Mead High School, cont.

Any weights/core? We do a nice series of stretching, gut busters, and pushups......We may get into the weight room during the off season 2 times per week and do 10 stations of light upper body work for no more than 20-30 minutes......

Team Building : This is your bread and butter......Have got to creat a competitive family with loyalty, committment,and respect.....Pizza mondays/Travel to Arcadia for a whole week, Nike Team Nationals, Footlocker, BBQ's, travel to Eugene to experience the " Oregon Experience", watch inspirational videos of people like Billy Mills, Prefontaine, etc. etc./camping trips, swimming parties, road trips for different runs around Spokane......

Camps? We do an awesome camp in June up in Flathead Lake, Montana ....It is all about running trails at 4000-5000 feet for the pure natural feeling.....We call it getting strong and challenging yourself to "new ones".......Runs are anywhere from 40-90 minutes each, twice a day that are loaded with hills!!!!!!!!!!The athlete gets to choose how long they run....Novices are encouraged to do a 40 minute total run easy .....We've done the Oregon Track Camp...... Whidbey Island, Washington Camp, Stanford Camp....Most recently a week road trip with Jesuit ( Portland) called the "Great Oregon Adventure"......

How do you transform a group of talented individuals into a great team?

Exposure....Exposure.......Exposure......The team needs to know that running is COOL.......Take them to the Pre Classic and they will see the "real world'....Take them to Border Clash.......Take them to the state meet as 8th graders, take them to Dellingers house in Eugene and let him show them his bronze medal, take them to the Nike campus, take them to Coos bay, take them to Stanford XC meet, take them to the US XC trials......etc. etc.........

Racing (as a team): We are good at peaking when it counts....State is everything........We try to get the kids so caloused at big comps like Stanford that state is a ho humer........We try to keep stategy simple.......Feed off each other....Encourage each other..........Dig deep and master your game plan.......