After New Years Run

If anyone is interested, I can take a crew out to Rock River Road on January 2nd.

Here is a link to a Map of the route

If you don't think you can make the whole run, that's fine.  I can drop you off closer to the top of the road and you can have a shorter run.

If you want to go, shoot me a text.  I will be out of town from the 29th through the 1st.

We can leave from the high school at 10:00 am.  If you will bring me a few bucks each, I'll pack some food and you guys can have a picnic lunch on top of the hill when you are done.

Happy Holliday Training

Welcome to Christmas Break. Since we won't be seeing each other for 2 1/2 weeks, I thought I'd post some guidelines for your training during the break. You guys have been great this year....some of the best attitudes, most dedication, and all around fun to coach athletes I've had the pleasure of working with. Let's take it to the next level now.
Winter Break Running Guidelines

I've roughed out two schedules for when we return from break.  The goal is to get you to the first race of the season aerobically strong and moderately race fit.  We'll use the first couple of low key invitationals to gauge our fitness and set goals and training paces for the harder training and racing to come in late April and May.

Mid Distance Pre Season, 400-1600 Focus

And for you Miler/2 Miler types

Distance Pre Season

The total  mileage, as well as the volume and speed of repetitions, will vary based on ability level.  Sample weeks are geared for the top runners in each group.  You should all have a pretty good idea of what your mileage should be now, based on where you were at during the cross country season.

HAPPY RUNNING!

Some Disappointment, then a great workout.

Last week, we had a very mixed set of results at the TVL Championship meet.  Our JV boys captured the league title for the 5th straight year, yet none of those wins by the young guys have yet translated into league titles at the varsity level.  At the varsity level, we ran our best ever team time on the Legion Park course (better than the 2003 section championship team), but were beaten soundly by a very good Riverbank team.

On the girls side, we had a number of PRs and season bests, but lingering injuries and illnesses kept us from running all of our girls.  Our first meet of the season at the VG level running a complete team resulted in a 5th place finish out of 5 complete teams.  Fortunately, we were only 6 points out of 4th and only 9 points out of 3rd in the varsity girls race.  As we move forward, I believe that a very realistic goal for us will be to pass up the two teams (Orestimba and Escalon) that finished ahead of us at the TVL finals meet.

Yesterday, we took a huge step toward making an improvement during the post season.  We had our best workout of the year, as a team.  Without going into too much detail, we ran 400s with short rest to try and simulate some of the late race fatigue that sets in as lactic acid accumulates.  We are now 2 days out from the section meet, and 9 days out from the section finals.  The timing of this strong workout should serve us well as our bodies absorb the quality training and adapt to it.

Mileage Update (Finally!)

Well, it's been a while since I updated this blog.  We've had a lot of good running happening.  I've finally been able to update the mileage totals.  Very impressive stuff

Week 19 saw our team total 975.2 miles!

A few athletes have surpassed the 100 mile threshold over the past few weeks.  Congrats to the following athletes for reaching that milestone.

Boice, Carson

Jackson, Jaymie

Mays, Gabrielle

Bordi, Cole

Jackson, Tim

Madrigal, Anthony

Fisher, Jonah

As we get deeper and deeper into the season, we all continue to improve.  Keep up the great work!

Lowell Invitational

Our season is well underway and we've now officially had our first highlight. Our varsity boys team had a fantastic race at the Lowell Invitational. Zach Morrett ran a strong race to finish 10th in 15:26 (equal to about 16:20-16:25 for 5k). The great thing about the meet, however was the fact that our 2nd -7th runners were able to pack within 44 seconds of eachother. After Zach, our varsity results looked like this

Ian Brooks, 16:29
Anthony Arce, 16:44
Brigham Lee, 16:48
Austin Zehr, 17:11
Elijah Watkins, 17:14
Wyatt Mitchell, 17:19

Full results are available HERE

On the girls side, Taylor ran a good race to lead our frosh soph squad. Taylor and Heavyn will be moving up to the varsity level to begin to fill out that squad for the late season meets.

Full Hughson splits and analyses will be available HERE later this evening.

SMASH, SMASH, SA-MASH!!!

After 10 years, the 2003 Section Champion Hughson Huskies boys team time trial record has fallen.  This record had only been approached once in the past 10 years....the 2011 team got within 31 seconds.  Today, our boys squad destroyed the old record by 62 seconds.  The old record, had been 55:10.  The new record stands at 54:08!  Congratulations, boys....your hard work has begun to pay off.

We are only at the beginning of the season and lots of things can happen.  We can continue to work and get better, we can stagnate, or we can fall apart.  I chose to get better.  I hope you will all join me in that decision.

Full rankings of all 14 years of Hughson Cross Country time trials can be found HERE

Other interesting stats:
Zach again broke the old team record, running 10:11.  He did not beat his time of 10:10 from the first time trial
This was only the second time we've had 3 runners under 11 on the time trial
We had our fastest ever finishers at places 4-15....as a matter of fact, our 9th man today would have been 5th man on 11 of our 13 previous varsity teams.
15 boys qualified for the all time list by running under 13 minutes.

Girls
Despite being extremely inexperienced, our girls team was able to run the #5 team time trial in my 14 years coaching.  They put 3 girls onto the all time list.  Despite having been sick for a week, Maddy improved her time as the #4 runner ever for us.  Heaven had a solid run, only 13 seconds behind Maddy to move into the #6  all time position.  Taylor made her first appearance on our list by running 15:35, despite a sore achilles tendon.  This team has tons of room for improvement and I expect that we will continue to get better with every passing week.

Our new  All Time Top 10 List can be found here.

Full Results of Time Trial 2 can be found HERE

Recommended Double Days for Varsity Athletes

As practice moves to the after school oven hot scorching temperatures of August, our ability to run the optimal amount of mileage will be greatly reduced. For the majority of our varsity guys, you are at a fitness level where you need to maintain at least 45 miles per week to keep improving. Since we won't be able to run very far in the afternoons for the first month to six weeks of the season, many of you would greatly benefit from doing an additional run in the morning of 4-5 miles, 2-3 days per week.

I've already created the training progression for the season based on our goals and our meet schedule. The days that I recommend that you double are designed to go along with that schedule. Please note that I often have you doubling on our hard workout days. This is not an accident, my purpose in that schedule is to keep you from running the early season workouts too hard. If you are already a little tired from a morning training session, you will be less likely to over run the afternoon session.

Here are the Days

August
15th, 16th, 19th, 21st, 22nd, 26th, 29th, 30th

September
2nd, 5th, 9th, 10th, 12th, 16th, 18th, 20th, 23rd, 24th, 30th

I have not decided if I want you to keep doubling into October, or if I want you to do all of your mileage in singles.  Either way, we will keep a high volume through October and into the first week of November.  The majority of our varsity runners should be in the 45-60 mpw range with Zach probably more in the 55-70 range.

Camp was exceptional!!!

I can say, without any hint of exaggeration or hyperbole that this year's camp was our best ever as a team for the following reasons:

1. We had more of our top runners at camp than any other year.
2. Nobody got hurt.
3. There were precisely zero attitude problems
4. Everyone trained extremely well.
5. The team was able to begin to set some common goals which were aggressive yet realistic.

Last Year's Camp Video

Those of you not going to camp this year can enjoy last year's video instead.

A Weighty Issue

I've talked to you a bit about VO2 max in the past.  I've told you that VO2 max is a good indicator of how well you will race for distances such as 2 miles or 5 kilometers.  Let me explain what VO2 max is:

Simply put, stands for the maximum amount of oxygen our hearts can deliver to our working muscles. Our bodies require oxygen in order to generate the energy that keeps us running down the road.  When we exceed our bodies' ability to supply oxygen to our working muscles, we fatigue very quickly.  We can then say that, the more oxygen we can deliver to our muscles, the less likely we are to become fatigued during a race.

So, what does a VO2 max number mean? I mean, how does a VO2 of 43 (what I currently have) compare to a VO2 of 69 (which I had when I was in my best shape ever).  The number, in VO2 stands for:

milliliters of oxygen per minute per kilogram of body weight

To concretely measure VO2 max, a physiologist would put me on a treadmill, stick a hose in my mouth to capture all of the air I breath out, start the treadmill and keep making it faster and steeper until I could no longer keep running.  The physiologist would then measure the air I breathed out, and determine how much oxygen I used per minute of work.  The physiologist would then divide the amount of oxygen I used per minute by my body weight in kilograms.  The number he came up with (43 for me currently), would mean that I used 43 milliliters of oxygen per minute for every kilogram of body weight.

You can estimate your VO2 max based on your current race times if you Use This VO2 max calculator.  A brief note, often the VO2 max predictor tables are referred to as "VDOT" tables.  I don't want to explain why right now, because it is not important for you at this time.

So, I plug my 2 mile time in from the July 4th race and the calculator tells me that my VO2 max is 43 milliliters of oxygen, per minute, per kilogram of body weight.

I currently weigh 81 kilograms, I've been eating and lifting a bit more during this summer, plus, I've noticed a little more than the usual pudge around my edges lately.  During the school year I was pretty consistently in the 78 kilogram range.  This raises the question, how much time, in a 2 mile race, does the extra 3 kilograms cost me?  I mean, it must cost me something, right?  If I were to strap on a pack with 3 kilos (about 6.6 pounds) on my back, I certainly couldn't run as fast as I could without the backpack.  So, how much do the extra 3 kilos cost me?

A little simple arithmetic can answer that question. This is how to do it

1. Find your current VDOT estimate using the above calculator
2. Multiply that number by your body weight in kilograms (a kilogram = 2.2 pounds).  This will give you the total amount of oxygen your body can use per minute.
3. Now, divide that number by the total weight in kilograms of a hypothetical lighter you (I can use my 78 kilos from before my trip to Iceland, for example.  This will give you a bigger VDOT number.
4. Plug that bigger VDOT back into the calculator and check your new, faster race times.

This is what it looks like for me.

1. VDOT = 43 ml of oxygen per minute per kilogram of body weight. (ml/kg/min)
2. 43 ml/kg/min x 81 kg = 3,483 ml of oxygen used per minute.
3. Divide 3,483 ml/min by 78 kg = 44.65 VDOT.
4. If I plug that number back into the calculator, I see that my 14:01 2 mile suddenly drops to 13:40.

I suddenly improved 21 seconds by shedding 3 kilograms.  I recently heard our #1 runner laughing about the belly he is developing this summer.  I'm looking at the results from this years section 3200m final and can see exactly what 21 seconds would do for him.

Next topic....How to shed the weight safely (if you have any to lose in the first place).

edit: This Link allows you to enter a VDOT number directly into the calculator to get your projected race times.

July....It's time to grind.

July is a huge month for any team that has aspirations to be great.  It has to be.  We are close enough to the season where we cannot afford to waste time, but we are still far enough away from the season that, if we overcook training a bit, we still have time for a few down weeks to recover for the start of the official CIF start date of August 12th.

We are 3 weeks away from the beginning of camp and 5 weeks away from the beginning of after school practice.  We NEED to be aggressive with our training during this time, while at the same time, being as smart about it as possible.  Now is the time to either leapfrog forward and become the best D4 team in the Sac Joaquin Section, or to stagnate and remain good, but not great.  Let's be Great!!!

Thankfully, normal summer weather has returned for us.  This will make it easier to do normal training at our evening practices.  However, for those of you who are experienced and want to have a break out season, just doing the 3 evening practices and filling in the rest of the week with easy runs will not be enough.  You need to force yourself to do a little extra during this time.  The best way to do this is to DOUBLE ON THE DAYS WE HAVE PRACTICE.  This means that you will need to go out and get an easy run of 4-5 miles on the mornings we meet for evening practice.  It is that simple.  By doing this, you will add an additional 12-15 miles to your weekly total, and help yourself leapfrog forward to better fitness.

Your weeks should look something like this:
Monday: AM 4-5 miles easy, PM Short run + drills and speed mechanics (5-6 miles total) + Core
Tuesday: AM 4-5 miles easy, PM Longish run of 8-10 miles + Core
Wednesday: 3-6 miles easy (depending on how you feel)  if you are feeling good, do strides as well.
Thursday: AM 4-5 miles easy, PM Warm Up, strides + core + 3.5-5 miles tempo + cool down (6-8 miles total)
Friday: 3-6 miles easy (depending on how you feel) + strides if you feel good
Saturday: Long run of 8-12 miles
Sunday: Off or cross train or run very easy 2-4 miles

Totals for the week: 45-65 miles.  This range should accommodate anyone on this team who has aspirations of cracking into our boys top 7.

HELPFUL HINTS
After 1 week of bumping up your training, you will probably feel really good.  This is the body's normal reaction to increased stress.  After the second week, you will begin to feel pretty fatigued. At this point, you will have one of 2 options.  A. Press on with what you are doing.  or B. Back off the training a little bit.

Option B is the better option here, because in the final week of July, we will be heading up to camp and we will be pushing pretty hard while we are there.  So, taking an easier week after 2 hard weeks, will allow your bodies to catch up a bit before we hit them hard again at camp.

Now, lets look at option B a bit.  In backing off the training, I believe that it would be better to do so in this order

#1 shorten your long runs.  If you are doing 12, drop to 9-10.  If you are doing 10, drop to 7-8.  The fatigue that is the hardest from which to recover usually happens in the last few miles of long days.
#2 If shortening your long days isn't enough, drop the mileage of a few other runs.  If you are doing 5 in the morning, cut to 4, if you are doing 4 in the morning, cut to 3.
#3 As a last resort, if you get to the end of the recovery week and you are not feeling good, drop one run.

I discourage you from dropping runs unless you absolutely have to.  One of the things we are trying to accomplish during the summer is to develop good work habits.  We are trying to make daily running (and sometimes doubling) something your body expects to do. Once your bodies have adapted to the frequency of the running we are doing you will have established the springboard from which to launch forward into the harder training that will allow you to perform at your top levels during October and November.

Training To Be Mentally Tough

Suddenly, I was 14 again....a freshman in my first track season at Westmont High School.  I'm not sure what caused the very real and very vivid memory to surface, but it goes something like this.

My team was practicing out at Steven's Canyon.  The run that I and my teammates were doing was a 8.5 mile out and back run.  On the way out, the road traveled gradually upward and on the way back, the road descended gently back to the start.  I, a scrawny little kid with a 5:48 mile PR and a 2 mile best which was well slower than 12 minutes at the time, was hammering away back toward the finish of the run.

The instructions from our coach had been simple "Hard run to the log and back".  Our coach wasn't really big on terms like tempo, VO2 max, or all of the different pace variations about which I try to teach you guys.   It was very common for the workout sheet to read something to the effect of "10 miles, Hard".  These runs formed the backbone of our hard training and in all likely hood, they were too hard for most of us.  There are many times that I can recall that an 8, 9, or 10 mile run would start off at a pace that felt almost like 2 mile race pace.  Coach would say "go", start the watch, and we'd all fly away from campus.  Once we spread out, with the fastest runners up front and the stragglers hanging on toward the back, each of us would proceed to run just about as hard as we could for whichever course we had been assigned for that day.  Each of our runs were timed: easy days, medium days, hard days.  However on the hard days, nobody wanted to be beaten by someone who was "slower" than himself and everyone would generally try to beat the guys ahead.  Essentially, the days that I'm describing were long, hard races.

I had been one of the last runners on this day to make the turnaround at the log.  As a freshman, with a relatively slow PR for the mile, there weren't many people on my team I was expected to beat in practice.  However, I was faster than Dan Bassoni.  I would usually beat Dan on the training runs and in races.  However, on this day, Dan was having the run of his life.  4.5 miles into a hard run, I could usually count on being at least 400 meters ahead of Dan.  This day, Dan was right on  my butt.  We were going downhill now, and Bassoni's long legs ate up twice as much ground per stride as mine did.  Down through Stevens Canyon we raced, far behind our teammates, a light rain falling on our heads.  I would open up a little gap on Dan, then as the road would tilt steeper downward, he would catch and pass me.  This continued until just before the finish line.

We rounded the bend, Dan and I, locked in a dual to the death.  I began to kick towards the parking lot, where our cars were waiting to take us back to school.  I had a 5 yard lead on Dan. I heard my coach yell, "Come on, Joel.  You can do it."  Just as Coach yelled his encouragement, I began to puke.  The next words out of Coach's mouth were "Maybe not".  I finished puking, jogged to the cars and sat down, exhausted.

The point of this story here is not for me to relive my glory. I certainly didn't experience much running glory for my first 2 years of high school.  The point is this.  Later that spring, despite the fact that my mile PR had only come down to 5:42, and my 2 mile best had only dropped to 11:57, I was able to run 39:20 for 10k.  That is two 5ks of 19:40, back to back. Some of you, with far better PRs than me, will not be able to run 5k in 19:40 when we open our season in 2 months.  Some of you, whose PR's suggest that they should be well under 18 minutes by our first race will be hovering in the mid 19:00 range. Why is that?  

I have a hypothesis.

My coach's training probably wasn't the best.  For the strongest and most talented, it was great.  For those of us struggling to keep up with them, it was way too tough.  But, what we (or at least I) learned from those long, hard training runs was this:  I learned how to go out hard, to the point that I was hurting, and then hold on for a long, long, time without giving up.  

I believe that some of you give up way too easily and that you could take a lesson from the training of Coach Vargas. 

Here is my challenge to you:  Pick a day, soon.  Find a course for which you know the distance.  Pick a fairly long route....7,8,9 miles.  Run that route as hard as  you can.  Find a pace that you know you can keep, and keep it, no matter what.  When you are hurting, imagine Dan Bassoni is chasing you and that he will catch you on the next downhill unless you run absolutely, positively as hard as you can.  Force yourself to keep pushing, don't give up.  Once you finish, record your time and write it down.  2 weeks later, repeat that run.  After we return from camp, repeat it again.  Check your progress.  I can almost assure you that you will improve dramatically over the course of the summer.  You will improve a little bit as your fitness increases, but mostly, you will improve because you will have developed some mental toughness.

Atwater "Run For Independence."

For those of you planning on going to the race in Atwater, meet at the school parking lot at 5:45.  Remember to bring water and some dry clothes for after the race.

As an added bonus, I'll buy breakfast for the athlete that best predicts my time in the 2 mile race.

See you tomorrow morning.

More Hot Weather Stuff

I know this might be kind of old hat, but watch these Hot Weather Running Tips to help get you through this summer training.

Also, I know it will be hot at 7:00 PM, but we are still going to practice at that time.  Because of the heat, we won't be able to run that much.  It is my plan to work on some of the other aspects of training over the next couple of days during this heat.  This means that you will need to RUN ON YOUR OWN IN THE MORNING on practice days so that you are able to log sufficient miles.

Tomorrow and Tuesday, we will be in the weight room and outside doing drills and mechanics.  We will take lots of water breaks and we will not run that much.  It is important for you to RUN ON YOUR OWN IN THE MORNING

You also need to get those week 5 miles in to me tonight.

Running in the Heat

I'm sitting at my computer right now.  Outside, it is 3:02 PM and 107 degrees Fahrenheit.  I hope none of you decide to go run right now.  Let me give you a few tips on surviving these hot summer days AND managing to get some good running in.

1. Split your runs  Your chances of surviving a 10 mile run in conditions like this are slim.  So, what do you need to do?  Break them up into manageable chunks, which leads me to point #2

2. Run Early  I know you are teenagers.  I know you like to sleep in.  However, it was 91 degrees by 10 AM today.  When I say run early, I mean before the sun comes up.  AKA. 5:00 AM.  You can always get a nap during the middle of the day.

3. Run Late As in, after the sun goes down.  Running late clearly not as good as running early here because: 1) it's hotter, 2) Ozone levels are higher, which will hurt those of you with asthma, and 3) There are more likely to be drunk drivers zooming around if you are running at 10 PM.  You will want your late run to be shorter and right around sunset

If you want to get in those 10 miles, I would make the day look like this.

5:00 AM Wake Up
5:30 AM Run 7 miles
6:15 AM Core
6:30 AM Breakfast
7:00 AM Shower

Then, go about your day. Throwing in a nap after lunch (I could go into the physiological benefits of napping, but you'll just have to trust me here that naps are good.  Almost all professional runners take a mid day nap).

For your evening run, it should look something like this
7:00 PM Run 4-5 miles
7:30 PM run the hose over your head
8:00 PM dinner
8:30 PM cool shower

You'll notice that 7 miles + 5 miles > 10 miles.  This is an added benefit of doubling.....it is much easier to put in solid miles if you run twice.

4. Drink Water You won't get cramps, don't worry.  Drink at least one pint of water prior to your early, cool temp run.  Drink at least a quart of water prior to your evening run.  Drink lots of fluids throughout the day.  You will need them.

5. Watch This Video when you begin to wonder why you are spending your summer waking up early and worrying about fluid consumption when the rest of your friends are partying.

Atwater Run for Independence is in one week!

Click here to open info about the race

This 4th of July race has become somewhat of a tradition for our team.  Once I know how many of you are planning to go, I will arrange for transportation to the race.  One of our other developing traditions is to stop for breakfast at Brooks Ranch Restaurant after the race.

I hope you all plan on testing your fitness on the 4th.

Keep working hard and good things can happen

I came across this great article and video of a 27 year old elementary school teacher who finally broke through in the world of big time running, placing 4th at USATF 1500m finals and becoming our alternate for the world championship team later this summer.

Here is the article in Runners World


Here is the video of the post race interview

Practices Start in One Week!!!

Today is Monday the 17th. We will have our first summer practice on Monday the 24th at 8:00 AM. I hope you will all be ready.

Also, remember coming up that we will be going to the Atwater Run For Independence on July 4th. Anyone who is in town on that day is encouraged to come along and see how your fitness is progressing (or has regressed for some of you.)

Coach B has actually been getting some good running here in Iceland and you all may be treated to a rare sighting of Coach suiting up to race. I´m not promising anything other than the fact that I will be a drooling, slobbering mess by the end of the run.

Photos From Second Week in Iceland

These are selected photos from our second week in Iceland. For all of you Hughson CC kids....sorry to subject you to these photos that we are sharing with our friends.

Time to get Week 2 mileage to Coach K

OK, I know that everyone is running and getting ready for a great season. It´s one AM on sunday for you guys, but I'm getting into my second cup of morning coffee over here in Iceland. Run early, get done before the heat sets in. Remember, we are running a test race in 3 weeks. See you guys on June 24.

CoachB and Family in Iceland

Yeah, they should maybe call it Rainland. It rained constantly for the first 6 days we were here.

Congrats to Zach Morrett on a fine PR at Sacramento Meet of Champions

9:41 for 3200....Not too shabby.  Now we just need a kick

http://www.runnerspace.com/video.php?video_id=87105