Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Meet vs. Del Mar
Well we had a good meet this week. As always the scores are irrelevant. The most important stat, PRs, was ~23 PRs according to my count. In addition to that we had some big season bests from Trevor in the 3200 (14 seconds faster) & Courtney in the 400 (3 seconds faster) . I was happy with today. Remember though that this week isn't finished, we need to get some work in still.
Full Results are posted on the front page of the website.
This weekend is the St. Francis invitational. This will be another high quality meet, not quite Stanford invite but very close. Not every entry I summitted will be accepted. (They had 1700 athletes enter for 2300 events) I should know by practice tomorrow who made it or not. Next week at Leland everyone who wants to go will be able to. You Tube is down otherwise I would post some video of the girls and boys 4 by 100.
See you tomorrow - Coach Mike
Monday, March 30, 2009
As promised
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Rant on running shoes
Imagine if their was a company that made a grill and people kept getting burned on it. Instead of making it safe, they invented a pill that caused the brain to ignore pain. This is essentially what the running shoe companies did. Their solution made the problem worse but easier to ignore??? How does that make sence? Some companies have used air as the padding as a way to keep the protection without the extra weight.
Anyways, when you run barefoot you naturally run the way you are supposed to. This is why I had everyone run that way. Which countries dominate distance running? Not the countries where kids have running shoes. So what is the solution? Run barefoot when you can, and when you can't be conscious about bring that foot underneath you and not letting that heel make the first contact.
Running Mechanics
The take home message of this whole thing will be understanding the kinetic chain. Again when someone has a problem it is never in a vacuum one thing leads to another and another. This is the reason why in the weight room we don't use exercise machines. The body doesn't use muscles in isolation. We train movements. Use the exercise machines if your goal is to look good at the beach not if you want to actually use those muscles.
Anyways, the best place to start is with posture. It needs to be upright. Your body is only stable underneath your center of mass. When people lean forward their center of mass (CoM) also moves forward. To stabilize themselves they need to bring there foot down in front of them because the foot will land underneath the CoM. Try it. Lean forward while running and you will notice that your foot contacts will land in front of you. (This will also speed up your turnover, but decrease your stride length) The biggest offenders are distance runners. They for some reason are taught to land on their heel and roll over it. Well to land on your heel you need to lean forward. Again this is just an example of how everything is connected... your posture determines your foot placement.
So why is it important for your foot to land underneath you? Simply it lets you reuse energy, allowing you to conserve energy until the end, or run at a higher energy demand while not fatiguing as much.
Within muscles there is elastic tissue. When elastic tissue is deformed (stretched) it returns to its initial position. Well this characteristic can be used in running. Tendons are also elastic. When you bring down the foot forcefully on the ball of the foot, it causes the achilles tendon to be stretched out. So that force that you used to bring down the foot is 'stored' in the achilles tendon. When the tendon snaps back (it is elastic) it causes your ankle to extend, which causes you to push off the ground. The best part of this is that it is a reflex, meaning it happens naturally and quickly. Top runners spend less then one tenth of a second on the ground. This would be impossible with out reflexes. The longer you are on the ground the more you slow down.
So what happens when your foot hits in front of you. Well if you hit the ground hard, you will slow down. By creating a braking force. (Newtons 3rd Law) So people who lean forward need to have a 'soft' landing to prevent slowing down. However, with a soft landing the elastic tissues aren't loaded up. So you will have to produce the energy that brings your leg down and then you will have to provide the enrgy that pushes off the ground. No energy is being reused.
Also because if is not a reflex anymore people spend more time on the ground (causing a decrease in speed, so they need to push off longer which causes the leg to swing way behind the body) we call that back side mechanics. With that leg so far behind you, you don't have enough time to get it out in front again and you are stuck with another 'soft' landing.
I could keep going but I will stop there for now. I will post a little soap box rant about running shoes now though.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Girls 4*100 Video
Girls (Lane 8)
HEre are the guys: (Lane 1)
Here is Pauline: (Lane 9)
and here is the link to all the videos:
http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?do=videos&pg=1&event_id=57&video_id=9658&folder_id=810&offset=2#video
Stanford Invite
The guys 4*100 had a season best also, although there is still a lot of work to do. Mark also has video of that race. (45.16)
Pauline had to run in lane 9 in the 400 and might have broke 60 iuf she didn't keep looking at the clock instead of the finish line haha. (60.60)
Friday, March 27, 2009
Thanks Janet
Stanford Invite Info
Any last minute questions, feel free to call.
- Coach Mike
PRs
So it looks like we had 13 PRs, even after converting those 100 times they still look fast. It will be interesting to see what they are after using FAT. (We will get 2 cracks at it next week)
If you all are interested here is the excel spreadsheet I use to track progess. If you see any mistakes let me know. (I know I still need to change Nikkis shot put typo from Avis kelly)
http://www.liveoakcaf.com/LOHS_PR_List.htm
-Coach Mike
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Track Meet Today
Some great performances, alot of good battles. Some people are back to the drawing board. Results are posted, Steve also has some pics from the meet, they are posted here(toward the end):
http://picasaweb.google.com/msullivan.kin163/2009
I still need to go through to look for PRs. Make sure you remember our next meet is Tuesday.
Also those of you interested in the St Francis invite need to let me know tomorrow. - Coach Mike
Thanks to all parents helped as well as the alumni that stoped by. Next home meet isn't until april 30, which means us coaches can coach again for a few meets.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
MH Times
Here is a link.
http://www.morganhilltimes.com/sports/254773-on-pace-for-new-heights
CCS Top Ten Lists Week 2
Hey all one more week of competition and we had an athlete added to the top ten list for the CCS. Pauline Olsen in the 400. She will be competing against 4 of the other girls on this list on Saturday.
1 __00:56.81 F__Hardiman, Iesha____9__Wilcox
2__00:58.41 F__Irish, Lauren______11__HMB
3__00:59.16 F__Davis, Jenna______ 11__Valley Christian
4__00:59.24 F__Venable, Elena_____10__Santa Cruz
5__00:59.40 F__Sakellar, Natasha___11__Monta Vista
6__00:59.79 F__Gradiska, Angela___ 11__Pinewood
7__00:59.83 F__Arenas, Erica_____ 12 __Evergreen Valley
8__01:00.06 F__ Olsen, Pauline ___ 11__Live Oak
9__01:00.14 f __Gordon, Emily____ 11__Santa Clara
Here are the rest of the lists:
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Stanford Invite
We have 9 people who will be competing - Jeff, Greg, Billy, James in the 4*100. Erika, Courtney, Catherine, Lauren in the 4*100 and Pauline in the 400. They will be going up against some fast schools/athletes.
The reason I made this post is becasue the cool thing about the Stanford invite is that it is a college meet too. Looking at the entries Cal, University of Oregon, University of Washington, BYU, Idaho, Stanford (obviously) will all be there. So if anyone is interested in going it will be a good chance to see what your events look like at the next level as well as a chance to cheer on your fellow Acorns. Here is the schedule of events (events with a B or G are high school, events with a M or W are college)
http://www.sml1.com/recordtiming/stanford/invite09/stanford_invite_schedv2.pdf
Monday, March 23, 2009
Who won? part 2
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Road to Recovery and Great meet
also, if you didn't see me or didnt know who i was, i was at saturday's meet and i was impressed with what i saw.. glad to have witnessed some pr's and been around to see some people come out to perform. made me excited to see you guys again at practice and see the game come out on thursday.
so, i'll be around until thursday so if you have issues, want me to come up with a recovery plan that includes vaccuming your calves, need a rub out or just a lesson in how to tape shin splints, don't be shy come up to talk to me during practice and I'll be glad to share my knowledge and do my best to heal you up!! =D
Videos Videos Videos
Kenny Long JUMP
Stephanie High JUMP
Taylor Long Jumping
Lauren in the Triple Jump
Greg in the Triple Jump
Mason in the Shot Put
Erika, Lauren and Catherine in the 200
Friday, March 20, 2009
Who Won?
Here is some video of the meet yesterday thanks to Steve Drewniany.
This is the 100 with Erika and Courtney. Who do you guys think won? Very close race. More videos coming soon.
- Coach Mike
Thursday, March 19, 2009
FAT vs Hand Timed
FAT - Fully Automatic Timing - this is when the meet uses a camera at the finish line to find who won and what there times were (accurate up to the .01 of a second)
Hand Timed - Just as it seems, some one used there watch to time a race
All of our invites will be FAT, while the dual meets are hit or miss. (Andrew Hill had FAT, we have hand timed, Del Mar will be FAT, Westmont should be FAT, not sure about Santa Teresa)
When the gun goes off, the FAT timer starts immediately so there is no reaction time. With hand timing, reaction time does play a part. How we reconcile this is by using conversions.
To convert hand time to FAT:
Round hand time up to the nearest tenth and then for all events less then 400 meters add .24; for the 4*100 and 400 add only .14 (timers and starter are near each other so it takes less time to react.)
Example: Erika ran a 12.91 today so we round that up to 13.0, then add .24 so her time is 13.24, to let people know we converted it we put a lowercase f.
13.24f.
In the 400 Vaziry ran a 57.22. So we round up to 57.3 and then add .14. So his 400 time was 57.44 f
The significance of the f is to show it is a converted time. When you see performance lists it may have:
27.63F
27.74 f
27.75 F
28.01 F
28.04 f
The upper case F shows FAT and the lowercase is converted hand.
Just in case people are confused about the PRs. I converted them all.
Results
Meet vs. Independence
As for the results, I will post them in a bit, my preliminary count is 17 PRs. Score wise, not that it matters, but the guys lost 113-14 (way to keep it to a double digit loss, haha. Also this is probably a good estimate of Live Oak boys to Independence boys) and the girls despite being outnumbered again (still only 12 of you, won 85-42).
Results coming later tonight. Thanks again all, and we will need some help in a week from now with Sobrato coming over.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
http://www.dyestatcal.com/ATHLETICS/TRACK/2009/ccstopmk.htm
No one is on there but we have some close calls, hopefully we will see improvement throughout the year.
Close Calls:
Boys 4*100: 10th 44.83 (LO 45.31)
Girls 4*100: 10th 52.63 (LO 53.02)
Girls 400: 10th 60.75 (Pauline 60.98)
Girls LJ: 10th 16'-2" (Lauren 15'10.5")
Monday, March 16, 2009
500 Break down
Jacob set the sophmore 500, 400 and overall record.
Greg set the senior 300 record
Erika set the junior record in the 400 and 300 as well as the second fastest time ever.
Track Photos Part 2
http://picasaweb.google.com/msullivan.kin163
Here is the link to the pictures Liz took:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ccrodriguezz/VsAndrewHill?feat=directlink
and here is the link to Fresh's album:
http://photobucket.com/Track09
This is well over 200 photos and we are only 1 meet deep, so make sure you save the ones you like or want to keep, because as we go I will probably have to delete some to create space.
I am going to check if I can make a permanant link on the blog for photos. - Coach Mike
Friday, March 13, 2009
Avis Kelley Invite
Track photos
Well those same photos that have been on cycling through on the home page the last 10 months have finally been updated. Steve Drewniany took a bunch a photos for us at the Andrew Hill meet. If anyone else has photos they took or their parents took send them my way and I will get them posted.
Big thanks to Steve. Really appreciate the photos.
Dual Meet at Andrew Hill
Full Results
* Lauren Drewniany won the Long jump and triple jump. In the long jump she got a HUGE PR from 14'11 to 15'10.5 which we call the Lauren 2-fer (she already owns the FS school record in the LJ so everytime she PRs it is also a school record.) Afterwards, maybe even more impressively she went 31 feet in her first triple jump of the year (in practice or the meet).
* Adam Groen ran 14 laps in all on thursday (The mile, 2 mile and 800) he PRed in the mile and set personal best in the other 2 races (first time running it)
* Jeff Roberts broke the 18 foot barrier and should keep moving that along.
* Kean Vaziry gave it all he had in the 400 and came up about 10 meters short. There is still a Vaziry stain on the track. Great effort.
* Matthew Dariano stepped up and ran the 110 hurdles since they did not run the 65 meter hurdles.
* Emily Frederick had a huge PR in the LJ, went from 12'0.25" to 13'1".
* Greg White fought the urge to look up while running and had a stronger finish than last time in the 200, with a PR of 23.77. He also jumped 37'11 in the triple jump with a special guest apperence by coach Cunanan helping him out.
*Taylor Alonzo topped his 100 meter PR with an 11.68.
* In the 4*400 Jacob Montoya battled with Andrew Hills Anchor to give him Leach Kenny and Daw the win.
*The 4*100s you can see how they did in the videos below.
* Olivia won the mile and 2 mile despite running by herself most of the day.
* Lexi Mallette had a PR in the discus. Mason, Nikki and Alberto threw for the first time this year to get their seasons started now they get to try and improve their marks. (Nikki got 2nd in the shot and the disc, Lexi got third in both and Mason got 2nd in the discus.)
* Leach won the 300 hurdles, in his first attempt at the race, in fact he hadn't cleared a hurdle until this week.
* Jacob Daw won the high jump with a height of 5-6.
* Courtney won the 100 and got second in the LJ and was part of both relay wins.
* Daniele Dukes stepped it up and ran the 4 by after running both hurdle races and high jumping.
Like I said, a lot of good performances. We have a lot of people who are new to track so I think our PR totals are going to sky rocket as people learn more and more.
One last thing, I know I don't put much stock in scoing points and winning or losing meets but the girls had a pretty impressive win considering the folllowing:
-Girls won 82-45
-We had only 12 girls compete (there were 15 events)
-Danielle, Erika and Courtney were the only people that did 4 events as opposed to Emily, Chelsie, Olivia, Nikki, Lexi all did only 1 or 2 events. So we didn't max everyone out.
-Every single girl scored at least a point. Not sure I have ever seen this happen with a team that won in a blowout. This is the epitomy of quality over quanity.
Have a good weekend, see you guys and gals Monday - Coach Mike
Thursday, March 12, 2009
4 by 100 videos
THe guys have a lot of work to do (Jeff Slips out of the blocks, Billy leaves way too early, greg is still tightening up) They ran a 45.6 or so.
The girls ran a little faster than at Willow Glen, always good to see improvement I think COurtney and Catherines handoff had some issues and so did Lauren and Catherines.
Dual Meet vs. Andrew Hill
4*100: Men ~45.6, Women 53.02
1600: Adam 5:08.47, Ukanwa 5:47.37, Trevor 5:47.84, Olivia 5:53.52, Chelsie 6:27.63
100h/110h: Dariano 20.63, Dukes 20.99
400 m: Olsen 62.17, Vaziry 62.85
100 m: Alonzo 11.68, Roberts 11.98, Montoya 12.06, Robinson 13.49, Erika 13.61, Catherine 13.83
800m: Groen 2:26.41, Alex 2:38.52, Pauline 2:43.28
300h: Leach 47.28, Stephanie 57.61, Dukes 62.13
200m: Greg 23.77, Montoya 24.46, Alonzo 24.56, Kenny, 26.34, Erika 27.98, Sparling 29.41
3200m: Adam 11:25, Olivia 12:54.89, Chelsie 14:20.51
4*400: Men 3:57.22, Women 4.33.65
Splits: Montoya 55, Leach/Lee 59, Daw 62, Erika/Pauline 64, Courtney 66, Dukes 78
In the Long Jump Jeff, Emily, & Lauren PRed. Jeff 18'5, Emily 13'1, Lauren 15'11
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Willow Glen 2008
Just posting a video of Mark winning the 400 last year at the Willow Glen Invite. They gave him lane 8 and he just went out and ran his race. Notice the last 50 meters he is dead even with 2 other runners and he is the one who slows down the least. (He also won the long jump that day). I will try posting more videos throughout the week, figured I would start with one of my favorites.
Monday
Notes for this week:
Athlete of the week for March 3: Lauren Drewniany
*Ran the best anchor leg she had run in a fast 4*100 race and also set a PR and broke her old FS school record in the long jump with a 14'11. Great start to the season, lots of work still to be done.
People interested in the Avis Kelley Invite (March 21st need to let me know).
Our first dual meet is against Andrew Hill on Thursday.
Check back tonight for some video. - Coach Mike
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Willow Glen Invite
Here are the results:
Girls 4*100 - Erika, Courtney, Catherine and Lauren get second place with a 53.15 (Evergreen won with a 53.10) I need to see the film to confirm but to me I think those were the best handoffs we have had in my 6 years. (Note: Last year at this meet they ran 55.51)
Boys 4*100 - Jeff, Greg, Billy, James - Another battle with Evergreen, this time James brings us back and we get the win by .02 over EV. (45.31)
Olivia - Got her first race of the year under her belt with a very good 12:20 for the 2 mile. She got stuck in no mans land a little bit but ran a good race.
100m - Catherine ran a PR, JAcob ran in the wrong heat (still ran a fast 12.10), Billy and James both ran 11.7s
Long Jump - Jeff almost broke the 18 foot barrier with a 17'11" jump, Kenny had a rough day at the office (3 scratches) Lauren got third, with a PR and school record (14'11) . Courtney jumped 13'5.5 and had some good scratches, and Emily got over the nerves she had to pop off a 12'0.25"
200m - Pauline Olsen, wow, she ran a 27.31 in her first ever 200 and took third overall. Greg won his heat with a 24.38, Erika had a bit of a miscalculation but still came back to run a 28.93, Jacob ran a nice 24.42, and Eric had some block troubles in his first 200 (25.65)
400m - Pauline Olsen, double wow, she ran a 60.98 with only one other person in her heat. The second place person was over 5 seconds back. Kenny battled down the stretch with a runner from Fremont and edged him with a 60.12, nothing like a good battle to keep the homestretch interesting instead of like a funeral procession. Kenny was feeling it though afterward.
Adam - Ran a very easy 5:09 for a 21 second PR, it should be under 5 mins before April.
Trevor, Trevor got his first race in, he got a cramp toward the end of the race but pushed through to get a time of 12:15 in the 2 mile.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Photo Album
Thanks/ Photos
Rain from Tuesday
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Wednesday
Yesterday, we finally had some sun. We got in some technique work, which was nice. Plus to top it off I got to meet alot of your parents. Observations from Wednesday:
* Chelsie has GREAT running form, we just need her to get out of her comfort zone a little bit.
* Me and Adam pulled the third times the charm move, I kept messing up taping him and his form wasn't worth taping. But the third time, he looked good and I successfully got it on tape.
* Jumpers have a ways to go in getting their approaches. (this was only their 1st day though so we have plenty of time)
* Greg needs to stay relaxed when he runs (once he figures this out, watch out)
* Erika is looking fast and smooth.
* David Pelz is already making progess in his sprinting form, now he just needs to learn how to do that when he gets tired.
*Considering the first 4 catches Dominic Leach made this year were touchdowns, the hurdles did a better job of tackling him, with 2 take downs.
* Watch out for both 4*100s this weekend
* Never trust weather.com, they said it would be raining until Monday, but that wasn't the case yesterday and now it says clear skies for Saturday (I can't decide if this is good news, or if this means it will probably rain)
* You all earned an easy day on Thursday, this has been a good week all things considered. On Friday, people competing will have a short intense workout (got to prime the nervous system) and people not competing will get a workout that 'encourages' them to compete on Saturdays.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Rain
Reminders
5:30 - Room 104 (Coach Porras' classroom) let your parents know
** Transportation Fee due ($50)
** Willow Glen Invite is this weekend (No bus, so let me know if you have a ride or need a ride)