Five Zones

Planning the plan and working the plan during the long build to championship day

This is Arcadia Week. For those who know high school track & field it’s the midseason landmark separating the elite and very good. Hundreds of athletes from around the country — even the world — will fly into LA this week and take a stab at winning. The door prize is the vaunted Arcadia backpack, specially designed by Nike each year and handed out only to those competing in the Saturday night Invitational races.

It’s a big deal, that backpack. In some ways just as important as winning.

The hard part about Arcadia is managing expectations. As big as the meeting may be, it’s still eight weeks until the California State Meet. Winning Arcadia is merely a symbolic reflection of your talent unless you can win it all the last weekend in May.

So I make my runners aware that I’m saving the best for last. This morning’s workout began with a twenty-minute easy aerobic run, followed by fifteen minutes on the track at threshold, then a series of repetitions at K, 800, 600, and 200. The kilometers were at VO2 paces, the 8’s at mile pace, 6’s mile goal pace, and the 200’s just plain fast. We didn’t really dip our toes into short alactic sprints but will lean on those tomorrow after an easy recovery run. As the saying goes, our feet move fast every day.

The season has gone well. Seeing improvement across the board. The cornerstone of our training is not today’s fast efforts on the track where someone inevitably collapses onto the infield or even throws up. The thing we do most is easy aerobic work. Even with Arcadia and the postseason looming, we never stray too far from good conversational miles. My runners sometimes get twitchy, eager to dive into hard speed at the expense of recovery. They ask when we’re going to drop weekly volume (to which I reply, as late as possible). Right about now is when everyone starts really racing. The slow tactical contests of February and more daring competitions of March, when the best distance runners learn when to make their moves and how to kick with a long way to go are transforming into the dazzling racers that will define Arcadia and this stretch to State.

This is the best time to be a track coach, just as mid-October through November make my palms sweaty with nervousness and my heart beats faster in anticipation of the great finale to cross country season. It all starts with Arcadia. Ever race from here on matters.

I like that I still feel this way in my third decade of coaching. So many things in life lead to quick boredom. By demanding that I regularly update my coaching methods and show up at practice as if every day is full of unique possibilities, I continue to enjoy the magic of holding the stopwatch. It makes me want to be my best, not just some guy phoning it in for the simple glory of being called “Coach.” Is there any title more affirming? It means you’re helping someone else be better. It’s not all about you. And that, in its own way, fills the soul. Whatever makes you happy in your own life, I pray it is equally empowering.