TEMPO RUN JUNE 30 LINCOLN HS

I'm jealous as I wish I could get a decent bunch of guys to turn up for training and be so motivated and hard working. Well done coach you must be doing something right man!
Keep pushing 'em hard to get the results and success you and the team deserve.

btw, this is galen rupps high school coach along with alsal

I honestly do not see the big deal everyone is making. The coach obviously knows what he is doing , otherwise no one would show up for practice. He seems to have some respectly runners and a good turnout. If you listen to what he says, they get "progressively better." What I say is, "keep it up coach." Have a great season. Letting the world know what your school is doing can help to motivate your kids, if the whole world sees them they will run faster. Just wanted to say good job and besides , I am training for collegiate Cross Country and honestly when you are trying to but fitness the place that lets you do it with the least bit of terrain change, to allow the note of progressive improvement, is probally the best.

Sorry I forgot to address this question... Every kid is different; for those kids it's a good start to their summer. It's unlikely that either of those kids will be FL finalists, but we work in a world where positive reinforcement goes a long ways. Either or both of those boys might end up on our varsity if they continue to develop - and even if they don't I want them to have great seasons. Whether you're a 16:00 kid trying to be a 15:00 kid or a 20:00 kid trying to be a 19:00 kid, your improvement is what we're after; neither of those kids ran that fast (24:58) last fall - so this is, relatively, a very impressive effort on June 30th.

I'll keep you posted throughout the season on their progress. :-)

We do most of our tempo runs on the track for a number of reasons...

1) It's completely objective; yes, I understand that it's not as interesting as some other possibilities, but on the track we know exactly what we're getting. Early in the year I want to get an idea where each kid is so I can adapt their future workouts to match their fitness. I also understand that it's not as directly specific to cross country as other surfaces, but we do plenty of our efforts - hard, moderate, and easy - on grass, trails, bark chips, etc..
We sometimes do tempo on a bike path or on a bark chip loop or, this year we'll also go to Reed College which has a nice 1/2 mile cinder loop - but many of our tempo efforts are on the track.
2) Using a repeated loop (laps on the track) allows me to monitor all of the kids; if we go on an out and back it's tough to see everyone - and give them feedback.
3) Given that most kids don't have exactly the same tempo pace, we set up a few pace groups. Usually I assign kids to a group - particularly at this time of the year - that is slower than I think they can run. If they appear to be relatively comfortable, we move them to the next group for our next effort (10-14 days later).
Our athletes are instructed during tempo to never "red-line"; at any point that they feel like they're having a difficult time staying on the prescribed pace they are to sit out a lap and jump back in the next lap. Yes, I understand that this isn't true tempo, but it accomplishes a great many things - notably not having any kid have to run 3 or 4 miles solo. We took this idea from George Malley's "Summer of Malmo" (full Summer of Malmo can be found here: http://pih.bc.ca/summerofmalmo.html). By using the track and the "sit out a lap" we generally keep decent sized groups together with very few gaps - which is good. It's easier to run in a group - don't worry, we do plenty of work which challenges the kids mental toughness as well - and it teaches them to run in groups, something that many young runners are not used to doing. The group dynamic, particularly in cross country, is a huge factor in distance running success.
I'm sure that there's more, but that should suffice for now. Please don't hesitate to ask if you have more questions; I don't claim that our way is the only way, but we've had some reasonable success over the years using this model. Then again, we've had really dedicated, hard working, and super-talented kids over the years - so it's entirely possible that our success has been in spite of our system and my insensitivity.

Maybe he did it on the track cus he doesn't have a course that is marked, and he wanted splits? I remember when my school first opened we used the track cus we didn't have a course. But to CE, lighten up, he was just kidding, I hate political correctness, you gotta bring some common sense when dealing with people. We joked with our coach, and he joked with us all the time...its what made cross-country entertaining, and I think my coach is awesome.

Its a shame to listen to a coach make fun of one of his athletes because of the color of his skin. Not classy, professional, or mature. Glad I didn't run for this guy.

why is 24:58 for 4 miles even remotely impressive?

Just wondering but why would you do a 4 mile tempo on a track for xc?

Mr. Brown - unfortunately that is not our facility. Lincoln's track is, much of the time, a public facility - and it is easily accessible to our kids. We work with coaches and kids from many teams, and the Lincoln coach has given us her blessing to use the track throughout the summer.

Mr. Malloy - my association with Nick Baker (and his star of the late '70s Jim Smith) goes back many years, and I'm sure he'd understand what we're doing in terms of our training. Good luck to your son and the Haddonfield team this fall; it would be great to meet you in Portland with both of our teams running NXN!

I was 2800 miles from home in Portland, Oregon on the Lincoln track with my daughter doing a repeats workout on June 29th.

It was interesting to see this video so close to that. Seemed like a where do we stand starting the summer type workout.

Coach Frank you do have a nice facility.

Thanks Malmo... It's always good to have your support.

Given our reasonable level of success over the years, I'm not likely to change my plan based on one man's criticism...
frankie out.

Come to think of it, I'd bet FeartheFork's kids DO run for Dave. Ooooops.

"A four mile tempo run on the track in July? Glad my kids don't run for this guy!"

I'd bet his kids are glad they don't run for you.

Thanks Joe...

We start at a pace about 30-40 seconds slower per mile than we ran in the spring and progress throughout the season.
Of course it's clear that I have no idea what I'm doing based on previous results - and the clear unhappiness of my athletes. ;-)
Dave