T12 in a police car?

He, actually, was on the right side of the law, thank goodness.
Commander was taking T12 to Cam's house to play this afternoon. When they turned the corner in the expensive neighborhood, there was smoke rolling out of the gulley. Commander and T12 stopped  to investigate. After intering the gulley T12 could see two boys building a fire. The boys took off when they saw T12. Commander drove to Cam's house and called for the police, and a fire truck (small one) came out, too, when he returned with T12 and Cam to the gulley. The owner of the property also showed up about that time to find out where the smoke was coming from.
T12 and Cam were able to ride with the police officer and show him which neighborhood the boys ran. Unfortunately, they didn't find the boys. Commander said they had a fire going in a culvert and were trying to ignite a large log. The police and the owner were really glad that T12 and Commander called.

T12 said the police ride was really cool.

OU beat K-State  59-17. YES. Maybe that will teach that boy (Hawk) to not like purple cats. AAAAGHGH!

Pay up, Mom!

All right, my shooting was pathetic tonight. Herogian beat me arrow tips down. 371-362. I bought him a candybar this time. The competitor in me hates not improving. I dropped thirty-five points from last week, thirty-nine from the previous week. UGH! Something though was throwing a few arrows. Herogian got a few laughs when we found more than one arrow completely off my target page.  I'll have to check a few things before we shoot again. Having a soft carry bag isn't the best for arrows, it might be bending the fletching too much. Herogian  wants to try and make a better carrying case for my arrows.  What a sweetheart.

Track practice was awesome today. A big stroke to the ego from the kids. When I told them we were doing 2 x 6 x 100. One of the guys, J.C., asked, "IS that all, Coach?"
"I can change them to 200's if you want?"
"No, that's okay. But is that ALL, Coach?"
"Well, we'll do some work over the hurdles."
"WOW." He turned to the others. "This is going to be easy!"

During the workout, I looked up to see the six athletes walking back after run #9. They all had their hands on their hips. You could tell they were breathing deep. They were lined up in front of the green hill with orange and yellow trees behind them and each of them was wearing something black - picture perfect. I'd love to have a picture of that scene with DEDICATION underneath it. It reminded me of the poster for COURAGEOUS.

J.C. also commented during practice, "I really want us to make it to nationals. They'd have to make a movie about us, out here in the park training cause we don't have a track, with a coach that builds us hurdles."

When we moved on to the hurdles, we did a few hop overs, then I wanted them to work on what is called "A MARCHING" this is working on the down drive of the leg to get it back to the ground as quickly as possible. S.M. was the first one to go and he kind of got hung up on the second hurdle. OUCH! He pulled his shorts up as far as he could possible pull them - into his arm pits, then went again. This time with no problem. The other guys decided to follow him by pulling up their shorts. If I only had a camera. Here were five guys with their waist bands pulled up to their chest. Geeky! Funny! "Hawk", L.R., our  female athlete, and I couldn't stop laughing."

They also made me feel really good when J.B. said he heard the newest coach added this week would be working with hurdlers and sprinters and I would be with the throwers and jumpers. Two of the sprinters asked if they could be long jumpers. Stroke, stroke, to the ego.

Can you tell I'm loving it?

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.

Found an answer to prayer

I've been praying for an adjustment to our homeschooling schedule that would in some way lighten the load, but still allow us to cover all our subjects. Doing them all daily was wearing us down. I can see it in the decline in grades and memory retention.
I bounced over to Eagle Eye Academy where I found some Tasty Tuesday recipes. While glancing through her list of blogs she follows I thought I'd check out My4sweetums.  She had the solution to my prayers right there in her blog. She was discussing their "Themed Weeks".   We will give it a try after our trip to Tucson.   We will concentrate on Science one week then Geography the next. THis will allow us more time to cover the information and work on memory of the important stuff to pass the test! Reading,Writing,and  Arithmatic will stay on our daily schedules. Already it just sounds a lot easier to deal with on a weekly basics.

Feeling the Burn

Today was cool, windy, and perfect for track practice. Five guys showed up for circuit training, bleachers, and bounding. If it wasn't so much fun being active and doing this stuff with them, it would probably be smart of me to remember how old I am compared to them.
 BLEACHERS. 
At OU we would run up the east side of Owens Field. I think it was 23 steps then, and they grew in height as you went upward. We would actually run eight to ten repeats.  The sprinters would fly to the top. It was amazing to watch them. They would take one quick step to the left and be around the passage opening halfway up without slowing down.

Our little field has eight rows of seats that we did 2x8 == Squat hopped up the 8 rows of seats 16 times. We then finished off with a CORE EXERCISE Circuit and a PLYOBALL Circuit of 45 seconds on and 30 seconds off.

The joy has been the attitudes, they are willing and ready to do what is asked of them.

I had to giggle when one of them started talking about food. He couldn't wait to get to the cafeteria. Another one said he wasn't going to the cafeteria, he was going home to lie on the couch and moan. He would see if his mother and father would feed him while he convalesced, if not, he'd get breakfast tomorrow. I think I need to give his parents a heads up.

Homeschooling hit a fat wall yesterday.  One of those days where you wonder why you are doing this, and I had just ordered the next math book for T12. Today made up for it. The boys were done in time to help our Youth Pastor in a small community service job this afternoon while I was coaching. Thanks for taking them, C.C. We have to work on their self esteem though. One of them said he was a 'B' student and that was good enough for him. I can't see settling for that. That's not giving God 100%. T12 just walked by and I asked him about that last statement. HMMMM made an impact.

Have a great weekend.

T12 Northley 3rd place pumpking

At the church cookout tonight with the pumpkin contest 'Northley' won third prize. The judges really didn't know who had carved what until they called the winner out and asked the kid to come forward. So it was comical when the judge made the comment that "this pumpkin must be a Deskis pumkin and it wins 3rd place. Who owns this pumpkin?" Northley stepped forward to claim his prize of Sizzlers.

Hawk didn't get his pumpkin done in time for the contest. We will try to get it done for next weekend.

I did get to talk to a doctor tonight that deals with diabetes and hypoglycemia. She gave me some suggestions to help us start figuring out what is going on with blood sugar or blood pressure. Thanks Dr. M.R.

T12 Northley's Pumpkin and Hawk's birthday

He spent a lot of time yesterday adding to this, then he had to start adding tape to hold it all together.

 THis past Monday was Hawk's birthday. He is now 14. Ice cream cake consisted of Chocolate Chip and Chocolate, Butterscotch and Chocolate syrup, whip cream and candy toppings.

He is using the 'force' to put the candle out. He's playing with the smoke trail. We set out candles in small votices for birthday blow outs. A show once convinced me not to put candles on the cake and have kids blowing their spitty germs all over it. The boys like the harder challenge of blowing the candles out when they have to get over the top of each one.

This was his big gift this year. 1200+ lego pieces. He has started it this weekend while watching the Green Lantern we borrowed from the library. If you know what day a new movie is released on DVD, call the library and ask to be put on hold for it. Hawk has been the first to get the movie from them about three times now.

Here's the boys, Casey in Hawk's arms, Herogian and T12 Northley.

sugar drop, caffeine high, 397 and 9 x 200

What does that all mean you ask? Oh, you didn't ask. Well, I'll tell you anyway because the caffeine must still be in my system.

Track practice included 2x4x200's in the park, half uphill, half downhill. It would have been half downhill if the kids hadn't got me talking on training technique changes in the last 10 years (see yesterday's post) and we walked all the way back down the hill when we should have been running. Therefore, we did an extra uphill run. I warned them for future reference not to get me yakking between repetitions. One of the guys pointed out that on a previous day it caused them to run 6 instead of 5 x 75's.  So how did it end up being 9? One of the athletes was a little late getting there, so, I ran her last 200 with her, that made 9 for me. I actually thought the other kids would jump in and run the last one with her also. THat's what I get for thinking.
"Hawk" did go to practice with me today and he ran the 2 x 4 x 200's with the college students. I was proud of him.

THe sugar drop came afterwards. Hawk and I stopped at _Mart to buy purple paint for his pumkin and he picked up a 'Mountain Dew'. For some reason the kid has become a Kansas State Wildcat fan. Purple, uggggh. Anyway, we pull out of the parking lot and my blood sugar must have dived. I could feel the blood leaving my hands, my head starting to swim as we passed through the corner light. I told Hawk to grab my purse and find some candy, then I remembered that I'm only carrying sugarfree stuff. I pulled into the first neighborhood and grabbed his DEW. after a few sips, I realized  Hawk was just starring at me in horror. I had drank his soda!  "You can just keep it, Mom. Can we stop at the dollar store so I can get another one?"
We sat in the neighborhood for a while, then at the dollar store, and finally I felt well enough to make it home. (I'll be researching exercise induced hypoglycemia in a few minutes).

An hour later after dinner, Herogian and I headed off for archery. Yes, I was praying the whole way for a clear head.
Tonight was a blast. Herogian had his draw length lengthened twice. During these changes he had to keep changing his sights. His score tonight was 117, 117 and 117. With all the changes,  it was a surprise to see him shoot so consistantly.
My shooting went like this    center of target  =   X    99  8 my three shots, next round   8  99  X. They were right in line with the X The last round was even more of a kicker 999 X with the three shots all being in the 9 ring. If an arrow breaks the line at all between rings, you can take the higher score. Nooo. They were touching each other, not the 10 ring.  I shot a 397, 4 down from last week. Herogian and I are having a blast and I've been drinking DEW all evening long.

Will post some pumpkin carving pictures later. They have a pumpkin carving contest with the church family next weekend and the boys are hoping to win something this year.

Have a great weekend. We plan too. Herogian is taking Penny hunting. T12 Northley has one last fall soccer game. Hawk has a thousand plus lego set to put together, Commander has TKD, and wait a minute, my schedule says do grade cards, lesson plans, chop wood, and work on Sunday. Oh bother.

Teaching an old coach a new technique

Thursday, October 20, 2011   A good read about Dynamics


Tonight I read Dynamic Stretching by Mark Kovacs, Ph.D., CSCS. Since being hired to coach track and field, I've been refreshing my mind over the different stretching techniques trying to make sure I use the correct terms (most frequently heard), so our athletes will be familiar with what I'm asking them to do. So the "Doggie" exercise we did Monday is actually called "Fire Hydrant", like that really makes a big difference; both words put the same picture in your mind.



One thing the book clearified for me, is why static stretching before workouts and competition is being frowned upon in speed and power events such as track and field. The scientific research over the last 10-15 years has proved that static stretching actually "have shown decreases in immediate performances by as much as 30%.... and last approximately 60 minutes after the stretching routine." That's a big impact on jumping, sprinting, and throwing events. So the athletes "should limit or avoid slow static stretching within about an hour of training or competition."


Think back to the time we were in school and all the static stretching we did every day before every workout, or every event. It amazes me to think how far training techniques have changed. It's like computer technology - changing in leaps and bounds. Oh, I'm just too funny.  NOT.

If you have an athlete at home, ask them if they are still static stretching before a game. If so, you might want to drop this blogspot in the coaches email. Together we'll direct them to a whole new improved method of training, or as the book cover says, " The Revolutionary New Warm-up Method to Improve Power, Performance and Range of Motion".

Have a great weekend.



DRESS WARMLY IN LAYERS FOR PRACTICE FROM NOW ON. NO MORE BARE LEGS.

WHich one is Dad??

Good question. I believe he is on the left side of the picture, back row.  First, look to the young man in the wheelchair on the left with the dark blue sweater with rainbow suspenders,  go straight up from his right shoulder and behind the two guys in full view. Between them you get 3/4th of a face with a dark blue collar. His glasses are rimless so it blurs the face a bit, but the silver hair gives him away. Besides, he is 6'1" and always stand on the back row.  Now, watch him tell me I'm wrong :-). THanks for asking Claudia.

I love this picture at the Unknown Soldiers grave. It looks like the second soldier (unknown's ghost) is just a split second out of step. An escort  in charge of two Honor Veterans, one being Dad, took this photo and allowed me to take if from his facebook page. He unfortunately didn't get any single shots of Dad.

401, track, making up questions on a quiz

Archery was relaxing tonight. There were a lot of people missing from the line ups. I shot against a family friend. He and I were neck and neck until the third to last shot. Something happened and his shot went wild. It hit the center of the paper, but outside of the three targets on the page. He still finished with a 406 and I with a 401. My first 400. Cool.

Someone made the comment that I needed to get the cord on my nose as an anchor point when I line up the arrow. Well, I tried. I just couldn't seem to do it. So I asked our resident pro. He had me line up after class and show him how I was doing it. I get a knuckle into my right ear as an anchor point. He had to laugh. My bow has the longest draw it can possibly have, yet, the knocking point doesn't even reach my face. I couldn't even lean forward and get my nose to the cord. I need a bigger bow. I need a light weight bow, with light poundage, therefore I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I think I'll plan to get one when I shoot a 450 - a perfect round. That will at least give me something to work toward.

Track practice is fun. Today I had five young men running repeat build ups through the park for 100 yards +.  Next week two or three girls should be joining us.  The learning curve is steep right now. There is a lot about sprinting the "Modern" way as it is  called, for me to re-learn. Also the throws and horizontal jumps again, and hurdles, blocks, you name it, I need a refresher course in it. But I love it. I'll be reading and watching videos for the next month or two. Cramming to get it all down before indoor season starts in January.

Herogian pulled a funny today. He had a science quiz. Question number 4 needed to answers. The test had two line for those two answers - 4. _______________ and 5.__________________ with the five line being underneath the 4 line and question.On the number 4 line he had squeezed in the two answers seperated by a (/). 
Herogian took the empty 5 space a wrote his own question in there - "Should Herogian be given a new gun?" On the space at number 5 he wrote "YES". If I could find the camera, I'd take a picture.
I don't think a teacher in public school would enjoy the humor in his paper as much as I do. His question would have him sent to the prinicipal's office.

Wow Wednesday

As you know from previous post, we had so much on the plate today to get done. It actually turned out to be a fun day.
The orthodontist appointment gave Herogian the words he has been waiting for  - braces off before Thanksgiving.

T12 - Northly, helped me take all the food to church. He stayed with our youth pastor to set up the tables, stir the meat, and just hang out in good company - well, that was after his long division problems were finally done. He had a hard time with the fact that the worksheet doesn't always have enough room to complete a long division problem.

Track practice was a riot( in a fun way). The park is right across the street from the campus. These kids are so engrossed in school, life, and who knows what else, that they never really noticed that there was a park at the end of campus drive. They had to call from their cars to ask directions. When they arrived, they stood there shaking their heads in disbelief that they had missed the park. I wanted to welcome them to the feelings of CHEMO BRAIN, menopause, old age.

The park was perfect for running loooooonnnnnnngggggg inclined hills. The hard work of running to the top of the hill was worth the smiles when they found out the last two runs would take them back down the hill. And they forgave me when I goofed and had them run two 300's instead of a 300, 200. What a good group. They make me excited about what they will be able to do next spring. One athlete hasn't ran since his sophmore year in high school. He was leading the pack.

Dinner at church went off without a hitch this time. What a miracle. Commander was able to get there before me and the ladies were already setting things out. I ended up driving back to the park to find a weighted jumprope we had left at the circuit training area. Ugh. Doesn't it always happen that way when you are trying to get somewhere in a hurry? At least I wasn't pulled over by a police officer this time.

Thanks for the fund raising idea. Please keep them coming.

Happening around here

The bird count took a dive this past weekend. Five roosters went Boy Scout Camping. Instead of ending up in the dutch oven, they came home on ice. Herogian cleaned them for Saturday's dinner, but a hike took longer than expected and they didn't have time to cook the chickens. Herogian and Commander both cooked a meal Monday with some of the birds. I'm just loving the fact that the boys are learning to cook meat, and cook it well.

First workout with the team was Monday afternoon. (six attended)  I'll meet with them again on Wednesdays and Fridays. The Veteran's Administration Center has an empty park just across the road from the campus main entrance. It has a long sloping hill from north to south. The wind usually blows from the north or south around here. The kids will soon find that I love windy hill work in autumn. Can you say Repetition?

Coach has handed over the fund raising department to me. Yeah great. I'm thrilled. Can't you tell excitement is just oozing from my pores. Just knocked me out of my comfort zone with one blow. He wants me to come up with fund raising ideas that will bring in great profit so we can buy equipment, traveling supplies, and everything else we will need to outfit a team. Any ideas you want to throw my way would be greatly appreciated. Please keep throwing the ideas.

The marathon training has gone out the window. The right foot just isn't responding to treatment. At the three mile mark it starts screaming. Commander has started taking Taekwondo again, and with me coaching, we don't foresee a trip to White Sands next March. So nix that idea. It was fun while it lasted.

Tomorrow  Today will be crazy. Get the boys up to start homeschooling, throw them in the car for orthodontist appointments for the three of us. Rush home to pack all the fixings for a church meal into the car. Rush that to the church, unload, get the meat, cheese, lettuce, tortillas and topping all set up. Rush out of there for track practice and then back to church for prepping the rest of dinner and having it all ready to serve at 6:00. If you are hungry, come join us at Wyandotte County Christian Church for a gluten free meal. It's a 2-3 dollar donation.

Well folks, it is after midnight. I need to crash on the couch and read Judges for a while before I'll be able to sleep.
Finding God's word waiting for me in the quiet of the night is like having him wrap his arms around me as I cuddle on his lap of comfort and protection.

I'm finally official

Here's one of the perks. A T-SHIRT.
Now I can get out there and start recruiting athletes. We meet this Thursday to see which kids from campus are interested in joining the team (besides those in other sports right now). Once they have their physicals done, I can start working them out and setting up their weight lifting programs.
I come from a background where track and field training starts - well - it never ends. You back off a bit in August but by September you are into an eight week cycle of heavy conditioning. Please pray I don't scare these kids off. I usually do the workouts with the kids that way I can monitor my own weakness and know if I'm pushing too hard.
I'm excited.
We will have two indoor meets and a conference. Then we go into outdoor season. We will do most of our meets here in the Kansas City area since we don't have the budget or the numbers of athletes. Thank goodness for little starts.
If you know of any high school seniors with the grades that would like to still run track, let me know. If they have a 3.5 or better they get a lot of the tuition taken care of through scholarships.

Have a great week.