I hope this email finds you satisfied with another week of summer training. What a summer it has been. It seems like each week as I sit down to write my update email I am reminded of how great our TEAM is because of the efforts and the sacrifices from each of you. I am feeling lucky to be your coach tonight.
I really felt like hard work was paying off this week. I think your consistency and commitment are really starting to show. If you have made it this far into the summer, congratulations. I hope that your training has been worth it in your minds (you know that it is in mine).
I felt the TEAM runs this week were as good as any summer week I can remember. It was good to be back on the trails on Monday after a week of camp, the Lagoon run ended up being very solid and you all looked strong on the hills, and then we capped off the week with the best tempo run we have ever had as a TEAM. Excellent work.
This morning (Saturday) I had a great time running in the Bair Gutsman 11 mile trail race. For those of you who don't know, the race begins in Fruit Heights and goes up a difficult trail to the top of Francis Peak and then down the back side into Farmington Canyon. The race has been around for over 30 years. The race motto is "Conquer Thyself". I think that is what running is all about - challenging yourself and meeting those challenges. Trying to get all the weaknesses out of your body and mind. Those Darts who ran in the race did an excellent job. Jared Ward (class of 2007) was the overall winner - he ran a course record time of 1:50.27. Logan Petty finished 4th in 1:53.28 (also under the old course record). It was a great race by Logan as he becomes the official 'Dart Gutsman' in the battle of the champions. I was happy with my 1:58.49 for 5th place. Jeff Taylor was 6th in 2:01.25, Austin Neuner 7th in 2:05.24, Logan Wood 8th in 2:05.53, Layne Mckenna (who joined us for camp - from Viewmont) was 9th in 2:08.18, Brayden Cromar was 10th in 2:08.56 (there have been years where this is close to winning), Cameron Harvey (class of '03) was 18th in 2:22.21, Steve Petty was 21st in 2:24.35, Steven Spjut (future Dart) was first for 14 and under in 2:25.48, Lisa Frischknecht (class of '02) was the 9th female in 2:36.27, Josh Ward (future Dart) was 2nd for 14 and under in 2:41.14, Keigunn Kunz finished his 3rd straight Gutsman in 2:43.04, Rachel Hunsaker (class of '10) finished 1st in her age group in 3:07.31, and Anna McKay and Jill Firmage (class of '09) finished tied for 2nd in their age group in 4:20.06. It was pretty dang cool.
Next Week's Training - For those of you who have strung together some high mileage over the past 3-5 straight weeks, you are under strict instructions to take this next week a little bit easier and cut your mileage back by about 20%. "High Mileage" in this case is different for each of you. If you have averaged 25 for the summer - and the past few weeks have been 33 - 50 - 38, I would like for you to be back around 25-30 for this next week. If one of the past 3 weeks has been low by any chance, you can keep this next week a little higher. Sometimes we forget how important it is for our bodies to recover. We are still going to run hard at the vita course, and we are going to have a good interval workout on Thursday morning, but I wouldn't mind seeing some lower mileage for a lot of you who have built up to 35-55 miles over the past few weeks. In case you don't want to do your own math, 20 % off of 50 miles = 40 miles. 20% off of 40 = 32. 20% off of 60 = 48. Even if this hurts your overall summer miles by 10 or so, I feel it is important to trust me here. The main reason for this is that the following 2 weeks we are going to start to get more intense. I am going to work you quite hard the week of the Dart Challenge, and we are going to come back with some pretty hard runs the week of Grass Relays (as well as adjusting to being back in school). This next week is possibly the only week I am also giving you permission to only run 5 of the 7 days (still come to the TEAM practices, of course). Most of you have earned a week like this. Some of you have not - in which case, this previous paragraph does not apply to you (you know who you are), I hope you take advantage of this next week by working hard and getting a good amount of miles. If you have questions about this concept or if you are confused about this paragraph - let me know.
Eligibility - the papers and participation fees are due by August 18th. I really need each of you to be responsible with this. If you need me to send you the information again - let me know. (It was the email I sent out this past week). I will have all the forms with me at practice the next 2 weeks. I forgot to mention that there is a special form the 9th graders need to fill out.
Coming Up:
Monday, 8/9 - 7:00am at the vita course - be prepared to run fast.
Thursday, 8/12 - 7:00am at Davis - we are running to Nichols Park to run some 1000m repeats on the grass.
Saturday, 8/14 - Colton Cottrell's Eagle Project (Teddy Bear 5k) at Barnes Park - 7:30am on the Dart Challenge Course - I only want you racing "all-out" if you are not going to be able to run the Dart Challenge the following Saturday.
Saturday, 8/21 - Dart Challenge 5k. I will send out an email with the registration form again - or you can get one from me at practice this week. Everyone is expected to run and to treat it like our first cross country meet - even if you have not been running much or feel like you are "not ready". It is a TEAM fundraiser, and I expect all of you to be involved by running in the race. If you are hurt, you can still show up to help me out and to cheer on your teammates. If you just plain don't show up without letting me know why, I am going to be disappointed. Try to invite others to run as well. It is a normal road race, but sometimes people think it is just for high schoolers. www.dartchallenge5k.blogspot.com
That's all for now - We have some great things in front of us.
Send me your miles -
Sincerely,
Coach Talley
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