Name: Kiersten Anderson
Age: 17
School: Burnt Hills - Ballston Lake
Coach: Shaun Zepf
Personal Bests:5K - 18:34 3 Mile - 18:24 3000 - 10:29 1500 - 4:55
Accolades: Top Ten finishes at Hartford, McQuaid and Burnt Hills Invitationals
Member of the 2008 NYS Class A and Federation Championship Teams
#5 Scorer on NXN 8th place team - 2008
Typical Training Week
Pre-Season
Warmup: 1 mile followed by drills and stretching
This is done for 3-4 weeks over the summer as part 3 of a 3 segment progression
Monday: 10 miles weights/strides
Tuesday: 6 miles abs/push ups
Wednesday: 7miles weights/strides
Thursday: 7 miles (5 m at elevated pace)
Friday: 6 miles weights/strides
Saturday: 8 miles abs/push ups
Sunday: Rest day
Season
Daily warm up routine:
1) 8 minute run in groups of varying ages and abilities
2) 6-8 dynamic drills
3) 2000 meter tempo run
4) Standard static stretching routine
Monday: Pre-meet - 30 minutes followed by 2x1000 builds and starts and downhill striders
Tuesday: 5k dual meet race
Wednesday: 5x1000 with 1 minute rest followed by 4x200
Thursday: 50-60 minute distance run
Friday: Pre-meet - 30 minutes followed by 2x1000 builds and starts and downhill striders
Saturday: 5k race or work out
Sunday: 30 minute run
Goals: (this is pretty self-explanatory. It’s just an explanation of your goals for the season)
Team: Win Sectionals and work together and develop as a team
Individual: Improve my race times
Coaches’ Philosophy (by Zepf): Every year I have coached I have entered the season looking to achieve the same 3 goals: Increase our numbers, Improve our times and have fun. All other accomplishments are a reward of working hard as a team to achieve these 3 goals. Athletes like Kiersten Anderson are the ones who take a good team and elevate them to the next level of achievement. They do it through hard work, determination and an internal motivation that can not be taught. It can only be modeled. Not every athlete arrives on the team as a star, but can develop into a solid team runner through sheer guts, perseverance and will power. As many athletes have, Kiersten has had her fair share of illness and injury, but she has refused to allow it to effect her in a negative way. On the contrary, she uses her recovery time to build overall body strength through weight training, core strengthening and yoga. This has helped her come back stronger and more fit and able to take on the daily grind of workouts and races.
In regards to training style, I have used a 4 part system based on the Jack Daniels model. I was lucky enough to have run for Jack at Cortland back in the mid 90's. The first part and most important is base mileage that gives the athlete the strength to handle later season workouts and the grind of a race schedule that is very demanding. Each athlete is given a 3 part plan for the summer with specific mileage and drills. The athletes who stick to the plan fair the best throughout the season with the least injuries and the highest rate of success. The next three stages deal with working the runners endurance, strength and speed. Done in varying durations and intensities these lead to a runner who is ready to peak at the end of the season during the championship meets.
What is most important about the system we use at Burnt Hills it not the system itself, but the athletes who buy into it 100% If they believe it will work, it will. Kiersten learned from Meaghan Gregory and Sam Roecker to believe in the system. It is now her turn to continue the tradition of teaching the younger runners to believe in the system and eachother. Once they do, everything else will take care of itself.