Good Sports

by Budd Glassberg

Reprinted with permission from the Zionsville Times Sentinel on October 11, 2006

An Open Letter to the ZMS Cross-country Team

Since I began coaching the Zionsville Middle School Cross-country team in 1996, I have not missed running in an Indiana Derby with any team I have coached. Unfortunately, this year I will have to be out of town for both the derby and our end of year awards party. I will really miss running in the derby, for I take great pleasure starting behind most of our team’s runners and then passing many of you in the last 800 meters to capture one of the coveted 25 ribbons awarded. There will be other derbies, but I sincerely regret missing the awards party. As you are so often reminded at our meets and practices, I love to talk running and will miss one last chance to capture our eighth grader’s attention. In lieu of a long winded speech, this letter will have to suffice.

Today, you are probably in the best physical condition of your life. Our season is relatively short, but from August to the middle of October, you have worked very hard to increase your cardio-respiratory capacity, endurance, strength and speed. Many of you have improved your times on our 3 kilometer course by several minutes. While you may be surprised by your improvement, your coaches have seen this kind of improvement year after year and we expected it. Unfortunately, we have also seen what happens between now and next August. Most of our seventh grade athletes will run sporadically, if at all, between now and next fall. They will return perhaps just slightly faster than they were at the beginning of the prior season. It will take those runners most of next season to reach the times they are running now.

A few of our athletes will continue to train. I am not talking about training the way we did during the season. That is not recommended. You should not forego other sports or other activities. Instead, I suggest that you incorporate easy running into your life. It should be there throughout the other seasons as an activity rather than as a main focus. A nice easy 20 minute run three times a week with maybe one long slow run on the weekend is all you will need to keep your conditioning. Going from out of shape to in shape is very difficult and sometimes painful. Being a lazy guy myself, I never understood why a person would work so hard to get into good shape and then have to do it all over again the next year. It is much easier just continuing to run throughout the year.

For you eighth grade runners, next year you will be tempted by a buffet of fall sports. You know that I think you should stick with cross-country whether you are a front runner, middle of the pack runner or back of the pack runner. High school is a time of physical growth for students. Many of our mid to back of the pack runners have blossomed in high school and have had marvelous varsity careers. Even those not improving to the varsity will benefit greatly from four more years of exercise in a sport that can be a lifelong activity. Besides, I really enjoy seeing you on the trail every fall training on our high school team and hearing, “Hi Coach” as you pass me.

With apology to David Letterman, I wish to offer the following top ten reasons to keep running throughout the year;

10. You will feel better about yourself

9. You will do better in school

8. You will be in much better condition when you begin serious training in the fall

7. You will control your body mass and look better

6. Your family and friends will think of you as a runner

5. You will be able to enter a local running race without getting back into shape

4. You will demonstrate to yourself that you can motivate yourself without anyone pushing you

3. You will run much faster next cross-country season

2. You will find it easier to do other physical activities

And the number one reason to keep running throughout the year;

1. Just like you learned to love running hills, you might find you love running so much that you will want to continue it for the rest of your life

Budd Glassberg is a resident of Zionsville who is active in the local running community. Visit www.runz.com for reprints of all his columns. You can reach him by email at budd@runz.com.