LAST CHANCE

LAST CHANCE

Today's long run was fourteen miles for the boys and twelve for the girls — with more than 2,000 feet of climbing. Just to show how quickly the body can acclimate, the same girls who could barely breathe at altitude on Sunday were singing as they finished the last mile of today's run.

THE RINGS

THE RINGS

I started this blog by writing a lengthy and mean-spirited rant about the cancer known as club soccer. . . . In the name of positivity, and with full realization that my mental health is affected by this ongoing frustration far more than those I ridiculed, I hit delete. . . . Surprisingly, all of this started as a warmhearted story about my own befuddlement.

THE VOICE

THE VOICE

With that end to summer frivolity comes the start of a new book. I've actually already begun, though it's at such an early stage that the construction of just one sentence constitutes a full day's work. I go into new projects carefully, well aware that they will soon take over my thought process.

PROBLEM SOLVER

PROBLEM SOLVER

My wife is a professor at a local university. She recently shared a video with me about cognitive thinking that struck a nerve. The speaker was an authority on behavioral research — I can't remember his name off the top of my head, but he had me spellbound for the length of the video. In essence, his viewpoint is that we control the outcome of a situation by determining how we choose to view it.

RECOVERY DAY

RECOVERY DAY

My team is the smallest I’ve ever coached . . . [t]he kids that have chosen to run are special to me. I plan to push them very hard and get the most out of their potential. We’d all like to qualify for Nike Cross Nationals, but that’s twenty-two weeks away. Better to savor each daily workout and take things as they come.

Q

Q

I am bracing myself for the ebbs and flows of a [cross country] season that will inevitably be filled with laughter and tears. And through it all I must find a way to motivate and inspire. So for some strange reason having to do with the grieving process deciding it was time to deal with some old pain, I am dedicating this season to the memory of my late sister, Monique . . .

LEAGUE FINALS

LEAGUE FINALS

Way back when I started coaching in 2005, I thought it was something of a lark. I’d long wanted to coach distance running and the job fell into my lap. After years of writing training articles for running magazines and more than a decade traveling the globe writing about endurance sports, I thought myself uniquely suited to the rigors of coaching high school cross country and track....