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!