NEXT WEEK THERE WILL BE RUN GROUPS MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY AT 7AM AND AT 6:00PM, meeting at the MV track. Come to whichever one is more convenient for you!
Graduation was a week ago, all our finals are in the books, most Monta Vista students have now logged a solid week of rolling out of bed at noon and crawling to the couch to see what is recorded on the DVR, with the goal of sitting up on the couch rather than laying down as the physical effort of the day.
But not MVXC! MVXC has hit the summer hard from day one, starting with…
THE SECOND MOUNTAIN TO THE BEACH RUN
After being rudely tossed out of a perfectly fine bus and tossed unceremoniously to the curb in Felton, 37 athletes (plus their coach) made the eight mile run along the historic railroad tracks to Santa Cruz. The group included alumni, MVXC veterans, and the complete freshman girls’ 4x400m relay team! Outstanding effort…and a much faster result than last year (though who is keeping track?). The run was followed by a great day at the beach. What a great way to celebrate the end of the school year and kick off a summer of running!
STUDENT LEAD SUMMER RUNNING
More than 20 athletes have been coming to the MV track every day this past week to get together for a morning run. The distances have been varying from a couple miles to some serious runs like Up and Over. Akshara, Jeffrey and Justin seem to be handling the email traffic if you have questions, you can contact them–but better yet just strap on your running shoes and head over to the MV track! The starting time may vary so watch this space. EVERYONE can participate, even if you don’t know anyone, even if you are a freshman, even if you think you are slow, even if you think you are shy…MVXC is one of the nicest groups of athletes on this planet, come by and introduce yourself, by the end of the day you will comfortable with the group, by the end of the week I will bet you will have made two new friends!
NEXT WEEK THERE WILL BE RUN GROUPS MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY AT 7AM AND AT 6:00PM, meeting at the MV track. Come to whichever one is more convenient for you!
In addition to the group run, I’ve seen a lot of other activity. There are alumni out running at various times with various people in the area (Julia Chang ’15, Sunny Shan ’14, John Hsiao ’14, Emilio T0rres-Gonzales ’15, Akshay Thontakudi ’15, Isabel LaPlain ’15…and I’m sure there are others). Other people have signed up for cross-training sessions or are hitting the pool for water running. Lot’s of people are signing up for Dudley’s boot camp, starting in July. Drop coach an email if you need a connection, get on the team Facebook page, or show up on a weekday morning to get hooked into the team’s summer activities.
SOME THOUGHTS FROM YOUR COACH
New Runners: Don’t get frustrated! One of the tough things about running is, the first time you run, it stinks. You don’t feel good, and everyone who has been running for a long time makes it look easy. The experienced runners are talking and laughing and you are suffering. Ever step seems like a chore and you don’t see what the attraction is to running. Many people quit the first week. And that’s sad. Because if you stick with the running…after some time, maybe a few weeks, sadly maybe a little longer, there will be a change. One day you will pull on your t-shirt and slide into your shoes and go running and you will realize…I’m just running! I’m not thinking about how hard it is, I’m not thinking about the jarring, I’m not wishing this was over, I’m simply running with my friends! Now you get it…you are a runner!
The Hardest Part: The hardest part of running is getting out the door. It’s easy to procrastinate and fritter away the day. If you can just get your running shoes on and get half way down the block from your house…you will probably finish your run. Hardly anyone turns around and goes home after they have run to the corner of their street, lots of people sit at home and never get off the couch. So get out there!
There are lots of motivational tools to get out of the door, but my favorite motivation is my running group. When I make a date to run with my friends, I have made a commitment to be there for them. I want to keep my commitment to my friends, I want to be seen as reliable, and once I am there the run is more fun (and probably faster0 than if I was running on my own. Long time MVXC athletes know that I often run at 5:30am in the morning with my run group (today was a luxurious 6:30am start before running at Quicksilver Park); I am sure that if I were not meeting my friends, I’d stay in bed some mornings. My friends expect me there, and I expect them to be there, so we are helping each other to get out the door and run. Come to the morning run group, or make appointments to meet your running partners, either method will help motivate you to get out the door and run!
Training: The most important thing during the summer is an appropriate number of miles at an appropriate pace. You don’t need to be a hero and log a zillion miles, you do need to be consistent and get out and run; those that have been running already will be running five or six days per week, if you are just getting started maybe four is fine at the beginning. You might start with 20 minutes of running if you have never run before, and have a long run of 40 minutes to start, and then increase over the summer. The important thing is not to be a hero, but to be consistent; if you run for three weeks in a row for four days a week, and then stop for two weeks, you will be back almost to the beginning again–which is very discouraging, since you were probably about ready to handle a 15 to 20% increase in workload. Be consistent!
The other thing for all runners to think about is pace. The vast majority of your summer miles will be at a conversational pace; this means the fastest pace you can run while still being able to talk in complete sentences to your running partners. This pace is EASY (but walking is also easy, this is not effortless, it’s just easy). For those of you with heart rate monitors, you will probably have a heart rate between 130-165 for an easy, conversational run. The rating of perceived exertion will be two to four on a ten point scale. Pacing is tough to figure out sometimes at the start of your running career, but work on your pacing; finding the right pace is important. Two slow of a pace and you are not getting much aerobic or endurance benefit; I don’t want to go so far as to say your run will be a waste of time, but you will certainly be disappointed if you put in lots of hours running and this time does not lead to better race performances. Too fast is usually less of a problem for high school runners, so I won’t go into this in detail, but remember you don’t need to kill yourself during the summer–enjoy yourself!
Here is the summer running info from the pre-season meeting.
Hills: Hills are your friends! Enough said.
Your Physical!
Don’t forget to schedule your annual athletics physical…and to ask about your iron levels/serum ferritin.
Keep it up, everyone! Stay in touch! You are all in my thoughts. You are all getting a great start on some fabulous seasons, as a team and as individuals!
Out on the roads there is fitness and self-discovery and the persons we were destined to be.
Dr. George Sheehan