September 2, 2010 - Pirates Open Season with Wins Against Buffalo Grove

The season is thankfully underway after a long off-season of training, and we are all looking forward to seeing where we stack up against both local and state-wide competition.  We are ranked #4 in the pre-season poll, and our tough invite schedule ensures that we will run against all three of the pre-season teams ranked ahead of us.  We kick off that stretch by tangling with pre-season #3 Neuqua Valley on Saturday.  The bus leaves at 7:00 am for Hinsdale, and all athletes should report by 6:45 am. 

Varsity - Boys Open with Seven in the Top Eight

Our season got off to a nice start on Tuesday with a solid 20-43 win over Buffalo Grove out on the new layout at Deer Grove East.  BG's Jereme Atchison looked really solid in picking up the win in a new course record of 16:06, but we swept the next seven spots to win handily.  The race plan was to keep seven guys together through the 2 mile mark and then try to kick hard.  Atchison played along and had much better legs in the last 800 meters.  Tony Gregorio was our top guy in 16:16 and was followed by Garcia (16:28), Frey (16:29), Meincke (16:42), and Tomkiewicz (16:45).  Both A.J. Laskowske and Tim Johnson sat out as they return from muscle soreness and illness, respectively, but both will be in the lineup on Saturday at Hinsdale's Hornet-Red Devil Invite.

Frosh-Soph - Clingerman's Big Kick Nabs Him a Victory in Season Opener

Our frosh-soph crew had a solid debut as we ended up with a 17-38 win.  Zach Stella led throughout most of the race, but things started to get close in the last 800 meters.  At 400 to go, I told Stella that Clinger was coming strong, but there was nothing he could do about it.  Big Red is starting to put together a lethal combination of aerobic strength and speed, and he was on top of Stella by 150 meters to go.  Both guys ran well.  I was also proud of Christian Zambrano.  He went out and took control of the race heading to the mile mark, fully expecting to nab a win for himself.  His achy knees have held him back much of the summer and the early season, but he ran a gutty race to finish in third place  Behind him, Joe Mars put on a tough kick to not only go and get a BG guy, but also to catch Brian Smith for fifth place.  Joey and Smitty rounded out our scoring in fifth and sixth place.  Tyler Squeo also had a great race as he moved up the lineup to be our sixth man.  Top freshman honors on the night went to Dean Kolar, who ran a great second half of the race to finish as our eighth guy.  Amadeus Sanchez also moved up nicely after a slow start to catch some guys and post a solid debut.

Mileage Updates - I posted the Miles for Week 1, Week 2, and Week 3 as well as the Mileage Progression for the entire season.  Since Week 1 only included official practices on Wednesday-Saturday, I do not have complete mileage for the entire team.  Selected guys reported back to me from their logs so my info was limited.

August 29, 2010 - Practice Schedule for Week 4

After a really intense summer of training and a team mandate proscribing all racing, we finally get to lace up the spikes and see where we are this week.  We open with a MSL crossover dual against Buffalo Grove on Tuesday on the newly configured (and 3.0 mile!) layout at Deer Grove East.  After a couple months of negotiations, the crew from the Cook County Forest Preserve was able to mow us a new trail out by the airplane field, and Coach Parks and I made the necessary adjustments today to find all of the 3.0 mile distance.  I am creating a PDF map for Tuesday's meet, and I will post it out here for all of the fans and alums.  We essentially are going to be running two 1 1/2 mile loops.  It's never going to equal some of the greatness of the 2001-2009 layout, but we did our best and have come up with a course that works well for training, dual meet racing, and the Palatine Invite.  Come out and support the boys and girls!  Boys are first this year.

On Saturday, we travel to Hinsdale for the Hinsdale Hornet-Red Devil Invite.  We will square off right away with two state powers this season: defending state champions Neuqua Valley and up-and-coming New Trier.  Expect great races on both the boys and girls sides.  The meet begins at 9:00 am with the sophomore boys race.  Varsity boys run at 10:00 am while freshmen boys run at 11:00 am.  Awards follow after all races are concluded.

Practice Schedule - Week 4

Pre-Season Rankings - I anyone is interested both ESPN Rise/Dyestat and the Chicago Tribune have published their pre-season CC articles.  ESPN Rise has us at #4 to open the season.  Check out the ESPN Rise article here and the Tribune version here.  ESPN Rise also published an individual preview.

Running News - I posted last week that David Rudisha broke the 800 meter record last week.  Well, last night in Rieti he had an even more stupendous encore, running 1:41.01 to break it by another tenth.  Splits were in the 48.6, 1:14 range for 400 and 600.  Naturalized American citizen Bernard Lagat also broke our record for 3000 meters by recording a 7:29.00 to take down Bob Kennedy's record from the 1990s.  Lagat is the first American ever under 7:30.  American star Chris Solinsky PR'd with a 7:34 and change.  In comeback news, Alan Webb ran 3:41 and 14:15 all within 30 minutes to show that he is rounding back into shape.  Visit LetsRun.com if you want to stay abreast of all the news from the running world.

August 21, 2010 - Banana Split Relays Results

Check out results from this morning's annual Banana Split Relays with the girls team.  Our top guys ran well on a pretty hot and humid day, but there is certainly a ton of room to improve.  There's a lot of soreness and tiredness after 5-6 weeks of 70-80 mpw for our best guys.  Not a bad starting point, but nowhere near the top of the heap.  Check out previous year's results in the Workouts section.

I just updated the results to include times run in the 6 x 800.  I also added the splits for the previous week's version of The Palatine.

Practice Schedule - Week 3

Workout Analysis - I told Coach Parks before this workout that it means everything and nothing each year when we do it.  It indicates whether we have basic fitness or not, but it is difficult to project from here to the end of the season.  I've had teams kill this workout and end up out of the trophies at state.  I've had teams stink up the joint in this workout and end up on the podium.  When you add contrasting weather and a new course for the first time since 2002, who knows what any of this means?

My first impressions about this year's teams are good, but hesitant.  We had two guys break 15:00 and seven at 15:30 or better. Tony is clearly operating on a different level than last year with his 14:40, and I was impressed that Reuben ran 14:57 after breaking out with a 15:29 last year in this workout.  A.J. returned from an injury to run 15:11, and we all know that he will exceed that level of fitness when he races.  Three other varsity performances were stellar when excluding one rep: Gates and Meincke both couldn't hold their pace in rep #3 while McGough delivered a great last rep but was too conservative in the opening pair.  Two bright spots: Tomkiewicz delivered a great workout after two weeks of struggling with dead and sore legs and Johnson produced a 16:01 clocking in just his first week back from a late July bout with mono.  If Tim runs with Tony like he can, we look great.  Until then, we are strong but lacking in the front end.  If Timmy J and A.J. keep moving toward where they will eventually race, we should be good.  Garcia recorded a solid workout, but I think he was a bit isolated during the reps and could have performed better.  All in all, we look fit, but not sharp, and that is fine at this time of year.

Outside of the varsity, our F/S team is going to take some work.  Zach Stella impressed with a mid-15:30s clocking that probably would've been better had he not been stung by three bees during his final rep.  Andrew Clingerman ran just over 16:30 to tout his newfound strength after a summer of work, but Brian Smith, Christian Zambrano, Joe Mars, and Adam Vanderwiel will need to do better if we are to be a sophomore power on the state-wide level.  A couple of those guys are aching and hurt so that plays into the sub-par performances, but I think we expect a bit more from this F/S crew.  Emanuel Rosales showed that he is the most improved guy on the team with a time just over 18:00.  In terms of freshmen, we have a lot of work to do.  Our results in the miles and the 800s show that this group is not yet on par with preceding classes.  It is going to take some time and work to get this freshman class up to where we expect it to be. 

Running News - David Rudisha broke the world record in the 800 meter run last night, clocking a sensational 1:41.09 to just break Wilson Kipketer's thirteen-year-old record of 1:41.11.  Check out the video of his sensational run.

August 10, 2010 - "The Run to the Top" Begins Tomorrow at 8:00 am

I hope that everyone intending to go out for cross country has their physical and permission slips on file because official practice begins on Wednesday, August 11th at 8:00 am sharp.  Meet in front of the athletic doors at Palatine High School for attendance and stretching.  Here is the practice schedule for the rest of this week and next week:

Practice Schedule - Week 1

Practice Schedule - Week 2

Driving Directions - By clicking on the links in the schedule to the left, you will find approximate driving directions to all meets as well as all bus departure times.  Return times are always estimates although most should be close. 

Picture Updates - I created Photo Galleries for both of our major summer activities: The Run for a Better Life and the Colorado Varsity Trip (Gallery 1 and Gallery 2)

Workout Updates - We ran a shifting version of "The Palatine" on the first Saturday of official practice.  I am trying to emphasize less racing in practice so we grouped it up on the grass loops to a brisk jog pace and then tried to shift down to 5:00 pace on the track.  While no one recorded a great overall time running in this manner, we did have a number of great intermediate splits.  Anthony Gregorio broke the phase record for the 800 meter portion with a 2:26 and became only the second Palatine runner ever to run under 5:00 for the closing 1600 on the track.  His 4:55 is second only to the 4:50 that Glenn Morris ran on October 18th of his junior year - two weeks before he won the Sectional.  Tony keeps showing that his form is top notch, and I think a lot of you will be surprised when you see him race.

I wrote up the results for everyone involved and updated all of the All-Time lists for Palatine Bests, Best of the Rest, Seniors, Juniors, Sophomores, Freshmen, and Career.

Colorado Varsity Trip - 15 Men Begin the Run to the Top

I had so many memories of the trip that I decided to create a separate page.  Check it out to hear about everything that we did.  For those of you who made contributions to the Run for a Better Life, that money was used to make this trip a reality.  Two of our boys had their entire trips subsidized by your generous donations, and the team was able to pay for everyone's lodging at Snow Mountain Ranch.  For more details, enter my trip log with pics and commentary.

Above: The boys caught in a goofy pose atop James Peak in Colorado.  We hiked up to 13,600 feet to catch a spectacular view from the summit.

We'd like to give a huge thank you to everyone who helped us to organize the trip or host us.  Steve and Cindy Johnson and Paul and Lori Laskowske did the bulk of the planning, and I am personally indebted to both families for taking such a big task off of my plate during the May-June end-of-year crunch.  Steve and Cindy chaperoned the trip along with my wife and I and Matt Sheehan, and we are all thankful and appreciative for all the big and small things they did to make this the trip of a lifetime for our team.  Other thanks go out to our hosts: Mike and Karen Hogan along with their family as well as Grandma and Grandpa Hogan up in Winter Park.  You guys added such a great family vibe to our trip, and it was great to have a couple of home-cooked meals while we were all away. 

Other thanks have to go out to our two running hosts, Jorge Torres and Pat Rizzo.  Having our first run in Boulder be with an Olympian was a great way to start the trip, and I am sure that we will all remember visiting Fight Club and soaking in Boulder Creek with an American distance running legend.  The same appreciation goes out to Pat Rizzo, who took some time to take us on a 13 mile run around Boulder Reservoir.  We'd also like to thank Neal Henderson, coach and advisor to many star cyclists, runners, and triathletes, for giving us a great talk on the physiology of distance running and walking us around the Boulder Institute for Sports Medicine.  The list could go on and on.  I know that I have some great new memories and hope that this trip went a long way to making this season the experience of a lifetime for all of us.

The Run For a Better Life - Boys and Girls Raise Over $2,000 for Charity

Above: Coach Parks and Coach Quick pose with Bryan Pratt before the 1st Annual Run for a Better Life.  Half of the money proceeds raised by the event were donated to Bryan's charity, the Disability Outreach Foundation.

I have wanted to set up a summer fundraiser for quite some time that would be a way for our student-athletes to raise money for both the team and a charitable cause.  To this end, we finally created the First Annual Run for a Better Life.  I based the event on a Run-a-thon model created by Paul Vandersteen at Neuqua Valley.  The idea was that our runners would gather pledges for how many laps they could run in one hour on the track.  Donations could be collected as a flat amount or on a per lap basis.  Check out the page that I am creating as a home base for this event.  I put up some pictures and will continue to expand over the next couple of years.

Our charity partner for the event was the Disability Outreach Foundation, founded by Palatine alumnus Bryan Pratt in 2001.  Bryan has facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy and has been ventilator dependent for the last three years.  Despite some physical limitations he accomplished so much, graduating from the University of Illinois in 1998 and founding his own non-profit in 2001.  His upbeat outlook, visionary intelligence, and humor were all inspirations. 

My goal in working with Bryan is to give out grants for adaptive living needs to alums from Palatine's physically handicapped program.  In its first year, our event raised more than $2,000 for Bryan's charity.  Thank you to all of the people who ran as well as the alums and parents who made such generous donations.  The half of the money collected for the boys and girls cross country teams will fund team activities and subsidize purchases and equipment for our less well-off athletes.  Check out the event photo gallery.

In terms of running our goal during the event was to see if our varsity guys could make 40 laps in an hour's time.  Most ended up in the 38-41 range with Anthony Gregorio and Coach Parks being the only two able to surpass 6:00 pace for the entire hour.  Scorching temperatures and humid conditions surely didn't help the pace, but we all managed to stay hydrated and run the gauntlet of squirt guns set up by the Johnson's and the Meincke's to keep us cool.  Thanks everyone for all of your help!

Above: Super dad Steve Johnson prepares to squirt the top group on the track with a Super Soaker.  Quite a relief on a really hot and humid July day.

August 1, 2010 - Season Information Plus Summer Updates

It's hard to believe, but the cross country season is quickly creeping up on us.  This will be my tenth year at Palatine, and the boys have been training hard as ever to make this another season to remember.  I think all of you fans and alums are really going to like this group of dedicated guys.  We won't be the largest team out there, but I think we can give the best in the state a run for their money this season.  If you are interested in running this fall, you need to complete the following:

Our first practice is scheduled for Wednesday, August 11th at 8:00 am.  Meet in front of the gym doors.  Unlike Early Bird, attendance becomes mandatory on August 11th.