coaching

One last Dome Thursday

Yesterday was the last indoor track meet of the pre-track season. Next week we move outside for our meets and for practice. Good news is that instead of 8 hours in the dome on Thursdays, it will be outside for 8 hours. The only real bad news is that the track is a little bit farther from my house, but it isn’t too bad. Most weeks I will already be at the track for meets anyways. If I head to the track before rush hour, I can be there in about 15-20 minutes. The track is really nice and surrounding the facility are lots of great trails, so I am hoping to get a few runs in before/after practice.

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Yesterday’s meet went well – some good results including a couple of 1st place finishes and quite a few PB’s (Personal Bests for you non-running people). We have a few more invitational meets before we head into OFSAA qualifying season. Hopefully the team keeps improving and we excel at our big meets!

What do I do at track meets? Quite a bit of watching and running around. I have athletes competing in the field as well as the track, so I rotate between all the events. I circle races that I want to make sure I’m watching, as well as write down names and times of events. For the long distance races (1500m and 3000m), I also call out lap times to whoever is running. I also give many ‘high fives’ and say many yay’s in a day. Once we get to our OFSAA qualifying meets, I have to officiate events – this year it is the triple jump. During those times, it gets very hectic as I am measuring jumps and yelling at people at the track at the same time. I remember a race two years ago when it looked like one of my girls and another runner were having a chit chat during a 3000m. I believe my exact words (being screamed) were “what is this, a tea party? Move your butts!”. Good times!

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For those who are interested in Run Disney events – there is some news about Disney Princess Half! – There will be a 10K race on the Saturday now, AND a new special medal (Glass Slipper) for those who run both the 10K race and the half marathon. I’m hoping to possibly run at Disney next year – but I also put my name in the draw for the NYC Marathon, so it could be one or the other. I cannot afford two destination races, so we will see in May if I get a spot for NYC! Registration for Princess is on June 11th.

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Random Moment

What do you all have in your desk drawers? This is my desk:

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I have my Sharpie Pen collection hidden away, as well as a bag of Peanut Butter M&M’s. Yum!

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Manic Monday: Track Practice

Hi all,

As usual I am a tad bit busy with things today – still trying to get my 52 Things post done, will get that done eventually :-S.

Today was busy with work things as usual and I even have a list of things to do for tomorrow started already. But – the big news of the day is that we had our first track practice of the year today! You may or may not have noticed that I did not really discuss Cross Country season – because it did not happen. Today was my return to coaching and it was nice. Since the track is buried in snow, we are currently inside for practice.

Today’s workout included:

- 5 minute running warm-up

- Some free-weights

- Suicides

- 3 minutes of stair climbing

- Tabata squat jumps

- Planks to push-up position

Good workout and the kids did well!  Tomorrow is our first morning practice. Normally I stay away from AM practices (because I like to sleep) but I cannot stay after school on Tuesday/Thursdays so I’ve had to suck it up buttercup and hold some morning practices. It works because most of the students have evening track practice on Tuesdays/Thursdays and have trouble going from practice to practice. I am trying to get a few students into a meet for Wednesday – but still waiting word on that.

Speaking of running – I bought some new running shoes yesterday at Sports 4 as they were having a sale at their closing Kanata location. Yes – they are the exact same pair as last year’s shoes, but they worked really well for me last season!

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Tonights dinner = chili! I love chili. Major comfort food and is very protein-heavy. On top of my chili I added avocado and shredded St. Alberts cheese to my dish. Delicious!

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For dessert – I had a Drumstick McFlurry – Oh yeah!

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Three Things Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends out there. I am enjoying looking at everyone’s food pictures on Twitter and Instagram!

 

Thing #1 – Back to coaching?!?!!!

 

So, you may or may not have noticed the lack of ‘coaching’ posts on this blog. At the beginning of the school year we headed into a period where extra-curricular activities were considered voluntary. At my school we choose not to partake in extra-curriculars for a period of time (some schools kept going however). With the news that my school board has reached a tentative contract – I am hoping this means that extra-curriculars can resume! Although my cross country season is long gone, I am looking forward to my 5th year of coaching track and field!

Thing #2 – Turkey Pho

I had quite a large amounts of hits on my blog for ‘turkey pho’ yesterday. If you are cooking a gobble gobble turkey lurkey today, how bout you save your bones and make some turkey pho on the weekend! I promise you that you won’t be disappointed and that you won’t be headed to sodium-bomb city after eating it! The workings of making Turkey Pho can be found HERE

 

Thing #3 – Max was sick

I got a call at school on Monday afternoon saying that Max was sick. After finishing my class, I drove to his daycare to pick him up. Poor lil guy was all fever-like and looking at me like I just cancelled Christmas. I took him home, called the doctor and stayed home on Tuesday with him. Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning he got up every hour screaming his head off. Made for a lovely night. Last night he went to bed around 7:30 and slept til 6:30pm. He is back at daycare today, yay! His “girlfriend” (a little girl at daycare) was waiting for him and said “yaaaaaaay MAX! MAX!” when he  arrived this morning – she is a cutie!

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OFSAA Re-Cap

After three long days – track is finally over! We had a fantastic season, ending with a great time at OFSAA Brockville. All that is left of my coaching season is Athletic Banquet tomorrow, and Coaches Banquet (which is board-wide) on Thursday. This season went by incredibly fast – and it went by without too many hiccups from Max, yay!

OFSAA Day 1 

We left at lunch to go see Nick at the long jump. We were pleasantly surprised with an almost empty parking lot. I heard lots of other people were parking at the mall or on the street. Rather than fight for parking and parallel parking a large car that wasn’t mine – I just drove to the official parking lot. It had about a 5-10 minute walk with it, but that was fine with us!

When we got there we registered and headed to the apparel line-up as we literally got there early enough to try and get our choice of clothes. Oh my, was that line large! It took us about 2 hrs to get through the line, the worst I have ever seen it! In the line we were checking out what was coming out. The were girls and guys hoodies (Alexia and I both got a large girls – and we are not big people!) and really nice t-shirts in great colours. Of course we got all excited about the t-shirts. I didn’t go in the store because I had Max in the Chariot, so Alexia took all the money and went to pick up things for the team. She came back and said that the girls t-shirts were sold out in mediums and larges (they are girls fit and the XS is literally for children). BOO!

Nick didn’t do so hot in the long jump and was a bit disappointed. However, this event is not the one he trains for, so he wasn’t too terribly disappointed.

Day 2

We left stupidly early (6:45am) on Friday to get Alexia there on time. We made excellent time as traffic doesn’t start in Ottawa until 7:30. Nathan and I took all of our stuff and set up just beside the stands as the Chariot could not go in the stands (duh). We met up with Alexia’s Mom, and our ‘cheering squad’ of Jaimee and Leah (btw, they should have been parent approved away from school CW staff….). Alexia and Kevin had their sprint hurdles, and we knew that the races would be fast – especially since Alexia was running against last year’s Gold medalist). They both PB’d in their races, but did not make the finals. Kevin was a bit more disappointed as he came in 9th – one spot away from finals. But as I pointed out – last year he didn’t make OFSAA by one spot, which is 100x worse

Afterwards was Nathan in the 100m. He as well PB’d, but did not make the finals. He came in 15th overall. The 100m is really really competitive! He was totally happy just to have had a good race and to PB. I should also note that our ‘cheering squad’ (which now included Nathan’s family) was the loudest one :-D

We watched some more races – and then at the ‘track break’ decided to head to the McD’s for lunch. Holy zoo batman! It was absolutely crazy in there. I saw some locals who were trying to have a ‘kids outing’ in the play area, but oh my….I would have just packed it up and headed 10KM away from there. It calmed down eventually and I asked the counter lady (they are all older ladies) if she was having fun and she laughed and said “I haven’t had this much fun since my last root canal!” LOOOL.

We went back to watch the opening ceremonies (which included a cannon – YEAHHH) and the sprint hurdle finals. Alexia’s mom drove the kids home and Max and I headed to the Starbucks for some frappacino.

Day 3

We didn’t have to head out as early. Only Nathan was racing, but I convinced Alexia and Jaimee to join us for the day (which now I am really glad I did…as explained below). We made even better time and got there in only about an hour. We did miss the girl’s 300m hurdles, but did get to catch the boys. I did not bring Max, so it was nice to actually get to watch the races that day! We saw the 800m races go by before Nathan’s 200m.

So Nathan’s race was on – and he came in 3rd with a PB. How OFSAA works is there is 3 heats – top 2 go on, followed by the next 2 fastest times. As soon as he finished – Kevin (who was watching from home), texts me saying “I think finals!!!”. We then went on our phones to hit refresh 500x to get the live results from Ottawa Lions. That didn’t work. We finally heard the announcements that he was in!! Of course we seemed to be the only people cheering :-) . So Nathan and his parents went in search of food and AC/shade while we stayed to watch the hurdle finals and 3000m races.

We went back to McD’s after for some lunch and A/C and then back to the track. It was really hot in the stands, and a big thank you to McD’s for putting up with us! The OFSAA Clothing people also had more t-shirts (but only in red – not the nice aqua blue, darn!), so I picked some up for myself and Kevin.

Nathan ran a great race – and came in 8th. Unfortunately that was his last race as a CW Wildcat, as his family is moving to my old neck of the woods in the summer. We do look forward to seeing Nathan at OFSAA next year!

We had a good time at OFSAA. It was different this year since we did not have to stay overnight – but we still had a great time.

Results

Nathan – 100m, 15th overall – 200m, 8th overall

Kevin – 110m Hurdles – 9th overall

Alexia – 80m Hurdles – 11th overall

Nick – Long Jump – 24th overall

 

 

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Busy Friday!

Busy day at OFSAA! We left Ottawa just before 7am and came back around 3pm. Had a great time with the team. I will post a full re-cap probably on Monday – but today Kevin, Alexia and Nathan all ran PB’s in their events! They didn’t make it to the finals – but the next best thing is to have a PB in your event!

Luckily we left before the thunderstorms came – apparently there was a tornado warning about 15 minutes away! Crazy!

I am sufficiently tired and heading back out at 8am to pick up the kids and head back for the last day of OFSAA 2012!

 

 

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East-OFSAA Recap

If you follow me on FB or Twitter, you know that we are bringing 4 athletes to OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations for you non-Ontario friends). This is the biggest team to go to OFSAA in at least four years!

Qualifiers:

- Kevin: 110m Hurdles

- Alexia: 80m Hurdles

- Nick: Long Jump

- Nathan: 100m and 200m Sprints

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The competition was 1.5 days; Thursday afternoon and all day Friday. I only had to take Nathan, Alexia and Jaimee on Thursday and we were finished in a few hours. The Thursday only has a smaller group, so the track (at a high school in Brockville) wasn’t too busy. The weather cooperated and we had a good time.

Jaimee had her high jump, which isn’t her event. Her goal was to come in ‘not last’, and she reached that goal, coming in 11th. Nathan won his heat in the 200m sprints, and then came in 2nd in the finals. He has not hit his PB in a few weeks, so I am curious to see if he does that this Saturday at OFSAA! Alexia ran a PB in the 300m hurdles, but came in 5th (top 4 go to OFSAA). The east hurdlers are really really good, and it sucks that you have a great time, but don’t qualify for OFSAA. Looking at the performance list for this week: she is easily in the top half, but that is how this works.

After the meet, we headed to dinner to fill up on pasta. Little disappointed that Alexia did not finish her giant pile of pasta…….(inside joke)

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Day 2 was a busier day for us. We loaded up in the car at 7:30 and headed to Brockville again. The traffic was reasonable and we got there in about an hour. When we turned on to the 401, we could see dark clouds and of course it started to rain. The rain wasn’t too bad, until 5pm when it just started pouring. We got completely soaked, and so did all of our gear. Since day 2 was busier, there were tents everywhere. I am a little worried that with OFSAA being gigantic, we will have no space for a tent for Friday. Normally this isn’t an issue because we have 1) shaded stands and 2) an inside location like an university athletic building. We have neither of these things this year since we will be at a high school.  Even if the day is sunny, we still need shelter from the sun/heat. Not sure how this is going to work….

Anyhoo, events. Alexia, Kevin and Nathan easily qualified for their hurdles/100m finals. The jumps however, not so good. At our facility in Ottawa our pits have take-off boards, the ones at this meet just had a painted line. We are not sure whether it was the rain, being tired or the boards, but our jumping was not up to our standards on Friday. Nick was the only one who qualified out of the 4 jumpers. Nathan, Kevin and Jaimee were well under their usual jumps. It happens though.

The sprint hurdle finals were pretty nerve-wreaking. It is Kevin’s last year and Alexia really wanted to qualify (ok, who doesn’t?) so it was all up to the hurdles. Luckily they both came in 3rd, without PB’s. Nathan did not have a good start in his 100m, but he still came in 4th to qualify. He should have been 2nd, so again, it will be interesting to see how he does at OFSAA.

So that is that. Last week of track and field for 2012 is here!

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Funny: on the way to the finish-line portion of the stands, I was carrying Max in my arms. Each time I passed by, I could hear people going ‘ohhh look at the baby…awww’. Kind of weird. Yes, it is a baby….?

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You know you are a track/running coach when….

At East OFSAA this week, I started thinking about things that one may do if they are a track/running coach. All of these are from my own experiences…and some happen multiple times through-out the season.

 

ENJOY

You know you are a Track/Running coach when:

1) You find safety pins everywhere – in your bag, car, on the floor….everywhere

2) You own more pairs of running shoes than dress shoes – and when you have to wear said dress shoes, it feels so unnatural

3) You get some wicked sock-tan

4) It is not at all unusual that you have a relay baton in your baby’s stroller. Or purse/backpack/car

5) Words like : PB, Stride, Starts, Warm-up, Cool-down, pace, qualifier, spikes, pinny, stutter-step are used on a daily (if not hourly on race day) basis

6) When you are faced with an ‘exchange only’ policy at a store when returning dress pants – you decide to exchange them for more work-out wear

7) You like to run races too – and you bet that you indeed have a medal wall

8 ) Hearing things like ‘stress-fracture’, ‘shin splints’, ‘torn ligament’ makes you want to curse to the heavens

9) You ask “what did you have for dinner/lunch/breakfast” and no one things you are weird. You also have a ready supply of snacks in your bag in case anyone is hungry

10) You encourage students to wear more spandex and students come up to you and tell you that they bought blue (or whatever the school colours are) spandex over the weekend

 

OFSAA ON THURSDAY!

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Manic Monday!

Here is another week!  It is a slightly busy week, but manageable.  Mostly track and field, but at the same time it is slowing down.

Coming up this week:

Track and Field

Practices are pretty much done. Just a practice today and that is it for the week (if the weather holds up). I am down to 5 kids, 4 of them being Ottawa Lions kids who practice in the evenings. We are just going to be working on jumps for the entire group (the runners will get their practice via the Lions).

We have East OFSAA on Thursday/Friday. Looking at the performance listing, all 5 have the potential to move on. Alexia and Kevin will have to PB to make it, but they are literally right there. Both can do it though! Only thing I’m worried about is Alexia did the 10K on Saturday, and Kevin competed in his first decathlon. But maybe that will help?

Other Stuff

Pretty low-key week here. Nothing on the agenda until Saturday. I don’t plan on doing much other than applying for Max’s passport, taking some clothes back to Winners and actually making dinner.

Training

I’m not running this week, and I will not be running until I get fitted for proper shoes. My next race is Emilie’s Run, a fast 5K. So therefore my training will be focusing on getting faster. My goal for this race is an overall PB. My last PB set in the Army Run of 2010 was 28:55 and I plan on smashing that. Emilie’s Run is the same course as the Mother’s Day 5K I just did, and as you might remember from my re-cap post: the first KM is downhill and fast. Given that I will not be running with the chariot this time, the plan is to charge up that incline at the end.

So basically, training for the next month is just focusing on speed. I already have the distance down pat.

After that race, I have the Warrior Run, which is just for fun. It is a 5K race with obstacles. I do need to do some upper body weight training though! I have such weak lil arms! :-)

After that, I am done racing for the summer. However one of the things I said about the 10K race I just ran was that if I didn’t hate it, I would run the Army Run Half Marathon this year.

So…..

 

 

I am running my first half-marathon coming up in September!

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National Capital Invitation Re-cap

Yesterday was the National Capital Track and Field Meet held by the Ottawa Lions. We have attended this meet every year and use it as our last ‘practice meet’ before the big ones which start up next week. Basically we test out the events students want to do and work out the kinks before it really matters. I had almost the entire team out this time (invitationals are optional and school comes first). It was an Ok-day. We had numerous top 3 finishes, but we were not exactly happy with our results.

Recap:

Weather

As the Weather Network is horrible at forecasting the weather, we were unsure of what was going to happen. Of course, the worst happened and we had a rainy and cold meet. Most of us looked at the temp and though 14 degrees, that isn’t so bad. Let me tell you it felt MUCH colder than 14 degrees. Not sure if it ever went past 10 degrees. Even 10 isn’t that bad. It was the damp that really sucked. It rained pretty hard at around 3pm as well. I felt really bad for the 800m runners who were soaking wet for their races. It looks like next week we could have a sunny and warm meet….keep your fingers crossed

Results

My Lions kids were a hit and miss. Kevin had a big PB in his 110 hurdles. He is now in the 14 second area, which if he keeps this up, will allow him to go to OFSAA. Nick tied for 1st in the High Jump. Nathan got 2nd in all his events. He was a tad bit slower and admitted to not having a good day. Alexia got 3rd in the 400m, and first in both hurdle events. Now you would think ‘yay!’, but Alexia can do better and her coach, myself and her all know that. She was 3 seconds off of her 300m Hurdle time. Again, in order to get to OFSAA you have to really push yourself. We have time though.

I know it sounds like we are being elitist or something like that, but you have to remember that my Lions kids train year round for this and have tremendous potential. We also know how competitive it gets once we get out of the city competitions. For example: Alexia ran a 50s 300m Hurdles. Although she was first by a large margin, that time would not get her to OFSAA. They know it too: it is not like we are bursting their bubble. They were not happy either! :-)

Our 4×100 team had an OK time (50 seconds), but not great. We haven’t had much opportunity to practice and our last exchange went bad. Nick stepped on Kevin’s foot (wearing spikes…ouch) and we went from 2nd to 5th in a heartbeat. 3 of the 4 boys on the relay team are in the 11-second mark for the 100m, so we should be aiming for 45 second.  Speaking of being fast, you should have seen Stringbean (aka Nick) go…he is getting fast!

The rest of the team had an ok day. Debbie greatly improved in her hurdle events. Infact her 300m hurdles looked really good, she is finally getting the upper body portion of jumping a hurdle right, way to go! Dan did much better at the 3000m. He is totally capable of the distance (he runs half marathons and was top 30 in XCountry), we just need to work on running the race. Tyler’s 100m time is looking much better. Sarah and Debora, our exchange students, are doing great and really enjoying the experience.

Next meet: East Ottawa Conference. My prediction is that Nick, Nathan and Alexia will sweep their events….or at least that is what I am hoping!!

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