Off Season Training. KISS

Keep it simple, Stupid!  That's what I've been telling myself when planning out this track season's off season training.  I know that in the past, I've been very prescriptive in the types of training that we should be doing during the off season, but really, it boils down to this....

To race well at any distance above 400m, you need to have a fair amonut of aerobic power.

So, with that in mind.  We will focus on developing aerobic power.  For the next 6-7 weeks, ALL athletes in the distance/mid distance groups should be working on putting in steady mileage.  We should run something hard 2-3 times a week.  One of those hard days should be a long run, totalling 20-25% of your weekly mileage.  Finally, sprint once a week.  That will be one of the other 3 hard days.  See details in the training plan linked below.

Distance and Mid-D off season training.

Training Plan for (Non Throw) Field Eventers.

The training types are listed in order of importance.  For you guys, aerobic endurance is the most important....this is the ability to run a high volume without getting tired.  Aerobic Power is second.  That is the ability to run fast without getting tired.  The other training emphases are of less importance, but they are still worked into the sample week.

When looking at the plan, bear in mind that the sample week is not a mandatory training plan.  For some of you, the sample week might be too easy.  For others, it might be too hard.  The purpose of the sample week at the bottom of the document is to show how you can put all of the training types we want to accomplish into one smooth week of training.

Enjoy your time off from school and enjoy running free during this break.

Coach B.

Pole Vault?...On a cross country site?

Well.....we do have a number of vaulters who ran cross this year:

Josue
Gillyan
Pia
Jazmine...

Check this out.

Mt. SAC International Pole Vault Camp

See if you guys can get a hold of Morgan, Hannah, and Clara.  This is an excellent opportunity to get a head start on our competition.

Sub Sections

This Saturday, we will run at the CIF SJS Sub Section Meet. This is the first "elimination round" of the cross country season.  I expect a large number of our athletes to move forward to the section meet next week.  Here are the criteria for moving on

Varsity Races You will qualify for the section meet if:

• Your team finishes in the top 10 teams 
• You finish as one of the top 15 individuals who is not on one of the top 10 teams.

JV and Frosh Soph Races You will qualify for the section meet if: 

• Your team finishes in the top 6 teams
• You finish as one of the top 10 individuals who is not on one of the top 6 teams.

Time Schedule

13 Varsity Boys - Div. 4 12:35 

14 Varsity Boys - Div. 5 12:55 

15 Varsity Boys - Div. 3 1:15 

16 Varsity Girls - Div. 4 1:35 

17 Varsity Girls - Div. 5 1:55 

18 Jr. Varsity Boys - Div. 3, 4, 5 2:30

19 Jr. Varsity Girls - Div. 3, 4, 5 2:50 

20 Frosh-Soph Girls - Div. 4, 5 3:05

21 Soph Boys - Div., 3, 4, 5 3:20 

22 Frosh-Soph Girls - Div. 3 3:35 

23 Frosh Boys - Div. 3, 4, 5 3:50 12 

Meet the bus at 9:00 for 9:10 departure.  

We will likely be home around 7:30 ish.

TVL Championships. Another Great Day for the Huskies

TVL Finals Photo Album

The "regular season" has come to an end with a resounding success for Hughson Cross Country! For the first time ever, we captured both the Varsity Boys title and Varsity Girls title on the same day. In the JV races, we saw tremendous improvements as well.  All in all, we had a great end to October and are ready for the big meets of November.

JV Girls Race

Jasmine and Kylee with less than 800 to go

Our JV Girls were first up.  This group had been beaten handily at the beginning of the season by Ripon, but had improved a ton over the last few weeks and were ready to make huge improvements.  As the gun sounded, Ripon jumped to an early team lead, running 1-4 at the 800m mark.  By the mile, our girls had closed in and the lead pack consisted of 3 Ripon and 3 Hughson (Jasmine Barrita, Kylee Sullivan, and Gaby Lopez).  Shortly after the mile, our 3 girls moved into the lead and began to pull away.  By the end of the race, Ripon was able to overtake Gaby, who ended up 7th, but Jasmine and Kylee went 1-2 in the race.  Team score wise, we finished 6 points behind Ripon in 2nd place, but far ahead of 3rd place Mountain House and the rest of the league.  Unfortunately, one of our top girls, Katelyn Gonzales, developed some knee pain the weekend before the meet, which prevented her from competing.  When we get her back, healthy for the post season, we should be looking very good.

JV Boys Race

John Cabral and Joseph Powers both broke 13 minuts for the first time.

I and the coaching staff have had the feeling that this group had been underperforming all year.  That underperformance changed at TVL finals.  All the athletes running on this day PRed by 1-2
minutes.....a huge feat!  I had made the decision to move up our top Sophomore, Austin Hoach, to the Varsity race for Finals, but the rest of our boys competed hard, bringing home a 4th place team finish and actually placing closer in the team scores than we had at TVL 2 where Austin won the JV race overall.  Sky Phillips had a massive improvement to lead the Huskies, so did top Hughson finishers: John Cabral, Lance Walton, David Brussow, and Joseph Powers.  This group is the future varsity squad, so it was great to see them finish the season so well.

Varsity Girls Race

Varsity Girls after scoring a very low 17 points

If you would have taken all of the seniors out of the 2015 state championship race, the Hughson Girls team would have been 9th.  Based on this information, and the fact that we added quality runners since last year's state meet, has had me and the rest of the staff treating this group like what we believe  they are: a  California Top 10 Team.  I was very sure going into the season that we would finish the TVL season on top of the league.  My big concern as a coach was to get our girls racing more aggressively from the gun, so that they would be ready for the huge/fast starts at the section meet and the state meet.  Our goal at TVL was to go out faster than goal pace, and try to hang on for a fast overall time.  Mission Accomplished. 6 of our top 7 girls notched PRs on the day (Kinsey was running sick, but was still within 20 seconds of her best time on the Legion Park course).  This gives me tremendous confidence for the VG squad moving forward.

Fife and Mitchell on the way to a 1-2 finish.

Our goal of running a fast early pace was helped out by a couple of runners from other schools who tried to win the race in the first 800m.  Our girls spotted them the early lead, but still went out in 18:30 5k pace.  By the 1 mile mark, we had all of our 5 scorers in the top 5, with Yajira Salinas of Escalon and Alondra Hernandez of Riverbank tucked in behind.  During the 2nd mile, Abigayle Mitchell and Emily Fife began to build a lead that would not be challenged the rest of the way.  They went on to finish 1-2 with relatively comfortable times of 19:42 and 19:43.  Elizette Ysias was 3rd overall with a huge PR of 20:33.  The only question for us now, was would we score the elusive 15 points?  The answer to that question was no.  Alondra Hernandez of RBK, Esmeralda Campos and Kinsey Langley all entered the finishing stretch together.  On this day, Alondra had the better kick and finished 2 seconds ahead of our girls who finished 5th and 6th overall with times of 20:40 and 20:41.  We tried for that 15 point total all year, and on each occasion, one girl from another school was up to the task of splitting our top 5.  No matter, our girls are running great and primed for the final month of the season.

Varsity Boys Race

VB squad, after capturing the 2016 league title.

Since our boys captured the league title in 2003, we have never been outside of the TVL top 3.  However, we have not actually WON the title since then either.  13 years of narrow misses finally came to an end this past Wednesday.  Despite having 3 boys sick and one slowed by a sore knee, we managed to squeak out a narrow victory over a resurgent Escalon squad 31-37.  TVL finals also saw a Hughson boy (Carson Boice) capture the individual title for the scond year in a row.

Calderon and Boice, just past halfway.

As the gun sounded, Escalon's Zach Gardner jumped to an early lead, followed by Eduardo Calderon.  The two passed the 800m mark in under 2:30 (about 15:30 5k pace).  Like the girls, our boys were trying to work on getting out fast and holding on, and our pack came through 800m in 2:31, right on the leaders heels.  By the mile mark, a leading group of 8 runners had formed, Calderon and Gardner of Escalon, Tim Cribbet and Luis Munoz of Ripon, and Carson Boice, Jaymie Jackson, Christian Lee, and Josue Esquivel from Hughson.  Calderon of Escalon continued to push the pace and only Carson was able to go with him.  By 2 miles, the 2 had a significant lead.  Just after the 2 mile point, Carson made his move going up a little hill and was never challenged for the rest of the race.  This is the point where the real drama began, though.  Escalon was ahead of us at the 2 mile point, but a strong late race surge by Josue Esquivel to take 2nd overall and Austin Hoach, who had been moved up from the JV team, brought the championship to HHS!

The boys had also been trying to score a perfect 15 points all year.  With the illness and injury we faced at TVL finals, we were happy to simply escape with a narrow, hard fought victory.  For this group, it is time to get healthy and look at doing big things at the section meet.

Homecoming 2016

Coach S Manning the Waffle Iron

October 21 was a pretty fun day for members (and coaches) of the Hughson Cross Country Team.  Here in Hughson, homecoming day is a non-school day. When homecoming comes around, I usually take the opportunity to work our kids pretty hard.  This year, after the hard work, we had a whole host of activities, including: Team Breakfast, Parade Ride, and Raffle Ticket Sales at the game.  To make things extra cool for the CC team, Sophomore, Emily Fife was chosen as the JV Homecoming Queen!  A fantastic day for everyone and a nice diversion from the constant thinking about training and racing.

Showing up Bright and Early and Ready to Run!

Warming up for the Workout

Team Breakfast

On the Parade Route

Looking Good on the Float.  

Emily, The Homecoming Queen!!!

Volunteer Opportunities

I'm going to try and post a sign up list online here.  Let's see if this works.

10/15/16 Hughson Supercross Invitational
Supercross Jobs

• Open the link above.
• See which jobs you might be interested in.
• Type your name in next to the job you would like to do.

So far, I have two parents: Stacey Bargas and Julie Castro.  It takes a village to raise this meet.

10/21/16 Snackbar at Homecoming Game
We have two shifts available. I need 13 people per shift, so feel free to sign up for both :).  Unfortunately, we cannot have kids working in the snack bar.

• Early shift 4:45-7:30
• Late shift 7:30 - Close.

Here is a link to another sign up sheet.  This technology stuff will be pretty cool if it works.

Snack Bar Sign Up

Race Recaps

Lowell Invitational, 9/10/16:
The trip to San Francisco and cooler, cleaner air is always a highlight of our season.  This year was no different.

Smiling for the camera at Ocean Beach

The varsity girls took a big step toward's establishing themselves as one of the top small school programs in Northern California.  Our team is still a work in progress and we are no where near as good as we need to be or can by by the end of the season.  In San Francisco, running without 2 of our potential top 7 girls, we were still able to place tied for 3rd in a very strong field of mostly large school teams from the Central Coast Section and North Coast Section.  Abbi Mitchell led the way for us, as she has done so far this season, however, this time, the rest of our pack finished within 53 seconds of Abbi's lead.  A team grouping of less than 60 seconds is critical as the bigger, more important meets come around at the end of the season.  This was a huge step in the right direction for us.

Carson, Josue, and Jaymie approach the 2 mile point togehter

The varsity boys squad was also running without 2 of it's top guys.  Nonetheless, we were able to place 16th in a field of pretty strong teams. Carson Boice led the way for us a second time this year, with his strong finish.  Carson was joined under 17 minutes by Josue Esquivel and Jaymie Jackson.  A very nice development for us was Sean Harcrow, running in the JV race.  It was Sean's first ever cross country meet, and I didn't want to throw him to the wolves right away.  He placed a strong 10th in the JV field and was actually our 4th fastest boy on the day.  Inserting Sean and Christian into the varsity mix would have probably moved us up into the top 8-9 schools in our race.

The FS groups were a bit intimidated and should learn a lot from the experience of racing against fast
kids from all over the northern half of our state.  Of that group, only Jasmine Barrita really ran unafraid.  Learning to be fearless and race hard may take a while for the younger group, but it is something they will all get.




Josh Ruff Memorial Invitational 9/17/16:
If the meet in San Francisco was all about the varsity athletes, then this meet in Folsom was our younger group's chance to shine.  The course at Willow Hills Reservoir serves as the championship site for the Sac Joaquin Section.  As such, it is important for all of our kids to get experience on the hot, dusty, rocky, hilly circuit.  Mission accomplished.

Some of the varsity kids got the day off and did a training run on the route before the meet started.  Our younger kids got to race on the course for the first time.

Austin running in the top 10 overall!

FSG Pack about 1 mile into the race.

Probalby the biggest improvement of the week came from our Frosh/Soph boys group.  This is mostly the same group that placed dead last in their heat in San Francisco.  This week, led by Austin Hoach's 10th place finish, our boys improved to 9th out of 13 teams.  More importantly, they got out and pushed hard.  For many of them, it was the first time in a race that they had felt the actual pain of racing.  Contrats to the FSB squad for their much improved effort.


We also got another solid effort from the frosh soph girls' squad.   This race might not have been quite as good for us as the Lowell Invitational, but we did start to develop the pack mentality that is shared by almost all good teams.  Our pack kind of fell apart toward the last 800 of the race and we will work on pushing eachother and pushing ourselves not to give up when the race gets tough, but overall, this was a B or B+ effort from the young ladies of Hughson Cross Country.





Lowell Invite Photo Album

Lowell Invitational in Golden Gate Park

Hello Team:

Today is the day we open the TVL season and my focus is there 100%.  However, I have been getting
some questions about this Saturday's meet in San Francisco.

Here is a Link to the official meet information which includes schedules and course maps.

Parking is usually very difficult at this meet.  Most people try and park off of  John F. Kennedy Drive.  I would instead follow this Map, but turn left on Transverse Drive and then a quick right on Overlook Drive,  Go to the end of Overlook drive and park on the side of the road.  You will have to walk down a little path to get to our team area, but parking is usually available on the south side of the meadow there.  Our team area will be across the meadow from the restrooms at Hellman Hollow.

They're Off!

This meet is usually one of the most fun events we attend all year....AND our kids will see some great competition. This year's competition should be even tougher, since another big meet scheduled for the Monterrey area was recently cancelled.  I would expect that a large number of teams will be looking for a place to compete that weekend.

Tough competition = FAST racing....should be fun!

Hope to see many of you there this saturday and hope to see all of you there today!


Coach B

Reno Twilight Invitational

9/2/2016 - The Huskies made their first ever trip across state lines for a cross country meet....and came home winners.

What is a trip to Reno without a pic under
the sign.

This year was the first year that a Hughson team has ever made the trip for what is a very cool, fairly low key, but entertaining meet: the "Nature's Bakery Reno Twilight Invitational". I've wanted to take a team over the mountains for this meet ever since it was first introduced 10 years ago, I just finally decided to make it happen this year.  I believe that the team is glad that we went.  A few vehicle troubles aside, the trip went off smoothly and the experienced, returning runners had a chance to do something they've never done before....run a cross country race at night.

The idea behind the meet, was to reward the veteran runners who put in the work over the summer.  What we ended up getting was a wonderful team building weekend, an individual win, and a couple of cool trophies.  Also, the kids got to see us two coaches lace 'em up and do our best to trot around the cc course without puking and dying.

Open Race
For the mere price of 25 dollars each, Coach B and Coach S had the privilage of developing burning lungs and nausea over a period of 18-20 minutes.  Neither of us won.

Coach B, Coach S, and the top Huskies from
the Reno meet

Varsity Girls Race
We have been hit by a rash of muscle strains, so the word of the day was CAUTION. I instructed our girls to go out controlled, at something similar to tempo pace.  At the start of the race, our girls settled in toward the back of what was a pretty small field.  However, by the end of the first lap of the 3 lap course, Abbi, Kinsey, and Esme had moved up to 6th, 7th, and 8th place. Jazmine, Gabby, Teagan and Priscilla had also moved up in the field.

The runners disappeared around the back side of "Shadow Mountain" for the race's second lap and when they emerged, Abbi and Kinsey had taken over 1st and 2nd place.  It looked like that is where they would stay.  Unfortunately, during the 3rd lap Kinsey rolled her ankle and started to fall back.  Abbi was going to wait for her, but Kinsey told her to go ahead.  Abbi re-caught the leader and kicked to a comfortable looking win.  Kinsey held on to Finsish 4th and Esme, nursing a tight calf, cruised into the chute in 11th place.  Jazmine and Gabby rounded out our scorers in 25th and 26th places as we held on to beat South Tahoe by one point.

Varsity Boys Race

HUSD has got to upgrade their vehicle fleet!

The strategy for the boys race was similar to the strategy for the girls race...go out kind of easy on what was a deceptively tough course, then begin to move up about 1/3 of the way into the race.

At the gun, our boys settled toward the back of the field, but by the time they had finished the first lap of Shadow Mountain, they had moved into the top 20 of 53 runners in the race.  As the boys came around for the beginning of the second lap, Carson had climbed to 5th place, Josue was in 6th, Jaymie was in 8th, and Dalton was in 10th.  At that point, it looked like Carson and Josue had a chance to catch the leaders, but on the final lap, our guys kind of ran out of gas. Carson and Josue slowed, but held on to 5th and 6th.  Jaymie fell back to 9th and Dalton held on to 10th.  Matthew Walton rounded out our scoring 5 in 29th place to give us a 5 point victory over Fernly of Nevada.

One of the really cool things about the meet was that each race winner got a fairly lengthy interview from the meet announcer.

Abbi's interview is posted below.

Abbi's Post Race Interview

Time Trial #2 and Updated All Time Lists

Labor day weekend, time to catch up on some of the team's early season activities.

Time trial #2 was a huge success.  We really shook up our All time top 10 list, putting 3 new boys on the board and 5 new girls.  We also ran the top ever team times for both the boys' and girls teams.  This bodes very well for us for this season as the previous #1 girls team went on to finish 2nd in section and 17th at state (last year) and the previous #1 boys team was 3rd place in the section in 2013, just missing state in perhaps the toughest D4 SJS finals ever.

Boys TT
A large pack of 5 boys reached the mile mark together in 5:22-5:23.  Dalton, Jaymie, Carson, Josue, and Christian all were rolling together like a TEAM!  Dalton was just coming back from a tweak to his calf, and had missed about 10 days of running. At the mile it was apparent that he was feeling the effects of his time cross training on the bike.

After hitting the mile, the boys decided to really get after it.  Josue and Carson accelerated hard to clock 5:07 and 5:10 for the second mile, finishing in 10:29 and 10:32 respectively, to move to #3 and #5 on our all time lists.  Christian pretty much helt his pace during the second mile and finished in 10:43 to move to #7 on our all time list.  The 2016 boys were better than the 2013 boys at every spot in  the top 5 except for the #1 spot (Zach Morrett, the 2013 section champion, was top at the TT that year).

2013       2016
10:11      10:29
10:36      10:32
10:57      10:43
11:04      10:58
11:18      11:16

Girls TT
Abbi Mitchell was well ahead of her teammates by the 1 mile mark, while Kinsey and Esme ran close together, followed by Jessie and then Elizette.  Abbi, Kinsey, and Esme more or less held their pace through the second half of the time trial, finishing in 12:35, 12:58, and 13:01 respectively.  These are the #2, #3, and #4 times on our all time list!  Jessie was close behind Esme and Kinsey at the mile and stayed close the rest of the way, to finish at 13:14 for #7 on our all time list.  Elizette, who had been a little further back at the mile, ran a nice negative split to finish in 13:23, for the #8 spot on our all time list.

Comparing this year's team to any other HHS girls team is like comparing apples and oranges.  Suffice to say that Ellizette at #5 this year was faster than our last year's #1 time (Kinsey ran 13:26 as our top girl last year). The 2016 team is a full 4 minutes better than was the 2015 team, that placed 2nd in the Sac Joaquin Section.  Our girls averaged just outside of 13 minutes per runner, without the services of top runner Emily Fife, who is on the mend from a lower leg strain.

Reno Twilight...Varsity Season Opener

This year, we are going to try out a meet that I've been wanting to take teams to for quite a while now.  It's not often that Cross Country runners get to experience "Friday Night Lights", but on Friday September 2nd, we will get to do just that at the Nature's Bakery Reno Twilight Invitational.

The meet is actually fairly small and low key for the small school divisions, as can be seen from Last Year's Results.  The point of the meet is not to go and face the best fields of the entire season.  The point is to take our most experienced kids for a trip to do something unique and unusual and to open up our season in a fun way.  Perhaps we will win some awards while we are there.

The basic itinerary for our trip looks like this.

Friday
8:30 - AM.  Depart from staff parking lot at HHS.
11:30. Lunch stop in Truckee, CA
1:00 PM - Preview Course at Shadow Mountain Park.
2:00 PM - Check into Reno Circus Circus.  Rest. Homework.
4:00 PM - Light snack
5:30 PM - Depart for Meet.
7:53 PM - Varsity Girls Race
8:17 PM - Varsity Boys Race.
9:00 PM - Dinner and return to hotel, have fun at Circus midway, swim in pool, etc...
11:00PM - In rooms, lights out

Saturday
7:00 AM - Wake Up
7:30 AM - Run 60 minutes on Truckee River Bike Path
9:00 AM Breakfast
10:30 AM Depart Reno
12:00 Lunch in Rocklin
2:30 PM Arrive HHS

If any parents are interested in following the vans and attending the meet, I and the kids would love to have you along.  It is Labor Day weekend in Reno, so hotels are a bit more expensive and have filled up pretty well already.  There already wasn't a lot left when I booked the trip a few weeks ago.  Actually, Circus Circus was one of the only places where I was able to get a large number of rooms togehter.  If you, as a parent, want to come as a spectator/chaperone, let me know as soon as possible and get a room booked quickly.

Looking forward to a great start to our cross country season and for the greatness to continue until November.

Coach B.

Time Trial #1, In the Books

The Huskies came out of the gate hard this year.

I don't keep very good track of the results of the first time trial of the season, because the times are usually pretty slow.  Most of the fast pre-season time trials happen in the second time trial, during the 3rd week of practice, once everyone has begun to acclimate to running in the heat.  Having said that, Our boys just put up the 4th fastest team time in my 18 years coaching HHS.  And Abbi put up the #2 time ever for the girls.

Such good early season results don't happen by accident.  They are the result of consistent, dedicated, running during the summer.

The varsity teams have put themselves in a position to have a tremendous season that lasts all the way until the state meet at the end of November.

Check the Results of TT #1

Great Job Huskies!!! Let's go get em this year.

Camp Video....Finally!

I've finally gotten around to uploading the camp video. Sorry for the delay. Enjoy

Summer is DONE

It's been a great summer of training and team building.  I thought I'd throw in a recap and a photo album.

• Early June - about 14 of us made the trip to the Richarson Springs resort outside of Chico, CA for the Athlete Committed Leadership Conference.  It was a great opportunity for team building and I think we impressed the leadership there when we all got up before the activities started to get in a solid training run.
• Late June, Early July - Cross Country Camp.  This was the 5th year we've made a trip to Twin Bridges, CA, just this side of Echo Summit on the way to South Lake Tahoe.  We had 16 athletes make the trip this year for a week of running 7000' up in the mountains.
• Mid July - Redwood Run and Beach Trip. This year was the first time in many years that I've taken a team over to the coast for a run in the oxygen rich redwood forests and a picnic at the beach afterward.  It was a fantastic trip all around.  For a number of our athletes, that day saw them do the longest runs of their lives, in the beautiful state parks of The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park.  We had a great time after at Seacliff State Beach
• August 4th - All comers track meet at Los Gatos High School. This is a fun tradition which we could build on in the future.  Only 3 kids drove down to Los Gatos with me for an all comers track meet. But the ones who did: Josue, Daniel, and Noah all had a great time getting to test the fitness they've been building all summer.  Competitively, the highlight of the meet was Josue placing second in the 800 in 2:06, only 1 second off of his PR.  Not bad for a guy coming off of a 100 mile training week and running on dead legs. 

The summer had a number of other highlights.  In no particular order.

• Josue ran HHS's first ever 100 mile week.  Jaymie promptly set out to run 101 miles the following week.  I'll let you know how that goes.
• Jaymie is on pace to run more summer miles than any boy in HHS cross country history.
• Our girls team has already run more mileage than any HHS girls team before.
• Abigayle Mitchell has been narrowing her college focus and has a number of options that could end up with her garnering athletic scholarship dollars.
• New runner, Sean Harcrow not only ran a half marathon, but placed 4th in his age group at the Rockin Around the Pier Half Marathon Scroll down to 17th place overall finisher. 

A Brief Photo Montage of the Summer.

Sorry I didn't get more pics :(

Let's rock this season!

Big Mileage and Hot Weather Coming Up!

OK guys. Summer break is coming to an end and we are coming up on some pretty high temps here in the good ol' valley.  I would like these next two weeks to be your biggest mileage weeks of the summer. Most of you have been training extremely well. This is the time to finish up your summer base period the right way and get some big miles in. The best way to beat the heat AND get in good mileage is to get up early and get your runs in early.  If  you are done before 8 AM, you shouldn't have to make any adjustments for the heat at all.


Other Tips to Keep in Mind:

1. Sweat cools you off by evaporating.  Wear clothing that air can easily flow through to speed up evaporative cooling.
2. Light colors reflect heat, dark colors absorb heat.  Wear light colored clothing.  Believe it or not, guys, loose fitting, light colored, breathable clothes keep you cooler than letting the sun beat on your bare skin.
3. Drink lots of water throughout the day, not just before and after excercise.  
4. We usually have a very low relative humidity here in the summer.  This is a good thing because it allows sweat to evaporate quickly.  As long as you follow the steps above and slowly acclimate yourself to the heat, you should be fine when practice starts in August.

Here are a couple of sample schedules for the upcoming two weeks

Advanced Group (40-65 miles per week)

M: AM: 6-8 miles easy - steady.  Team game

      PM: 3-4 miles very easy

T: AM: 6-8 miles easy- steady. Team core

    PM: 3-4 miles very easy (or off)

W: AM: 4-6 easy

Th: AM 5-8 miles fartlek. Team Game

       PM 3-4 miles very easy

F: Easy 4-6 miles

S: 7-12 miles easy-steady

S: Off or up to 5 miles easy.

Intermediate Group (22-40 miles per week)

M: AM: 4-5 miles easy - steady.  Team game

      PM: 2-3 miles very easy

T: AM: 4-5 miles easy- steady. Team core

W:  Off or up to 5 miles

Th: AM 4-6 miles fartlek. Team Game

       PM 2-3 miles very easy

F: Easy 3-4 miles

S: 3-7 miles easy-steady

S: Off or up to 5 miles easy.

Beginner Group (Up to 22 miles per week)

M: AM: 2-4 miles easy - steady.  Team game

T: AM: 2-3 miles easy- steady. Team core

W: PM: 2-4 easy

Th: AM 2-5 miles fartlek. Team Game

F: Off or up to 3 easy

S: PM:2-3 easy

S: Off or up to 3 miles easy.

Possible Trip to Bay Area for Track Meet

So, as summer is winding down, one of the things that could be fun to do is test our fitness in a very low key track meet.  The Los Gatos All Comers Series has been going for years.  The meets run weekly starting in June and continuing through the summer.  The date that would work for us to go is July 28th Auguast 4th. I have personally raced against former olympic team members who have randomly showed up to the meet.  I don't see the meet records on the web site, but I can assure you they are fast.  I know for certain that the record for the men's mile is 3:59.4 (unless it's been broken recently).

After your race, I encourage you to go out on the local trails for a nice long cool down (er....actually, just do a good training run). The trail system is varied and fun. You could loop up through St. Joseph's Hill Open Space Preserve  Follow the course of the Dammit Run or just run out the Los Gatos Creek Trail for something a little flatter (however, the creek trail does go to the top of the Lexington Reservoir Dam, if you head south on it).

I'm not sure that I will be able to take this trip.  We are planning a little family excursion that week. If there is not a great amount of interest, I'll likely take the trip with my family on the 28th and then be around to sell fundraiser tickets on Saturday the 30th. I'm sure the bold amongst you could figure out how to get there on your own, if I'm unable to go.

Possible Trip to Bay Area for Track Meet

So, as summer is winding down, one of the things that could be fun to do is test our fitness in a very low key track meet.  The Los Gatos All Comers Series has been going for years.  The meets run weekly starting in June and continuing through the summer.  The date that would work for us to go is July 28th. I have personally raced against former olympic team members who have randomly showed up to the meet.  I don't see the meet records on the web site, but I can assure you they are fast.  I know for certain that the record for the men's mile is 3:59.4 (unless it's been broken recently).

After your race, I encourage you to go out on the local trails for a nice long cool down (er....actually, just do a good training run). The trail system is varied and fun. You could loop up through St. Joseph's Hill Open Space Preserve  Follow the course of the Dammit Run or just run out the Los Gatos Creek Trail for something a little flatter (however, the creek trail does go to the top of the Lexington Reservoir Dam, if you head south on it).

I'm not sure that I will be able to take this trip.  We are planning a little family excursion that week. If there is not a great amount of interest, I'll likely take the trip with my family on the 28th and then be around to sell fundraiser tickets on Saturday the 30th. I'm sure the bold amongst you could figure out how to get there on your own, if I'm unable to go.

Redwood Run and Beach Trip

Hi Team:

Inside the park with me, mrs coach, and the mega dog.

I know we haven't made as many hill trips as I had intended so far this summer.  However, if we are only going to take one trip, let's make it great!

Next Tuesday, we're going to head to the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park for a run in the redwoods followed by a day at the beach at Seacliff State Beach.

Nisene Marks is my personal favorite place to run anywhere in the state of California.  The trails are 100% shaded from the summer sun by 100 year old redwood forests. Terrain varries from relatively flat to climbes that ascend over 2000 feet (I doubt any of you will get to those).

The more adventurous among you may want to run to Sand Point Overlook, a close to 14 mile run.  You can have a slightly shorter, but also challenging run to the Top of the Incline on the Aptos Creek Fire Road (You'll have to excuse the map.  The route goes all the way to Sand Point.  On this route, the top of the incline is at about 3.5 miles from the starting point).  I will also lead a group up to Hoffman's Historic Site and maybe a bit further if we are feeling good :).

Along one of the trails.

Mrs. Coach B will be there and can lead a group on a shorter, sligthly slower run, yet to be determined run.

What should you bring?

• $10 - I will purchase food for a picnic and other post run snacks.  Also, it costs money to get into state parks.  We can park outside the park, but then much of our runs will be on the acces road into the park. The money you bring will cover those expenses.  Any leftover cash will go into the team account.
• Running stuff (duh!)
• Stuff you'd normally bring to the beach (towell, sunscreen, flip flops, bathing suits, etc...).  There are changing rooms at the state beach to switch from your running gear.  You might want to bring something dry for the ride home also.

Tentative Ininerary

• 7:00 AM. Meet at HHS
• 7:15 AM. Depart
• 9:45 AM. Arrive, Nisene Marks
• 10:00-11:30 Run and post run snack
• 12:00-3:00 Beach and Picnic
• 5:30 Arrive back home at good old HHS.

Sean Harcrow at the Rock'n Around the Pier Half Marathon

I usually don't recommend that runners race anything further than 10k during the off season.  I
usually don't recommend that beginners race anything more than 2 miles prior to their first race with the team.

Yesterday, without really knowing any difference, Sean went out and placed 17th overall (4th in his age group) at the Rock'n Around the Pier Half Marathon click here for the Race Results.

The fact that Sean, not only completed the race, but placed 17th overall is pretty awesome, considering he is only about 6 weeks into his running career. Sean has talent, as evidenced by his 10:46 solo time trial for 2 miles in the first week of becoming a runner and talent is good. Many people have talent, though....not as many people have mental toughness.   To complete a 13.1 mile race, which includes runs across soft sand in a solid time of 1:38:42 shows a lot of mental toughness for a guy who has so few miles on his legs.

When we add talent and toughness into a boys team that already has expience with success, we have a pretty dangerous combination for the other small schools in the SJS.

I want all of you boys to think about solid goals for the year.

• Think about scoring under 20 points at TVL finals.....
• Think about making state....
• Think about winning section....
• Think about a top 10 finish at state....

Those are all fine goals to chase, but they will only happen if YOU ALL WORK TOGETHER AS A TEAM.  Here is something else to consider....While Sean was out running his butt off, only 2 other boys of our projected top 6 showed up for our saturday hill run.  Our results this year are completely in your hands, boys.  If you decide to work together, you will be as good as anybody in the section!  Let's go do it!

Camp 2016...The Best Camp Ever for an HHS Team

This year's camp was the most successful camp of all time for the HHS cross country teams. In all aspects: # of top athletes at camp, quality of training accomplished, team cohesiveness and team building, this camp was tops.

We had 17 athletes up at Echo Summit this year and ALL of them made significant progress. How much more can we all continue to improve? There is only one way to find out.

Hill Run This Saturday!

Hey, Hey, Hey..... Camp isn't the only place where there are hills!  If you are up for it, we will be meeting to go run in the hills this saturday.  Meet in the front parking lot at 7:00 AM and we will head out to Hawkins Rd. for a little ascending and descending.

Check out the Map of the Runfor a little info on the route we will be taking.

Only the top group will likely run all 8 miles.  There is a pretty easy marker to find at the 3 mile point to turn around and make a 6 mile run.  The 2 mile point is pretty easy to find also, for anyone only wanting to run 4 miles.


Hope to see a bunch of you saturday at 7 AM.

Happy Running.
Coach B

Time For Camp

2013 Team at Lake Tahoe

OK, team. Our big dogs leave for camp a week from tomorrow.  I have created a Travel Roster for this year's trip. It took me a long time to decide who should go on this roster and who should be left off. For the most part, I ended up rewarding the boys and girls who have had loayalty to the program over the years. If your name is on the roster and you cannot go, please let me know ASAP so that I can open it up to an alternate.

Please refer to the Camp Page for rules, packing lists, and itineraries.

Remember.  You need your physical and LOH paperwork completed, signed, and turned into the office if you want to go.

Cost of Camp is $50 to cover food for the week. You will also want to bring a little spending money for lunch on the way up and on the way back as well as dinner in Lake Tahoe on Friday night.

Fortunately, the Brooks family is once again letting us use their cabin free of charge, so we do not need to do any fundraising prior to camp.

A Little Inspiration for the Ladies Team

Cassie accepting her chamions
light saber after setting a meet
record at this year's distance wars.

Cassie Land of Sonora, who was 7th at last year's state meet, has won the last 2 section titles in Cross Country.  Here is the link to an article in the Modesto Bee about her 2015 cross country season.

The reason I am posting this, is because I believe that we have girls on our team that are in the same ballpark talent wise, as she is.  The only difference is that we are less experienced and we have trained a lot less.

Consider this:

• Cassie began running in elementary school and was training with the Foothill Gold track club before even entering high school.  
• We had 4 girls last year who were in their first season of cross country, 2 of whom were in their first season of competitive running.
• Cassie averaged between 30-50 miles per week from the beginning of last summer
• We topped out at 30 miles per week after only really starting training in August.

What is the main difference between Cassie and us?  Experience.  This year we have more expereince than last year.  This year we are putting in more miles than last year.

Do I expect all of our top 4 to suddenly be able to run 17:59, like she did at the state meet? No. What I really want you girls to understand is that you are better than you think you are.  Look at Cassie, she is local AND she is the #4 ranked runner in the state for division 4.  We may not have 4 girls beat her this year.  We may not have one.... but, if we can close the gap from her to us (which was almost 2 minutes from her to our top girls) to 30-60 seconds......we will be a tough team to beat.

A Little Vocabulary and How We Are Going to Attack This Season

Important notes on reading the schedule

OK, I'd like to introduce you to a few terms I've not used with you yet.  The terms: Microcycle, Mesocycle, and Macrocycle all describe different amounts of time in the training year.  There is not a hard and fast unit of time assigned to each term, rather, each term describes a specific period of training where we will try to accomplish a specific goal.

• Macrocycle - This describes a long period of time with a major goal race at the end of the cycle.  For most high school and college teams, a macrocycle would be a competitive season.  This means that most of us would go through 2 macrocycles each year: Summer and Fall for Cross Country and Winter and Spring for Track. For a world class athlete, aiming for an Olympic medal, a macrocycle might be a 4 year period of training designed to earn gold at the end.
• Mesocycle- This describes a specific block of time within the macrocycle.  Most competitive seasons are broken up into 3-6 mesocycles, each with it's own training emphasis. If you read through the plans I put up for the track season, I used the term "training phase" to outline the different mesocycles of the season.  I outlined 5 different mesocycles for the track season. I have 6 mesocycles planned for cross.  One difference that you will notice from track to cross this season, is that we will have a pre-programmed rest period during each mesocycle.  The rest period is not a time to sit around and do nothing, it is a period of easy running or cross training, or in extreme cases, complete rest.
• Microcycle - A microcycle is the day to day, nuts and bolts of a training schedule.  Microcycles are usually from 5-14 days in length, but for practical purposes and because our calendar has 7 day weeks, most coaches write their microcycles so that they last one week.  During the summer, I will be writing microcycles 

2016 Cross Country Macrocycle

(This is aimed at our experienced runners with a number of miles under their belts.  If you are just starting out, you can follow along with this template, but just do less of everything.)

Ian and Jonah at the 2013 camp

Mesocycle #1 - (May 30-July 3) Build Aerobic Endurance. Because of the timing of camp this year,main emphasis during this mesocycle is to build aerobic endurance through a high volume of steady mileage. The two minor emphases during this period are to 1. build low end aerobic power through tempo running and CV intervals and 2. Develop biomechanical efficiency through drills and short repetitions.  At camp, we will likely do one or two very intense workouts to help us transition to the second mesocycle.
I want to make the first mesocycle of the summer higher mileage than normal.  For you varsity athletes hoping to hit 700 miles, this summer, you should aim to hit close to 250 miles during this 5 week period (you will have an easy week after camp, so don't worry about burning out early).  You are still in very good shape from track, so you should be able to jump right back in with 35-40 in the first week then build to 50-60 for the last 2-3 weeks of the cycle.  The

Anthony and Zach Finishing Rock River Ascent

Mesocycle #2 (July 4-August 7) Increase Aerobic Power and Biomechanical EfficiencyThis secondmajor emphasis of this cycle is to put in a large volume of steady miles. However, we will put a little more emphasis on our two minor emphases from the first mesocycle: Aerobic Power and Biomechanical Efficiency.  During mesocycle #1, we might do a 5 mile easy run followed by 2 x 1k @ CV.  For the same stimulus during mesocycle #2, we might do a 4 mile run followed by 4 x 1k @ CV.  Toward the end of this cycle, I have it in my mind that we will do 8 x 800 on a 4 minute cycle followed by 4-6 x150 fast uphill.  If you are aiming for 700 summer miles, you should probably run 280-290 miles during mesocycle #3
mesocycle will start with a few days of easy running or cross training after we return from camp.  If you chose to run the 4th of July race in Atwater, your easy days will come a couple of days after everyone elses'.  Either way, the first week of July will have a low overall volume and intensity.  The second mesocycle will be much like the first. The

2010 Team Members Meeting Early to Beat the Heat

Mesocycle #3 (August 8 - September 4) Transition to Race Pace Work. The start of the school year and the start of official after school practice is a time of transition for us.  For most of the summer, you probably are will do your runs in the mornings when it is cool.  As we transition to afternoon running, our mileage will drop for at least 2 weeks.  Because our mileage will drop during the beginning of this cycle, we will begin to do more interval type running.  Thjs includes the tempo intervals in the arboretum as well as hill repeats out at the Nazareno Ranch. We will also begin to bring in a very small amount of  race pace training in order to prepare for the stresses of racing.  We have 2 time trials planned during this period as well.  Also, because the first part of this mesocycle has such low volume, we will not take a tremendous amount of rest as we transisiton into mesocycle #4.  Mesocycle #3 is also the end of the summer mileage period.  It is difficult to run big miles the first few weeks of this cycle, so if you have a mileage goal, you should be ahead of pace going into cycle #3.

Early Season Races are Fun and Build Fitness, GG Park 2014

Mesocycle #4 (September 5- October 2) Early Competitive Season.  The training during this period will look a lot like the training during the previous period with one main difference.  We will get our race pace training by actually racing.  This period begins with the TVL opener meet and ends with 4 days off from training after TVL meet #2.  During this period, the weather will start to cool a little bit and we should be able to ramp our mileage back up.  Workouts and training runs during this period will be very high volume.  Varsity boys can expect sessions such as 6 x 1200 (girls will do 5) on a 5:30 or 6:00 cycle or a 6 mile continuous tempo.

Victory at Supercross! Adam and Lucas Celebrate.

Mesocycle #5 (October 3- November 2) Main Competitive Season.  This is the time of the year where races start to become more important. The varsity teams will be traveling to Fresno for the Clovis meet (where the girls will be looking to improve on their 5th place finish from last year) and we will be trying to run well at our own Supercross meet.  The main meet of this period, however, is the TVL finals meet on October 26th. Last year we were 2 points away from sweeping to victory in all 4 divisions.  Let's go get those last 2 points this year!  The overall volume of running will stay high during this period, however the hard sessions will become shorter and faster.  Everbody's favorite session, 10x400@ mile race pace with 1 min recovery will make at least one appearance during this mesocycle.   If you are looking at the calendar, you will note that this mesocycle ends in the middle of the week before subs.  There is a good reason for this.  I want all of our hardest training to be completed 10 days prior to the section meet.

Medals at Section and Berths to State are Great Goals
to Set for Yourselves

Mesocycle #6 (November 3 - November 26) Peaking/Championship Season.  This cycle could be Section Meet on November 12th.  During mesocycle #6, our volume will finally drop.  During this period, the hard sessions will be designed to maintain the fitness that we've built over the previous 5 months, but at the same time allowing our legs to recover.  Mileage during this period will likely be between 60-75% of peak volume from earlier in the season.  The total volume of our hard workouts will probably not exceed 3 miles, whereas earlier in the year, the volume of hard workouts might have been as high as 6 miles. If all goes well, both varsity teams will toe the line at the California State Championship on November 12th in Fresno, and bring home top 10 finishes.
only 10 days long if things don't go well at the

Leo, Brigham, Mason, and Pablo run as a pack at the 2010 State Championship

Ian Brooks, NCAA All American

Former Husky, Ian Brooks qualified as an NCAA DII All American yesterday.  Ian placed 8th in the NCAA DII track and field championships in Bradenton, FL.  Ian is the second Husky trackster to earn the title of All American since I've been at HHS, the first was Lucais MacKay, who won the NCAA DI hammer title at University of Georgia.

Ian had a very good 4 years at Hughson, but was often slowed by illness and injury at exactly the wrong time. Despite being on 2 teams that qualified for state, he never got to toe the line in Fresno.  For those of you who would like a little inspiration to keep working hard, here are Ian's times at HHS.

Cross Country 5k - 17:12 @ Legion Park
800 - 1:56.34 @ the Golden West Invitational
1600 - 4:32 @ Brett Harte Invitational

His 800 time is pretty good :), but I'd say we have a number of boys capable of matching his best cross country times this year.

Congratulations to Ian and to all of the Stanislaus State athletes.  Those guys are killing it!

Thinking About Cross

Hello Team:

For most of us, track season is just winding down, however for others, we are getting ready to embark on training for a sport that we've never done or we haven't done since last November.  I'd like to make a quick post today for you all to look at so you can get the general idea of what we want to do this summer.  I'm going to break things into two basic groups: Those who did track, and those who didn't.

For the kids coming out of track
We can let our legs and minds recovery for a little while before jumping back into our mileage build up.  Some of your seasons have been over for a couple of days, some have been over for a week and a half, some (Emily and Abby) are still going.  When ever your season ends or ended, you all need to keep a couple of things in mind.

Varsity Girls after captuing the TVL title

1. You are in extremely good shape right now.   It would be terrible to waste that fitness and regress all the way back to where you were prior to track.  During your break, stay active.  Do other sports, keep eating well (but don't worry about having a little bit of junk food here and there.)  When you start running again, don't be afraid to do a little bit of quality.  We have gotten to the point where CV intervals are feeling very relaxed.  It wouldn't hurt you to finish your runs 1-2 times per week with 1-2 x 1k on the track at your current, peak, CV shape.   For our top varsity guys, this would mean about 3:35-3:40 per 1000.  For our top girls, it would mean about 4:00-4:05.  All of you can look at Tinman's Running Calculator to get an idea about what kind of paces you should be thinking about running during the summer. We'll start summer practices pretty soon, so until that time, don't worry about any other hard, organized training.
2. Remember, when all else fails, just run. Run a lot.  Run more than you did last summer.  When you feel good, run fast.  When you are tired, run easy.  Don't be afraid to push your long runs out further than before.  Don't be afraid to drop the hammer on long runs either.  Mileage club t-shirts provide good baseline goals, but don't regiment your summers to hit a specific mileage goal.....just run!

Hughson, pressing the pace at TVL Finals

For the kids who didn't do track

Your legs don't need to recover from anything...you need to start running....NOW!  If you have never run before, you don't need to worry about going out and trying to run big miles, just run.  If you can only do one lap around the track, that is all you should do.  You will be surprised how easily your body adapts to running.  Here are a couple of tips to keep in mind as you embark on this wonderful journey with your new team.

1. This sport is not about SPEED as much as it is about being able to EXTEND YOUR SPEED.  If you've run a 6:15 mile in Jr High Track, let's figure out how to extend that speed for another 2.1 miles and run 19:30 for 5k.
2. The purpose of summer running, especially for beginners, is to adapt your body to the pounding of cross country training.  During the fall, you will be asked to do workouts that are harder than you currently think are possible.  You need to build up gradually this summer so that you are ready to do the hard work in the fall.
3. While building your mileage over the summer is the most important thing you can do, you cannot neglect your speed.  For most cross country runners during the summer, speed work will consist of what we call strides.  A stride is a "relaxed" sprint of 60-120 meters.  Don't run your strides so fast that your legs are burning at the end or that you are gasping for breath.  Strides should make your legs feel light and quick, not dead.
4. Do not be too agressive trying to build your mileage right away.  I've had plenty of new runners do great for the first 3 weeks of the summer, then tail off to almost nothing by the middle of summer.  It is better to start very small, with managable distances then gradually build from there.

Let's have a great summer and kick butt in the fall!