Aaron Thomas

Teach Algebra & STEM at Gilbert Middle School. Coach Cross-Country and Track at Gilbert HS. Married to my best friend and father of two.

[Jason Kempf @jkempradio]

He finishes 5.0 scoreless innings and waves to the crowd as they give him a rousing ovation. Cool opportunity for @IowaCubs fans this evening.

[Aaron Thomas @athomas262]

Perfect night for an @IowaCubs game. Oh, and getting to see a future Hall of Famer pitch is pretty cool, too.

[Aaron Thomas @athomas262]

The state track meet is one of my favorite weekends of the year. This clip perfectly covers what makes it so special.

[SoundOFF @SoundOFF13]

Warrington Report: @DWarringtonTV reports that passion, emotions, and sportsmanship are what makes state track great
https://t.co/X7AwF8ruOH

[Aaron Thomas @athomas262]

I thought this group was capable of running 7:50, but didn’t know if they could do it from the slow heat. They proved me wrong and ended up setting state record in the process. Record only lasted about 10 minutes as Pella reset the record in the 2nd heat.

[Aaron Thomas @athomas262]

@coachjayjohnson I'm obviously biased being a HS coach in Iowa, but pretty impressive to see where Iowa stacks up compared to other states with much larger populations.

[Aaron Thomas @athomas262]

Neither of these guys conceded anything to the other in the race. Once it was over, they congratulated each other knowing their competitiveness helped each of them run incredibly fast. The level of sportsmanship among competitors is one of my favorite things about this sport.

[Pella Cross Country @PellaDutchXC]

🚨 School Record 🚨

1600m Canaan Dunham 4:05.17

@PellaActivities @PHSdutchtrack @PellaSchools

[Gilbert Boys Track & Field @gilbert_tf]

Raccoon River conference champs!

[Aaron Thomas @athomas262]

@GaelsXC1 I’ve done something similar with 800 runners, but hadn’t thought of modifying it to more of a threshold workout. The idea I keep returning to is to make sure they stay at threshold effort for the 45 sec portion & not run too fast & defeat the purpose of the workout.

[Aaron Thomas @athomas262]

Intrigued by Marius Bakken’s 45/15 threshold model & thinking of ways to implement it w/ 30+ member CC team of varying abilities. Initial thought is a 250-300 meter loop. Blow a whistle at 45 sec & group walks back to the start for the 15 sec rest. (1/2)

[Aaron Thomas @athomas262]

@GaelsXC1 That was a thought I had. Another is if I had enough open space (~200+ meters), I’d have cones starting at about 120 meters & then every 15 meters after that. They’d run a prescribed distance, walk across the field & then run back to the start area, walk across & repeat.

[Aaron Thomas @athomas262]

@GaelsXC1 I'm not sure yet on paces/reps - I'm still trying to figure it all out. I usually aim for 20 minutes of work @ threshold pace so probably 20+ reps. I'll probably try a few different things early in the season and adjust from there.

[Aaron Thomas @athomas262]

@GaelsXC1 @CoachDistance I’m leaning toward a 40/20 variation because I think the logistics may work a little better. Here is what I currently have for distance at different threshold paces.

[Aaron Thomas @athomas262]

@GaelsXC1 @CoachDistance I’m still working this out in my head, but for now I calculated the pace in meters per second (my math teacher brain at work) so if someone is running 6:00 for their threshold pace I divided 1600 by 360 (time in seconds) and then multiply by 45.

[Aaron Thomas @athomas262]

Most athletes have watches but feel like having a whistle is one less thing for the athletes to track. Trying to avoid having athletes on top of each other but still keeping them close to monitor efforts, etc. Thoughts @CoachDistance ?

[Aaron Thomas @athomas262]

What a weekend at Drake. 2 individuals in the 32 & 16, 1 in the 100, 1 in the 110H plus the 4x1 & 1600 Medley. Every athlete/relay that competed came away with a PR & also set 4 (5?) school records. Still plenty of work to do, but definitely gives us momentum moving forward.

[Aaron Thomas @athomas262]

@chena_vokes @MikeJaytrackxc Glad they held it and appreciate them letting us join the meet. Emerson had a great night.

[Aaron Thomas @athomas262]

@beyerku @NWSDesMoines Just saw that on my drive back home after our track meet.

[Aaron Thomas @athomas262]

Only through part 1 of this book but so far it is one of the better books I’ve read on training distance runners.

[That Guy Rocked @ThatGuyRocked]

Jordan Hulls

That guy rocked.