Welcome back

Hello men. It's been a while between posts, as we are "in between" seasons. I'll do my best to update this space regularly. As you know, my life is busy and sometimes there are gaps. I hope you understand.

To recap cross country one last time: It was a strong, positive season. There were far more positives than negatives. We achieved a lot of personal and team goals, we fell short on others. In other words: Life. We've had better seasons historically; we've had a lot worse ones as well. Again: Life.

Weather was more of a factor at meets than I can remember in years. Specifically, heat. Again: Life happens. We persevered after a midseason meltdown at Mets. Lesser teams would have folded up their tents and packed it in. This team did the exact opposite. Three weeks later at MAACs, we had another dominant performance, our best team moment of the season. And then we culminated it with a strong IC4A performance. Regionals was weird, as has been chronicled. But again, I cannot fault the effort nor the training.

And so we move on.

It has been a pleasure to meet one-on-one with you guys to discuss training, long-term and short-term goals. As a coach, it's what I live for. The longer I do this, the more I enjoy the PROCESS of coaching as much if not more than the RESULTS (meets, etc). And so this feeling out process -- especially with you freshmen, as I get to know you guys as runners -- is really a lot of fun. I hope you think I am "ill" as one recruit asked Duggan about me. Ha!

You guys are obviously very motivated, as each of you has gone out of your way to meet with me during this crazy week for me personally. If you have not yet pinned me down, let's do it this coming week. It's important. For me. For you.

The training groups this winter/spring will be:

1. Mid-distance (800 on down). This group will race mostly the 800, with occasional relay efforts and out of event races, not about 1000 meters.
2. Mile/3k (Distance 1). This group will race predominantly the mile/3k, but also will go up and down as needed or desired.
3. 3k/5k (Distance 2). This group will race predominantly the 3k/5k indoors and longer outdoors. Rarely if ever will these guys race under 3k, and when they do it will be an "out of event" meet to be sure. Also, this group is less likely to race frequently indoors.

I am rejuvenated and looking forward to indoors.

Embrace the training. The weather's cold and it's dark more frequently. Now is the time to work. To do work. It's all ahead of us now.

'Tis the season to be ... running.

See you soon.