Cailie Logue, is a home grown girl she arguably is Kansas best female distance runner and continues to add to her resume. While in high school Cailie was a 9X Kansas state champion on the track (4x 3200m, 3x 1600m, 2x 800m) and a 4X Kansas state cross country champion.. Now at Iowa State she has earned All American honors and like the rest of us is coming to terms and learning to deal with the "new normal" that we now face.Cailie has graciously decided to help us out in this year with out a season and take a dive into the writing world. We thank Cailie from the bottom of our heart for taking the time from her training and studies to fit this into her busy schedule and do this for us.
One thing my coach said she did as an athlete was learn something new every day (she was a 2x Olympian, who would have thought she had anything left to learn). This is something she continues to do as a coach too. This week I had some time to listen to one of my favorite Podcasts "Keeping Track" and the latest feature was about female coaches in the NCAA. If you are someone who has ever thought about getting into coaching, I would highly recommend listening to the episode. It contained lots of insightful information from six different women's NCAA coaches.
My training this week continued to be consistent. However, this week we were able to get on the track a few times which helped me to see some splits and feel a little speedier.
This is my training for the week of April 13th through the 17th.
Before each run I perform a glute and hip activation routine to help avoid injury. I also always encourage myself to stretch after, and some days I'm better at this than others. Still working on it though.
Monday: 12 miles
AM-8 miles
Post run: Core
PM-4 miles
Post run: Strides, in-home gym routine, and stretching
Tuesday: 10 miles
Warm up: 2 miles
Fartlek- 3 minutes on, 1 minute off (9 times)
Cool down: 3 miles
Post run: Stretching, lower lumbar stabilization drills
Wednesday: 10 miles
MW long run
Post run: 10 min. core
Thursday: 12 miles
AM-8 miles
PM-4 miles
Post run: Strides, in-home gym
Friday: 9 miles
AM- Core, stretching
Warm up: 2 miles
Broken Tempo:
2 miles on road
2 minutes complete recovery
2 miles on track
2 minutes complete recovery
1 mile on track
Cool down: 2 miles
Post run: core, stretching, lower lumbar stabilization drills
Saturday: 12
13-mile long run
Post run: stretching, core
Sunday: Optional Day Off
Easy 4 mile run, stretching, lower lumbar drills
Jim Madison, Kansas Milesplit webmaster, reminded me that this past Sunday, April 19th was the anniversary of the KU Relays my senior year during which Emily Venters, Molly Born, and I ran broke the 3200m KU Relays record previously held by Emily Sisson. I also saw it noted in Pat Melgares article "A Few Books for your Mental Training", which had some very great book recommendations by the way. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend checking it out too. I personally really liked Let your Mind Run by Deena Castor.
Jim asked me if I would comment on that KU relays race. When I reflected on this race, I remember the excitement of that moment. However, I also remember some of the growth and challenges I faced leading up to that race. They say you learn a lot more from your failures than your successes, and let's just say I did a lot of learning during my senior year of running.
Because you can learn from hearing or watching other people, I wanted to take this opportunity to share some of the lessons this race brought to mind.
This picture was taken right after the race. A few weeks later Molly's grandfather printed us our own copies. Mine still hangs on the bulletin board in my bedroom. I am thankful to have had two very serious runners to compete with during my high school career.
Lesson 1: Competition is Key.When I think back to all of my fastest races in high school they have one common factor. Great competition. My fastest races were not always the ones I won. They were the ones where I was pushed by my competitors. This race at the KU relays was no different. Molly boldly led us through the majority of the race at a pace I had never come close to running before. She has an excellent sense of pace. We worked off of each other's strengths and thrived while running together.
My junior year, Molly and Emily's presence in the mile at Shawnee Mission North Relays helped to lead me to my fastest in-season mile time of my high school career too. I soon saw competition could help bring me to places I couldn't bring myself.
One of the greatest parts of college running is not lacking for competition. Having the opportunity to find appropriate races has been very important in my development.
If you are a high school athlete in Kansas, I would say try hard to find competition where you have someone near your ability level that will challenge you. If you are wanting to go to the next level, work to get a KU Relays qualifying time and build yearly upon these races.
I am also thankful that Molly, Emily, and I have continued our college careers together. Healthy competition builds lasting relationships, personal character, and obviously, better runners.
Lesson 2: GET SLEEP!
My senior cross-country season had a really great start. I was crowned homecoming queen, ran a sub 17-minute 5k to win the Baldwin Invitational, and went on a college visit all in the same weekend. I was having a blast. My training was ideal and my confidence was high. Maybe too high.
During my senior year there were lots of events, including school projects, clubs, homecoming dances, football games, and other extra-curricular activities to get involved in, and being from a small school, I was able to try them all. I think I tried to do as much as I could. It was fun, but I was overbooked, especially while taking all of my college visits that fall, which proved to be very exhausting. There's only so much time in a day, and I was making up for borrowed time in my sleep schedule.
I had been told by multiple people and attended multiple running camps where they preached the importance of getting eight hours or more of sleep a night. I thought it was a good idea, but my actions weren't following through. I made deals with myself, "7 hours of sleep won't hurt." This worked for a while, until I did it for continuous weeks, and sometimes 7 hours became only 6 hours of sleep a night.
I was falling more and more behind on essential rest because I overcommitted. My grandfather, who was a retired high school track and field coach had called numerous times telling me that I needed to be getting more sleep, but I still didn't change my schedule.
By the end of my senior cross-country season I was struggling. By the state meet, my body felt completely different than it had at the beginning of the season. My state race was hard, really hard, but I didn't know why and figured it would pass.
The following week I went to Heartland Nike Regionals. I had aspirations of qualifying to Nike Cross Nationals again, after placing third at the national meet last year, but with less than 200m in the race, I fell and didn't stand and finish for another minute. I didn't qualify with my fellow Kansans, Molly and Emily. I also didn't get to meet my soon to be three collegiate roommates who were also competing at the race. After going to the doctor a few days later, I found out that I had been running with Mycoplasma pneumoniae. I felt that if I had gotten more rest I could have kept myself healthier and prevented myself from becoming so run down.
However, my freshman year of college I didn't want to make the same mistake. I worked hard to reach that 8 hour of sleep barrier and made it a consistent part of my lifestyle and training schedule. If a consistent sleep schedule is something you have struggled with, there is no better time to develop it than now, with how flexible some of our schedules have become.
Lesson 3: Take time to do what matters most to you very well.Getting rest has changed so much about how I am able to train. I can now do doubles and wake up before my alarm clock, something my lack of self-discipline prevented me from doing as a senior in high school. A college coach once told me that she limits her athletes to one extra activity outside of being a student-athlete, and I think this is a good rule in multiple settings. As a young adult, you will create your own schedule, and there are lots of choices about what activities to be involved in. However, I have found that to become a better student and athlete you want to be balanced and do activities outside of running, just not too many. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is say "no," and that is something I still work on and learn about today.
Back to that KU Relays race...The KU Relays was the first two mile I had run since my disappointing finish at Nike Regionals. My confidence was very low. Although I knew I would probably finish the race, in the back of my mind there was this small fear if I ran too hard, I wouldn't finish because of my experience in cross country. However, I did finish and learned to trust myself and race hard again.
I've found that in many people's shining and happiest memories there is also some type of struggle leading up to that moment. There are lessons to be learned and highs and lows to everyone's path. Making mistakes is part of the process. In order to improve, learn from mistakes. It's probably going to involve change.
I think one of the major reasons my coach was a 2x Olympian was she didn't settle. She continually learned and improved herself. Most importantly, she loved the sport and dedicated herself to it. Find individuals that encourage you to grow. Just like her and my former Kansas competitors, I want to learn something to make myself better every day.