Sabercats,
I hope this message finds you all healthy. As I'm sure you have all heard, DCSD has officially closed all of its facilities in accordance with the statewide "stay at home" order. As a result, we will not be able use the track for any workouts for the time being. Nevertheless, training can (and will) go on like normal! Fartlek style training is a great approach for runners who can not access a track, and there are many professional training groups who do have track access who choose to use primarily Fartlek style anyways. For those who are unfamiliar with the term Fartlek (yes, a funny name but it is actually the Swedish word for "Speed Play"), it basically means timed intervals that are run at a specific effort, for a pre-determined amount of time. An example of this would be, instead of doing 5 x 1 K repeats on the track in 3:00 with one minute rest, you would find a long path (Plum Creek Trail, Pine Cliff, etc.) or a continuous loop, and run for 3 minutes at a certain effort. For a little bit of inspiration, I've linked a couple of videos of high level training groups doing fartlek training https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF3Gh4553Jw In this one ^^ this group of NAU athletes go on to win the NCAA D1 XC title that fall. Notice how the coach (Eric Heins) mentions that he feels getting away from the track actually has performance and psychological benefits! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv6FMtvRVcU In this one ^^ the Portland women's team, another top NCAA D1 program, use a grass loop around a park to complete their time based Fartlek workout. As a side note, both of these workouts are from a series called "Workout Wednesday" from a track and field site called Flotrack. For those of you sitting around with a lot of extra time looking for something entertaining/ motivating, I highly encourage you browse through some of their videos! I watched these often as a high schooler myself, and I can tell you the quality of the videos has improved quite a bit from back then. Lastly, I want to leave you all with some encouragement, and to let you know that I am proud of your continued efforts in these uncertain times. Dealing with such drastic lifestyle change in such a brief period of time, as well as disappointment of having something that you worked hard for being postponed indefinitely, is very hard. Still, with how many of you I know are still training and time trialing as hard as ever, I have to say I am impressed. While the status of the season is obviously unknown, the current date of re-start (4/18) is what we have to work with. All we can do is our daily work, and be prepared to compete when we are finally given the chance. Keep up the great work, and as always, please reach out about any questions, struggles, or successes you encounter. -Coach Marshall Training
A few things to note: 1.) Athletes are given the option to run a time trial this week. If you would like to do this, reach out to me and let me know what you want to race. The training plan encourages a Saturday Time Trial, but Sunday or Friday could work as well. If you do not want to time trial, make sure you do the workout on Friday. Of course, I must remind you that time-trials should be conducted on your own, not with a group. 2.) This doc includes some fairly extensive notes on the workout days. The portion titled "Instruction" should be read by everyone, and is meant to make up for the in-person advice I can not give you. The portion titled "rationale" is something that I have decided to share with anyone (athletes, parents) who is curious about the physiological reasoning behind the session. Reading/ understanding this section is not required at all, but could be interesting for anyone who wants to learn more about why we do what we do. 3.) If you are confused about the paces you should be running, please reach out to me via remind. Many of you are familiar with the paces used in this week's workouts, but I am happy to remind anyone who wants the specific numbers. 4.) Please keep in contact. I am happy to field any and all questions, especially about injuries/ adjustments. Let's stay positive and get after it! -Coach Marshall Sabercats,
The past 48 hours have been confusing and difficult for all of us. The cancellation of the first portion of our season has been heartbreaking news, especially for the seniors. However, as a team it is essential that we remain optimistic, both for the state of our community's health and for the continuation of our track season, and that we do what we can everyday to continue to preapre ourselves for when the time comes. I am writing this post to provide you with all of the information I have concerning the status of our season, the rules we must follow over the next three weeks, and how we will proceed to our tentative re-start date of 4/6. 1.) I will continue to update the training document weekly. While you are not required to practice during this time, I am strongly encouraging athletes to continue training. Many of you have been running consistently since the beginning of Janurary, and we must continue to build this fitness if we hope to compete to the best of our abilities when the season resumes. Of course, safety should be the priority, so please avoid groups and unnecessary exposure. 2.) We can all remain in contact about training questions, updates, successful workouts, etc. You can get ahold of me via the remind app or my email ([email protected]). The goal for me is to use these technological outlets to coach and encourage athletes just as well as if we were meeting in person. I also suggest that you to reach to your teammates as well, to maintain the strong culture of support and passion we have as a distance team. Ask you friend how their 50 minute easy run went, or what their splits were for their repeat K's. While in college I would train at home by myself during the summers, and the support and accountability of a group chat with teammates made it so much easier for me to keep getting in the work. 3.) I CAN NOT encourage or organize meet-ups of any kind. So obviously practices and meet-ups, official or unoffical, with coaches are off the table until at least April 6 (or whatever date CSHAA oficially decides on). Please reach out to me with any questions you have. Keep your heads up, lean on the support of your teammates, and take care of what you can control each and every day. “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” --Theodore Roosevelt -Coach Marshall (702) 755-4905 [email protected] Training
Meeting locations: M- 3:15 in room 3500 T- 3:30 at Pine Cliff W- 3:15 @ CVHS Th- JV meet @ Regis F- 3:15 @ CVHS First week of track meets! I (coach Marshall) will be communicating with athletes Monday and Tuesday of this week in regards to what meets/ events athletes will be running. Remember that Monday the 9th is the team picture, and athletes must wear their track t-shirts to practice. -Coach Marshall Training
M- CVHS room 3500 @ 3:15 T- CVHS track @ 3:15 W- CVHS track @ 3:15 Th- CVHS track @ 3:15 F- Pine Cliff @ 3:30 A few things: 1.) You must be signed up for track to participate in practice tomorrow. Sign up link is here. Athletes must pay the school sports fee and have a completed physical. 2.) Parents info meeting is March 2nd @ 6:00 PM in the library. 3.) Team photos are March 9 at practice 4.) We currently have a "Spike/Shoes night" scheduled at Runner's Roost Lone Tree (9994 Commons St #230, Lone Tree, CO 80124) on March 5th after practice. This is a great opportunity to be professionally fit for running shoes and grab your track spikes. If you cannot attend this event, please be sure to visit either: - Runner's Roost (9994 Commons St #230, Lone Tree, CO 80124) - RNK running (13019 S Parker Rd, Parker, CO 80134) to be fit for a quality pair of running shoes. Having proper footwear can be the difference between running a season of PRs and watching races (injured) from the bleachers. - Coach Marshall |
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February 2024
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