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