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IHSA State Championsips –
May 29 and 30, 2009 Wow, what a weekend! We
placed second as a team in the State and had some great
performances. Full results can be
found here. Last spring, we as a coaching
staff, talked about getting our sprinters to run cross country. Coach
Saul and I discussed a plan and he took ownership of it and made it
work. I believe it paid off in the
form of a third place 4 x 800m relay, a fourth place 400m, and a first place
4 x 400m relay. Video of all of the
State races can be found here. A really good video of the 4 x 400m can be
found here.
The 3rd
place 4 x 800m relay of (L-R Top):
Brian Griffith, Aryan Avant, Robert James, and James Krist. I could not be happier for
Coach Kennedy, his assistants, and the athletes. Junior Aryan
Avant deserves a lot of accolades for putting this team on his back and
making this happen. Our only chance of
placing in the 4 x 800m was to put him in there. He came through with a 1:55.7 split and put
us in contention for that race and a team trophy. When we talked to Aryan on Friday night,
he listened, believed what the coaches told him, and took on the
challenge. We looked like geniuses because
we told him he could run a 1:55 J Danny and Aaron deserve a lot of credit. I know both were a little disappointed in
their places. I was impressed with
their confidence. Both of these young
men ran tactically smart races and neither had anything left at the end. Danny
Pawola goes down in history as the best distance runner in our history
not named Chris Derrick. 9:09 is
nothing to sneeze at. Aaron Beattie showed the State he is
to be contended with this fall.
Barring any misfortunes, he will be the fourth nationally elite
distance runner that will represent NV in the last three years.
Danny and
Aaron on lap 2 of the 3200m race. Last, but not least, I wanted
to acknowledge our team manager this past spring. His name is Pat Peters and I cannot say enough great things about this young
man. To illustrate the respect and
love that is teammates and coaches have for him, we showed up in full force
to watch him run in the open race on Friday night. He ran a very respectable 5:09. We will miss you Pat! I know I speak for everyone when I say that
you represent all that is good about the human spirit.
Manager Pat
Peters blazes a 5:09 at the Open race on Friday night The most recent performances
are in dark
red………relay splits are not recorded.
IHSA AAA Plainfield
Sectional Meet – May 22, 2009 Overall it was a great
night. Our 4 x 200m dropped the baton,
but we also qualified a high jumper and a 300m low hurdler which was far from
a given. I first have to tell the 300m
hurdle story for it may be something I never see again. During the 300m hurdle race, Kevin Long had a hurdle from another
competitor fly into his lane and hit him in the legs and chest! Kevin fell to the ground, got up, and limped
to the finish. He quickly learned that
he would get another chance at the end of the meet to qualify. I have seen this many times - a hurdler
getting another chance. When they get
their second chance, the hurdler is by him self and emotionally and
physically drained from the prior experience of crashing to the ground and
never comes close to qualifying. Well,
this story had a different ending.
With the whole stadium watching, Kevin showed what athletics is all
about – to demonstrate the courage and determination to do what most thought
impossible. He qualified by .01! Unlike some Sectionals, FAT was used and
there was no fudging of times. His
teammates and coaches hugged him and there were few dry eyes for those that
knew what was at stake. Kevin had
never broken 40 before, and here he was, doing the unlikely by running 39.83
FAT all by himself. This was a moment
I will never forget. Our 3200m relay ran well but
there is definite room for improvement.
Robert James showed he is back
to form by running 1:56.7. James Krist ran his first 300m too
fast and tied up at the end. Tanner Maunder is still recovering
from his bout with the flu but showed he is recovering by running 2:01. This relay has a huge upside. We will see if they show it next
weekend.
Danny Pawola and
Aaron Beattie looked good in the
3200m run. It was a four-man race with
NN’s Kyle Gibson and Tyler Jermann. As usual, these four guys battled
throughout. Places really did not
matter. What mattered is that they
qualified for next weekend.
The biggest
story in this race may have been Danny’s haircut J Brian Griffith
ran a solid 1:55.7 to qualify in the 800m.
Bryan Winek also ran a
solid race. Brian Morenus and Harsha
Torke each ran a great 1600m. Both
ran pr’s and we will miss them both next year (Torke is moving to
Florida).
Eventual
winner Emmet Lorenz leads Brian Griffith in the 800m Our 1600m relay ran
solid. We need to improve our second
leg and we will be in contention for the State championship in this
relay. Results
of the meet. Upstate Eight Conference
Meet – May 13, 2009 We won the meet easily with
some good performances. Highlights
were mainly in the 800m and 1600m. For
a reason I cannot fully explain, our 3200m performances were again not very
good. An emphasis on developing some
speed might have come at the expense of aerobic development with some of our
guys. That’s ok, because some added
speed may pay off this fall after a summer of focusing on aerobic
development. It is good to stress
different systems. Results. It was good to see Robert James run again. His split of 2:00.0 in the 4x800m relay
shows he is ready to make a run of it the last two weeks. Brian
Griffith looked great in both the relay and open 800m. I clocked him at 54.9 the first 400m of the
relay before he backed off the last 200m to save some energy for the open
800m. In the open 800m, he ran
57.5/57.5. Can he run 55x/57x in
Charleston and break Houtman’s 800m school record?
Brian
Griffith (headband) battles Max Clink of StCN in the final stretch of the
800m Pawola, Beattie,
and sophomore Joel Lynn looked
great in the 1600m. Joel is starting
to show he could battle for a top 7 spot this fall with his 4:42. Danny and Aaron look ready to run sub 9 and
sub 9:10 in two weeks. Danny and Aaron
are now the 3rd and 4th fastest 1600m runners in our history. If Danny runs the mile at the MDG meet in
June, he will have a good shot of breaking Chris’ best time before running at
Penn State. NV, Lake Park, South
Elgin Meet – May 5, 2009 We had some guys look good, while
others struggled. For some reason, the
3200m had the majority of the poor performances. We have been working hard and I think it
showed in the 3200m more than the 1600m.
Brian Morenus, being a
senior and therefore stronger, had little problem and ran a comfortable
9:38. The highlight of the meet for me
was watching Mark Derrick and Nick Graham crack the 5:00 barrier
and Thadeus Johnson running his
first 400m in 51.6. Latest pr’s in red
below……
Danny Brinker, Andrew
Tout, Mark Derrick, and Kyle Blacker before the 1600m 13:29.98! Chris Derrick
Sets The American Junior Record In The 5K!
Red Ribbon Invitational – May 2, 2009 It was a rare nice day for
this invitational, but the wind was at a steady 12-15 mph all day. Therefore, we had very few pr’s. The highlight of the meet was James Krist’s
open 800m and our 4 x 400m relay running 3:21.1. WV vs. NV dual – April 28, 2009 Following tradition, this was
the night of the 3200m run. However,
compared to last year, we did not have the weather on our side. With 20 mph winds and temperatures in the
low 50’s, there were still some notable performances. Junior Carlton
Folster ran a pr of 9:47 to finish third behind teammate Brian Morenus and winner Emmett Lorenz of WV. Junior Jaffar
Mahmoud continues to show his toughness in running 9:49.1. Emmit Lorenz reminds me of Geoff Houtmann in regards to the
range of distances he can run well. He
can run a sub 50 400m, and can run a 9:31 3200m in non-ideal conditions. He has already run 1:54x and 4:19x in less
than desirable weather. Watch for him
to run 1:51x this spring. Freshman Mark Derrick and I had a nice conversation today. He and I talked about his future as a
runner and student. He has a bright
future if he decides to dedicate himself to excellence. We had three freshmen run 10:44 or better
in today’s race. We had 9 sophomores
run 10:33 or better. I believe that
given better weather conditions, and four more weeks of training, that at
least 13 underclassmen would run (I am including the injured Vincenzo Dal Pozzo) under 10:20. So far, we have 11 guys (7
return this fall) under 10:00 for 3200m.
I remember when Jeff Goode and
Evan Roberts broke 10:00 in the
Sectional meet at Naperville Central back in 2000 and how excited I was that
we got three guys under 10:00 that year (Matt
Bailey broke 10:00 earlier that year).
We have come a long way. Lastly, Juniors Aryan Avant and Cale Brown are showing they are more than sub 50 400m
runners. 2:01 and 2:04 in these
conditions is worthy of recognition! DGS Bob Cohoon Invitational – April
24, 2009 This was definitely one of the
more fun meets I have ever attended.
It was fun because Coach Kennedy and his staff decided to make this a
meet where we would score the most points possible. We asked some of our guys to double in the
distance events, something we rarely do because we like to give other guys on
the team as many opportunities as possible.
As a result, we beat York by 31 points. York could have scored more points by placing
some of their guys in different events, but it still would have been close
even if they did. The York guys are a
class act. The athletes took the
initiative to shake our hands and their coaches immediately offered
congratulatory hand shakes once they knew we had won the team title. We need more team battles in track and
field. It makes it more fun and
everyone is more invested in the meet.
James Krist closes the gap in the 4 x
800m relay There were so many great
performances that it would take me many paragraphs to describe them all. The most recent best performances are
posted in red below and the times speak for themselves considering the windy
conditions. Results of
the meet.
Coach Janota cheers on Aaron Beattie
and Danny Pawola as super soph Jack Driggs from York drafts in 3rd The 3200m relay finished a
very close 3rd thanks to James Krist’s 2:00:00 anchor. With Robert James injured and Brian
Griffith running the open 800m and 1600m, we inserted sophomore Harha Torke
who ran a solid 2:03.7. Tanner Maunder
continues to learn how to run this race and Bryan Winek ran competitively
again. The 3200m run was a great race
to watch. Aaron led the pack through 6
laps before Danny took over. I think
Aaron’s hair added another two seconds to his time in the windy conditions J
Jack Driggs from York caught Danny with 150m to go and the sprint to the
finish was on. Danny edged the super
soph at the line with Aaron finishing third.
Aaron did all the work for this race.
It was a great performance for him considering he missed two weeks of
training after the indoor IPTT meet with a foot tendon injury. Other great performances were
turned in by Brian Griffith in winning the 800m, James Krist coming back from
the 4x800m and running 2:01 to finish fifth, Aryan Avant and Cale Brown
finishing 1, 2 in the 400m, Brian and Danny finishing 4, 5 in the 1600m, and
our mile relay cranking a 3:23x with Aryan running 48.9 in the anchor
spot. Our sprinters really ran well
in this meet and many of them have made big leaps as a result of running xc
in the fall. Prince Riley and Zach Splan
started this trend and we continue to get more and more sprinters running xc. So much for xc ‘slowing you down’ as many
people claim. RJ McNichols runs 34:04 10k; Chris
Derrick 8:18 3000m. The Alumni Page has been
updated. Check out the latest results. West Aurora Invitational – April 18,
2009
Senior Danny Pawola leads the 1600m Beautiful weather was the
highlight of this meet. However, Danny
Pawola’s double definitely showed greater things to come. Danny ran a lead-off 1:59 in the 4 x 800m and
came back to run all alone to win the 1600m in 4:24, running even
splits. Another highlight was getting
another sophomore under 10:00 in the 3200m.
Andrew Tout looked strong the last 500m, as he picked up the pace to
run 9:57 or so. Junior Carlton Folster
continued to run consistent as he ran 9:54.
Our middle distance runners looked strong as Tanner Maunder ran 51.4
in the 400m to win his heat and Brian Griffith battled Alex Lyons from Lyons
Twp. to finish second in the 800m in 1:56.2
Brian ran 58, 58 so we know faster times are ahead. Sophomore Harsha Torke ran a 2:04 split in
the 4 x 800m and came back in the open 800m to run 2:03.9.
Junior Carlton Folster leads the 3200m
early in the race. Andrew Tout is in
third. StCN, Steamwood Triangular – April 14,
2009 We had some solid performances
for a Tuesday meet. A lot of guys had
an opportunity to run an 800m to work on their speed. Updates are in the chart below. Schaumburg Invitational – April 11,
2009 With Beattie, James,
Lagomarcino, and Pawola not running, it gave other guys an opportunity to
race. However, they really did not
take advantage of the opportunity. The
highlights were at the frosh/soph level with Torke, Tout, Antonson, Soltys,
Pembrook, and Ferguson all running pr’s.
Given the windy and colder conditions, it is very possible Torke and
Antonson could hit state qualifying marks in the 3200m if given the chance in
mid-May with good weather. In our
history, only Beattie, Derrick, and Pawola have run faster as sophomores in
the 3200m. Team wise, we got second at
the varsity level to a very good York team.
We were able to capture the team title at the f/s level. Results. Beattie second at IPTT meet Junior Aaron Beattie ran a
9:18.1 3200m on Saturday, March 28th to finish second in the Illinois Prep
Top Times meet. Senior Danny Pawola
was 5th in 9:25. Our 3200m relay also finished
second running 8:01.6. Senior Tanner
Maunder ran the 800m for only the third time in his running career to run a
2:01.6 split. Senior Brian Griffith
ran 1:56.9 to lead off the relay. Chris Derrick 15th in the World XC
Meet! Chris finished 15th in the
World Junior Cross Country Championships.
He was the second American behind teammate German Fernandez who was
seven seconds in front of Chris in 11th place. The US team finished 5th as a team. Individual results. Team results. Former NV runner Lucas Cotter signs
with The University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Lucas Cotter was an integral
part of our team as a freshman and sophomore but then he moved to
Tennessee. He was his high school’s
1st or 2nd man most of the season and they won the Tennessee State
Championships. We miss you Lucas!
Lucas Cotter
with his two coaches in Tennessee Chris Derrick to run at World Jr. XC
Championships Chris will run in the World XC
Championships at 8 a.m. CST on Saturday, March 28th. E-mails from Chris indicate he is having a
great time visiting the Dead Sea and getting his courage up to ride a
camel. I will be out of the country
from March 28th – April 5th so I will not be able to update this site for a
while. Check here
for results. Upstate Eight Conference Meet – March
18th and March 23rd
Sophomore Josh Antonson finishes
second in the 1600m We had a pretty good two days
at the conference meet. We won each
meet easily. The STCE track is not
very fast, but we still managed to produce some quality times. The most recent performances, if they are a
pr, are in red below. Aaron Beattie’s
victory in the varsity 3200m, our 1,2,3 finish in the f/s 3200m, a 1,2 finish
in the f/s 1600m, and the 1, 3 finish in the f/s 800m were the
highlights.
Sophomore
Joel Lynn leads freshman Taylor Soltys in the 3200m The most recent performances
are in dark
red………splits are not recorded.
Chris Derrick fourth in NCAA
5,000m! 5th in NCAA 3000m! Interview and recap of the race. Chris
continued to amaze everyone by finishing 4th in the 5,000m at the NCAA Indoor
Championships in College Station, TX.
Chris ran a 2:02 last 800m (who said he did not have speed?). He will run the 3,000m today. Splits. Oswego Invitational – March 13th, 2009 Updated times in red below. Junior Jordan
Lagomarcino showed his ability to kick to win the 1600m in 4:37. Freshman Mark Derrick had a nice debut in the 1600m. The time of the meet probably came from
freshman Taylor Soltys. Taylor’s 10:34 was 14 seconds faster than
Chris Derrick’s time at this meet when he was a freshman. Connor
and Luke’s performances in the
3200m would probably get them automatic qualifying into the Top Times meet if
it was on a fast 200m track. Ryan Perry qualifies for National
Meet: College of DuPage freshman, Ryan Perry, ran the 5,000m in 16:32
to qualify for the National Junior College Championships. The lap counter went to the bathroom in
the middle of the race and lost track of the laps. Ryan ran an extra lap and they took his time
from a lap earlier to count as the ‘official’ time. Marshall
Stewart, running for Carthage College, was fifth in the 400m. Results.
Thornwood Invitational – Saturday,
March 7th, 2009 The world’s longest indoor
track meet was finally over around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday. We took a lot of guys who have not had the
chance to race much indoors. Jaffar Mahmoud and Carlton Folster went 1-2 in the 3200m
run while beating the meet record. The
Thornwood track is also a very slow track, so for these two guys to run 10:16
is very good. I am confident both men
will run well under 10:00 if they are given a chance to run on a decent track
with their spikes on. Aaron Beattie won the 1600m in 4:47
after running the 4x800m relay. The
best performance of the meet probably came from junior Alex Merkley. He ran 4:55
for the full mile which converts to a 4:53.4 1600m. To run a pr on this track is amazing. More times later as they become
available. Downers South Relay Meet
– Monday, March 2nd, 2009 The guys performed well, a
little over 48 hours after Saturday’s meet at Proviso. We set a meet record in the 4 x 200m
(1:32.8), ran a State-best 4 x 400m relay (3:28.5), and showed the rest of
the State we again have a 4 x 800m relay (8:06.7) that will contend for a
medal come late May. Our 4 x 800m relay ran 4-5 seconds better than last year’s team at
this meet. We thought Chris Derrick
ran an amazing leg (1:58.2) last year, but Brian Griffith’s lead off leg of 1:57.7 was our fastest split
ever at this meet. Brian, the slimmed
down leader of this 4 x 800m team, ran right with top returning 800m
specialist Alex Lyons from Lyons Twp.
He handed off to Bryan Winek
who turned in a solid 2:04.6 to establish a narrow lead over Geneva and
Lyons. The plan was to run Aaron Beattie in this slot, but the
flue still had a grip on him. Bryan showed
some guts by taking his place even though he was the not feeling the greatest
himself. Bryan handed off to Danny Pawola, and Danny was able to
gap the field by 30-35m while running a 2:03.8. Danny handed off to the long-legged Robert James who tried to navigate
the turns to the best of his ability.
Geneva’s Andrew Nelson turned on the burners with two laps to go and
caught Robert on the backstretch on the final lap and pulled away to the
victory. Robert ran a solid 2:01.6
while Andrew ran a 1:56.0 leg.
Robert’s best time indoors last year was 2:05x and he ended up running
1:56.6 at the State meet. Hopefully,
this a sign of great things to come J I had the pleasure of meeting
Mr. Nelson and Andrew after the meet.
I was very impressed by their kindness and felt good about the
positive relationships the Geneva guys have built with our guys. Northern Iowa has found another blue
chipper in Andrew Nelson. We might see
a repeat of a Dorian Ulrey (who is now at Arkansas). He ran this amazing split after only
running the last 3.5 weeks due to an injury.
The injury resulted from running with our guys down an ice-covered
prairie path during X-mas break. Chris Derrick runs 7:57.3 in 3000m to
finish 2nd at Pac-10 meet! From the Stanford site – “Freshman long distance specialist Chris Derrick competed in the 3,000 meters where he finished second with a
provisional time of 7:57.30. Derrick already has an auto time in the 5,000
meters where he will likely compete at nationals.” State best times recorded at Proviso West Invitational
(3/1/09) Danny Pawola ran
a 9:15.5 3200m and our 3200m relay ran 8:11.0 to rank them as the State’s
best at this point in the season.
Senior Brian Morenus ran a
state qualifying mark of 9:32 in the 3200m.
Senior Brian Griffith ran a
2:00 split in the 3200m relay. Junior James Krist ran 2:02x in that same
relay. Other great performances were turned
in by sophomores Harsha Torke
(10:01), Andrew Tout (4:41), Josh Antonson (10:17), Josh Ferguson (2:12.3), Vincenzo Dal Pozzo (2:07x split), and
freshman Eric Pembrook (2:08x
split). Junior Aryan Avant ran the 600m in 1:26.1 – not bad for a first effort
at this distance! Aaron Beattie did not run due to the flu. Jimmy Riddle wins EIU Invitational
3000m run Jimmy Riddle ran 8:28.2 to win
the 3000m run at the EIU invite. See
all the season bests from our alumni by going to the Alumni page. Chris Derrick 2nd at USATF
Junior National XC Championships Chris Derrick placed second at
the USATF National Cross Country Meet in Deerwood, Maryland. He ran the 8k on a hilly course in 23:39,
19 seconds behind Oklahoma State freshman, German Fernandez. Full results. Chris fell down
early in the race but he got right back up and it did not seem to affect his
race much. Third place was Luke
Puskedra of Oregon, finishing 14 seconds behind Chris. After Luke, it was another 42 seconds
before the fourth place finisher came across the line. As a result of this race, Chris will now be
a member of the U.S. team that will travel to Aaman, Jordan to compete in the
World
Championships. Check the Alumni page for
other marks from past NV runners. If I
missed a mark or left someone out, please notify me. Danny Pawola Signs National Letter of
Intent with Penn State!
L-R:
Mr. Pawola, Danny Pawola, Coach Vandersteen, and Mrs. Pawola Additional Commentary….. Aaron Beattie wrote me in
response to the Training Advice
written below. I thought his comments on
c. were especially noteworthy. He
said, “It
takes a lot of self-confidence and maybe a little bit of arrogance to say,
"You know what, I'm just going to book it from the gun, and see how well
I can do out there." Nobody should race with their heart on their
sleeve or run a race purely off an emotional high, because a guy with a
better mental focus of his racing plan will beat him every time. Yeah,
this goes against the Steve Prefontaine mentality of leaving it all on the
track, but when you're racing against the best, a race strategy based all on
guts is not going to bring back home any hardware, no matter how big your
heart is.” I could not agree more. One has to know their competition and be
smart about the race plan before guts matter.
Alumni Off to a Great Start…… Chris Derrick is off to a
great start, running a automatic qualifying mark of 13:44 at The University
of Washington on January 30th. The video of the race.
Jimmy Riddle ran a 3000m in 8:40.7. Another great
time for a first effort this indoor season (and, coming off an injury this
past fall). The rest of the NV alumni
times can be found under Alumni. 25 Guys Run 5:07 or Better! The 2009 track and field team
had their tryout meet on Friday, January 30th at Westwood Sports Complex in
Sterling, Illinois. 195 men tried out
for the team. 13 guys ran 4:49 or
better for the 1600m portion of the tryout meet. 11 sophomores ran 5:07 or better with 25
guys under that mark. Chris Rohde named Metea Valley Cross
Country Coach! Chris Rohde, volunteer
assistant for the men’s xc and track teams at NVHS, will be the new cross
country coach at District 204’s newest high school. Metea Valley, will open in the fall of 2009
and will become the third and final high school in our district. Congratulations to Coach Rohde! Time for Some Training Advice….. I decided to change things up a
bit during the off-season. Each week,
I will provide a thought-provoking question that may not always have ‘an
answer’. However, I will provide
possible solutions based on my many years of running and coaching. Feel free to e-mail me if you can add to
the ‘solutions’. I will post your
input on the site. 1.
What is really
important when it comes to competing? This is a loaded question, but
worth investigating nonetheless. When
competing, I can think of three things that are critical for success: a.
A
strong belief in your training, coach, and self. If you train hard, eat and sleep right, and
believe in what you are doing, then it is important you translate this into a
strong belief in yourself for the race. No better example was illustrated by
this than Jordan Hasay in the National Footlocker Championships. Jordan was one of three favorites going
into the race. She knew that she was
probably the best finisher of the three, however. The race started and one of the three
favorites did what was best for her.
She sprinted out to the lead and set a torturous pace. Her lead increased but Jordan stayed with
the chase pack almost 80 meters behind.
This lead stayed intact through 4k and I started to doubt Jordan’s
strategy. She did not doubt herself,
though. She knew what she could do and
was able to catch the leader and win the championship in the last 200m. Even if she had not won, it was obvious she
believed it was what was best for her in this situation. You cannot control your competition, but a strong
belief in yourself will give you a better chance. b.
Have a plan and then execute it. Very simple,
but I have seen many times when an athlete competes vs. someone of equal
ability and they get beat handily because they did not have a race plan. Obviously, the race may not unfold as
planned, but if an athlete sticks more to their race plan than simply react
to their competition, they have a better chance of running well. A great example of this was Danny Pawola in
the Footlocker Championships. His plan
was to hang back and let everyone go out fast as they traditionally do during
this race. Danny was 35th out of 40
runners at the mile. He did not panic,
remembered that he had been eating better, and stuck to his plan. He started to pick guys off one by one
until he found himself in 20th or so with 1000m to go. He ended up passing a couple more to
achieve All-American status while finishing 13th. c.
Have some guts. Are you going to give it your all or what
I call, ‘be able to look yourself in the mirror’? This may be the most important factor of
all. Your belief in yourself may be
strong and you may have had a plan, but it will most likely come down to your
willingness to put it on the line.
Going into the State meet this year, we had a plan and the guys had a
strong belief in themselves. We went
out a little faster than I wanted (got away from the race plan some), but I
could not fault our guys for not having the guts to go for it all. We were only 4 points out of first as a
team at the two mile mark! We could
not maintain this pace, but I was not disappointed afterwards. We showed some guts and as a coach, I will
never fault an athlete for giving it their all even if the plan is not
executed well. 2. Which is more
important to advance as a distance runner, winter or summer training? Until 4 or 5 years ago, I
always felt the summer was more important than the winter when it came to
overall improvement as a distance runner.
I changed my mind after seeing some of our guys make huge leaps during
the winter. Obviously, summer is
critical to get ready for the fall.
The summer gets ‘all the press’ but it is the winter that can be the
true test of a champion. Compared to summer, there is
more time to train. If you count the
training days from the end of xc season to the beginning of the outdoor
season, there is more time to put in some quality miles. I suppose if a coach put a lot of emphasis
on the indoor season, it negates this argument. Assuming an athlete takes 10-14 days off
after their xc season, there is a lot of time to train before outdoor
track. From the second week in
November to the end of March there is about 6-7 weeks more than the summer
has to offer. True champions are made during
the winter because there are more obstacles to overcome such as time spent in
school (and homework), bad weather, and less structure (no formal
coaching). It takes a disciplined
runner to plan ahead and make time to train.
Many miles are run on your own.
However, I have seen that the NV guys are meeting to run together more
and more over the years. Winter is a
true test of determination to get a run in every day. The truly great runners that I have seen at
NV train with purpose during the winter.
Chris Derrick and Danny Pawola are great examples. Danny used to not train with purpose during
the winter and decided to model Chris.
It worked, as evidenced by his 9:16 3200m his sophomore year. A junior or senior should be getting their
miles up to a consistent 50-55 mpw if they want to be a champion in the
spring and the following fall.
However, these miles should not just be ‘junk’ miles. Each training session should have a
purpose, not just ‘put in some miles’.
I advocate for one long run (over 75 minutes) per week, and two
sessions of up-tempo pace for at least 20-25 minutes. Focus should be on developing strength,
too. A lot of pushups, pull-ups, and
core exercises can only help. Veteran runners should be putting in runs of 1:30:00 - 1:45:00 each weekend by the time January arrives. I recently met Chris Derrick on the track for a workout. He did a 20 minute warm-up; 5 x 1200m in 3:26 with 3 minutes rest, 4 x 200m, and a 20 minute cool down. He planned to meet me a couple days in advance to make sure he could get on the track. Great runners just don’t step out the door for a run. Great runners run with purpose. I know Aaron Beattie is going to have a great track season and great fall because he has a plan. He is training with purpose and is consistent with his training. The |
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