Akron Track & Field

Blood & Guts Review and outdoor preview

Since we will have a difficult getting together as a group this week I want to post my Blood & Guts review. I was very pleased with the effort and attitude of the group during this phase of our training. Overall we made tremendous progress in elevating our fitness, which we can all see by the stunning number of PR’s recorded at the 49er Classic. I was not anticipating such a strong set of performances at our first meet.  In fact, with the hard work and double training sessions I was not anticipating anyone running a PR.

In addition to what we achieved in physical development we also showed mental toughness. We had to endure some challenging weather days and we accepted those challenges with the right spirit. Despite unfavorable circumstances we were able to do the work to make ourselves better. The payoff for those investments will come later this spring.

Incidentally, we will continue to face adversity this upcoming track season – bad weather, the competitive challenges posed by our opponents and dealing with the realities of travel and school. If we continue to deal constructively with these situations when things don’t go the way we planned the more successful we’ll be.  It's not easy to be a champion. Let's show that we're special, that we have the right stuff to be champions.

Here are a few points that I want you to be aware of so we can continue to improve and run fast times:

• Imagine what you could accomplish if you were able to commit to training and lifestyle like you did for the past 4 weeks! Keep the true spirit of Blood & Guts alive.
• We are entering our final racing phase. Although we will continue to do hard work, as a general rule we want to go into our races fresher, more rested and eager to race.
• The volume of our hard workouts will be reduced (but we will be racing).
• It will be very important to maintain the duration of our easy runs. It is also very important that these be legitimate-pace runs. Your easy runs can be recovery runs without being slow runs. Your ability to grow as a middle distance/distance runner hinges on finding the sweet spot in terms of pace and duration for your easy runs and this will vary from day to day depending on how you’re feeling.
• I want to be more available in the AM for weights and drills. I plan to make your workouts a priority over my administrative duties. I encourage you to set up individual or group workout sessions in the morning.
• Let’s focus on doing what we need to do to make ourselves better and avoid the fruitless drama of worrying about what other groups, teams or schools are getting.
• In 2006 we had four regional qualifiers (Beata Rudzinska (800), Rachel Zubricky (1500), Morgan Sulzener Russell (3000 SC), Brandi Schoeppner Howard (5000)). We can do better than that this year.
• We’re going to be much better outdoors than we were indoors!