Lost thoughts from XC Season: Process Workouts
In reality, every day is a process workout. The key will be coaching within that process and focusing on taking the right step each day to make that the most beneficial process possible.
Coach: How did the workout go for you today?
Athlete: Well...I think it was...a process workout
In late August our team gathered for a week of preseason training camp. This was a quote from an athlete after an RPE based, fartlek-style workout late in the week. I've been simmering over that quote since that perfect summer morning on one of my favorite section of trails in the Twin Cities.
As a coach I am always interested in evaluating mental, physical and emotional preparation of cross country runners when we meet up in August. There are so many rabbit trails to chase with so many data points.
The bottom line remains: how ready are the troops for the final 12 weeks of very specific training that needs to be done head of championship race season in late October and early November.
The reality is: not every athlete is ready to do the types of things necessary for championship racing and there are more than simply physiological factors involved in that evaluation process.
So when that athlete offered that response to what was a very valuable assessment day for my evaluation process, I was struck by the simple and concise summary of our first true fast running workout of the year.
The workout was four days into our week and we'd had five running sessions, including a grossly disappointing 3k time trial (I literally discarded the results when I got back to the offfice) 48 hours prior.
It was a simple session:
Standard dynamic stretching and form drills
10-15 minute progressively faster warm-up run
sets of 300m on/off on a 600m loop
On efforts at 1500m RPE, rep recovery at standard aerobic run pace, set recoveries at self-selected easy pace
Goal ON distance at 3-4k
No athlete watches, totally run by feel
I ran a watch and pulled athletes based on any variance over 4 seconds or visual fatigue cues
Ended with easy run to meet session total volume goal
As we begin track practices this winter the experience of this workout will inform how I guide the athletes through our workouts. But just as important will be allowing the work they do to inform them of the stage they are in within a process of personal development in every area as it relates to mental and physiological growth.
In reality, every day is a process workout. The key will be coaching within that process and focusing on taking the right step each day to make that the most beneficial process possible.
Cross Country Season: Running Free and Racing Brave
America has some problems. I don't need to talk about those, because let's face it, you don't want to read another blog post about what's wrong.
So, let's talk about cross country. It's what's right and good and awesome. And kids all over America are lacing em up and hitting the pathways and trails in your towns. Slower kids brand new to sports, 17 year olds who have run over 500 miles since May, and converts from other team sports who simply didn't have the physical tools or last name to get a jersey are all running.
In my state, girls with traditional head coverings have been cleared to participate without violating uniform rules. Some of the smallest towns in the state are the biggest giants at the state meet and will go on to outpace big city schools at regional Nike, New Balance or Foot Locker races.
Because a 5K course doesn't care about your ethnicity, which part of town you're from or the cost of your fancy warm up suit. All that matters at the finish line is your preparation, passion and willingness to be baptized in the river of hard work and be reborn a better version of yourself. Then of course chatting with a new friend from another town in the finish chute while regaling tails of conquering another 5K gauntlet. And who couldn't use more unifying talk about overcoming a common goal.
In our sport former national team coaches come home to teach middle schoolers how to pace themselves. And former successful Division I college coaches come back to smaller colleges because passion for running is a land of equality. And these folks do it simply because they love the sport. In fact, you'll find the most qualified coaches in your town may just be the ones working with the cross country misfits.
So, while America is obsessing over grid iron greatness, myself included, consider the kids in your town who are about to embark on their cross country season. Encourage them as they run, and look for a chance to see them race. Experience a sport that truly showcases the land of running free and the racing brave.
What Running Makes of Me
"There is no substitute for finding out one's own self, for the personal revelation, for knowing first hand...When I run that happens. The body and the spirit become one. Running becomes prayer and applause for me and my Creator. When I run, I am filled with confidence and the faith that word contains. I can face unanswerable questions, certain that there are answers."
George Sheehan, This Running Life
There is a bend in the West Mississippi River Road just southeast of Downtown Minneapolis. When you head south, the path plunges down over 100 feet of vertical elevation over the course of a third of a mile. The road and accompanying recreational trails pass under the iconic arches of the I-35W bridge that provide motorists passage over the river gorge. As you run along this section of the "Grand Rounds Parkway", it feels like crossing into a new time and space. Though it is over a mile from the origin point of most of my runs, this unintended gateway is truly where my running begins.
The hill provides a dramatic divide between a bustling downtown metropolis and what feels like a separate part of the world. When my legs reach the bottom of the hill, my stride evens out in stark contrast to the choppy steps a long downhill necessitates. With a few final adjusted breaths, my aerobic system, muscles, and frame unite and I'm simply running. Momentarily, after another quarter or half a mile, running begins its work. By the two mile point, before a gradual uphill section rises to meet one of my favorite bridge crossings in the Twin Cities, running has revealed what's truly on my mind.
By the top of the Franklin Avenue Hill, my running has become the truth. All of the things I am at the top of the hill are a reality. The stretch of the achilles, gastrocnemius, and soleus are real. The onset of lactic acid accumulation initiated by my pace is a true or false test of physical exertion. The most pressing issues in my soul and mind have come to the front and I am the sum total of my physical, spiritual and emotional parts.
Over the years I've paged through a few of history's renowned theologians, philosophers, and thinkers. Kierkegaard, James, Nietzsche, the Greeks, the Romans. reformers, scholastics, romantics, theosophists. Nihilists, positivists, fascists, communists, and republicans. Generals, poets, pastors, professors, farmers, and naturalists. Criminals, heroes, and the editorialists in the local mullet wrapper tribune.
Too much. My mind is only capable of so much inquiry before the questions disable any return on investment. The time required for digestion requires to much space in actual time, of which all thinkers recognize we have so little. Though I continue to seek, the place I've been given to find is while the minutes and miles pass during my time on the run.
There is a point during every run where I am fully all of the parts of my being. I am more than my patellar tendonitis or problems at work or how to potty train my toddler but those things are a part of my experience. And experience tells me the run will come to completion in fine form. Without always knowing it the run has been a prayer to my creator and a celebration of all the things within my current experience.
As Dr. Sheenan is quoted above, during my run I am a fully discovered self. According to my beliefs and convictions, I see it as a place where an eternal, holy and wise God communicates himself to me. Of course, I recognize that is a statement of inherent faith.
But regardless of spiritually, there remain few things more real than what running has made of me. Every day I head out for a run there will be a moment of honest clarity where the truth is known if only for that moment at the top of hill on the Mississippi River Gorge.
