We hope everyone's enjoyed their time off from running. As we approach the new year, it's time to start preparing for track season. Here's a quick message from Coach Hasenstein about our plans for the winter:
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with their families. I know that we all have much to be thankful for.
This coming Monday our distance runners would normally start their off season conditioning through our Winter Running Club. With school activities being on a pause and the start of the Track and Field Season being delayed until mid April I want to remind all of our runners to ease back into some easy running and body conditioning in the coming weeks. Training should be moderate, fun and varied at this point of the year. Additionally, if you need new training shoes (consider if you are over 300 miles on your current shoes) please make sure you are taking the time to get fitted properly. Proper winter running gear (Hat, gloves, moisture wicking undergarments) are also highly recommended
My advice would be for all training groups to start in with 50% of their normal training volume for a week and alternate running days and cross training days. For Freshman and new runners that would be roughly 10-12/week, Sophomores and JV should start out between 12-15/week and our experienced/Varsity runners 18-25/week. Cross training would include any non running (bike, row, elliptical, etc) on off days. Additionally, I highly recommend that everyone concentrates on total body conditioning through weightlifting, body weight exercises and core strength exercises. Having a home gym is not necessary to accomplish our strength training goals. The GBS Physical Education Dept. has been sharing fantastic information/websites for our students on how to stay fit at home....One of my favorite websites is Darebee which has over 1500 workouts loaded on it and can be customized to all levels of ability/fitness
Another area that all of runners can continue to improve on is their running form and what coaches like to call running economy. Core exercises will help to strengthen the body to maintain better posture while form drills will work on both flexibility and the efficiency of running. Like any other sport, the fastest runners always seem to make it look easy. Here are some suggestions for running form drills...(can be done as part of daily warm up, cooldown or on cross training days). Please feel free to research your own and add on to what we already do. One point of emphasis would be to have someone watch you or video tape you so that you make sure you are doing these correctly. No sense doing them if you are not doing them correctly!
As new information becomes available the coaches will update you on potential in person training as well as new training suggestions, etc. I am researching how we can best chart our mileage as a team to hold each other accountable...until then, please keep track of your own mileage.
Bundle up, train intelligently and have fun!
-Coach Hasenstein
Don't forget to join our team Strava club so you can keep track of your running and see how everyone else is doing. Happy running!
