Tully Boys

The other day, we looked over at tullyrunners for the preview of the Girls, today we look at the Boys.

The overall team rankings include four Section V teams, all from our league.  They include:
8. (tie) Mendon - tied with East Aurora and Franklin Academy, meaning the Class B meet at States could be very interesting!
14. (tie) Rush-Henrietta
14. (tie) Webster Thomas
19. Brighton

Section V is the only section with 4 teams on the list.  The biggest surprise on the list is Bronx HS Science; it is very rare for a team from NYC PSAL to make the rankings.  F-M is favored to again be the top team in the state, but they are not prohibitive favorites like their girls.

When the teams are broken into classes, we see some additional Section V representation, much from the Monroe County League.

Class A
5.-11. (tie) Thomas
5.-11. (tie) R-H
17. McQuaid
19. (tie) Fairport
19. (tie) Irondequoit

Class B
1. (tie) Mendon
4. Brighton
5. (tie) HF-L - meaning they just miss the overall rankings

Class C
6. (tie) Wayland-Cohocton
10. Addison - coached by Zach's uncle!

Class D
3. Campbell-Savona - also in Addison's league

For the individuals, we see plenty of Seciton V near the top:

Class A
3. Mickey Burke
12. Tyler Ranke
20. Josh Dyrland (making three juniors at the top of Section V)
30. Michael Sullivan (McQ)
37. Sasha Andrievsky
42. Brennan Root (RH)
49. Jack Scott (Fair)
50. Josh Goldstein
53. AJ Stuver (McQ)
65. Keith Johnson
Will just misses this list.

Other Monroe County runners:
Class B
12. Jack Wesley (Men)
18. Andrew Mullen (Bri)
20. JT Paganelli (HFL)
21. Will Ronchetti (Bri)
22. Will Phelan (Suth)
37. Matt VanVleck (Men)
38. Brian Northrup (Arc)
39. Connor Green (Men)
49. Langton Douglas (HFL)
51. Rob Young (Men)
55. Zachary Simpson (Bri)
59. Zachary Cove (Suth)

Blue & Gold Rosters

Well, it's that time - time for the 7th annual Blue & Gold Intrasquad Meet.  As a reminder, there will be three races scored: Boys and Girls Varisty, and Boys JV.  The team that wins 2 of the 3 races will be the winning team.

Now for the rosters...

Girls Race

Blue
Amanda Paratore (capt)
Kelsie Canessa
Kara Cekuta
Isabelle Clemens
Claire Ludington
Julia Wiseman

Gold
Valerie Palermo (capt)
Ashlynn Blose
Katie Edwards
Natalie Fitzgerald
Elizabeth Geiser
Nanaka Kohlbach
Courtney Raifstanger


Boys Varsity Race

Blue
Steven Dana (capt)
Will Burgin
Jacob Dyson
Mike Hohl
Zach Lyons
Peter Mallery
Aaron Paratore

Gold
Justin Reed (capt)
Brian Buttaggi
Alex Crawford
Jake Eberth
John Killigrew
Kevin Killigrew
Ray McBride


Boys JV Race

Blue
Phil LiPari (capt)
Mike Edwards
Mike LaLoggia
Adam Morrison
Justin Shaffer

Gold
Jacob Devries (capt)
Kade Canessa
Noah Fargo
Brandon Schafer
Nicholas Storm
Nicholas Terrigino (someone tell Nick to bring a Blue shirt, just in case)
Zachary Williams

Tully

I haven't yet unleashed the computer on tabulating the potential of returning individuals and teams for 2012, but tullyrunners posted analysis for New York State in July, so we can start taking a peek at what we see there.

Ladies first...

The overall rankings for NY include four teams from Section V, all from our League and three from Class A.  Suprisingly, R-H is ranked 13th, well ahead of HF-L, Canandaigua (both tied for 25th) and Penfield (right behind in 28th).  That puts the three Class A teams in 6th, 15th and 16th.  BTW, all four teams were also included in Dan Doherty's pre-season watch list.  I think that Penfield has the most upside and depth, while the R-H girls have been the most inconsistent, and Canandaigua may not have a fifth girl that stays healthy (although they have several with solid past performances at one time or another).  That should make for an interesting Sectional race.  In a few days the computer should be able to tell us how much of a gap we have to close.

There are also individual pre-season rankings, based mostly on last year, with a little bit of accounting for track.  On that list, from Section V Class A, we see the following:
10. Katie Lembo
15. Kennedy Jensen
21. Georgia Tuttle (moved up significantly based on track, but was not as fast as Val in the 3K)
22. Autumn Albrecht
25. Val (not moved up despite running the Steeple not far behind #6)
29. Amanda
30. Karli O'Neill
44. Alana MacDonald
45. Eileen O'Hara (definitely some upside here)
63. Amanda Palmeri
71. Maggie Lawler

If R-H wins the team title at Sectionals, that will leave about eight girls who should be running at States to battle for five available slots!

Sleep

I hate to be the one to break it to the kids, but you only have 9 days left until school starts!  One of the most important back-to-school activities for Cross Country runners is to adjust to the new daily schedule.  A key component to this adjustment is getting sufficient sleep.  It is almost impossible to adjust overnight from waking up in the 8-10am time-frame, to waking up at 6am or so.  Trying to do so will cause the same effects as jet lag!  The change should be gradual over the next week, so that your body is not shocked next Wednesday.

Most high school runners could really use 9 hours of sleep per night; however, most high school students are not disciplined enough to be in bed by 9:30pm or so, to get the nine hours.  If you are not one of the few that can be effective in school and in training on significantly less sleep, you need to develop the discipline to schedule enough sleep!

Here are links to a couple of my favorite Runner's World articles on sleep: the first one helps you find out how much sleep you need (you still have time to do their experiment).  The second one shares some quick tips for sleeping the night before a race.

And finally, a more comprehensive article can be found at the Running Research News site.

Blue & Gold

As a reminder, the schedule that was sent home had one incorrect date on it: the Blue & Gold meet is on Friday, August 31.  For any newcomers, the Blue & Gold meet is the intrasquad meet that kicks off our competitive season each year.  We divide into "Blue" and "Gold", with each team having a Boys Varsity, Girls Varsity and Boys JV line-up.  The team that takes the best 2 out of 3 gets bragging rights.

Since practice starts at 5:30 on Friday, I would expect that the race will start around 6:20 or so.  I'll be putting teams together by Wednesday, so you will know what color shirt to wear for the race.

Practice Schedule

OK, so I've finally gotten around to uploading the practice schedule for the season.  You can find it by looking under the "Check It Out" section on the left side of the main blog page.  Today I will also give you the direct link right here.

Of course, the bad news is that the transportation department has not yet told us what time the shuttle buses can run from Schroeder to Webster Park for practices after school starts.  So, there are many TBDs for the practice times.  I will update as soon as I know what the bus schedule will be.

Note that the practice schedule also lists our meets, so it's a nice calendar to have.  It also shows that we will have a couple of "away" practices.  The first will be a trip to Seneca Park, since we haven't raced there in a few years and we have both a league meet and an invitational there this year.  The second will be all the way across the county to Parma Park.  This will allow us to do a workout on the brand new Monroe County Championship course.  The course is radically different than the one we ran on last fall (which will continue to be used for league meets).  We had a slide show preview of the course at the Coaches' meeting on Wednesday, and it looks quite good.  It's even less hilly than the old course, and it has far fewer twists and turns.  Also, it features a single loop, rather than two loops.

The County meet is only nine weeks from tomorrow!

VDOT

As we get going into the season, it becomes very important to train at the proper pace each day.  To help us decide the proper pace, Jack Daniels has done a great deal of research on the current fitness levels of athletes and how that translates into ideal training paces.  Here are a couple of links to tables that help you find those paces.

First we have a table that allows you to take a recent race performance and translate it to your current "VDOT" number.  For example, if you have run a 5:44 mile, you would look down the Mile column and find 5:44 (highlighted), then look across to the VDOT column and discover that the VDOT is 51.

Sometimes your performance won't hit a number in the table exactly, then you'll have to use your interpolation skills!

Next we have a table that allows you to determine training paces based on your current VDOT.  For example, if your VDOT is 51, you would look at that row (which is highlighted) and learn that your training paces include:

• E/:L pace = 8:07 per mile, for Long and Recovery runs
• T pace = 6:44 per mile, for Tempo Runs and Cruise Intervals
• I pace = 3:51 per 1000m (so, 3:04 for 800m intervals)
• R pace = 86 per 400m

Practice Reminder

Until school starts, our practice schedule varies a fair amount, and I have not yet updated the practice schedule link, so here is a summary for the next two weeks:
  - Mondays at Ellison Park, 5:30-7:30pm
  - Tuesdays and Thursdays at Schroeder, 9-11am
  - Wednesdays and Fridays at Webster Park, 5:30-7:30pm
  - Saturdays at Webster Park, 9-11am

That's all I have tonight, after driving to Pittsburgh and back, to drop Nate off at school.  Despite nearly 10 hours in the car, I did manage to stop for a 40-minute run as I drove past Moraine State Park on the way home.

Opening Day!

Today marks the opening of the 2012 Cross Country season.  At least in Monroe County - everyone else in the world started on Monday (even Aquinas, which is located in Monroe County).  Over the next week or so, this space will provide much of the information that you need to know regarding the season.

For today, I'll include just the most pressing information.

IMPORTANT: Last chance for submitting the Sports Sign Up form is Friday, August 17th from 8:30am to 12 noon at Schroeder!  If you miss this window, you are not eligible for the first two practices, so get those forms in!

PRACTICE: Friday's practice is from 6-8pm at Schroeder, so you may have to TiVo the first few minutes of the Bills pre-season game, like I did.  This will be followed by a practice at Webster Park on Saturday, from 9-11am.

I hope everyone is looking forward to the season as much as I am!