(Un)Welcomed summer

Back to back posts! It's been a while since we've had that.

It's hard to believe that another season has come and gone already although my body and mind can tell you that something has definitely taken place over the last three months.

Yesterday I came into work late having slept for some 10 hours and woke up only feeling marginally better. I'm sure in the next few days I'll be logging some serious sack time before the summer stretch.

So the obvious question is, "now what?"

Well as you can see from the picture, that's what. Those who've been following this blog for a while will recognize the notebook. Please note that this year it actually looks like a coaching notebook having been outfitted with stickers. I guess that makes it official. The papers are notes from a meeting I had with the men's team yesterday. We hashed out the season, where we finished, the good, the bad and where we're going from here.

The last week or so I've been working, slowly, on my summer workouts. This will be the first time I've actually put together a summer workout plan and to say that it's thin would be kind. It's very thin but I'm not concerned about it. Seeing as how this is my first, I've left it pretty wide open in terms of what I want. It has structure but I don't want the team feeling as though they're still in season. Everyone, even coaches, need a break and trying to maintain peak fitness from this spring is - at least in my opinion - crazy talk. We'd run into a point of diminishing returns which would hit us right when we're about ready to start gearing up for the fall.

This doesn't mean that the summer will be a cake walk however. I do have three workouts that I'm looking for the guys to do on their own. The first is the primary workout where a majority of the work will be done. This will be done 5-6 times a week. The second workout is focusing on some training we glossed over - my fault - this season and will be done 7 days a week. The third workout focuses more on improving some basics that were lacking this season and will also be done 7 days a week. As intense as it sounds the primary workout is the only "heavy" workout. The second and third workouts can be accomplished in under 30 minutes combined.

We're focusing on volume training this summer with the idea that the better shape we come back in, the more likely it will be that we travel this fall rather than waiting till spring. After seeing the speed at WIRAs this last weekend, I don't believe that anyone on the teams really feels that they're ready to compete with the big boys, yet. However they also see that they have speed and a very high ceiling. How high we push that ceiling falls upon them and how willing their are to committing to training.

As for me, I'm not sure what I'll be doing. I'm trying to decide how much I'm going to fit in this summer. After the type of season that we've had, I need a long break so I'm looking at getting out for at least a month and perhaps more. To force myself into actually taking a break in the literal sense and not simply working on training plans in a new location, I'll be leaving my laptop and notes behind - also a reason to return with plenty of time to brush things up.

All that aside, the last few remaining details this season are the athlete banquet we throw and saying goodbye to the two seniors on the women's team.

2012 has been quite the season but I'm already looking toward 2013.