Lexington Catholic Head Cross Country Coach Tim Wiesenhahn has agreed to blog for KYtrackXC.com this season, his first installment is below as well as short biography.
Coaching career:
· Hired as head cross country coach at Lexington Catholic in 2000
· Boys middle distance track at LC since 2010
· Won four team boys' Region cross country titles: 2010, 2007, 2005, 2004
· Coached four individual boys' Region cross country champs: Thomas Canary: 2008, 2007; Nicholas Laureano: 2011, 2010
· Highest boys' team finish at State cross country meet: third in 2007; finished fourth as team in 2010, 2006.
· Coached two individual boys' State cross country runners-up: Thomas Canary 2007, Nicholas Laureano 2011.
· KTCCCA Area 6 cross country coach of the year twice: 2011, 2010
Personal running stats:
· Marathon: 3:05.26, 2003 Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon
· Half marathon: 1:18.00, 1989 Kentucky Derby Festival Mini Marathon
· 10K: 34:27, 1989 Bowling Green Classic 10K
· 8K: 27:16.27, 1991 Crazy Eight's 8K
· 5K: 16:52, 1996 A Midsummer Night's Run
· 1500-meter run: 4:17, 1991 Bluegrass State Games
High school running stats (graduated from Lexington Catholic 1985):
· Cross country 5K:17:35, 1984 Lexington Catholic Invitational
· 1600: 4:47, 1985
· 800: 1:59.9, 1985
· 400: 51.3, 1985
Education:
· MA Education UK 2001
· BA Journalism UK 1992
· Lexington Catholic 1985
It only takes one
A blog post by Tim Wiesenhahn, Lexington Catholic cross country coach
For the first installment of my blog for KYtrackXC.com, Jonathan Grooms asked me to comment on the upcoming cross country season. I will. But first I must report that I’ve discovered the secret to success when running cross country. It’s one of a kind.
Yes, that’s right. Despite what you may have read in John L. Parker Jr.’s legendary novel Once a Runner (“there is no secret”) or in Adharanand Finn’s equally inspiring new book Running with the Kenyans (“Secret? It’s everything and nothing.”) there is indeed a concrete, finite factor to success when running cross country. Some background information before the big reveal.
I coach cross country and track and teach American literature and journalism at Lexington Catholic. I’ve held this job since 2000. I ran cross country and track at LC where I graduated in 1985. Before I became Mr. Wiesenhahn/Coach Weezy, I worked as a newspaper reporter and as a shoe salesman at a running shop. I’ve run five marathons including The Flying Pig twice and the Boston Marathon once. I use to run a lot more and a lot faster than I do now.
In this blog I don’t plan to write about the preseason rankings or the weekly race results or specific runners and teams. You can already get that information on this site. Besides, I’m not a newspaper reporter anymore and I don’t have time to call or visit the runners and coaches who make those stories interesting.
Instead, I’ll mainly write about my experiences and observations as head coach of Lexington Catholic’s boys and girls teams as they undertake a nearly-four month, 10-meet and at least a 60-practice cross country season. I want to tell the stories about runners and events rather than just report times, records and rankings. If topical and timely issues break during the season, I’ll write about those too.
As always, I am excited about the start of the cross country season. No matter how we did the year before or how we expect to do this year, I am always excited about the start of cross country season. In fact, even after 12 years of coaching and 30 years of running, I still have trouble sleeping the night before the first meet. And despite my discovery of “the secret,” this season will be no different.
Although we began practicing as a whole team three weeks ago, our season began in earnest on August 18. On that day, LC held its annual team time trial to determine the varsity squads for our first meet of the season, which this year is the St. Xavier Tiger Run on August. 25. We run the time trial on the path and trails of Veterans Park in south Lexington. (Veterans Park is our home most days in late summer and all of fall. It’s a great place to work out. We don’t have to battle traffic, the bathrooms are clean and the trails are easy on the shins.) We treat the day as a real race. Coaches yell splits. Parents cheer. After, we recognize race times, places of finish and award uniforms and team apparel. Then we eat. A lot. We are happy because the Tiger Run and thus the real start of the season is only a week away.
If you’ve ever run at the Tiger Run, you know it’s a flat and fast course. I think it’s a great meet to begin the season because it benefits veterans and newcomer alike. State-title contenders like LC senior Nicholas Laureano can test their fitness and ferocity while newcomers like LC’s five freshman girls can find out what cross country feels like, sans hills of course.
The Tiger Run. The Shelby County Invitational, The Grant County Invitational. The Trinity/Sacred Heart Invitational. The Franklin County Invitational. The Lexington Catholic Invitational. These meets and others have been a part of our season for more than a decade. Each meet is a part of our plan to peek in November and be at our best at State. Our plan is always the same: to be our best if not the best.
The details of our plan are not secret or “the secret.” It’s standard stuff really. Run hard today, run easy tomorrow. Run each day with purpose. Do speed work (keep the rest short) and tempo runs. Run hills and long runs and get rest. Fill your days with skippies and stretching as well as bananas and bagels. Bag the Cokes and embrace the water. Use a foam roller. Wear a really light and cool pair of spikes.
But none of this is “the secret.” None of this is the “one of a kind” thing because all of this is in the past. I discovered the secret this season, only days ago really.
We have a lot of newcomers this season. At last count, we had seven new freshmen, four new sophomores, five new juniors and even one new senior. I love coaching newcomers. Newcomers often arrive with questions but without fitness and sometimes seem obsessed with numbers.
“How many miles today, coach?” a freshman asks.
“How many more 800s, coach?” the senior said.
“How many more hills, coach?” a sophomore asks.
“How many more minutes, coach?” the freshman asks again.
Historically, my answers have always been informative if not specific.
“I’ve already told you.”
Lately, however, my answer has been much more precise if not immediately enlightening.
“Well, it only takes one.”
“What?” says the senior.
“It only takes one.”
“One more?”
“No. It only takes one.”
“I thought we were running six 800s.”
“You are.”
“But coach you said we only have to run one more”
“I said it only takes one.”
“It only takes one?”
“It only takes one.”
Before this scene becomes a cheap imitation of Abbot and Costello’s Who’s On First, I’ll explain.
This year, I’ve set a goal to make the boys’ varsity as a 45-year-old. I think LC’s boys’ team will again be a top-10 2A program so I’ve got work to do. My training to make the varsity began in July. It nearly ended there too.
I ran terrible in July. I run terrible nearly every day in July. At my worst I could not run 8-minute mile pace for 30 minutes. My neighbor and Western Hills coach Mike Schardein ran by house every day as he prepared for a fall marathon. His pace was always steady and strong. I’d run with him but he’d drop me like a share of facebook stock.
When I started training with LC’s team in August, I ran even worse. The boys’ varsity dropped me. The boys JV ditched me. I ran alone. A lot.
Two weeks ago, I found myself on a 50-minute trail run with the girls’ varsity. (I told them I’d been running all summer.) Their pace was steady and strong--certainty better than 8-minute miles. After 20 minutes I was still with the top-five. Then they threw surges at each other. “This isn’t the workout,” I thought. “And I’m going to get dropped.”
Thirty minutes later I stood at the Gatorade bucket drinking water. I felt tired but not terrible. I’d run with the team’s two best girls for 50 minutes. And I’d discovered “the secret.”
“It only took one run to find out that I’m not terrible, not yet anyway,” I thought. “It only takes one good run, one good workout, one good interval really to discover that you can be better than you imagined, that you can do this workout, and do it well. It only takes one run to find out that you run fast and no one can stop you.”
Of course, my revelation is not new, not even to me. I’d merely forgotten it because I’d neglected my own running for too long and become preoccupied with workouts and rankings as a coach desperate to win a State title. I’d forgotten that I found joy and wonder in running when as 5-foot-1, 101 pound eighth grader who rode the bench in basketball, baseball and soccer, won the first 1600-meter I’d ever run. I’d forgotten that as 5-foot-11, 140 pound teacher of tenth graders, I qualified for the Boston Marathon on course that brought doom to most runners. I’d forgotten that as coach I can only point the way but it my job to provide the opportunity for my runners to discover for themselves that the secret lies within them and them alone. I know this now and I won’t forget.
But back at the Gatorade bucket I had an idea.
“I’ve got to tell the team,” I thought.
The team, however, had already started on its cool-down on which they were planning a new ab workout.
“But surely,” I thought. “They’ll ask how many.”
Comments? Email me at timwiesenhahn@gmail.com or Tweet me at TimWiesenhahn@CCCoachWeezy