The race to 74 (Boys) or 76 (Girls) points. Win the relay or waste an event. Top three score for individuals. Short rest. Large workloads. Stretching athletes ranges to eek out some extra points. Racing the competition, not the clock. Later today is the annual Boulder vs. Fairview dual meet.
We as coaches spend a lot of time evaluating our strengths and weaknesses (and our competitions). We try to predict where the competition will put their strongest runners. And where they might be vulnerable. I don't wish to reveal all my tricks for this year's meet, so I'll highlight some aspects of last years meet to illustrate the strategy.
Example 1 In Colorado the first distance event is the 4 x 800m. Since 4 runners race, we warmed up 5. This serves two purposes: 1) if the other team is watching they don't know who they'll be racing against. Either the "A" squad or a watered down version. 2) We can then make a "game time" decision on who to race. Last year, on the boys side after 2 legs it seemed apparent the competition was not racing their best team. We started with our top two 800m boys and were then able to hold out our 3rd best 800m runner for the 1600m and 3200m he had later in the day. Bam! Fresher legs...
Example 2 One the girls side we only had one 400m runner we thought could score, so we focused our sprinters on other events. Noticing this I entered one of the distance runners into it on the outside chance the competition only entered 2 athletes in it. I was wrong. They only entered 1. And our distance runner beat her. Bam! 3 extra points we didn't think we had a shot at!
Example 3 Then in the girls 3200m, we raced tactically. That's the nice term for it. Our head coach would probably call it "pimping". Our top two girls would utterly dominate, thus no reason for them to worry about the race. So I told them to sit behind the competition's top runner through 4 laps, then make a big strong move past her. For four laps, she thought she was having the race of her life, trying to push the pace to hold onto the lead. (They came through the mile in about 6:05, but my athletes had already run 11:40 and 11:00 the year before so not at all fast for them). They made their big move, and it demolished her, demoralized her. As they opened the gap she kept slowing, and slowing. Our third runner was running a very paced race, about 25 seconds back at the mile. As they kept going she narrowed the gap, and finally our crowd got into the race. With 200m to go she was still easily 30m behind 3rd place, but she could FEEL the crowd, ABSORB their Energy. She unleashed a kick I never thought she had in her and with 20m to go passed the girl and beat her to the tape before she could comprehend what had happened (It was sort of a "Look and Mills! Look at Mills! moment). 1st, 2nd, and 3rd! 9 Points! Capping our title even before the 4x400 started.
We'll see what I've got cooked up for this meet. This year (as opposed to year's past) I think it's pretty obvious we're the underdogs. It's going to take a great day of competing for us to win.
Speaking of competing (and further adding to my stress!). Fairview's coaches have issued a challenge to the Boulder coaches. A medley relay (200m, 200m, 400m, 800m) at the end of the meet. As the only male distance coach I have been drafted to run the anchor leg. I'll be led out by some fast 20 yr old coaches, and a high 46/ low 47 by our world class sprint coach. Fairview's distance coach is pretty quick though. Will the 7-10 second lead my sprint guys give me, be enough for my old/slow/semi-fat butt to anchor us to the win? I honestly don't know. I sure hope the race goes more like this, than this.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Bar Raising and Entry Changing
A special two for one post here today for my committed readers (and by committed I mean both faithful and hospitalized).
Bar Raising
How much is enough? Or more importantly, how much is too much? That's always the difficult question with volume. Asking the kids how they're feeling isn't much of a good indicator - the motivated ones always say "I'm fine. Can I do more?" and the slackers say after the first repetition "My leg just fell off, can I be done?". When I was in high school I commonly remember doing 16 (and by my junior and senior year 20) x 400ms for workouts. When I came to BHS as an assistant, our first couple years the athletes could barely make it through 8 x 400m. Sure the rest may have been a bit shorter, perhaps the repetitions a little faster, but I never left the workouts feeling plussed. I chalked it up to "Hippie kids are weak". Then when I became the head distance coach, I started raising the expectation. 8 became the minimum, strong freshmen were doing 10, upperclassmen 10-12. Because of the ice Monday, today's workout (Wednesday) became the one workout of the week, so we upper the expectation even more. 16 for many of the strong juniors and seniors, at least 10 for everybody else. Know what? They rose to it! Sure, I did an adequate job of scaring them, "Start these out on the slower end of your range, then get faster through the workout if you feel good. If you don't, by the end your legs will fall off, your head will explode, and tuberculosis will spew forth from all your pores." Doing this, nearly all of them felt good and started running faster and faster by the end. Thus not only did they do a ton, but they all left the workout feeling like they'd just set a new record on Whac-a-Mole. We'll see how tired/ sore everyone is tomorrow though...
Entry Changing
"I only am willing to race the 1600." - says 12 athletes (when I've only got 3- 6 spots available). "I have to work. I would have needed to request off one month ago to have gotten it off." (when the meet schedule has been posted for the last 3 months). "I care more about running race <x>, than I do in qualifying for State in race <y>." or "I realize you made initial entries on Monday, then revisions on Tuesday, but even though it's Thursday I just remembered, I'm taking the SAT on Saturday."
I heard all of these things this week (ok, maybe not the last one; but I'm guessing I'll hear it today at practice), and boy is it frustrating. It's basically like being an engineer working on optimization problems, but each time you get a solution, the client adds a new constraint. All your hard work down the drain. It's more than that though. It's that we are part of the system we're optimizing. Thus the solutions that get thrown out have an EFFECT on us.
Example:
Monday night
Johnny's Mom: What and when are you racing on Saturday Johnny?
Johnny: 3200m in the late afternoon
Johnny's Mom: Ok, great, your sister's soccer game is at 9:00am on Saturday so I can get both of you to your activities.
Friday night
Johnny: Oh, by the way, I'm racing the 4x800m now. It's at 9:00am. There's no bus to the meet. Also, I don't know any of the other kids phone numbers to arrange a ride.
Johnny's Mom: Suck...
Then there are the other difficulties when my goals (optimization constraints) are not my athletes. Like when I want to set up a relay to win, but one athlete only wants to do open events. Or if I want to get every athlete into at least one event, but my faster athletes want to be in many races. My athletes (and with increasing frequency, their parents) don't understand how we're all connected. That each decision made for an athlete ripples through the rest of the team. But I guess I get paid the big bucks to see the Forest while they get "paid" to see one tree.
Bar Raising
How much is enough? Or more importantly, how much is too much? That's always the difficult question with volume. Asking the kids how they're feeling isn't much of a good indicator - the motivated ones always say "I'm fine. Can I do more?" and the slackers say after the first repetition "My leg just fell off, can I be done?". When I was in high school I commonly remember doing 16 (and by my junior and senior year 20) x 400ms for workouts. When I came to BHS as an assistant, our first couple years the athletes could barely make it through 8 x 400m. Sure the rest may have been a bit shorter, perhaps the repetitions a little faster, but I never left the workouts feeling plussed. I chalked it up to "Hippie kids are weak". Then when I became the head distance coach, I started raising the expectation. 8 became the minimum, strong freshmen were doing 10, upperclassmen 10-12. Because of the ice Monday, today's workout (Wednesday) became the one workout of the week, so we upper the expectation even more. 16 for many of the strong juniors and seniors, at least 10 for everybody else. Know what? They rose to it! Sure, I did an adequate job of scaring them, "Start these out on the slower end of your range, then get faster through the workout if you feel good. If you don't, by the end your legs will fall off, your head will explode, and tuberculosis will spew forth from all your pores." Doing this, nearly all of them felt good and started running faster and faster by the end. Thus not only did they do a ton, but they all left the workout feeling like they'd just set a new record on Whac-a-Mole. We'll see how tired/ sore everyone is tomorrow though...
Entry Changing
"I only am willing to race the 1600." - says 12 athletes (when I've only got 3- 6 spots available). "I have to work. I would have needed to request off one month ago to have gotten it off." (when the meet schedule has been posted for the last 3 months). "I care more about running race <x>, than I do in qualifying for State in race <y>." or "I realize you made initial entries on Monday, then revisions on Tuesday, but even though it's Thursday I just remembered, I'm taking the SAT on Saturday."
I heard all of these things this week (ok, maybe not the last one; but I'm guessing I'll hear it today at practice), and boy is it frustrating. It's basically like being an engineer working on optimization problems, but each time you get a solution, the client adds a new constraint. All your hard work down the drain. It's more than that though. It's that we are part of the system we're optimizing. Thus the solutions that get thrown out have an EFFECT on us.
Example:
Monday night
Johnny's Mom: What and when are you racing on Saturday Johnny?
Johnny: 3200m in the late afternoon
Johnny's Mom: Ok, great, your sister's soccer game is at 9:00am on Saturday so I can get both of you to your activities.
Friday night
Johnny: Oh, by the way, I'm racing the 4x800m now. It's at 9:00am. There's no bus to the meet. Also, I don't know any of the other kids phone numbers to arrange a ride.
Johnny's Mom: Suck...
Then there are the other difficulties when my goals (optimization constraints) are not my athletes. Like when I want to set up a relay to win, but one athlete only wants to do open events. Or if I want to get every athlete into at least one event, but my faster athletes want to be in many races. My athletes (and with increasing frequency, their parents) don't understand how we're all connected. That each decision made for an athlete ripples through the rest of the team. But I guess I get paid the big bucks to see the Forest while they get "paid" to see one tree.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Flexibility
One of the key differences between being an athlete and being a coach is the concept of flexibility. To be successful as an athlete, you need to possess inflexibility - a singular, bull headed passion to succeed, to overcome any obstacle. Without this inflexibility an athlete can not truly push themselves to the limits in races. They'll cute workouts short, miss them completely, or rationalize skipping stretching/icing/strength drills, etc. As a coach you must behave in a completely different mindset. You've got to set long term plans, but then adapt them to current situations. If a workout isn't going well you might have to change the rest or if it's windy throw the times out the window and strive for the right "effort". Scheduling conflicts arise, you work around them. Countless other situations.
Today was such a day. The problem - Weather. Both today and tomorrow we'll have very low temperatures, today freezing rain, tomorrow a light snow. Realizing that the track was unusable today, I was initially going to try to force the workout tomorrow in only slightly better conditions. Luckily though, I have a wonderful team of coaches around me, and eventually one of them brainstormed - why not just have one large "ball buster" workout on Wednesday for the week (in addition to Saturday's races) when the temperature will be in the 50's? Eureka! Such a better idea.
Today was such a day. The problem - Weather. Both today and tomorrow we'll have very low temperatures, today freezing rain, tomorrow a light snow. Realizing that the track was unusable today, I was initially going to try to force the workout tomorrow in only slightly better conditions. Luckily though, I have a wonderful team of coaches around me, and eventually one of them brainstormed - why not just have one large "ball buster" workout on Wednesday for the week (in addition to Saturday's races) when the temperature will be in the 50's? Eureka! Such a better idea.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
First Day of Track!
... and already losing sleep.
I haven't done the leg work, but I imagine if you ask most coaches (successful or not) why they got started in coaching the number one answer would be "uh... I did the sport myself and liked it." Ditto for me. As you continue coaching you learn new reasons, these too may not vary much - "I enjoy working with the kids." or "I'm successful at it." For me however I think my biggest attraction to coaching are the problems and emotions.
First the problems - As a scientist, or better yet as a results oriented person, it comes very easy to me to tackle a problem like this: 1) Identify problem 2) Brainstorm Solutions 3) Implement Best Solution While this seems simple, it neglects the Journey. From this viewpoint, all that matters is the problem is solved, (and solved as simply/ efficiently/ methodically as possible). As easy as this is for me; it also can bore me - "Lather. Rinse. Repeat." (and frustrate me when working with people). Coaching however demands a different methodology. Often the Journey, the Growth, or the Motivation behind a course of action is the valuable exercise (and not the solution in and of itself). This is not at all in my nature, but because it is difficult (for me) and foreign - it has captured my interest. And I've gotten much, much better at it.
Second the emotions - I like feeling things - excitement, despair, accomplishment, annoyance, whatever as long as the emotion is strong, real. I like that after the first day of track a very lengthy and heated conversation is still rattling around in my head (keeping me up right now to write this). It shows me the passion I have for this job, it validates the choices I've made to continue doing it. It reminds me of lesson #2 learned by Alan Versaw described here. After 6 years of coaching, I have no problem losing sleep over coaching! I worry that I won't have these same feelings, this same passion in another line of work.
Excited for what day 2 will bring...
I haven't done the leg work, but I imagine if you ask most coaches (successful or not) why they got started in coaching the number one answer would be "uh... I did the sport myself and liked it." Ditto for me. As you continue coaching you learn new reasons, these too may not vary much - "I enjoy working with the kids." or "I'm successful at it." For me however I think my biggest attraction to coaching are the problems and emotions.
First the problems - As a scientist, or better yet as a results oriented person, it comes very easy to me to tackle a problem like this: 1) Identify problem 2) Brainstorm Solutions 3) Implement Best Solution While this seems simple, it neglects the Journey. From this viewpoint, all that matters is the problem is solved, (and solved as simply/ efficiently/ methodically as possible). As easy as this is for me; it also can bore me - "Lather. Rinse. Repeat." (and frustrate me when working with people). Coaching however demands a different methodology. Often the Journey, the Growth, or the Motivation behind a course of action is the valuable exercise (and not the solution in and of itself). This is not at all in my nature, but because it is difficult (for me) and foreign - it has captured my interest. And I've gotten much, much better at it.
Second the emotions - I like feeling things - excitement, despair, accomplishment, annoyance, whatever as long as the emotion is strong, real. I like that after the first day of track a very lengthy and heated conversation is still rattling around in my head (keeping me up right now to write this). It shows me the passion I have for this job, it validates the choices I've made to continue doing it. It reminds me of lesson #2 learned by Alan Versaw described here. After 6 years of coaching, I have no problem losing sleep over coaching! I worry that I won't have these same feelings, this same passion in another line of work.
Excited for what day 2 will bring...
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Assassins
In the 1995 movie Assassins, Bain (Antonia Banderas) is commissioned to kill the world's #1 Assassin, Rath (Sylvester Stalone). As the story unfolds, Rath goes to a bank to withdraw this life's earnings (Bank of the Grand Cayman?) and retire. As Luck (Fate? Poor screen-writing?) would have it this is the same bank that his predecessor was leaving 10 years prior when he killed him to become the world's #1 Assassin. This is where Bain sets up to take the title...
I bring this up because life is filled with these role reversals - the child becomes a parent, the student becomes a teacher, the athlete becomes a coach. As a coach, it continues to amaze me how often the exact same situations arise from when I was an athlete, but now I'm in the opposite role. Like many before me, my knee jerk reaction is to act just as my coaches did, to repeat history. But if I give myself an extra minute or sometimes just a second, I can do better. See I have a secret ability - I am a man. While that implies many things (like never needing to ask for directions, ability to fix anything, and naivety to take all conversations at face value), what I intend it to mean here is that I have never grown up. For all intents and purposes I have unlimited access to a wormhole that takes me back to 1995 (really anytime from 1988 - 2003). It's as if my left big toe is always sticking through this wormhole and any time I need to; I can do a side lunge back through and FEEL what it's like to be 15 again. With all the raging hormones, the thoughts, the motivations. I can be young, skinny, and scar free. In this way I can figure out how better to react to these current 15 year olds and take appropriate action (and in a small way do penance for past transgressions). This is one way I am a student of history - my own personal history - and how I learn from the past.
But I must always remember to give myself that extra time to reflect - to use the wormhole!
I bring this up because life is filled with these role reversals - the child becomes a parent, the student becomes a teacher, the athlete becomes a coach. As a coach, it continues to amaze me how often the exact same situations arise from when I was an athlete, but now I'm in the opposite role. Like many before me, my knee jerk reaction is to act just as my coaches did, to repeat history. But if I give myself an extra minute or sometimes just a second, I can do better. See I have a secret ability - I am a man. While that implies many things (like never needing to ask for directions, ability to fix anything, and naivety to take all conversations at face value), what I intend it to mean here is that I have never grown up. For all intents and purposes I have unlimited access to a wormhole that takes me back to 1995 (really anytime from 1988 - 2003). It's as if my left big toe is always sticking through this wormhole and any time I need to; I can do a side lunge back through and FEEL what it's like to be 15 again. With all the raging hormones, the thoughts, the motivations. I can be young, skinny, and scar free. In this way I can figure out how better to react to these current 15 year olds and take appropriate action (and in a small way do penance for past transgressions). This is one way I am a student of history - my own personal history - and how I learn from the past.
But I must always remember to give myself that extra time to reflect - to use the wormhole!
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Building Teams, Building Memories
Yesterday was frigidly cold again, so I gave the athletes the option to cross train indoors or run outdoors. I was more than happy to stay indoors (as I knew I had a 10 hour shift delivering that evening). Thus most of us went into the cardio room. Indoor stationary bikes are the second worst exercise endeavor (eclipsed only by the treadmill), but it ended up being pretty fun. We got the TV on and were answering "Cash Cab" trivia, a couple athletes were studying Spanish. We then had an impromptu "Endurance Battle of the Sexes".
Here were the ground rules:
1) Boys v. Girls - the sex of the last competitor earned his or her team a point
2) Three competitions - Wall Sits, Flexed Arm Hang, and Plank
First up was the Wall Sits - I've done these before and usually the girls dominate. Oh man did they ever! By three minutes, we were done to our last boy (I was competing too), but not a single girl had dropped. The last boy made it to 4 minutes... Still EVERY girl, beat EVERY boy! Girls 1, Boys 0
Then came the flexed arm hang. I thought the boys would do better at this... Three rounds of two boys vs two girls, the team winning the most rounds won a point. The boys were pretty dominate on this one winning 2 of the 3 rounds. (The one they lost went 1:15, the two they won were both about 1:00 - just had a tough set of girls on one round) Girls 1, Boys 1
Now the competition was on! We planked up, boys facing girls about 18 inches apart. Trash talking and mind games rampant. 1:15 in the first girl faltered. Her older sister exclaiming, "Seriously???? WTF???" More heckling from her gender. About two minutes two boys and another girl fade - no heckling this time as everyone was starting to feel the burn. Three minutes - one more boy and one female coach. Down to two males (me and another boy) and 5 girls (4 State Qualifying girls in XC, and a coach). I start to worry. Usually I dread doing the plank - I feel it's the thing I'm worst at. Yet here I am, somehow trying to represent my gender in a way it should be represented. 3:15 - Shoot - the last boy is out (and the female coach). 1 against 4. At this point everyone starts cheering loudly, but it's getting tough. Not so much in my core (abs, back, or even legs) but up in my arms, my head, and my ears. They're just throbbing, trembling, no longer pumping blood and oxygen, just acid and rust. It started feeling like the last lap of a mile. When time slows. When training and talent mean little, as everything hurts. The only thing that matters is courage. Just getting to that line. Yet here there was no line. Just three solid planks (and one tired one). Finally the tired plank dropped about 3:45. I made it to 4:00 but knew resistance was futile and gave in. Girls win!!!
These are the kind of days the athletes will remember, the days that bring them together. A great day for all of us. Oh and my head hurt the entire night from that plank effort. But as Chuck Palahniuk wrote in "Fight Club" - Being tired isn't the same as being rich, but most times it's close enough.
Today I am a rich man.
Here were the ground rules:
1) Boys v. Girls - the sex of the last competitor earned his or her team a point
2) Three competitions - Wall Sits, Flexed Arm Hang, and Plank
First up was the Wall Sits - I've done these before and usually the girls dominate. Oh man did they ever! By three minutes, we were done to our last boy (I was competing too), but not a single girl had dropped. The last boy made it to 4 minutes... Still EVERY girl, beat EVERY boy! Girls 1, Boys 0
Then came the flexed arm hang. I thought the boys would do better at this... Three rounds of two boys vs two girls, the team winning the most rounds won a point. The boys were pretty dominate on this one winning 2 of the 3 rounds. (The one they lost went 1:15, the two they won were both about 1:00 - just had a tough set of girls on one round) Girls 1, Boys 1
Now the competition was on! We planked up, boys facing girls about 18 inches apart. Trash talking and mind games rampant. 1:15 in the first girl faltered. Her older sister exclaiming, "Seriously???? WTF???" More heckling from her gender. About two minutes two boys and another girl fade - no heckling this time as everyone was starting to feel the burn. Three minutes - one more boy and one female coach. Down to two males (me and another boy) and 5 girls (4 State Qualifying girls in XC, and a coach). I start to worry. Usually I dread doing the plank - I feel it's the thing I'm worst at. Yet here I am, somehow trying to represent my gender in a way it should be represented. 3:15 - Shoot - the last boy is out (and the female coach). 1 against 4. At this point everyone starts cheering loudly, but it's getting tough. Not so much in my core (abs, back, or even legs) but up in my arms, my head, and my ears. They're just throbbing, trembling, no longer pumping blood and oxygen, just acid and rust. It started feeling like the last lap of a mile. When time slows. When training and talent mean little, as everything hurts. The only thing that matters is courage. Just getting to that line. Yet here there was no line. Just three solid planks (and one tired one). Finally the tired plank dropped about 3:45. I made it to 4:00 but knew resistance was futile and gave in. Girls win!!!
These are the kind of days the athletes will remember, the days that bring them together. A great day for all of us. Oh and my head hurt the entire night from that plank effort. But as Chuck Palahniuk wrote in "Fight Club" - Being tired isn't the same as being rich, but most times it's close enough.
Today I am a rich man.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
A New Chapter
As a competitive runner (or coach of runners) in cross country and track, quickly it becomes apparent the longitudinal and cyclical patterns of your sport. Each year growing and improving. Each year getting older and wiser (hopefully), marching forward to graduation, to accomplished goals, to a career. Within those years cycles. Each track season leading to a cross country season. Each cross country season leading to track. Cross country with a brand new crop of runners and a focus on the team. Tackling all sorts of terrain, and surfaces, running by feel. Track - A focus on technique and much more individual. Exact, precise - 400m at 70 seconds with 90 seconds rest, repeat until just before legs fall off. Each different, each necessary. This blog is my attempt to better analyze these pursuits. To see where I've been, where I am, and ultimately where I'm going.
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