Morning of Day 5 - August 23

Day 3 (Wednesday) and Day 4 (Thursday) were "easy" days as we continue the early season conditioning for our teams.  We've added five to our roster and are still hoping to attract anybody not selected for another sports team.  ALL are welcome, no prior experience necessary.  One of the changes we've made during this early stage of our season is that all our athletes work together on the easy days.  On Wednesday the team ran a simple out and back of one mile each way which included a challenging 1/4-mile hill and 4 - 15 second strides on the return portion.  As athletes returned back to the school, they continued running our 400-meter loop on the front field until all had returned. Because there are some very inexperienced runners at the back of the pack (for now) the front runners got in about four miles.  On Thursday we created a loop of about 1000 meters on the front field and asked every runner to run 30 minutes.  Within the final 10 minutes every runner was asked to incorporate 4 - 15 second strides into their run.  Again, the front runners set the bar with a distance of 4.7 miles. This run proved to be very positive in that most of the runners were able to run the entire time, and a number of the athletes established an impressive pace for their entire run.  Everybody finished with a smile and while there may be a few slight muscles aches, nobody had any problems which required attention.  Both days were preceded with our new warmup routine and were followed up with post run strength and mobility work.  The response to our post run work is that it may, like running, cause a little muscle discomfort, but it IS working.  Over the long haul, injury prevention is one of our most important goals, and the post run work goes a long way in ensuring that.

Today is our first "long run".  The team will again head out on the road toward the town park.  Those at the front will run the two miles out to the park before returning to the school. Others will turn for home as those front runners approach them on their return.  Like Wednesday, those at the front will continue running the front field until ALL have returned and should get 5+ miles in today.  They often say, "the reward for good work is more work."  Not necessarily this weekend.  As the end of summer break approaches, we'll reward the efforts of our athletes with a day off from formal practice.  As we noted at practice, everybody is asked to run one easy 30-minute run over the weekend on his/her own.  Based on the attitude and interest all have shown this week, I'd bet most, if not all will make the effort.  We're back at it on Monday at 2:30 and looking forward to seeing you all there.