Well, the season's over...cue the end of movie music...
First I'll recap the last few races, since I haven't posted in a little while.
Sectional
Our goal for everyone in this race was to set some PRs. The younger guys were looking to gain some experience and Dave and Nathan were hoping to post an Honor Roll qualifying times.
JT and Joe had to run earlier than everyone else, in the first heat of the 3200, when the sun was still out and it was pretty warm. They ran good races, and went out where they needed to, but it wasn't the best situation to be in, and the race took it's toll later on. Joe still ran 11:30, which a week and a half ago would have been considered a big improvement. JT ran 12:11, which is a good performance considering the number of races he missed this season.
In the 800, Nathan Smith and Nick ran, hoping to set some PRs. They ran pretty even races, going out in about the right position and being aggressive on the second lap. Nathan ran his second fastest time with a 2:16.2, and Nick set a PR of 2:22.1
In the 1600, Dave and Nathan had to run in different sections, and this angered Dave 'to the point of rage and bitterness.' Before I get to the race, I want to take a minute and say how awesome it is that Dave and Nathan wanted to run together. I've told you guys to be competitive with each other, to fight for the spot of being that top guy on the team, and I still hold by that as a means of improvement. But, as teammates, there has to be a balance, and you guys have done a great job of finding that balance between competitiveness and friendship. Awesome.
Now to get to the 1600. Both guys had run smart, controlled races at Mid-Illini last week, and we wanted to do basically the same thing, but push the middle laps harder. Hitting those middle two laps, even if it risks blowing up on the last lap, is the best way to get those last few seconds, and to find out exactly where your limits are at this point. They did a great job executing, and ran quicker through the middle than any previous races. The last laps weren't quite as strong as the week before, but it was still a good end result. Dave ran a 4:42.3 one second PR and Nathan ran 4:49.4 to miss his PR by less than two seconds.
Honor Roll
We didn't know for sure if he'd make it in until the morning of the race, but Dave did make it into the Peoria Journal Star Honor Roll meet in the 1600. He was seeded 12th of 12, and wanted to go in and improve on his seed, and take another crack at breaking 4:40. He ran a smart race, moved up well, and finished with another PR, though not quite as fast as he'd hoped. We had him timed initially at 4:40.8, and that's what they told him, but then the official results the next morning had him at 4:41.2...oh well, either way it was a great way to end the season.
Time Trial
We set up a time trial with the goal of getting a 1600 PR for some of the younger guys who hadn't had as many chances to race the 1600 as our seniors. My goal was to try and pace everyone through at leat 800 and maybe 1200 at 5:08 pace. I was a little off, and we hit the first lap a little fast, and the second a little slow, but came through 800 right about where we needed to be, without having varied our pace too much. I picked it up slightly the third lap to try and correct and came through 1200 in 3:51, right on pace, with most of the group right behind me. I pulled out at 1200, and Joe took the lead and finished well, out front alone in 5:11, with Nathan Smith close behind in 5:13. Ben Getz, Dave's older brother, ran with us and finished in 5:26. Joe and Ben both ran PRs and Nathan was only two second off of his PR.
Dave was running right in that group the whole time, with the intention of carrying that pace on for 3200. He went through 1600 in 5:15 and somewhere on the 5th or 6th lap, I think it dawned on him that he'd just raced a hard 1600 the day before, and he started fading some. He still finished in 10:49, which is an awesome time for running alone half the race, and the day after a hard race.
Season recap
Guys, I think this reason should leave you somewhat satisfied but hungry for more. As a team, we met almost all of the goals that were set at the beginning of the season. Individually, most people exceeded their season goal. We qualified a guy for Honor Roll, and I know at the beginning of the season, when I started talking about that as a goal, you guys thought I was crazy. I beleive the quotes I heard were along the lines of "that'd be nice!"
At the same time, realize that this can only be the beginning of something much better. You guys are a very young team, and if this much improvement can happen in 7 to 8 weeks, just think of what could happen in 2 or 3 years. The key to doing it is consistent mileage over the offseason. You don't need to hammer 400 repeats in July. But if you get out there and run 6 days a week, and start gradually making those runs longer and longer, by the time cross country rolls around, you'll be amazed at the improvement you've made.
The summer doesn't have to be as hard or as structured as this season was. To succeed, you need to run quite a bit and do it consistently. Getting in mostly easy mileage, some strides, maybe some tempos, those things are going to prepare you for next fall. Next fall, there are going to be some guys who are going to come in really prepared, and they'll make some big improvements. There are going to be other guys who might not run as much over the summer, and they'll probably get left behind. Who wants to be the top dog next year in Morton? Who wants to be varsity top 5? Who wants to be 10th? Who wants to be All-Conference? Who wants to beat the kids from Metamora? EP? Washington? Dunlap? Limestone? Pekin? Notre Dame? Canton? York? Richwoods? Central? Woodruff? New York? Normal West? Normal Community? Bloomington?
I ran with a guy in high school who was a class ahead of me. His first 3 mile race was a 24:19. He never broke 21 minutes as a freshman. As a senior, he ran 16:17. That happened because he saw the other guys putting in the work, improving, and decided he didn't want to be left behind.
The one caution I will give is that mileage must be consistent and gradual. If you run three weeks of 40 miles and one of 50, and take six weeks off, and another guy runs 20-30 miles per week consistently for ten weeks, but never runs more than 30 miles in one week, who do you think will be better prepared come time for the season? Most likely it'll be the guy who ran consistently all sumer, not the one who had some killer weeks, and some lazy ones.
Gradual increases are important as well. This allows your body to adapt to the increase in stress, and also allows you time to find out if your body is handling it. If you try and increase 10 miles per week, every week, you're increasing so fast you might make an injury much worse before you even realize you had it. You could start to hurt a shin, or an ankle at 30 mpw, and not even find out until you really hurt it doing 50 mpw. A good rule of thumb is to go two weeks between any increases, and never to increase more than 10% of total mileage at a time, or 10 miles per week, whichever is bigger.
I would keep track of what you run as well, so that you can give Coach Zehr a good idea of what you're prepared for, and because you might want that information yourself later on. Nothing crazy, just write down what type of run it was, how long it was, how you felt, and anything else you might want to remember later on. It just takes a minute or two after each run.
So increase gradually and consistently, keep most of your mileage easy, hit a tempo or faster run once a week or so, do some strides once or twice a week, and get used to running on grass. If you do those things, you'll be rockstars in the fall.
moving on...
Well, if you haven't figured it out by now, I think you guys could be a pretty good team in the years to come. I'll stop beating that horse, and move back to this season.
Thank you guys for everything you did this season. I told you what I thought you needed to do to get better, and you guys showed up on Saturday's and you did it. It was exciting to see you guys get better and better, and more importantly to start believing that I wasn't crazy, and that you could get to the goals that were set. Keep that belief this summer (there I go beating that horse again).
I'm going to get all sappy here for a few minutes, and start pulling life lessons from track training. There are some obvious ones, such as learning to fight through pain, and learning to put in hard work. There are some semi-obvious ones, such as learning pacing and how that can translate into moderation in life, and managing stress (if you think I'm crazy, you'll understand when you're older....am I old enough to say that?). I think the biggest lessons this season has taught, however, are these two:
a) Never assume that a lack of guidance or poor leadership will doom something to poor results. If a leader is unwilling or unable to lead, then you can step up and put in the work to get something done, and make virtually anything a success.
b) Seemingly hopeless situations can have surprising results if you seek out information, make a plan to get where you want to be, and put in hard work to get there. Guys, I helped you by providing information and guidance, but you guys did the work. You can apply that in your life in so many ways. Never assume a situation is as bad as it may seem.
It was an awesome time getting to know you guys this spring, and an extremely rewarding experience for me. No, I'm not very creative, so I'll stick to the cliche word 'rewarding.' It may sound cheesy, but it fits and it's the best word I can think of. Underclassmen, I intend to volunteer to help with the team in some capacity this summer and fall, so I expect to see you guys putting in the mileage and running fast come the fall (did I just slip that in again??). Dave, Mark, Nathan, thank you for all the work you put in, and the best of luck to you at your colleges next fall. Any time you guys want to go for a run, or chat, or whatever, just let me know.
This weekend
This weekend is the State Meet. Ben, Joe, Nathan Smith and I are planning to go watch on Saturday. If anyone else is interested, you're welcome to come, but let us know ahead of time so we can figure out transportation. It's $10 to get in, and you'll want some money for food as well. We'll be leaving Saturday morning at 8:15 and getting back sometime around 6 PM, so it's most of the day.