New Season, New Routine

There a few things like the glorious first day of cross country season. As Coach Traughber and some others pointed out, one of those things is Christmas. And the day did not disappoint, as it was full of lots of presents.

The first being the all-new, completely revised practice routine. The biggest change being the revamping of the warm-up. To some people’s distress, the new routine still includes running. Sorry, but I don’t think there was much hope that that aspect of it was going to go the way-side like static stretching. The guys that came to the 2nd Camp this summer were familiar with it, and other guys caught on quickly. The warm-up is now either 3 or 4 laps, dynamic stretching, loosening skips, and sometimes drills (depends on the workout). All of the static stretching is now done after the run.

Now on to the big present: The Mile Time Trial. There was an impressive performance in the first heat by Patrick Callahan. All of his summer miles, paid off big time as he went tape-to-tape for the victory. Coming in after him was newcomer Potrzeboski and big-time summer runner Pribe. In the second heat, I, like Patrick, went tape-to-tape and finished in 4:45 two seconds better than last year. Next was the very impressive sophomore, Husmann who made a really big move and came in 4:57. Scherping was good in his XC debut finishing third.

Then came the business side of things. After I had the honored privilege to read the Program Philosophy, T-Bone introduced everyone and went over all the typical rules and lifestyle issues. Jack and I cooled down together. We tied in slug-bugs, but there is a long road ahead of that. As everyone knows, it was crazy hot. Because of this Jack decided to run through some sprinklers. What he didn’t know was that the sprinklers were in a lawn that is a finalist for some Creve Couer Beautiful lawn contest or something like that.

Quote of the Day: “It’s not hard to drink water”- Coach Traughber while talking about the importance of hydrating.

Best Dressed: Seiler. There just anything out there that can compete with Jacob’s Time Trial uniform. Mostly because it’s a legit uniform that’s totally awesome. On top of that, he ran well shaving 5 seconds off his time from last year. He had to other things going for him to help in earning this. The first is that no one has really seen him all summer because he’s been working, but that didn’t stop him from bringing his A game the first day back. The second is tradition, as he was the first winner last track season as well.