Fighting the Injury Bug

As you have probably discerned from the title, we have been riding that fine edge of pain and injury. Unfortunately injury won out in most our cases. It is so difficult to keep a group of teenage kids healthy while trying to train them right on the icy roads of the midwest. But every year when the snow melts and we can get on the track and use the ice tub, it seems those winter-long injuries just seem to mysteriously dissappear. Such was the case for roughly half the team.

I seem to really stress over these injuries, not only becuase I want a team at full strength, but also because I feel responsible for the welfare of every kid I train. Lack of health care, poor shoes, unwillingness to ice and take anti inflamatories also doesnt help my cause. But Thursday was a real breakthrough day for the Raiders. Cassie Lohmeiers it band and achilles hasnt hurt for a week. Autumn Andrews foot (peroneus), which has been hurting since winter 2009, is responding well to orthotics and my special new wrap job. Jacob VanGunten finally got rid of his underarmor shoes : ( and two days later didnt feel a bit of pain in his shin for the first time in 8 weeks. Alec Gonzalez ran his first workout after trying to manage a achilles problem the last 8 weeks. Emma Prestons plantar has quit hurting after staining it at the indoor meet a few weeks ago (a special tape job as well : ) Those have been the big ones, but it just seemed everybody on the team, with the exception of Kevin Eades, has had to miss some time for one reason of another.

We will be racing the second, and last, indoor meet of the season this weekend. And being that I dont have any pics or much to report on I am going to share with everyone our workout log for the last 2 weeks. We are starting to transition from tempos and fartleks into race specific track work with hills and sprint drills in there as well. In hindsight, I should have done this a long time ago, but here it is:

Mon March 1 8x hills, 6x200
Tues Mar 2 5x1200 tempo intervals
Wed Mar 3 30 easy, 6x150, weight circuit
Thur Mar 4 4 mile tempo
Fri Mar 5 30 easy, 4x150, plyos
Sat Mar 6 60-80 min finishing last 30 min at "marathon" pace
Sun Mar 7 off or 30 easy
Mon Mar 8 8xhills, 6x200
Tues Mar 9 400, 800, 1200, 1600, 1200, 800, 400 tempo
Wed Mar 10 30 easy, 6x150, weight circuit
Thur Mar 11 4xmile tempo (Eades totally killed this one 5:30, 5:35, 5:18, 5:10!)
Fri Mar 12 30 easy, plyos
Sat Mar 13 60-75 easy
Sun Mar 14 off or 30

This week:

Mon Mar 15 8xhills, 10x100 sprint drills
Tues Mar 16 4x1000 (at 2 mile pace)
Wed Mar 17 30 easy, weights and plyos
Thur Mar 18 fartlek (6x2 min steady with 3 min float inbetween) or 4x800 tempo 6x200 (Im not quite sure yet)
Fri Mar 19 25 easy, 6x100 strides
Sat Mar 20 Race Day!

So there you have it folks, there is the secret workout schedule of the EP Raiders! It may look like a lot to some (and may look like a joke to others) but everything we do is very controlled. Tuesday will be the first day that I get in their faces a little bit. I will post results and pics from the meet this weekend. I also have a big bit of personal news for everyone, but I am going to wait another week to make the announcement. Safe and happy running and GO RAIDERS!