First Practice in Two Weeks (counting down to February 3)!

Hello Team!  The start of the 2020 track and field season is days away…here are some reminders as you cross off the days on the calendar to Monday, February 3.

Pre-Season

I am hoping that you–I’m looking at you!–have been out and training the last couple of weeks.  If you have been, awesome!  If you have not been…let’s stop putting off your training.  Tomorrow, after school, get dressed out and come meet your teammates on the track and start running around!  You will be glad you did when February 3 rolls around.  Even if you are freshman and don’t know anyone on the team…go on out and join the group.  This team is very nice and no one bites!  (Well, hardly anyone.)  There are some suggestions for the distance team for the next couple of weeks.

Join the Monta Vista Athletic Boosters–PLEASE, Parents!

The Monta Vista Athletic Boosters makes it possible for our sports program to exist as you know it!  Two-thirds of your base membership goes directly to the track & field team, and the rest goes to shared programs such as our fine athletic training support.  MVAB has helped us acquire uniforms, tents, hurdles, throwing implements, yoga mats…so many things that makes our team special.  Parents…we often have 100% participation, last Fall only one family did not join…please help us out and support our team by joining today!

All athletes that join MVAB will receive a track and field technical training t-shirt!

Please click here and join today.

Any Nagging Injuries?

If you have something that has been bothering you…take care of your issue now!  Go see Javier, or go see Irina on Wednesday the 22nd or 29th when she drops by practice to help you out.  Now is the time to take care of these nagging issues!  If the first week of practice you are saying something bothers you, the first thing a coach will ask is ‘what did Javier/Irina say when you talked to them about your issue?’

Get Cleared!

We have 50 kids cleared, signed up and added to the roster as of January 19.  We will probably have 100 in two weeks, so that means there are a lot of you that have some paperwork to take care of…all the information is provided on the athletics web site.  If you were on the cross-country, football, or another sport already this should be easy to take care of–just go see Javier, Mr. Wong or Mr. Bonacorsi.  If you need to take the concussion baseline test, take a quick look at the schedule.

Cleared and on the Roster as of January 19

Distance Pre-Season

We would like to continue the same pattern as we have been following the first two weeks of January, with one potential addition.  If you are up for a little extra, on Wednesday or Thursday–your choice–add a steady-state run.  What you would do is have 20-35 minutes of a push at faster than your conversational pace, but slower than a tempo pace.  The goal of this run would be to increase your endurance and you lactate processing capability, without extending your effort too much (this is still early in the season.  This should feel like just a bit of a push but not as hard as a lactate-threshold pace.  There are some suggested paces in the table below.  You would benefit from a total time for this effort to be something between 20 and 35 minutes (I know 35 minutes sounds like a lot but this should feel like a low-moderate effort, not a hard effort) so a longer amount of time makes sense.  If that amount of time just feels like too much time to focus upon the run, you could break this up into two or three segments–for example you could run two or three miles from Palm or from McClellan on our standard tempo route, take a 60-90 second break, then finish on the track; or you could do the whole thing on the track (I know some of you love the track) and every 4800m take a 200 meter slow jog to reset and then go again for 4800m.  Or find a different road route, or break out the run differently.  Finish with a half dozen strides and a cool down.

Adding this steady state run is an option, but I feel you will add some nice strength and endurance!

Here are some suggested paces…but mainly, go by feel.  Your fitness can change rapidly so use the table as as rough guideline.  Trust your sensations as you run.  You know your body and running style pretty well by now!  Slightly faster and a bit more effort than conversational pace but not as much effort as tempo/lactic threshold is what you are looking for.  Run within yourself.  Controlled effort is all we are looking for at this point in the pre-season.