The Little Things . . . a Going the Distance newsletter Mid December 2015 || issue #37 Share on Facebook Winter program's 1st onsite session: Janu

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The Little Things . . .

a Going the Distance newsletter

Mid December 2015 || issue #37
Share on Facebook

Winter program's 1st onsite session: January 5, registration form

Reports from Tia Patterson and Thomas Mackin

End of season XC results

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January 5, 2016 -- Happy New Year

Come to The Cove. Outdoor winter training in the evening. The only way to train in the winter.
What's The Cove? Legend has it that years ago at GTD's winter site, our half-mile "track" was surrounded by a marsh, with chirping sounds in the shadows on either side. It made us run faster.
Do you want to run? Run faster?

Maintenance Training

Not running a marathon? No big races on your schedule? Winter is the perfect time to establish a fitness level that will be your foundation for all of 2016. With good running ahead, give yourself a maintenance program and goal with either Fernando's Seasonal Program or the One-on-One coaching model.

Marathon Training

All marathon training programs use the One-on-One coaching model. If you are running a marathon in April or earlier, you should begin training now. If you have questions on which program to choose, contact Dave.

Coaching Options

Sign-up Steps

Registration Form

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Tia Patterson

[In the summer before her junior year at Lynnfield High School, Tia began training in Coach Braz’s one-on-one coaching program. She continued for over two years before entering Boston College this past September.]

GTD: How did your high school coach and Coach Braz coordinate your training?
Tia: My high school coach was very lenient and supportive of me working with Fernando because he knew how good of a coach Fernando is. When Fernando sent me my weekly schedule he often sent it to my high school coach too which was nice so my coach was always in the loop with what I was doing. Since I was a captain, my high school coach wanted me to be at team practice understandably, however he did allow me to go to Peabody once during the school week and once over the weekend to be able to actually work with Fernando, which I really appreciated.

GTD: Tell us about a typical training week.
Tia: I don't remember a weekly schedule exactly, however, I can't forget the weekly long run that took place almost always on Saturdays (as long as there wasn't a meet on that day). Other than that I usually got in two or three workouts a week. Usually when I had a dual meet (depending on the competition) Fernando would have me run the meet as a workout and then even add on hills or extra mileage after the race.

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GTD: How did you communicate with Coach Braz?
Tia: My weekly schedules were always sent out over email. However, when I had questions about a workout or if he had questions for me about how a workout went, we usually discussed over text. Before my races, even if it was just a dual meet, Fernando would have me call him. The phone call with him -- which was usually a reminder of how I should strategize the race -- was ALWAYS calming, even though I usually get nervous even thinking about a race right before I'm about to run it.

GTD: Tell us about the highlights of the training program.
Tia: My favorite thing about the training program was finally feeling like I had a team, an amazing team! I have met so many talented runners, and have made friends that go beyond our bond over running. It was so nice to meet and run with people who care so much and work so hard at the same thing as me, something I am not used to. At big races like States or invitationals, it was so comforting to see people I trained with and during warmups, while running the race, and even looking at the results after a race, I find myself caring about these people and their performance as if they were actually my teammates.

GTD: What didn’t work out so well? How did you and Coach Braz handle things that didn’t work.
Tia: For things that didn’t work for the program I would say that I wish I was able to work in person with Fernando more than twice a week but I did have a obligation to lead my team. I guess you could say we handled it this way. On workouts when I couldn’t be at the same track as Fernando, he still gave me the workouts with every detail necessary for me to carry out by myself.
For a racing related thing that didn't work out for me, I guess I would say it was the fact that I was not mentally tough. I still think I could be a lot tougher. However, Fernando did help me come a long way. He would give me workouts designed to improve my mentality and even did small things, like not tell me how many more repeats or not tell us how much longer while doing core, that make such a difference. Also just the phone calls before the race helped me a lot because when he told me my game plan for the race he didn't make it sound scary or nerve racking, although he did push me to step out of my comfort zone for the race. He made it sound like any other workout and assured me that I was perfectly capable of doing it.

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GTD: Did you talk with Coach Braz about your college plans, and your desire to run in college?
Tia: Yes I kept him updated with the whole recruiting process. We often met up a couple times just to go over what schools I was seriously interested in, what coaches I have been in contact with, what official visits I had planned. In fact, a lot of my communication with coaches I owe to him, because when I gave him a list of schools that I was seriously considering he got in touch with and emailed each of the coaches a really nice email about my work ethic which definitely meant a lot coming from him. His involvement was just enough, and I never felt like he was taking over or pushing a certain path for me. He listened to what I myself was interested in and then would put in any effort he could to help me.

GTD: How did you and Coach Braz manage your summer program in conjunction with your college program?
Tia: This summer actually worked out really awesome. There were only about three days throughout the whole camp where I was stuck doing a workout on my own. During the summer I received a schedule from my college coach that was organized by the week, indicating how many miles to hit each week with a daily schedule of what the workout/run was. I forwarded my college program to Fernando and he found a way to make it work with his camp, which was great because that meant I wouldn't be doing my training alone. There was rarely any conflict, if anything I would just switch around the order of the days, like do the tempo on Monday instead of Wednesday and move hills to Wednesday instead of Monday, in order to be able to work with the GTD schedule. I was almost always able to be doing the same workout as the rest of the camp, in the same area, using the same cones, just sometimes my training program would require a slight alteration, like maybe going longer, or maybe going faster than what Fernando had planned for the rest of the camp, but overall I never felt isolated or alone and I most definitely never felt overwhelmed. Something else I am really grateful for besides being able to still feel like part of the camp, is all the extra strength and conditioning drills that the camp provided that were nowhere to be found in my college training program! It's all the little things, like hurdles, stretching, drills with the bands, and core, that I would not have been so diligently doing if it were not for the camp and honestly those have probably had such an impact on making me stay healthy throughout this whole transition into the college training.

GTD: How did your first college xc season go?
Tia: My first college season was short to say the least. I think I only ran four races? However, as short as the season was for me I am very happy with myself. Something I consider to be an accomplishment in itself is that I stayed injury-free which is hard to do during the whole transition, so I'm proud of that. Also, I have gotten faster and finally broke 19 at Franklin Park which has been a goal of mine for a while. Another thing is that I have been the only freshman to finish all of the workouts (a minuscule thing I noticed and probably not a big deal) but it's another thing I am really proud of, because these workouts get HARD. I brought this up to Fernando and he simply said it's because I have been trained not to make excuses. Which is true, he really has made me into a tougher runner!

GTD: Have you decided on an academic focus (major)?
Tia: Yes, so as of right now I am a Biology major on the pre-dental track. My first semester schedule was full of a bunch of general freshman classes so I haven't had too much focus on Biology, but I just picked second semester classes and it's all full of sciences. So I'll have a better idea at the end of the year, but at least I can change my major as many times as I want from now until the end of sophomore year!

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hurdles, bands, medicine balls, core and more core

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High School Cross-Country Divisional Meet

Here are the results for GTD runners at the Massachusetts XC Divisional Championship in Wrentham on November 14. Results show the runner's order of finish within division, name, grade, school, average mile time, finish time.

Boys 5k Division 1

  42 Anthony Pizzo, 12, Peabody, 5:31.9, 17:11.19
  45 Shane Braz, 10, Peabody, 5:33.0, 17:14.37
100 Joe Farhat, 11, Peabody, 5:50.3, 18:08.23
147 Travis Dawe, 11, Peabody, 6:11.4, 19:13.81

Boys 5k Division 2

  2 Danny Cosgrove, 12, Masconomet, 5:12.6, 16:11.17
13 Kyle Faddis, 11, Masconomet, 5:27.8, 16:58.20

Boys 5k Division 3

  9 Thomas Mackin, 12 Lynn Classical, 5:27.0, 16:55.96

Boys 5k Division 4

  1 AJ Ernst, 12, Marblehead, 5:09.2, 16:00.49
  2 Kevin Wheelock, 11, Melrose, 5:14.2, 16:15.99
  5 Jared Kokinos, 12, Marblehead, 5:24.0, 16:46.64
  6 Michael Weidenbruch, 12, Marblehead, 5:24.4, 16:47.61
  7 Sean Conlan, 11, Melrose, 5:25.1, 16:49.89
10 Adam Linsky, 12, Marblehead, 5:29.6, 17:03.85
17 Oliver Jacob, 11, Marblehead, 5:33.6, 17:16.23
64 Griffin Barriss, 11, Melrose, 5:53.8, 18:18.94
Teams #1 Marbleheard #2 Melrose

Boys 5k Division 5

  8 Jack Gourdeau, 11, Hamilton-Wenham, 5:28.4, 17:00.27
99 Wyatt Desroches, 11, Triton, 6:11.7, 19:14.59

Boys 5k Division 6

    2 Patrick Guinee, 10, Manchester Essex, 5:23.0, 16:43.37
  12 Reed Dolan, 11, Ipswich, 5:40.5, 17:37.81
  14 Cody Murtagh, 12, Saint Mary's (Lynn), 5:41.8, 17:41.92
  49 Charlie Mullen, 10 Georgetown, 5:58.0, 18:32.04
  52 Matthew Loehle, 12, Bishop Fenwick, 5:59.3, 18:36.11
  54 Jack Keenan, 10, Bishop Fenwick, 6:00.4, 18:39.74
  60 Aiden Hill, 09 Bishop Fenwick, 6:03.8, 18:50.04
123 Jack Carroll, 10, Saint Mary's (Lynn), 6:36.6, 20:32.15
136 Spencer Mullen, 8, Georgetown, 6:41.5, 20:47.38
142 Patrick Meaney, 12, Ipswich, 6:45.7, 21:00.39

Girls 5k Division 1

32 Lillian Brennan, Lillian, 09, Peabody, 6:36.0, 20:30.28

Girls 5k Division 2

  3 Julia Curtin, 10, Beverly, 5:46.3, 17:55.85
  6 Abby Walsh, 11, Beverly, 6:00.0, 18:38.25
46 Katie Freeman, 12, Central Catholic, 6:42.0, 20:48.74
54 Kathyrn Montgomery, 10, Central Catholic, 6:46.8, 21:03.61
59 Maia Gifford, 10, Central Catholic, 6:49.3, 21:11.45

Girls 5k Division 4

  27 Sarah Oliver, 12, Marblehead, 6:34.4, 20:25.17
125 Olivia Foglietta, 10, Danvers, 7:40.3, 23:49.87

Girls 5k Division 5

  2 Olivia Horgan, 11, Hamilton-Wenham, 6:11.2, 19:13.06
21 Catherine Howley, 11, Hamilton-Wenham, 6:34.6, 20:25.93
28 Meghan Stone, 12, Hamilton-Wenham, 6:40.4, 20:43.94
63 Carly Swartz, 12, North Reading, 7:05.3, 22:01.19

Girls 5k Division 6

  3 Emily DeMarco, 12, Ipswich, 6:09.3, 19:07.20
  4 Steph Casaletto, 10, Austin Prep, 6:17.9, 19:34.06
  5 Sydney Packard, 12, Bishop Fenwick, 6:18.5, 19:35.85
26 Kate DelTorchio, 10, Bishop Fenwick, 6:50.9, 21:16.49
33 Caitlyn Scola, 12, Ipswich, 6:57.5, 21:36.95
34 Christine Deschenes, 12, Bishop Fenwick, 6:59.7, 21:43.78
75 Lilly Kallman, 12, Ipswich, 7:16.5, 22:36.15

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Thomas Mackin

GTD: Thomas, this was your 1st summer training in Coach Braz’s program. You were about to enter your senior year at Lynn Classical High School. What brought you to this summer's xc program?
Thomas: Yes it was my first year doing the summer training and the reason I decided to do it was because I heard a lot of great things about it and the improvements people were having and I just wanted to get better and it seemed like the right place to do that.

GTD: You continued to work with Coach Braz in the fall. Tell us about that.
Thomas: Continuing to work with Coach Braz this fall was a great decision, by working with him I was in the best shape I have ever been in.

GTD: Each onsite conditioning session this summer had phases, and each of the 18 sessions was a bit different. What drills did you look forward to? Were there ones you would like to forget about it?
Thomas: The drills we did were great! The ones that I looked forward to were the circuit ones. Also the hills were tough but I benefited from them a lot.

GTD: The last phase of each training session this past summer was devoted to core work, flexibility, and strength. Tell us about it. What did you like and didn’t like? Did feelings about this phase change over the length of the program?
Thomas: The sessions at the end were amazing even though some were very tough. I had a love/ hate relationship with the around the world core because it was so hard. And no, the feelings didn't change.

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GTD: When you race, do you have routines that you always do to prepare, leading right up to the start?
Thomas: Yes I do, I stretch then do some strides up and back then I kneel down for a second and get focused.

GTD: What were some of the highlights of your xc season? Anything you’d like to do over?
Thomas: Some of my highlights of this season were winning every conference meet, 6th in the NEC meet, and finishing 9th at Eastern Mass to qualify for All-States. Also there is nothing I would like to do over.

GTD: What are your winter/spring plans for running?
Thomas:. My winter/spring plans are to continue to work with Coach Braz and just try and compete and try and run some fast times.

GTD: College plans?
Thomas: I would love to run in college, so I'm just going to keep working hard and see where that can take me.

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High School Cross-Country All State Meet

The Massachusetts High School All State XC Championship Meet was held at Stanley Park on November 21. Results show the GTD runner's order of finish, name, grade, school, average mile time, finish time.

Boys 5k Division 1

20 Danny Cosgrove, 12, Masconomet, 5:07.1, 15:53.90
32 Kyle Faddis, 11, Masconomet, 5:12.1, 16:09.64
69 Thomas Mackin, 12, Lynn Classical, 5:21.0, 16:37.31

Boys 5k Division 2

    1 AJ Ernst, 12, Marblehead, 4:56.5, 15:21.16
    3 Kevin Wheelock, 11, Melrose, 5:05.3, 15:48.43
    9 Patrick Guinee, 10, Manchester Essex, 5:11.7, 16:08.38
  10 Jared Kokinos, 12, Marblehead, 5:12.5, 16:10.83
  19 Michael Weidenbruch, 12, Marblehead, 5:16.1, 16:21.90
  22 Adam Linsky, 12, Marblehead, 5:17.2, 16:25.49
  25 Oliver Jacob, 11, Marblehead, 5:18.4, 16:29.01
  35 Jack Gourdeau, 11, Hamilton-Wenham, 5:20.5, 16:35.69
  39 Sean Conlan, 11, Melrose, 5:22.6, 16:42.14
  91 Reed Dolan, 11, Ipswich, 5:34.4, 17:18.95
  98 Cody Murtagh, 12, Saint Mary's (Lynn), 5:35.1, 17:20.93
122 Griffin Barriss, 11, Melrose, 5:40.3, 17:37.02

Girls 5k Division 1

  2 Julia Curtin, 10, Beverly, 5:36.8, 17:26.21
  9 Abby Walsh, 11, Beverly, 5:55.5, 18:24.43

Girls Division 2

  14 Olivia Horgan, 11, Hamilton-Wenham, 6:02.2, 18:45.03
  20 Steph Casaletto, 10, Austin Prep, 6:06.3, 18:58.00
  28 Emily DeMarco, 12, Ipswich, 6:13.4, 19:19.98
  34 Sydney Packard, 12, Bishop Fenwick, 6:16.7, 19:30.33
  68 Catherine Howley, 11, Hamilton-Wenham, 6:28.0, 20:05.40
114 Meghan Stone, 12, Hamilton-Wenham, 6:37.4, 20:34.49

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Previous Issues of The Little Things

Please go to this link for previous issues of The Little Things.

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Going the Distance is a coaching service for runners at all levels.
If you know someone who might benefit from the Going the Distance program,
tell them about us, and forward The Little Things to them.
Visit our website -- Going the Distance
Head Coach -- Fernando Braz
Assistant Coach -- Annie Starrett
Webmaster and Director -- Dave Smith
For more information, contact Dave at dave@goingthedistancefb.com

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