Districts is almost here!

Throughout the season so far you should've learned how to run your events and how everything works. In two weeks, districts will be here. So to prepare for it, you need to train very very hard EVERY day! Districts determines whether or not you go to regionals and states. Keep up the hard work and keep trying your hardest in any race that you haev left and in practice!

Train hard this whole week

This week you NEED to train hard! It is critical that you do. As you saw earlier, this meet determines whether or not you make it to Disney. This means that you need to push yourself to all your limits. By doing this, your race times will improve and your body will become used to working hard everyday. When it's race day, you'll see that all that practice payed off.

Saturday = huge race!

On Saturday is the Crusader Invitational. This meet determines whether or not you will be going to the Disney Invite. Only the best go to Disney to compete against eachother. You don't need to pressure yourself but you do need to eat extremely healthy and work your butt off from today till Thursday since Friday is recovery. Start mentally preparing yourself in what your goals are for your events and start asking your coaches for advice. If they're clueless, then go online and do some research.

Invitationals

On Saturday you will be having another relay track meet. This one is very important. No it won't allow you to go to any place special if you do very good but it is an invitational which will be posted on flrunners.com. Once it's posted, people can see your good and bad times and colleges can see them as well. You really want to impress the colleges more than the people and if you don't care to about running in college, then just try your best anyways so you don't look bad to the people.

What now?

So far you've had about 3 track meets. By now, you should've gotten the idea of how everything works and how you should be running. The next meet is on Saturday. It's a relay meet but you should still have set goals. The next two meets are extremely important and you need to try your hardest. If you do well, you can qualify for a Disney invitational. In this meet, only the top people go. So continue to work hard!

Today's the big day!

Are you ready for your track meet?? There really isn't a lot to it. All you need to do is prepare yourself mentally and you're set to go. Yes you should be eating correctly, hydrating, and getting rest but when you get onto that track, the only thing that matters is that you've mentally prepared yourself. Time will feel very slow and dragging but that will only happen if your mind tells you that and you actually believe it. Once you believe what your mind is telling you, then its either downhill from there or you suck it up and win.

First track meet tomorrow!

Your first track meet is tomorrow! Don't be nervous. Just act excited and before you know it, it'll be over. This track meet isn't going to be like last year. Last year the first 3 meets were just relays. This meet will be a regular meet with all the usual events. Remember to eat lots of pasta and to just have fun!

Long Run!

After your time trial from yesterday, you should do a long run. Do a minimum of 5 miles and try running it in under 42 minutes. By doing this, you are pushing yourself, but not too hard either. You shouldn't consider this as another time trial. More as a goal for a 5 mile run. It's ok do go over 42 minutes but it's a good goal to have.

It's Monday!

Yes it's Monday so you know what that means, TRACK WORKOUT!! You should do an 800 time trial. These are necessary speed workouts that can and will help you improve your time. When you go out for practice, act like it's a race and as if you've only got one shot to win. Yes you'll be extrememly tired by the third 800 but it's all for your benefit.

What should you're workout be for today?

Today, if you didn't do the marathon, you should go for a 6 mile run. Every week you should increase your milage by 1. It'll help keep your endurance high and will make your races feel like a breeze. If you did the marathon, you can go for a 20 min run. Yes it sounds like a little compared to 6 miles, but your body needs to take it easy. It's important to let it rest and over work it.

What happens if you did the a half or full marathon yesterday?

If you did the half or full marathon yesterday, then great job! There is a downside to that though. You will be extrememly sore (as you can probably tell), you will need to take time off from running since you need a lot of time to recover from that, and your track season probably won't be as good as you might have wanted it to be. For the half, take atleast a week and a half off and for the full take atleast 3 weeks off. That may sound like a lot of time but it's what your body needs and is the only way that you can possibly complete half of your track season's goal. Rest any less than that and you will be in more pain and your body will defenitely not recover completely.

Nervous about the first race?

Don't be nervous about your first race! It can be nerveracking if you have never raced before but that doesn't mean you should be scared. Instead, you should be excited! You'll get A LOT of adrenaline pumping in you which will help you tremendously. Just go out there, run your hardest, and before you know it, it'll all be over soon. Who cares if you mess up. You're going to have plenty of other races to redeem yourself in and you won't be the only one who messed up.

Need encouragement?

Track isn't as bad as you think. It is more exciting in that there are many many different races that you can do or see your teammates doing. You get to go on trips and to places with your team whcih can be super fun. Track isn't about one long race and if one person makes a mistake then its over. If you mess up, there are many other evetns that you can redeem yourself in or your teammates can win to get the points you didn't get.

How should I be feeling this far into the track season?

So far, you should be feeling pretty good. You shouldn't feel amazing because you probably haven't been running on your own after cross country and if you were, then this is how you should be feeling. Remember that it takes some time to get back into shape. It doesn't all just happen at once or within a week. You need to push yourself and keep working hard.

Track starts today!

Are you guys ready for your first day of track? If you are, then get ready to have a great season! You can't go into track assuming that you'll do great without any training since you did cross country. A lot can happen in 2 months which means your body definetely won't be the same. Remember the most important thing is to have FUN! So don't take everything you do too seriously.

Don't know how hard you should start training?

If you don't know how hard you have to be training right now, don't worry because you shouldn't even be training hard at this point. All you have to do is a 15 minute jog once a day and every week you can increase your milage or your time. Don't start training hard now because when the real season comes and you start doing all these track workouts and long runs, you're going to be used to it so it won't have any effect and you're going to get bored therefore you won't be as thrilled and competitive in a race.

Track is only 2 weeks away!

Now that Christmas break is done, it's time to get back into shape to prepare yourself for the track season which is getting closer and closer. When you start training, everything you ate over break, is going to come back to you. You will feel horrible and like you can't keep going, but you can. It's mental and you need to push yourself.