Mileage Update - I put the
Mileage for Week 1
up in the Mileage Men section. Check out your progress and work to
steadily increase your volume and intensity. I will post the Mileage
Progression for the season soon.
Saturday, August 19, 2006 - Annual 3 x
Mile Results
I'm taking Mrs. Quick out on a little date
tonight so the full update will have to wait until tomorrow. It
suffices to say though that we ran great today even with some of our best
guys sick (Kwak) or coming back from injury (OB, Bethke). The final
times are
here. Check out the Workouts
section and look at how you did last year or how other guys on the team did
when they were your age.
Friday, August, 18, 2006 - Palatine
Fields Biggest Team Ever
As we seek to find out who we will be as a
team this season, I found some great insight from former UCLA coach John
Wooden (thanks to Scottie Bush for the book). Wooden won 10 NCAA
basketball championships at UCLA. Check out his ideas on Team Spirit:
"Team Spirit - an eagerness to sacrifice
personal interests or glory for the welfare of all - is a tangible driving
force that transforms individuals who are 'doing their jobs correctly' into
an organization whose members are totally committed to working at their
highest levels for the good of the group. Members of such an
organization are unselfish, considerate, and put the goals of the
organization above their own, even at the expense of their own personal
desires. When this happens - and the leader is the one who makes it
happen - the result is almost magical." - John Wooden
Most of the men on this team have done the
hard work that underpins success, but that work alone will not take us to
the top. Only our total commitment and care for each other can do
that. As we learn to become a team, think about how you can add to the
team. Can you work harder? Can you mentor a younger athlete?
Can you encourage your teammates? Can you motivate each other?
We stand ready to achieve great things, but the journey we make together as
teammates will be the greatest achievement of all. When we achieve the
Team Spirit he talks about, we will be a success. Winning races will
be an outgrowth of that most important success.
Practice Is Underway - We are still taking
athletes!
Practice for the 2006 cross country season
got underway this past Monday, and I am happy to report that we have 65 guys
signed up and training with the team. This is by far the biggest team
I think we have ever had, and it reflects both the success and the
philosophy of our program. We began a fall track program this year for
some of our sprinters, and our freshman class has reached 19 guys, due
mostly in part to junior high coaches who are getting kids interested.
Friday, August 11, 2006 - The Season
Starts on Monday
On Monday we shift to regular and required
practices. The team will meet on the first day at 8:00 am in front of
the athletic doors at Palatine High School. Thereafter, we will meet
at 7:00 am to beat the heat. All athletes wishing to run cross country
must turn in a parent permission form, an emergency card, and proof of a
current physical. More than half of the athletes on the team have
still not turned in their paperwork to the nurse. Get it in today!
Seniors and juniors without their papers in will be suspended a meet if they
are not ready to go on Monday.
Above: The team poses at Devil's
Lake after running a record-setting 15 hills in the Amphitheater Hill
workout.
Picture Updates - I created a
small picture
gallery with some pictures that I took over the summer. In the
coming days, look for a ton of old track pictures that I scanned at school
today. I am putting them in the
Palatine Relays site,
within our lists for top distance times in track, and within our entire
history section. Learn about the runners who made this a great team to
be on!
Above: The Camp Sand crew poses at
the top of the Sugar Bowl.
Sunday, August 6, 2006 - Palatine
Relays Updates
I worked for a lot of time today adding to
the 75th Annual
Palatine Relays web site. The
Top 10 Lists of
Performances and the
Event
Champions lists are now updated back through 1984. I also updated
the Team
Champions. Check it out and learn more about this signature event.
Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - The Cross Country
Season is Near
We have had a great summer so far, and I
really like how this team is rounding into shape. Many of you have put
in the work to reach your goals, and I can't wait to see you all become the
people and athletes you wish to be. I was thinking about our "No
Limits" philosophy this season, and I wanted to reprint the following quote:
| It is not the critic who
counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or
where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit
belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred
by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes
short again and again because there is no effort without error and
shortcomings, who knows the great devotion, who spends himself in a
worthy cause, who at best knows in the end the high achievement of
triumph and who at worst, if he fails while daring greatly, knows his
place shall never be those timid and could souls who know neither
victory nor defeat.
- President Theodore Roosevelt |
There are many simple truths in there, but
those of you who stood at the top of Riemer on Monday know something about
"daring greatly" and "the great devotion." Stick in there these next
two weeks and find your absolute limits so that when we dare greatly
together, we will know TRIUMPH and see the view from the highest point, just
like we did this morning. CAN DO!
Cross Country Sign-up - Get your papers in
early!
The 2006 Palatine Cross Country season
officially starts on August 14th. We will meet in front of the
athletic doors at 7:45 am, and practice will start at 8:00 am in the
morning. All people wishing to participate in cross country must fill
out three papers by the start of official practice. These papers are:
Check out
this link to see
the beginnings of this research. I will be lacking a lot of
information, especially from the early years, so any results or pictures are
more than welcome. Contact me at
cquick@d211.org or call me at (847) 202-0692 if you have anything that
may help me.
Cross Country Team Philosophy
I was flipping through the article collection I made last
year and thought that I would put the stuff I wrote out here in web form.
Under the new CC Team Philosophy link, I have
compiled all of my writing from Running the Pirate Way. It is
much more effective just to put it out here than printing new copies each
year. If any of you have stories or pieces to add just send them along
to cquick@d211.org.
History Updates - New Hamilton Reservoir and State Meet
Lists
With a little motivation from alum Rob Heselbarth, I put
together a list of all the best times run at Hamilton Reservoir from
1985-2000. I think that the team moved to Hamilton Reservoir from
Palatine Hills in 1983, but we ran a shorter 2.85 mile course from 1983-1985
so those times have been excluded. I created a list of
all-time best
performances from all schools as well as a
Palatine list.
It's incredible to see how many great athletes and teams have competed on
our home course. All lists can be found in the
History section.
There was a previous list of all-time bests for Hamilton,
but I found it to be pretty inaccurate since it didn't contain many of the
best dual meet times run. I believe these to be comprehensive, but let
me know alums if I have missed something.
Also, at Rob's urging (I forgot to list him a couple of
times), I completed the list of
all-time best
performances at the IHSA State meet. I think that the list now
includes every performance ever turned in by a Palatine athlete at state.
We have qualified 19 times as a team along with having three individuals.
In total, 136 Palatine athletes have run in the state meet (some of them
multiple times).
