USAT Nationals

Bri and I are competing in USAT Nationals this Saturday.  I have been sticking with some short fast workouts and am looking forward to the race.  Bri is in really good shape, she has been pulling through on the Inside-Out Sports group ride, which is not all that easy.  I have been trailing behind, conducting heart attack mitigation on the same rides.  Nationals is in Tuscaloosa, AL.  It is another long drive but the cost of shipping bikes on a plane is just ridiculous.   I have already decreed within my kingdom that all races next year must be within a four hour radius.

My cross-country kids are doing well - we had 8 or 9 PRs set (out of 35) this past week at either a dual meet or the Wolfpack Invitational, so off to a good start.  I am giving them 3 weeks of higher volume and intensity and then we taper for Conference/Regionals/State.

I am looking forward to taking an extended break from bike training.  I enjoy riding but it is time consuming.  We have a bunch of nice fall/winter trail runs and street races that keep me plenty entertained.  During the fall I'll swim a couple times a week but keep the pace mellow. 

high school x-country coaching

I am excited to have been hired to be the 2010 cross-country coach at Raleigh Charter high school.  This is a 1A public high-achieving academic school in downtown.  We held the first two practices in the morning on Monday and Tuesday.

It is a good group of kids (about 30 of them evenly split boys/girls) and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to work with them.  My goals for the season are:

• Provide an intelligently structured training plan appropriate to their level of ability
• Help each athlete meet his or her training & racing goal for 2010
• Help them learn more about proper training, nutrition, gear, and recovery
• Encourage fair play and team oriented thinking
• Be fair-minded, disciplined, and a good mentor/coach/example
• Do as well as possible at dual meets and invitationals

Our practices are in the early afternoon for the remainder of the season, so we'll be dealing with some heat for a few weeks.  It has been extraordinarily hot & humid here in the Raleigh area this summer.

On that note, this morning I got up at 5:00 to go for a tempo run with a few of my TAF teammates around downtown.  My heart popped on big hill number three at the 45 minute mark and had to hobble-jog back to our starting point.  Something like 8.5 miles in 1:04.  Completely wrecked!