Wow, 72 degrees very low humidity, now that's running in the zone. Ran to the lodge at noon. Bright sun on a hilly course, but all was fine as it felt great.
Time to head down to the school to get ready for the first cross country meet of the season.
Hopefully the kids are ready, since it really doesn't matter at this time....It's show time!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Schools Out For Summer, NOT!!!!!!!!!
I was reflecting on my summer after viewing many blogs I frequent. The one thing that seem to stick out was the many wonderful vacations many had this year. I unfortunately did not get to venture out this summer for many reason. So those of you who put fantastic glossies of your trips, thank you. I for one did enjoy them.
Cross country season is upon us. We start racing next week. I traditionally fight with our athletic director not to schedule any meets during the first week. I like to torture the kids an extra week before we have a meet. This year we will go to Mapleton Invitational on Tues., August 26 as our first meet. The boys have won this invite 5 of 6 years since it's inception, all the last 5 years. We will not this year.
I have a strong top 4 runners, however one is out for three meets for disciplinary reasons. The rest of the team is weak, so we are very unlikely to prevail.
The girls are slow, slow, slow. My one hope this year is Haley who is running strong and should do well individually. We shall see, we shall see!
One of the new boys out for CC has improved drastically. He wasn't going to come out this year after having mono at the end of the school year. I told him I would bring him along slowly...he believed me.
On last Thursday we had a long run of 8 miles. I told Andrew to just do 6 miles. I caught up with him around 1.5 miles into the run and decided to run the rest of his 6 miles with him. We got to the turn around and he wanted to do the full eight miles. I was impressed and we pushed on.
The last mile of the 8 he did slow a little, but he has improved a lot. And I got in an 8 mile run.
Now that's progress.
Cross country season is upon us. We start racing next week. I traditionally fight with our athletic director not to schedule any meets during the first week. I like to torture the kids an extra week before we have a meet. This year we will go to Mapleton Invitational on Tues., August 26 as our first meet. The boys have won this invite 5 of 6 years since it's inception, all the last 5 years. We will not this year.
I have a strong top 4 runners, however one is out for three meets for disciplinary reasons. The rest of the team is weak, so we are very unlikely to prevail.
The girls are slow, slow, slow. My one hope this year is Haley who is running strong and should do well individually. We shall see, we shall see!
One of the new boys out for CC has improved drastically. He wasn't going to come out this year after having mono at the end of the school year. I told him I would bring him along slowly...he believed me.
On last Thursday we had a long run of 8 miles. I told Andrew to just do 6 miles. I caught up with him around 1.5 miles into the run and decided to run the rest of his 6 miles with him. We got to the turn around and he wanted to do the full eight miles. I was impressed and we pushed on.
The last mile of the 8 he did slow a little, but he has improved a lot. And I got in an 8 mile run.
Now that's progress.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Canalways 5 km
Saturday I took three of my cross country runners for a road race near Navarre.
I have ran this one before and thought it would be a nice tune up race for this coming CC season.
Of course the boys felt I should run it also.
As not to embarrass the boys I did not get on the line with them. Instead held back about twenty feet. The field was pretty large with 386 runners, 209 men.
The blast horn went off and that was the last I saw of the boys. So I concentrated on my race. I was having trouble breathing for some reason, but still had a nice 7:01 mile. The first 3/4 mile is on road , then goes onto the bike path for the next 2 miles. The bike path is flat. The end of the race has a hill, but not to bad. I past at least 10 runners on the hill and a couple more on the straight away into the finish. All in all not bad as I am sooooo out of shape. My time was 23:42, 9th of 18 age group, 111th of 209 men, and 148th of 386 overall.
Now the boys faired a little better than me. Brian came in 3rd overall in 16:34, Jace 1st AG in 18:02, and Brandon 4th AG in 19:18.
The first cross country race for Loudonville will be August 26 at the Mapleton Invitational.
I have ran this one before and thought it would be a nice tune up race for this coming CC season.
Of course the boys felt I should run it also.
As not to embarrass the boys I did not get on the line with them. Instead held back about twenty feet. The field was pretty large with 386 runners, 209 men.
The blast horn went off and that was the last I saw of the boys. So I concentrated on my race. I was having trouble breathing for some reason, but still had a nice 7:01 mile. The first 3/4 mile is on road , then goes onto the bike path for the next 2 miles. The bike path is flat. The end of the race has a hill, but not to bad. I past at least 10 runners on the hill and a couple more on the straight away into the finish. All in all not bad as I am sooooo out of shape. My time was 23:42, 9th of 18 age group, 111th of 209 men, and 148th of 386 overall.
Now the boys faired a little better than me. Brian came in 3rd overall in 16:34, Jace 1st AG in 18:02, and Brandon 4th AG in 19:18.
The first cross country race for Loudonville will be August 26 at the Mapleton Invitational.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Weekly Update
I just realized it's been one week since my last Blog. I know what you are thinking and may be somewhat correct. I have not been running, not. I have been running, just not the workouts I had planned for my marathon training.
To many distractions and not enough focus.
My numbers were down in cross country, but we lowered our standards and I think we will be ok, just not as fast as I would have liked.
My run today was a 1.58 mile loop in Mohican Forest at the education forest. I did 5 loops for 7.9 miles.
So there you have it.
To many distractions and not enough focus.
My numbers were down in cross country, but we lowered our standards and I think we will be ok, just not as fast as I would have liked.
My run today was a 1.58 mile loop in Mohican Forest at the education forest. I did 5 loops for 7.9 miles.
So there you have it.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Low Down on Low Humidity
Ran 5.5 miles on mountain bike trails in Mohican. Nice and hilly. No Bugs. No humidity.
Wow if only I had the time I could have ran all day.
However, time being at a premium I only had enough for the 5.5 mile run.
I must say that humidity can really put a damper on performance. I have run at high altitudes making breathing labored, but humidity makes for a total miserable experience.
Tomorrow starts cross country practice. This should be a challenging year as the girls team will be small, and I am not picking on Mary Ann. The boys may not have enough to field a team, a first in my 10 years as head coach. However, there are two boys who should do well. Maybe state?????
Wow if only I had the time I could have ran all day.
However, time being at a premium I only had enough for the 5.5 mile run.
I must say that humidity can really put a damper on performance. I have run at high altitudes making breathing labored, but humidity makes for a total miserable experience.
Tomorrow starts cross country practice. This should be a challenging year as the girls team will be small, and I am not picking on Mary Ann. The boys may not have enough to field a team, a first in my 10 years as head coach. However, there are two boys who should do well. Maybe state?????
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