Giving Training Its Dues

If you have figured anything about me by now you have probably figured out that I am an old school, hard nosed coach that doesn't like to put up with too much rah rah.  I do enjoy a good joke and sarcasm is my favorite form of humor, but when it comes to training, I'm unrepentant about how serious I am.

One of the biggest problems facing the sport is coaches, athletes, and parents looking for quick fixes and immediate satisfaction.  One thing that I hope you are picking up by now is that there are no quick fixes.  The teams that win have gotten to their perch from years of building up.  The flash in the pan programs who try to crash train or use gimmicky training to reach the top only have success for a year or so then fade back to where they came.

Talent doesn't matter in high school, unless you are talking about the talent of toughness so teams that say they can't compete because they don't have the talent are mainly just looking for excuses.  Sure, a small school that only has a team of 15-20 will have a hard time beating out a school with 80-100 runners regularly because the bigger school will be much less affected by graduations and team members who "lose the passion" but in reality that small team can work its' butt off and take it the bigger team week in and week out if they train hard and smart.  All the small team is a group of at least seven runners every year who have the talent of toughness and they will be a force.

Now going hand in hand with that, it takes many months and years of training to reach your peak, so those who want to be state champions from the first year will probably be disappointed.  Every PR, even if only a second, is a victory.  Work up on the small goals first before you try to skip straight to the ending.  There will also be many plateaus during training where the athlete will be working hard but won't be improving and that is simply a natural part of training.  Most high school athletes are no where near their physical peak so eventually that plateau will be broken, but not if the athlete loses focus and wants to feel sorry for themselves.

If you want to succeed you need to suck it up and think long term.  There are too many kids and coaches who leave the sport early because they don't see success in just a short amount of time.  It's crazy. Keep your goals focused, keep working hard, and you'll be happy you did so when you are on the victory podium.