Mounds View Cross Country

Fall started on August 22 at the Alumni Run. It always starts then. Fast forward to September 25th.


Can 62 degrees, overcast and a drizzle rain be perfect weather? Yep, when its cross country season.  

And that is what the weather was for the Mustang Invite.  


There is nothing better than watching or participating in cross country in the fall. It's at this time that you get 

to see the payback on your summer miles. You get to see first hand the strength of you as an individual 
and we as a Mustang  team. That is another beauty of cross country. You are only as good as your fifth
(and sometimes your seventh) runner, but the pride lasts longer than the  pain.        


We are nearing the most important races of the season.
  
This is where the Mustang tradition starts to show itself. Big time.        



Looking forward to Conference!
                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                            -Coop

Step Up.

Since MV did not make it to state in cross country this year, I suppose it would have to be classified as a down year. However, there were glimpses of good things to come. Freshmen leading the charge most of the way. A pack that changed each week (my take is that it was an implication that guys were looking to make a jump and stake a claim).

There were some success stories intertwined with not meeting annual expectations.

The beauty of it is the season is over. No need to dwell. The first step to getting back to being one of the Top 2 teams in the region is to admit defeat and to move one. Done. This winter, the track season can be formed. It could be running training or cross training. I played hoops. My teammate, Mike Crotteau played hockey. Cross Country skiing, swimming, etc. can all lead to track success. Do something.

Remember, it's all about building blocks. Summer training leads to fall success. Fall training leads to winter. Winter leads to spring. Keep plugging along systematically and smartly and good things happen.

By the way, which Sophomore, Jr or Sr is going to go after the frosh?

Trample the weak and hurdle the dead. I love that quote. Go make it happen this winter. I will see you out there.

Hope to see many of you at the Meet of the Miles in January. Wanna race?

-Coop

The Efficient Machine

You hear it all the time..."he or she left it on the track", or "left it on the course". The idea that the runner had made a valiant effort and had exhausted all energy. It is certainly a noble cause and one we all aspire to, however is there a way to add more energy to your performance so that point of a race where you have laid it all on the line is later, rather than sooner?

Clearly, your training is the most important aspect of maximized performance. But there are two little things that can significantly affect your training, and ultimately your racing. Those two things are sleep and nutrition.

The golden rule for sleep is 8 hours of quality sleep per night. However, this should be looked at as the bare minimum for someone training at high levels, where high levels are high school and beyond. Regular nine hour quotas, the occasional 10 hour and periodic naps are help the body fully rest and recover. When you are rested, not only do races go better, but so do workouts.

Just as important as sleep is nutrition. What you eat and drink is the Fuel by which you do your workouts and races. You want to have high octane fuel in your system so having a balanced diet with lots of vegetables and fruits is key. Mix in some red meat and chicken for further base-building proteins. During the season, shy away from empty calorie items such as pop, candy, cake, etc. Your body is your temple...fuel it appropriately.

Just a couple of quick ideas to help maximize performance.

-Coop

The Big Dance

When does Sub Drop and Mountain Dew taste best?  When consumed after a Region Championship.

And that is exactly what the boys team did last week. That means State Championship meet within  48 hours.

Its a beautiful thing.

Every time I hear the song "In the Air Tonight" I think of getting ready to toe the line at the  Minnesota AA

State Cross Country Championships. Every time. It was the song we played just sitting around before our

warm-up. What I recall the most is the phrase "I've been waiting all my life for this moment....."   If not all your

 life, at least the past 4 months. Crazy things happen at the State meet and those teams that are prepared

and have done the work, usually have good things happen to them.

Good luck to the guys Saturday as they race the best. They are one of the best and get a shot at teams that

 have beaten them before this season. Remember what they did at Regions? Let's see some collecting continue!

Redemption is sweet.

The pride lasts longer than the pain.

-Coop

Championship time...

Fall is my favorite time of the year. There is a crispness in the air. You feel fast. You feel pride. For MV, it has traditionally been a phrase of Alex-Conference-Region-State. Four meets left. Just like 4 quarters for a mile. And the best thing about it, is that you know you will reap the work put in over the previous 4-5 months. The loneliness of the summer miles. The deposits made early in the season with hills and long tempos. Its time to pay the piper and MV usually does the collecting.

Its always been a hallmark of MV to focus on this time of the year. Where championships are earned and state meet berths are grabbed. Most do not recall who took the Faribault Championship or the Apple Valley Invite. But rest assured, if you take third in the region meet, you will remember that. I still get a bitter taste in my mouth at the names Yanchar and Maynard and taking third by 6 pts way back in 1988. That's only 19 years.

The goal in June is to get to the State Meet and place well. The program is derived to sacrifice early season success for Alex-Conference-Region-State glory. Best of luck to the 2007 boys and girls as they look to this time of the year. May the collecting continue.

-Coop

Our October feature was an article that was published in the
May/June 2007 Issue of Minnesota Running and Track magazine

My Best Day Ever - By Ken Cooper

I think what caught my attention was the layout of the title, “My Best Day Ever” crossed out and scribbled in was “My Pretty Decent Day”. The fact it was written by Chris Lundstrom added to my intrigue. A darn good runner and a talented writer.

I was spellbound by the first paragraph, which was essentially the disclaimer that this was not Chris’ best day ever but rather a pretty decent day for him. His thoughts struck a chord with me. Was he right with his assessment? My opinion….maybe. I think he is right if your best running is still in front of you, like it is for Chris, and until April 12, 2006, I probably would have agreed with him. On April 13, things changed.

The winter of 2005/2006 was good for me. I was fit and with spring fast approaching a heightened anticipation of the upcoming summer and fall filled my workouts with a little more zest than usual. I was focused on the Chicago Marathon and 2:22. I had run one of my fastest Human Race times ever and I was knocking out decent track workouts with fellow Run N Fun teammate Mike Little. On April 8, I ran a 10-mile tempo from home by myself in 55 minutes flat. While training hard, I was also burning both ends of the candle. As mentioned above, my wife, Kathleen, and I had Maddie on January 12, a mere 14 months after our first daughter, Lily, was born. Work was at a feverish pitch and I was regularly traveling and cranking 60-70 hours per week. Plus, I needed to squeeze time in to do taxes and lift weights 3 days a week. Eating and sleeping were not a priority.

On Monday, April 10 some time in the middle of the work day I felt a fluttering sensation in my heart area. I did not really think much of it and even went for a 7-miler that night. The next day the fluttering had not subsided, but again, I ignored it. I ran a ladder workout by myself on the track, which included a 4:56 mile and all 400/800 splits well under 5:00 pace. The next afternoon, April 12, with the fluttering again not subsided and feeling a little light-headed I decided to stop at the doctor’s office. That is where I heard the words I will remember forever - “We cannot help you here. We need to send you to ER immediately.”

I spent the next 5 days in the care of the Fairview Heart Clinic in Edina. After enduring every test possible, the diagnosis was excellent - nonsustained idiopathic left ventricular tachycardia. Although my heart was strong and healthy, they could not figure out why I had the arrhythmia. The fix was a drug called flecainide. This diagnosis was confirmed in October upon a trip to the Mayo Clinic. Essentially, it appeared to be an isolated incident. Five months after the ordeal, I had the green light to pursue rigorous exercise.

Which brings me back to Chris’ thoughts. In addition to him running faster, the main difference between us is his best days are ahead of him. The Olympic Dream is still real for Chris. So it would be unfair for him to assess his best day ever. That would cheat him, or the thousands like him, who still have a best day out there from the perfect plan to get there. I, on the other hand, had now joined millions of other folks who were running with a different purpose since their best days were behind them. And that should not be construed as having goals less worthy than Championships or Olympic glory. The goals most people have are just as admirable and often times, even more courageous. The fact is that as you age, times get slower and you recalibrate what is a great day. I think it’s important for this group to be able to recall a best day ever.

My best day ever took place in 2002. It may arguably be my best year as an individual runner. That summer, I set a course record winning the Aquatennial ½ marathon by over eight minutes, a day after taking second in the Stillwater Lumberjack 10 Miler. Later, I won the City of Lakes 25k by nearly four minutes, which I was told was one of the largest gaps in recent history.

The day was Thursday, September 12, 2002. Four days after my City of Lakes win. I had just come off a 110-mile week and I was in the middle of a 100-mile week. Like most of my workouts, I knew I would be running by myself. The plan was 4 x 3200 with two minutes rest. It would arguably be the toughest workout of the season. The goal times were 10:40, 10:30, 10:20 and 10:10. I was disappointed in myself as I left work late and knew I would be running in the dark for a portion of the workout.

I made it to Mounds View High School and was pleasantly surprised as they were setting up for a sophomore football game. Before going on my warm-up, I asked the coaches if I could run a few laps during the game. They said no problem. I had lights.

The night was warm with no wind. Ideal conditions. I started the first 3200 and vividly recall on lap 3 how slow I felt even though I was clipping off sub 5:20 pace as if I was on a recovery run. I’d slow and still clip off a 78-80 second lap. I completed the first 3200 in 10:32.

Two minutes later I was back at it. I stepped it up slightly as I knew I wanted to continue to run faster. The workout was a true strength-building workout as arguably I was not recovered from the 25k race yet. I ran even splits and finished in 10:24.

As I finished my lap recovery, I recall someone in the stands asked how far I was going and I told them 2 miles. I started my third interval and noticed a few folks from the stands offering encouragement. I guess it was not hard to notice someone running 32 laps during a football game. I began to feel a little fatigued but the splits remained solid. I finished in 10:11.

By now, I was interacting with the stands on my recovery laps. A few of the MV track guys had even come down to see what I was doing. This helped me stay focused and not think about fatigue. I also committed to going after sub 10:00 for the last interval. I made my way through the mile in 4:58. I remember being surprisingly disappointed even though the plan was 10:10 before the workout began. But the stakes had changed. Using the occasional cheers of support from the crowd helped me run 5 flat for the last mile, which brought my last 3200 interval to 9:58. The workout was completed nearly 46 minutes after it started and only 1:13 left in the football game. I knew that it had been a special night. I had been in the zone from the first lap. I knew that did not happen to runners often.

As for an epilogue, I ran my fastest marathon in the fall of 2002 in 2:27.10. From that day until April 12, 2006 I never stopped thinking of what I could do to shave 5 minutes and 10 seconds from that time so I could call myself an Olympic Trials qualifier. I’d be lying to you if I said I no longer have those thoughts.

I am very fortunate to be part of an exciting family with my wife, who with her we are together raising 2 wonderful girls. My career with Life Time Fitness is full of opportunity to help build a national healthy-way-of-life company. There are other activities to try after nearly 20 years of competitive running. In addition, being a heart patient takes out some of the fire and passion. I firmly believe you need to have the fire burn bright to put forth the sacrifices to have goals that involve state championships, collegiate All-American titles, or Olympic glory. For me, those days had come to an end and I look back with no regrets.

I hope my thoughts are taken in the right context. Everyone who laces them up has some type of goal and purpose. Could be to run their fastest time in the past 5 years. Or, that 5k race is the final hammer to quit smoking. Or, just the courage to run that first marathon before turning 40. The individual defines the best day ever. That is the remarkable part of running. We are one of thousands, perhaps millions, of people who do something that we learn when we are one or two years old. That is, to go from point A to point B as fast as we can. And how many other sports can you participate in the same event as the best in the world? We do that every time we run the Twin Cities Marathon, Boston Marathon or the Get In Gear 10k.

And perhaps I am wrong. Maybe there is something to be said about chasing that fountain of youth forever or living by the famous Lance Armstrong quote “I only have good days or great days”. Perhaps, its best to never have a best day, but just a string of pretty decent days. I look at runners like Digger Carlson, Kevin Haas, Gloria Jansen, Greg Prom or Thom Weddle, to name a few. Do they look at it like me and compare their recent great days against a best day ever? Or, like Chris, are they still chasing their best day ever and that is what keeps them rolling?

I simply think it’s important to recall a point in time where everything came together. Where you felt fast, strong, effortless and most of all you were filled with a sense of accomplishment. The chase can be long and sometimes we forget to smell the roses along the way. I think your perfect day or best day ever can be the impetus for future goals and aspirations, regardless of your level or age. Have fun with it.