Important note to men’s xc/distance team members: Practice time for spring 2012 semester will be 11 a.m., on ALL DAYS of the week. Please plan your course schedules accordingly. If there are major issues, let me know.
This decision is FINAL.
There had been a fair amount of discussion/debate about this in small groups. There was even serious consideration for an earlier practice time of 9:30 a.m., but that was squashed.
There are pros and cons to moving our practice time, but the pros far outweigh the cons. In fact, there really are no negatives to this move, in my humble opinion. Consider the spring semester a litmus test for this practice time. If it works out well, the change may be permanent.
Again, this time only impacts men’s xc/distance runners. All others (sprinters, women’s team) will continue with afternoon practice every day – except Wednesday, which will remain 11 a.m. for all.
Any questions or comments, let me know. Alumni and others who are interested in commenting, please leave a comment here or email me or text me. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
3 comments:
I think its a great move that makes a lot of sense. This makes practice the same time everyday (almost the same on weekends too). Practice is earlier so everyone has more energy but not too early that anyone has to skip breakfast. I think this will be even more beneficial during the fall semester so that practice is over before the hottest part of the day.
I'm not a big fan of the move. My body always has a tough time getting going in the morning. During the summer all my runs would be late night runs. I felt workouts I ran on Wednesdays, were inferior to those I ran at normal practice times. I attribute that to two major things: I'm not a morning person and I need food in my system before workouts or I feel weak. I would develop cramps and suffer whenever I tried to eat within two hours of a practice so in order to run effectively at 11:00am I would need to eat before 9:00am. As a runner, who greatly valued his sleep and shot for 10 hours a night, I'd need to go bed before 11:00pm to achieve that which isn't always realistic as a student athlete.
There's always scientific evidence that points to more effective running in the afternoon vs. the morning such as greater body temperature in the afternoon as well as greater lung function. For further information you can read up here: http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=7567&PageNum=3 .
I understand from a logistics standpoint 11am practice makes more sense with such a large program, but I don't know if the move is the best for those who aren't morning people, like myself.
Thanks for the comments, guys. I do not dispute any of Keegan's points regarding the science of it. They are valid. However, we are talking 11 a.m. here. It's not exactly 6 a.m. practices. I believe effective training can be achieved at 11 a.m. I feel serious student-athletes can easily adjust their schedules to make this work.
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