September 15 Updates

Lakeville Invitational Race Assignments & Schedule can be viewed HERE

This week's Minnesota Rankings (Edina #3, Ellenberger #8) can be found HERE

Results and write-up for the NXN Preview can be found HERE

Results from the Hopkins Invitational can be found HERE

September 7 State Rankings

The Hornets moved up the the #3 spot in the State poll behind Section 6AA rivals Wayzata and Eden Prairie. Michael Ellenberger also cracked the top-10 in the individual poll.

Full State Poll Here

Coach Jason Interview

Coach Jason was interviewed by flotrack.org following his 3rd place finish at the US 20K Championships on Labor Day.

Watch Interview Here

Matterhorn Results

Full Matterhorn results can be found here. The races were highlighted by a 1-2 finish by Matt Lumbar and Brian Olson in the Junior High Race.

Busy Week for Edina Cross Country

It will be a busy week for Edina Cross Country... below are links to the WAAG (week at a glance), as well as information on the two meets this week:

August 30th WAAG

Matterhorn Invite

Pleasant Valley Spartan Challenge

Alumni, Lumbar Defend Titles at Ed Hendrickson Alumni Cross Country Race

The Edina Alumni and TC Lumbar successfully defended their Ed Hendrickson Edina Alumni Race titles at a soggy Pamela Park. Lumbar won the race for the 6th straight year (3 as a high school and 3 as an alumnus). Full results can be found at http://edinacrosscountry.com

Coach Matt Interviewed on Flotrack

Check it out!!!

Interview Link

Team opens season ranked #4 in Minnesota

The Edina Boys CC team will open the season ranked #4 in the state coaches poll. Section rivals Wayzata and Eden Prairie are ranked #1 and #2, respectively. Hornets Michael Ellenberger and Aldis Inde received votes in the individual poll, but were not ranked in the top 12. Full rankings can be found here: http://www.hutchcrosscountry.com/CrossCountry/2000/09preseasonratings.htm

Follow Coach Matt's Blog!

Follow coach Matt's blog in the week leading up to his race at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin... http://www.mattychamps.blogspot.com/

Registration Reminder!!!

Folks -

Make sure you get your Cross Country registration complete (including picking up your participation pass in the Athletics office) by Monday, August 17! There is a new late fee policy, and nobody wants to have to pay a late fee for being lazy!

All of the information you need can be found at http://www.edina.k12.mn.us/athletics/

Don't forget about checking to see if your physical is up to date!

If you have any questions about the registration process, contact Laura Stein or Terry Cords in the Athletics office:

Laura Stein: laustein@edina.k12.mn.us or 952.848.3815
Terry Cords: tercords@edina.k12.mn.us or 952.848.3817

A brief chat with coach Matt in Runner's World

Coach Matt was interviewed by Runner's World leading up to his appearance at the World Championship's in Berlin later this month...

http://dailynews.runnersworld.com/2009/08/a-brief-chat-with-matt-gabrielson.html

2009 Alumni Race Announcement

The 2009 Ed Hendrickson Edina Alumni Race is rapidly approaching! Former athletes and coaches, current parents, and community members are welcome to participate.

This year's event will be held on Saturday, August 22 at Pamela Park. The gun goes off at 9:30 for the 3200M men's race.

For participants not on the Edina High School team, please find registration and other information can be found at http://www.edinacrosscountry.com/alumni.htm

2009 Cross Country Season Updates

The Summer Running Kickoff Meeting will be held next Tuesday, June 9 at 6:30pm in the lobby of the ECC. If you are not able to attend, but would like the information, please email me a request and I will get it to you.


The 2nd Annual Summer Team Camp will be held Monday, June 29 thru Thursday, July 2. Last year's camp was a lot of fun and we'd love more of the guys to participate this summer. All the camp information, including registration forms, can be found at (http://edinacrosscountry.com/summer2009.htm).
Please register as soon as possible so that we can plan appropriately (bus size, # of counselors, etc). At the very least, please send me an email if you are planning on attending but have yet to register!


A tentative calendar for the 2009 season can be found at (http://edinacrosscountry.com/2009ccschedule.pdf). Please note that the season starts on August 17 and plan accordingly!


Like last year, the Fall Sports Registration will be online. Please make sure you register on time by checking for updates on the Edina Athletics Website (http://www.edina.k12.mn.us/athletics).

Crawfort-Tufts Breaks 26 year-old 100M School Record

I realize this isn't Cross Country or distance running news, but exciting nevertheless! Sophomore Devin Crawford-Tufts ran 10.9 in his first 100M race of the year to break the 26 school record previously held by Brad McCalla. Later in the 200M dash, he ran 22.5, good enough to be #10 on the Edina All-Time list, and the fastest time by a Hornet in 16 years.

Edina School Records
Edina All-Time Lists

Flocuts

Behind the scenes: Coach Matt's new hair...

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234593-off-track-tuesday/166525-flocuts

Coach Lehmkuhle Interview

Jason was interviewed after his Gate River Run race last weekend. The race served as the US 15K Championship.

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234794-2009-gate-river-run/162052-jason-lemkhule

TC Lumbar wins open 3K at Penn State

TC Lumbar won the open 3K at Penn State last weekend in a PR of 8:22. If he were better at returning phone calls, we might have a comment from him on the race. But anyway, results and video can be found here:

Results

Video

T.C. Lumbar Interview

Edina Cross Country Alumnus, and current Georgetown sophomore, T.C. Lumbar has graciously agreed to keep a training log (or blog) for edinacrosscountry.blogspot.com. Hopefully it will provide some insight into training and racing at the next level from the perspective of a former Hornet! T.C.'s high school PRs were 4:13 for 1600, 9:06 for 3200 and 15:26 for 5K Cross Country, all Edina school records. While at Georgetown, T.C. has run 3:54 for 1500, 8:30 for 3K and 14:23 for 5K.

In order to provide a little context around the upcoming training logs, T.C. answered a few questions about his time at Edina, the transition to college and what he's been up to the last few months. Enjoy!

ECC: You hold all three "distance" records at Edina - 1600, 3200 and 5K Cross Country - to what do you attribute your success?

TC: I’d probably say my dedication to my training. I think simply the fact that I held myself to a pretty high standard and forced myself to get in the training no matter what. Going off to college and returning for winter break made it clear to me just how tough, or crazy, you have to be to train consistently in Minnesota.

ECC: Your younger brothers, Matt and Luke, were 7th graders on this year's Cross Country team... are you worried that one or both of them might take down your records? And if you were a nice, caring big brother, what advice would you give them to help them in that task?

TC: They’re not making me nervous yet. Maybe in a few years when that becomes a realistic possibility I might start to worry a bit, but for now I’m feeling pretty good about where my records stand. Even though I’m definitely selfish enough that I’d be disappointed if they broke the records, I’d still like to see them do well. In the next few years, whenever they decide they’re gonna get really serious about running, I might tell them that developing as a runner can be a slow process and that immediate success and results aren’t guaranteed. Also, listening to your body is definitely a good idea, especially while you’re still developing. Consistency in training is important and beneficial, but there’s no point in injuring yourself and you can’t be afraid to back off if you need to. While it’s easy to look at the short term, the long term is most important. But for Matt and Luke, if chasing my records isn’t motivation enough, I’m sure they’ll always do their best to avoid being beaten by their twin and given a hard time for it (most likely by me).

ECC: What accomplishment from high school running are you most proud of?

TC: Finally making it to state as a team in cross country in 2005 was great while also winning the Section meet for the first time individually was probably one of the best accomplishments. Also, I’m really proud of having run 4:13.9 in the 1600 at Sections my senior year. It was a huge PR and for a couple years prior I had hovered right around 4:20, but I was able to pull off the race I needed to make it to state. Even though I had known I was capable of running fast in the 1600 it was great to finally have such a breakout race.

ECC: What (and when) was the turning point for you when you started to think of yourself as a "runner", and maybe began to train year round?

TC: I have a tough time pinpointing this, but I’d say for sure by 8th grade I knew I was a runner. It may have been even before that, but after running an 18:07 and lettering that year I definitely felt like a runner.

ECC: What is the hardest workout you remember doing in high school?

TC: I’m not sure I can think of a really specific one. There was a workout the summer leading up to the start of my freshman year cross country season and thinking that was the hardest workout I had ever done. It was something like a 6 mile progression workout (3 laps of a paved 2 mile loop) at Hyland Park. I’m not even sure about my time, and I don’t know it was so much a progression but more starting out too fast and going hard most of the way, but it was TOUGH. Thinking about it, some long hills we used to do at Hylands were pretty tough too. I might just say any workout at Hyland Park.

ECC: What was your favorite training route(s) (or places to train) while at Edina - and where do you run when you're home on breaks?

TC: I always liked running along Minnehaha Creek and going out to Hyland Park for long runs on the weekends. I’ve always done quite a few of my runs around Lake Harriet and Calhoun, but now when I’m home that’s almost all of what I do.

ECC: Any favorite memories from Edina Cross Country?

TC: Not sure I can think of any one specific memory, just little things like potlucks, watching teammates finish their races, shaving our heads before certain races (or giving ourselves mohawks, which I know Jamie appreciated), the tremendous 12 challenge (actually, this might’ve been my greatest accomplishment), Money Mike doing backflips, etc.

ECC: After being at Georgetown for three semesters, what would you say are the biggest differences between high school and college running - from a training and team standpoint?

TC: In terms of training, it is not as vastly different from high school as I was expecting. The same basic principles and workouts are there, and at least in my experience it was not as if I was immediately blown away by the difficulty of the training. It’s intimidating to suddenly be training with a group of a couple dozen very talented runners. While obviously this means training at a high level, everything is still tailored to the individual, and no one is expected to do anything they’re incapable of. It didn’t seem like such a big adjustment initially, but the whole change to college (different schedule, eating, sleeping, training, school, etc) definitely took a bit of getting used to.
As far as the team goes, it’s so different in college but also so much better in terms of its advantages for running. Between running, lifting, living and eating nearly all meals with teammates, the team is very close and is such an important part of the college experience.

ECC: You talked about your toughest high school workout... what about at Georgetown?

TC: It’s difficult to think of one that sticks out. At one point I remember we did an 8 mile tempo and just a few minutes later did a 2 mile tempo. We were just barely under 10 minutes on that 2 mile but it felt pretty tough after 8 miles of hard running. One specific workout that comes to mind, and that I was pretty proud of, we did 2k, 1600, 1200, 800, 400 with a 1000 in between each of those at 5:05 pace. I ended up running 5:53, 4:37, 3:16, 2:02, and 58, and it was a tough workout but I felt great throughout the whole thing, and I was really feeling the training kicking in at that point.

ECC: You redshirted last track season and this fall's cross country season, right? Knowing how much you enjoy racing, how did you stay focused for so long without many racing opportunities?

TC: I have now redshirted the past 3 seasons in a row, and it definitely was difficult at times, not only because of the limited racing but the fact that when redshirting it’s hard to feel as much a part of the team. During indoor track last year I had XC Junior Nats to train for, so while I only raced once on the track, preparing myself for nationals was the primary focus. I raced very few times during the outdoor track season, but again I knew that I’d be running the 5k at juniors in June. Also, running the 5k at Penn Relays and finally being really happy with a race and feeling that I was getting into good shape did a lot to keep me focused in my training.

ECC: What are your goals for this track season?

TC: Well, I ran 14:23 last year and felt that I still felt I could’ve run quicker with more opportunities to race. At this point I’ll say at least sub 14:20 during indoors, but outdoor is still a ways away and I’m just looking forward to getting in some races soon and seeing what kind of shape I’m in. Hopefully at some point during outdoor I’ll also get to run a 10k or two and see how that goes.

ECC: When do you think your first race will be?

TC: Most likely in the next couple weeks (second half of January).

ECC: Can you give a little summary of your training for the last 6-8 weeks to give some context around your current training?

TC: Following the cross country season we didn’t take any extended time off, but definitely backed off on the training a bit. The last 6 weeks my mileage has progressed from the mid 50s to the mid 80s. I was also only running 6 days a week for the first few weeks, which was a change but also kind of nice. The majority of the workouts over Christmas break were either 30-40 second hills, AT pace running (1000s or miles), or simple progression runs. Basically we were expected to get our mileage in and the workouts were often mostly effort based (it’d be pretty difficult to do 8X1000 at any specific pace when its 7 degrees outside and I’m running on the shoulder of Wooddale Ave). At this point we’re starting to get into some good, hard training in preparation for races later in the indoor season.

ECC: Is there anything else you'd like to say?

TC: Running in college I’ve really come to realize the importance of being a part of a team. Now when I’m at home running on my own at times it’s so difficult to get myself to get out for every run, or to do the extra things like take the time to do core or really get a good stretch in after a run. But when I’m with the team here at Georgetown, and surrounded by so many other motivated athletes, everything’s so much easier. The nicer weather helps, but its more than that. Having dedicated teammates around you makes all the difference.