Cross Country and Track

We're getting down to the end of the track and field season here in central California.  As I start to think about the championship meets coming up on the track, I also am thinking about the upcoming cross country season.  Specifically, I'm thinking about how the two sports compliment each other.

There aren't any two sports that benefit each other like cross country does for track and like track does for cross.  The two sports are nearly inseparable for athletes striving to reach their full potential in either.  To be sure, some people prefer to race on the track and some prefer the trail.....but almost without exception, every runner who is good at one sport also competes in the other (my apologies to guys like Coly Candel and ladies like Tiffany McWilliams, who don't fit the general mold).

So, I've posted two videos to our Training and Racing Page.  The first features the Butler University Women's Cross Country Team, who surprised the big name schools at last fall's NCAA championship meet to take 3rd place.  The second video is a track workout by Alexa Efraimson who last fall broke Sarah Baxter's lifetime unbeaten streak in cross country to win Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Oregon.

It is highly unlikely that the Butler women or Efraimson would be as good as they are if they decided not to run either cross or track.

Butler on the Podium last fall in Indiana

Efraimson crossing the line first at Nike Cross Nationals

Pitman Distance Wars

Congrats to the Hughson Husky runners who took to the track Friday night for the Pitman Distance Wars.  Our night was highlighted by Zach Morrett's impressive front running win in the Boys 3200.  Zach's time of 9:42.8 set the stadium record at Turlock's venerable Joe Delby Stadium.

Also running well and setting PRs were

Anthony Arce dropped his 1600m PR from 5:17 to 5:54
Garrett Hartman dropped his 1600m PR from 5:57 to 5:53
Ilina Gonzales, running in her first track race ever, won her heat of the 800 in a time of 2:49.
Michael Sanders Set a PR in the 3200m dropping his best time from 11:35 to 11:21

The clock shows the results of Zach's dedication and perseverance.

Rock River Run

Austin, Daniel, Zach, and Anthony got together for a little jaunt up into the foothills. 8.1 miles, mostly uphill. Here is a Map of the Run Where the boys ran.  To see the elevation profile, make sure you click Elevation, Small (large works too!).

The crew starting out in the flatland

Austin, about half way up the main climb of the run

Daniel and Austin on a little downhill after the top of the main climb

Zach and Anthony on the final uphill before the finish

They did it!!!

Hard Runs Make Hard Runners!!!

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!