Rick Riley's X-Country Camp

Good thing I brought run gear. I took the morning off to head up to Spokane and meet with Rick Riley at his annual running camp. Due to the multitude of highway repairs, I managed to arrive only five minutes early. I'd been hoping for thirty minutes.

The kids were already assembled, tweaking shoes and sunglasses as they got prepped for the day's session. Unlike a lot of camps, Rick runs a day camp with the sessions going about 2 hours officially. Since everyone (except me) arrives early, it is closer to 2.5 hours.

The other point that jumped at me were the ages. Most of the running camps I'm familiar with cater to the high school athlete. The Rick Riley X-Country Camp encourages all ages to attend. I think the youngest this year was Katie, age eight. I didn't get Ryan's age but he's right around there as well. A couple of other were nine. Rick has a pretty fair number of his St. George's squad helping out as coaches for the youngsters, along with TJ, a former Spokane Falls decathlete.

I asked Rick about how young a runner he'll allow. "first-grade on up," he said, "and we'll figure out how to make it work for them." Very different from most camps, indeed.

On the other end of the spectrum were the high school kids. These headed out for a 45 minute easy run just after I got there. Pacing them on the boys side were Nathan Vanos and Emrek Danielson for the guys. The ladies were led by Marika Morelan and Madie Ward. Madie was on a bike for the week as she heals up from a lower leg issue. Coach Riley was hoping that she'd be back on the run in a week or so.

On a side note, it was my first exposure to these runners on a non-race day. Lots of cheerfulness and smiles. It's easy to forget that the race day face the kids wear is only a small glimpse of them.

The rest of us took a warm-up lap around Audubon Park, where the North Central team holds its home meets. Once around, and then the teaching started, first with the coaches leading the group through a stretching routine. Rick followed up with the philosophy behind the stretching, just enough to get their attention.

Then it was out for some easy running. I managed to land on a recovery day, which was helpful. When the youth coaches asked the kids how they were doing, a variety of aches and pains were reported, mostly calves and quads. When Rick asked five minutes later, all those miraculously healed and everyone reported, "Fine!"

Off we went on an easy run. The coaches bounced up and down the group, providing feedback and encouragement. Lots of encouragement, actually, which is awfully nice to hear. I hung out with the little kids, both because I wanted to chat to TJ and also because it's been a lot of years since I've run with kids that only come up to my waist. The shorter girl wasn't even that tall. Pretty much they're all Chatty-Cathy's, so I just listened in. When a couple dropped off pace, TJ dropped back with them and I ran with the rest.

Next came speedwork, disguised as a game. Rick picked the littlest kids to be the team captains and then ran a relay. Again, a lot of smiles, though the team captains looked a bit overwhelmed by the responsibility at first.

As the kids cooled down from that, Rick had them settle in for a short lecture. Today, he covered goal-setting. He gave them a ton of ideas on how to go about setting goals, had Nathan and Madie talked about their goals from the previous year, and talked about his experience when he set the National Outdoor record. 

Then he hit them with the kicker: you got to do the work.

If you're interested in Rick's camp for next year, you can click here for the info.

Why Kids Should Not Train to Race Year Round

In youth sport after youth sport, the year-round club model is taking hold for children before they reach their tenth birthday. Indeed, making the club team for sports such as soccer and softball is more important than the local high school team for many athletes. The athletes that participate on the clubs often receive very high levels of coaching, though that is not a given. AAU basketball, for example, is more about showcasing talent for colleges than for skills development. 

The single sport emphasis of today's athletes arguably hurts their athletic development, and actually leads to more injuries. In a study presented by authors NA Jayanthi , C. Pinkham, and A. Luke, titled THE RISKS OF SPORTS SPECIALIZATION AND RAPID GROWTH IN YOUNG ATHLETES, they found a significant correlation towards specialized athletes and injury rates. Another study, done by the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM), supports the same conclusion, arguing that the increase in overuse injuries is reaching epidemic proportions.

In both studies, it was the level of organized activities that correlated most with injury rates. That organizational bent usually was the result of early specialization, which added time to the training activity on the assumption that more and early work would lead to improved skills. It also led to highly repetitive drills that created overuse injuries.

In recent NFL drafts, 80 percent of the players taken in the first round were multi-sport competitors in high school. I've talked with coaches, both at the D1 level and at high schools, most prefer athletes with a varied sports background. Rick Riley, in a conversation we had last year, suggested part of his success in running came from the varied activities - swimming, hiking, bucking hay - that he did as a youth. Each built different muscles and trained the nervous system to respond to new inputs and made the whole stronger in the process.

The legendary Dr. Jack Daniels concurred, writing in his book Daniel's Running Formula that "all runners can benefit from breaks in training." Bill Bowerman, as reported in Kenny Moore's excellent Bowerman and the Men of Oregon, despised indoor track, feeling that it interfered with the necessary base building activity that a runner need to engage in while recharging the system. After the Munich Olympics, he gave Steve Prefontaine months off, telling him to just keep moving until the fire came back.

Which leads us to a second concern about year-round training and racing. Along side of the injury issues are recurring stories of athletes burned out by the process. When the simple act of running becomes a constant grind of training, with each run measured by the success of the training stimulus and not the pleasure, it turns to work. For some, that hard work is it's own reward, but the number of individuals that can function on a constant diet of stress is minimal. Most kids break down, either physically or emotionally. We lose two-thirds of our athletes from junior high to high school this way.

There is a season for everything and every season has an end. For too many kids, the training begins to resemble the ordeal of Sisyphus, forever pushing a boulder up the mountain, but never destined to reach the top. At some point, the labors must be over and the hero gets both the rewards of the effort, and a chance to rest briefly on his or her laurels with the competitive fire banked until it's needed again. When it is, the passion will return and the athlete returns to the task renewed and stronger.

To quote Pat Tyson, head coach at Gonzaga, speaking of the goals for young runners, "Number one is just to gain a passion for running. To love the morning, to love the trail, to love the pace on the track. And if some kid gets really good at it, that's cool too."

It's a great quote and shows that Pat Tyson has his priorities solidly founded on bedrock principles. There's a reason he won multiple state championships at Mead High School and is beloved by his athletes. It's not my favorite quote, though. My favorite from Pat shows how uncomplicated it can be and simultaneously deep.

Love the run.

Rick Riley, The Questions

Over the next week or so, I will get the entire Rick Riley interview up on the blog. The first part, called Rick Riley, High School Running, Then and Now,  will be available tomorrow morning.

The questions I sent to Rick jumped started our conversation and that's the way I'll present it - a conversation between the two of us, and an invitation for you to eavesdrop. If you want to add your own points, you can do that by email or in the comments section.

Below are the questions.

.1       Compared to kids today, you started running comparatively late – 9th grade, I think. Did you play other sports as a youth or was running your first foray into athletics?

2.       You were a high school phenom in the 60’s, chasing Gerry Lindgren, another Spokane great, when the area was producing some of the finest distance runners in the country. How is the region different now than then?

3.       You were running at the end of the amateur era when athletes who needed to make a living on their running had to take money under the table to maintain their amateur status or work to survive. We now live in an era of professional runners but a huge number of them still can’t make a living at the sport and still set training around jobs. First, what it like in that late 60’s/early 70’s period for you as an athlete?

4.       And second, what kinds of changes would you like to see to allow more athletes treat running – in all the events, not just the sexy ones like the marathon – as a true profession?

5.       You returned to coaching five or six years ago after more than twenty years away. The world changed a lot in that time. How has that affected the way that you coach?

6.       You ran against – and beat! – Steve Prefontaine. Since his death, no one has stepped onto the American running scene and generated as much enthusiasm as Pre. What was it about Pre that made him special to the fans, caused them to chant his name? Was it a product of the time, the first great American Running Boom?

7.       Do you see anyone on the horizon that can pick up the mantle from Pre?

8.       Every runner has those special moments that become favorite memories, whether from a race, a training run, or an interaction with another runner. Do you have one that you feel comfortable sharing? (Rick, this one is pretty personal – if you don’t want to answer it, I’ll drop it from the article.)

9.       If you had a magic wand and could change a few rules for xc and track, how would you rearrange things?

10.   Lastly, you’re at an age where people begin to consider their legacy. I’ve watched as you have shared your knowledge with athletes generations removed from your years as a competitor. From your perspective as someone who reached the pinnacles of running, what one thing above all else would you like to impart to the young athletes?