in Uncategorized by coach mike on 30 Sep 2009
New guy at practice! His name is “better form” Davis!
September 2009
Monthly Archive
in Uncategorized by coach mike on 30 Sep 2009
I have been on “vacation” since last Thursday, 5 days off from work plus 2 days of a weekend. I don’t think of vacation unless you go somewhere, so it was a bit weird. Didn’t know what to do with myself. One day I went to the doctor and had some moles frozen, I’m going to have to go back, one of the moles didn’t fall off, so I guess I get to have the mole cut out. Another day I went to a 5 hour refresher course for my Food Service Sanitation Certificate. The other days I had cross country practice. So I’m back to the office in the AM hour. We had a meet last weekend at SIU-C, guess what it rain again, right before the race and then quit and the sun came out and made things like a steam bath. On top of that the course was a muddy mess. The kids are doing a good job, but they are not happy with their times, I keep telling them, the girls specially that most of the races they ran last year in high school were not 5K races. Its good they are not happy with things, just so they don’t get down on themselves too much. The guys are running the long distance, and they are stilling adjusting to it, plus we just do not have enough base miles. We have had a very good week of practice so far. Two good hard days, plus some good distance work out, well one so far, Thursday will be another good mileage day. I think we are close to turning the corner with our times, we are off this weekend and back at it next week at SIU-E-mud mountain! So boy, I’m sure it will rain or last time I was there it snowed!
in Uncategorized by coach mike on 20 Sep 2009
Big meet. Lots of good teams there and teams with big numbers. Fun to watch and be a part of. Its always hard to tell how your team is doing because there is so many runners. But after the dust had cleared, we did ok. The girls times were not as good as they had ran some races in high school, but we need to remember-1st the course was a full 5K, while most HS courses are from 2.9 to 3 miles. 2nd-though the course looked easy to run, it wasn’t, lots of ups and downs add time to your time-3rd just like driving your car, when there’s lots of traffic we seem to drive slower (most people anyway, ok most people drive faster, I drive slower!) Our times will get better, if we keep working, that will be the big thing-we have to keep working. Some of us have not started to work hard yet, so we need to get that going also. On the men side, that was their first 8K race, we weren’t sure how to attack the race, I think we probably learned a lot there. I think some of us went out to fast. The start was such a big start, with so many runners, but we can’t do things that we are not able to do yet. I watched the Northern Illinois team and the U of I team and they went out as a group and stayed together for the first part of the race, I know we can’t do that yet, but we can learn from it. As I told the guys a pack of wolves is meaner and tougher than a single wolf. Somehow we need to work it together for awhile and then break off, but that means the weakest have to become stronger and not the stronger weaker! Our goals are to-stay healthy, continue to work, and to improve as our season goes on so we are running our best times at the end of the season. One last and I use the the word last, note, we were not last in either race as teams, or individuals!
in Uncategorized by coach mike on 17 Sep 2009
The meet will be held at Weibring Golf Course at the corner of Adelaide Street and Gregory Street on the northwest corner of campus. Women’s 5K and men’s 8 K open starts at 4:15. Women’s 5K Championship at 5:00 pm and Men’s 8K championship at 5:45. Shannon make sure you wear your socks!
in Uncategorized by coach mike on 16 Sep 2009
New rankings cameout0, we still aren’t in the top 25. Of coarse we have not ran in two weeks so I guess you would not move up. Just got off the phone with a man that writes an on line column about area college sports, the web site is www.collegereportonline.com, I have not been to it yet but will check it on it a minute. We head north to ISU on Friday, the guys have had a good week of work, I think we would be ready to have a good meet, if not for the fact that Josh is still not sure about his health. The girls I’m not sure about because with their jobs and their class schedules I don’t see them together as a group very often. I guess I will know more on Friday.
Rankings are cool, but this early, doesn’t matter much, but would be nice to end up in the top 25 or 30 at the end of the season. But with our lack of depth, we have no room to spare.
in Uncategorized by coach mike on 07 Sep 2009
I have been in northern Illinois since Sunday. My daughter was in Chicago visiting her good friend that is getting married in November. Audrey is the matron of honor so she was here for a bridal shower and to check out the party site for next weekend. So Vicky and I drove up here for the weekend to see Audrey. I was sitting on a bench in Lake Gevena, WI when my brother called me to tell me that Barb Smith the supt. at Salem Community High School had passed away with a heart attack today. Barb was one a special person, she was a simple person in that you could talk to her and she would listen. She would take care of problems, and had that school running in right direction. She was planning on retiring at the end of the school year. She will be missed. Our thoughts go out to her family.
in Uncategorized by coach mike on 06 Sep 2009
There are full results now posted on the Washington University web site. The Blue Angels were 10th and the Blue Devils 15th.
in Uncategorized by coach mike on 06 Sep 2009
The KC Men ready to race-in the rain-first time in history!
in Uncategorized by coach mike on 05 Sep 2009
Wasn’t sure if it was a cross country meet or a swim meet. It rained all day-the whole time-never stopped. Never let up. This is why we have tents at cross country meets! We didn’t have one- we need one but how do we transport it? Was not enough room in the school van. Anyway-I thought the kids ran well for the conditions and for it being our first meet. We have to keep in mind that we are running against mostly 4 year schools, which means there is a big age difference. Jordan Jones ran well, ran very well in the mens’ race. Josh for being sick for the last month ran as well as he could-I just hope we don’t loose him because of his physical problems. Tyler and Colin had good first races, I’m sure Colin has not ran in many races of this size and with this amount of talent, not that Tyler has, but the Peoria Invite is pretty big. Camrod keeps getting better and had the best socks of the meet. I’m sure Wes was totally overwhelmed by all of this, but he should just keep getting better. Corey is still working to get in better shape and he will, if he can get past his shin problems. On the women’s side-Danielle had a great first race, you can tell she was been putting in the miles, Mollie looked real good, as good as I have seen her in years, you can tell she is into it. Carie was a little overwhelmed, she works real hard on the coarse and now that we have that first race, she will get better. I was proud of Shannon, she raced very well, and looked better with her form, she will get better. Jenn did very well for that first race, and we are talking since grade school, she has the most room to improve and if we can get that improvement the team will be better. Once we get her up to Shannon. Lindsey under the conditions had a good race. New Lindsay-tough way to start but at she has a good outlook on it and should improve as she gets in better shape. Bad news is after looking at the results-some of our runners were not listed, not sure if they had problems with the timing chips or what? So as of now we did not have a team score because some of our runners didn’t get times!
We can get better-we will get better. Monday needs to be a distance day, on your own. Then I’ll see you at the school on Tuesday.
Coach