I have made no secret that I am intrigued by this element of running. We’ll see how that plays out over the years. But this post is not about me and my thoughts on trail running. I will cover that at a later time.
Take a read on Jason’s experience at his site. I thought about editing it, but the story is great. The photos just add to it. Enjoy!
One of the goals of the site is to get people excited about running. Part of that is talking to people who themselves live and breathe the sport. When possible, I am going to post interviews I do with various characters, personalities, and figures in the running community. These could be local, they could be national. Regardless, they share a passion about running and I hope you enjoy hearing their thoughts on this wonderful sport.
On the down side, my best medium for completing these interviews on the national level is recording Skype on a wireless connection. Sometimes the quality isn’t that great, my apologies.
As we enter the summer training season, let me offer an alternative core routine for you. The reason we do core work is so that late in a workout, or more importantly a race, we can maintain the strength to finish well without breaking down in our running form. Core work helps you with strength in general and another nice side effect is that it helps you look good. It is one of the ancillary things you can do to improve yourself as a runner. Now most people will do the usual combination of planks, crunches, captain chair, etc, etc, etc. Those are fine and way better than nothing. But I have had the privilege of working with a coach at North Star by the name of Sara Domeier.
Distance runners are by nature an odd group. You kind of have to be in order to go every day and run, or do repeat miles or tempo runs. But as we gear up for summer running there will come a time when you are running with someone or a group of people and there will be a lull in the conversation. Could be a short pause, but sometimes there are longer times when no one says anything.
This is especially the case with high school kids. They are just getting used to long runs and might be hurting a bit. It helps when you have a bunch of goofballs like I have the privilege of working with, you can see a couple of them above. We have had some interesting conversations, to say the least. Here are some to get you through the miles:
-hottest cartoon character?
-fastest fish?
-this comic book character vs. that comic book character, who would win?
-how far could you make it shirtless in a blizzard (this one lead to a bet).
-If I were bit by a zombie would you shoot me or let me live a little longer?
-Would the zombies from Dawn of the Dead make a good 4 x 1 relay?
-If you were to set up a 4 x 4 relay would you rather have sharks or dolphins or a combo on your team? What order would they go in?
-(Taken from letsrun) What animal would win in a race that was a 100m swim and then a 100m sprint?
Then of course lots of high school smack about talking to girls or boys or whatever.
Yesterday completed yet another season of track and field in Nebraska. I am admittedly not a track guy, but this event always gladdens my heart when it comes to the state of athletics in Nebraska. Over a two day span more than 10,000+ people watch athletes from Class A, B, C, D. While marks are not as fast, far, or high as some states it is great to see young people compete as hard as they can.
(disclaimer: I coach an athlete that competed and won this weekend)
All of that being said, I was very disappointed Lincoln Journal Star for not covering the Lincoln athletes more prominently. I understand that there are some big stories out there. Namely LeQuae Moen-Davis of Omaha North and Ted Lampkin basically singlehandedly winning the team state titles for their schools. But there were plenty of stories, and winners, from Lincoln that were buried in the middle of the sports section. In their defense there are too many things to cover. But you are a Lincoln paper. As interesting as a story on metro folks might be, I am guessing that people around here could care less. So here is my best attempt to give the top distance stories of the meet. Some were covered by the LJS, some not so well.
In my brief 9 years of coaching, I have been extremely fortunate to come in contact with a number of high quality athletes. As a one-year volunteer at Lincoln Southwest, I helped Coaches Larson, Mahoney, and Salem start programs that have seen team state titles in track and an individual in cross country (these were years after I left though). I spent one year assisting Gary Weston at Liberty High School in Colorado Springs. I had the pleasure of working with Kirsten Anthony, the 4A state champ and the boys team which were repeat team champions in the 4A division. Runners from that team went on to run for Colorado State, School of Mines, Colorado, and the Naval Academy.
But the highlight of my career has been at Lincoln North Star. In my first of seven years (and counting) I joined up with Matt Musiel. We had a group of guys who were incredibly talented and hard working. Sometimes the stars align and things workout. We had the ethic and talent of these young men, I was as speedy as I had ever been after training at altitude for a year, and we had the leadership and knowledge of Coach Musiel. These all came together during the Class A 4 x 800m Relay on May 20, 2005 where this relay team set an Nebraska State Record of 7:44.56. Check out the video.
P.S. The same four young men ran 4 seconds faster at the Nike Outdoor National Meet 3 weeks later. That same team had a double state champ in the 800/1600, a guy who ran to second in the half mile.
P.S.S. North Star defended their title in 2006 winning the All Class Gold