Well done to all who took part and helped to organise what was a very successful day in Ballynoe last Sunday.

Despite adverse weather conditions, there was a great turnout for all events/race categories on the day.

Well done to all involved!

St Catherine’s AC Girls U12 Team at the East Cork Cross Country Championships 2016

East Cork Cross Country Championships on tomorrow, Sunday 18th Sept. First race starts at 11.30am sharp.

See previous post for location and further information – https://stcatherinesac.org/?p=1848

Directions to the course are at the following link: https://www.google.ie/maps/@52.0653106,-8.1339578,548m/data=!3m1!1e3

An interesting article on the “Raising the BAARR” (pronounced just like “bar”) exercise:

The purpose of this exercise is to do more than to just set goals; that is not enough.

Setting goals is good but will fail unless you have the psychological infrastructure to achieve it. I like to help athletes set a goal, solidify it, get them excited for that goal, and then lay the mental framework for them to reach and then surpass it.

To start the exercise, you actually start from the end and work backwards.

• The last “R” stands for Results: Ask yourself, what result do you want to achieve this season be it your offseason or your racing season. Be as specific as possible especially if you are in the former category. Also try to sort your goals into two groups, performance and behavioral, and it is ok to have a mix of both.

Performance goals are those that relate, as the name implies, to your performance such as

“I want to qualify for 70.3 world championships,”

“I want to go sub 1:05 in the 100m,”

“I want to break 35 minutes for the 10k off the bike” or

“I want to get down to 140lbs”

These are great goals to have and needed for certain A-type personalities but are out of your control to some extent.

Qualifying for worlds is largely dependent upon who shows up that day and racing conditions. Behavioral goals though relate to how you behave and thus are 100% in your control.

They also directly impact your performance goals. While qualifying for world might be out of your control, going to the pool four times a week, completing 95% of your scheduled workouts, and eating a cleaner diet are certainly within your power to do.

These goals should get you excited just thinking about them. You should be motivated by picturing achieving them. If they do not light that fire in you, choose a different goal because in two weeks from now, when your alarm clock goes off. If you are not motivated now, you will not be then.

• The second to last “R” stand for Reason: This strikes at the core of your results. Why do you want to achieve those results? Why do you want to qualify for worlds? Why do you want to get leaner? This step is hard at times and requires you to do some honest soul searching but without a “Why” your results will wither.

• ‘The first “A” stands for “Actions”: Ask yourself and ask your coach, what actions you need to take to achieve your results. It could be that you need to swim an extra 4000 yards a week or focus more on your drills.

To improve your base or cruise 100 pace, you will have to include more swim sets. If your results are more physique based, the actions needed to achieve that ideal body could be like including more vegetables in your diet, hydrating more, etc.

It might be tempting to include things as “not hitting the snooze button on your alarm clock” or “not eating doughnuts” but I prefer to guide my athletes to positive actions, which are more powerful and more likely to stick.

By focusing entirely on the positive, you do not have time or energy to focus on the negatives. Positives will push you towards your goals while negatives will pull you. They both will get you there but you are stronger and faster when you pushing yourself.

• The second “A” stands for “Affect”: What emotions or affect do you need to adopt to achieve these actions. Many goal setting practices skip this step entirely, but I see it as essential. Actions arise from emotions.

Think about the last time you were depressed and you ate a pint of ice cream because of it. Or when you were really motivated and you had an awesome workout. Emotions lead to actions and by priming our emotions we can lead to better actions and the ones we need to adopt to achieve our results.

The emotions that I like to awaken are not the typical happy or joyful but rather ones like “beast mode,” “determined,” “unstoppable” “focused,” and “flow.” I then conjure up these emotions at the beginning of the day during my morning meditations and pre-warm ups to get me in the right mood for the day and for my workouts.

I also focus on these if I am struggling in a workout.

Music can help a lot in this step.

• Finally the B stands for beliefs, which is the driving force of all the sequential steps. As the saying goes “To acheive, you must believe” and as corny as that sounds, it is 100% true. Unless you believe you have the potential to be a good swimmer, a leaner athlete, age group champion, you will never become it.

What that means is that you cannot shut down and say “I am a bad swimmer” or “I am a slow triathlete” or “I am fat;” that type of mindset will only lead you to what you think you are.

Instead accept where you are right now (“My swim times are slow right now”) then accept that you have the power to change them (“but I am going to work at it through the structured training plan”) and then confirm your belief “because I am a dedicated swimmer and triathlete).

With the right beliefs, you will prime the right affect, which will lead to the desire actions, which are powered by your reasons, which finally lead to your results.

So are you ready to raise the BAARR this year?

The Monday Mile will return next Monday 5th September after Juvenile training, and is open to anyone interested in taking part.

This is a timed one mile run/walk around the Conna Community field (4 laps of the pitch) which will take place every Monday until the end of October. It is a great way to check your progress or to try out running for the first time.

Why not run alongside your juvenile athletes to provide encouragement and to see what they are doing each week.

The mile will start at approx 8.15pm from 5th September.

Specific venue details have yet to be finalised in most cases, and starting times are shown as a guideline only:

Sun Sep 18th, 11:00 – East Cork Division Cross-Country Championships
Sun Sep 18th, 11:00 – West Cork Division Cross-Country Championships

Sun Oct 2nd, 12:00, Conna – Cork Athletics Intermediate Cross-Country Championships
Sun Oct 2nd, 12:00, Conna – Cork Athletics Novice Cross-Country Championships
Sun Oct 2nd, 12:00, Conna – Cork Athletics U23 Cross-Country Championships
Sun Oct 2nd, 12:00, Conna – Cork Athletics Juvenile Even-Age Cross-Country Championships

Sun Oct 9th, 13:00, West Muskerry – Cork Athletics County Junior Cross-Country Championships
Sun Oct 9th, 13:00, West Muskerry – Cork Athletics County Senior Cross-Country Championships
Sun Oct 9th, 13:00, West Muskerry – Cork Athletics County Juvenile Uneven-Age Cross-Country Championships

Sun Oct 16th, 11:00, Phoenix Park, Dublin – Athletics Ireland Autumn XC, inc Masters Trials (aka Gerry Farnan XC )

Sun Oct 16th, 11:00, Carraig na bhFear – Cork Athletics Juvenile B Cross-Country Championships

Sun Oct 23rd, 11:00, Cork venue – Munster Juvenile Even Age Cross-Country Championships
Sun Oct 23rd, 11:00, Cork venue – Munster Athletics Novice Cross-Country Championships
Sun Oct 23rd, 11:00, Cork venue – Munster U23 Cross-Country Championships

Sun Nov 6th OR Sun Nov 20th, 12:00, Riverstick – Cork Athletics Novice B Cross-Country Championships
Sun Nov 6th OR Sun Nov 20th, 12:00, Riverstick – Cork Athletics Masters Cross-Country Championships

Sat Nov 12th, Tolcross Park, Scotland – British & Irish Masters XC

Sun Nov 13th, 11:00, Limerick venue – Munster Athletics Senior Cross-Country Championships
Sun Nov 13th, 11:00, Limerick venue – Munster Athletics Uneven Age Cross-Country Championships

Sun Nov 27th, TBA – Athletics Ireland National Intermediate Cross-Country Championships
Sun Nov 27th, TBA – Athletics Ireland National Inter-Counties Cross-Country Championships
Sun Nov 27th, TBA – Athletics Ireland National Juvenile Even-Age Cross-Country Championships

Sun Dec 4th, 11:00, Waterford Venue – Munster Athletics Masters Cross-Country Championships
Sun Dec 4th, 11:00, Waterford Venue – Munster Athletics Intermediate Cross-Country Championships
Sun Dec 4th, 11:00, Waterford Venue – Munster Athletics Juvenile ‘B’ Cross-Country Championships

Sun Dec 11th, 11:00, Chia, Italy – SPAR European XC Championships

Sun Dec 11th, 11:00 – Athletics Ireland National Juvenile Uneven Age Cross-Country Championships
Sun Dec 11th, 11:00 – Athletics Ireland National Novice Cross-Country Championships

St. Catherine’s A.C. Autumn Training Schedule for Adults, Juveniles and Little Athletics

Monday Nights (All Training 7-8 pm)

Little Athletics: For athletes 5+ years and attending primary school, up to those born in 2009, start back in September.

Juvenile:  Younger group- Born 2008 to 2005, cross country training.

Older group- Born 2004 and older–focus on building fitness and distance.

Tuesday Nights (Training 7-8 pm) back in September

Adults: Interval training for Adults with 3k on the first Tuesday of each month.

Secondary school Juveniles: Welcome by request.

Wednesday Nights (Training 7-8 pm) back in September

Adults: Beginners and Improvers:-

Beginners– Anyone who wants help to get started.

Improvers– Anyone that is running and wants to improve.

Thursday Nights 7-9 pm

7-8pm: 

Younger Juveniles (born 08-05) Cross Country Training

8-9pm: 

Older Juveniles (born 04 and older) Cross Country Training

Sprint Club: Intended for those who don’t wish to do the middle distance and cross country training through the autumn and winter periods. Instead we will concentrate on our fitness for sprinting and the long jump in preparation for next season’s track and field.