Preparing for the 2014 Cross Country Meets

You expected to see Daniel starting practice. But David just turned 4 and it is time to start practicing for his second cross country race that will take place this Saturday at Hershey High School. For the first time, he will be wearing a number on his chest and be on the roster. 

That is all David cares about at this time is being on the roster and wearing a number on his chest like his brother. David practiced running fundamentals after daycare.  For a 4 year old, his running style is impressive. We have to work on arm movement but for a 4 year old, arm and leg coordination is very complicated. We are going to spend plenty of time on that this year.   

 

 

Daniel has been at this for 5 years and I am still screaming "Out of Your Pocket, in your Ear!" as he runs around the track in practice. David practiced after daycare while Daniel practiced starting at 9:30 AM.  Here you see him getting out of bed and getting dressed for practice.  

 

Daniel's practice starts with his quarter run warm up around the track. Then he runs the bleachers  all the way around the stadium twice. Next he runs a 200 Meter backwards. Then we start practice.

For cross country we run at full sprint 3 miles and 800 meters on the clock. Then we run the straights at full speed and jog the corners for 800 meter.

The last thing we do is a 400 meter worm down and go home.  At home we do weight training with 5 pound weights. "Out of your pocket, in your ear!" practice. We do that so that Daniel can handle running over 3 miles at full speed pumping his arms.     

We should not have had practiced at the Central Dauphin track this week. The Harrisburg City Islanders purchased the field for practice for their game on Saturday.  

 

The team did not seem to mind that we were using the track while they practiced. Unknown to me, the islanders were talking to Daniel and was impressed by his work ethics. The islanders practice was not as hard as Daniel's practice.  They acted like media, asking about his parents and calling over players on the team who was born in Jamaica.  As I told Daniel many times, he just does not represent the North East United States, he also represents the people of Jamaica.

The team  General Manager told the Islander's coach that he should have Daniel lead them in getting the players in shape.  The coach agreed.

Daniel and I wished the players luck in their game on Saturday and they wished Daniel luck in his first cross country meet of the year. The Central Dauphin's maintenance crew like always came over to wish Daniel luck and to give him encouragement.   

One of the Islanders is also one of the coaches for CD East High School. He was trying to get me to put Daniel into the CD East System instead of the CD System.  I told him that that request is outside of my authority.  He would have to talk to Daniel's parents.

 

Daniel running down a competitor at the AAU Nationals in Iowa last July.