In yesterday’s Workout of the Day I told the story of Hannah Steffan running through a terrific 2009 track season where she PR’d in just about every race she entered.
When that is happening…RUN WITH IT!!! You never know when an athlete will be on fire like that again. Hannah had a great 2009 track season…which led to another great 2009 cross country season…but then she struggled throughout the 2010 track season…now, she did manage to run 1-second faster in the 5000 meters that senior year, but it was an up and down season.
YOU JUST NEVER KNOW WHEN AN ATHLETE WILL BE ON LIKE THAT AGAIN.
Run with it!!!
I had a conversation with a coaching peer the other day about how we seem to complicate the process…when Hannah was running for DBU we raced just about every weekend. We had too. Our roster size was small, so every student-athlete had to run at every meet we traveled to.
These days we say, “Oh, you, yeah, you’ll only race twice indoors and three times outdoors before the championship season…”
We overthink it. Young athletes need to continue learning how to race. Just a few days ago I posted about Pre and how he raced 19 times leading into the 1972 Olympics…
When you catch lightning…RUN WITH IT.
Phillips Running 