Spartan Early Bird Invitational ATHLETE INFO & MEET INFO

Here's information regarding tomorrow's meet (it's lengthy but scroll down to what you need):

ATHLETES 

The night before:

• Eat a healthy dinner! Your body will convert carbohydrates to glycogen, which will provide your muscles with energy the day of the race. Food = Fuel!

• Limit the amount of sweets! Get it down to one serving (1 cookie, 1 brownie, etc., but just one!) at a time. Don’t get rid of it completely, just lower the amount each day. It’s good to have a little chocolate, for example.

• Avoid sugary drinks. Replace soda/fruit juice with water. It’s a small change that makes a huge difference. Complex sugars really have no useful function.

• Stay hydrated. Not too hydrated! But sipping water throughout the day helps.

• Get a good night’s sleep! Optimal sleep for a middle schooler is 9 hours, 15 minutes a night. Your body needs to recover from the week of school, studying, and working out! Rest is crucial for this to occur.

The morning before…

• If you can eat breakfast at about 5:45 – 6:00 a.m. Saturday, that would be great. That gives your body enough time to process the calories, which should come from carbohydrates (carbs).

• Examples of good breakfasts: healthy cereal with milk, toast with jelly, pancakes or waffles with syrup. Bananas are also a great idea.

• Avoid: large amounts of milk, orange juice, eggs, and a lot of fruit juice (a little is okay, but there’s a lot of sugar there so don’t overdo it).

• Bring a healthy snack with you! You will want to eat something afterward.

• Sports drinks should be extremely limited. 1 bottle of Gatorade, for example, should be your post-race drink. That should be the amount of sports drinks you should drink in a week. Other than that, stick to water. You will want to replace glycogen with your snack, and electrolytes with your sports drink. Drinking too many sports drinks actually has a negative effect as it’s just too much sugar. One good drink is Propel water.

After the race…

• Get some water at the finish line or at camp, then drink your sports drink. Again, you’ll want to bring both water and a sports drink & snack.

• After your event do a 5-minute cool down jog around the football field or the track.

• Stretch again at home!

• Post-race meals should contain carbohydrates and protein (which will rebuild your damaged muscles from the race).

• Post-race meals should be within 2 hours of the race. So…make your high-carb, high-protein meal your dinner when you return home Saturday!

• After a week of healthy eating, you can splurge a little Saturday night. But make sure the week is filled with healthy meals before you treat yourself!

PARENTS/ATHLETES

MEET INFORMATION:

• Scoring will be 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1

• They will be using an FAT (electronic) timing system

• Girls 4 x 800 starts at 9:30 a.m., followed by boys

• All other events start at 10:15 a.m.

• Order of Events is the same as the one on Monday (and the one posted last weekend)

• The meet will run on a rolling schedule, meaning they will start the next event as soon as the previous event has concluded

• Locker rooms will NOT be provided, but restrooms will be open

• Warm-ups are not allowed on the football field (we'll see if we can use the perimeter of the field)

• $7 per ticket (kids 4 & under free) - All tickets must be purchased online as there will be NO CASH SALES at the Gate

• ONLINE TICKETS CAN BE FOUND HERE: https://boardman.hometownticketing.com/embed/all

ATHLETES

FINAL REMINDERS:

• Dress in layers, bring rain gear, hat, and gloves

• Bring an extra pair of socks and shoes

• Bring a bag to wrap your gear

• Bring a blanket

• Bring money for concessions

• Make sure you are warming up properly (2 lap warm-up, drills, and up-tempo runs prior to your race)

• Cool-down with your teammates after your races

DISTANCE LINE-UP:

• GIRLS 4x800 Relay

• Amira Owens

• Bianca Craig

• Sadie Seifert

• Carolyn McVey

• BOYS 4x800 Relay 

• Nolan Samuels

• Nick Evilsizor

• Josh Neipp

• Carson Brown 

• GIRLS 1600M Run

• Anna Liller

• Claire Donovan

• BOYS 1600M Run

• Holden Pilkington

• GIRLS 400M Dash

• Kaitlyn Warner

• Carolyn McVey

• BOYS 400M Dash

• Josh Neipp

• Nolan Samuels

• GIRLS 800M Run

• Anna Liller

• Claire Donovan

• BOYS 800M Run

• Holden Pilkington

• Carson Brown

• GIRLS 200M Dash

• Kaitlyn Warner

• GIRLS 4x400 Relay

• Amira Owens

• Bianca Craig

• Sadie Seifert

• Carolyn McVey

Track & Field Meet Schedule

 

MEET INFORMATION

Materials you should bring to the meet:

• Water & healthy snack (eat snack after school)
• Jogging pants
• Extra pair of socks
• Spikes (if you have them)

On rainy and/or cold days:

• Rain jacket
• Gloves 
• Hat 
• Hand warmers (optional)
• Garbage bag (to put your bookbag in if it's raining)
• Extra pair of shoes to change into afterward (you can change your shoes/socks and have dry feet)

After school:

• Change into your uniform
• Gather your materials
• Eat your snack
• Use the restroom (don't wait until you get to the high school, get this done before you leave)
• Review the order of events and meet information (be ready)
• While waiting for the bus, work on homework (if you have time)

When you arrive at the high school:

• Get off the bus
• Move your gear to the spot at the stadium designated for Avon Lake
• Gather your distance/sprint team together
• Two-lap warm-up, form-drills on the football field with the entire team
• Be aware that varsity athletes will still be practicing so make sure they have priority
• You can use the restroom AFTER YOU WARM-UP AND DO YOUR DRILLS AS A TEAM
• Relay participants: See coaches to go over exchanges on the football field (distance) and track (sprints)

Prior to your event:

• 1st Call: start your warm-up routine (again)
• 2nd Call: head closer to start line (distance start/finish locations will be at the same location)
• Last Call: head to start line
• NOTE: keep all your sweats on, including hat & gloves (when it's cold), until the official tells you to take them off, you will not get yelled at for issues with your uniform (coaches will be at the start line if there are any issues)

After your event:

• Two lap cool-down around the football field (stay on the turf) with everyone who just ran your event (include everyone)
• Check the order of events on your phone and make sure you're prepared for your next event
• When your day is over, follow up with a two lap cool-down the STRETCH

One last note (maybe the most important):

• When you are NOT COMPETING in an event tomorrow, you are a CHEERLEADER.
• Unless you are warming up or cooling down for an event, you are cheering on your fellow teammates. Track & Field is a team sport, but athletes line up for their races, get in the rings to throw, line up for high jump/long jump, and line up on the runway for pole vault ALONE. It's an incredibly isolating and anxious feeling. You will feel like everyone is looking at you (even though that's not really the case). Unlike other team sports, you are not in a huddle, you're not inside where you can hear your teammates/coaches yelling out instructions and words of encouragement, and you're not really working alongside someone. Instead, you're running your race and/or passing off your team's baton to the next runner. 
• So, it's important that you cheer on your teammates when they're running tomorrow. It makes a huge difference, it will pump them up, and they'll tell you afterward that it really helped them to push through the pain. It will also help with anxiety and you'll realize you're stronger after going through it all together and that you're not really alone.
• Focus on the things you can control tomorrow: WORK HARD (do your best), WORK SMART (proper warm-up, form-drills, cool-down), and WORK TOGETHER (be there for each other). If you do this at every meet you'll see growth in yourself, your team, and you'll get more confident going forward.

Saturday Hill Work

Track & Field Athletes:

We will be meeting on Saturdays throughout March:

• Saturday, March 2nd
• Saturday, March 9th
• Saturday, March 16th
• Saturday, March 23rd

We will be taking a bus to the Rocky River Metro-Parks (Emerald Necklace Marina) to do our hill work sessions. Here are the details:

• Meet at ALHS at 9:50 a.m.
• We should arrive at Rocky River by 10:30 a.m.
• If you just joined the distance crew and you're still not in the best shape, that's okay! You have to start somewhere...come on out and let's get to work!
• Practice should last between 45 minutes to an hour.
• We'll return to ALHS around noon.
• I'll send a TEAM REACH text with an ETA of our return so parents don't have to wait.

Bring a hat, gloves, water, dress in layers!

Looking forward to seeing everyone! Go Avon Lake Track & Field!