Cross Country Season In Review

It was an eventful cross country season and I am still recovering!  I'm happy to say that we had several individuals athletes in addition to the teams from John Curtis that had a great season.  I wanted to recap the accomplishments of the runners who run for JC in addition to the athletes that trained with Southern Athletics in the summer or the fall.

John Curtis Boys-
Louisiana 3A State Champions (25 points)
5 All-State Class Top 10 (Devyn Keith, Austin Brown, Trey Stewart, Christian Paz, Zachary Barthel)
Composite All-State Devyn Keith
3A State Champion Devyn Keith
Nike South Regional Top 40 Finish Devyn Keith
Nike South Regional Cross Country Championship Race Appearance (2nd in a row)
District 11-3A Champions (3rd year in a row)
Northshore Metro Runner-Up
New Orleans Metro Runner-Up
Metro Champion Devyn Keith
3 New Orleans All-Metro (Devyn Keith, Austin Brown, Christian Paz)
District Champion Dwayne Woodfox
School Record 2 Miles XC Devyn Keith 10:08
School Record 3 Miles XC Devyn Keith 15:38
School Record 5k XC Devyn Keith 16:16

John Curtis Girls-
Louisiana 3A State Runner-Ups
2 All-State Class Top 10 (Hannah Ivory, Troianna Gause)
Composite All-State Hannah Ivory
3A State Runner-Up Hannah Ivory
All-New Orleans Metro Hannah Ivory
School Record 2 Miles XC Hannah Ivory 12:40
School Record 3 Miles XC Hannah Ivory 19:27
School Record 5k XC Hannah Ivory 20:53

Southern Athletics Athletes-
Dionysia Love- All-New Orleans Metro
Jeanee Romero- All-State Class 4A Top 10
Thomas Kelton- Livingston Parish Runner-Up
Fernando Paz- Qualifier National Christian College Athletic Association National XC Championship
Dustin Kinard- Southland Conference Championship competitor for University of New Orleans

And not to forget all the John Curtis Track and Field athletes competing in the LHSAA 3A Football  State Title game in two weeks!

Once again, great job guys!

November Update of All Things Good

Hey guys, I know it seems I've been a bit behind the curve the past few weeks, but all with good reason.  The season and the semester are at a very busy phase, though everything should be calmed down by Thanksgiving break.  The Louisiana state cross country championships are coming up next Monday and Tuesday (yes, I know, really late in the year) so the team has been working hard to prepare for the home stretch.  We placed highest we ever had last week at the New Orleans metro championship where we compete against schools with over a thousand students (we have under 400 total boys and girls in high school) so the steady progression is something any coach can be happy with.  Going into the state meet the boys have the opportunity to compete for the title while the girls have a realistic chance to place top 5!  Also, there are several other runners who ran with Southern Athletics this summer who are competing for various schools across the state and I will compile their accomplishments once the season is over so people can know how hard we worked in summer track!

The weekly training guide I have been posting will take a short hiatus now that the season is over although by the middle of December I should be posting track training.  I hope that if you followed the cross country guide you had a good season.  Feel free to email me and update me on your success! After this year I will compile the training posts into one document so you can follow the training each year.  I will make a few minor adjustments (as coaches always do) to make the training better for the next go round.

As far as the weekend reads I've been posting in the Knowledge Is Power section, I do plan on doing them again, but it may be a bit spread out until the school semester is over.  There are a lot of exciting storylines going on in the world of track and field, especially for the high school age group, and I want to keep you kept up on it!

Unfortunately, the team Louisiana for Footlocker South this year has not come to fruition because of some scheduling conflicts by the athletes, but nevertheless I will work to try the team out for next year.

Also, my company, Vintage Performance, plans on making a big push in the new year to help athletes (and ordinary people!) across south Louisiana and further so expect more information about that in the future.  I'm also starting to put together the information for next summers Southern Athletics team so if you are interested in joining let me know and I can get you in on the fun.  I hope you are enjoying your winter so far.  It's been a cool 75 degrees the past few days down here!

Track in 2014 is going to be an amazing year!

Training To Be Your Best: November 11th-19th

State!  The season is coming to completion.  For this week I will write the training for a Saturday state championship for the few states that have it this weekend, and then I will continue till Tuesday of next week since that is the state championship for Louisiana.  It's been a super busy year, but really productive.  Good luck to everyone!

Monday- 3x1k @ goal 5k race effort with 3 minutes jogging recovery between
Tuesday- 30 minutes of Ins and Outs
Wednesday- 25-35 minutes easy, 8x strides
Thursday- 8x400 @ Saturday goal race pace with 200m jog recovery, 8x strides
Friday- 20-30 minutes easy, 8x strides
Saturday- Sections or State Championship (Or 1 mile time trial for those racing on Tuesday)
Sunday- Off or 20-30 minutes easy
Monday- 20-30 minutes easy, 8x strides
Tuesday- State Championship

 On the horizon is the track season!

Legend:
Warm Up- A few minutes jogging, dynamic stretching, a few strides
Easy- A pace you can handle and have a conversation at the same time. Relaxed.
Tempo Run- A distance run at a pace of 5k race pace plus 30 seconds per mile.
Ins and Outs- Striding the straights and jogging the turns on the track
Strides- Not a sprint! Simply a short pickup of 50-100 meters at around 1-2 mile race pace. Full recovery.
Progression Run- Training done at progressive pace that increases throughout the run. Begin at an easy pace and finish at 5k race effort or so for the last few minutes.
Fartlek- A run of varied pace for varied time which can be anywhere from an easy jog to hard sprinting.
Hills- Not all out sprints, good paced effort around 5k race effort. Can be anywhere between 100-400 meters long.
Workout A- 10-30x pushups, 10-30x prisoner squats, 10-30x lunges, 10-30x crunches, 30-60 seconds of planks on each side and the middle, and 30-60 seconds of Australian crawl.
Workout B- 20-40x step ups, 5-20x tricep pushups, 30-60 seconds of bridging, 10-20x dips, 30-60 seconds of pedestal, and 30-60 seconds of scissor kicks.

Knowledge Is Power: November 1st

With the cross country season reaching its zenith, here is some good reading to keep you excited!

You Have Four Years To Do Something Extraordinary by Chris Bennett- Why it matters:  The head coach of one of the top high school teams in the country has a one minute clip about doing something special in high school.  Take note!

Mary Cain Will Not Run Cross Country by Runners World- Why it matters: Mary Cain is the greatest high school distance runner in US history and has chosen not to run cross country her senior year.  She finished her track season late in the summer and has elected not to run Nike this year.  I don't fully agree with that decision, but I'm not her coach so I guess it doesn't matter!

Mary Cain raced in Moscow during the summer.

NCC Goes For 40 Straight by North Central College- Why it matters: If you can't understand how insane it is to win 40 titles in a row over the course of 40 years then you don't know anything about sports (or life probably)!  

Early Signing Period by CBS Sports- Why it matters:  This mainly affects football since no other sports really want high school athletes early, but this could affect some sprinters in track.  With early enrollment happening more often, this makes the process more fluid.

College Scholarships by Donna Dye- Why it matters:  Parents are always talking about college scholarships but I think many have a skewed idea of just how difficult it is to achieve an athletic scholarship.  Donna Dye explains a good bit about how to achieve one.  As she notes, only about 2% of athletes are award athletic scholarships.

Training To Be Your Best: November 4th-10th

So for many, the state meet is this weekend, and for some it will be the following week, but luckily at this point in the peaking process you can continue to keep yourself in top shape for an extra week or two if you keep up with your easy runs.  If you run state this week you can drop the strenght training out of the program.

Monday- 4x1k @ current 5k race effort with 3 minutes jogging recovery between, Strength Workout A
Tuesday- 30 minutes of Ins and Outs
Wednesday- 25-35 minutes easy, 8x strides, Strength Workout B
Thursday- 15x200 @ Saturday goal race pace with 200m jog recovery, 8x strides
Friday- 20-30 minutes easy, 8x strides
Saturday- Sections or State Championship
Sunday- Off or 20-30 minutes easy

It will never look like this at a cross country meet in Louisiana!

Legend:
Warm Up- A few minutes jogging, dynamic stretching, a few strides
Easy- A pace you can handle and have a conversation at the same time. Relaxed.
Tempo Run- A distance run at a pace of 5k race pace plus 30 seconds per mile.
Ins and Outs- Striding the straights and jogging the turns on the track
Strides- Not a sprint! Simply a short pickup of 50-100 meters at around 1-2 mile race pace. Full recovery.
Progression Run- Training done at progressive pace that increases throughout the run. Begin at an easy pace and finish at 5k race effort or so for the last few minutes.
Fartlek- A run of varied pace for varied time which can be anywhere from an easy jog to hard sprinting.
Hills- Not all out sprints, good paced effort around 5k race effort. Can be anywhere between 100-400 meters long.
Workout A- 10-30x pushups, 10-30x prisoner squats, 10-30x lunges, 10-30x crunches, 30-60 seconds of planks on each side and the middle, and 30-60 seconds of Australian crawl.
Workout B- 20-40x step ups, 5-20x tricep pushups, 30-60 seconds of bridging, 10-20x dips, 30-60 seconds of pedestal, and 30-60 seconds of scissor kicks.