The Second Week of Practice

This has been another very successful week of Track practice! The team is beginning to build a stronger endurance.  In just one week, I have already noticed a huge difference in the team's strength. They have already began to strengthen their legs.  This weeks practice was moved to Monday and Wednesday, so they would not conflict with Band practices. This is what the team practices involved…

Monday: On Monday I held practice all by myself. I was a little nervous at first. I was unsure if I was going to be able to control the team, but the practice surprisingly when better than expected. What we did was three different workouts. We first practiced the 100m dash. I made them race each other six times in a row. Next, we practiced by running one lap of "Cat and Mouse". This exercise involves both endurance and sprinting. Then we ran two "Magics". These are laps you run around the soccer field as fast as possible. After practice, the team was pretty exhausted.

Wednesday: On Wednesday the team ran four laps of  "Cat and Mouse", which is equivalent to about one mile. Then, after that running exercise, the team did agility exercises. The agility exercises involved the "mountain man" exercise, crouches, and knee ups. These agility exercises strengthened the leg and core muscles in the body, to give the team more power in their push-offs.

Something very excited has happed this week! The team has received an e-mail for the Deaf and Blind School. The e-mail received gave the Oakbrook Track team permission to come and practice with the Deaf and Blind School's Track team!  Most likely, the team will be practicing with the Deaf and Blind School next Thursday for 4:30-5:30. I am very excited about this opportunity for the team. It will allow the team to run on an actual Track and to feel the pressure of competition. We may even be able to try a few field events!! 

The first week of practice!

This week was the first official week of practice!! It was fantastic! On Tuesday around 12 students showed up. It was a really good first day of practice. On the first day, we trained by doing two different running exercises. The first exercise was running and training for the 100m dash. We have a lot of fast students on the team. I think we can definitely do really well at the meets we participate in! Next, we trained by running one mile. The students who participated in Cross Country did really well. The others students still did well too, but we all need to work on our endurance more, so they can all run a full 1-2 miles without having to stop.

Today around 15 students showed up! (including 6 girls!) :) We practiced endurance training and sprint training in the same exercise. They ran 1.5 miles, that involved both jogging and sprinting. The team did really well. Then, after that exercise, we did the "stair stepper" exercise, on the pavilion. This exercise helps strengthen the muscles in the legs so that the team can have a more powerful push off in each step.

I've really enjoyed the first week of practice! I’m surprised how many people showed up! The team is really determined and energetic about Track. It makes me really excited and happy to have others that love running like myself. :) I'm excited for next weeks practice also! I am doing practice by myself without Mr. Tucker on Monday! Pray for me!

Practices Plans

So the Friday meeting went extremely well! The meeting went even better than I was expecting! Around twenty students showed up at the meeting, and I am expecting around fifteen students on the first day of practice. :)

So next Tuesday is the big day! It is the first official practice day of the season! This week I have mostly been brainstorming different ideas for the practices. I am still trying to decide whether or not to make the first day of practice simple/easy or hard/challenging. Any suggestions? I don't want to scare off some team members of the team if the first day of practice is too hard, but I don't want anyone quit if they think the practice was too easy. I'm going to talk to Mr. Tucker and see what he thinks.

I was thinking about having a quick one mile run and then have a few sprint exercises for Tuesday, but I still haven't completely decided yet. I would also like to be able to do some strength training exercises. (potentially for the Thurs practice too). I also want to make the warm-up stretches intense, which should be easy for me to come up with, because I am constantly stretching for dance classes.

It's Almost Begun!

The Track season is almost here, and I am so excited!! The first official Track meeting is tomorrow. The meeting is for all the students who are interested in participating. The meeting is to give the students information about the upcoming season, and for me to see how big the team will be.  I am excited to see who will turn up at the meeting. I had to do many preparations this week for the meeting.  These preparations include getting medical forms, commitment forms, and information from the students.

I made an announcement in the Knightly News this week, informing Oakbrook of the Track meeting on Friday. An announcement at Chapel was also made this week about the team. Lastly, a reminder about the Track meeting after school tomorrow was also made.

I spoke with Mr. Hinds this week, and he is encouraging me to do some practices on my own, without Mr. Tucker's help, and to use Mr. Tucker more as an advisor to help plan/coordinate races.  I would like to do this, but I feel that I need a lot of Mr. Tucker's help still. I was thinking that I do one practice a week without Mr. Tucker, and another with him. I still need to talk to Ms. Tewksbury about this.

It has been confirmed this week by Mr. Tucker that the Oakbrook Track team can practice at the Deaf and Blind School or at Inman Highschool (Old Chapman Highschool). We will most likely practice at this location once every two weeks.