Welcome to War Eagle Running Camp!

Friday at WERC Part 2

High School All-Staters Sydney Marshall and Megan Mavity highlighted a great day at War Eagle Running Camp.  Sydney spoke first and had a slide show that went along with her presentation.  The Chattahoochee High School senior spoke about her love for the sport, the transition from cheerleading to xc/track, and her college choices for next fall.

Marshall emphasized to the kids that she went out and get her work done for cross country regardless of her teammates.  That type of work ethic has allowed Marshall to be one of the best runners in GA with a bright future ahead.  Sydney also spoke of her goal to reach Foot Locker Nationals and answered questions from the kids.

Megan Mavity- co-captian and senior at The Marist School- spoke about her whole running career.  Mavity started running with the Northside Red Runners and the Holy Innocents Episcopal School before coming to Marist as a frosh.  Her slide show included pictures from a snowy meet in Rhode Island and pictures from the 2008 Marist State Championship team.

Megan spoke with great enthusiasm about running on a team and both Sydney and Megan spoke about friendships developed in the sports and the places you get to travel.  Running is a sport that will allow you to meet more people and travel to more places than you thought possible.  All it takes is hard work, belief and consistency.

Coach Heintz and I were happy with Sydney and Megan’s talks and we know the kids seemed to really like both of the senior stars.

Friday at WERC Part 1

Friday was a very busy day at camp.  Highlights included All-State runners Megan Mavity (The Marist School) and Sydney Marshall (Chattahoochee HS) as guest speakers.  Coach Heintz also gave a great break-out session emphasizing off-season training for middle schoolers.

The day started off with a short 30-35 minute run (day before a race or time trial is typically shorter).  I ran with Group 2 today which had a very strong run led by Alexandra Horst (counselor from The Lovett School).  Nick Andrist,  Jocelyn Brown, Erin Connolly, Mary-Mac Hailey, Alex Smith, Daniel Navarro, and Seas Patton-Miller formed a beautiful pack and had a great recovery run thru Blackburn Park and back.

With possible thunderstorms being forecasted, our 2nd annual pacing contest took place right after coming back from the run.  Group 4 which consists of Rachel Callahan, Mary Grace Heller, Jensen Caster, Morgan Ilse, Taylor Lamb, Sarah Jane Miles, Tessa Schwarze, and Rachel Ward won the contest.  They were only 11.1 seconds off their predicted times.

With no pacing practice (due to thunderstorms) and a muddy course, the performance of Group 4 was outstanding. Each group paced a mile and 400 on the Marist cross country course.  All groups were finishing at the run started coming down hard.

Everyone came inside and dried off as played part of the documentary Fire on the Track.  The movie is the story of Steve Prefontaine- one of Ameica’s greatest distance runners ever.

Coach Heintz then gave an insightful breakout on high school running in GA.  Highlights included how to qualify individually and as a team for the state cross country meet and how middle school cross country running in GA has really taken off as well.  The future is definitely bright for our sport!

More to come later today!

-Coach Jayaraj

Stretching Routine

Dr. Josh Glass of GA Sports Chiropractic was our guest speaker on Thursday morning.  Josh- who is on the medical staff for USA Track and Field for the upcoming World Championships- gave a great talk on the importance of stretching.

Dr. Glass made several key points in his talk:

- Stretch lightly before runs.

-Stetching should never hurt.

-You should stretch after runs and at night.

-Kids should write down their routines.

-If one side is tighter stretch that side for extra time.

Dr. Glass spent time showing all the major stretches.  Jon Walsh and Ryan Kelly were two of the campers that helped demonstrate stretching.

All stretches were shown in both a standing and sitting position. 

Hamstrings:  Standing position you would cross one leg over another.

Ground: You can use a towel and hold for 3 seconds before repeating.  One leg at a time.

Quads:  Standing and Ground positions were similar.  Important if you stretch your hamstring that you stretch your quad.

Calves: Two parts of the calf are the Gastroc and Soleus.  Both parts need to be stretched.  When on the ground you can use a towel with your leg straight for one part of the calf.  The 2nd part of your calf can be stretched by bending your knee and flexing your foot.

Groin: Side to side stretch

Hip Flexor: This stretch occurs on the ground.  Lunge Motion

-Coach Jayaraj

Camper Carson Waln Speaks Out on His Off Day

As a returning camper and one of the older runners, I am glad to say that this is one of the better experiences in my running career. The WERC is to me a wonderful place to meet new people, have fun, and work hard at the same time. The name War Eagle Running Camp represents this. WERC. Say it all together and you notice is sounds like work. This corresponds to what we do here because it is work. It is the perfect place for a competitive runner like me to excel in this sport and is also a wonderful place to start training or continue training for the upcoming season. The C in WERC is camp. Even though we run and work hard, the camp setting is always there.
As for me, camp is going great! With a little expected soreness, the runs are enjoyable and a blast. I am running with guys that I have competed against in races, and I am now getting to know them. I had the great experience of trying water running or aqua jogging. For those who don’t know what it is, you place a flotation belt around your waist and mimic the running motion in the pool. It is not about moving forward but is about having good form and moving your arms and legs fast. It is a great way to cross train, and as I found out, it works the upper body as well as the lower body.
Even though my team is second to last in the team competition, we have had fun with all of the activities. Today we finished 3rd due to, in my opinion, a bad call by Coach Heintz (no offense) [none taken]. Our last teammate was said to have used their open hand to get the hula-hoop on the ground faster. This resulted in an automatic disqualification, which aroused some mixed reactions. The worst part was that we had to sit there as both teams in the finals struggled to succeed. If we had been in there, we would have one hands-down!
Pacing as always was a challenge more mentally than physically. On Monday, we selected times that we could run a 400 (one lap around the track) and a mile (four laps around the track) [that corresponded to proper training or workout paces]. As a group we have to try to get as close as we can to those times. The catch is that during the actual competition no watches or helpful “hints” from any bystanders are allowed. Our team is looking strong and ready for some gold!
I can’t wait for the rest of the week to unfold at the War Eagle Running Camp!

-Carson Waln
[edited by Coach Heintz]

Day 3!

Today campers arrived and watched parts of the movie Spirit of the Marathon.  On a beautiful summer morning, the kids along with their group leaders headed out to Silver Lake and Blackburn Park.  Group 5 stayed on campus today.

I was able to  run with Group 1 and the group had a great run to Silver Lake and back.  Definitely watch out for these kids this fall at races throughout Georgia.  River Holifield, Warner Ray, Ryan Kelly, Carson Waln, Connor Byrne, and Alec Nathan.  Robin Brown also joined Group 1 later in the morning at pacing practice.

Groups came back from their runs and proceeded to do their drills and strides on the soccer field. 

Group competitions today involved a hula hoop.  Look for video later this week to show what it was all about.  Group B aka E-Squared won the contest and gained valuable team points.  E-Squared is winning the competition for the week with Group C in 2nd place.  Group C has no name at the moment!  Hopefully on their rest day they will come up with one

Campers came in and we finished up Spirit of the Marathon and began the movie Running the Sahara.  We then had our first guest speaker of the week, Jared Carson.  Carson is a 2009 graduate of Shorter College where he was a two-time All-American in cross country and track.  Jared started running in 9th grade locally at Campbell High School and steadily progressed from a 22 minute 5k runner to a 31:19 10k runner this past track season.

Jared talked about his career, about the importance of being in a positive environment to reach your goals and also praised the kids for starting their running career early. Jared and his brother Josh will be helping to start training groups in the Smyrna area later this fall.  Look for that!

Campers then ate lunch followed by Coach Jayaraj’s talk on Inspiration.  Jayaraj showed clips from the 2008 Olympic Track Trials, the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo and finally a clip from 2008 Olympian Amy Yoder Begley.  She began her running  at age 10 (1988) and had a initial goal of making the Olympics which she did 20 years later.

Campers are now finishing up another great day in the pool.  Kids in group 1 and 6 are also learning the basics of water running from Coach Heintz.  We hope everyone has a great rest day and hope to see everyone Thursday morning.  Thanks!

-Coach Jayaraj

Day 2 at the WERC

Highlights from Day 2

After campers warmed up, they went out on their first off campus runs.  Counselors and coaches led kids to various locales which included Murphy-Candler, Silver Lake and Blackburn Park.

Campers returned from their morning runs for drills and barefoot strides on the soccer field.  Coach Heintz interviewed various campers on how they enjoyed their runs. Campers interviews can be accessed through user MaristXCcoach on youtube.

Campers- divided by Group Names A-D for various competitions throughout the week- had to make letters on the ground with their groups based on lettes Coach Heintz yelled out.  Group B (E-Squared) won the contest.

After lunch, Coach Heintz presented a nutrition and eating sessions.  Some areas covered were what to eat before and after races, types of foods that are best for you and finally the importance of making good choices when it comes to your food selection.  Campers asked many good questions highlighted by what to do with multiple races in a day.

Campers are now currently swimming watched by Coach Heintz and two certified lifeguards on our staff.  We enjoyed our day today and look forward to another great day tomorrow.

-Coach Jayaraj

Some Quick Interviews and Highlights from Day 1 of Camp!

Look for them here: http://www.youtube.com/user/MaristXCcoach

and here: WERC Picture Gallery and Day 1 Slide Show

Today, the campers got to know each other with a variety of team games and a group run around the Marist campus.  Coach Jayaraj led the instruction on various drills and led the groups as they practiced them indoors because of the rain.  Tomorrow, the campers and counselors will provide the content for the blog.  Look forward to lots of pictures and commentary.

Counselors

Check out interviews with some of our staff at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qto5hiAVpJc&feature=channel_page 

Scott "Spider Man"

Ben

Chelsea

Welcome Campers

Welcome to the 2nd annual War Eagle Running Camp held at The Marist School.  We look forward to a great week of running, games and friendships formed.

-Coach Heintz and Jayaraj