Yesterday was the first day of R-MA’s Cross Country Season.
Since I teach at the middle school, I had to hurry to make it to practice on
time due to scheduling conflicts. As I crested the hill to go towards our
meeting point, I saw a wave of students in athletics. A cacophony of noise went
out upon my approach, “Coach Ilnicki!” “Ill-a-becky” and “COOOAAACH!” were
among the battle cries.
Overwhelmed, I shuffled my way through the barrage of
high-fives, fist bumps, and the occasional “bro hug.”
The 2014 R-MA XC Team (source: http://www.rma.edu/Varsity-cross-country)
WOW! Is this some kind of joke? Why are there so many?
Scanning the crowd, I estimated around 35 students. Whoa, what? We usually have
a team of around 15-20 (actual roster number is 44 – this does not include the
middle school runners)!
Not anticipating this huge of a turn out, or the range of
abilities, I was briefly knocked off my game. I gathered myself, found a high
spot to stand on and asked for their attention. After a brief bit of
introductions and taking attendance (I only knew roughly half of the runners),
it was time to get down to business.
Baptism by fire would be the best way to describe the day.
3.1 miles of a grueling course out in the sun with its rays pelting your skin
until it was soaked with sweat. To much of my surprise, a good chunk were able
to finish the course with no shortcuts or stopping early (roughly 60%). Now, I’m
not saying it was fast, they were told to go easy, but heck – being able to run/walk
a 5K without a prior practice had me intrigued.
Now comes the challenging part. I believe in a “no-cut”
policy. If you are signing up to run and stick with it, you got my vote. If it’s
not your cup of tea, I understand if you quit. No hard feelings as running is
not for everyone. But the hard part now is separating the casual/social runners
from the elite.
I hate labeling students for a fear of self-fulfilling
prophecy. Sometimes if a coach says a runner should be in a slower group,
negative thoughts enter the brain, and now that runner doesn’t think they can
be fast enough. I also believe just the opposite can be true. If a runner is
deemed not fast enough at the beginning of the year, they might bust their tail
in order to prove to themselves that coach was wrong.
So, what’s this coach going to do? I’m not entirely sure.
This first week is going to be a time to feel out where everyone is at. From
there, I might make 3 distinct (with times/effort) groups: Club Group (there for
socialization, fitness goals, losing weight, but are non-competitive),
Intermediate Group (middle of the pack runners who have the potential to prove themselves and step up to a
higher level of competition) and Varsity Group (the runners who are
there to win and have produced fast enough times to be considered the top
runners).
This
model will be fluid, giving the runners a chance to switch groups when they
improve in performance. This will also allow me to tailor to their needs at
practice, i.e. a 30:00+ runner should not be doing the same thing as a sub
19:00.
As
a brief aside, I plan on chronicling both my XC team and my person marathon
training for the next few months. Let me know what you think, and by all means
feel free to give suggestions!
