Yessir!

Today was just another one of those days. No, not really. The times for Time Trial #2 were unnervingly fast. Almost all runners dropped their times significantly. We are certainly prepared for the week to come. We will see what happens.

There are a few who are still nursing through soreness and minor injury. Stick with the recovery plan you are on. You will persevere.

Time Trial #2

Tomorrow will be our final time trial. What will happen? Who will improve? Who will not? Our top runners seem to be improving. Our bottom runners are as well. It's the middle group--those who are filling in the important positions of 5, 6, & 7 on the boys team, and the 3-5 positions on the girls that I'm very interested in.

As will all efforts, the race is decided by those who overcome great obstacles.

A shout out to Alecia for coming out this week!

Mental Work

Today's practice was a solid eye-opener. Some runners are putting in the true effort while others are muddling through. This is the time when the work really matters. When you are sore, and tired, and mentally drained, that is when the ability to improve is at its greatest potential. If you can STILL outperform your expectations, then you are on your way. If not, then you are not where you need to be.

HW: Run the course, our home course, where we will race three times this season, in your mind--visualize it. See every corner, every dip and hill, each side-slant sodden section, the start, the gravel finish. See yourself getting where you need to be. Visualization of the course is the best way to make running it become second nature.

Comment on your mental work at the bottom of this post.

Bonus

The first three to add a comment to this post will be excused from 3 of the 5 sprints at the end of practice tomorrow.

Finally--Hills

Reservoir today. And what a hill it is. We looked very good today. I don't recall any walking. And that is something else. Our slogan next year, acc. to Hunter, should be: "Reservoir--a hill of a good time!" I think he may be right.

Congrats to Paige, Danielle, Morgan, Hunter, and Dan especially. All looked great, but today these few looked really loose. Long easy tomorrow. Recovery day.

Wrong Date

As happens often enough, the date of the PIAA Foundation Race was wrong on the schedule. The new (and correct) date is on the schedule now (on blog). It is the 24th, not the 23rd.

Also, still looking into getting races for the junior high as alternatives to the Pittsburgh invitationals.

200s and Beyond

Today's 200s went very well. Many are doing exactly what they need to do to get in shape for next week. I'm impressed with the varsity boys. We will have 7 solid contributors. Who they will be is still up in the air. Many solid performances today. Again, we logged about 12 miles total. A good high number, and it is not including this evening's minutes.

Tomorrow we are off to Reservoir. We are lucky to have a hill like this to get a solid workout, though the runners probably feel differently.

Pictures tomorrow as well, and impact testing on Thursday after practice. Impact testing is for all 7, 9, and 11 graders, and any athlete who did not have one last year as part of another sport that is in grade 8 or 10.

Final Pre-Season Week

This is the second week of camp. It is imperative that we put in another round of large miles tempered with much speed training. This program seems to pull us all together at the right time. I like the modifications that we are making this year. So far, so good.

In other news, Mack appears to be healthy, Alexis got her run in on Sunday, and Jared says he will be back on Monday. Is this all good news?