Bein' a Bulldog!

One of the things I like about you is that you remind me of this dog! You're bulldogs this season! Tough, stubborn, gnarly.

Sweet!

iClass

Random act of kindness ... and class.

On Saturday at APU, Danielle Fillmore and Casey Candelaria happened upon a stray ipod. It had iwalked its way from it iowner and was ilost.

The two girls saw an opportunity ... to make someone's day. With great integrity and class the two girls turned the ipod into announcer's booth, shocking the man with their honesty and integrity.

"High schoolers don't turn in lost ipods," he said incredulously. "That's a real class act."

Thanks Casey and Danielle for doing what you would hope someone else would do for you. Thank you for making the King uniform look great!

May your tribes increase!

A Story Well Told

A week ago our school enjoyed and experienced another great day of “King High Remembers”. Those of you sophs and freshmen have yet to take part in this special event, but to catch you up, it’s an event in which over 200 veterans of WW2, Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf wars come tell their stories to the juniors of King High. It’s very cool.

I’ve been thinking about the event lately, and I’ve come to realize that the stories these men tell aren’t just stories. These men are honored members of our society because of what they endured, what they sacrificed, what they saw, and of course, what they did. That’s why we honor them. Our veterans have more than stories to impart to the rest of us, they have the wisdom that comes from experience. We do well to listen to them.

Every year I tell my students in preparation for the day that it’s a minor miracle that some of these vets are even there. The memories are tough for many. But they come nonetheless and give of their experience.

We have veterans on our team too. None that have seen combat of course, but veterans that have done battles of a different kind and have the wisdom and stories to tell from those experiences. Your story is important. The things you’ve learned and grown from in past seasons of competition are important.

I want to challenge you veterans: Bekah, Carissa, Patrick, Tatiana, Stacy, Larissa, Ethan and Nick – what have you given back to the younger runners? Have you spent any time telling your stories? Imparting your wisdom? The things you’ve learned along the way?

I guarantee you that there are freshmen and sophomores on this team that are full of questions, minds full of wonder and confusion, eyes perhaps frozen in fear.

You have something to give back, just as those veterans of our past wars have given back to us.

Go for it. Start today.

It's All in the Numbers

I remember back in the early 90's while coaching at Ayala, one of our workouts was a time trial. It was simple. Run a mile. See how fast you can go.

I was younger then and far more fit. I actually had done some track work on my own! Imagine that! Well, about a week before the time trial as I recall, I had run 8x400 with a minute rest and had nailed right about 75 seconds per lap.

At the TT, I was talking smack with the boys, just joking around, and one of them asked me how fast I was going to do the mile in. "5:00 flat" I said with assurance. "How can you be so sure?" asked the kid. My mind went back to the practice I had done a week earlier and answered, "I've already done it in practice."

Now I don't say all this to brag. I do say this to help all of you who doubt yourself. Those who see your glass as "half empty." There is more to training to race than a single workout of course, but when your training is going well, sometimes a single workout can really show you what you CAN do.

Last week we did a solid track set of pace intervals. It's now posted on the distance page of the web site, and it tells you something. Look at the last column, the one with the averages in red. Runners: This is the pace you CAN run a mile in RIGHT NOW. As you head into the exciting Azusa meet on Saturday, you need to enter that stadium armed with assurance, not doubts. You might even go faster than that if you let yourself.

A quick story from the 90's to prove my point. Back in '95 we had a young, sophomore girl on our team who was quite talented. In practice she could do 10x400 in about 77 seconds. In fact she had done that workout. At Azusa Pacific that season, she was entered in the fastest heat of the 1600, and I assumed she'd run aroun 5:10 -- that's what her practice splits had proven. But something happened that afternoon. With cool breezes and great competition from the studs of Yucaipa High, she let a good day pull her along and the adrenaline took over. By the last lap she was flying, and rocketed home for the win ... in 4:54! We were all quite astounded and pumped at the same time. As of that evening it was the #3 time in the country!

We were confident she could run 5:10. Adrenaline and competitiveness proved she could go faster.

So what about you. Your practices show what is possible at minimum. Why not go big this weekend? Throw caution to the wind, be aggressive KNOWING what you can do, and hoping for what you may do. That's what racing's all about.

Go for it!

A Magical Ride

What a week! It's been a fun ride these past few days, a ride you all have taken me on. I was thinking all weekend about how great your performances were out at Hemet. There's really nothing magic about what we're doing to prepare, all the good distance programs do some variation of the kind of training we do. But this group seems at times, magical.

It showed on Thursday with inspired racing in a meet of little long-term significance. Kids were battling, do their best and notching PR's. It's the result of being in shape, of being talented, of having a "can do" spirit, and it seems we have a lot of that around camp.

I can remember in the not so distant past some pretty lean years in terms of those necessary ingrediants in making magic. I was thirsty as a coach, hungry too. There were many days I thought about giving it up. As I watch you guys push yourself, train well, race competitively, I'm so happy I didn't.

After such a great Thursday, Saturday had a bit of it's own magic as well. Five of you -- Charlie, Derek, Carissa, Kelsi and Rebecca Asplund -- put on their risk helmets and went for a ride with a bunch of college racers. Easy opportunity to freak out and curl up, but none of them did. Instead, they toed the line and went for it, to heck with their relative youth and experience. The guy with the gun shot it off and off they went for 12 1/2 laps of magical running. Magic in that they could have so easily bowed out and said "I'm not ready yet"; magic in that they held their own on a BIG stage; magic in that they eagerly took the risk and came through with shining colors.

Thanks kids for doing what you are doing. It's quite a ride so far. Let's keep it going!

HP: Invent

The computer maker, Hewlet Packard is known by their initials, "HP". Their current slogan for their company is "HP: Invent." It's catchy, I guess, aims to get us consumers thinking about their inventiveness, their corner on the market is supposedly more inventive than their competitors. It works.

I've been calling one of our runners by HP. It's her initials and since some have begun to refer to me simply as "CP", I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and so I take all the syllables of Hanna Peterson and reduce them down to "HP." She doesn't seem to mind, so it works.

It struck me the other day as I was finishing a run with her that her running has begun to match Hewlet Packard's slogan. HP, I mean Hanna Peterson, is in the process of inventing herself athletically!

Last Fall in cross, she was like many freshmen are: A bit timid, quiet, and definitely JV. But something happened to her over the winter. She joined the Lobos club, worked diligently, and in the process of time and consistent sweat, she's reinvented herself athletically. She's not who she was last Fall! That don't-rock-the-boat rookie 9th grader has become a take-no-prisoners runner! What a great invention!

The signs are obvious that this is a newer version of Hanna. Let's call her Hannah 2.0. Last week in her first ever track race (the 800), she put down a very respectable 2:36, fourth fastest for King on the day. Two days later, she pulled a 19:29 3 mile threshold effort. Yesterday, she closed out the 8.5 miler with a 7:29 last mile.

Where's this all come from? Where is this new inventiveness found? I'm not totally sure what clicked in her mind, but the outcome is exciting and growing. It's the same outcome a lot of you are finding to be true. If you work hard, stick with it, good things will come.

The new Hanna is the new many and it can be the new you if you aren't yet inventing yourself. Like all great inventions, the latest and greatest usually beckons copy-cats. Feel free to copy. There's no patent on her invention.

I love this sport! You get out of it what you put into it ... but that's something any inventor already knows.