Top 15 XC Runners: 3200 meters at a Time
Perhaps your son has conversed with you regarding the slight changes to our training sessions this season. If he has not I want you to talk about what he is experiencing. One of the changes implemented after completing my USATF Level 2 training was the 3200 meter time trial every two weeks. Our time is precious so something had to be taken out from last year's session. The athletes loved the Ryle Mile and the t-shirt promised to them for their hard work. And we want to keep that enthusiasm alive and feed that competitiveness. But better training demanded we alter the sessions a little. The two mile run is a more accurate metric to use for VO2Max (aerobic capacity) training. Our mantra is:
Believe in yourself,
Believe in what you do,
Believe in your team.
Coach Edmundo Echeverria
We want to help foster a young man who believes in himself and who isn't afraid to dream big or think big. They should all have goals for their season, for their year, for their careers, and for the years beyond. A successful cross country season will depend on the audacity in their belief in themselves.
Running isn't always easy, and running on a good team proves even more demanding. Athletes need to communicate with the coaching staff and we'll adjust but they need to believe in the workouts. The hard work will pay off. Performances will improve, but even if they don't, we want them to value a stubborn commitment to what they are doing at the moment.
Individual goals and dedication give the cross country runner autonomy, but our sport is also a team sport. Athletes who believe in their teammates, in our training program, in the staff, will experience and appreciate the totality of our commitment to them.
Every two weeks they will get timed, and once we start the competitive phase we'll use their race times for rankings. We expect no miracles. Runners with consistent training will outperform those who miss, even if the reasons are good and legitimatke. Runners with the correct amount of mileage will outperform those who run too little or too much. Runners who push themselves will outperform those athletes who have not found their reasons why they should push a little harder.
As we start our season we want to thank you and invite you to keep the conversation going with your sons. This blog shares a little of what we tell them on a regular basis. We hope to maintain the blog to share our enthusiasm and thoughts with you. Below is the current top 15 runners and their training group assignments. We started with groups 1-10. As they improved they moved up, or if for some reason they could not train enough they can move down to another group. Some young men improved two groups up, and the entire team improved eliminating the need for group 10 and creating group 0. The goal for the team is to move everyone to group 1 and get the top five runners to groups -5 through -7 (group -7 would break the 10 minute 2-mile mark). Groups are added on a 15 sec segment, in essence runners’ two-week goal is to improve by 15 seconds. If you or your sons have questions please ask.
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