General Information

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FPYC Hotline:

703-591-FPYC (3792)

www.fpycsports.com

General Information

PARENT INVOLVEMENT

Our program is heavily reliant on and greatly appreciative of parent assistance. If you would like to become a coach or helper, please let us know. Roles can range from simply holding a stopwatch and calling out times, to jogging along with a younger group (especially at Van Dyck Park Tuesday sessions) for supervision purposes, to planning and leading a practice workout group. No running or coaching experience is necessary and commitment does not have to be weekly - we'll have you as often as your schedule permits.

We will also need parents to help out at meets. Some of our track meets might have over 200 participants, with several heats of each event. We need course marshals, starters (ear plugs provided!), heat organizers to sort runners by age, recorders of results, ribbon and awards writers, and set-up and take-down helpers. In the past, these responsibilities fell on the shoulders of a small but selfless group that volunteered time at almost every meet. IT IS NOW REQUIRED THAT A PARENT OR FAMILY REPRESENTATIVE FOR EACH RUNNER FAMILY WILL WORK AT LEAST ONE MEET. Parent or other representative helpers are expected to arrive early for assignment and instruction. They should assume that they WILL be needed for the entire meet (optimistically assume 2 to 3 hours) and that they will NOT see much, if any, of the races on their day. I will have sign-up sheets available starting at the first practice – slots will be filled first come, first served. Out of fairness, the coaches will be checking up on this to make sure each family fulfills this commitment. Your participation is essential for fun (and timely) meets.

Though a little cumbersome, the following is a safeguard to strengthen the protection of our children:

Any parent who could be interpreted to have a supervisory role or be a steward of the team MUST complete an FPYC background check. This 100% mandatory and must be done prior to your assignment outlined above. It only takes a few minutes and can be done on the team website (but make no bones about it, this is not voluntary): http://www.fpycsports.com/Running%20homepage.htm Click on Volunteer Registration.

ADDITIONAL E-MAIL ADDRESSES FOR TEAM MESSAGES

We send messages, updates, and reminders to parents exclusively via e-mail. Unfortunately, the registration process allows for only one e-mail address submitted per participant. If you would like to receive these team messages at a second e-mail address, please let us know – we will set up a supplemental list to ensure that messages can be received by a second parent or any another important person. (We use e-mail to pass on team messages, but are always willing to talk on the phone or after practice about any matter that may be of concern or interest to you.)

ADDITIONAL RUNNING (out of season, preseason, and during the season)
Parents and runners often ask about the desire or need to do additional training outside of practice sessions. Older and more/experienced runners who have lofty individual goals would greatly benefit from at least one extra day of running outside of the semi-weekly practices - preferably a longer distance run at a moderate pace (yes, this applies to sprinters, too). We don't plan on doing many long runs in the practices, primarily because the large groups get spread out too much and we think we can make more productive use of the time concentrating on pacing and repeat drills.

A Thursday or Friday workout would be ideal because that would mean at least one day of rest in between every practice and the solo run. Most older kids can tolerate running (or competing in other sports) on consecutive days, so Saturday and other days are fine, too, if that is all a schedule permits. To compare, if the local middle schools had interscholastic sports, the respective teams would be practicing and competing five days per week. I do recommend at least one day of rest (and preferably, two) per week for youth runners of all ages, even the most competitive. If anyone wants suggestions on out-of-practice workouts, please feel free to see the coaches. Again, this is a decision to be based on interest and enthusiasm. The goal is to find some individual balance between achieving personal goals and having fun. When an activity is no longer fun - at any competitive level - for the kids, the primary reason is almost always that they are either bored or overtaxed.

If anyone would like some guidance in helping devise a training plan or come up with some workouts in addition to practices either before, during, or outside of the season, feel free to e-mail or call Coach Sidor (fpycrunning@hotmail.com, 703-273-0818 – evenings) or approach any of the coaches at any time.

In addition, below is a list of optional road races that are in the central Fairfax area that can complement the team training schedule. All are on weekends and are in the morning. We hope that team practices and meets hold priority over competing in these events. That said, only the strongest should run in a Saturday race and still expect to get something out of a Sunday practice or meet. Yet if our team event is on a Saturday, feel free (but use the same discretion) to compete in a Sunday road race. If a runner knows in advance that he/she will not be able to make a Sunday afternoon practice or meet due to a conflict, then participating in a road race that weekend is acceptable. All require an entry fee (usually going to a good cause), but most have reductions if you sign up early. One caution about shorter distance 'fun runs' - most are noncompetitive in that they do not have prizes and age categories (though some distribute finisher’s medals), and many are not officially timed (so bring your own stopwatch). This is a very short list, hand-selected by us because of youth-friendly distances and/or age groupings, positive feedback from our runners in the past, and/or courses that are in the central Fairfax area. If you want to explore other races, www.runwashington.com is a very good source.

April 22

Strides for Success 5K and 1K

http://www.runwashington.com/features/stridesforsuccessinfo.html

April 28

J.E.B Stuart High School Raider Run 5K and 1 mile

http://www.freewebs.com/raiderrun/registration.pdf

April 29

Vienna Elementary School Run for Fun 5K and 1 mile

http://www.vienna5krun.org/

May 5

St. Leo the Great Knights of Columbus Blue Ribbon 5K and 1 mile

http://6292.kofcva.org/5K/2007KofC5K.htm