Winter Weekend Off

Consistency is the key to success I think this is true in some many different aspects of our lives but winter running consistency leads to success in the spring, summer and fall.

I find it interesting that in a short while (6weeks) the track season will be starting for a number of my students and athletes and I am very encouraged by the amount of them that I see working out in the weight room and running some miles around town.  Seeing this tells me that the change is near.  The runners and athletes are starting to understand that in our sport we need to train year round.  The training does not need to be intense but it needs to be there.  This change in attitude is one that I have been hoping for, for the last three years.  I tell the kids that the better shape they come in the farther we can take them.  What it took was having a couple of runners take the bite and try running and working out in the offseason (if there really is one) those athletes saw less injuries and more gains than those that did not run.  This year because of it we have seen double the students doing off season stuff on their own.   

This has also inspired the head cross country coach and I to run ourselves and make sure that we are ready for the season and able to keep up with the kids to some degree.  But the wonderful side-effect has been running more miles thus far since 2008 and close to even 2009.  This consistency is very promising as the spring and summer races will be approaching faster than I think.  This summer I have a feeling that my training will change some due to the fact that I will be pushing a stroller.  I like the training plan that I have ready to implement the only thing will be actually doing it.  It calls for more at pace running and some longer easy runs.  I am going to try and train the same workouts as if the stroller was not there but I think that the stroller will slow down my times and paces for some of the runs that I plan on running.  Getting beyond the fact that my pace might not have been spot on will take some time but I am encouraged by the fact that I will have an added training aspect almost every run, pushing that stroller.  So until school is out and track is still going on the stroller will most likely stay in the garage and wait for warmer weather in March and or April so then I can run more consistently on the weekends.