Coaching Others and Self

This is my third year as an official assistant coach to the cross country team and forth with the team as a whole. This year is different than others in the past as the biggest school that beat the conference easily year in and year out left the conference.  This gives the other teams in the conference a real chance to do something as a team that has not been done in a very long time.  For us the first week of practice of cross country was a success, the athletes worked hard and some even came into the season in pretty good shape.  My role as assistant is the motivator kind of the cheerleader of the team if you will.  Every year I try and get more athletes to run during the summer this started last summer when I began the 300mile N.U.T.S club. We had two athletes make the club and they saw some the benefits of running these miles.  This year we expanded the clubs to include runners of all ages, 150, 200 and 300 miles.  As the athletes get older the club in which they are asked to reach increases.  The idea is that as the athletes run year to year they become used to the idea that running in the summer offseason is something of the norm.  This should make them better and more prepared for the season as they get older.  This was very evident that those that did run this past summer the shape were the times in the two mile that we ran on the second day of practice. 

I have been a fan of the pace calculator on mcmillanrunning.com and have used these time to help me pace out my own training.  This past January I was put on to vdot training at a conference.  I am sure that mcmillanrunning.com uses a similar calculator to achieve the time that it does.  This vdot training (Jack Daniels) is all based on finding where an athlete is at and have them run different types of training runs based on the paces from their timed two mile.  As the athlete gets in better shape the paces increase making the athlete work harder and therefore get faster.  It is this training that I have been trying to get the team to buy into.  This is difficult for a high school runner to do, many of these runners like to run but do not want to leave the comfort level and this training has you pushing your edge constantly.  I became very frustrated at one point this week when the senior boys were complaining that the pace was to fast but based on their scores it was just right.  I have been very fortunate that the head coach lets me vent to him during these times and prevents me from upsetting the team with my competitive nature.  To me it does not make sense as to why a person would not want to make themselves better and not settle. 

This is why I run and train as I do I want to get better every year.  This does not mean that I expect PR’s every time out but it does mean that I am going to try to run my best that I have each and every time and if I feel the performance is substandard that means that I need to make changes to my training so that I do not become complacent.  That is way I really like the vdot (Jack Daniels) and McMillan method of training I never seem to plateau for very long. This is why I created the mile clubs and why I try and motivate the runners to make themselves better.

Am I just crazy or does this make sense?

Running on vacation can normally be hit and miss when you can run.  If you have family that understands what it means to you to get out and run.  For me my family understands that I want to get out and run.  The problem is that my family is going through some changes if you have been reading, my running is becoming very sporadic but yet I am able to put in some consistent weekly miles.

On my vacation I went home (North Dakota) for three weeks.  During my vacation I was able to average about 30 miles a week and even able to run a race.  The race was very small (30people) and the first time for the town.  The race itself was not a bad route one big loop on the outskirts of town.  I was the only serious runner at the race even though I know of local runners that could run faster that can they did not show up.  Their absence is my gain meaning I was able to pull off a win.  The time was not good 20:32; the second place time was about 2minutes after so it was not even close. 

My training runs varied in length and scenery.  At the farm the scenery looked very much like this.  

When I was in Minot, ND the scenery was very different.  Minot had just started the recovery of the flood that devastated the city.  It was very difficult to comprehend the devastation even seeing the aftermath.  My family was not affected by the flood.  But there is still so much that needs to be done, the Red Cross is one of the best places to donate.  There is an alternative that is different, I Helped Rebuild Minot, here you can purchase a shirt that goes toward the purchase of sheetrock for those that have difficulty purchasing it.   

At the end of the vacation my wife and I were able to have our son baptized in the country church that my wife grew-up going to.  It was a beautiful day and was shared by family at the farm.  We ended up staying an extra day to recover from the very busy three weeks. 

Now we are back home things are getting back to normal, whatever that is.