Survive And Advance
Getting through all our danger zones
September. Dreaded September. As a high school cross country coach I looked at September with a mixture of excitement… maybe it was actually nervousness… and something not quite fear but close enough to fear to make me feel anxious. You’d think getting all your athletes back to school and on a set schedule would be nirvana for a coach. Well, you’d be wrong. I looked at the month of September as the danger zone. And in no way was this danger zone as cool as the one Kenny Loggins sang about. This danger zone was a mine field that I needed to help all my athletes get through relatively unscathed. I needed to help the athletes survive and more importantly advance so we could get to October ready to run… really run.
I know what you’re thinking… what was it about September that freaked me out so much that I forever associated it with a song from Top Gun? Not sure why you have that salty attitude about the Top Gun soundtrack. It’s a great soundtrack.
🚨RAMBLE ALERT🚨 I’ll have you know that Take My Breath Away by Berlin and the Top Gun Anthem and Memories by Harold Faltermeyer are never skipped or fast forwarded when they show up on my shuffle. And I’ll forever be grateful for that very same Top Gun Soundtrack for sharing with me Sittin’ On The Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding, You Lost That Lovin’ Feeling by The Righteous Brothers and Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis. I think YOU need to give the soundtrack another chance. And yes, I’m fully aware that maybe the worst song Cheap Trick ever made is on that soundtrack. It’s still worth it! And spending some time listening to a couple great Cheap Trick songs after you listen to that atrocious one on the Top Gun soundtrack is a terrific audio palate cleanser. 🏁RAMBLE OVER🏁
Anyway, let’s get back to the point of this post. September meant that the summer schedule all these kids were on for the last 100 days was effectively ripped apart. Those late morning wake ups… gone. Lunch when you wanted… done. Naps? Hahah! Those are things of the past. Not needing to focus pretty much all day long? A mere memory. Now these kids are shuttled from one classroom to another and forced to pay attention. That paying attention muscle atrophies over the summer for most kids. It takes work to strengthen it back up. And while you are doing all that work you also need to study, take tests, deal with classmates and teammates and teachers and principals and bus drivers and coaches. You only get to have lunch when your schedule tells you you will get to have lunch. That’s assuming you didn’t forget your lunch or can find something edible in the cafeteria. Oh yeah, did I mention that you are cooped up in a building with 500 or 1000 or 2500 other people for 8 hours a day? You know what happens when you suddenly start rubbing shoulders with 2000 strangers? Sniffles. Coughs. Immune systems are under constant attack in September.
What isn’t there to love about coming back to school, right?
Wait! I didn’t mention that we start racing in September. That means we need to start working out harder, right? Those glorious summer months of base building are over. It’s time to run fast, right? It’s time to start hammering, right? Intervals and hill workouts and fartlek and tempo runs and lions and tiger and bears, oh my!
Danger Zone!
When I first started coaching high school I saw September as the month when we needed to be firing on all cylinders. The season has started! If we’re not charging ahead and firing on all cylinders then we are falling behind. It didn’t take me long to totally change the way I looked at September. Survive and advance. That was the new goal. And we did that by first and foremost acknowledging just how much September was going to ask of us and take from us before we ran even one minute.
Every day we were going to be a little tired. We needed to admit that. We were always going to be a little stressed. We needed to acknowledge that. Every day of September was going to have us a little frustrated and fatigued from all the shifts in our schedule and the changes to our routine. We needed to understand that. And this tiredness and stress and frustration and fatigue was going to be with us on the starting line of every run we were going to do. We needed to know that.
I’ll tell you something really important here… simply admitting you are tired or stressed or fatigued or frustrated before the run will help you have a better run. So we admitted we were going to be a little beat up by September. We knew that all the changes that we had no control over were going to take their toll from us whether we wanted to pay or not.
And as a result of simply being honest with ourselves we made adjustments. We altered expectations. We added recovery. We anticipated problems. We allowed ourselves some grace as we ran through September. We afforded ourselves some flexibility in how we navigated the month. We aided our advancement towards October. And it was October that we wanted to get to. But not just survive until October. No. We wanted to survive and advance. Because we knew that so many other teams would be running into October already out of gas. So we made sure we didn’t make the same mistakes those other teams made. Instead, we filled up on gas during September. And we knew that so many other teams were looking at the end of September as a finish line. We didn’t. We looked at October as a starting line.
Ahh… September. That was my danger zone as a coach because it was my athletes danger zone. And we all have these danger zones in our lives. Yours may be September too because you are a parent or teacher or coach or student yourself and back to school is an especially treacherous month. Your September may be December because of the commitments and obligations and responsibilities you have. Your danger zone may be January because of exams or tests or the inevitable emotional hangover from the holidays. It may be a few weeks in March because of work or July because of travel. It may be a few days in February because of bad memories that you need to deal with. We all have our danger zones. To get through them though you first need to admit you have them. Then you can work on figuring out how to get through them.
One last thing. And maybe the most important thing of all. Now that I got you humming and maybe even singing Danger Zone just remember that he’s not saying “I went through the danger zone.” He’s actually singing “highway through the danger zone.” Seriously. You don’t believe me… I know. It’s awful to find out that you’ve been singing the wrong words for years… decades for some of us… some of us like me. But you needed to know. I’m sorry. I know it hurts. But the only thing worse than being wrong is not knowing you’re wrong.
See you on the other side of the danger zone.
Cheers,
Coach Bennett
50 YEARS IN A ROW!
October, 1973. That was the last time CBA (Christian Brothers Academy) of Lincroft, NJ lost a dual meet. No, that’s not a typo. Nixon was still president. Mean Streets directed by Martin Scorsese had just hit theatre’s. On the radio it was Angie by the Rolling Stones, Higher Ground by Stevie Wonder, Let’s Get It On by Marvin Gaye, Midnight Train to Georgia by Gladys Knight and the Pips, and D’yer Mak’er by Led Zeppelin that was getting the kids to shake their money makers in October of ‘73.
And on the trails of Monmouth County, New Jersey the Colts of CBA were starting “the streak” with a win. One win. That’s what it takes to start a 50 year long winning streak. One win. That’s what it takes to begin the national record dual meet winning streak. One win. You can’t get to 400 before you get to 1. Just something to think about before you start that next run or take on a new goal. And if you’re someone going through a tough stretch or if you’re someone that’s wondering if you have what it takes to experience some success… please remember this… before CBA started this 50 year and 400 dual meet win streak… they were on a losing one.
All it takes is one win… no matter how big or small to break a losing streak and to start a winning one.
Congratulations to the two head coaches CBA has had over the last 50 years - Mr. Heath and Coach McCafferty. Congratulations to all the coaches that helped guide the program and to the athletes that crossed the starting lines during the streak and before it. I count myself so very proud to be one of many.
BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE!
This is not about running. But this is about running. I got to see the Boss… the one and only Bruce Springsteen and that glorious steamroller of rock n’ roll known as the E Street Band. And I got to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on the beach in Asbury Park, New Jersey. It’s still too fresh and amazing to type that out and believe it was all real. But it was. Bruce on the beach in Asbury Park? What?!
Besides letting you know that I can’t remember most of the concert because I was in a state of shock for most of the show what I wanted you to know was that I heard from so many of the old school die hard Springsteen fans that this show was one of the greatest if not the greatest shows they had ever seen from the Boss. This praise is coming from fans that have seen Bruce dozens of times over the decades. Decades.
I’m telling you this because I get sick and tired of people telling me that they’ll never run another personal best. Bull crap! Maybe you’ll never run a faster mile or 5K or Half Marathon. I know I won’t. But I know that just like Bruce (he’s 73 years young you know) I can still be my best. I can still run a smarter or stronger or braver mile.
So, I joined the 30,000+ faithful there on the beach and boardwalk of Asbury Park last Sunday night and I sang the words to Thunder Road with the Boss:
So you’re scared and you’re thinking
That we ain’t that young anymore
Show a little faith, there’s magic in the night
And as long as I have faith that there’s still a little magic in the night… and on the trails and the roads and on the track… then there’s still a chance that I can do something better than I’ve ever done before.
And you can too.
Just a little video from the concert & all of us singing Twist and Shout with the Boss.
NEW COACH BENNETT’S PODCAST
Need something to listen to? You know I got you covered. Check out the latest episodes of Coach Bennett’s Podcast. And special bonus… episode #67 How To Make Running Fun (Again) has mental performance coach extraordinaire tammie bennett of the show up society on the podcast and not just for a Mindset Minute. Coach tammie joins us for the whole episode!
Well, that’s it. Thank you for subscribing and for reading Coach Bennett’s Newsletter. Thank you for sharing it amongst family and friends and teammates. And if you are one of the paid supporters of this newsletter… thank you for that too. I greatly appreciate the support.
Until next time… take care of yourself… take care of each other.
Cheers,
Coach Bennett
Thanks for letting me ramble...I met Coach Valvano at a basketball camp in Maine back in 1980, while he was at Iona and nowhere near national fame yet. That camp had Hubie Brown (the Hawks head coach) and Tom Davis who coached BC but at the point the Iowa head coach. Coach Valvano was the opening night speaker and was by far the most memorable of all. The team I assigned to for the week was was Iona and Coach Valvano made a point of coming to one of our Monday sessions. I stayed up until one in the morning (at least twice) watching those amazing regionals in the 1983 tourney. I can still remember jumping up and down in joy when Lorenzo Thomas finished off Whittenburg's shot. Just watched the ending again.......pure joy! Thank you.
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