Things Are Heating UP!

As spring begins to heat things up, so does the EPCHS track squad. Last weekend we competed at the Galesburg Invite with a few Raiders winning medals and several others running big pr's. I was really encouraged by the way we ran given the workload we had the week prior. Monday was our third week of hills and sprints, Tuesday 1ks/300s, and Thursday 3 miles tempo followed by 200s. And although we are still missing some of our top athletes to little injuries and suspensions, the group that raced Saturday brought it.

So here are my shout outs for the week

1. Kevin Eades ran a big pr and qualified for the state indoor meet by .29 seconds running 9:51.71, good for a 3rd place finish

2. Cody Margetis continues to shine running 54.7 for a 2 second pb, capturing 6th place

3. Jacob VanGunten raced through sore shins to run 5:11 for a 4 second pr

4. Heather Jones won her first race as a high schooler, winning her heat of the 800 in a pb of 2:44

5. Ashley Schmitt raced a tough mile to finish 5th in another pb of 5:40

6. Emma Preston ran the easiest looking 5:11 in the mile Ive ever seen, crushing the school record by 13 seconds and placing her 3rd in the state! Watch out folks, this girl is going to be a serious stud!

Kevin competed yesterday at our unofficial "State" Indoor Meet, missing a medal by .02 and finishing in dissappointing 9th place, but running a pr of 9:49 along the way (dissappointing by his standards). I am not a big fan of these indoor meets, but we need to learn how to race with a group vs 1 or 2 other guys. Kevin put himself in contention for 3rd which was our goal, but he just looked a little flat the last 1k. Im not sure if it had to do with another hard week of practice, the surging he did every lap or being out in 4:46, but I thought he did a great job and it was a great experience for him to build off of as we prepare for that state outdoor meet. Unfortunately Emma Preston strained her plantar en route to her school record so we decided to sit the weekend out and make sure this thing is gone before we head into the outdoor season.

School is out for spring break next week so we are going to take full advantage of the 70 degree forcast ; ) We head to the Moline Invite this Saturday for our first outdoor meet and then its pretty much racing 3 times a week. I wish everybody a Happy Easter and I will post again in a few weeks, hopefully with a whole book of shout outs! Go Raiders!

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!

First Race of the Season

The Raider Track Team raced our first indoor meet of the year and things went really well for those who trained all winter.
I wasnt expecting to much as we have not done anything but tempo runs, tempo intervals, long runs and strides over the last 3 months. They did not have a 3200 at this meet so most everybody got thrown into the 1600.

In the fresh-soph, conference xc champ Jacob VanGunten once again suprised everybody by running 5:15 for his first mile ever! I as hoping to see him run around 5:25 but he got in with a good group of runners and just competed. What was really funny was him coming to me and saying in his quiet bashful way "ummmk Coach, how do you run a mile?"! I said, just like you did xc, pin you ears back and run like heck! Freshman Austin McGraugh just started back with us after wrestling all winter and was still nursing a sore shin which has a stress fracture last fall. In typical Austin fashion, he went hard to the lead and did all the work for everybody for the first half of the race. Needless to say he paid the price. Whats a coach to do with an attitude like that? ; )

In the girls mile Ashley Schmitt and Emma Preston both race state indoor qualifying times of 5:43 and 5:26 respectively. That was a personal best by 2 seconds for Ashley which tells me she is going to make some huge jumps this track season. Preston, who is a sophmore, did not do track last spring so this is the first track race for her in almost 2 years. Despite that she was out with 2 state medalists from last year in 72 seconds...ouch! We had to back off as she was not quit prepared for that pace, but she rebounded nicely and had a blazing last 200 to finish second and almost catch the leader. Needless to say, she has a lot of talent.

Kevin Eades was set up for a perfect early season mile, following a state champ from last years 800 and a runner up from the 1600 last season. He settled into third and just hung on for the ride. After going throught the 800 in a fairly pedestrian pace of 2:20 the race started to heat up. With a lap to go Dunlap star John Crain made a hard move and Kevin tried his best to jump on it. He hung onto 2nd till the last 5 meters when he was nipped at the finish for a third place finish and a 1o second pr of 4:38! That puts him just a second off state qualifying but our focus wil be the two mile which we will try at our next meet in a few weeks.

Others that ran well were Cody Margetis (2:15), Evan Jenkins (2:25) and Hannah Sheppard (70). We have one more week of tempo and base work before we move into our 2 mile race pace workouts along with hills. I have been really pleased with the way we have responded to the weights and plyos that I have added this year. Hopefully that will make the difference when it counts. A few more weeks of long runs, one more indoor meet and we will be getting ready for state indoors and the outdoor season. Weather is supposed to finally warm up into the 40s so hopefully we can finally get some work done! Thanks for reading and I will keep everyone posted as the season progresses. Go Raiders

Winter Training

Well folks, we are one week away from our first indoor meet of 2010 and I'm pretty stoked. Almost everybody on the team healthy and we have had a really good last two weeks of training. Although it has been pretty cold and snowy, we have made the best of it.

Last Monday was our first track workout of 6x800 at tempo pace with 60-90 sec rest. We did a bit of an experiment taking everybodys heart rate after each interval and recording it. This way I was able to go back at the end and see how hard we were working. I threw a heart rate monitor Kevin Eades, Ashely Scmitt and Evan Jenkins and told them to keep their heart rate over 165 and under 170. Eades looked like a machine averaging 2:38 for 7 intervals, and Evan and Ashley were out way to quick on the first two but still kept it around 3:15. It will be interesting to see what they run over a mile Friday night as I am curious how close they will be to their training time predictions in Jack Daniels training book.

We also did our first hill specific workout of the season Thursday only because everything was covered in snow and ice and I couldnt find anywhere else to run. I get so nervous doing these hills because they seem to cause a lot of knee and achilles problems but still believe they are a really important part of any runners training. Friday we got nasty on Coach Broes new plyometric routine. This was the third week of doing it and I have let a lot slide giving them a chance to learn the exercises but I got in their faces a little Friday. There were a lot of groans and sweaty shirts but I think they really like the plyo work.

Yesterday was a long run from my place. It is the same 10.2 mile loop that we did over the summer, finishing up the half mile long hill that my house sits upon! Most arent quit ready for 1o miles so they got dropped at the 2 mile mark, but Eades and Gill did the whole thing plus two miles and used it as a long "sub tempo" run averaging 6:30 pace! This was the longest run for all 3 new girls I have out and I was a little worried it would scare them away but they seemed to really enjoy just getting out and doing a long run. Marley Brimberry has been dealing with bad shin splints so she was my camera girl who stood on top of the hill to get snapshots of them suffering for me ; )

Thats all I got for you now. I am headed of to try to get some more of the ice off lane 1 so we can get some 200s in tomorrow. I also included a picture of the track from Thursday where I made them shovel lane 1 all the way around for me...thats dedication!

A New Routine

Well folks, Im gunna give this post another try. I wrote a nice one two weeks ago only to lose it to cyberspace. Being that I dont have much to report on the training/racing front, I would share with everyone what I have planned for the next 2 months of training.

As I have previously stated several times before, I am really lucky to have a very talented group of tracksters. In fact, barring any injury problems, we will be right in the hunt for a state title in the girls 4x800 this year. There are a couple new girls out that skipped track their freshman year that will give us an advatage depth wise. I also believe that Kevin Eades has the potential to be a medalist in the 3200 meters this season. Hugh Gill looks forward to redeeming himself in the 1600 after missing a medal by one place last spring. Along with all that, we have several other kids who have potential to score at the conference meet. With that being said I feel a real obligation to do everything possible to have them ready for that moment.

In the past I have been fairly conservative with their training duration and intensity. I have tried to focus on listening to their bodies and running how they feel...they take it to literally. So I have set paces for every run even on easy days. This especially applies to the long tempo runs that I do every Monday. Always worrying about boredom and burnout, we used to bounce around from week to week with our tempo run. I have now picked just one course that we are going to do stick with for the next 6 weeks. This makes them more comfortable because they will know the course so well and they can see the improvements from week to week.

The big change on Tuesdays is the addition of a weight circuit routine. I believe that a big reason we have been having so many injury problems is the lack of muscular strength along with weak attatchments and ligaments. In the past I just gave them the exercises and told them to do it on their own. This typically resulted in a lot of standing around and going through the motions. Not only can I now stand over them and yell, but it gets their heart rate up and ads another degree of difficulty.

Wednesdays now have a morning run (school doesnt start till 9 so they will live) added to it which allows me to still get the mileage but helps reduce risk of injury by breaking up the run. We have also gone back to doing running form drills in the gym which I feel is really important for young athletes. Although it is maddening trying to teach it to a rowdy group, they few that listen will see big benefits in their form and economy. Wednesdays also finish with 150's on the track that I shovel once a week!

Thursdays are something I have done in the past, but not as consistent as I will do this season. Tempo intervals are a big part of my program, but I have always tried to do it out on the roads and gone off heart rate and effort. I stayed away from the track in fear of the kids hating it and getting really bored....but tough crap! For example: 6x800, 5x1k, 4x1200 with 60-90 seconds active recovery.

Fridays are probably the biggest change to the program. Along with doing our new dynamic and movent prep warm ups every day, we have also added a plyometric circuit routine to the week. I have always wanted to try throwing plyos into the training mix, but never felt comfortable coaching them as I have a limited amount of experience with it. So this is going to be an experiment for all of us. The way I have set it up, we will do 10 stations with 3 different exercises at each station, 40 seconds on/20 sec rest. That gives us 30 minutes of a pretty intense routine of eplosive exercises with several core exercises sprinkled in. This way I can get rid of the boring old core routing that I have done for the last 3 years.

Saturdays stay at a long run finishing in marathon type pace and Sundays being off or short and easy. Thats it folks. We are going to stick with this till April 1, then I have no idea what I will do! If anybody has any suggestions, let me know ; ) Our first indoor meet is two weeks from Friday so I will get those posted as soon as I can.

Go Raiders!

A New Year

Happy New Year Everyone! I dont really have a whole lot to write about this time around so I thought I would give a 2009 recap and a prelude to 2010.

Here is a brief breakdown of all the Raider accomplishments:

-The boys x/c team won their first team trophy at our home invite since its inception 20 years ago, finished runner up at the conference meet and had a hard fought 7th place finish at the state qualifying sectional meet

-The girls track team qualified their first relay team for the state meet in over 10 years, finishing 10 in the 4x800 and missing a podium finish by 1 place

-Hugh Gill made the finals and finished 10th at the state track meet, missing a medal by 1 place; he also qualified for his first state cross country meet this fall, finishing 83th

-Kevin Eades rebounded from an injured ridden track season to medal at every cross country meet this fall and finish with an all conference performance

-Alec Gonzalez suprised even me by running 16:05 and finishing top 20 at the sectional meet

-Brant Watson dropped almost a minute of his pr to run 16:42 and be the most consistent member of the raider x/c team

-Cody Margetis shocked the world over the spring, running 54 in the 400 and anchored the frosh 4x4 at the conference meet to a win; he also won his first x/c race ever at the flighted Jacksonville Invite

-Gage VanOrder broke 17 for the first time this fall for 3 miles

-Evan Jenkins found a new gear at the conference track meet, running a pr in the 800 of 2:12

-Jacob VanGunten won the conference frosh race in x/c, his first win ever and the third year in a row that a Raider won that race

-Anthony Taapken put in a big summer and knocked 3 minutes off his personal best in cross

-Emily Gustafson medaled in the 1600 at the state meet finishing 7th, and also anchored the 4x800 team which made the finals

-Cassie Lohmeier had a very dissappointing spring after injuring her knee and was forced to watch from the sidelines all season. She did learn the importance of cross training in the mean time and is now a best on the track, in the pool and on the bike! She also rebounded nicely to lead her team to a podium finish in cross country

-Ashley Schmitt ran 3rd leg in the 4x800 and a pbs of 2:34 and 5:42

-Autumn Andrews showed real heart and spirit leading off the 4x800 at the state meet and handing off in first along the way; all this after missing the whole season with a foot injury!

-Rachel Innes made me nuts all season but earned her keep running a suprising leg of 2:28 at the state meet!

I expect big things from my guys and gals this spring. We have a lot of talent that is one year older, one year more mature (realtively speaking) and more motivated than ever to get all of their butts to the state meet and on that podium. I intend to work them like they've never been worked before this winter with my revamped core and plyo program! Cross your fingers that we all stay healthy.

Well, on a personal note, I am looking forward to getting out to Lyme, NH to check out the new facilities that ITA is in the process of acquiring. I'm crossing my fingers that ITA can find a spot for me to help out there this summer on their new campus!

tb

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Happy Holidays!

Well folks, this post should be fairly brief as nothing exciting has happened in my life over the last month. As you already know cross country has finished up for the season and we are already into full indoor track training mode.

There has actually been a bit of drama the last few weeks. Alec Gonzalez, who was the number 1 wrestler in the state, decided to call it a career and just focus on running. There were a lot of people upset and felt that I had a hand in this, but the kid was just sick of training i a sweaty gym and having to lose weight he doesnt have to spare every week. Stud soph Emma Preston, who did not run track last year, decided to give up soccer to focus on her running as well. Being that she is one of the best athletes in the school also left a few coaches salty with yours truly. What can I say, I have done my job! These kids just wanna run!

Anyhow, according to silly IHSA rules, coaches are not allowed to meet with or train athletes when they are not in season so I have been stress free for over a month ; ) Actually the really dedicated group has gotten together and ran after school everyday since cross ended. I will have an exceptionally talented group of girls this year that should be right in the mix to win the state 4x800 relay. And with Hugh Gill and Kevin Eades in the mix we could have a very enjoyable spring track season.

Thats all I got for now. I recently got a membership to the new local fitness center and I have been embarrasing myself in the pool as of late. We will resume training with the high school after the new year so I will give everyone an update when we get back at it. Have a Merry Christmas and safe New Year!