HVAC 4/28-4/30

It's been a week. Sorry for the delay. Exams and Papers and Epic Flooding around Nasvhille!


Championship Time:
Overall a really nice effort with some stand-out performances.
In three events, 4x8, 1600, 8, the distance guys scored 41 points, almost a third of the teams total points. You can only enter three per event so we did quite well. Here is breakdown per event results-
4x8-3
1600-1,4,7
800-1,3,7
4x4-3 (only one leg was a distance guy but he did have the fastest split)

All times are FAT, place in parenthesis.
Micah-Great meet. Scored 26 points as an individual and ran the fastest split on the 4x4.
1600-5:01.47 (1)
800-2:14.08 (1)
4x4-58r (3)
Pretty fantastic stuff. It was his slowest 4x4 of the year but nice to see him gassed at the end of the meet. He has all the tools to be a 4:15 or better guy in high school and maybe even a 1:52 guy. Oh and he long jumped too.
LJ-17-10.75 (3)

Garrett
1600- 5:12.19 (4)
800- 2:19.32 (3)
Really nice meet. Got fouled with 350m to go in the 1600 and fell hard. Got back up and finished like a champ. I'm still seething over it. He runs 5:05 without being taken out. 800 was a PR and a really gutsy race.

Andrew
4x800- 2:29 (3) (anchor leg)
800- 2:24.69 (7)
Andrew anchored the 4x8. He got the stick in 3 probably 100m behind 1 and 2. He ran tough, just hard to make yourself race in that situation. PR in the open 8 on the double back. We ran him on the 4x8 to win the race, not his fault he got the stick 100m behind (I'll cover that in a second).

Brandon
1600- 5:25.68 (7)
GREAT race. Big PR of 11 seconds or so (last ran the mile on the 4x1600). He's just a 7th grader and looks like a guy who will have a shot to run 5:10 or so next year. He could be very good.

Graham
4x8- 2:25 (2nd leg)
In some ways the highlight of the meet for me. Not a spectacular time but it's a PR and he had pneumonia in the middle of March. 10 days ago he wasn't close to being on the 4x8 team either. He ran really well last week to make the team, and this week he set a pr and ran the fastest leg.

Ben
4x8-2:28
Good race. He's come a long way in one year. Just a 7th grader he'll be a guy next year who can turn in good results from 400-1600 in most meets and will be a really good 4x8 and 800 guy come championship time. Better yet he's developed a passion for running.

Zach
4x8- 2:27 (first leg)
Not a good day. Ran 2:22 earlier in the season and 2:27 in the very first meet of the year in AWFUL weather conditions. It was not the time but more that he never put himself in position to race. After 200m the leaders were able to run away from him and our day was over. He handed off 6 seconds back. Hopefully he'll learn.

Thursday 4-29

Those who raced yesterday will just have 10-15minutes today.

Those racing tomorrow:
WU (800m, drills)
15 min
1x200m@race pace
Micah/G. Bull- 36/37
A. Bull/Zach/Ben/Graham- 35 (these guys will also do some hand-off work)
Brandon-40
CD (2 grass laps around football field)
Stretch

Wednesday 4-28

Guys racing on Friday:
WU (800m, drills)
25 min
Stretch

Wednesday 4-28

Yesterday was qualifying for the sprints (100, 110h, 200, 400) and the running of the non-scoring sections of the 800 and 1600. The guys ran great and competed hard
Meet Recap (going by memory, look for edits for more entries):
1600
Will- 5:53

800
Yost (1rst)-2:30
Turner (2nd)-2:30/1
Friday- 2:40
Harrison-3:00

Tuesday 4-27

Those racing tomorrow, non-scoring 1600 and 800, had 10-15minutes with 2 100m strides.

Those racing Friday had the following:
WU (1200m, drills)
25min
2x600@6:40 per mile, which is 2:30 per 600m (jog back across infield to start line from 200m mark)
CD (2 laps around football field)

Just trying to keep the aerobic system going. I don't wanna give them a lot of sharpening work, just a few minutes of steady, faster running.

Monday 4-26

Final fast stuff before the racing starts on Wednesday (non-scoring sections of the 1600/800) and the finals on Friday (our top three 1600, 800, and a 4x800 relay).

WU (800m, drills)
15min (with 4x30second pick ups)
2 laps Is/Os
4x150m on the track 50@mile-xc effort, 50@400-800 effort, 50 @mile-xc effort (100m walk then150m jog recovery back to start)
2x90m (30, 30, 30)
CD (2 laps around the football field)
Core (push ups, abs, bird dog)
Stretch

Meet Recap 4-22-10

It's been a while since I last posted. Not that many follow this blog, but apologies none the less.

Last meet before the championship. Had the majority of the guys run open 1600, 800, and 4x4.
4x800 11:25
Yost- 2:30
Friday-2:51
Cameron- 3:01
Harrison-3:02

1600
Micah-5:07
G. Bull- 5:12
A. Bull- 5:17
Zach- 5:20 (on this note, too bad we never got to run a 4x1600 with these guys, could have put the record out of reach)
Will- 5:46

800
Ben- 2:28
Graham- 2:28
Brandon- 2:29
Zach- 2:31
Turner-2:32
Castalero- 2:45

4x4
Friday- 69
Yost- 67
Graham- 63
Tanner (sprinter 61)

Really good meeting heading into the championship.

Slaughterhouse

Occasionally I get to work with the 6th grade distance runners. Most of the time it is very light. 150s with lots of walking, 400-600m reps at 7:15/mile, for example.

Today we did some racing. I had 8 guys so we got some batons and had 2 teams race some 200s. Half the team was at the start and the other half was at the 200m mark. Each guy ran 4 legs. They got in 800m worth of hard running and had some fun in the process.

After cooling down I was talking with one of the guys, Steadman, about the workout. "You know Steadman the university of Colorado does a workout similar to this every fall. They call it the "Master Blaster." What do you want to name the workout?" Steadman: "Slaughterhouse." I informed the guys we'll only do "Slaughterhouse" once a year.

WU (800m, stretching)
2 laps Is/Os
4x4x200m (each guy only runs 4x200m)
CD (2 laps around the football field)
Stretch

Shake out

WU (800m, drills)
15 min
2x100m strides

No relays tomorrow. Guys looking to get in one last hard effort before HVAC.

Tuesday

School's awful right now, short blog posts.

WU (1200m, drills)
30min
2x800m at 6:30-7min/mile
Stretch

Normal Monday

Just some neuromuscular work, turning the legs over.

WU (1200, drills)
10min
2 Laps Is/Os
4x200m (100m walk between reps)
2x 90 (30-30-30)
CD (2 laps around football field)

7th grade meet

Had some guys run in a 7th grade only meet (four 6th graders put together a 4x8 team and ran too).

4x8
7th Grade- Ben-Turner-Alex-Brandon; competed well, won easily
6th Grade Coomer 2:39; Taylor 2:39; Brown, L 2:43; Bell 2:41.....10:41.3


1600
Will 5:49

A Surprising Result

I coach some talented guys. Colorado coach Mark Wetmore breaks down 4 components to being good. Talent, Durability, Determination, and Courage are the four things he says the truly great ones have. As he says, you don't need a monster all four but you need some combination of the four. My distance guys have talent, durability, determination, and courage as was shown last weekend. However a sprinter (well really middle distance runner as he will be a 400-800m guy when he gets to high school, but he currently is a 200-400m guy) showed some big determination and courage yesterday.

We all knew Rashaun Gaulden was talented. He ran two 53.xx splits at the relay meet last weekend. That is pretty big time considering we (meaning the coaches) don't have the guys do much lactate work or train the guys that hard, even the really good ones. Yesterday though he showed some courage and determination which is what you need when running your first 800m ever and you're also expected to run fast.

The idea for yesterday's meet was to take my best three 800m guys plus Rashaun and take a shot at the school record in the 4x8, 9:07. I knew it would be tough to basically solo some PRs and take a shot at the record but I thought they could come close. We ran good but not great. 9:19 was the total.

4x8 9:19

Garrett 2:21

Andrew 2:29

Rashaun 2:10

Micah 2:19

Three guys came back and ran a good 4x4.

4x4 4:08

Zach 67

Andrew 63

Garrett 62

Micah 55

Non Race Guys

With only the 8th graders running the meet yesterday quite a few of the guys were OYO (on your own). I was there for the start of practice, but couldn't be there for the end. I haven't received any phone calls or emails so I'll assume the run went accordingly.

WU (1200m, drills)

30min

Stretch

They'll race in a 7th grade only meet on Monday and will take today off and run an easy 20 minutes tomorrow.

Non Race guys

As mentioned, no 7th graders are running tomorrow's meet. Instead they prepped for their own meet to be held on Monday.

WU (800m, drills)
15-30min
2 Laps Is/Os
Core (Abs, Pushups, Bird dog)
Stretch

Race Prep

Tomorrow we'll run the 8th graders in a meet, so they had a very light day after two moderate days and training at a high level the past week.

WU (800m, drills)
15min
2 100m strides
Stretch

Some slow stuff

Time for some deep aerobic stimulus. Today was a good reminder of how getting a nice aerobic stimulus does not mean running that fast. As Marcus O'Sullivan says it's often times much slower than you think.

HOT and SUNNY
WU (1200m/Drills)
10min additional running
2 Laps Is/Os
Top Guys: 1600, 1600, 1000 (7:03, 6:54, 3:30@800m not sure of exact 1000m time)
Middle Guys: 1200, 1200, 800
800m Guys: 800, 800, 800
(All was done at 7min/mile pace, 1:45/lap; 90 seconds rest between reps)
CD (2 laps around football field)
Stretch

Tomorrow will be very easy as we gear up for Friday where we'll take a shot at a fast 4x8, 4x4, and Zach will take a shot at running sub 5:10 in the mile.

Some fast stuff

Yesterday (tuesday) had the guys turn the legs over a bit. This will probably be the most intense neuromuscular stuff we do all season. Yes the guys are probably undertrained, but I know where 100% every day will get us. And for the exercise physiology people out there, yes this workout most definitely stressed systems other than just the nervous and muscular-skeletal ones. First, at where these guys are developmentally (from a physical strength perspective) and aerobically (meaning how strong they are as runners) it's hard to isolate just one system. And two, as we approach the end of the season it's okay to mix and match a little. The overall purpose was to work their muscle fibers and work on form, turnover, and staying relaxed even when running fast. There was a secondary benefit as they got some VO2 stimulus and lactate tolerance toward the end of the workout.

Hot day
WU (1200m/Drills)
12min additional running
2 laps Is/Os
3x300m with 100m walk between each rep
The guys up front were 53-55 for each. The guys in the back were 58-60.
2x90m (30,30,30)
Trying to really change gears every 30 meters or so.
CD (2 laps around the football field)
Core (Abs, Pushups, Bird dog)
Stretch

Monday

Pretty relaxed day coming off a big week of training last week. Due to the Saturday meet they really didn't have an off day. Yesterday I had them do 8-10 min. of light running plus drills and stretching just to shake the legs out.

Tomorrow will be 3x300m with 100m walk recovery plus 2x 90m (30-30-30 accelerations) at the end. As a result, today was an easy day of getting in a medium-distance run trying to shake off Saturday yet still get ready for tomorrow.

WU (1200m, drills)
15-30min
2 100m strides on the football field

Again so proud of the guys on Saturday. They won, which was nice, but more importantly they ran tough.

Meet Recap

This past weekend was the Robert Inman Relays. It was a total beatdown by my distance guys. We won the 4x1600, 4x800, DMR, provided two legs of the winning 4x4, and the anchor for the winning SMR (2-2-4-8). I have some talented guys but more than anything they LOVE to COMPETE! Time and again on saturday they decided to stick their noses in it even when getting the baton way back.

Here are the highlights:
4x1600 22:40.62
Graham Lovelady (5:52), Will Boling (5:51), Brandon John (5:36), Andrew Bull (5:21). Andrew had to absolutely run his guts out to get the win as he got the stick in third (little did he know his day was only beginning). Brandon John is a year away from running 5:10-5:15.

4x800 9:40.47
Zach Williams (2:22), Turner Bacon (2:29), Andrew Bull (2:28), Garrett Bull (2:19). Great races all around. Andrew came back to run a good leg. Zach and Turner competed hard. Garrett (Andrew's identical, or close to it, twin brother) ran his guts out to win as he also got the baton in third place.

DMR 13:02.20
Zach William (4:04), Alex Yost (65), Ben Roberson (2:33), Garrett Bull (5:18). Nice job. Garrett ran an easy looking 5:18. Zach had a nice double back. Ben and Alex are a year away from being competitive 400-1600m.

MDMR (really a SMR but whatever, 2-2-4-8) 4:16.37
Micah Howard anchored the relay in 2:20. He also "won" the long jump in the morning.

4x4 3:53.02 (Gaulden 53, Bull 64, Foster 59, Howard 55)
Andrew Bull did a nice job answering the bell and running 64 to keep us in contention on the 2nd leg. This was his third race of the day. First relay and last relay, long day. He was undefeated and my performer of the meet. Not necessarily the times but that he was willing to run the 4x4 when many on the team weren't/couldn't. Micah continued his unbeaten streak for the season and brought the team home. He ran unchallenged. The question is can he ran 54 on the 4x4 after running 1600, 800, LJ earlier in the day?

An alternate format for what the guys did on saturday:
Andrew Bull- 5:21, 2:28, 64
Garret Bull- 2:19, 5:18
Zach Williams- 2:22, 4:04
Micah Howard- 2:20, 55
Graham Lovelady- 5:52
Will Boling-5:51
Brandon John- 5:36
Turner Bacon- 2:29 (in trainers BTW, we need to get him some spikes)
Ben Roberson- 2:33
Alex Yost- 65

Tempo and Inman Relays

I'll have a recap of last night's meet later in the day. Here's what the guys running Saturday did in lieu of the meet as well as who's running what in the Inman Relays.

WU (1000m/Drills)
15min
2 Laps Is/Os
Tempo:
Different Groups ran different distances. All ran 6:40/mile pace for duration (well +- 10secs/mile).
1. 3x1200 with 60-90s rest. (Andrew Bull, Garrett Bull, Zach Williams)
2. 3x1000 with 90s rest. (Brandon John, Ben Roberson)
3. 3x800 with 2min rest. (Turner Bacon, Will Boling, Graham Lovelady, Alex Yost, Cameron Dodd)
CD (2 laps around the football field)
Core (Abs, Pushups, bird dog)
Stretch

Lineup for Saturday
4x1600
Graham Lovelady, Will Boling, Brandon John, Andrew Bull- Has a good shot to win. I'd love to see Andrew run between 5:20-5:30 in his first mile of the year.

4x800
Zach Williams, Turner Bacon, Andrew Bull, Garrett Bull- Should win. I feel we've got the horses on the lead off and anchor to compete with most teams. Turner is a competitor and should lower his personal best (2:35). Andrew Bull will finish his day with this race. Zach and Garrett, both doubling back later in the day, were given simple instructions. Hand off in first, finish in first.

Middle Distance Medley (200-200-400-800)
Micah will answer this for us. Unless we drop a baton or screw up an exchange zone I have no worries about Micah's ability to win this for us. He's ready to run 2:12 if need be.

Distance Medley Relay (1200-400-800-1600)
Zach Williams-Alex Yost-Ben Roberson-Garrett Williams
Alex and Ben will run this fresh and look to battle, perhaps, against 400-800 legs with better PRs but hopefully also doubling back. Zach and Garrett reprise their roles from the 4x800, lead off and anchor.

4x4
Micah. Not sure who else is running. Look for a big split from Micah if he needs to run it.

Advice from Vig

To athletes: "Run alot, throw the watch in the garbage, enjoy what you do, learn to race, and most of all, have fun...I don't care what workouts you do. I don't care how many miles a week you run. Just love it, and you'll be good."

To coaches: "Keep 'em coming back. Hug their neck, kick their butt, but keep 'em loving what they're doing. That's all there is to it"

Some great advice from UVA's (formerly Texas') Jason Vigilante on thinking long term, balancing training, and establishing a structure that allows athletes to succeed. "If you have the drive, I can help you get there." More coaches could take to heart how it's important to have guys feeling good, excited to race, and ready to compete instead of getting in that extra rep or squeezing out a few more seconds in a workout.

Turning the Wheels Over

As mentioned earlier, this week we have two meets with our second biggest meet of the year on Saturday, The Robert Inman Relays. Think Penn Relays but with middle schoolers and 300-400 fans not 40,000. It's a great meet as it has a 4x1600, 4x8, 4x4, DMR (Distance medley relay, 1200-400-800-1600), and lastly a MDM (Middle Distance Medley, commonly referred to as a Sprint Medley in college, 200-200-400-800). There are other relays but these are the ones I'll have guys on.

Here's the report for yesterday (Tueday, April 6th) and what I'll have the guys do later today.
On Thursday I'll have the guys do some light work (3-4x1200m at threshold) so yesterday was, hopefully, the most intense work of the week.

Tuesday
Inman
Regular WU (1200m/drills)
15 minutes
2 Laps Is/Os
Spikes
1x (400, 300, 200), standing start
200m walk btw 400 and 300
100m walk btw 300 and 200
times, range from first to last: 400m (77-82), 300m (55-64), 200m (29-34)
2x 90m (30, 30, 30)
2 lap CD around the football field
Core
Abs
Pushups
Bird dog
Stretch

Guys running Thursday
Regular WU
20 min
2 strides on the football field
Stretch

Wednesday
Inman
Regular WU
25-30 minutes (very easy)
Stretch

Guys Running Thursday
Regular WU
2 strides on the track (100m)
Stretch

Back to Work

Due to the religious holidays (passover and easter) we had a long weekend and no organized practice on Friday. This week we'll have a split squad with some guys running the Inman Relays (imagine a middle school version of the Penn Relays) and most running a meet on Thursday. Thus, this week I'll have two reports each day, Inman and Thursday.

Monday April 5th
Thursday
Regular WU
10 min
2 Laps Is/Os
4x150m (50 float, 50 fast, 50 float) with 250m recovery jog
CD- 2 grass laps

Inman
Regular WU
20-30 min
2 strides on the football field

Race Report

Last Thursday was a great opener for the team. All runners ran at or above perceived fitness. Here is a portion of the results
4x8- 10:11 (1rst)
Zach Williams- 2:26
Turner Bacon- 2:35
Ben Roberson- 2:32
Andrew Bull- 2:35

Mile
Garrett Bull- 5:20 (2:46, 2:34) (1rst)
Will Boling- 5:50

800
Micah Howard- 2:17 (1rst)
Andrew Bull- 2:26
Brandon John- 2:35
Alex Yost- 2:39
Slew of others (look for results this thursday from those guys)

4x4- 4:10 (1rst)
Zach Williams- 63
Ben Roberson- 66
Garrett Bull- 63
Micah Howard- 57

Guys ran great and all those listed above did a nice job pulling double duty in either the 4x4 or open 800.

Getting Ready

Due to last week's washout tomorrow is the year's first meet. Nothing too eventful the past couple of days. Just a tempo and an easy run as we prepare to open the season

Tuesday (older guys on the high side of the minutes/reps)
WU-1200m and drills
10-15 minutes
2 laps Is/Os
3-4x 1k at threshold (6:45-7:00/mile) with 90s rest
2 lap cool-down around the football field
Core
Stretch

Today
WU-800m and drills
15-25 minutes with 4x30second pick-ups at cross country effort (1.5 mile race)
Stretch

Meet Tomorrow:
One 4x8 team; 2 guys in the 1600; one 4x4 team; a horde in the 800

Running Fast

Yesterday (Monday) was another day of neuromuscular work. However, unlike the last several weeks of hill sprints, today we moved to the track. The goal is to take the strength gains from the hills, which are semi-running specific, after all we won't have any 60m hill races, and transfer that power to the track. This is accomplished by doing some shorter, faster running with lots of rest. Again like the hills I'm wanting to work mainly the legs, not the lungs. However, the track repeats are working the lungs more than the hills did. As the season, and fitness, progress it's okay, and necessary, to start bridging the gap between muscular work and high-end aerobic work.

Also check out this great interview with Marcus O'Sullivan on the importance of finding the line between aerobic and anaerobic. It's a nice reminder that you don't have to train fast to run fast. Also it reminds to me that it's always better to have the guys running relaxed feeling good then straining, even a little, to run x pace.

Regular W/U (1200m, drills)
10-15 minutes additional running
2 laps I/Os
*Put the spikes on
Strides
*2x (3,2,1); 100m walk between reps, easy 400m jog between sets
2x90m (30,30,30)
2 lap cooldown on the grass around the football field

*Note:Some of the guys just did one set. Not everyone put spikes on.

Rain Delay and Easy Day

The meet on Thursday was cancelled due to thunderstorms being predicted (they rolled in around 6 PM, right during meet time but well after our practice ended).  Instead I took the distance guys and ran 3 4x8 relays (those who didn't race ran a 600m time trial on friday).

1200m W/U

Drills

10 min with 4x30 second pickups at xc race effort (1.5 mile)

2 laps ins and outs on the football field (stride straightaways, jog endzones)

put the spikes on

2-3 strides on the track

Race

2 90m accelerations on the track (30-30-30)

2 lap C/D

Results:

Team 1- 10:32 (2:27.9-2:48.7-2:51-2:26.24)

Team 2- 10:39.6 (2:29.9-2:48.7-2:43.2-2:38.0)

Team 3- 11:13 (2:38-3:05-2:58-2:41)

Friday was an easy day for those who ran the 4x8. Regular W/U (1200m, drills), 20-25 min, strides, Core.  Some others ran a 600m time trial.  The guys competed hard and got in a nice race effort.  2:07, 2:09, 2:21, 2:25.

Getting Ready

Tomorrow is the team's first meet of the year. I'll have two 4x800m relays, one 4x400m relay, and a slew of guys in the 800m (several runners are sick so no entries in the mile this week).

The 3200m relays are, hopefully, pretty even and should provide an exciting anchor showdown.

So far we've done very little race specific work, meaning work at race pace -+10%. The two big days we've had so far are a 400m time trial and a 1000m time trial. Several of the guys were under 70 for the 400m and under 3:20 for the 1000m. Tomorrow will be a day to see how they're progressing. You never know how they might respond to an actual race. As Mark Wetmore says, "Lots of guys look good on a Tuesday. It's who can look good on a Saturday or Sunday."

Today they ran between 15-25 minutes with 1-3 laps of ins and outs (from now on the normal warm up of 1200m plus drills is done everyday unless otherwise mentioned). The guys running the relays also worked on hand offs. Please no dropped batons.

Tempo Tuesday

There are countless blogs, message boards, and websites on training so I won't go into great length on why I train the guys how I do. The main idea is that distance running is largely aerobic exercise. Aerobic running forms the house one is building with all their training. All other training makes the house nicer but not necessarily bigger. As I said yesterday I'll leave the more specific work for the high school and college coaches. I'll just work the extremes. The muscles and nervous system to make them stronger, faster, more efficient, and capable of handling more work. And the aerobic system to raise their thresholds and build their houses so in the future they can do more specific work to race faster.

With that in mind here was today's work for the "top" guys:

1. 1200m W/U
2. Drills
3. 12-15 min between easy and steady with 4 x30seconds in the last half
4. (Back to the track) 2 laps of ins and outs (stride straightaway jog endzone) on the football field
5. 3-4 x 800m at 3:30 with 60-90 seconds recovery
6. (After a few minutes recovery) (to the back straightaway of the track) 2 x 90m strides (getting faster every 30m) walk back to start for recovery
7. 2 lap C/D around perimeter of football field
8. Stretch

Only 7 guys (out of probably 16) did this. The rest had the same day through number 4. Instead of 2 laps of ins and outs they did 4-5. Afterward they did a 2 lap cool down on the football field. I wish everyone could do some specific threshold running. But for some of the guys the "general" running is what is needed more than getting on the track, trying to determine threshold pace, and then have them try to run it. They benefit much more from an easy-steady aerobic run with some faster running thrown in.

Thursday we'll unleash the lions (RWTB) in our first meet of the year. Look for most of the guys to run 4x8 and 4x4 (I'll field two teams in each of just distance guys) with the rest in the open 800m and 1600m races.

You gotta sprint- John Cook

I try to begin every practice by telling the guys the purpose of the days run (note: I only have the "distance" runners i.e. 800m and 1600m runners. The mile is the longest event). I like to inform them why we are doing something in addition to what we're doing. That's how I'll start the blog off most days, with the purpose of the day's run.

Muscular Mondays
Today's goal was an easy run with some hill sprints at the end followed by a short cool down and some core. Every practice begins with the entire team running three laps around the track and some drills to warm up. After my guys got organized they did anywhere from 10-20 minutes (depending on ability and fitness) easy running over to "the hill." There they did 4-7 hill sprints. As the Hudson article talks about the point of hill sprints is to engage the muscles at maximal intensity. The guys are running up the hill (70m or so) at what I call "best relaxed speed" or as fast as possible maintaining good form and composure. Then they walk down to the bottom of the hill taking as long as they want. The purpose is to work their legs not their lungs.

I like the hills for two reasons. First, as Hudson's article points out they have great physiological benefit. The hills will not only make them stronger and more efficient runners, but the hills should actually make them better athletes for whatever sports they play the rest of the year (I hope they will all become full-time runners in high school but realize this is unlikely). Second, the hills are a fun. They can compete against each other but they can't overtrain, the hill is too short, and the chances of injury are lower than if I had them on the track running 150s and 200s, their speed is too slow.

After the cool down the guys do some core. No, they can't/don't do Trey Hardee's workout. But I do use some of his core routine with the guys leaving out the dynamic exercises (V-sit, bicycle, toe touches etc). I also have the guys do bird dog and some pushups.

Tomorrow will be a variation of a tempo run and I'll discuss training in more detail. As perhaps you can tell the summary is to "work the extremes." Hill sprints and other muscular development on one end with lots of steady aerobic running and tempos on the other. I'll have the guys do little anaerobic work. I feel high school (and really college) is where the majority of race specific intervals and workouts should be done.

Season Begins

This spring I'm helping coach a local middle school track team (grades 7th-8th) a couple hours a week. My main job is a being enrolled in a graduate program. The blog is a way to share about training, the team's progress, and, occasionally, to vent about the frustrations of working with 12 year olds.

Today begins the official part of the season. The guys (I only work with the guy's team) are getting back from spring break today. It should be interesting to see who ran over the break and who played video games or was on the beach all week.

This afternoon I'll have the guys do an easy run with some hill sprints tacked on at the end (if you don't know what those are check back in tonight). I'll post more about the team, my training philosophy, goals, and how the day went later tonight.