Winter, which took a vacation in 2012, has arrived in full force with cold, wind and snow in the forecast. Last year, the impact of our sudden lack of facilities was not felt too much due to the mild winter. Now, now, NOW ... we surely miss that old McCann Track. In fact, this morning I caught myself staring longingly at the women's basketball team practice in the McCann Arena. I had no real interest in what they were doing, to be honest; they are a great team, but basketball drills hold no fascination for me. It was just a longing to be able to give my 11 a.m. practice group the option of an easy hour of laps around the gym, followed by a hard interval workout in the confines of our campus. Yeah, I miss that old track. But alas, that is a thing of the past. Here is how are busy Tuesday shook out ...
11 a.m. practice: Small group of men's distance runners arrives in the racquetball court that we call home. All are commenting about the cold. Yeah, it is cold. They did not get any push-back from this old coach when the suggestion of a treadmill workout was raised by several members of the team. However, four hearty souls opted for a Luty Loops workout. (Side note: Omar did Luty Loops, solo, at 7 a.m., before his classes today; that's dedication, man)
Luty Loops: It was cold out there. Did I mention that? I spent much of the practice sitting inside the van. The guys who did this workout -- Justin Tamp, Lappas, Meegan, Dan Stan -- got through it with toughness and ability that was inspiring to me. Given the brutal cold, I gave them the option of a shortened cooldown. I made a beeline to the South Hyde Park Stewart's shop for a cup of coffee. I told them I would wait there and they could ride back from that point, cutting the normal 3-mile cooldown in half. The wind was howling; four steps from the van to the shop had me shivering. So, it was no surprise that all four entered the van without hesitation; smart move on their part. Nicely done.
SUNY practice: A large group of mostly middle and long distance men and women trekked over to SUNY for Big Blue Doughnut interval work. New Paltz is in session now, so that made things tricky on the track, as students and other fitness center members wanted to jog some laps. We made it work. The women and men ran a great workout. It should be noted that only two men warmed up and cooled down outside today. Very understandable.
Sprinter starts: Back in Poughkeepsie, Coach Horton led the sprinters through some block starts in the narrow tunnel behind the bleachers in the McCann Arena. Tomorrow, it's over to the Doughnut for some speed.
Spackenkill practice: Also back in Poughkeepsie, Coach Chuck took Michelle and Katie to the Spartan track for an interval workout. Chuck texted me that the wind chill was 3 above. Hey. It could have been 3 below. Wow. That's cold. The report was it was a great practice out in the wind and cold.
And so, on a frigid Tuesday in the dead of winter, the Marist Track Family keeps on keepin' on. We are proud of them all.
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