Most of you have written a training plan for your athletes but it is not too late prepare the (im)perfect schedule. Part of the Coach McCafferty Series.
On Tuesday, February 20th, we want to dedicate all our runs to Scott Beigel and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS cross country team.
At most meets I have a good conversation with Geoff Harrison, the Red Bank Regional coach. The conversations do not last long, but I love talking about training and meets with the man. He is always so positive about all Shore athletes and is always a good ear. Last Friday, at the Group 2 meet, I had a short conversation with him about Doug Smith. Harrison said he wondered what workouts Grote had been doing with this kid to get him to run so fast. I came to a realization. The workouts an athlete does in preparation for a meet are not what make a race. Smith must have done some great workouts of late, but what makes him and other athletes so good is the many hours of training spent over the past months and years.
Snow days are awful. We can’t have practice, the park gets covered in ice/snow, and I feel so incredibly lazy. I just had a chat with Adam Lampell, The Del ’06, about his upcoming race. I tried to explain my new philosophy about racing and training. Coaches and athletes, including myself, try to bite off too much during races.
In a new series of Blogs, Coach Sean McCafferty will take us through the seasons with the Holmdel HS program.
The ride home from our State Sectional last November was awful. We had finished 6th, one point from qualifying for the Group 3 meet. During the 30 minute drive south from Elizabeth, I tried to blame everyone else. In the end, all the blame came back to me. We had run poorly and should have qualified, but there was something missing. We had run 1000’s of miles, done good workouts, and prepared well for this race. We had averaged 17:33 at The Park at the Shore Coaches! All that work led to so much disappointment. I try to be positive at all times, so I gathered my thoughts for a short team meeting back at school. The meeting was tough, but I pointed out the positives and got the kids excited for Rich Greco, our lone qualifier.