A little disappointing

Well the C-USA champs came and went. It was a draining weekend which ended the cross country season and a few of the athletes careers. I would have liked them to compete a little more, but I think a few factors contributed to their under-par performance. We now have an easy week before we get into a solid 2 months of training which prepare for the indoor track season. I am looking forward to getting the athletes on the track and giving them some good hearty workouts....they need it.
I am pretty tired after the meet and deserve an easy week myself but I will start a few days of training myself & hopefully get back into 3-4 days/week of running. As long as my heel doesn't play up it should be fun to get back into it a little more regularly.

Conference Champs

We leave for C-USA champs tomorrow. The team did their final workout today before flying out tomorrow morning. They are all looking alot better than the start of the season., but then again, I'd hope so. I have put alot of time into them to think like 'real' athletes and get their heads wrapped around competing when it was on the line. Lets see if they perform Saturday morning. I am quietly confident that I can have 1 girl in the Top 10 and another girl in Top 25, with our number 3 around 30th. So the team should come out with 6th or 7th. With the Men's Team it is a little different. We are looking to beat just one team....and they are hosting the event on their own turf. So a tough ask for the blokes, but see how they react.

Finally getting back to it

Ok, sorry to everyone for not keeping up on the blog. I have been very overwhelmed with moving, visas & work these past few months and it is time to catch everyone up on what has been happening.
As some people know I am now the Head cross country coach for men & women and the assistant track coach for indoor and outdoor at the University of Memphis.
Jen and I moved here in late July and we had to get a place quick. Somehow we were lucky enough to move into a nice little single storey unit & settled pretty quickly.
After I finally secured the coaching position, something I have been after for 2 years, I started to learn everyday how coaching at the Division 1 level is so different than racing at it. I love the learning process and having the chance to develop up-and-coming talent.
As my appointment to the coaching staff was so late in the year I had little time to get things going with the few runners that I was to look after. They didnt have a chance to work on their strength base and really had to go with what they had built up through the summer months of running. We have now run 4 races and the runners have improved through each week. The mens side range from 27 minutes to 30 minutes for the 8km distance and the womens range from 19-22mins for the 5km.
The thing that I do 90% of the day is recruiting. I am trying to develop this program into a strong distance program, something it was back in the late 70's.....and I will do it. I have no doubt about that and I am confident that all the work will pay off when our team starts winning cross country races even as early as next year. The building process can take 4-5 years, but I think that we should see a whole new Memphis Cross team next year.

We are now just about settled here in Memphis and learning our way around the streets near we live. Jen is just about finished with volleyball coaching and I know that will be a weight off her shoulders.
I will keep more up to date on this blog now. Hope everyone is well.