Season Finale

We finally reached the end of a exciting and record breaking 2008 track season. Despite the unusaully cold and windy spring, there were so many things to brag about.

Last I left everyone, the girls were getting prepared for their conference meet. Although were were a bit shorthanded, they ran tough as nails. Junior Emily Gustafson ran the tough 2 mile-mile double, finishing second in both and running a season pb in the process. Then being the team player that she is, she lead off our 4x4 which also finished second. Sophmore Cassie Lohmeir ran the 800/1600 double, placeing 2nd in the 8 and winning the 1600 with season prs in both! She also came back to anchor our 2nd place 4x400. Both girls earned All-Conference honors in the process. Freshman Ashley Schmitt fought through a bad case of asthma placing 5th in the 3200, then came back in the fresh/soph mile and got nipped at the line by .05 for the win. Not to shabby for a little fresh who had never run a competitive 2 mile in her life!

The girls then went on to the state qualifying sectional meet where both Emily and Cassie qualified for the state finals! Emily placed fifth in the 3200 to qualify on time, running a season best of 11:25. Cassie qualified on time as well, running 5:17 to finish for a hard fought third in the mile. I cannot tell you how proud I was of both of them to run though the frustration of not being in the hunt for a win, and to dig in when they both were having an off day to still qualify for the meet. It showed a lot of character.

The state meet was not as exciting as I would have hoped, as both girls ran right off season and personal bests to finish respectable. As it is at any big race though, if you are not one of the stud top dogs coming in, you are really just racing at the mercy of everyone else. It is pin your ears back and pray to God! What we took away from it though is that we do have the talent to compete at a state level, we just need the training to back it up. I really thought the girls would want a long break after a tough, grinding season, but they were asking for summer workouts before we even got back on the van to head home. That just goes to show the kind of competitive, hard working kids that I have been blessed to coach and mentor. I told them, as I have told thousands of young runners, they have the talent and the desire, they just need some CONSISTENT hard work to back it up.

Where to start with the boys? I have to admit, as badly as I wanted to think that the they were capable of running 8 min for the 2 mile relay, we really hadnt done much throughout the season to justify that. But one thing I have learned about high school runners is that they somehow find several gears which I have no idea existed at the most random of times. Thank God all 4 decided to find those gears at the conference meet! With 4 other teams capable of running sub 8:10 in our conference, it seemed a long shot that we would win. I really believed on a good day we were capable of running 8:08-8:12. But after a 1:59 lead-off leg by senior Nick Leiby, a 2:03 leg by senior Brock Kingsland, a 2:01 3rd leg from soph Hugh Gill and a 1:56 leg by senior Shane Lieby we came away with a conference title and a huge season best of 8:02!!! I do not believe I have ever seen a happier group of runners than I did after that relay. Not only was it good enough for the win, but it was the 7th fastest relay in the state of IL! Shane Lieby then came back in the 800 to get nipped for second by the state cross country champ, still running a school record 1:56.5! That was the real highlight of the meet, as the rest of the relay team ran like complete poo. My fault as a coach to let them get too excited at the beginning of the meet.

The fresh/soph kids had an excellent meet as well. Cody Margetis ran a pb in the mile, clocking a 5:12. Sophmore Drew Thomas ran a pr in the 3200, breaking 11 min for the first time. Alex Cortes ran just off his pbs in both the mile and 2 mile, scoring in both. The fresh/soph 4x400 also won, conisisting of two distance kids and two sophmore jumpers. I was really glad that the young kids got an opportunity to see that winning relay though, as it was proof to them that if they just commit 2 hours out of their day, 6 days a week, they can accomplish anything. To some so far in just a short amount of time just reinforces to everybody that there is plenty of talent in this young group.

On paper we were the favorites leading into the state qualifying sectional meet in the 4x800. But I knew it would not be that easy. Getting 4 17 year-olds to perform their best all on the same day is a real challenge. The boys went from the Rocky 1 attitude of "nothing to lose" to the Rocky 4 attitude of "well, all we can do is screw up". That is where perspective comes into play. What I have found after coaching at this level is that high school kids running is so much more mental than physical, and their margin for error, as well as for improvement, is scary big. Just putting the moment into context and helping them realize that this is just a small step in their lives, I think helped calm a lot of their anxiety. Helping them realize that we do not have to all run 5 second prs to make it to the big dance, but just running what we did at the conference meet is all that was needed out of them.

Anyhow, long story short, we ran 8:05 and placed second to our arch rivals, qualifying the first distacne runners from East Peoria for the state meet since 1995 (that being me)!!! Man alive were those boys excited. It wasnt our best time, but it got the job done. Actually, had we not gotten so pumped up and went out in 55 for the first 400, we probably would have run 8 flat. Just like the conference meet, Shane came back shortly after to win the 800 and the rest of the guys ran like poo. But we got the job done.

The state meet was quite anticlimatic, as I held Shane off the relay to run the open 800, in hopes of running 1:55. I really thought we were ready for it, but everybody looked really tired and nervous. Actually, every guy bombed, so I guess I am to blame. Not sure if all the big races had finally caught up with us, or if it was the pressure of the meet, but I guess you cannot replace experience. We had a wonderful time at the meet though, despite the stares and comments that the guys got for dying their hair white!!! We looked like a bunch of little Eminems : ) Although it wasnt our best effort, it is a memory that will last a lifetime for the boys.

Looking back on the last 18 months, I do not think we could have accomplished much more. Regional cross country champs, missing the state xc meet by 10 points, qualifying the first indivilual to the state xc meet since 1995, school record in the 4x400, 400, 800, first distance individual and relay to qualify for the state track meet since 1995, conference champs and a whole lot of personal bests. I do not claim to be an expert coach by any means, in fact I am learning most of it on the fly. Coaching high schoolers is a whole different beast than coaching a handfull of elite athletes. But what I have found at the high school is that there is a lot of talent out there, and if you just give them a little attention and give them some hope and direction, you can make a world of difference. As much work as it has been, I am extremely grateful that ITA has given me the opportunity to get out and touch so many young lives.

Enough of the sappy stuff. Its back to the grind. We have lost a lot of senior talent, but we also have gained a lot of experience and confidence. Unofficial practice starts in a week, so I am going to go fishing and enjoy my break! Happy Running

p.s. I will try to post a few videos of the races taken over the last few weeks later today or tomorrow. They arent exactly Spielberg, but I will get the hang of it.

Last Weeks Pictures

Above: Top L-Nick Leiby (800 meter pr 2:03); Top R-Brant Watson and Cody Margetis (1600 meter prs 5:32 and 5:22); Middle L-David Blackford (800 meter pr 2:09 split); Middle R-Hugh Gill (800 meter pr 2:07 split); Bottom L-Shane Leiby (800 meter 2:05 split, came back 30 min later tieing the 400 meter school record 50.2!); Bottom R-Hugh Gill (1600 pr 4:45); Bottom-Brock Kingsland (800 pr split 2:05, came back yesterday to win the mile and run a huge pb of 4:48!)

Here are a few pictures the kids took for me from last week at a conference triangular meet with our two biggest rivals. I was hoping to get some video with the new camera last night, but once again it rained : ( Every picture is of a kid running a personal best that night!

The girls conference meet is Thursday, and Friday will be the true test to see if the boys 4X800 team is capable of qualifying for the state meet. I will keep you posted. Happy Running!

Big Week

Last I updated everyone, we had returned from our first outdoor meet of the season in Moline, IL with a very bright start to the spring. Unfortunately, the weather has not cooperated since. After a few dual meets with hurricane force winds, we had to cancel 4 meets in a row due to snow, cold, wind and rain. We have also had a lot of injuries since we started workout out agressively on the track, ecspecially those who did not train all winter. And although we did not run particularly fast times at those meets, we competed very well. Even better was that I have successfully recruited 4 "sprinters" to become distance runners and to run cross country this fall!

Last Friday night was our first real chance to get good competition, but once again the weather slowed us down a bit. Despite 30 mph winds and torential rains, good things are sure to come. The 4x800 team that I was sure could run 8:12 finally proved to themselves that the work we put in over the winter is starting to pay off, as we cracked 8:30 without my two studs. Shane Lieby won the open 800 with a solo performance and pr of 1:59. His first time under two minutes! He then came back on Tuesday and tied the shcool record on his first attempt at an open 400m with a 50.2! I am so jealous of runers with that kind of foot speed. Senior Nick Leiby, Shane's twin brother, ran 4:43 to place 2nd in the mile. Although that is not near what I think he is capable of, this proves that with a healthy hip and a warm calm evening, he will run 4:30 before he graduates. Nick also came back Tuesday evening to run a pr of 2:03 in the 800 after going out in a suicidal 56 (not his fault, bad coaching)! Senior Brock Kingsland finally broke through in the 800, running a 4 second pr of 2:05. David Blackford, or Mr Glass as I like to call him, is starting to round into shape, running 2:09 (just in time for him to get hurt again). Freshmen Cody Margetis, Alex Cortes and Brant Watson ran personal bests in the mile, running 5:22, 4:51 and 5:36 respectively.

We have not had the same amount of success on the girls side, but there have been some good performances. Unfortunately we are very short of numbers on the girls squad, which has placed the few I have in a tough position of running more events than needed at times for the sake of scoring points. I could not be more proud of 3 in particular: Emily Gustafson, Cassie Lohmier and Ashley Schmitt. They have ran 3-4 events every Tuesday for the last 3 weeks and have not complained or moaned a bit. And although they are not running as fast as they want, they have competed hard and that will pay off over the next two weeks when we back off for next weeks conference meet.

As all may have noticed from others blogs, the athletes at In-The-Arena have so kindly been supplied with digital video cameras. These will allow our viewers and supporters an ability to see first hand what goes on behind the scenes from day to day. I have to admit I am about as tech-savy as a monkey, so please bear with me as I try to figure out how to use the camera, post in on here and then make some sort of sense of what it is that you are watching. I did have some of my injured kids take video of our meet on Tuesday night, but most of the video is of chopped up races. Tomorrow night is our big home invite of the girls and a huge invite just down the road for the boys. I will really try to take some good footage and post it over the weekend at both of those meets (hopefully they kids give you a good show) and give you a look at what is happening here in Central Illinois.

Thanks for listening and Go Raiders!!!

The Outdoor Season Has Begun

After a long grueling winter, I am relieved to inform everyone that our outdoor season finally kicked off Saturday at the Moline Invite. I say relieved because it is difficult to keep 15 year olds motivated to do workouts when the next race is still 3 months away. The weather was not suited for world record conditions, but nonetheless, we had a lot of successes, a few mediocre performances and fortunately, no bombs.

Starting off on the girls side, junior star Emily Gustafson cruised to a win the two mile by over 30 seconds, and then came back with a bit of a dissappointing third place finish in the mile. She was quite upset with herself for letting the leaders go, but reassured her that she has heavy legs for the first time in her life (from training all winter, her first time) and that she will feel snappy when the time is right. Freshman Ashely Schmitt placed second in her first two mile ever, running just over 12 min. Again, she was a little dissappointed with herself, but as a coach, I was thrilled to see her compete so well and hang in there with a 20 degree windchill, which is really hard on her asthma. Sophmore Cassie Lohmeir ran her first race of the year, placing 2nd in the 800 with a time of 2:26. Like the other two, she was a bit mad at herself for not going after it earlier, but 2:26 is pretty amazing for a 16 year old who plays basketball all winter and has only been running for 4 weeks. Needless to say, we have a lot of talent on the girls side. Best of all, we had a real desire to work hard, compete and see the long term picture.

There were some great races on the boys side as well. My pic for athlete of the day was definately freshman Alex Cortes, who ran his first two mile ever (hanging in well in A heat) and then came back to place second in his heat of the mile running 4:50!!! I cannot express how happy I was for a kid who has not missed a practice since he started with me last summer. Expect to hear a lot more about him. Sophomore Hugh Gill also ran a 15 second pr in the mile, running 4:45. And last, but not least, my senior twins Shane and Nick Leiby kicked off the season with quick splits in the 4X800 and coming back and placing 3rd and 4th respectively in the open 800. We were all a little dissapointed with the times, as I really thought they would run around 2 min. It made me sit down and try to rethink what I have been doing and what I have planned for the next month. As a coach, you must not put the blame of bad performances on anybody but yourself, and after looking back on all the work we have done over the last 5 months, I have decided to stick with the plan. What really threw me for a loop was, after having heavy legs in both 800s, and thinking the 4x400 splits would be sluggish, Shane lead off the relay with a 50 flat!!! Into a cold headwind with two races under his belt and the first time running really hard all season.

So to sum it up, all-in-all, it was a pretty good start to the season. I do have a lot of injuries, especially with the younger kids. Some of that is my fault, as it took me a while realized that some of them just cannot handle anything but easy 25 min runs. I really believe that now that the races have begun, our level of intensity and urgency will elevate. Like I said before, coaching track is a heck of a lot of problems. Dealing with so many problems and personalities can make a coach feel a bit insane at times, but it is all worth it when you see a kid work his rear off all winter and come out and run 4:50 for his first high school mile ever!!!

Take care all and GO RAIDERS!

tim

A Great Start

March 3, 2008

We finally had our first indoor race of the 2008 season, and I couldnt have been any happier. It has been a long while since the Raiders have raced (ecspecially in high school time), so I was very curious to see how the training over the last 4 month would affect us. I am usually pretty spot on to what I think an athlete is capable of, but I always error on the side of cation when trying to determine an early race pace. Being that we have not been on the track for a very long time, I wanted everyone to be out relatively comfortable and try to even split the first and second halves of the race. Although I am not a big fan of getting done with a race and having a lot of energy, I always feel it is better to start the first race of the season saying "I could have ran a lot faster". The annoying thing for me was that I had a previously planned trip to Florida, so I had to miss the race, and what is really disturbing is that a big part of me wanted to bail on a free trip to the Florida Keys to stay at home and watch a high school indoor meet! I think I may actually seek help concerning this.

Anyhow, the kids ran out of their minds. Senior Shane Leiby placed second with a 10 second pr of 4:32 (and he negative split the second half). His twin brother, who has not worked out for he last 6 weeks because of a knee problem ran 4 seconds off a pr with a 4:51. Senior Brock Kingsland missed his goal of breaking 5 minutes for the first time by two seconds, running 5:02 and freshman Alex Cortez ran a pr of 5:01 (in my opinoin one of the real highlights of the meet). Also pr'ing were freshman Cody Margetis and David Haldeman (who just started running with us a week prior) with times of 5:34.

On, the girls side, star Emily Gustafson ran a disappointing 5:31, and despite stopping a lap early, Ashley Schmitt broke the 6 minute barrier for the first time at 5:47. Freshman Brittany Grant broke the 3 minute mark for her first half mile ever running 2:55 as welll. Not to bad for a freshman who has been on the treadmill everyday since December and has never ran a track race further than 200 meters!

All in all, I would say it was a successful start to the season, and very encouraging for whats to come outdoors. We will be racing our last indoor meet of the season in two weeks at the University of Illinois, and hopefully we will have a couple of state indoor meet qualifiers. Until then it is back to the grind for 6 more weeks, which will put us at the beginning of the outdoor season.

Best to all

Tough Week

February 11, 2008

Well, it is that time of year in the midwest where training is pretty tough. With no races in sight, the weather miserable and the grind of running high mileage combined with considerable quality makes it a chore at times. But we have continued to soldier on. I continue to tell the kids that this will be the toughest week we have all year and I believe they are starting to get sick of hearing it!

We have had a really successful training week over the last two weeks, and the host of knee pain problems (5 in total) finally seem to be clearing up. Saturday we met with the Limestone Rockets, a rival conference team (the coach is a good friend of mine), and did a 4-6 mile tempo run together. We thought that it would bring an extra element of competitiveness to the workout as well as give some of the kids who usually run alone, to fast or too slow somebody to share the pain with. This has been my second attempt in as many weeks at doing the long tempo, which I feel is more important than any other single workout a distance runner can do. There is a bit of an art to the tempo run, ecspecially with inexperienced runners who do not know their bodies very well. Most high schoolers know two gears; dog-meat slow and fast as ####. What I am trying to do with the long tempo is find those gears in the middle and sustain it over a longer period of time. Although it is frustrating to watch, I trust that by the end of this summer (in prep for xc) we will have it down.

My running is going as slow as planned. Nothing really exciting to report, just 4-5 miles a day with all the weight room stuff as well. The only exciting bit of news on this end is that I will be going to Florida in two weeks for a little warming up, but being the track junkie that I am, Im thinking about bailing on that so I dont miss our first indoor meet of the season!

Ice Cubes!

Runners must be stupid and/or crazy. That is all I have to say after standing out in the bitter cold the last two weeks watching prep athletes suffer through workouts in sub zero temps. When you am doing it yourself self, one tends to rationalize things. But when you are a spectator, you think to yourself "What on earth are these fools thinking?".

Like it has been everywhere else on the eastern half of the country the last week, it has been utterly miserable here in Central Illinois. But I must be doing something right, because the kids keep showing up for practice. I believe that for the senior group, they are starting to understand the this is their last go at making a state meet. It is great to see a group of kids who have a united goal and are willing to suffer through some pretty rough workouts, and set a standard for the younger ones.

One of the most difficult things that I have found when working with young athletes is making them understand the importance of preparation. In that, I mean seeing the big picture and understanding that what we do today has a direct effect on what happens 6 months from now. Most young athletes (I being one of them until late in my college career) believe that they can perform to the best of their ability by jogging for a few weeks before the season and then coming out to the competitions and just racing hard. Yes, they will run ok if they race tough, but where is it getting them in terms of their goals? So I have been extremely proud of all the kids that have been out training in the "pre-season" with us, ecspecially the younger athletes who have not yet developed any real long-term goals druing their short athletic careers. Attatched are some pictures (that I hope I have done right) from last saturday during a long run of 70 minutes with three 10 minute pickups in the middle. The temp was hovering right at zero and the wind chill was at minus 15! I actually had a few parents call and tell me that their kid was not coming to practice, which was understandable.

Not a whole lot of reporting to do on my running, as it has just been easy theraputic runs of 30-60 minutes. My foot appears to be ok since the shock wave procedure that was done last month. Right now, my only frame of mind has been to run easy as possible and focus on proper biomechanics.

Aside from the running and coaching thing life has been pretting boring. This is the worst time of year for an outdoorsman, as hunting season has come to a close and fishing looks a long way off, unless you are a complete nutter and are out standing on 10 inches of ice trying to catch a few dinkers the size of your hand that are too frozen to even remotely fight. I am heading to Boston MA this weekend to watch and help out at the Boston Indoor Games. It will be a good chance to catch up with Mrs. Rowe and other friends who will be there, as well as watch a local Peoria girl run the h.s. mile, who is coached by a close friend of mine.

Sot that is it for this one. Stay warm and chat at you all in a few weeks as we prepare for our first indoor meet of the season! Take care.

tim