We're goin streaking....

I currently have two running streaks going that I know of and am actively trying to keep alive.  I have run every day since September 14th of 2012 and I have broken 5:00.00 in a mile for 18 straight years.

The first streak started when I started working at Nebraska.  I realized quickly that my own running and training was going to have to take a back seat to the work that needed to be done to help the program be successful.  It takes a lot of time and energy to plan and impilment a recruit weekend around a football game for up to 16 prospective student athletes and their parents.  So while I was not able to get longer runs or workouts in the way that I felt I would need to compete at a high level, I did want to continue to run.  I knew if I didn't have some sort of goal it would be very easy to fall into the trap of "o I'll just take today off, I'll run tomorrow."  So I made the commitment to lace them up and head out the door every day and have followed through with that every day since.

The second streak was one that I had been doing and didn't even realize it.  When I moved to Sacramento, Scott Abbott, the distance coach prior to me at Sac St was talking about how he had to get ready to break 5 for the mile and how he had done it every year since is freshman year of high school.  I started to think back and realized that I had also covered a mile distance in sub 5 minutes since 1998 my junior year in high school.  Last year I had not done it through the year and December had arrived.  One day at lunch I decided to head out for a run, felt good and stepped on the track and ran 4:48.  This year was a similar situation.  December was here and I had not covered the distance in sub 5.  So Tuesday while on my morning run with Fred he told me we could run Wednesday morning but not Thursday, I figured that was my day.  I told a few of the kids on the team i was going to go for it. 

So yesterday at 4:00 I did a short warm up, a few strides, put my flats on and started off.  Goal was 73's which felt very comfortable, so I slowly cut down and the last 200 decided to let it rip and see what I could do.  I ended up running 4:42 and felt comfortable.  The streak is intact  I don't foresee 20 years being a difficulty, especially if Fred keeps meeting me for morning runs.

Does anyone else out there have any streaks of their own?

Time to get organized

Anyone who has known me for a long time knows that I struggle with organization.  I was always the kid at school that had loose papers all over the place in my binder and back pack, folded pieces of paper in my pocket, reminders and notes written on my hand.  I tried using planners but never was consistent with them.  I have tried making to do lists, but end up with more loose paper all over my desk, or a pile of paper with buried to do lists.  Two years ago over winter break I tried to spend some time each day reading and doing some "professional development."  I was reading an article on twitter by Ryan Holiday about a commonplace book.  I loved the idea, I got in my car and drove down to staples that morning and bought a stack of note cards a box to hold them in and some colored dividers and started my very own commonplace book.

My main Commonplace Box

At first I was not really sure where to start.  I started writing down quotes and lists of things I read I thought would be helpful.  As time went out I made more groups and it helped a ton with getting organized and me keeping all of the information I needed in one place.  I started writing down to do lists for the day, long term, for meet info etc...  It has been a huge help to me.  I like having hard copies of things I need and use.

Very quickly I found that while I was more organized, I was still struggling with To-Do lists.  They began to pile up and would get lost in the shuffle like my old to do lists and even though I was doing better, I still needed vast improvement on staying focused on what is really important right and what can wait till later.  I tried combining lists, moving items to long term to do and focusing on making better daily lists.

A few months back I watched a video on how to create a bullet journal.  I watched it, thought it was a cool idea, but didn't totally buy into it.  Plus I had already dedicated two years to my commonplace book, liked it and didn't want to abandon it.  Honestly I was not crazy about having a to do list and breaking it up with thoughts pages and having to catalogue entire note books.  I think it is much easier to write down thoughts on a card, lable it and store it with like idea cards.  I can always resort the cards and move them if I want.  It seemed easier than tearing out pages of a book and rebinding them.

So a few weeks ago the bullet journal video came back through my twitter feed.  I watch the video again, thought about it for a few minutes, watched the video again and decided that the bullet journal could be the solution to my to do list problems.  I went on Amazon and bought a journal.  A few days later it arrived and I set up my bullet journal. I have adapted my bullet journal  and just use it for my to do lists.  It has helped tremendously.  I find that I am able to do a much better job of staying focused on what has to get done and long term projects.

Bullet Journal and Commonplace book

Just thought I would share a little about how I stay on task.  These two things have made a huge impact for me.  Hope you can get some thoughts and ideas for yourself.

Post season thoughts

It’s sad to say but the 2015 cross country season is in the can for the Baldwin Wallace Yellow Jackets.  The end of the cross country season is always one of my favorite times of the year.  There is something riding on all of the meets.  We get to travel which is where a lot of my fondest memories as an athlete come from.  I get to see a lot of my fellow coaches that I don't get to see often, some of whom I have worked for in the past, some of whom I have coached in the past and some who I have raced against.  It is always good to get to catch up with those people.

Now it is time for me to sit back and reflect on what I feel we did well, what we did not do well and where we can get better.  This was definitely a year where I felt like I did a lot more correctly than incorrectly.  I looked over our training and make a few notes and tweak a few workouts in preparation for next year.  We will have a very different looking group coming into camp next year.  With a year of training in the same system for a full year and the adaptations that will come along with that, we will be able to handle larger volumes of work across the board.  We will also have a larger incoming freshman class and have some additional depth and talent added into the mix.  If we plan to take the next step and become a relevant program at both the conference and regional level we need to stay on the trajectory we are on and go into winter break training with a purpose and come back ready to rock for indoor and outdoor.  This track season we will find out if the current group really wants to do what it will take to become a legit program.  From what I have seen they are talking and acting like they do, but come January 9^th when we line up for our time trails.

Recruiting has been going well.  I feel like we have had a lot of recruits walk away thinking we are a very good option.  I have found my grove in recruiting and feel I am connecting well with the kids I am talking to.  The ones that I don't, I cut ties and move on. We are doing a great job of presenting who we are, what we do, and where we are heading.  We will have a great recruiting class next year full of kids that are a good fit for Baldwin Wallace Cross Country and Track and Field.

On a personal note it is great to be back in Ohio, to be back in the OAC and to be working with Coach Cole.  I am in a much better place mentally and physically than I was a year ago.  I had a blast this fall working with this team. 

That's a wrap folks

I know this is a long overdue post.  I really am trying to do a better job of posting.  Our season came to a wrap a few weeks back at Regionals.  All in all I was pleased with the season and how we performed at the end.  It is always important to run well at the end of the season.  While I think we could have milked out a little bit more, we did a solid job.  We have come a long way, in a very short time.  I am proud to say that the future looks bright.  We have learned a lot of lessons and will be better for it in the future.
The men's cross team ended with a 17th place finish at the Great Lake Region Championships hosted by Rose-Hulman at the famed Lavern Gibson Championship Course.

We finished 17th of 36 teams with 487 points.   A significant stat from the weekend is we moved up from 32^nd in 2014 to 17^th this year.  That is a solid jump.  But we can not be satisfied with 17^th in the region.  We need to make another major jump next year and start putting ourselves in the conversation to qualify for nationals.


Once again Sophomore Brian Brennan (Akron/Walsh Jesuit) led the men's squad as he finished 15th of 242 runners in a time of 25:47.1.  Brennan missed qualifying for the national meet by just two runners. This was a bit of a tough pill to swallow for both of us.  He ran tough and laid it on the line, but tactically we need to clean a few things up for next year.
In addition, fifth year senior Greg Blevins (Mentor) finished 70th in a time of 26:49.6.  Sophomore Evan Milovich (Westlake) was 113th in a time of 27.26.8. Sophomore Brady Jeffers (South Amherst/Firelands) crossed the line in 130th place in a time of 27.44.0.   Freshman Creighton Jensen (Sheffield Lake/Brookside) finished 160th in a time of 28:08.9.   Freshman Todd Cushing (Plymouth, Mass. / Plymouth North) was 170th in a time of 28:26.4 and sophomore Dylan Tanner (Mentor) placed 206th in a time of 29.29.6.

On the ladies side, Kelly Brennan (Akron/Walsh Jesuit) was our lone representative.  She placed 24th of 243 runners in a time of 22.49.8.  She made some serious gains this cross country season.  Track season should be a very exciting time for her.


For now that’s a wrap.  We have taken our down time and are starting to build back up for cross country.  The kids all leave for the Holidays Thursday or Friday.  So it is going to get a lot quieter around here very soon.