Training, the BK yesteryear, & the Maclay today

Sorry to my three readers about the lack of posts. It has been a long transition from summer running to fall running, from the conventions to the debates, from coaching summer training to coaching fall racing, and from vacation to working back overtime at Starbucks. I have a litany of excuses (or reasons) for not writing but I will not bore you with them more than I already have.

My training has been going well after a small tussle with pre-patella bursitis last month. I am back running 5 flat pace in my intervals and alternating each week with a long run of 10-11 miles or a tempo run at the St. Mark's TH. I feel like another month of this training I will be ready for a big PR at the Jacksonville Bank Half Marathon in December. I plan on upping the long runs each week until I reach an hour and forty minutes on the clock. Since the Maclay kids set a trend of forgetting their watches at practice we have had to give out push-ups to fix the problem. The coaches do them as well so I have taken to doing an hundred push-ups a day to make myself stronger, too. They have never been my strong suit so it is good to crank them out now on a regular basis.

Last night, I took the JV Marauders to my alma mater in Jacksonville. Bishop Kenny High School plays host each year to the North Florida JV Championships. The more things change the more things stay exactly the same. Twelve years ago at this meet, I ran to a PR of 17:01 (3 miles) to make it as an alternate for the varsity team that went on to win the Florida state meet in 2000. Pretty sure I remember every step of that race. I told the Maclay kids that it was probably the best race I have ever run, and they responded with a bunch of hard efforts themselves on the stadium course by the St. John's River. I also got to see two of my best friends (and fellow BKCC alums) Mike Zimmer who lives and works in Jacksonville and Kevin Curran who teaches and coaches at Bishop Kenny. It was also good to see meet timer extraordinaire Stuart Toomey from 1st Place Sports who I have not seen since before his wedding last year.

Always good to see old friends.

It looks like the Bishop Kenny staff did a great job with their meet, because all my kids could talk about on the way home to Tallahassee was how they want to go back next year. Admittedly some of them should be on varsity next year, and they know that. Any high school coach will tell you that it is the little things season after season and year after year that make the difference between making a varsity team or remaining on JV. Talent only gets you so far; you have to want it. Everyday. I hope the Marauders of Maclay continue to realize this and buy in whole heartily to the system. If they do, the ceiling will be quite high.

Look for a post about InDecision2012 in the next week from me. I am sure you will never guess who I am voting for... Thanks for reading and Happy Running!