Chieftan's Championship Quest

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Fri 1/11/13

Weather was incredibly warm for Jan, 55F. The track was melted so we were outside. It was wonderful. The hurdler was on a college visit, he ran in the halls Thursday.

The sprinter had a great workout. We had a nice tailwind today as well.

4x30 standing
4x30 blocks 3.8s HT from first foot movement
3x40+20
3x60 (50+m) I mis marked the first 2, running about 55m in 6.55 and 6.66, then on #2, marked to 60m, and he ran 6.88HT, his fastest training time to date. He ran 7.35 last meet, but feel he was in 7.20 form then. He lost form last 20m. I think he is sub 7.20 right now. I feel he can run sub 7 by the end of February, that is the goal I have for him.

The other hurdlers did well today. One is doing L-S coming from XC and one did the S-L workout above. Both runners his PRs in the training distances today.

Next week the plan is Mon and Wed, Friday would be hurdle specific things and block starts for the sprinter. Meet on Jan 21 (Monday).

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Training for everyone has been sporadic. Kids have been getting sick here and there. The sprinter has been consistent with training. Being in the 40-50m intensity limit right now, it’s certainly kicking his butt. tonight, Jan 31, he ran 7.35 again! 3rd meet in a row now. I felt last meet he was in 7.20 shape. Today I thought for sure he’d run 7.20. He is a bit tight and I will start my therapy work with him. I’m looking for a huge state finals Feb 23 from him.

A challenge I am facing going through a full s-L SPP is timing the days they will feel good. There are some days I can tell they feel great, and others just flat. Nonetheless, everyone is healthy and we had an opportunity to run in a great environment and run fast. The next race is about 2 weeks away, and then state finals 10 days after that.

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If you figure out what’s up with him please post. I had a stretch in university where I ran 7.17 4 or 5 meets in a row.

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I think it’s being consistent throughout the entire race from start, to transition to finish. He’s had good starts, and poor finishing, then bad start, great finish, and last nite was average start and average finish. Certainly some pressing running against guys out in front of him.

As the intensity limits have increased, so has his muscle tone. So even though his performance times are the same, there is improvement. But we are close to danger zone being so tight.

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Feb 22

The other runners have been working hard. A hurdler and a sprinter will run tomorrow (Sat) at the indoor state finals. For them, making to semi’s will be a huge accomplishment. I’m expect 8.90 for the hurdler and 7.20 for the sprinter. Those would be great accomplishments for them for this winter season.

Training wise, since the last post, we have been doing 5-8 x30s (in 2 sets), and 3-4x60 between 40-60m intensity limits. Times were pretty flat for most of the phase in the 60s so I am curious to see how they run tomorrow.

I will post tomorrow night the update!

After this meet, they will get some time off before starting back up for the outdoor high schools season.

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Looking forward to reading how your team does.

Wishing them the best!

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I have a few things ESTI for you to think about and to remember when you are looking and or expecting a result. The sayings may not help you the way they have guided me and continue to guide me today.

  1. There are no miracles in sport. = Results don’t just appear. Results are a bi product of time, effort and energy on the part of the coach and the athlete and a great deal goes into this process.
  2. Time must meet chance. = Just wait for it. Your time line does not necessarily coincide with the time lines of the universe. Your athlete is a baby in terms of development and photo starts mess up , electronic timing devises are subject to error and perhaps for what ever reason something might not go exactly right on the day you hope and expect.
    I think one thing is very clear to me. You have done an exceptional job and if no progress is made or collected today a huge success has happened for you and your athlete ( s ) .
    I can’t wait to hear how it goes today for everyone.
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Thanks for the words Ange!

Today, my hurdler ran 8.93, reaching his goal of 8.95 (his older bro’s best 60H). He ran great, just didn’t have enough to move on to semi finals. We were both happy for this result. In the 60 dash, he ran another 7.35!!! Every single race was exactly 7.35 this season! He stood up at the start on step 2 and got out poorly of course, but finished really well. Missed semi’s by 0.04! Overall I’m pleased with their performances. I know the sprinter has more in him, just a matter of execution consistently over time.

Just a few years ago (in my Crusader’s Quest) journal, I had a group of fairly average sprinters. I had a blast coaching them, and deep down wanted one to get to the state finals. Now times have changed, and I needed some perspective on why I coach. These guys today helped me understand that in the past few weeks!

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You can’t do better than that ESTI. Great job and you are a great model for others working with individuals or groups and I think the work you do with young kids is more valuable than anything. The positive experiences you are giving them can never be taken away and they are in a position to do more about it now than if they were really young.
It’s exciting what you are doing with no budget and no support and just your ideas you have learned. ( obviously you have the learned many lessons well)

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Mon March 11

First official day of outdoor practice.
Temp: 48, pouring rain. Absolutely miserable (similar to Oregon weather!)

33 sprinters/hurdlers/jumpers showed today. 11 girls, 22 boys.

I plan on doing concurrent with the bulk of the team focusing on 200m type work. I feel doing so gives me greater flexibility in event selection with kids as needed versus kids ho might be solely event specialists. The change I have used from Concurrent is 3 days a week of specific work outlines in the forum thread, with a mix of acceleration days (tires, push up sprints, med ball throws, etc) mixed in. In between will be easy tempo days with abs and other exercises in the field that we can do based on numbers and equipment available etc.

Today we did 2x(4x150) in approximate 200m time (i.e. 200m time of 28s=150 in 28 sec). Older kids would jog the rest after runs 1 and 3, and walk the rest on 2. About 7 minutes in between sets.

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The weather sucked all last week. This week was just plain cold.

Last week we did
Mon: 2x4x150 (rest was jog, walk, jog, set rest)
Tuesday: Tempo
Wed 5x200 in come home pace. I ball park it since I don’t know everyones personal best yet. I’m pretty good at estimating my group. For most this is intensive tempo work and for the older kids, specific work for finishing strong in the 200/400
Thur: tempo
Fri: tempo (scheduled acceleration day on wed, but had to move it to today, then went to tempo when several kids complained of excessive tightness in calf and quads. Obviously most have not done much over winter so this is expected.)
Sat/Sun: Off

Mon: Sprint ladder (modified due to ice on one complete turn) 200, 150, 100, 50, 40, 30, 20
Tues: indoor mat tempo, 2 x 10 x 30 seconds (30 sec rest was one of the ab circuit exercises) one person ran, one person did abs at same time, then switched.
Wed: 2x300+150. Today was cold but with only a few runs, we rested inside the team lockeroom by the track during the set break. Overall great workout considering the temperatures
Thur: tempo
Fri: warm-up and baton work for meet tomorrow
Sat: meet (various distances, 60, 200, 400)

This past week I did modify some a bit for indoor group.
Monday my sprinters and girl hurdlers were in the halls doing short speed work 3x30, 3x40, 3x50 (rep 1, standing, rep 2, block, rep 3 flying 30 with 20m run up) all with full recovery.
Tuesday mat tempo (boy hurdlers did our half space to race pace progression over 3 hurdles instead and used Monday as a tempo day)
Wed: 3x20, 3x30, 2x EFE 20-20-20-,2x FEF 20-20-20 (girl hurdlers did work over 2 hurdles to prep for sat race)
Thursday" tempo (boy hurdlers did one last hurdle workout similar to Tuesday)
Friday": warm up
sat: Race

Saturday March 23 meet report:

Overall great day. I saw continued progress with me #2 hurdler, setting another PR today at 8.85. He started in Jan at 9.20.

In the girls 4x200, 2 distance girls ran solid 28 splits. Last year my girls 4x200 ran 28-27s towards end of the year. One of those girls ran a 28 as well.

In the girls 4x400, my grade 9/10 team from the spring is all back. 2 girls ran today, 2 seconds off their outdoor PR. Very exciting, considering one girl has only trained hard 2 weeks.

The boys 4x200 was good as well. Two guys ran mid 23s indoors. Last year they PRd at high 22s. One was switched out due to a bit of tightness, but he is surely capable of same times, and the top hurdler is capable of breaking 22 this year. I think they have a chance to medal at state finals.

The boys 4x400 was great as well. Kids ran near PRs. We are in need of a 4x400 team, with only one member returning (the hurdler who ran 48-49 splits last year for us at anchor, and has 300h PB of 38.1). 2 kids ran 55-56 range. One has only done short to long work all winter. Very impressed with times so far. We are off 17 days for training. A lot to get done! Excitement builds for the season ahead. We may not win a championship this year, but seeing kids hit PRs and run well is just as rewarding for me as a coach.

One last note, my long jumper from last year PRd today jumped 20-1.5" taking 3rd. His best last year was low 19s. He spent most winter in weight room and has great pop off the board. His flight mechanics and landing is not great, but throughout 6 jumps, improved his landing a bunch, improving over a 12" from this first jump.

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Monday March 25
Indoor group: tire 3x30m

3x30 (stand, block, 20+30fly), 3x40, 3x50 (all sets stand block fly)

Hurdlers did 3 starts to 2H

Rest of group did 3x3x30 tire sprints, then 3x30 standing sprints.

Long sprinters did 2x3x300 at come home 400 pace (very tough!)

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Esti,
It’s exciting reading your progress as a coach. It’s a large commitment working with young people.

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Thanks Ange!

This year will be interesting. The cold weather has caused many kids to stop coming to practice. As the coach, it was a tough call deciding to go outside or stay inside. Knowing we run in poor conditions, I went with being outside (except for a few days). I’ve had several kids come down with quad tightness/pulls.

I run into a logistical issue. The school gets out at 210pm. I can’t get to the track until 330 with my teaching job. Starting this week, several days a week we have to be off the track by 430 as they have soccer games, lacrosse games etc. I usually have the older kids warm up at 3pm and be ready for me at 330. With the weather, many kids are not preparing right. Also, this group of kids as a group is never on time. I struggle with things like this. I have to crack down and get the group in order.

I have about 6 girls who will make up my varsity group. I have to decide how much to spread them out in meets. Individually, they are average. As a relay, they will do much better.

The meet schedule on weekends is mainly invitational style (heats, semis finals in 100 200 110h/100h, and then 4x1, 4x2, 4x4, 300H, 400). They aren’t fast enough to advance in the rounds in the weekend races, so I think those meets will be about 2 events in relays, and save the Tuesday conference meets for multiple races. With so few kids, this reminds me of my first year coaching with only a dozen boys and about 6 were varsity level.

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Wed March 27

Temp was a cool 45.

We had a team meeting about paperwork, spring break plans etc. By the time we were done, it was 4pm and at 430 was a soccer game. The kids who warmed up at 3pm were certainly cold now. Since so many were tight and sore, we did a 10 minute easy jog and then did about 20 minutes using microstretching technique for various stretches on muscles being complained about. Many felt better when we finished.

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Thursday Mar 28 50F !!! Great weather today.

The group did 300+4x60, 250+3x60, 200+2x60, and 150+60. Overall great effort.

The indoor S-L group did 80, 100, 120, 150, all in great times for them. They were in running shoes, not spikes, and still ran fairly fast times.

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Since the last post, we had spring break workouts. The theme was crappy weather. Mainly cold with lots of wind. We were able to get a few decent workouts in that week.

When we got back, more cold weather and our first outdoor meet on Thursday. The weather was terrible for the meet. The team was weak and we got away without any issues.
Friday was essentially recovery tempo and lots of stretching.

Last week we had a meet on Tuesday, so Monday was field event prep, baton checks and lots of stretching. The meet was tough. Our boys lost their first meet since 2010. We lost by 1 point! The girls rolled and moved to 2-0 in conference. Wednesday was tempo…sets of ( 1+2+3++). Thursday was high quality day but we had thunderstorms and had to run in the hallway. The 400 specialists did 4x60+150 for 2 sets. The 100/200 group did blocks, accels, EFE and 2x60 full recovery.

Saturday was out first outdoor invite meet. Weather was very cold in morning. I had kids put on heat cream before warm up. Most had long tights to race in. The competition at this meet was strong in sprint events. Our league is really weak and this meet had teams from other counties who traditionally are much stronger in all events. I had two girls make the 100m finals, 2 boys made semis and 1 made finals in the 100. The hurdler was the 110H in a state best time of 14.1 hand time into a headwind. The boys 4x100 had bad exchanges and still ran a season equaling best time of 44.1 The goal is 43.0, a school record. The girls 4x100 equaled last years season best putting them #10 all-time in our schools history. Only 1 in that group is a senior! The girls 4x400 nearly equaled their season best from last year, running 4:19 (vs 4:16 in '12). This group is 2 juniors and 2 sophomores. They won the meet in the 4x400 against quality competition. A boy 300H equaled his PR from last season as well.

I was very pleased with the results this soon. However, it was bitter sweet as several kids have had issues since and are a tad beat up going into tomorrow (Saturday’s) meet against the toughest team in the league this year. The meet day was changed and as a result, a few key runners won’t be there and a few boys are hurt and won’t run.

We have a meet scheduled Saturday but I am likely going to pull out of meet and just do recovery all week.

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Last week Thursday was a beautiful day in the 60s and sunny. The kids did easy tempo runs. One 4x400 girl who had to miss the meet Wednesday did 200+150 (planned 200+200 but had grade 7-8 track meet going on so had to modify), rest 20 minutes, 200+200. This is part of KK’s transition. She ran race pace 200 in 30 second, backed up with 23 second 150 all out. Second set was tempo 200 in 38 seconds and then a full out 200 in 30.5 This girl has run relay splits of 65 and open times in mid 65s.

Friday the younger kids did some resisted sprints, short block starts.

I decided to run only a select few kids in the race Saturday. On the boys, two sprints ran the 200. Both made to semis, one to finals. One did S-L and was able to make finals getting in 3 quality 200s. The girls 4x400 team (minus the girl mentioned above) only ran this event. This group is the strongest event on the girls team. I was expecting them to run with a few faster teams and push them. The entry time was messed up and we ended up in the slow heat. Last weekend they ran 419. Saturday, they ran 410. Exchanges were so much better and we did a few 50m run outs at race pace about 5-10 minutes prior to race. Every girl hit their opening 100m pace and 200m paces. A coaching goal I’ve had at this school is to get a sub 60 second runner. In the relay, the lead leg ran 60.5 and the anchor 61.0. The other 2 were 66 and 63 splits. I was very excited about this and look forward to seeing where we can go.

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Today the weather was incredible…70F!!

The girls ran incredible. In the 100m, two girls finally legit broke 13 seconds. Last week they both did but times were very sketchy. Today was confirmation of that effort. In the 4x200, I made a change to put a faster girl in. They went from 1:53.9 to 1:49.0! Huge improvement. Sub 1:50 is potential for state finals with some more improvement. Will take sub 1:46 most likely to make it.

In the open 400, the girl mentioned above ran 63.5 a new PR. She split 15-30-63.5. Another girl split 15-30-61.3 (a new PR). Both finished very strong.

In the 200, the 61 second girl ran 27.0, a 1 second PR. Other girls ran PR times as well. The girls won the meet and moved to 4-0. One more win and they are league champs!

The boys I rested quite a few kids and ran selected events. The runners from this weekend ran more great 200m times (22.9 & 23.4). 100m times were ok at 11.3, 11.4.

I ran JV kids in varsity relays and the 4x200 won and the boys 4x100 lost but had a 10 m lead into last leg before getting caught by a much faster kid.

The 300H ran another PR, low 43 seconds. His splits are 13 second to 100m, 20 second to touchdown on H4 (150m).

Overall very pleased with the results. More good weather to come this week.

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good job Esti.