Bickel Running Review of 2010

To follow up on last year's promise, here is my yearly review of the running part of my life. I’ll cover Coaching, the new Trail Project, the Moorestown Running Company, RunSignUp and my personal running. You can read about the business side of my life here.

Coaching
While I really like everything I get to do, this has to be my favorite. During Spring Track Sam Weintraub had an unfortunate "football" injury that caused him to have a tough season. It was a shame since he had a great base and would have qualified for States. Fortunately he has gone on to run at University of Rhode Island and make the Varsity squad this year. Tyler Ems had a nice spring season and decided to run at Loyola. It makes me very happy when guys graduate and continue running at the collegiate level. Of course the highlight of Spring Track had to be the emergence of Anthony Horten as the most talented runner we have had the pleasure to coach. He figured out what it takes to be good during this season and dropped from 4:40 to 4:24 in the 1600.
Of course Cross Country – MXC – is the best season. We had 73 guys on the team this year. The great thing about XC is that everyone can do it and focus on improving. We were very lucky to have an amazing group of Captains - Dylan Monaghan, Anthony Horten, Brett Samocki, Forrest Klawunn and Paul Rothenberger. In addition, we had the best Freshman class of all time show up - a great group of guys who will make sure the program carries on even though we graduate 5 of our top 7 runners. We extended our dual meet win streak to 30 winds over the past two years, won the Liberty Division and finished 5th in States Group 3 (second largest schools). Again the highlight was the continuing progression of Horten. He won the South Jersey Open and Burlington County Open and finished 5th at States. My biggest fear all year was not to screw him up, and for the most part we achieved that. I can't wait to see him in the Spring and at college as he continues to improve.

One of the best things we have done as a team is to put on the yearly Moorestown Turkey Trot. It has turned into a real tradition in town – a way for people to connect on Thanksgiving morning, many collegians come back to reconnect with their high school friends. We had over 800 registrants this year who all went home happy and ready to eat turkey…

It is cool to see MXC alumni running in college – Healey and Weintraub at Rhode Island, Ems at Loyola, Ringwood at Hopkins, Matteson at TCNJ.

Trail Project
We have completed our second trail in town! In addition to the MXC course at the high school, we now have a 2.5 mile trail around the perimeter of the Swede Run Open Space land on Westfield Road. You can read more about this effort and our long term goal of creating a network of trails for walking, running and biking throughout Moorestown athttp://www.moorestownxc.org/Trails/.

Moorestown Running Company
Two years ago I put together a longer blog just on the store. We continue on the same path - focused on the running community in Moorestown and the surrounding area. One of the highlights is the growth of the Moorestown Distance Running Project – which has dozens of runners now and winning and competing in many team competitions. Of course the real core of the store are the great people working there – Joe Halin, Ralph Harris, Ed Scioli, Maureen Shockley and our latest addition, Colleen Hughes Tindal (former MXC runner). The good news is that we have finally made a profit. Although it will take us another 10-15 years to recoup my original investment, it is a great step forward and makes us a real, ongoing business.

RunSignUp.com
You can read more about this one in my business blog. From a running community perspective, we are working with great running organizations like the Road Runners Club of America, Weight Watchers, www.RunningintheUSA.com, and a number of timing services and race directors across the country (as far away as Alaska and as close as Moorestown). Everyone that uses it seems to love it and find it much easier to use than anything else out there. It is also cool to have grown a team that will make sure we keep moving forward fast. I'm also very happy that Jack Wickens introduced me to the USATF program where businesses can help people training for the Olympics, as this is how Jordan Desilets and I met. 2011 is really a year focused on partnerships and growing and building out a bunch of cool technology for this community. It will be fun.

Personal Running
What started out as a promising year, ended in injury and frustration. I ran a "controlled" 19:00 at the Haddonfield Adrenaline 5K and then a quality 31:06 at the Scott Coffee Moorestown Rotary 8K on a hot and humid day. My goal was the USATF National Cross Country Championship in December. They have age group team competitions and we have a number of 50-60 year old guys who are pretty good in the Moorestown Distance Running Project. Unfortunately in the beginning of August I had a mis-step on a sore plantar (arch in the foot) that has put me out of commission until just last week. I start a long recovery now - doing 2 miles every other day for a week or two and then a slow increase. In addition to not being able to pull the old man's XC team together, the real frustration was not being able to run with the MXC team during this past fall season. Hopefully I will be back to running again fully by Spring Track in March. And maybe another shot at an old man XC team race...

MXCSummer Update - 8/1/2010

Three weeks until official first practice - Monday, August 23!

The summer has flown by. It looks like a fair number of our top runners have been getting in a good summer of training. Horten, Samocki, Monaghan, and Inglis are all regulars at the benches this summer. Sheehan was having a great summer but has an injury - we'll see how that progresses... Klawunn has been pretty steady except for Lacrosse. Nece ran his whole time in Japan and is logging about 40 per week on his own - nice job! Rothenberger says he is running more than last summer and should come into the season ready. Also good reports from Lentz and Lavery. Hope the rest of the returnees are getting miles in ...

Our Freshman class looks very strong this year. Horten, Inglis, Munilla, and Wright have been regulars with occasional appearances from Rothman, Spirgel, Kramer and Caffrey. Thanks to the Klawunns for hosting the newcomers party a couple of weeks ago!

If your name is not listed above, drop me a line and let me know how your training is going. Or better yet, come run at 8AM at the benches!

A number of guys are heading up to the Running Works Camp Aug. 16-21. It is not too late to register - http://www.runningworks.com/camps.html. For those of you going, make sure you do not over-do it up there!

We will be cranking it up pretty quickly this year in terms of mileage, so make sure you use the next three weeks to get ready. We'll do a regular distance run on Monday the 23rd and then do the two mile time trial on the track on Tuesday to get a feel for where everyone is on their training.

Also, make sure your paperwork is in. Here is the link for the paperwork, including physicals - http://www.mtps.com/800401015111530/lib/800401015111530/Sports%20Physical%20Info.pdf. As per high school guidelines, you can not practice with the team if your paperwork is not complete.

Also, there is mandatory concussion testing taking place on August 18 at the high school at 1PM. Room numbers will be announced later, and we will have to schedule a make-up for the guys at running camp.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the benches on Aug. 23!

MXC Update - 6/21/2010

Welcome New Runners!
We currently have 66 guys signed up for Cross Country this year. That includes 43 returning runners, 4 new Seniors, 3 new Juniors, 5 new Sophomores, and 11 new Freshmen. I have put a link to the roster and contact information on the website. Please let me know of any corrections needed or if you would like your name removed.

Remember, it is not too late to sign up. So bring get your friends to come out. Nearly everyone can run, and achieve the success of getting PR's. The beautiful thing about running - everyone gets to play!

Stay tuned for information on a get-together for new runners in a few weeks.

MXC Summer Captains Practices
We have started Captains Practices every weekday morning at 8AM at the benches between the Middle School and High School. We've only gotten about 15 out the first two days - so pass the word.

Summer is the time to really make your season. While you may not like getting out of bed that early, it is a good feeling of accomplishment. And it is definitely the way to avoid injury during the season.

As a reminder, here are the miles we are looking for per day. This should all be slow and easy to build a base during the summer.
Championship Squad (typically about the top 12 runners):
June - 7 miles, 6 days per week.
July - 8 miles, 6 days per week.
August-November - 9 miles, 6 days per week, plus 3 miles on Sunday.
If you are doing more, just make sure you are coordinating with Eagles and Bickel.

Varsity Qualifiers (aiming for sub-19, which earns a Varsity Letter):
June - 5 miles, 5 days per week.
July - 6 miles, 5 days per week.
August-November - 7 miles, 6 days per week.

New and non-Varsity Runners:
June - 3 miles, 5 days per week.
July - 4 miles, 5 days per week.
August - November - 5-6 miles per day, 6 days per week.

If you are not home to participate in Captains Practices, then take advantage of the fact that you can run almost anywhere!

New Version of RunSignUp in Test Mode

There is an exciting new release of www.RunSignUp.com coming next week! We would like to invite all of our race directors to be a part of our testing process. All you need to do is go to http://test.RunSignUp.com. You should be able to login with your usual username and password (there is a convenient button if you forgot your password that will set up a new one for you). We have your registered users for your race as of a few days ago. The best thing to do is go in and try to add some of the new features, like store items or a donation or a coupon code and see how your race page looks. Go ahead and add runners to your event. The credit card processing is NOT hooked up – so there will be no charges if you test that out. And we will not be saving any of this data or any of the changes you make to your test race. Let us know any feedback or suggestions. Thanks! Here is a look at the major new features:

• Easy Family Sign Up. Allows a person to sign up multiple people at the same time, making things faster, easier and less expensive.
• Custom Questions. You can now ask runners for additional information – such as if they want to be on your newsletter mailing list, or how much they have been training, or what they like most about your event, or how many years they have run your event, or even what team or relay they are a part of (we will have a better solution for that in the next release in June).
• Donations. You can now accept simple donations. You can set up predetermined levels, and people can donate anonymously. This can also be a separate widget that you put on your website all year round to accept donations to your charitable organization.
• Store. This gives you the ability to easily sell additional items, such as Pasta dinner tickets, or perhaps race logo clothing. Again, this can be a separate widget that you could have on your website all year long. There is also the ability to have a cut-off date for ordering. This is convenient for doing pre-order only items.
• Store Order Management. Manage your orders with adding shipping information, archiving orders, and doing partial refunds.
• Coupons. Set up any number of coupons. For example, you could have an “Elite” coupon to take 100% off the cost of a race. You could have a “USATF Member” coupon to take $2 off of a race. Use any combination of $ and %, as well as set what type of registrations can use it (first time only, once per family, etc.)
• Participants Widget. Use this to show who has signed up for your race. Since you can upload paper entries for free, you can show all runners who are registered for your race.
• Custom Email templates. We now allow race directors to customize the emails that are sent to race participants.
• Easier to use Race Director page. We have gone to a full menu system on the races page that will allow you direct access to more functions. This makes it simpler for you to use and allows us to keep bringing you great new features.

Unless we find bugs that delay us, we plan on releasing the new system on Monday, May 10. Please take some time and let us know what you think! Thank you!

Looking for a Developer and Runner

We have started the search for another developer and runner at www.RunSignUp.com. We are doing things in PHP and MySQL and Linux. Looking for someone who likes to learn (we have some plans for iPhone and Android as well as more Facebook and Twitter work) and has interest in building Internet start-ups. Also someone who runs and would understand the running community that we serve. Location is not important, as we work from our homes. Part-time is OK as well. If you know someone, send them my way...

Moorestown Distance Weekly Update

Volunteers Needed for Saturday's Moorestown Invitational!
It looks like we are understaffed with volunteers - so it would be great if anyone on this email list would be willing to head over to the track for an hour or two on Saturday! Joyce Nece (jhnece@comcast.net) is heading up the concession stand this year and she needs all the help she can get! Thanks!

This Past Week

Last Saturday we had the first official meet, the Hall of Fame Relays. Unlike past years of torrential rain or bone chilling cold and wind, it was a hot and sunny day. So sunny one of our runners actually has sun poisoning this week and can not run! Remember to put on sun screen and bring a t-shirt and cap and stay out of the sun. In addition to the skin issues, the sun can suck the energy right out of you and affect your performance!

Our 4X1600 team started off the meet with a romp - winning by over 40 seconds. We led most of the race and the guys turned in good, even splits. This team has a shot at getting the school record in May when they are in better shape, and have some stiff competition.

The DMR's both had some nice performances. Shipley ran a 3:40 1200, indicating he is more than ready to go sub-5 in the 1600. Inglis anchored with a sub-5, which was a PR for him. Szumski led off the other DMR team and ran 5 seconds faster than last year in a 3:44. Sheehan was close to a PR at 5:11. A good sign that a sub-5 is in his future as well.

The freshmen had a nice performance, finishing 3rd in their heat of the 4X800. Lamina led the way with a 2:22.

Yesterday was our first really hard practice of the year. Now that it is April, we are going to build on our base from the winter and March and start learning how to run faster and pushing thru some pain. The top guys did 6X800 at 2:30 and under. Very nice.

This Coming Week

The Moorestown Invitational is this weekend. We will have 3 runners in the 5K, 3 in the 1500, a DMR and a 4X800. Eagles will be reviewing those entries at practice tomorrow.

Next week we start our dual meet season competing against Willingboro on Tuesday after school on our own track. Invite your friends to come out, and parents are definitely welcome!

Next Saturday we will mostly be off. There is an opportunity for a couple of steeplechasers, but the bulk of the team will be practicing.

I also wanted to take a moment to say how pleased I am with the training levels that everyone is at. We have ratcheted up our mileage, with a big group doing 8 miles nearly every day. This will pay some big dividends as we get to May, and of course for those who are training for XC next fall or going to college and plan to run. Keep up the great work - it is that steady commitment that makes great distance runners and teams.

Your faithful scribe is taking off and will be missing for the next two and a half weeks due to vacation (St. Louis, Graceland!, Nashville on a road trip!), then a couple of business trips. I will be keeping up with things and feel free to email with questions.

Thanks,
Eagles & Bickel

MXC Track Weekly Update

This Past Week

We are getting into a rhythm. The miles are starting to build and we are starting to get in shape. The purpose of March is really to build a base for our target races in May. Hence, we are training thru our scrimmages and meets and making sure we get miles in every day.

In spit of Senior Trip and training thru our scrimmages, we had a great day at Cinnaminson on Wednesday. There were two PR's - Shipley and Lamina. As mentioned previously, Shipley is really putting in some good work and seeing some marked improvements. Lamina is a freshman, first time runner and it is fun to watch him explore how good he can get. It will be interesting to see if he can earn a Varsity letter with a sub-5 performance once he gets in shape.

Up top, Horten got some speed work in, with a nice 2:06 800. Out in 60.5, it was his fastest 400 of the season and he held on pretty well. Weintraub ran a steady 71-72-72-68 for a 4:43 leading from start to finish int he 1600. Samocki showed a lot of toughness and buried the guy from who finished 2nd in the Divisional XC meet.

Today we headed out for a great hill threshold on Paul Drive. This is a great volume and strength day. The top guys ran 10 miles, with 4X 1000+ meters. Even the Freshmen got 7+ miles in.

This Coming Week

Just to make clear, our goal is to run fast at the end of the season. That means Sectionals for the top guys and the Haddonfield Distance meet for others. Both are toward the end of May.

We are doing things a bit different this year and introducing speed work earlier in the season. The idea is to get used to running that fast, but not do it in such a way that it is too hard and allows us to still get miles in a build strength. So if the weather cooperates, we will target a light strides at sub-mile pace at the end of easy miles on Monday and some 400's at mile pace on Wednesday.

Saturday, May 3 is the Hall of Fame Relays at Maple Shade. Please let us know if you will be away. We are expecting everyone to be there and participate. Weintraub, Horten, Samocki and Ems will be doing the 4 X 1600 relay. The freshmen will be doing a 4 X 800 relay and most others will be in Distance Medley Relays.

Also, remember that we still need volunteers for the Moorestown Invitational on Saturday, April 10. Please let me know if you can help by emailing me at bob@runningco.com.

Joe Newton, Terrence Mahon

Last Friday I spent the morning at another fantastic Running Works Day of Distance Coaching at Villanova. This year they had a great 1-2 punch - Joe Newton and Terrence Mahon.

Joe Newton is the legendary coach of York High School. His teams have won 26 State titles in the 50+ years he has been coaching. He has a book that served as a foundation of our program we have built at Moorestown High School, and a great high school XC movie that follows his team thru the course of a season - The Long Green Line.

At 81, he is an energetic, motivating and entertaining speaker - he had the audience of 150 coaches laughing half of the time and thinking the other half. Here are some of the notes I took on his primary messages:

At the beginning of the season, he asks his team three essential questions:

1. Can I trust you?
2. Are you committed to excellence?
3. Do you care about me? Because I care about you. I love you all.

He also related a funny story of a speech he heard by W Clement Stone and his 4 lessons:

1. Do it - now.
2. I dare you to be great.
3. Tell yourself you feel healthy, happy, terrific. Every day.
4. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe - is possible.

Other pearls of wisdom:

• Don't be afraid to work hard.
• Discipline yourself during the hard times.
• Aristotle said: Life is only meaningful if you are striving for a goal.

While these are all things we know, it was great to be reminded of them in Joe's inspirational style. Afterward I went up to him and shook his hand and offered my heartfelt congratulations and thanks.

After Joe, we got to hear Terrence Mahon talk. He is the coach of the Mammoth Lakes Track Club, the elite training group that includes Ryan Hall, Meb Keflezighi, Jen Rhines, Deena Kastor, Amy Hastings and others. He ran at Villanova and learned at the foot of Joe Vigil. He ran 28:31 and 2:13 himself before focusing on coaching.

Terrence is a very precise, focused coach. He gave a great talk that focused on technical aspects as well as the idea of adapting your coaching style to each runner to match their personality and motivations.

The foundation of his program is understanding and maximizing all 7 energy systems:

1. ATP-CP. This is 0-6 seconds in length. Most distance runners ignore this in training, but Terrence has his runners do 2-3 sets of 3X30 meter sprints on Mondays. This helps develop this system, and improves running style and efficiency.
2. Alactate. This is from 15-40 seconds in length. He maintains that many races are determined in the last lap, and having this system is key. He does 4-6 X 150 meter sprints w 4-6 minutes rest every two weeks.
3. Anaerobic Overload. This system is used between 40-90 seconds before it is depleted. He does 6-8 X 300 meters at 800 meter pace with a 3 minute rest between each.
4. vVO2 is your maximum oxygen consumption level and lasts between 90-180 seconds. He does 3-5 X 800 m w a 1-1.5X rest.
   
5. Anaerobic Threshold is 2-20 minutes. He does 5-8 X 1000 with a 400 jog between.
6. Aerobic Endurance is 20-90 minutes. This is a normal long run.
7. Aerobic Regeneration is 20 - 180 minutes as an energy system. This is a slow recovery run. For his athletes this is typically the easy run of the daily double or the warm-up and cool down of harder workouts.

The last three make up the bulk of the miles and effort, with 7%, 50% and 34% respectively.

One of the interesting points he made was that recovery is really the key to training. He talked about how his runners sleep 8-11 hours per night and they all take naps during the day of 30-120 minutes. He also told us that Ryan Hall, who can run sub 4:50 for 26 miles does his regeneration runs at 8 minute pace. So SLOW DOWN on your long runs and recovery runs.

In addition to suggesting that we SLOW DOWN, he also told us that we should SPEED UP. He suggested that doing fast work helps improve efficiency and should be done at the beginning of a season - not saved for the end of the season.

He also gave us a sample workout program for a decent high school runner who is doing 60 miles per week. He broke the season into 2 weeks - the first week kind of being the first half of the season and the second week being the second half when you were trying to sharpen.
Week One:
Mon: 30-40 min run, 3 X (3X30m hill sprints)
Tue: 4-6 X 1K @ Threshold w 60 sec rest
Wed: 30-40 min regeneration run
Thu: 30-40 min run, 4-6 X 150 sprints
Fri: Tempo 30-40 min
Sat: 30-40 min regeneration run
Sun: 60-90 min long run

Week Two:
Mon: 30-40 min run, 2 X (3X40m flat sprints)
Tues: 2 miles @ AnT, 3-4 X 800 @ Vo2
Wed: 45-60 min regeneration run
Thurs: 30 min endurance run, 6-8 X 250-300 m w 3 min rest
Fri: AeT Tempo 2-3 X 15 minute tempo w/2-3 min rest or a 30-40 min uphill run
Sat: 30-40 min regeneration run
Sun: 60-90 long run (include 8-10 X 1 min hard)

He suggested to use Jack Daniels charts if you did not use heart rate monitors for pacing.

In summary, it was a great way to spend a morning learning from some of the best in the business... Thanks very much to Marcus O'Sullivan, Steve Shaklee and Cricket Batz for putting this on every year. Already looking forward to next year!

Moorestown School Budget

School Budget
I want to take a brief diversion from my normal running updates to encourage people to vote on the School Budget on April 20, and to pass along some information as well as give you some of my personal thoughts.

Readers Digest Version
To give a quick review of what is being voted on, the School Board has proposed a budget of $61.3M as compared with last year's $61.6M budget. The tax increase to fund this budget is 1.9%, or an average of $124 per household.

There is a reduction of 43 positions as well as 10 coaching positions in the middle school and 8 coaches in the high school, including elimination of the Winter Track and Bowling teams. This results in a reduction of over $1.3M in expenses.

Unfortunately in spite of the reductions, there are three primary factors that are causing the request for a tax increase:

1. State aid is falling by about $800K due to reductions in the state budget.
2. Benefits are increasing by about $1.1M due to contractual obligations covering health and pension benefits.
3. The tax rate-ables have decreased for Moorestown as a result of the re-valuation - in essence homeowners got a net tax decrease while the township and school district got lower tax revenue.

If you want some more information, I would recommend reading this powerpoint presentation, reading the proposed budget, or taking a look at some of the other links.

Voting
Last year the budget was rejected by a vote of 1,208 to 1,050. With over 4,200 students in the district, it is surprising how few parents vote. I think part of this is that people find it difficult to remember. So here is a link to the polling places as well as a link for an Absentee Ballot (this is what I do because of last minute out-of-town business trips).

Personal Perspective
This may be a little out of place, but let me give you my thoughts on this subject from several perspectives.

First, as a homeowner, one of the most valuable assets that I have is my home value. Some day I will sell my house and I hope that I can make money on it. Much of that home value is tied up in the perception and reality of the quality of the school district. It attracts new people to come and buy homes in Moorestown. Having repeated budget defeats gives the district a bad perception and does affect quality in some manner. I understand that the reverse logic can apply with tax rates being too high. But from my perspective, the $124 extra tax I pay will be more than offset by the increase in my home value over time. In some ways, it is like justifying a home remodeling project that preserves and increases the value of my home.

Second, there is much frustration over employee compensation and benefits within the school district. Passing or rejecting this budget has zero impact on that. That contract is done every three years between the board and the unions and employees. The contract is coming up this year. The way to influence that is to correspond with the board and teachers as part of that process. If you feel passionate about that, then make your voice heard on that subject - not by abstaining from the voting process or using it as the logic for voting no.

Third, as a person who has had the benefit of a good education I want to make sure that is available for future generations. And my definition of education is beyond the formal subjects taught in the classroom and include athletics and the arts. I trace much of my personal success and happiness to the lessons I learned running cross country and track and being part of those teams and having the mentorship of coaches. Hard work, setting goals, having fun, being part of a team. It is the reason I volunteer with the distance runners in the high school - to pass along the benefits that I received.

I know that if this budget gets rejected, the cuts will come from extracurricular activities around athletics and arts. And that is the primary reason why I will be voting for the budget.

Moorestown Trails Project in Newspaper

There is a nice article in the Moorestown Sun about the Trails Project.

We are targeting to build the 2.5 mile trail around the Swede Run Open Space on Westfield Road this coming summer. Of course we need lots of volunteers to help build it, as well as money and supply donation. See more information on how you can help here.

"I HATE Active"

A friend sent this email to me today...

"I just registered for the Spring Lake 5 and they use Active. You've GOT to get them onto www.RunSignUp.com. I fat-fingered my email address during registration and just wanted to go back and update it before I made payment. It took 20 minutes to figure out how, after clearing the shopping cart, restarting several times, etc. I HATE Active. They are really good at offering me crap I don't want, but the are horrible at the basics. Anything I can do help knock them out, please let me know."

The thing I love about RunSignUp is that it is focused on providing a solution to a very specific need in a simple and more cost effective manner with better technology. Nice to see there is a need out there...

RunSignUp - New Features

New Features

Free - Volunteer SignUp - We have added an event type of "Volunteer". This gives you an easy way to have volunteers signup to help in your event. Since races do not charge volunteers, neither does RunSignUp. This is a free service. You can even use this if you do not do online race registration with us.

Free - Off-Line Registrations - You can now enter or upload people who do not register online - of course free of charge. This means you can keep all of your registrations in a single system. Simply go to your race list, click on your race and then select "Reports". Click on an event and at the bottom of the page, select "Import Additional Participants". You can enter runners or volunteers in a form or you can import a CSV file.

Partner Program - This is a major new system that allows timing and race management services with more than 10 races per year to manage a number of races and race directors easily. It also provides simple widget technology to provide all the features a website needs for online race registration management.

How to Improve Online Race Registration

One of the best ways to improve race registration is to make it easy for runners to register. RunSignUp offers our widget technology that makes it simple for any website to host online registration. This means runners can sign up for a race on the race website, on the timing service website, on the race sponsors websites as well as on RunSignUp.com.

All you need to do is find a spot on a webpage and add the "Embed" script on that page. Take a look at Runningco.com or RunningInTheUSA.com website for examples of a running store website and a race listing service that offer race signup right on their own website.