FTTF Analysis

As we arrived at Detweiller Park on Friday evening for our normal Friday routine with some easy running and a few strides it was cool and misty.  The grass was covered in a nice layer of mist and water.  I watched as the college meet was being run and our guys jogged the course, loose and excited for a fun week of racing.  The college guys were moving pretty well, and looking at the course I was reminded of one of the great things about Detweiller, it is so hard packed that it takes a lot for the course to not run very fast. 

The LWN crew has always run the First to the Finish meet, it has become a tradition of the program.  We head down after school Friday hit the course for practice then get dressed to the nines for dinner.  Then we wake up and get ready to roll on Saturday morning.

I love the idea of a test run of the state meet weekend, but the fear is always putting too much emphasis on running fast in September and overlook the fact that it is simply a step in the process towards ending the season with your fastest running.  When we met as a team Friday night before lights out, we discussed just this idea.  FTTF is a chance to run a fast time because of the competition and the course conditions, but to keep the weekend in perspective.

Saturday was a cool crisp morning, we got to the course watched the 2A races and then got ready to roll as the 3A girls took their chance.  Varsity guys were up first.  They executed very well.  All 10 in the race ran PRs.  They gathered after the race to congratulate one another on a great run, they got trainers on and hit some hill sprints to end the day’s workout followed by their cool down.

Next up was the open race, as we gathered and talked before the race I told the guys a well-run race would result in a PR, to be willing to trust their fitness and get out and be aggressive.  Again, all 19 in the race ran PRs.

As I looked over the results on the drive home, I looked back over what we did last year (my first as the head coach) to see how we have improved in the past 12 months.  Here are a few notes on the results.

First, we rewrote the school record book, in the varsity race we ran the #1 (Chomiak), #3 (Healy), #6 (Harris), and #10 (Niendorf) time in school history.

If we would have run a dual meet taking the results from 2013 versus this year, our current team would have won by a score of 18 to 39.

Here is a chart showing average times:

Here is a list of guys breaking time barriers:

Those last two charts are really telling of what has changed on the team, so many guys top to bottom on the team have made the decision in the past year to do things the right way to get better.  The hard work guys have been putting in is really starting to pay off.

The results from yesterday are very encouraging, they are huge step in the right direction for the Phoenix.  The work you guys are putting in is creating a tradition of excellence.