Clipper Relays - 9/8/18

Meet Site: Maudslay Park, 74 Curzon Mill Road, Newburyport MA

bus time: 7:00 AM, please arrive 5-10 minutes early so as not to miss the bus! The bus needs to leave on time so that the girls have time to warm up.

girls race: 9:15
boys race: 10:30

Meet Information:

• The current weather forecast is for partly sunny skies and temperatures in the mid to high 60s at race time, with 10-15 mph winds from the NE. With the wind it might feel somewhat cool and humidity should be at a comfortable level.
• When we arrive, we'll have to cross the street to get from the parking lot to the park. Be courteous to park attendants and follow their instructions when crossing the road.
• After crossing the street, the girls will begin warming up for their race; the boys will assist in setting up the tent.
• The course is a loop through the woods with a downhill start before a couple of climbs in the middle stages leading back to the field where the loop started.
• The races consist of 3 person teams running relay style such that each person runs the course. If we have a number of runners not divisible by 3, the leftover runners can run the course as well. Be sure to tell the coaches your team's name.
• On each 3 person team, only the runner who goes last will wear a number; a baton will be passed from one runner to the next.
• Meet shirts will be sold for $20, and there will be a concession stand as well.
• From the meet director: "do not let your runners swim in the river this is a huge liability issue for the park. Hate to have to deal with this but we are constantly being threatened with the loss of use of the park. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated."
• While the boys are cooling down after their race, the girls will assist in breaking down the tent.
• Once the boys are done, which includes cooling down after the race and the SAM circuit, we'll leave and stop for lunch at the Port Plaza on Storey Ave (rt. 113). There are various restaurants there including Panera, Papa Ginos, D'Angelo, and McDonalds. Contrary to popular belief and scuttlebutt on the internet, McDonald's does not have a "secret menu."
• If all goes according to plan, we'll leave Newburyport sometime around 1 PM and arrive back at WHS sometime around 2-2:30 PM.

for parents:

• There's no parking fee thanks to the meet host, but the parking area isn't large. Carpooling isn't a bad idea if you know of other parents that plan on attending.
• If you're going to be at the meet and would like to take your child with you when their race is over, please let one of the coaches know.

What to bring:

• uniform
• everyday training shoes
• racing shoes if you have them
• warmup clothes
• sunscreen
• water bottle - ideally a larger (24-32 oz.) bottle if you have one, and bring it already filled
• snacks for post-race (chocolate milk will be provided using proceeds from the Wayland XC Festival)
• money for lunch

Week 2 Training Plan - 9/3-9/9

This week is highlighted by the first meet of the season, at Newburyport's Maudslay State Park. This is a relay style meet with no team scoring and is a relatively low key way to ease into racing. In addition, there's a holiday on Monday with an optional practice in Lincoln on the trails near the MBTA commuter rail station. Finally, we have our annual "spike night" at Marathon Sports in Wellesley this Wednesday from 6-8 PM. More details on this will be forthcoming soon.

• Mon 9/3 - Optional practice at Lincoln, 3 PM. For this workout, we meet in the commuter rail station parking lot near the small shopping center. If using GPS to find the place, use the address 145 Lincoln Road, Lincoln MA. The workout will be to run at an easy pace over to Walden Pond which is a couple of miles away. Once there, aquajogging for 15 minutes (1 minute on, 30 seconds off). Following that, back to where we started, hopefully a little quicker than the trip out. For those not able to attend this practice, the day's workout is a 25, 35, or 45 minute run starting at an easy relaxed pace and finishing at a faster but still relaxed pace, building over the last 10 minutes.

• Tue 9/4 - Practice 3:15 @WHS. Everyone will run from the school to the Town Beach while doing a series of cycles, either 3 or 4 minutes in length. The 3 minute cycle consists of 1 minute at 40% effort, one minute at 60% effort, and one minute at 80% effort. The 4 minute cycle is the same as the 3 minute cycle with a fourth minute of walking. This cycle will be repeated five times or until you reach the beach, whichever comes first. Once at the beach, aquajogging 2 minutes at a time with a one minute break, repeated 6 times (total time in the water 18 minutes). Some people will then return to the school, others will be picked up from the Town Beach. The people that are running back won't be doing the same cycling of effort levels on the return trip. Total time spent running today should be in the 20 minute range for new athletes and more like 35-40 for experienced athletes.

• Wed 9/5 - Practice 3:15 @WHS. Today's practice will be a 45, 55, or 65 minute run with most or all of it along the Weston aqueduct heading east initially towards Weston. Most will turn back at some point to head back to the school, while others will connect to the Hultman Aqueduct via Rice Road. In the final third of your run you should mix in 5 pickups of about 10-15 seconds in length, at about an 85-90% effort. Take as long as needed between each of these  pickups to recover but keep running throughout. We hope to begin distributing uniforms today after practice

• Thu 9/6 - Practice 3:15 @WHS. Run to town beach via the Hultman Aqueduct and Cochituate Road (route 27) with a stop for hill drills on Keith Road en route. This is the same place we did hill drills last week, hopefully the road work in the nearby area that we encountered last week will be completed. Once at the beach, aquajogging 15 minutes, cycling between easy for 30 seconds, moderate for 30 seconds, and hard for 30 seconds. Some people will then return to the school, others will be picked up from the Town Beach. The people that are running back won't be doing the same cycling of effort levels on the return trip. Total time spent running today should be in the 20 minute range for new athletes and more like 35-40 for experienced athletes.

• Fri 9/7 - Practice 3:15 @WHS. 10 or 20 minute warmup followed by circuits. This will be structured similar to how we did the circuits last week but with run outs after every other exercise instead of after every single exercise. After this, the cool down will be a 10 minute jog. Any remaining distribution of uniforms will be done after practice today.

• Sat 9/8 - Clipper Relays @Maudslay State Park, Newburyport. There will be more details forthcoming on this meet in a later post. For now it's worth mentioning that the bus will be leaving at 7 AM (which means you should arrive a few minutes before that) and we should be returning early to mid afternoon after having lunch in Newburyport. The girls race at 9:15, the boys at 10:30. It's relay style with teams of 3 people carrying a baton around the course. In addition to the race itself, with warmup and cooldown everyone should wind up with 40-65 total minutes of running on the day.

• Sun 9/9 - off

Week 1 Training Plan - 8/27-9/2

NOTE THE TIME CHANGE FOR PRACTICE ON TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY DUE TO EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH

This is the first weekly post outlining the scheduled training for the upcoming week. Each weekly training plan begins on Monday and covers up to the following Sunday. Typically the plan will be posted by Sunday evening, but certainly no later than lunchtime Monday. Remember that while each week's plan is a good outline of what we plan on doing, there are sometimes unforeseen factors that change our plans. When this happens we'll do our best to get the word out quickly. In addition, note that many days there's a wide variation in the length of the workous. This is because we have a diverse group of athletes on the team with a wide range of experience and incoming fitness levels. If you have any questions about how far or how hard to go on a particular day don't hesitate to ask one of the coaches.

The forecast this week is for hot weather at least through Wednesday. As a result, we're planning on meeting at the Town Beach at the end of Parkland Drive on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for practice. Please note we won't be meeting at the high school on those three days. Don't show up at the high school for practice on Monday, no one from the team will be there! We will be meeting at the high school on Tuesday and Thursday.

With all that out of the way, here's the plan:

• Mon 8/27 - Practice at the Town Beach @3:15. After doing the warmup on a nearby ball field, 15 minutes of running for new athletes and 30-35 minutes for more experienced athletes. 5 pickups of 10-12 seconds on the ballfield before aquajogging 10 sets of 60 seconds hard, 30 seconds easy.

• Tue 8/28 - Practice at the High School @7:00. Everyone will run from the school to the beach while doing a series of cycles, either 3 or 4 minutes in length. The 3 minute cycle consists of 1 minute at 40% effort, one minute at 60% effort, and one minute at 80% effort. The 4 minute cycle is the same as the 3 minute cycle with a fourth minute of walking. This cycle will be repeated five times or until you reach the beach, whichever comes first. Once at the beach, aquajogging 2 minutes at a time with a one minute break, repeated 5 times (total time in the water 15 minutes). Some people will then return to the school, others will be picked up from the Town Beach. Total time spent running today should be in the 20 minute range for new athletes and more like 35-40 for experienced athletes.

• Wed 8/29 - Practice at the Town Beach @7:00. Everyone will run over to a nearby hill for hill drills. From there new athletes will return to the beach directly while others will take a less direct route back. Overall time for today's run should be the same as yesterday, 20 minutes or so for new athletes and 30-35 minutes for more experienced athletes.

• Thu 8/30 - Practice at WHS @3:15. 36, 48, or 60 minute progression run. This is the longest run of the week. It's structured in a very specific way, such that the first 1/3 of the run is at an easy conversational pace, the next 1/4 is at a moderately quicker but still manageable pace, the next 1/4 is at a higher intensity that feels "uncomfortably sustainable" (80-85% effort), and finally the last 1/6 of the run is at an easy conversational pace again. For example, for the 48 minute run the first 16 minutes are easy/conversational, the next 12 are moderate/manageable, the next 12 are uncomfortably sustainable, and the last 8 are easy/conversational.

• Fri 8/31 - Practice at WHS @3:15. 10 or 20 minute warmup followed by circuits. For those who have been on the team in the past, the same 24 exercises will be done but instead of running 300 meters at a time after every third exercise, you'll be running 100 meters after each exercise. The overall distance covered is thus the same but in more digestible bits. After this, the cool down will be either a 10 minute jog or aquajogging for 10 minutes, whichever you prefer.

• Sat 9/1 For those not coming along for the Western Mass. day trip, either:

- a cross training workout of 30 minutes to an hour plus (depending on what the activity is)

- a run of 25-45 minutes with the last 5-10 minutes being run at about a 75-80% effort. Up to that point, take it easy.

Regardless of which workout you choose to do, please remember to do the warmup routine beforehand and SAM afterward. The specifics on these can be found in the "Training Links" sidebar of the team website.

Sun 9/2 - off

First practices August 23rd-25th

Pre-season practice begins this Thursday 3:15 PM at the high school. We meet at the high school by the "snack shack" between the field house and the track. The first couple days tend to take a little longer as we learn (or re-learn) the team warmup and get to know each other, but things should be wrapping up by 5:30 at the latest.

Please remember you have to be registered with an up to date physical (within the last 13 months) on file with the school nurse. More registration information can be found at

http://whs.wayland.k12.ma.us/athletics/registration/ 

You should bring the following to Thursday's practice:

• running shoes

• comfortable clothes in which to work out. You might also want to wear a hat. 

• sunscreen

• water bottle - very important item. Please bring a water bottle which you can use during breaks in practice and after practice has ended. It's best to bring your water bottle already filled.

• running log - if you were at the interest meeting in June you heard me speak about the importance of logging your training, be it running or some other cardiovascular activity. If your log is in writing on paper, please make a copy and bring it to practice. If you've stored your training log on your computer or online (preferred method on my end), please send me the file or the link to your online log.

• towel for drying off after aquajogging (Friday and Saturday)

• extra change of clothes if you'd like for after practice. I'm not 100% positive about the status of the locker rooms but they should be open, if not bathrooms will be available at the very least.

For the early season practices, everyone will at some point be meeting at the Town Beach which is at the end of Parkland Drive. Some will be running there from the school, others will meet there directly. The purpose of meeting at the Town Beach is to spend some time "aquajogging" in the water as a way to increase training time without putting extra pounding on joints and muscles. That being said no one will be forced to go in the water. If swimming in deep water is not something you want to do, let me know at practice on Friday and we'll make other plans.

Here's the training plan for the first three days of practice:

• Thursday 8/23 - brief introductions, distribution of watches, demonstration of warmup routine, followed by 20-25, 30-35, or 40-45 minutes of running out and back along the Weston aqueduct. Ideally the pace will pick up gradually towards the end of the running portion of the day. Today's run will end with 6x100 yard accelerations on the practice football field with a recovery jog back between each. The time it takes to complete these accels should be included in the length of your run. Anyone new to the cross country team should find out from me whether they'll be meeting at the school or the town beach tomorrow.

• Friday 8/24 - Either

• warmup routine, 40 or 50 minutes of running and 15 minutes of aquajogging. Those doing this workout will meet at the school at 3:15.

• wamup routine, 10 minutes of alternating 15 seconds faster running with 45 seconds easy jogging, then 15 minutes of aquajogging. Those doing this workout will meet at the town beach at 3:45.

• Saturday 8/25 - meet at Town Beach at 9 AM. 40, 50, 60, up to 70 minutes gradually picking up the pace the second half of the run. Following the run will be 10 minutes of aquajogging. Today's run will be an out and back mostly along the Hultman aqueduct, which we'll access where it meets Sycamore Road. There will be at least two water stops during the run.

Next week (the last week of August) we'll be meeting for practice Monday through Friday at 3:15. Going forward, once school starts in September practice will start just after 3 PM.

Registration link and information on the start of practice

With less than two weeks left until the start of practice on August 23rd, it's worth a reminder that all athletes must be registered before being able to practice with the team. There are three steps involved in being cleared to participate:

• An up to date physical (within the last 13 months) on file with the school nurse.

• Registration through the FamilyID website

• Payment of the athletic user fee. There is a waiver form available if needed.

More information including links can be found at the Athletic Department website:

http://whs.wayland.k12.ma.us/athletics/registration/

The first day of official organized practice is next Thursday August 23rd at 3:15 PM. Practice begins at the "snack shack" between the field house and football field at the high school. There will be another post on this blog next week with more details on the first few practices next week.

Pre-season items of note

• For reference, the team policies are the first link under the Useful Links sidebar. This FAQ covers how the team is managed and will hopefully answer most if not all questions new athletes might have.
• Summer training - the "Summer Training Guidelines" document under the Training Links sidebar to the right has the details on how you should approach your summer running. The time you put in between now and the start of official practice will pay great dividends over the course of the season. 
• Burpees - please include 2 sets of burpees in your routine, every other day throughout the summer. Start with 2 sets of 5, and add a rep each week up to a maximum of 2 sets of 12. Take a minute between sets to catch your breath. For more on the usefulness of burpees for runners, see the "benefits of burpees" link under the Training Links sidebar.
• 2018 Schedule - a tentative meet schedule for the 2018 season is on the right of this page. It includes invitational meets that may not show up on the WHS Athletics Department master schedule. There is a possibility of adding a meet in mid-October to replace the MSTCA Twilight Invitational which we won't be attending this year as it's been moved from Saturday to Friday evening. 
• Registration - A link to online registration will go live at some point in August. When that happens, the link will be shared on this blog. 

Pre-season interest meeting Thursday June 7th, afterschool in room B244

Once again it's time to think about preparing for the upcoming cross country season which begins in late August. As such we'll be having a meeting next Thursday June 7th for anyone interested in joining the cross country teams this coming fall. This includes those who have been team members in the past as well as anyone who hasn't participated in the past but would like to give the sport a try. I encourage those of you who were on the team last fall to bring a friend, or more if you have many friends. 

The meeting will take place in room B244 at 2:30 after school on Thursday and it should last around 30 minutes. If you'd like to go but can't due to a previous commitment, let me know. Remember, my e-mail is llayam (at) hotmail (dot) com.

See you June 7th!