Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Recovery

We were fortunate enough to have Leo Kormanic come and speak to the team tonight. First off it was great to see him and catch up. It has been almost exactly 4 years since we last saw each other in Huston Texas at the Olympic trials for the marathon.

Second the message and information he delivered was great. He spoke about injuries, why they happen, what the root causes are, how to prevent them and what to do if you get them. He took time after to answer questions. What a great resource to have. He is doing some very high level stuff with the Olympic Training Center. We appreciated him taking time out of his busy schedule to come meet with our group.

On a personal level he had a lot of the same thoughts, ideas and terminology that I have and use. It made me very happy for our kids to hear the same things we say on a daily basis from one of the best physio's in the country.

This week of camp has been great and we still have a few more days to go. I am excited for where our program is heading.

Friday, December 11, 2015

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?

Thursday, December 10, 2015

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.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

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 9th 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. 

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

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 32nd in 2014 to 17th this year.  That is a solid jump.  But we can not be satisfied with 17th 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.

Monday, November 2, 2015

We have come a long ways!

This past weekend was the OAC Championships in Berea at Wallace Lake Park.  Hosting a meet is always a huge task for the staff and we wanted to make sure we created a great environment and atmosphere for the student athletes.  I think we accomplished that.  We created a 2k loop that was very spectator friendly.  We had music playing an announcer reading off scores as the race was going on.  There was a great electricity in the air throughout the whole day.



As for the race, Saturday was a good day for the Brennan’s.  Sophomore Brian Brennan (Akron/Walsh Jesuit) and younger sister and freshman standout Kelly Brennan (Akron/Walsh Jesuit) led the teams to fifth and sixth place finish, respectively.  Brian Brennan, earned his second straight All-OAC honor, by finishing third of 130 runners in 25:14.5.  Brian ran a heck of a race.  He was the only person to make the move with the eventual winner about 4k into the race.  He laid in on the line and went for the win.  His low score definitely helped the team in a big way.

In addition, sophomore Evan Milovich (Westlake) placed 28th with a time 26:41.3.  This was a big time race for Evan, we were hoping that he would finish around 30th place, so for a sophomore to step up and run tough at the conference championship was huge.  I am excited to see what he can do at the Regional championships.  Our third runner in was senior All-Ohio runner Greg Blevins (Mentor) finished 31st in a time of 26:46.1.  Greg has done a great job of leading this team as a 5th year senior and while I know he didn’t run the race he was hoping for he hung in there and battled some of the Heidelberg guys throughout the race.  Freshman Creighton Jensen (Sheffield Lake/Brookside) was 53rd in a time of 27:26.5.  He continues to impress me with his competitiveness.  He followed up a spectacular race at Oberlin with an impressive run.  Rounding out the team scorers was sophomore Brady Jeffers (South Amherst/Firelands), as he placed 56th in a time of 27:32.6.  Brady has come a long ways, he is gaining more and more confidence in his ability to run 8k cross country and has bought into the fact that the better at cross country he gets the more it will help him on the track.

Kelly Brennan, who earns her first All-OAC accolade, led the women’s team as she finished fourth of 136 runners in a 22:28.9.  Kelly ran a gutsy race.  She was up with the leader the whole race and gave herself a chance to win the race.  Even though she came up a little short, the future is bright and she should have shot to qualify for the national championships in two weeks in Terre Haute.

In addition, freshman Hannah Fredriksen (Hamburg, N.Y.) placed 28th in a time of 23:37.1.  She ran another great race competing hard against the schools we were aiming to beat.  Sophomore Maeve Christie (Lakewood) came in 36th place in a time of 24:15.9.  Maeve bounced back from a really tough race at Oberlin to beat out a few key girls the last 600 meters.  Sophomore Hannah Kiraly (Lakewood) was 81st in a time of 25:33.8, which was a lifetime best, she has proven that she is a competitor and with some consistent training she could be a huge help in the future.   Rounding out the team scoring was junior Alivia Stephan (Carey) as she finished in 109th place in a time of 26:55.0.  Alivia has done a great job of stepping up and taking on the role of 5th runner a few times this year when we really needed her.

This team has come a long ways since August.  Last year the women were 9th and the men have finished 8th the previous 3 years.  In the OAC pre-season coaches polls both teams were picked 7th.  When we arrive on campus and headed to Camp Wanake for camp I would say that we were the only ones that thought we could finish higher.



Our group has put in a lot of work this fall.  We have embraced a culture of personal success, working hard each day and enjoying the process of grinding day in and day out.  There are no secrets to getting better, you simply have to put in the work and challenge yourself.  All but one of our kids ran a life time best this year, but more importantly we learned how to compete hard, race consistently and be comfortable being uncomfortable.  I am excited for the future with this group and the people we will have join us next year.  It is going to be a great time to be a BW Yellow Jacket!

We are back in action on Saturday, November 14 in Terre Haute Indiana for the NCAA Division III Great Lake Regional Championships at 12:30 p.m.  We will be taking a full men’s team and Kelly from the girl’s side.  We think we have a shot to have a few kids qualify on to the national championships.


Wednesday, October 21, 2015

As the season rolls on

It has been a while since I have posted on here.  I feel like things are progressing well.  We have a great group of student athletes that are working their tails off and getting better every week.  I felt like the women ran very well at All-Ohio and the men ran ok.  I did not do a very good job of instructing the men to get out in a field of 700+ and we got buried.  They did a great job of moving up throughout the race but just started way to far back.  I was very happy this past weekend and felt that both teams took another nice step in the right direction.

This past weekend we competed at Oberlin.  Coach Appenheimer and his staff put on a great meet.  This is a meet a plan to support as long as I am at Baldwin Wallace.  On the guys side we had a solid day.  We had 13 out of 14 run seasons best, some were minutes faster, and we had about the same amount run life time bests.  Sophomore All-Ohio Athletic Conference and Academic All-OAC runner Brian Brennan (Akron/Walsh Jesuit) led the way as he finished 23rd of 273 runners in a time of 24:52.3.  He beat a few key people from conference schools that beat him at All-Ohio two weeks ago.  That alone is more important to me that him running a big PR.  I also think it sets him up well for OAC's on Halloween. 

Next across the line for the Jackets was senior two-time All-Ohio runner Greg Blevins (Mentor) placed 106th in a time of 25:53.9.  This was Greg's second race back after having foot surgery last year.  He has made huge strides forward each week and I am excited to see what he can do after 2 more weeks of training going into OAC's 

Sophomore Evan Milovich (Westlake) finished 129th with a time of 26:13.2.  Even gave us a much needed shot in the arm.  He had to sit out All-Ohio due to tweaking his calf earlier that week.  Having him back 100% and running well was huge for the team.

Freshmen Creighton Jensen (Sheffield Lake/Brookside) was 174th in a time of 26:51.4.  Creighton continues to impress me with his tenacity on the race course.  He is one heck of a competitor.  He is another that keeps improving week after week.  Having the consistency he has show will be huge at conference.  Rounding out the scoring for the guys was sophomore Brady Jeffers (South Amherst/Firelands) finished in 181st place with a time of 26:55.0.  Brady has had some good solid workouts and is coming along but has yet to make the big breakthrough I know he is capable of.  When it clicks for him our team will be a lot better.  He continues to improve but has yet to put it all together.

Rounding out the top 7 was Freshman Todd Cushing who ran 26:58 and Senior Aaron Long, 27:15.  Both ran very solid races and added some nice depth to the team.

Dylan Tanner- 27:21, Phil Spronz- 27:25, Alex Fuhrmann- 27:34, Spencer Mahon- 27:44, Justin Swords- 27:57, Cullen Grude- 28:30, Jason Young- 31:16.  As you can see we are going to have a inter-team battle for the final few spots to go to regional's.  OAC's should be a heck of a meet for us. 


I was very pleased with how well the women raced and competed.  We had several people who not only ran 6k PR's but also 5k PR's enroute to their 6K.We finished 18th of 29 teams with 569 points.  Looking at things going into the meet, I had us projected to score about 652 points.  So we ran well ahead of my expectations.  We were missing two of our girls, and when you only have 7 to start the season that can be a hard pill to swallow.  We are hoping to have both of them back by conference time.

 Freshman Kelly Brennan (Akron/Walsh Jesuit) continued led the way as she placed eighth of 244 runners in a time of 21:41.7.  She came through 5k in 18:08.  Her 5k PR last year was 20:10.  She followed up an impressive run at All-Ohio with an even more impressive race this weekend.  She is on a trajectory to have a shot at qualifying for Nationals as an individual in 4 weeks if she can stay consistent with her training. 
 
Freshman Hannah Fredriksen (Hamburg, N.Y.) finished 101st with a time of 23:20.4. This was another big step forward for Hannah, she also broke her High School 5k PR, from her Sophmore year, enroute to her 6K PR.  Hannah has stepped up big and run well when we have needed her.
 
Sophomore Maeve Christie (Lakewood) placed 109th with a time of 23:29.3.  Maeve ran right around the same time she ran at All-Ohio.  She has been a little inconsistent, but has been working very hard and is someone who I feel can pull it all together at Conference and help make a huge impact.  
 
Junior Alivia Stephan (Carey) was 214th with a time of 26:30.9 has been coming on very strong and is someone I am very excited to see what she can do in a few weeks.  Sophomore Bailee D'Amore (McDonald) rounded out the girls scoring.  She finished 242nd with a time of 28:44.5.  This was another strong step forward for Bailee.


We are back in action on Saturday, October 31 at home for the 2015 Ohio Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships at Wallace Lake in the Mill Stream Run Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks at 11 a.m.  We only get to host this meet once every 9 or so years.  We have put in a lot of miles on the course and I am excited to see what we can do.