CURTIS CROSS COUNTRY
2008 SCHEDULE
Date Event Location Time
8/25 (Mon) First Day of Practice CHS Wrestling Room 10am
9/6 (Sat) Campbell Invitational Ewa Beach, HI 10 am
9/17 (Wed) Auburn Riverside, Bonney Lake Auburn Riverside HS 4 pm
9/20 (Sat) Fort Steilacoom Invitational Ft. Steilacoom Park 9 am
9/24 (Wed) Puyallup, Spanaway Lake Titlow Park 4 pm
10/1 (Wed) Graham-Kapowsin, Emerald Ridge Titlow Park 4 pm
10/4 (Sat) Curtis Invitational Titlow Park 9 am
10/8 (Wed) Bethel, Rogers Rogers HS 4 pm
10/15 (Wed) Decatur, Todd Beamer Todd Beamer HS 4 pm
10/23 (Thurs) Sub-district meet Spanaway Lake Park 10 am
10/28 (Tues) Non-qualifiers meet Auburn-Riverside HS 4 pm
11/1 (Sat) West Central District meet American Lake G.C. 12 pm
11/8 (Sat) State Championship meet Sun Willows G.C. (Pasco) 12 pm
11/13 (Thurs) Awards Banquet CHS Cafeteria 7 pm
Directions To Meet Locations
Auburn Riverside: 501 Oravetz Rd, Auburn 98092 253-804-5154
From I-5 take the Auburn exit onto Highway 167 and continue north to the Algona/Pacific Exit and turn right onto Ellingson. Go two miles east to "A" Street and turn right and cross the Stuckriver bridge. Take the first left onto Lakeland Hills Way and go one half block to first left which is Oravetz. The school and football field are one half block on the left hand side.
Fort Steilacoom Park: 8714 Elwood Drive SW, Lakewood, WA
Head south on Bridgeport Way, take a right onto Custer Rd. Turn right onto Steilacoom Blvd, and continue until 87th Ave, and take a left. Park is on the right, and continue into park until you reach the large play area.
Titlow Park: 8425 6th Ave, Tacoma, 98465
Head north on Grandview Dr, take a left on 19th St. Turn right on Walters Rd, then right on 6th Ave. Park is on the left
Rogers HS: 12801 86th Avenue East, Puyallup 98373 253-841-8717
Proceed east on Puyallup Freeway (512) to Canyon Road exit. Turn right on Canyon Road and proceed south to 128th Street East. Turn left and continue east past 86th Avenue East. School is to the immediate right. Football is played on field at Puyallup.
Todd Beamer HS: 35999 16th Ave S, Federal Way, WA
Take I-5 North, and take exit 142B towards S. 348th St. Turn left onto Enchanted Parkway, then take a slight right onto 16th Ave. The school will be on the right.
American Lake Golf Course, Lakewood: 9600 Veterans Blvd, Lakewood, WA 98498
From Bridgeport Way, head south and turn slight right at Gravelly Lake Dr SW. Slight right at Washington Blvd SW. Turn left at Alameda Ave SW. Turn right at Veterans Dr SW. Slight right to stay on Veterans Dr SW.
Sun Willows Golf Course, Pasco: 2535 N 20th Ave, Pasco, WA 99301
From I-90 eastbound, Take exit 110 to merge onto I-82 E/US-97 S toward Yakima. Continue to follow I-82 E. Take exit 102 to merge onto I-182 E/US-12 E toward Richland/Pasco. Take exit 12AB for N 20th Ave toward Columbia Basin College. Turn left at N 20th Ave
Date Opponent (Location) Start Time Bus/Van Depart Time Return Time Dismissal # Students
9/17 Bonney Lake, Auburn-Riverside (Aub-Riverside) 4 pm 2 Busses 2 pm 7 pm -- 60
9/20 Fort Steilacoom Invitational (Ft. St. Park) 9 pm 2 Busses 8 am 2:30 -- 60
9/24 Spanaway Lake, Puyallup (Titlow Park) 4 pm -- -- -- -- 60
10/1 Graham-Kapowsin, Em. Ridge (Titlow Park) 4 pm -- -- -- -- 60
10/4 Curtis Invitational (Titlow Park) 9 am -- -- -- -- 60
10/8 Bethel, Rogers (Rogers HS) 4 pm 2 Busses 2 pm 7 pm 1:40 60
10/15 Decatur, Todd Beamer (Beamer HS) 4 pm 2 Busses 2 pm 7 pm -- 60
10/23? SPSL Sub-District Meet 4 pm 2 Busses 1 pm 8 pm 12:40 pm 60
10/28 Non-Qual (Auburn Riverside HS) 4 pm 1 Bus 2 pm 7 pm 1:40 pm 30
11/1 WCD (American Lake Golf Course) 12 pm 2 Vans 10:30 am 5 pm -- 14
11/8 State (Pasco) 12 pm 2 Vans 11/7 (early) 11/8 (late) 11/7 (entire day) 14
Curtis XC Team Guidelines
1. Practice begins at 2:20 in the wrestling room after every school day, and at 10 am on selected Saturdays and holidays.
2. If you need to miss practice, please tell your coach in advance. Schedule yourself so that you will not miss practice.
3. Any unexcused missed practice will result in missing the next meet. The second may result in removal from the team. If you are home sick, call or e-mail your coach and leave a message:
Girls— sherida@thebirds.net
Boys— bmangrum@upsd.wednet.edu or 566-5710 ext.2484
4. When returning from a run from off campus, put a check next to your name on the roster so that we know that you have returned.
5. Take your workout seriously. It will be posted on the bulletin board before each practice.
6. Keep a personal training log of your daily running. Turn this in by Tuesday, October 30th (or have your www.flotrackr.com online log updated) for varsity letter points.
7. Uniforms must be turned in by Tuesday, November 4th unless you are still competing.
8. Stay at the meet until it is completely over, even if you are done competing.
9. You must ride the bus to away meets and back, and may only ride home with a parent/guardian (no one else) if you have them talk to your coach beforehand.
10. Treat all opponents and officials with respect.
11. Communicate with your coach about any issues that may be affecting your running.
12. Report all injuries to a coach as soon as possible.
13. You must have a 2.0 GPA from your last semester grades, as well as your first quarter grades, to compete.
14. Headphones are only allowed on the bus—nowhere else. At meets, wear only issued gear or Curtis related shirts, etc. Do not wear headwear other than a stocking cap. Any clothing under the uniform must be of one color and unadorned, with only one small logo from the manufacturer.
Varsity Lettering Guidelines
Athletes that have accumulated 100 points will earn a letter at the end of the season, as long as they have finished the season in good standing. Seniors completing three or more seasons in good standing will also earn a letter.
Varsity Points can be earned by:
1. 3 points for finishing a race
2. Bonus points for finishing a race in the top 12 members of the team.
1st: 15 bonus points
2nd: 13 bonus points
3rd: 11 bonus points
4th: 9 bonus points
5th: 8 bonus points
6th: 7 bonus points
7th: 6 bonus points
8th: 5 bonus points
9th: 4 bonus points
10th: 3 bonus points
11th: 2 bonus points
12th: 1 bonus point
3. 10 points for keeping an updated training log during the summer (due 8/25)
4. 10 points for keeping an updated training log during the season (due 11/4)
5. You will lose 20 points for not turning in your gear on time (11/4).
6. Additional bonus points will be awarded for attendance throughout of the season.
Individuals that will compete at the varsity level will generally be the top 7 times from the previous meet, but consistency, citizenship, team chemistry, and past performances will also play into any such decision.
2008 Stretching/Strength Routine
Stretching—hold each stretch for 20-30 seconds
• Sit on Toes—extending toes back
• A-Stretch—feet with heels on ground, hands on ground, keep legs as straight as possible
• Straight-Leg Lunge Stretch—one foot forward, other leg straight back with knee off ground, switch for other leg forward
• Pretzel—One leg bent with knee up, other leg bent on ground, foot crossing leg on the ground, switch legs
• Butterfly—feet together, knees down toward ground
• V-sit—legs flat in a V, push torso forward
• Straight-Leg—lie on back, hold foot with same side hand, straighten leg as much as possible, switch
10 sets of 30 seconds of any of the following (captains count out loud)
• crunches (w/ legs up)
• diagonal crunches right (left elbow to right knee)
• diagonal crunches left (right elbow to left knee)
• right side crunches (knees pointing left)
• left side crunches (knees pointing right)
• rocky crunches (twist left and right before coming back down)
• windshield wipers (legs up, move left to right, don’t touch ground)
• crunches reaching diagonally across legs
• circle up and out (legs up, out, don’t touch ground)
• flat crunches
• boat (hold up legs, arms, in sitting position)
• twisting boat
• slow bicycle
• fast bicycle
• on stomach, holding torso above ground (with partner)
• plank straight
• right plank
• left plank
• star plank (legs apart)
• plank leg lift
Finish with:
• 15, 10, 5 pushups (slow on count)
• one-leg squats/pointing toe outward (once a week)
• shin strengthening exercises (front, back, out, in) (with partner)
Recipe for Success
So… you either want to get better, or are thinking about what you would need to do to get better, or at least Coach Mangrum thinks that you should be thinking about getting better. How do you do it? Here are the 7 things that you will not be able to succeed in cross country or distance running in track without:
1. You need to build a Mileage Base:
If you want to succeed, this is the first thing to think about. It must begin long before the actual season begins. For cross country, it begins after the state track meet in May. For track, it begins after the cross country state meet in November. If you start any later than this, you will prevent yourself from building as much of a base as you will eventually need to reach your full potential.
Step 1 is 10-14 days of light running (15 miles/week maximum for girls, 25 for boys), if you do not have any lingering injuries from the past season. After that point, you want to increase gradually week to week as much as you can for 8-10 weeks (see #2 for guidelines about gradual increase). The higher your mileage gets by the end of these 8-10 weeks, the better (see #2).
After this phase of increase, you need to maintain this period of high mileage for 4-5 weeks. This will take you up to the end of the off-season (around last week in February for track, middle week of August for cross country), which is when you will be running the most miles per week all year.
The most important thing you do all week is a long run. This single run will compose 20-25% of your entire weekly mileage (so 8 miles for a 40 mile week, 16 miles for an 80 mile week). By doing this every week, you will significantly increase your lung capacity, the volume of your heart chambers, and the number of capillaries feeding your muscles.
When increasing mileage, incorporate morning runs a few days a week, which will give you some easy miles and will also loosen up your muscles, which prevents injury.
2. Injury Prevention
If you do not avoid getting injured, you will not do as well as if you had not been injured. There is no way around this fact. Therefore, this is an absolute priority.
The first thing is to always add mileage gradually when you are building your mileage base. This means no more than 5 miles a week. Anything more than this is too risky, and you will find out you are hurt 7-14 days after the damage has been done.
Stretching is a good way to prevent muscle damage, so you should make the habit to stretch after you run, not before (unless you are doing some intervals or a workout, when you stretch after your warmup). Stretching before warmup will not accomplish much, but afterwards will improve flexibility and prevent future injury. Before any hard effort you will need to properly warm up by raising your heart rate to increase blood flow to your muscles for at least 10 minutes. After any hard effort, you absolutely must do a cool down by jogging for at least 10 minutes, which will remove leftover lactic acid in your muscles and prevent injury in the following days.
Anytime that you detect an injury coming on, it is very important to treat it as soon as possible. Communication with your coach is crucial, especially to coordinate your needs with the workout schedule of the team. Important treatments that should be used on sore or possibly injured areas tend to focus on preventing swelling. They include icing (either submersion in ice water or ice massage with Dixie cups ice blocks, or a bag of ice if neither is possible), ibuprofen (such as Advil) which is an anti-inflammatory agent, and elevation (laying on your back and raising your legs above your body). Other treatments to be used later include massage and heat, but only after the first phase of treatment.
Your shoes are your best tool to prevent injury. You need to get good, stable, well-fitting shoes (with laces, not elastic). It is a great idea to be fitted by a running shoe store the first time you are buying running shoes, since they should take into consideration your running gait and foot mechanics. If you have high arches, you may need to get some orthotics (either from a doctor or even over-the-counter ones from a shoe store), which help support the bottom of your foot and prevent shin splints and other injuries.
When you are running during the wintertime, you will need to wear enough clothes to protect you from the weather. When running in 50 degree temperatures or lower, you should wear pants, long sleeve shirts or jackets, and for comfort’s sake, some gloves and a hat. You can always take clothes off and wrap around your waist, but you don’t want to be out in the cold without anything to keep you warm. You will risk injury and sickness if you don’t keep yourself warm, especially in the winter.
An important thing to focus on during training is how you feel. If you have any type of sharp pain, a pain that seems to get worse as you run, or a pain that doesn’t seem to go away after a few days, you need to back off from your training (e.g. if you are running 50 miles a week, take a week of 20-30 miles). If you don’t, it will get worse and you will hurt your chances for success later on. If pain persists after a week of this, you need to stop running entirely and try different methods of training (pool running is the best, elliptical trainer is good, exercise bike is OK). Cross training will not be as good as running ever will be, but it is better than getting hurt, and it is better than nothing.
3. Strength Work
If you are going to become a successful runner, you need to have overall strength. If you are strong, you will get hurt less, and you will also develop a more efficient running motion.
Overall strength means almost every muscle group, but you want to focus especially on your core muscles (abdominals, lower back, etc) and your upper body (arms, chest, back). You do not need to do as much weight lifting for your legs, since you put enough stress on them by running, and intense lifting may increase your chances of injury.
Crunches should be a daily habit. Put your legs up against a wall or on a chair to avoid strain on your hip flexors, etc. You can also do abdominal and lower back strengthening exercises using a medicine ball. Push ups are also a good thing to do every day.
When actually lifting weights, you should use the general rule of low weight, high repetitions. Anything that will help strengthen your arms, your chest, or your back is fine. Do not lift weights every day—instead do this every other day at most.
Shin strengthening exercises are very important, since this is a major location of injury. They are most easily done with a friend, and you create resistance while pulling your toe toward you, pushing away from you, and pushing to the right and to the left for each foot. This should be done every day.
Strength work should be done all year long, with the only exception being the 3-4 weeks leading up to the final race of a season (early October for cross country, early May for track).
The most effective and relevant strength work for your legs is hill running. This can be done moderately by running a course that happens to have some significantly-sized hills, or intensely by doing repetitions of 100-300 meters on a gradual hill. Ideal hills for repeats have a moderate, but not severe, incline. It is also a good idea to do any repetitions on non-paved surfaces to prevent injury (although it is a challenge to find such hills in University Place).
Another way to strengthen your legs is to do such exercises as lunges or step ups (onto a box or a chair) with or without weights (no more than 30 pounds), or you can do jumping drills (anything, really).
4. Speed Work
You will not be successful if you do not incorporate speed work into your training. This does not need to happen during the first month of base building in the off-season, but after that point, it should happen once a week until a few weeks before the season, then 2-3 times per week until 3-4 weeks before the final race of a season.
Intervals can be of any distance under 1.5 miles, but should generally add up to a total of 3-4 miles. Less rest should be taken during the off-season or early in the season (2 min rest or less for mile repeats, for instance), and more should be taken later in the season.
Speed work can be less formal than interval training, however. You can accomplish this by running up-tempo (for an extended, continuous amount of time or for various amounts of times off and on) during a normal run.
Speed work should only usually be done when there is no evidence of injury. Since it can be very strenuous, it is risky to push an injury through intervals. This is not worth it during the off-season, especially.
5. Nutrition
Training for distance running requires a lot of calories, and if you are not feeding your body, you are certainly holding yourself back from performing well. It is important that you eat a balanced diet, which will be composed mostly of carbohydrates (breads, pasta, etc), but will have healthy amounts of protein, fruits, vegetables, and liquids. Avoid anything fried or carbonated!
It is also a good habit to have some sort of snack within 30 minutes of your run, as this replenishes your body’s used-up stores of energy in your muscles (glycogen, for those that remember my biology class). Obviously it is also good to drink water or a recovery drink immediately afterwards as well.
6. Positive Psychological Outlook
Your mind has just as important of a role in your success as your body does. There are a number of psychological qualities that you need to develop if you want to do well in distance running.
The first is the attitude that there are no limits holding you back. If you do not expect yourself to succeed, you won’t, but if you expect that you can do great things, then you surely will. Without this confidence in yourself, you will eventually give in to the desire to give up.
You need to have mental toughness, or grit, if you are going to succeed in difficult things. There will be many, many days where you don’t feel like training or racing or performing, but if you can be mentally tough and stick it out, you will be much more successful.
You need to be competitive with yourself, and you need to be competitive with others. This is the drive that inspires everyone to perform at a higher level than they thought they could. It’s OK to want to be better than someone else (even your teammates), and it is also good to want to improve on what you have done before.
Finally, you need to have a level of independence from others. There will be days where it will be up to you to go for a run by yourself, or to perform well when others are not there to support you. If you are dependent upon other people to help you get out on the roads, you will struggle with being consistent.
7. Consistency
Although you may feel the excitement to train or the desire to do something great, you will not feel this way 100% of the time. However, if you only run when you want to run or when you have time to run, you will not be as good as you could be. Training needs to be enough of a priority that you can make sure it happens all of the time. This is as simple as planning out your day and know when it will be that you can take care of your run—there is time in virtually every day to run.
One method to ensure your consistency is to keep a running log. This will help you plan your mileage for the week, determine whether or not you may be injured, follow your progress, and definitely to provide motivation to stay on track when you don’t feel like it.
Another way to help consistency is to have a running partner or two. Yes, I did say that you’ll need to be independent, but you will have much more success if you have someone else with the same goals alongside you. Their presence can override your feelings of lethargy on rainy days, and they can make the miles go by much more quickly. By the way, it is also much safer to be out on the roads with someone else if something goes wrong.
Individuals will often experience some level of success without doing all eight of these steps, but they will never reach the level they could have if they had done them. If any of them are missing, you will not run as well as you could have, guaranteed!
