TVL Finals 2010

Thanks to all the Parents who helped in the Snack Bar

It was a chilly, rainy night and Sue Hobby was hoppin' making hot chocolate for about 4 hours straight.  Thanks to Sue for her hard work.  Thank you to Raul for making the phone calls and thank's to all of you for coming out.

This ain't easy

So, we look at those who are great and we think, "man, if I had that kind of talent, I could be great to".  Well, let me tell you, talent is important but it is far from the most important. 

Do you want to be great.  It ain't easy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrsra_7g2-o&feature=related

You are watching an aspiring Kenyan sub-elite who is doing every thing he can to break through onto the world stage.  The video is a couple of years old.  I don't think this guy made it....at least I've never heard of him breaking through in any big races.

The point is, he made a conscious choice to try and be great and he is far better than 99.99% of anybody who has ever raced competitively.  Did he reach the goal of a major marathon win, I don't think so.  The point is, he is out there on the lonely road, giving it his all.

If you want to be great, you to will have to do this because you will never reach anywhere near greatness by goofing off at practice, nearly missing races, and hanging your butt out of the bus window.

Team Movie Night

The Brooks Family has agreed to host a team dinner and movie night this Friday. 

Arrive - 6:00
Dinner - 6:30
Movie - 7:00
Campfire and Smores to follow.

We need volunteers to bring food.  I will bring the main course, but we will need the following

Salads
Fruits
Chips
Deserts
Drinks.

Let me know if you can help out.

Good Workouts and a Big Time Meet on the Menu.

The Hughson Husky Varsity Harriers are preparing to head to Fresno for the Annual Clovis Invitational.  The meet websit is here

http://www.clovisxc.com/invitational.htm

The girls' small schools race is completely stacked.  It features 4 of the top 10 Division 4 schools in California plus section rival Bear River.  Our girls team has been having good workouts lately and should be ready to put down their best performance of the year.  Becky will have a tough race up front, as 3 of the top 10 ranked individuals in California are in the race as well.  I believe that Becky deserves to be included in that top 10 ranking, but we have not really raced in any big meets yet this year.  This is our first foray into to high level competition and I expect that our girls will be able to represent Hughson very well.

The boys' race is slightly less stacked but still features 29 teams, including Junipero Serra of Southern California as well as Bear River of Grass Valley.  We will be running without Max (who is ineligible until 10/29) and Jacob (who will be taking the SAT), but have Junior Pablo Madrigal and Freshman Zach Morrett stepping in to fill the gap.  The boys have had superlative workouts this week and all of them should see huge improvements in their performance.  I think that all 7 of our boys should be under 19:30, with our fastest boys dropping to the mid 17 minute range.  On a super positive note for the boys, Keaton has resumed running and has about 2 weeks of running under his belt.  He has cross trained well over the last 10 weeks and should able to run right with the meat of our Varsity pack, however I would not be surprised if he busted out a time well below 18 minutes.  He ran 17:09 on this course last year as a freshman and although he is no where near racing shape, his overall fitness is very good due to his hard work cross training.

Hughson Supercross Photo Album

Sorry this has taken so long guys.  I've edited last saturday's best pictures from Mrs. Young and from Willie Cooper.  Here you go.

Great Day for the Huskies

the 3rd Annual Hughson Supercross Invitational went off with flying colors.  Speaking of flying, the Huskies runners made major improvements from their showing at the TVL opener and FLEW around the course.  I've posted a video of the first part of the VB race to youtube (my camera died and I only got footage for the first part)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiHdE-xhhO0

Varsity Boys Race

The varsity boys’ field was the first to attack the course today.  Attack is exactly what Ben Hodges of Riverbank did.  Hodges took the lead within the first 100 meters of the race and was never challenged on his way to an impressive win in a time of 14:23. Behind Hodges, a fierce battle was taking place in the team race.  Hughson High was able to place 3 runners among the top 12 in a 77 man field to win the Boys’ title for the second time in 3 years.  Pittman’s Frank Finch and Oakdale’s Erik Padilla took a tight 2 man battle all the way to the finish line, with Finch taking second in 14:39 and Padilla 3^rd in 14:41. Hughson's very own Lucas Fisher had moved up as high as second place during the middle of the race, but ran out of gas over the last 600m.  Lucas fought valiantly to hold on to 4th place ahead of a hard charging field.

Maybe the most telling statistic of how much better we ran today is the fact that we beat Riverbank (a team that had finished comfortably in front of us at the TVL opener) by 45 points.  That shows a huge improvement on our part against a tough league rival (don't get cocky guys, R'bank could have had a bad race today just like we did last week).

Varsity Girls Race

The Varsity Girls were the second group on the course today, but that did not stop Becky Hobby from taking her third victory in three tries this season.  Hobby also grabbed the lead early and increased it all the way through the finish line to win by 1:12 over Mogan McFaddin of Hilmar.  Hobby, Who placed 5^th at last year’s state championship, set a new course record of 15:50 with today’s effort.  In the team battle, Riverbank (led by Adriana Rosales’s 3^rd place finish) was able to run to a 12 point victory over Oakdale.  Oakdale placed 4 runners in the top 12 to take second in a close battle with Pitman 61-66.  Our girls came in 4th of the 11 schools running.

Frosh Soph Boys Race

Mason Deal ran his best race of the season (and probably of his life) to place 6th in a time of 16:11.  Mason ran much more aggressively than he has in the past and his effort paid off, giving him a time that would have been competitive in the Varsity field.  Also showing a nice improvement was Damian Borg, who finished in a time of 18:10, putting him in the top half of the field. 

We ran yesterday without our normal #1 frosh soph boy, Oscar Madrigal.  Last week, Oscar soundly defeated overall race winner Luis Figueroa of Riverbank. Despite missing 3 of our top FS boys, our team was able to place 3rd out of 6 complete squads

Frosh Soph Girls Race
Running her first race ever, Juliette Guiliacci placed 13th (one spot out of the medals).  Juliette's time of 21:40 would have put her only 6 places behind our #6 varsity girl.  Juliette has been slowed early this season by a bad case of shin splints, but has been able to start training moderately again this week.  Imagine what you can do Juliette, with a full season (or 4 years) of solid training under your belt. 

Melanye Becera ran a nice race to improve upon her effort from last week.  Melanye placed  36th in a field of 55.

Our FS girls team still has work to do.  We were 4th of 4 complete teams, but we are moving in the right direction.  Let's keep training hard, racing hard, and having fun.  If we do that, the results will come.

JV girls and JV boys Combined Race
Pablo Madrigal, after missing his race in the Varsity Boys division, led the way for the Huskies in the JV race.  Pablo placed 3rd out of 22 runners in a time of 16:33.

On the girls side, Jessica Curtis showed nice improvement from her effort last week to lead the Huskies JVG squad in a time of 26:40.  Keep up the good work girls and the race times will all improve.

TVL Meet #1 Results

Our first meet at Legion Park left a little to be desired.  We had some nice individual results, taking 1st in two of the 4 races, but team wise we looked flat overall.  Tom has graciously agreed to post our team results on his blog, since I still cannot figure out how to get tables in this one (perhaps I should change the template).

Here is the link to our results
http://compresult.blogspot.com/

I have sent him a copy of our splits and coaches comments.  Tom, could you post those as well?

Also, pictures and video would be great additions to this site.  Are there any parent volunteers that would like to be our official team memory makers?

Week 13 Summer Mileage Totals are Posted

We are almost at the end of Week 14.  Leo has made 500, many have made 300.  Max is 18 miles away (including what he has run this week) from the 500 mark.  Savannah is close to 300, despite joining the team 2 weeks late.

Run strong this weekend

Check the team mileage page for complete summer totals

T-Shirt and Beanie Money Due ASAP

You all asked me to order 57 shirts and 25 beanies.  I have done that at a price of over $700.00.  If you have ordered an item, you need to pay for it as soon as possible.  This money comes from our fundraising efforts, so if you leave the team hanging here, all of us will have to work harder at fundraising.

Excellent Time Trial on Monday

We had our second time trial of the year last monday.  The team ran very well.  Almost every runner was able to improve on his or her performance from 2 weeks ago.  Great work.  Tom McPhillips has posted our results on the Young Runners site.  I can't seem to get tables to post on this site.  I will post a link to our results.

http://compresult.blogspot.com/

The Young Runner site is invite only. If you can't access the results, email either of the below and they'll send you an invite:


scarlettmcp@btinternet.com
tom.mcphillips@btinternet.com

Great Saturday Run and Mileage Update

The Saturday Morning Dawn Patrol was at it again today.  Cool temps allowed the Hughson runners to push the distance and pace of their long run into a new zone entirely.  For instance, Jacob Aldava ran our 11 mile loop 14 minutes faster than he did last week. 

Stud improvement of the day goes to Tony Cardinale, who could barely make 4 miles 2 weeks ago but ran 7 pretty smoothly today.

Week 12 Miles for the Summer Program are up on the Team Mileage Page
It has been a while since I was able to update mileage totals.  My summer runners were pretty bad about getting their miles in to me after camp.  Big mental let down after returning from the mountains.  I have rounded up those totals and added in the totals from the first 2 weeks of practice.  Week 12 is posted one whole day before the end of Week 13!  Yay!

The mileage totals look pretty good, much better than in previous years.  We will be giving out a fair number of mileage club shirts this year.  However, if we are to reach our potential as a team, we will need 7-10 runners hitting the 500 mile club level instead of the 3 that will make it this year and we will need another 10-12 hitting the 300 mile mark.

Our program is building in the right direction and we have done more than usual to make this a good season.  Let's go out and start racing hard now.

Scrimmage vs. Oakdale and Escalon

Hot temperatures strong winds, and a tough course awaited the Husky Harriers for today's opening scrimmage @ Woodward Reservoir.  Temperatures at start time were in the high 90s for the first race.  Although a wind came up later to cool things off, the result was that the last 1000m were run straight into a 10-15 mph breeze.  Even with the wind, the temps never dropped below 90.

The course was a combination of dirt roads and gravel roads over rolling hills alongside Woodward Reservoir.  There was zero shade.

Needless to say, times were slow.  Full results are posted on the results page.  I will give a quick summary of each race.

Boys and Girls JV Combined
Many of the athletes in this race were competing in cross country for the first time ever.  Our boys "dominated" this un-scored race (if the race would have been scored, we would have posted 20 points, for a comfortable win).  Freshman Oscar Madrigal took the lead early and never looked back, running a way to a 34 second victory.  Zach Morrett, in his first few weeks as a competitive runner, moved up steadily through the pack to finish second.  Although it was most of our boys' first race ever, they showed good patience and took control of the second half of the race.  2nd year runners Caleb Sawyer, Mason Deal, and Brandon Herroz helped the youngsters keep their pace under control early on.

Girls Varsity
Becky Hobby ran away from the field, starting from the first step and extending her lead all the way through the finish.  Her time of 19:50 under very difficult conditions bodes well for the future.  The time would have placed her 3rd in the Varsity Boys' race.  Kaitlynn Daugherty and Aubrey Fisher showed a little rust in this first effort.  They finished in 5th and 6th palce overall, but were over 4 minutes back from Becky.  Newcomer Savannah "the savage" Perez ran a nice steady effort and moved up well in the last mile to finish as our #4 runner, while another newcomer, Carli Young misjudged the length of the course and faded badly over the last mile.  I am very encouraged by the performance of Savannah, Carli, and Tasha Spears.  All 3 girls competed hard and although their results didn't see them near the front of the pack today, I am confident that there is a ton of improvement in store for all of them.

Boys Varsity
Lucas Fisher took the lead at around the 1/2 mile mark of the race today, but a side stitch foiled his dreams of early season glory.  Max Ortiz snatched the lead from Lucas, an Oakdale runner, and Escalon runner just before the mile mark and never gave it back.  Max struggled mightily during the last 1000m, giving up almost all of a sizeable lead that he had built by mid race, but held on to be the 3rd Husky of the day to finish first.  Lucas was hurting and appeared to "pack it in" mentally.  For the race today, we moved 3 frosh soph runners (Ian Brooks, Leo Vasquez, and Adam Lundell) into the varsity division.  The meet was unscored, but I still wanted to run a complete team.  I was very encouraged to see the three underclassmen running together for almost the entire race, moving up from mid pack early to the top 7 overall places by the end.  Keaton Crowder and Jacob Aldava, 2 of our normal top 4 runners, sat out today.  Keaton has been slowed by growing pains in his knees and Jacob was battling some sort of bug today.  The addition of those two boys back into the line up will make the VB squad a force to be reckoned with in Stanislaus County.

Thanks to All the Parents who Attended the Team Meeting This Evening.

It was good to meet many new members of the Hughson Cross Country family tonight.  Our season is off to a great start.  Let's keep it rolling.

Time Trial Postponed

Due to excessive heat (106) and poor air quality (160 AQI), the coaching staff decided to postpone the team's second time trial to Monday, 8/31.  The time trial is an important tool for us to guage our upcoming season and set goals.  I would much rather get a realistic view of where we are at by running the TT on a cooler day.  Forcast high for Monday is 83 degrees, which is coincidentally the same temperature we had for our first Time Trial of the season.

Scrimmage vs. Escalon and Oakdale Tomorrow.
We are released from class at 1:30 tomorrow. 
FS boys and girls race together at 3:30
VG race at 4:05
VB race at 4:35

The heat wave is supposed to break, but it will still be in the upper 90s according to Weather.com.  Bring plenty of water and or sports drinks.  I will fill the water jug, but bring your own also.

Parents Meeting Wednesday Night

This Wednesday, after time trial #2.  We will have an informational parents meeting.  We will be discussing team rules and fundraising opportunities.  Meet in Reeder Hall at 5:30

Also, a very important update on our schedule.

The Scrimmage vs. Escalon and Oakdale at Woodward Reservoir has been rescheduled to Thursday. We will be getting out of class at 1:30 (that is during 6th period) and should return to the school by 6:30-7:00

Finally, temperatures are supposed to hit the triple digits this week.  You all need to stay hydrated.  Drink water throughout the day.

Sweating it out in the August Heat

The Husky harriers were faced with their first hard workout of the season today.  Unfortunately, the workout coincided with a return to true summer time conditions.  Temperatures reached 95 degrees today as we headed over to the Hughson Arboretum for a tempo interval session.  The kids were game for the challenge, but unfortunately, most of them melted in the hot August sun.

The top boys and Becky were assigned 5-6 x 1200 on a 6 minute cycle.  This means that once every 6 minutes the group should have been starting an interval.  Under normal circumstances, this would have given everyone in the group between 60 and 90 seconds of recovery between intervals.  Today with the heat, times were slow, and the recoveries were short.  I ended up having to modify the workout by adding time to the recovery.  In the end, very few athletes at the upper levels ended up finishing the workout.

At the lower levels,we had a shorter workout with more rest planned and we had a bit more success.  Zach Morrett looked impressive among the first year freshmen boys.  For the girls, Juliette Guiliacci ran a strong workout before having to dart off to soccer practice.

Team, we are going to have a lot more hot days before fall sets in.  You all need to remember to drink water steadily during the day.  Don't think that hitting a drinking fountain as you leave the locker room is enough.

Let's keep up the good efforts.

Hughson Saturday Morning Dawn Patrol

We had our first Saturday practice today.  Many of us chose to practice on Friday, but those who came today instead were treated to nice cool weather.  The individual training groups all did very well.  Our beginners, Mason and Tony, were able to run 4 miles without stopping, while veterans like Keaton and Jacob got in a solid 10 miler.

Perhaps one of the most impressive runs of the day was Leo, who finished the last 1.3 miles of his 8 miler at around  6:00 pace.

Results, Time Trial #1

TT #1 results are now posted on a new page, labled "results".  Follow the link at the top.

I'm still having trouble getting the table formatting to carry over to the blog.

Summer runners need to continue to send me mileage

I have only received 4 peoples mileage for week 10 of the summer training.  We are already half way done with week 11. Please, don't give up on me now.  Add up your mileage for week 10.  It was the last week that you had to keep track of your own mileage.  The coaching staff is not in charge of tracking mileage.

A number of you are close to or have already qualified for shirts.  Some of you have made the 300 mile mark and can make the 500 mile mark.  Many others can get to the 300 mark with some solid effort.

Your summer mileage is what will make you good runners.  Keep logging it so that you can have credit and get your shirts.

Team Time Trial #1

A solid first effort.  Max led the way for the boys in 11:44, followed by Keaton in 11:49.  Becky ran comfortable splits of 6:35 and 6:00 for a relaxed 12:35 to lead the girls. Caleb Sawyer set a massive 2 mile PR of 14:38 which included a mile PR of 7:11 on the second mile today.  Great job Team! Full results will be posted tomorrow.

The weather was very cooperative, with temperatures of 83 degrees at start time. This allowed some pretty decent times from our new runners and allowed the more experienced runners to start to transition back into some more race type efforts.  Nobody was all out today, so we should see some pretty nice improvements in 2 weeks.

I am now announcing the team competitions for the next time trial.

Our next time trial will be run as an inter-squad meet.  Coach K and I will split up the team based on ability level.  When we run the next time trial, we will be rewarding the winning team with ice cold Gatorade after the run.

We will have a second, and perhaps more important competition.  The one boy and one girl who shows the most improvement from time trial #1 to time trial #2 will also be rewarded with a nice cold Gatorade.   Winning an intersquad meet is nice, but showing improvement as a runner is even better.  Let's have a great next two weeks of training and get ready to roll.

Camp Photos

Toms Camp Photos

Here are some cool photos of our team up at Camp.  Click the above link, then click "Slideshow"

Camp Was Hugely Successful

The Huskies returned on Monday from their annual summer training camp. This year's camp was the best attended camp in our team's history. Not only was it the best attended, but I believe, we put in some of the most solid training that any team has ever done while at camp.

Camp was made more interesting by the addition of Scarlett McPhillips from Wales, who attended with her father, Tom. Scarlett has only just turned 13, but she is already running comparably to where Becky was as a 15 year old.

I am posting the results of the team time trial around Donner Lake (7.1 miles at 6000' elevation). I will post again soon with photos and video.

Team Time Trial Results
Lucas Fisher 48:53 (#5 on boys all time list)
Becky Hobby 48:57 (#1 on girls all time list)
Max Ortiz 51:31
Jacob Aldava 53:16
Scarlett McPhillips 54:26
Leo Vasquez 58:08
Aubrey Fisher 58:27 (#2 on all time hughson girls list)
Kady Daugherty 1:06:52
Pablo Madrigal 1:15:06 (lost 17 minutes on a wrong turn)
Brandon Herroz 1:16:35
Caleb Sawyer 1:18:32
Savannah Perez 1:20:42
Tiffany Spears 1:24:00
Tasha Spears 1:25:58

Camp in Two Days!!!

Tuesday morning the Huskies will depart for the Hughson International Distance Running Acadamy. This HIDRA will have 16 head up in it...yo!

Scarlett is learning the ways of California. You kids better be ready to rock and roll when we get there. Meanwhile, enjoy this video.

PS. You NEED to send me you mileage for the week. I've only got 2 people who've submitted so far.

Team Movie Night

Ok guys, we have a spur of the moment, impromptu team movie night tonight at my house.  If you are interested in coming over, call Max, Aubrey, or Me.  If you need to know how to get here, call me at the house.

We will get started with the BBQ at around 7:00 and show a movie under the stars starting at around 8:30.  Hope to see you all there.

Hughson International Distance Running Academy

Scarlett and her dad, Tom arrived here in CenCal last night.  First thing this morning was to wake up for a 7.25 mile run with Max, Lucas, Aubrey and Savannah.

Fundraiser - Thursday 7/22 @ 5:00 PM

OK, here is the dealio.  We still need to finish our fundraising for the summer.  Since construction in the front parking lot of the school precludes a car wash, we will be needing to do something else.  Fortuntely, Derek Ross of the Pizza Factory is a great supporter of Hughson Athletics. 

Derek is providing us with Pizza Factory coupon cards to sell.  The cards contain about $60 worth of coupons, which are good at any Pizza Factory restaurant.  The suggested price for each card is $10, but we will ask for only a $5 donation.  If we sell all of the cards we have, we will bring in a quick $600 for the team.  This will be enough to get us through the summer and some of our early meets.  In other words, this will only carry us to our next fundraiser.

Because raising these funds is so important for our team, we will do our ticket sale on Thursday instead of our normal practice.  This way, I know most of you will be able to come, since you already were planning on coming to practice that evening.  So, since we will be doing a fundraiser on Thursday evening

RUN EARLY ON THURSDAY BEFORE COMING TO SELL COUPON BOOKS.

Team Physicals Monday, 7/19.

Don't forget to get your physical on Monday.  All the information you need should have arrived from the athletic department already.  Freshmen and Sophomores are first at 5:00 PM and then Juniors and Seniors report at 6:30.  Physicals take place at the Hughson Clinic on 3rd Street.

Also, we will have to postpone or cancel our scheduled hill run for 7/19.  My schedule simply will not allow me to get out there.  I will try to work out a make up time to get a strong hill effort in prior to camp.

Finally, I am getting the details of our fundraiser finalized.  This fundraiser will be an important activity for our team's financial health.  We will be selling coupon books for the Pizza Factory like we have done for previous track seasons.  I do not have a date set for this yet because I don't yet have the coupons.   As soon as the books come in, we will do our fundraiser.

Don't forget to send me your mileage totals for Week 7. Some are already in as of this posting (good job Savannah, Jessica, and Scarlett).

Maggie Vessey Workout Part 2

OK, here is Flotrack's long awaited second part to Maggie Vessey's double day.  From what it sounds like, she does this type of workout 3 times per week (M, W, F) and does easy runs of 2-4 miles on the other days.  So, she is definately what we would call a low mileage runner, but as you can see from what she has done during the day (2 hours in the gym in the AM and umpteen drills and warm ups before the actuall "workout") that she puts a tremendous effort into her training

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234522-workout-wednesday-season-3/347283-wow-part-2-with-maggie-vessey.

Physiologically, Vessey falls into a small group of runners that are what we would call "speed based" middle distance runners.  This means that she is more successful at the 400-800m combination rather than at the 800-1500m combination.

At Hughson, we get very few 400-800 specialists, but I believe that we have some people coming back for track next year that would actually fit the bill very well.  I believe that Kady may be one of those types as well as a few other kids who are not doing cross.

Team Mileage Total Reaches 2000!

Well, after the first 4 weeks, we were barely over 1000 miles. In the last 2 weeks, we have reached the 2000! mile mark. This is great work, team. Keep it up. I think we can easily be at 3000 total miles by the time we return from camp.

Speaking of camp BRING YOUR MONEY FOR CAMP TONIGHT.

Team mileage totals are up to date and posted. Group totals are also done.

Group B1 603 (Max, Jacob, Lucas, Oscar, Caleb, Ryan, Daniel)
Group B2 594 (Keaton, Leo, Jesse, Ian, Brandon, Adam, Fernando)
Group G1 494.5(Kady, Savannah, Jessica, Eva, Hannah)
Group G2 344 (Becky, Tasha, Tiffany, Aubrey)

Mileage Looking Good (and other notes)

The mileage totals that have come in for the week so far are looking good. Max Ortiz, 42 miles. Solid!

There are a few important dates coming up for us.

7/19: In the morning, we will head out for our hill run. Later in the day are TEAM PHYSICALS Everybody needs to get their physicals on the 19th so we will be ready to start practice when school begins.

7/19 or 7/21: We are looking at that day to do our summer fundraiser. I think we will end up not doing a car wash but selling Pizza Factory coupon books instead. This fundraiser will primarily go toward camp, but any extra money we make will go toward our expenses for the rest of the season. I'd like to get a custom canopy for the team area this year and meet entry fees are not getting any cheaper. This will be one of our 2 important fundraisers this year.

7/20: I need your camp money by this time. No later. We need to pay the rest of the money for the cabin, and Mrs. Coach B will be very unhappy if the sum is paid from our credit card.

In the next day or two, I will post the updated camp priority list. Some of you that may be high on the list will get bumped off if you don't get your money to me soon.

I'm Back. Week 6 mileage due tomorrow.

Hey team. Inga, Sean, and I just returned from a week in Capitola. I didn't have a chance to update team mileage totals for week 5 before leaving (about 6 of you had not given me totals). The next mileage total update will be for week 6.

As of week 5, the team had logged over 1600 miles for the summer. We are making good progress. Some of you are really starting to get your mileage totals rolling. Keep up the good work and send me your weekly totals tomorrow.

Atwater Run for Independence Results

Today we had a pretty solid outing at the 4th of July race in Atwater. Radiant sunshine and warming temperatures always make the event kind of tough, but the conditions today were pretty good compared to what they often are like. Results are as follows.

July 4th 2010

2 Mile
Ryan MacDonald - 16:28
Savannah Perez - 16:48 (3rd in age group, Girls 13-17).
Sean Bernard - 18:28 (1st in age group, boys 9 and under).

5 Mile
Lucas Fisher - 33:44 (14th overall, 3rd in age group, Men 18-29).
Max Ortiz - 34:30
Ian Brooks - 34:55 (3rd in age group, boys 13-17).
Leo Vasquez - 38:17
Kady Daugherty - 39:55 (3rd in age group, girls 13-17)
Aubrey Fisher - 39:56
Caleb Sawyer - 47:35

Great job, everyone! I'll post pictures (blurry) later after my camera battery recharges.

Don't forget to e-mail your mileage totals to me. The ones I have seen so far look great!

Team Mileage Totals are Updated.

Check the links for team mileage totals and group mileage competition. I have had to update some of the mileage groups due to new athletes joining the team and other athletes not showing up.

The lists are up to date as of the end of week 4.

I have also added a workout video to the video page. It features Maggie Vessey, a local (Nor Cal) girl who is now one of the top 800m runners in the world. I chose the video because it shows how cross training can be effectively incorporated into a training program.

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/speaker/4227-maggie-vessey/343137-maggie-vessey-workout-part-1

Pay attention to the video. Although she does a kick butt workout in the morning, she will also go back to the track for a speed workout in the evening. Flotrack just hasn't posted that video yet.

Tomorrow is the last day to pre-register for July 4th race.

Follow the link here to register for the July 4th race in Atwater. http://users.elite.net/mercedtrack/calendar/rfi2.htm

I was wrong, you cannot register online. You need to print up the form and mail it in.

Our van departs at 6:05 in the AM on July 4th. Be at the school by 6:00.

Team Mileage Total Reaches 1000!

Hannah has been spending 4 hours a day at swim practice. I am giving her credit for 35 miles per week of running (probably not entirely fair to Hannah, but it keeps her in the running for 500 mile club) because swimming is tremendous aerobic exercise. She will be super fit aerobically when swim season ends. We will just have to give her a little time for her legs to get used to running.

Keep up the good work, Hannah!!!
Keep up the good work, Huskies!!!

Week 4 totals are posted

Week 4 mileage totals are posted. There are still a few people who have not given me their totals for the week.

Adam
Tasha
Tiffany
Keaton

These guys are delinquent in submitting their mileage totals. Keaton is away at band camp for 2 weeks, so he can be forgiven.

Team mileage is at 926 total. I suspect that if the people listed above would turn in their totals, we would be over 1000 miles for the month of June!!!

While these totals look impressive, I think that we need to shoot for 2000 total miles logged in the month of July.

Week 4 totals are due Sunday.

OK, we are almost at the end of our first month of training. This whole month has been on your own and many of you are doing a good job of keeping yourselves motivated and on task. Those of you that have been consistant with your running should be proud of yourselves.

We will be beginning organized practice on Tuesday, June 29th at 7 PM. This is the latest in the summer that we have ever begun practice. The reason for this is that I wanted you all to experince training truly on your own for a while.

Distance running can be a solitary sport. They didn't come up with the book and movie "The Lonliness of the Long Distance Runner" for nothin'. This is why I love distance running. If you are truly going to excell, you have to do it on your own. Coaches can tell you what to do. I could make you guys practice 6 times a week all summer long, riding my bike along side you all and barking at you to run the right pace. This is not what I want for you.

I want you to develop the drive and self determination that will help you succeed in your adult lives. You must develop this drive on your own. I can't give you this drive, nor can your parents, friends or family. All anybody can do is to help you find your own drive. This is why we have not been practicing during June. This is why I've had my 4 team leaders calling people and reminding you to run. You cannot develop your own drive when someone is always driving you. The drive to win and succeed has to come from within the team, not from me.

Send me those mileage totals by sunday evening, please.

Atwater Run For Independence is Coming Up!!!

We are one week and one day away from the July 4th race in Atwater. This race will be a good test to see where our fitness is as we begin organized team workouts.

Here is the link http://users.elite.net/mercedtrack/calendar/rfi1.htm You can follow this link and register on line. It is cheaper to do it this way than to register on race day.

For a frame of reference, I used to run summer road races as tests during my competitive years. My best ever base period 5 mile race is 27:38 run on July 4th 1994 in Mt. Shasta (prior to my senior year in college). My best summer road race in high school was a 10k in 37:20 (equal to about 29:43 for 5 miles). My best time for the Atwater race as an adult is 32:20. I was by no means a high school all star. I was a solid, slightly above average runner (17:09 cross country 5k pr during hs).

We should hopefully have 2 guys under 30 min, but the bigger test will be to see how many guys go under 35.

On the girls side, I am really interested to see how many girls we can put under 40 minutes. I think we should have 3 girls faster than that time. The real test for the girls will be to see how our new runners are progressing. Any new girls finishing in under 45 minutes are making great progress and are on course to really help the team out this season.

There is also a 2 mile race for brand new athletes that have not done much running at all yet this summer. Some of our newest runners may want to enter this one instead. I will probably jump in and run the 2 mile, so you can all laugh at me as I go by.

Savannah Perez Has Joined the Team

It looks like senior, Savannah Perez will run with us this season. She will make a great addition to our squad.

For the summer mileage competition, she will replace Mikayla (who has decided not to run) on Team Kady (please make up some team names for me).

Also logging miles for the first time this week are 2 new freshmen: Ian Brooks, and Oscar Madrigal. Finally, 4th yeaer runner Jacob Aldava has decided to start sending me his totals.

Welcome on board, guys!!!

Week 3 Totals are Posted

We have had a few new people starting to get me their mileage totals. On the boys side, the competition is getting much closer. Team Max is catching up to team Keaton (come on guys, make up some names for me). On the girls side, the competition has yet to get cranked up. Scarlett would be beating either of the two teams all by herself right now. I know that some of you are running and simply not sending me your mile.

EVERY MILE COUNTS guys. This competition, like anything, requires everyone working to the best of their abilities.

In the individual mileage competition, Scarlett has lengthened her lead over Leo, but will be backing off the volume as she gets ready for a short racing season.

Who can catch her?

Camp is a little more than one month away.

We leave for camp on July 27th. That is only about 5 weeks from today. If you want to go, you need to get your deposits in. Deposits are 100% refundable if you are not chosen to go to camp, but if you leave us hanging at the last minute, do not expect to get your money back. Please make checks payable to Hughson Cross Country. I will take up to 14 athletes. I would prefer to take 7 boys and 7 girls, but if it doesn't work out that enough of one gender is ready to go, then I will take more of the other gender. Order of priority for getting selected to go to camp is as follows

1. Returning varsity runners who have been logging their summer miles
2. Returning JV or Frosh Soph runners who have been logging their summer miles
3. New runners who have been logging their summer miles.
4. Returning varsity runners who have not been running consistantly.
5. Returning JV runners who have not been running consistantly.
6. I will not take new runners that have not been running consistantly over the summer.

Week 3 totals on the way

I am still waiting for a number of you to submit your mileage totals for the week. Many of you have been putting in good, consistent mileage these past three weeks. Good job!!! It will pay off. Keep it up.

Remember, every week we go through the summer, is another week that you have to become a better runner and gain an advantage on your rivals.

Every week that you don't run consistently is a week where you don't improve and your rivals gain an advantage on you.

I will have the mileage pages updated as soon as everybody submits their totals to me from this week.

Week 2 totals are finally updated.

OK, The Bernard family has returned from its trip. I have finally rounded up all of your mileage totals from week 2 and updated the team mileage totals and the group mileage totals pages.

Scarlett is still in the mileage lead, with Leo gaining ground.

In the group competition, Keaton's group is still stomping on the boys side and neither girls' group has really put up any decent numbers yet.

Week 3 mileage totals are due this Sunday!!!

Rock River Run #2 Results

Vacations, medical appointments, and other legitimate prior commitments reduced the size of our group today. Ovcrsleeping and other illegitimate excuses kept a few of our team away also. Still, we had 10 kids come out to take on Rock River. We had two groups. The first did the entire distance of the road (5.5 miles) while the second did only the 3 mile uphill portion (which is still TOUGH).

Group 1 Times (5.5 miles, 2.5 rolling, 3 straight uphill)
Becky 49:17
Max 49:35
Leo 50:27
Brandon (dnf, knee trouble)

Group 2 times (3 miles uphill)
Kady 31:24
Aubrey 31:59
Caleb 33:50
Savanah 34:30
Tiffany 35:53
Ryan (no time)

Overall, we saw significant improvement in the athletes that have run both times at Rock River. Max and Leo were faster this time, despite the fact that we moved the finish line to the summit of the road (about 200m further up the hill). Becky was solid even though today was her first run in two weeks (cross training during the break is a good thing).

You guys are going to have 2 or 3 more attempts to earn T-shirts this summer. The times that you need to run are as follows.

Boys 45:00
Girls 52:00

Those times may seem like they will be tough to get, but with training, many of you should be able to accomplish them. If you do not make the times during the summer, there will be opportunities during the season to earn your T-shirts, however, the times required will be faster.

Rock River Run #2 Tomorrow!!!

Just a reminder that we will be heading out to Rock River Road tomorrow at 7:00 AM. The run will probably begin slightly before 8:00 AM, if anybody is planning on meeting us out there. After tomorrow's run, we will finalize the goal times to earn a T-shirt for ascending the road.

Here is a hint, the times will not be that hard if you are training well, but if you are not running consistantly, you will not achieve them.

Bernard is Going on a Trip.

I will be out of town until next Thursday. The family and I are going camping and then to Disneyland.

Rely on your team leaders during this next week. Do your runs, log your miles, and e-mail them to me on Sunday. We are two weeks into our summer running. If you have been consistant, you should be feeling some of the benefits of training starting to kick in. If you have not been consistant, you are letting yourself and your teammates down.

Every single one of you is important for our team's success. Our faster, more experienced runners will carry the flag for us this year, but it is our younger, less experienced runners that will represent Hughson in the future. You all are important and you all should take your responsiblilty seriously.

In case you don't know yet, you have been assigened to one of 4 groups. These groups will be competing with each other this summer to see how many miles each can log. The winning group will be rewarded with a high five from me and an excellent season in the fall. I hope that these groups will help you all push eachother to be great. The groups are as follows:

Max (Group B1)
Jacob
Lucas
Oscar
Eduard
Caleb
Anthony

Keaton (Group B2)
Leo
Jessie
Ben
Ian
Brandon
Adam

Kady (Group G1)
Savannah
Jessica
Eva
Hannah
Karissa

Becky (Group G2)
Tasha
Tiffany
Nia
Aubrey
Vanessa

Mileage totals are linked at the top of the page under Group Mileage Competition

First Mileage totals are posted

And the first week winner is.... a 12 year old girl from Wales

Check the mileage totals page (linked at the top). If you have not sent me your mileage totals yet, please do so immediately.

Rock River Run #1

The team headed out to Rock River Road (which is located squarely in the middle of nowhere) today for our first session of the summer. The road is flat for the first 2.5 miles then climbs over 800 feet during the next 3 miles. We had beautiful weather today, which made the run a bit easier. I imagine it will be much harder when the temps are climbing into the mid 80s by 9 AM (the time that we had all finished by). I'll try to spruce this up with some captions and what not, but I'm a noob at this blogging stuff.

Click on the photos to open a slide show.

Watch This Video

You all need to watch this video. Listen to every thing the coach says, listen to what the athletes are doing, listen to their mileage, take note of them timing their own intervals. Absorb everything.

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/speaker/6486-juris-green/319098-wow-with-the-woodlands

The Woodlands High had 23 runners break 10 minutes for 2 miles last year. That is at ONE high school. There is no shortcut to success. As you can see, these guys work extremely hard.

Seed Times for State

Looks tough. Becky has never been intimidated when she has a low seed, however.

Event 3 Girls 1600 Meter Run Prelims=============================================================================== National: 4:33.82 5/31/2008 Christine Babcock (Woodbridge) State Meet: 4:33.82 5/31/2008 Christine Babcock (Woodbridge) Name Year School Seed Prelim Time=============================================================================== 1 Alli Billmeyer 11 Torrey Pn/sd 4:45.06
2 Chloe Curtis 12 Redondo /ss 4:48.97
3 Erin Menefee 12 Mt Carmel/sd 4:49.50
4 Lyndsey Mull 10 Redondo /ss 4:49.65
5 Kelly Lawson 9 La Costa/sd 4:50.05
6 Rebecca Mehra 10 Palos Verdes 4:53.16
7 Danielle Rodriguez 10 Warren /ss 4:54.65
8 Jennifer Owen 11 West Ranch /ss 4:54.74
9 Ashley Roberts 11 Poly (Riv)ss 4:55.45
10 Emily Shearer 12 Acalanes/nc 4:55.98
11 Carrie Verdon 10 Campolndo/nc 4:56.77
12 Alycia Cridebring 12 Cllg Prk/nc 4:56.95
13 Jacque Taylor 12 Casa Grnd/nc 4:57.82
14 Madeleine Ankhelyi 9 Vista d. Lago 4:58.98
15 Allison Sturges 10 MountainV/cc 4:59.38
16 Christine Zavesky 11 Granite B/Sj 4:59.79
17 Ali Teliha 9 Bullard/ce 5:00.24
18 Nikki Hiltz 9 Aptos/cc 5:00.29
19 Becky Hobby 10 Hughson/sj 5:02.14
20 Macy Bricks 11 Buchanan/ce 5:03.53
21 Samantha Hamilton 12 Half Moon/cc 5:04.79
22 Alisha Brown 12 Madera South 5:05.40
23 Laura Delgado 12 San Pedro/la 5:12.15
24 Jaclyn Walles 11 Venice/la 5:13.78
25 Evelyn Gonzalez 10 San Pedro/la 5:14.19
26 Jessica Canchola 10 Pleasnt V/No 5:16.40
27 Sarah Gulli 12 Lowell/sf 5:27.88

Success!!!

Becky did it!!!. 5:02....a 9 second PR in the biggest race of her track career!

Check the Flotrack Video

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/237142/337483

Masters Meet Seed Times

Zavesky, 5:02.72
Ralstin, 5:04.0
Scott, 5:04.57
Ankhelyi, 5:06.04
Devitt-Payne, 5:09.77
Taylor, 5:09.86
Compton, 5:10.54
Hobby, 5:11.28
Powless, 5:11.88
Green, 5:11.93
Harcus, 5:12.14
Kroll, 5:13.87

1. All 12 of these girls have a shot at the top 3 places.
2. Becky and Harcus ran tremendous negative splits at the D3 meet and should be capable of much faster times off an evenly paced race.
3. Ralstin and Zavesky have been #1 and #2 in the section all year, but were a way's off of their season bests. They may have been holding a bit back in the 1600 because were doubling back in the 800 (as was Compton).

Sac Joaquin Divsion 3 Finals

Max Ortiz - 4:57, 17th place, 1600m
-Splits 71.9, 2:25.6, 3:43.7, 4:57.9
Becky Hobby - 5:11, 1st place, 1600m
- Splits: 79.0, 2:42.4, 4:00, 5:11.05 (71 last lap!!!, 34 second final 200!!!)
Keaton Crowder - 10:32, 11th place, 3200m
- Even Splits 5:15, 5:17
Aubry Fisher- 12:34, 11th place, 3200m
- Only 6 seconds from PR, despite getting sick yesterday.

Track season has ended for some of us

With the completion of the TVL finals meet, track season is over for most of the distance runners. Now is the time to rest up for a couple of weeks and then get down to the business of training to win the Sac Joaquin Division 4 title.

Congratulations to the runners who advanced to the Divisional Meet next week.

Becky Hobby, 1st place Girls 1600, 5:13
Max Ortiz, 3rd place, Boys 1600, 4:53
Kaitlynn Daugherty, 3rd place (alt.) Girls 800, 2:39
Aubrey Fisher, 1st place Girls 3200, 12:40 (doubling back off a 5:47 in the 1600)
Keaton Crowder, 2nd place, Boys 3200, 10:38

Welcome to Hughson Cross Country

My name is Joel Bernard. I have been the coach of the Hughson Huskies Cross Country Team for the past 11 years. I am launching this blog as a way to get information out to you...all of the dedicated Hughson High athletes that have chosen to dedicate themselves to our great sport.