He is capable of pulling a single digit stick at our section meet this friday.

#4 projected boy is probably more fit than #3 projected. He just struggles mentally over the last mile of races. At our league meet, we were running 1-2-3 at the 2 mile mark, but my guy kind of faded and fell back to 5th. We lost the meet 34-36 (3rd place team was 82). At our section qualifier last week, he ran easily right with current #2 boy. The two finished in the high teens, place wise. The goal for that race was to just tempo and move on to section finals. Whenever there is no pressure, he runs great. Having him deal with the pressure and come up big for us at sections will be huge.

After those boys, we've had a rotating cast of characters about 60-90 seconds back. Every once in a while, a junior, in his first year of cross will pop a good race. At clovis, he was only 17 seconds behind my current #3 guy. He blew up at our section qualifier and finished as our 7th man. His time was almost surpassed by my runners in the JV race. #5 man works very hard, but has not been able to post a huge gain. He was only a 5:52 miler as a sophomore (now a senior). He has managed to get himself into the 18:30s for our league finals course (3.15 miles). But we need a sub 18 effort at the 4-5 spots to be able to move onto state next week. The kid who has been my 6-7 runner all year long had a nice race at section qualifier to finish as our #4. He sat out all track season with a knee issue caused by a hip strength imbalance. He has finally gotten that under control, but his mileage has been only 60-75% of my top varsity runners since we started ramping up in June. I'm not sure how much more he has to give. Last season in cross, at our league finals, he finished one second behind my projected #2 runner who dropped out of school this year. So, he has ability and will probably have a really good track season.

Girls:

The girls have contiued to impress me all year long....and I can't really take a lot of credit for how good they've been. My top 4 are all new to cross and didn't train with us much at all over the summer. If I've done anything smart with them at all, it's been to keep their overall volume and intensity low and keep them healty. It's easy to look good as a coach when you can just let the kids' talent shine. We have not had the same finish order in our top 6 all year long, so I can't really give a breakdown of how the girls have done the same way I did with the boys. I'll just go girl by girl, but the numbers don't represent where they currently stand on my team.

1. One our two returning seniors. 800 runner in track who had only once run under 23 minutes for cross. She did run with us consistently over the summer and started as our #2 girl at the pre season time trial and league opener (both of which were giant PRs for her). Further into the season, she settled in at our #5-6 spot, as our inexperienced girls had massive improvements and moved past her. She has taken that all in stride and has been a tremendous leader for our younger runners. We would not have been anywhere near as good teamwise without her maturity, leadership, and the chemistry she fostered. She ran 21:32 for 3.15 miles at our league finals.

2. Our other senior. This is her 4th year of cross, but she's never run track because she plays softball in the spring. She developed a cyst on her rotator cuff last spring and that kiboshed softball for her and has made running extrememly difficult for her all season. Every time she swings her arm, it creates inflamation and pain in her shoulder joint. The cyst went undiagnosed until half way through cross season. She had been doing PT under the assumption that softball had created some sort of minor tear or strain in the rotator cuff. She is going to have the shoulder scoped after the season, but she and her mom were adamant that she do as much as she can to help the team until the season ends. Postponing the surgery was not my decision nor even my suggestion. She has run as high as #2 on our squad in previous seasons, but this year has been alternating with girl 1 as our #5-6 runner.

3. A junior who has been primarily a 300 hurdler (46.15) on the track and played volleyball in the fall. Her brother was our boys captain last year and has constantly tried to get her out to run cross since she was an incoming frosh. She finally came out this year and has been wonderful. She has the athletic ability and the attitude to be great in distance running, but she is still not sold on the idea of being a distance runner. Very supportive of her teammates, 4.xx GPA, homecoming queen nominee. The type of kid that any coach would die to have. She ran 20:10 for 3.15 at our league finals. She started the year at #5 but has lately been solidly in our top 2.

4. Frosh, brand new to running. Came out half way through the summer. Ran 6:01 for 1600 as an 8th grader for a junior high track team that was more or less recreational (they kind of just showed up and did all the events, according to her). Pretty much all of the stuff I wrote about #3 can be said about her as well. She also ran 20:10 at our leage meet and barely outleaned girl 3. The two have become really good friends and it is super fun to watch them compete.

5. Frosh. New to cross but not new to running. Has been doing local road races since she was in 6th grade. Ran a half marathon as a 7th grader. Junior high 1600 PR of 5:42. She was our clear #1 early in the season, but the previous 2 girls have caught up to her. I think this was kind of difficult for her to accept at first, but I think now she likes the company. Girls #3-4-5 have not finished more than 10 seconds apart for the last 3 meets. This girl ran 20:20 at our league finals meet, but the next week, the top 3 ran together the entire way at our section qualifier meet, until my hurdler decided to use her speed in the last 50 meters and our girls spread out by a couple of seconds.

6. Sophomore. Had been a soccer player, but tore ACL at the end of 8th grade. Surgery and PT during fall of freshman year. Came out for track commpletely out of shape, but managed to go 5:42 for 1600 and 12:30 ish for 3200 off of minimal training. Parents took her to Mexico to visit family all summer and she was unable to run while there (if you follow the news, the reasons for her lack of running in Mexico should be obvious). Came into the season pretty out of shape again, but managed to form a nice pack with girls 3-5. As the races have gotten more intense over the past month, she has ceeded a little ground, and kind of blew up in our league finals meet. She was dealing with some shin pain that I didn't know about. I had her mom take her to wal mart to stand on the Dr. Scholls insole thing. That seems to have helped. The long term answer though is just more strenthening and gentle running to toughen up her lower leg muscles. She ran 21:07 at league, but I think she has a 20:30 in her should we reach state.

7. Junior. Barely broke 7:00 for 1600 on the track last spring. The fall before that, when she started running she could not do one lap of the track without stopping. She is a long way back from our top 6, but works her butt off every day. In her best races, she is a minute behind our 2 seniors, who are a minute to 75 seconds behind our top girl. Mid season, she was integrating herself into our top 7 during distance runs, but was running really hard to do so. That kind of caught up to her and wound up in a couple of little nagging injuries. She has those behind her. At our section qualifying race, I had her and another girl who is of very similar ability level run in the JV division, with the understanding that of the two of them, one would get the nod for varsity at this week's section meet. They went 8th and 10th. Both looked really good, but the other girl suffered some calf issues on the steep hills. Her best efforts put her in the low 23 minute range.

Our team was second at section qualifying and we are looking pretty good to take one of the two spots to state at this week's section meet. Should we make state, I think my top 3 all have shots of running under 20 on the Woodward park course. In their first year of running, they have run similar workouts and race times to a former athlete did during her first year of CC in 2008. (That girl is now finishing up her collegiate career on full scholarship at a D1 institution). That girl in 2008 went on to run 19:12 and finish 21st at state as a frosh.

We can win at section, but the team ahead of us is pretty good and a lot of things will have to go right for us to beat them. If we do beat them, it will only be by a few points I think.....this is the type of season and the type of meet that makes coaching really fun.

Section Championshps Yesterday

Boys 5th. First 3 guys had sub-par races, runners 4-6 had very good races. Missed the podium (top 3) by 7 points. Top guy, who had gone to state last year, had a gimpy calf in the week leading up to the meet. #2 ran ok, but not great. #3 took a dump. He struggles when the pressure is on. Last week during qualifying, he ran great, said it felt easy. This week, he was throwing up during the last mile.

Gilrs, 2nd. 1st trip to the state meet ever for our girls program. Only 7 seconds off of first place. Top 2 girls, who are brand new to distance running, continue to improve every week, both running 20:00 on a course that usually runs about 30 seconds slower than the Woodward Park state meet course. 3rd girl, who was #1 at beginning of year was a bit back at 20:44. Normal #4 had an off race and finished out of our top 5 at 22:02. Normal #6 took the #4 slot for us at 21:32 and normal #5 had a great race, running 21:57. She usually doen't run well on hilly courses, so her race yesterday was probably the best she's ever run, even though the time was not super great.

As the races have gotten bigger, our pack has been going out faster. Our top 3 can handle it, but I think the normal #4 girl has a hard time running fast early on. She kind of fell apart at our league finals after a fast early mile also. She's been dealing with some shin issues which have slightly limited her training, but those problems seem to be behind her now.

I think our girls have an outside shot at breaking into the state top 10, but we'll have to have great races across the board....especially from normal #4. She ran 21:05 at Clovis Invite earlier in the season, and will probably need a PR of 15-20 seconds for our team to go top 10. I feel like we can run fast enough up front, putting 3 girls under 20 minutes (My last girl to make state as a first year CC runner was 20:10 on our section course and then went 19:12 at state, so I feel my 3 newbies up front have a pretty good shot at sub 20). We'll just need 4-5 to not be too far back.

CoachB wrote:

Section Championshps Yesterday

#3 took a dump.

That'll slow you down.

Have fun at states with the girls' team.