Work Ethic

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.  It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed.  Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up.  It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve.  It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or a gazelle – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” – Unknown source

"Somewhere in the world someone is training when you are not.  When you race him, he will win." - Tom Fleming's Boston Marathon training sign on his wall

"Running is a big question mark that's there each and every day.  It asks you, "Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?'" - Peter Maher, Irish-Canadian Olympian in the marathon

"The number of miles I have run since I was a toddler would have taken me around the world several times, and I still cannot define precisely my joy in running.  There is no sacrifice in it.  I lead what I regard as a normal life.  In my case, I thoroughly enjoy running 100-odd miles a week.  If I didn't, I wouldn't do it.  Who can define happiness?  To some, happiness is a warm puppy or a cold beer.  To me, happiness is running in the hills with my mates around me." - Ron Clarke, former world-record holder in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters

                The quote above is one of my favorites because it highlights the survival nature of running.  As athletes each of us is involved in a daily race.  We know that foes lurk just outside of our vision.  We do not know how much or how fast the opposition is running on any given day, but it is a fairly comfortable assumption that they are out there running.  Distance runners are stuck in a continuous cycle of survival running.  If you are not running, then someone else is.  When the two of you meet, the man in better condition will win more often than not.  Running is a simplistic sport that way, and the story of the lion and the gazelle is a good one to ponder for any aspiring distance runner. 

                One of my favorite sayings about running is that “consistent applications of hard work lead to improved results.”  On the surface, that seems like the most simple and obvious maxim.  Unfortunately, a runner cannot become great by realizing how obvious this statement is.  He has to live it.  Consistent application of work means not taking much time off.  It means running in the cold, the heat, the rain, the snow, the humidity, and other ugly combinations of all these factors.  It means running when you feel tired and even sometimes when you feel pain.  It means running twice a day and building a mileage base over four years of consistent and concentrated effort.  It means creating a training group of guys who remain dedicated to the goal of getting better.  We may not run as much in season as some other teams, but our top athletes spend little time de-training and then getting back into shape.  Our goal is to achieve consistent progress.  To realize this, you must run consistently and work over time to build both volume and intensity in your weekly training.  There are no secret workouts.  Progress comes only with consistent running.

                At Palatine we promote a year-round view toward distance training.  Anyone who wants to be any good at distance running has to do both cross country and track.  Some of our athletes choose to do a third sport in the winter, but the best ones are those that choose to dedicate themselves year-round.  I’d like to say that biking, swimming, or playing basketball could produce equally beneficial physiological adaptations, but this is simply not true in my experience.  At Palatine, we strive to provide a framework for year-round training.  Our year is thus divided into the following segments:

We take at least a week off after each season ends and two weeks over Christmas break, but our goal for the rest of the year is to take as few days off as possible and to build our strength.  Practices in the off-season are voluntary, but our guys know that those are the times when they can catch or surpass their rivals.  By setting up an ambitious framework for training, we are able to reap the benefits of our hard work.  Most of our guys improve constantly over their four years, and our consistent training results in team success.

                Each period of our training has a physiological purpose.  During the summer, we work to build our aerobic base.  Our kids progress throughout the summer to running high miles by the end of the summer (75-90 miles per week for some varsity runners).  In late July and August, we do a lot of hill training to build muscular strength.  The emphasis during the summer is on longer runs as we strive to build aerobic endurance.  During the cross country season, we race twice a week so we cut our mileage a bit to avoid injury.  We increase the intensity of our runs in comparison to the summer months, and we run more intervals to get used to running at race pace.  Altogether, the summer and the cross country season are meant to build endurance.  Over the winter the emphasis is on maintenance running.  We encourage our guys to run 5-6 days a week to try and maintain their aerobic fitness.  We do not run big miles in the winter – we want it to be a period of psychological ease.  Our boys meet each day without coaches and spend about an hour getting their run in before they go home.  This training prevents them from losing aerobic fitness and prepares them for the long grind of the track season.  Track is essential in developing young runners.  It gives us a long period of time to build speed, improve form and running efficiency, and add strength through weight-lifting.  Our mileage is typically 10-15% lower each week as we replace slower distance running with more speed workouts and quicker tempo runs.  Track and cross country reinforce each other – cross country gives us the strength to sustain speed while track gives us the speed and efficiency needed to improve our times over long distances.  The cycle then repeats itself the next year.  Our athletes understand that it works because the results are obvious – they can feel themselves getting stronger and their results show it too.  It is one of the greatest feelings as a coach when you see a young man’s hard work pay off with a great performance. 

                It is all well and good to set up a training program like this, but the actual execution of it is difficult.  These young men have tons of things going on in their lives.  Time has to be carved out of their schedules for running.  Many of our kids are great students who are also involved in band, choir, clubs, and other out of school activities.  I admire our kids for choosing to maintain a consistent emphasis on running in their lives.  Both the coaches and the team leaders try to encourage kids throughout the year and provide support for this effort.  Effective senior leaders ensure that kids are coming to practice in the off-season.  They motivate each other to run.  This system only works with kids who are intrinsically motivated to get better.  Coaches cannot always provide that external pressure to run.  I think our kids succeed because they genuinely want to run.  They choose to run in the off-season.  They choose to dedicate themselves to each other.  Sooner or later, the daily activity of training becomes part of a much more powerful brotherhood that develops among the athletes.  They simply do not want to let each other down by being the weak link.  After awhile, the team can run itself largely without coaches.  That is a great complement to the spirit and motivation of our athletes at Palatine.  We simply set up a framework and a meeting point for the training to occur, and the team decides how hard it wants to work.  We set up an ambitious training schedule and leave it up to them to realize their dreams and aspirations.

                We are dealing with high school kids here so there have to be some outside incentives to get the work done.  We make sure that our kids receive T-shirts and other gear for their participation.  When I started a Polar Bear Winter Running club, I made the reward a custom-made hooded sweat shirt.  Now, our guys who show up consistently all winter get to earn one of these special sweatshirts.  They are not allowed to loan it to anyone (unless it can help them get a date).  We also hold a Polar Bear White Elephant Christmas party each year for all of the kids who run in the winter.  We all bring bad gifts and celebrate our year together.  Everyone who runs Early Bird in the summer gets another T-shirt, and we show our appreciation by bringing fruit and ice cream to summer runs.  Guys who run in the summer get to go on special team trips.  For the last four years, Fred Miller has hosted Camp Sand at his cabin in Michigan.  Only the 10-12 hardest training athletes are chosen to go as a reward for their hard work.  During the season, the rewards are a lot more obvious.  The kids reap the rewards of their work every time that we go to meets and compete well and run personal bests.

                I know that this section makes running a program seem simple, but it is anything but.  Maintaining excellence takes a year-round commitment on the part of both coaches and athletes.  Everyone has to dedicate their energy for anything to work.  I am always impressed by the degree to which our kids and coaches care about the team and its success.  I have been fortunate to work with great people, and when you collect enough of them in one spot and get them working hard, great things will happen. 

Pirate Lore:

                I will always remember James Macatangay as one of my first work-horse legends.  James ran cross country and track in junior high, but his times were far from spectacular.  I think he ran just a bit under 5:50 for the 1600.  I remember pointing him out to Fred Miller on the first day of cross country practice his freshmen year.  James has great mechanics.  He gets his knees up and flows smoothly with his arms straight ahead through his hips.  The problem with James is that he was a midget, starting out at a little over 5’0” tall.  He ran well that freshman year and ended up being the 6^th or 7^th man on our freshman team.  That spring he went out for baseball, and I figured that would be the last I heard of him.

James came back though his sophomore year with a good attitude.  He worked hard over the summer to get back in shape and ended up the season placing 21^st in the MSL F/S conference race.  I had started to get to know James better, and it became clear that he was far from satisfied.  I knew that he had the tools to be good, but I did not know how motivated he was to get better.  James was a quiet kid, and I couldn’t tell how hot the fire was burning inside of him.  It turns out that it was burning pretty hot.  After ditching baseball, he had a great track season, running 4:43 for the 1600 and 10:23 for the 3200 and gaining great momentum heading into his junior year.

Over the summer heading into his junior year, James ran just over 700 miles.  We really didn’t expect him to be a huge factor on the varsity, but he ended up scoring in the top five in every single meet of his junior season.  At the state finals, he placed 67^th to help carry us to a 2^nd place finish.  His turnaround was remarkable.  As a coach I learned from him that I should never underestimate any of my athletes.  James only ended up being 5’ 5” tall, but no one can measure his desire and motivation.  He is a perfect example of a made runner.  All of the things you could measure predicted that he would not be a champion, but cross country is often dominated by people who possess values that cannot be measured.