Monday Morning Long Run

Hey Team I was unable to send this link directly through the remind app. Maybe one of you smart kids could help me figure it out. Let's meet at 9:00 AM on Monday for a long run in the hills! (yeah, use the vacation time wisely). This is one of my favorite local roads to ease into hill training. Nothing too steep or too long.

Corner of Claribel and Tim Bell Roads

Here's a map of the run. 

Back on Shutdown! :(

Hi Team:

As you've probably heard, the Governor's stay at home order means that we cannot meet for practice until further notice.

Here's the thing - Once we are able to start meeting again, there is a very good chance that we will be competing soon after that.  With time running out to get a season in, the CIF has shortened the number of days that teams must practice before they compete to only 5 days.  Certainly we cannot get back into shape in 5 days.

So, in the immortal words of Martel Simon (class of 2011).  "You gotta stay in shape to keep from havin' to get in shape!"

Martel Simon

So, what does that mean for you guys?  It means keep doing what you're doing, only do more of it (most of your mileage is way too low for the goals you have for yourselves)

Monday: Long

Wednesday: Speed Development

Thursday: Tempo or Fartlek

Saturday: If feeling good still, either a medium long run or tempo or fartlek (whatever you didn't do on Thursday).  

Don't make it so any of the workouts are "Hard".  Monday and Thursday should be challenging, but shouldn't leave you exhausted (that means no 10 mile runs if you're only averaging 18 per week). The other days, just fill in with easy mileage and take 1-2 days off depending on your level of experience.

Keep updating on Strava.  That thing is a game changer for us and it's a great way to keep each other motivated.  Why not make it your goal to be the #1 mileage hog on our team?  Or be in the top 10 every week, or use it to track your own mileage progression and watch your totals grow week after week.

This is a sport about self determination. So, it's time to be determined. 

Every Day or Feet Are Moving Fast

 One of the most influential pieces of training info I've seen or read in the past year was from John O'Malley of Sandburg High in Illinois.  He says of his teams "every day our feet are moving fast".  Sandburg high has had over 30 different teams run under 8:00 for the 4x800 relay (yes, that's 4 guys all running sub 2:00!)

Does this mean that we have to sprint all out every day....NO!  That would produce injury.  What it means is that every day, we should be doing something that reminds us that we are athletes and athletes can MOVE QUICKLY and RUN FAST.

Right now, We'll take care of our "athlete stuff" through our warm up drills and easy, relaxed striders at the end of runs.  As we begin to get in better shape we'll throw in some more actual sprinting.  

Here's our series of warm up drills that we will follow for the first 3 weeks of practice.  Right now, there is only 1 day of actual FAST running, and that is just a build up to 90% of top speed. Later, we will have days with MAX sprinting, but for now, we will ease into it. 

Don't worry about doing a bunch of drills and stuff OYO....just do strides after your easy runs. 

Happy Running Everyone!

Pre-Season Template.

 I'm attaching a Google Doc of our pre-season training template I think most of you understand what you should be doing, but wante to make sure you all have access to this resource.  This is the pattern we'll follow until we get close to the start of racing season in January.   

Just to Review: 

1. Build to your previous peak mileage + 5 miles per week.
2. Two big efforts per week: A long run of 20-25% of your weekly mileag and EITHER a longer tempo run at moderate pace OR a shorter fartlek run.  Both sessions would be followed by some faster reps on the track at mile-800m pace. 
3. Do as much auxially training as possible.  At least 3 days a week you should be doing stuff like: Core, Push Ups, Lungs, Burpies, etc....  Feel free to use the circuits that are laid out on the training videos page of this blog. 
4. I will let you know what kind of mileage I'm wanting from you guys by giving you a number.  An 8 week, for example, would mean that you should run 80% of your peak mileage that week.  So, if you're peak mileage is 50 mpw, then an 8 week would be a 40 mile week. 

Things are coming around with our team and we are starting to look pretty good.  Let's keep it up. Happy running everyone!

How to Grow a Forest of Mighty Oaks

 OK guys, we've reached a nice place to take a break from organized training.  This does not mean that you should stop running entirely and if you are one of the small number of athletes that will get a complete break from running, you should not just sit on your buts and play xbox with your free time!

Mighty Oaks - You've done the work and can take a week to a week and a half completely off from running.  When you start back, only go to 50-60% peak mileage and make it a social event. 

The Mighty Oaks are: 

Owen, Joe, Tori, Melissa, Camille, Taylor, Nathan, Julie, Cailin, Jeff, Eric, Makenzie.

Saplings- You've done some good work, but have had enough interruptions to mean that you don't need to take a week fully off from running.  You guys should focus on the FUN of running.  Make your committment to your teammates also a social committment to get together and have a fun time running.  Do not stress about running, but don't forget about it either!  The saplings are:

Cole, Luis, Brian, Ezra, Hudson, Aden, Perla, Jocelyn, Luke, Hope, Diego, Rene, Javila, Janderson, Dominic, Silvano, Kyson, Maggie, Jayden, John, Adolfo, Emmanuel, Dominic, Jesse

Acorns- You are just starting to make progress and don't need to take any time of off from running, if anything, you need to start upping your training NOW! As with the saplings, make a commitment to get together and run with your teammates, but do it for the FUN of it.  You are probably not in good enough shape yet where any running will seem easy and fun, but the more you run, the easier it will get. The acorns are:

Zach, Jonathan, Avelino, Aiden B, Seth, Juan, Dylan, Octavio, Cesar, Omar, Isaiah, Dario, Anthony, Suki, Wren, Natalie, Bella, Valerie, Monica, Jacob, Tony, Israel, Mario, Jay, Sarah, Maria, Luis Y.

Please read the  Full Instructions For The Next 2 Months.  There will be a homework assignment due on Google Classroom based on this linked document. 

Hoka One One Recap

 10/23/2020

For a season that wasn't a season, the Hughson Cross Country teams finished off the 2020 fall campaign surprisingly well. We  competed in the Hoka One One virtual 2 mile competition.  The event allows teams to run a time trial and then submit their results to the meet organizers who will rank the teams from all across the nation.  Teams  have until the end of the month to submit results.  As of this writing, here is where we stand in the competition.

Boys 94th out of 268 teams  nationally

Girls 102nd out of 200 teams nationally

Link to Hoka One One Nationals Page

We are clearly not where I believe we can be and we need to bear in mind that we are competing against teams from other states that are running full blown cross country seasons right now.  In short, I'm satisfied that we are making progress toward our goal of being ready for the CIF season which kicks off in December.  

Girls Recap

Taylor Scheuber showed the results of a great off season of training and soloed her way to a PR of 12:48.  Taylor is running times now that indicate that she will be at least top 5 in the TVL and will threatend for an individual berth at the state meet.   

The rest of the girls team continues to make progress from where they were 2 months ago, but are nowhere near where they want to be nor where they can be.  Camille Haupt impressed by running her fastest time in 2 years after a long road back from injury and 6 of the 7 girls ran faster than they did at our 2 mile intrasquad meet at the beginning of October. 

Boys Recap

6 of the 7 boys we had in the varsity race ran PRs and Joe Lighthall impressed mightily with a 10:34 for 3200m, running splits of 5:34 / 5:00 en route.  the 5:00 for the second mile is, for Joe, a PR in and of itself. Owen Bullock also ran a fine race, demonstrating the fitness he's gained by running a 20 second PR over the PR he set 2 weeks ago and doing it on splits of 5:52 / 5:28. As a matter of fact, all of our boys ran significant negative splits on the evening, this shows that there is definetly plenty of improvement still to be had.   

HHS HOKA Time Trial Results

All in all, we've had a decent fall campaign despite all of the headwinds we've had: COVID 19 shut downs, frequent shut downs due to wildfire induced air quality, record heat that has lasted well into the fall, and the uncertainty of trying to train through all of this madness.  We're not where I'd hoped we'd be at this point when we finshed the season of 2019, but we are way ahead of where we otherwise would have been had our kids not borne down and gotten to work.  

I'm proud of our kids for what they've done and looking forward to see what they can do in the upcoming months.  

Hoka One One 2 mile Postal Meet

A long time ago, in a universe far, far away......

There was no internet, there were no national rankings or national meets.  The only way to determine if your team in California was better than someone else's team in Illinois was to run a 2 mile time trial on the track and then MAIL the results to a the manager of the "Postal National Championships".  That manager would then compile the results from around the country and at the end of the cross country season, announce who the best team in the USA was.

So much has changed, but so much has stayed the same.  

These days, we can instantaneously get results from all over the country.  We might even get video of the race to give us an idea of how fast, or slow, the cross country course was where the races were run.....But without fully equal conditions, you still never know.  Is a 5k at Legion Park the same as a 5k at Woodward Park? No, it's not.  

2 years ago, Hoka One One revived the idea of the Postal meet so that every team (not just the ones who qualify for Nike Team Nationals) could have a chance to see where they stack up vis a vis the rest of the country.  With Covid wiping out competitive fall seasons in many states, this competition is the only one that some teams are doing.  

Entries for Hoka One One Postal meet:

OK, guys, here's the plan.  We will run 3 races on Friday night.  We'll start off with a JV race (boys and girls mixed) at 6:30 PM.  We'll follow that up with our Varsity Girls race at 6:55 PM and finish with our Varsity Boys at 7:00 PM.  Entries are posted on Athletic.net

Varsity and JV Entries

For those not running in the 2 mile time trial.  I want to run a 6 minute test at 6:00 PM.  If you run the test.  You are encouraged to stick around and cheer on your teammates who are running the time trial later in the evening.  

Athletes Running 6 Minute Test

Parents Welcome

For this event, now that our county numbers are down into the "Red" category, we can have parents attend our event.  We are asking parents to sit on the visitors side and maintain a responsible 6 feet physical distance from members of other families.  

Athletes, Please arrive at 5:30.  Varsity Boys top 7 meet under the Scoreboard.  Varsity Girls Top 7 Meet on the north side of the drainage basin by the gate to the track.  JV boys and girls meet on the south side of the drainage basin by Mr. Parker's room.  6 Minute Test runners.  Meet at the picnic tables by the snack bar.  

This will be our last meeting for 3 weeks.  Let's RUN FAST AND HAVE A GREAT TIME

Black and Gold Fall Practice Meet

 We finally did something normal yesterday!

We had our normal pre season practice meet about 6 weeks later than normal but still 2 months before the start of official practice.  Such is the life in the age of Covid restrictions.

See Results and Splits

See All Time Lists

See All Time Team Time Trial Comparisons

Some Encouraging Results

We had a few big PRs and some really big negative splits.  Joe dropped over a minute from his PR and Taylor moved to #6 on our all time list for the pre season meet! The PRs are an indication of big fitness gains. The negative splits are evidence of fitness that went unused in the race yesterday but is still there available for future use.  If  you PR'ed yesterday, good job! You can be proud of yourself.  If you ran a huge negative split, congrats, your fitness is better than you showed yesterday.

Some Lacking Fitness

Quite a few boys ran major positive splits.  This makes sense.  Your legs remember what it is like to run at race pace, but your hearts and lungs have lost the fitness to deliver enough oxygen to your legs to keep them actually going at race pace. If you ran a major positive split, your task is to gradually build up your mileage and the pace at which you can do tempo efforts over the next 3 months.  Long runs, short sprints, and tempo runs at 70%-80% vVO2 max need to be your office for the next 3 months and you need to punch that clock every day!

Some Wild Cards

We had a big number of athletes not run yesterday due to many reasons (inability to attend, severe lack of fitness, nervousness about a simulated competition).  Bringing the rest of our team  together and starting to re-develop that good feeling we've had for years is going to be of utmost importance.  There was a lot of talent sitting on the sidelines yesterday.

Another wild card is the fact that when we bring students back on campus finally, we'll have a chance to start talking to freshmen about our team.  Not only is bringing in new freshmen important for the future, but we often  have kids show up who can make an impact on our team's success right away.  The successful (or unsuccessful) recruitment of freshmen will have an impact on our team this year and for years to come, so let's make sure we're talking to those kids in our classes about how awesome it is being on this team!

Another Cool College Workout

 Hey team.  Check out the video from Duke University Cross Country.  Please note that they are doinge almost everything we do as well.  They're just doing more volume and at a faster pace. Those are both goals to work toward

• Warm Up Jog
• Mobility
• Drills
• Body of Workout
• Cool Down

You guys are doing the right stuff to reach high goals.  You just need to keep on grinding.  Consistency is th key

Joe Lighthall - Woodbridge Invitational White Division Sophomore Champion

 Yeah, that's right!  Joe won his division at Woodbridge and Owen was 4th.  I guess the only thing to do now is win it live when we can actually have real races again. 

Full Woodbridge Results

Woodbridge Virtual Invitational

 Well, this year has been one where we all have to try new things.  Last night, our team competed in its first ever "virtual competition"  The idea is that, all over the country, teams can run time trials, then submit them to a central meet organizer who will compile the results and determine team and individual winners.  

Joe and Taylor were our top runners on the evening

This year has been unusual, but we had about 20 athletes who had done enough work during the lockdown, and the summer, and the fall of distance learning, to be in good enough shape to compete.  We met at our track at 7:00 PM and our teams went through their first actual pre - meet warm up in 7 months.

Our Girls Warming Up

The kids who ran last night showed their grit and determination.  None of them had ever raced a 3 mile event on the track and we had a lot of younger, inexperienced runners who were very nervous about the concept.  But we had a lot of fun, too!

Results and Splits

Link to Meet Webpage on Athletic.net  Ours are not posted yet. 

Athlete of the Week. Taylor Scheuber

Congratulations to Taylor Scheuber for being named the HHS athlete of the week for her performance in the Woodbridge Virtual Meet.  

Taylor at the 2019 Section Championship

This has been a strange year for all of us so far, but Taylor's dedication to our sport and our team led her to run 500 miles over the summer and come into this year with tremendous fitness.  Great job, Taylor!  Go Huskies. 

Sports P.E. Expectations

 Hey guys.  Please watch the video I created explaining how I'm goint to grade you guys for sports P.E.  

I'm really exicted about the progress that some of you are making and looking forward to when we can all be back together as a group. 

I love this team and love you guys.  Let's give it our all this year!  Go Huskies.  

Info from Woodbridge Invitational

Hi team.  Please see below for information about our participation in the Woodbridge Cross Country (virtual) Invitational

If we are able to meet as a group by September, we will do a team time trial on the track.  If we cannot meet as a group, you will have to follow the instructions to submit a time on your own. 

The event particulars (The event will attempt to mirror the real WHS Classic format)

The Virtual event will have 48 races to choose from for your athletes (top 7 compete varsity and the remaining compete in the grade-level races), 4 divisions of competition (based on school attendance), have Sweepstakes races for the top level of elite teams (B & G), have Rated races (2nd level of team excellence for B & G), have 2 regular level varsity races in each division, have grade level races for the developing athletes in each division, have medals for the top 100 finishers in each race (4800 in all), have patches to the members of top 6 teams in each of the 48 races (2016 in all), rank all the teams the meet and identify the top 100 individuals (B & G) in the meet. Additionally, the event will generate a wealth of data that college coaches can use to evaluate potential athletes for possible running scholarships and college entrance spots.

 

For all the details about the in-person Classic and the Virtual event, visit www.gvarvas.com and click on the links found in the home page.

For the event to be staged successfully, the coach (or a parent volunteer) from each school will play a most important role.  

The Coach (Parent Volunteer) Does:                                                                          

1. Signs up the school for the Virtual event on athletic.net.  Team registration is now open. Please register ASAP. We need to gauge the interest in the Virtual Race and we will not have room for everyone.
2. Gives each athlete the team code with athletic.net                      
3. Using the http://gvarvas.com/meet-schedule/ link, assigns every member of the team to a race. The top 7 are in one of the varsity races (sweepstakes, Rated or regular division Varsity A or regular division Varsity B (based on attendance) and gives the race number to each runner. Very important        
4. Maybe register the athletes for the meet (option is either coach or individual athletes registers the participants). Registration deadline is September 12, 2020 at Midnight.            
5. Sets up and time the time trial (if allowed). If personal contact is not allowed, instructs the runners how they can obtain a time. Race each squad separately (varsity is own race, etc) on a synthetic track (if possible) or on the flattest asphalt bike trail, flattest dirk trail or on soccer complex.

 

The athlete does:

 

1.  From August 5 to September 12, using the team code and race number provided by the coach registers for the event. Registration deadline is September 12, 2020 at Midnight.   
2.  Pays the $ 10 fee to athletic.net for the event
3. Trains hard to be ready for the event
4. During the week of 9/14 to 9/18 the athletes run the 3.0 miles race with their squad (or individually)  

A.   Course:

1. If possible, run the race (3 miles) on a synthetic track in flats (if school facilities are available). No spikes.
2. In case a synthetic track is not available, then every participant/coach finds the flattest possible course either on a paved bike trail/road, dirt hiking trail or on a short-grass field (maybe part of a soccer complex). We will determine an adjustment scale that will attempt to equate the times run in these 4 types of surfaces. Schools that run their races in altitude will use the established adjustments.

B.   Awards:

1. Even though the awards are not a high priority for staging the event, we will make available the following keepsakes: T-Shirts to the first 10,000 participants that register for the event (designed with a covid theme), medals to the top 100 for each of the 48 scoring races, 7 patches to each of the top 6 teams in each of the 48 races.

C.   Race Format:

1. The races must take place the week of Sept. 14-18. The coach decides what day (during the meet week) fits best in the team’s training schedule. The individual race results must be reported by Fri., Sep. 18 at noon (EST),
2. We recommend that the races be run under cool weather conditions (the weather at the real Classic) and the coach runs each squad separately. So, varsity boys run in their own race, var. girls in their own race, etc. We feel that running all the frosh boys together, for example, could be a good "dress-rehearsal” of what happens in a real invitational. 
3. If the virus protocols prohibit group runs, then the coach starts the fastest runner first and then the remaining runners at a certain time interval later. If the coach cannot have in-person contact with the athletes, then the athletes race on their own.

D.  Results

1. Individual results will be reported by the athletes to Athletic.net and will be posted live on Athletic.net as they are received from the individuals. The deadline for reporting the results will be Fri., Sep. 18 at noon (EST)
2. Team and final individual results for each race will be posted online at www.gvarvas.com and athletic.net.   To create as real as possible a Woodbridge Classic, we will post the team and overall results for each race at the meet scheduled time for that race. For example, the Boys Sweeps race results will be released/posted at 9:54 pm (EST) on Sat. the 19^th.

E.    Entry Fee

1. The entry fee will be $10.00 for each participant. The fee is paid when the athletes registers in Athletic.net.
2. This fee entitles the first 10,000 entrants to a meet T-Shirt (designed specifically for the Virtual race). Additionally, each participant will have the opportunity to earn an individual medal (top 100 times in each race) and 7 team patches (top 6 teams in each race) for their team.

F.    Athlete Registration

1. Participants will register on their own with Athletic.net. The coach can also register the athletes on the athletic school account. The school must have an Athletic.net account (free to set up). 
2. Registration deadline is September 12, 2020 at Midnight.   

G.   Divisions:

1. White: School total enrollment between 1 and 799. Varsity A (1-500), Varsity B (501 – 799)
2. Red: School enrollment between 800 and 1599. Varsity A (800-1199), Varsity B (1200 – 1599)
3.  Gold: School enrollment between 1600 and 2499. Varsity A (1600-2050), Varsity B (2051 – 2499)
4. Blue: School enrollment of 2500 +. Varsity A (2500 -3000), Varsity B (3001 +)

H.  Meet Schedule:

1. http://gvarvas.com/meet-schedule/  **** No Novice races

We hope that you will find value in this event for your team and athletes.  Please accept our request to encourage every member of your team to participate in this virtual event. The entry fee of $ 10 (which includes a T-Shirt) validates that the Classic staff is not staging this event to make money for our programs. In fact, we might not to be able to break even as the $ 10 entry fee must cover the costs for the shirts, medals, patches, supplies, online registration and shipping fees. We are staging this event for the good of our athletes and sport. Please plan to attend and help us create some buzz not only with your team, but teams in your area as well.

As always, we thank you for considering our event and encourage you to pass on suggestions that can improve the athlete experience.

Stay safe and run well!

George

chemco29@aol.com

949.632.4327

Guidance from the CIF

Hi team.  Most of you have probably already heard that all fall sports have been pushed back to start in December. 

Some  of you have been working really hard for months now, and I don't want to waste that fitness.  I'm planning some virtual competitions for September and October to help keep your mojo going.

Please see the short explanatory video I have posted to youtube.

These races will be time trials, so I will adjust our training a little bit. Time trialing can often produce faster times than actual races because in a time trial, everyone in the race is pushing for the fastest time possible, whereas in a race, that is not always the case.  In an actual race, some people try to slow the pace down to maximize their kicks. 

I'm really excited to try something new this year.  Please understand that although this is not a normal situation, I'm 100% dedicated to the proposition that your season will be the best it can be!

Happy Running

CoachB

Something to Keep You Motivated.

The year is 2011 and the United States hasn't had a woman win a distance medal at a global championship (Olympic Games or World Championship) in 27 years.  Coming into the race we had a woman who was considered one of the favorites...Morgan Uceny.  Also qualifying for the final that year was Jenny Simpson, who came into the meet ranked #21 in the world and barely squeaked through the qualifying rounds to make the final.  

In the race was the defending World Champion, Maryam Jamal of Bahrain.  

In the end, guess who won?  That's right, Jenny Simpson of the United States, breaking the 27 year drought for Americans.  The win was so unexpected, that she even surprised herself

The win was so unexpected that the commentators from British Television kept calling her by the name of the WRONG American right up until the end of the race.  

It just goes to show, that if you believe in yourself, keep working, and never give up....You can shock the world! 

Guidelines for Continued Pre Season Success

Hi Team.

I am so sorry that we won't be able to continue the progress we've made, in person.  However, each and every one of you can still continue to work to see gains in your running abilities.  I'd like to lay out a brief guideline for how to keep going.

Please watch this video that explains specifically how to do each one of the workouts listed below. 

Gold Group

• 1 workout per week of 5 minute segments with 1 minute recovery jogs.  You're all doing 3-4 x 5 now.  Work toward 5 x 5 minutes for a total of 25 minutes at 85% vVO2 max.  Finish with some strides, short sprints, or ramps (if the stadium is open).  don't run this workout too hard!  You should finish the last 5 minute segment tired but like you could keep going.
• 1 workout per week of 3 minute segments with 1 minute recovery at 90% vVO2 max.  You've all done 4-5 x 3 already.  You should all get comfortable with running 5 of them for a total of 15 minutes at 90% vVO2.  Finish with strides, or short sprints or 200s if the stadium is open.
• 1 long run per week.  Just cover the distance.  As you get stronger, the run should get faster.  No need to make the long run longer than 25% of weekly mileage. As you get very comfortable with the long run, you can add 4-8 x 20 second strides into the last 2-3 miles of the run.  
• Fill in the rest of the week with easy mileage.  Continue to keep your mileage high and even try to bump it up by 3-5 miles per week over the next 4 weeks.  

Black Group

• 1 workout per week of 30-40 minutes "easy tempo".  Some of you guys (cough, cough Owen) ran "hard tempo" today.  Easy tempo should be 75%-80% of vVO2 max depending on who you are. My guess is that 80% is a little to "hot" for almost all of you for this type of workout. 
• 1 workout per week of 3 minute segments with 1 minute recovery at 90% vVO2 max.  You've all done 4-5 x 3 already.  You should all get comfortable with running 5 of them for a total of 15 minutes at 90% vVO2.  Finish with strides, or short sprints or 200s if the stadium is open.
• 1 long run per week.  Just cover the distance.  As you get stronger, the run should get faster.  No need to make the long run longer than 25% of weekly mileage. As you get very comfortable with the long run, you can add a fast finish to the final 2-3 miles of your run OR add 4-8 x 20 second strides into the last 2-3 miles.  If you're doing the other two threshold workouts, then the strides are a better option.   
• Fill in the rest of the week with easy mileage.  Continue to keep your mileage high and even try to bump it up by 3-5 miles per week over the next 4 weeks.  

White Group

• Put yourselves into either black group or gold group, whichever seems to fit you better.  Continue to gradually increase your mileage. 

All Groups

• Once a month, go crazy, throw down, push yourself to the limit.  Sometimes you just gotta run really hard to see where your fitness is. If you feel like the paces on the pace charts are becoming too easy, run a 6 minute TT and get a new baseline distance. 

Use the pace charts by distance or the pace charts by minute to help you determine your training paces.  I know you may have a hard time getting onto our track....and running on the track is very helpful for monitoring your training pace.  Turlock Jr High has a crappy dirt track, but it's never locked....

I'm so sorry that we're in this position, but understand this.....the County Health Comissioner shut us down due to rising cases in the county NOT due to any kind of violations you guys did. 

Covid 19 Positive Test

As you know, one of our athletes tested positive for Covid 19.  I'm sorry it took me a while to get this formally posted, but please read the following and watch the following video for instructions for how we should proceed moving forward.  Some of these protocols were already in place.

 Please watch this video

1. All athletes will have their temperature taken at the beginning of practice.
2. All athlets will show up to practice wearing masks and remain masked up for the time that we are grouped in our meeting area.
3. All athletes are expected to exhibit personal responsibilty and care for their teammates by maintaining an appropriate distance (some of you have had an extremely difficult time refraining from trying to give eachother wedgies or hugs.  Knock that crap off). 
4. Once we are out on the roads, you can run in small groups of equal ability, but should maintain a side by side formation
5. *New*.  When athletes return from runs, they are expected to put their masks back on and keep them on until they are able to once again establish an appropriate physical distance when they leave practice.  (please do not just mask up to keep me happy then get all up in each others personal space as soon as practice ends). 

So, what happens when another one of our athletes tests positive?

1. That athlete should inform me as soon as s/he has test results.  
2. I will contact every athlete that had been in contact with that athlete.
3. I will advise everyone who has been in contact with that athlete to get a Covid Test
4. Athletes should pay attention to whether or not they are feeling any symptoms.  Athletes with symptoms should not come to practice. 

Let me finish by saying that I think that we can SAFELY continue to progress as athletes in Cross Countrty, but only if all of you play by the same rule book. 

Critical Velocity Workout Today and Where We Go From Here.

Hey team.  Great workout today.  Get used to the paces you ran today, you're going to touch on them once a week for the remainder of the summer  (wait for collective groan from the team) 😆

Here's the deal - that pace will never feel as hard as it did today.  As you're reading this, your bodies are adapting to the workout you did and if you were to repeat that same workout a week from now, it would feel a little bit easier.  If you repeat it again a week after that, easier still.

The workout will get easier because your bodies are making 3 general adaptations: 1. They are getting better at running without producing waste.  They're getting better at removing any waste produced. And they're getting better at tolerating the build up of waste.

So, as you get fitter, you can do the same workout, but build up less waste.  The waste you do build up will be removed more quickly. AND you won't really notice the waste you build up as much as you did today. 

As you get fitter, we're not going to increase the pace.  Rather, we're going to increase the amount of time you're spending running at that pace.  Today, the pace you ran was 90% of your vVO2 max pace.  But as you get fitter, the same pace might only be 85%.  That's OK, though, because you still get a tremendous benefit running at 85% and because it's slightly less intense, you can do it for a longer period.

Please watch the following video to help you understand how we're going to progress as we move further along this summer then into the season.  

Training to Consume Oxygen

As we get further into the summer, we're going to start doing some faster pace workouts that stress your ability to deliver oxygen to your muscles.

A very standard entry level workout might be written something like this

4 x 3 minutes @ 90% + 4 x 200 @ 100%.

In short, the 3 minute intervals would be designed to lower the oxygen levels in your muscle cells for 12 minutes in order to stimulate your cells to make adaptations that will allow them to use more oxygen in the future.

The faster 200m repetitions would be designed to make you efficient at your maximum speed without being overly exhausting.

Please watch the video I've created for more details before tomorrow's workout.

Summer 2020 is Here

Hi Team!

After 2 "false starts" we finally get to start meeting, for real.  We have permission from everybody, but we're still going to obey physical distancing guidelines.  So, everything that applied for the last time we tried to start meeting, still applies now.  

We will be meeting in the stadium at 7:00 on Mon, Wed, Thu.

Running sessions will be followed by short strength / core sessions.  

On Monday, Black group will do their tempo runs, Gold group will do their fartlek runs, White group will run a 6 minute test.  

In order to educate you about the types of training efforts we'll do, I've made the following 2 videos.  These videos explain a LOT about the type of efforts we need to be putting in, but they don't explain EVERYTHING. So, I will be continuing to try and give you the info that will help you understand what we are doing 

Please watch these videos before the workout on Monday.

So, to summarize: 

1. To do anything well, you need to spend as long as possible doing that thing
2. Run too slow, you don't get a tremendous training effect, run too fast, and you can't do it for very long. 
3. Paces at the high end of zone 2 are in a sweet spot.  They are fast enough to create a good training effect, but slow enough that you can do them for a fairly long time.  The amount of time I'd aske you to run at each pace is as follows
• 75% - 30-70 minutes
• 80% - 15-40 minutes (could be broken into intervals of 5-15 minutes)
• 85% - 15-25 minutes (could be broken into intervals of 4-7 minutes)
• 90% - 12-24 minutes total, broken into intervals of 2-5 minutes
• Paces faster than that, we don't do too much of. 
• These paces are based on what you have already acheived on a 6 minute test.

The Covid 19 Lockdown Continues for High School Sports in Stan County

So, team. Let me offer my apologies.  Apparently, I had miscommunicated with my bosses and in reality we did NOT have permission to start working out.  ALL of the school districts in Stanislaus County had made the decision to re open (or keep closed) athletics as one group.  So, even though the County Health Comissioner said it was ok to resume outdoor activities, the county schools say, "not yet". 

I've laid out some guidelines for the month of June in this power point.  Check 'em out.

I've gone through the power point in this video I posted to youtube

Let me just summarize quickly, because I can see that the audio quality is not that good on the video.

• Black, Gold, White groups are based on how much you've been running these last 7 weeks and what your strengths are as a runner.
• All groups need to SPRINT once per week.  Something like 5 x 50 with full recovery.  Obviously warm up first.
• Black and Gold groups are doing one THRESHOLD type workout once a week.  Black group does it as a 30 minute tempo run, Gold does it as Fartlek at CV pace, something like 4-6 x 3 minutes at 90% vVO2 with 1 minute jog recoveries
• White group is focused just on building up their training mileage. How much? More than you are now.  A good guideline for training volume for athletes to aim for looks like this
• 1st year runners - 15 - 30 miles per week
• 2nd year runners - 25-40 miles per week
• 3rd year runners - 25-50 miles per week
• 4th year runners - 35-60 miles per week.
• These numbers can vary quite a bit.  I was running 50mpw by the end of my freshman year but I've had athletes be very successful off of 30 mpw during their 3rd or 4th year. 
• All groups should be running strides.  Black and Gold groups should do strides after their threshold sessions and then strides 1-2 additional times per week.  White group should just be doing strides 3 times per week in addition to their easy running. 

Since we can't get together and I can't actually COACH you for the next month, I'll be posting a number of different videos to try to teach you about the sport remotely.  

I encourage you to video yourselves doing your workouts.  Send them to me. I'll post them on this blog. 

Let's Run!!!!!

OK TEAM! We have permission to meet as a group again.

We'll be meeting M,W,Th @ 7:00 AM at the Dennis Wallace Memorial sign at the Hughson Sports and Fitness Complex.

Please view the attached video for instructions on how I expect that you will keep yourselves physically distant while training together as a TEAM!

Before we meet. I just want to say how PROUD I am of you guys!  Most of you have been grinding away at the very very early off season mileage.  Our girls team is putting up miles like very few other girls' teams that I've had, including our 2016 section champion team.  Keep up the great work.

I am so looking forward to seeing all of you wonderful people again and getting back to doing what we do best, representing Hughson!.

And if you think the pros are having an easy time with this, here's a quick video of Joey Berriuta of the Tinman Elite Team going through one of his training weeks without any of the big summer meets (olympic trials, olympics, European Circuit) anywhere on his horizon. 

Keep Grinding, Guys!

Group Exercise Restrictions Lifted in Stanislaus County

OK team, great news, the County Health Comissioner has declared that we are safe to begin outdoor exercise in groups provided that we maintain appropriate distancing and that we don't share any equipment. 

Sounds like a cross country practice to me.

This week, I will be checking to see if we are permitted to use HUSD facilities to meet and start our runs.  If we are unable to use school property, we will meet at Fontana Ranch Park

I plan to host group runs next week on Tue, Wed, Fri.  That is the 12th, 13th, and 15th of May.  We will  be meeting at 8:00 AM.  The focus of our first few weeks will simply be putting in mileage.  For those of you who have been getting in decent mileage, we may do something a little bit harder, but I will mostly leave that up to you guys.

See you next Tuesday!!!!

Setting Small Goals In Order to Reach Big Ones!

You guys are so far away from any races right now, it might be hard to get yourselves motivated to start running.  You're even further away from any races that count.  The connundrum is that if you aren't doing stuff now that will keep you in shape, or get you in better shape, you'll be in no condition to run any good races when it does count.

So, I'm going to write about my own training in order for you guys to see how small goals can be strung together to help reach large ones.

I'm almost 49, which means I'm basically one year away from 50.  I'm at an age where it becomes harder and harder to see fitness gains, simply becuase I've got less testosterone circulating in my blood than I did last year, and that year I had less than the year before....you get the picture.  However, since we've been on "Lockdown", I've been pretty consistent in my workouts.  I'll try to give you a picture of where I've been, how I got to where I am now, and where I want to try and go in the future.

So, for me, the long term goals are: 1, Break 6 in the mile again. 2. Break 20 for 5k again.  I'm super far from either of those goals, but I'm close now than I was at the beginning of March.  At that point, I was barely able to run 2 miles without any pain.  When we went on lockdown, I set myself 2 goals

1. Try and exercise 2 times per day
2. Get to where 2 mile runs didn't hurt anymore.

It took me a couple of weeks to get where 2 mile runs were easy and pain free, but on March 30 I was able to run 3 miles. So, I had reached one goal.  I still wasn't worried about how fast I was going.  A couple of days later, I tried a "tempo" run.  I went 1.75 miles in 16 minutes (slower than 9 minutes a mile).  So, my next goal was to try and be able to run "tempo effort" without any pain.

I'll show you my last 10 days of my log so you can get an idea of how I got to my current state of fitness (which still isn't very good).  And how I want to progress to my next fitness level.

On 4/11 I ran a 6 minute test and got 1350m. This gives me a tempo pace in the mid 8:40's per mile.  So, that was my goal, get to where that pace feels comfortable for 20 minutes 

4/13:
AM - Hike 5 miles at Red Hills
PM - 13 miles on my mountain bike on the canals

4/14
AM - 1 mile WU, Drills, 4 x 3 min on, 1 min off
PM - 10 minute core workout

4/15
AM - 3.5 miles easy
PM - Weights

4/16
AM - 4.2 miles total. 1.75 easy then 1.75 @ 8:47 pace on canal. + 4 x 120m strides
PM - Weights

4/17
AM - 2 miles super easy then mountain bike 1 hour
PM - Weights

4/18
AM - 19 miles on my road bike
PM - Weights

4/19
AM - 5.1 miles with Miguel Nuci (former national class marathoner)
PM - 4 mile hike in Mariposa (steep hills)

Totals for week
17 miles of running
50 + miles of cycling
5 days of strength training.

4/20
AM - 2 mile wu, drills 4 x 120m strides (tight hammy, tired)
PM - Weights (put up 210 on the bench!....best in years, 5 pounds off of lifetime best)

4/21 (super tired today)
AM - 1 mile easy, planned to try again later, never felt good, took the rest of day off

4/22
AM - 1200 warm up, 4k tempo @ 21:42 (splits of 8:43, 8:41, 4:18 last 800), 3 x 100m stride, 1200 cd.
PM - Weights.

So, over the course of  3 weeks, I was able to achieve a short term goal of comfortably running 20 minutes of tempo @ the pace predicted by my 6 minute test.  My next goal will be to comfortably extend that tempo effort out to 3 miles.  Once I can do that comfortably, I'll run another 6 minute test to establish a new, faster pace for my tempo runs and start the process all over again.

21 weeks is a long time to train on your own,  break it up into chunks, set small goals....you'll get to your big goals eventually.

COVID 19...No Track...Here Comes CROSS COUNTRY!!!

So, I'm changing the picture at the top of our team page to two of the greatest cross country runners in United States History. 

Pat Porter is the man
Lynn Jennings is the woman

Porter won 8 consecutive US Cross Country Championships.
Jennings won 9....and 3 World Championships

Both ran at a time when EVERYBODY ran in the national cross country meet (today, many of the top runners skip the national meet because they're pansies).

I'm putting them both up on top of the blog , in their muddy Nike gear because I want you all to think about the late fall, when it's starting to get cold and rainy and you are in great shape because you took this extra time to lay down a tremendous base for next year.

This is how the next 8 months are going to go down with the teams that we compete against.

• Many of the teams will fall apart without the daily motivation of seeing their teammates.  They will get to August completely out of shape.
• Some of the teams will be able to restart their programs during the summer, but will have lost a ton of fitness since we shut things down on March 18.
• A small number of teams whose athletes have the desire to be great and also have the sportsmanship, leadership,  and cameraderie to keep eachother motivated while they train themselves in isolation.....Those teams will be GREAT in the fall. 

Which one of those teams do you want to be? 

We finished last cross country season with about 25 boys who would be in the running to make our varsity top 7 in any given year.  Any one of those 25 could make the varsity top 7 this year.  It's just a matter of working for it.

We finished last year with most of our best girls as seniors.  They will not be back next year.  It's up to someone else to step up and fill the void.  Who will it be? 

Each one of you has a hand in determining where we will end up....and it's not just the projected top 7 who will determine it.  

• If you are going out and running on your own, you're making the team better even if you never score this fall.
• If you are texting your friends and encouraging them to run, you're making the team better, even if you never make the top 7.
• If you're reaching out to athletes that ran cross, but didn't run track, and encouraging them to run, you're making the team better.
• We're going to start keeping track of mileage again. You'll see I updated our mileage page

Most of you are safe to meet at a park or in front of the school to go for a run.  You just need to make sure to stay plenty far apart.  Huge shout out to the people I've seen out running in the last week or two.

Diego

Elizette

Silvano

Joe

Owen

Emely

I saw a girl in the distance, I think it was Perla

Marcos

You guys are studs!  Keep it up.

CoachB's Covid 19 Workouts

Hey guys. Time on my hands.  Trying to stay fit.  I thought maybe my training journal might motivate you.  Once it was announced that we were going to be out of school, I went back to keeping meticulous records of my training.  I'd eventually like to get back under 6 minutes for a mile....we'll see.  I said that last year but kept straining either my calf or my hamstring.  I had a brief hamstring tweak last week doing squats, but had a great run today.  I'll just have to be careful with squats not also :(

The day 1, day 4 stuff is from the 40 Workout Strength Challenge

here you go

Let's Run Some Time Trials

Hey guys. Let's try and keep our motivation up with a few periodic time trials.  See the video below for details.  Leave your results in the comments section below.

Here's a video of Erick doing a 600m time trial.  The goal for a 600 TT is to go out about 4-5 seconds slower than your 400 PR and then hang on. Erick PRed at 400 then tried to hang on.  He ended up with 1:36 after coming through in 57, oooof!  Should have gone out in 61

Home Strength Training Links From Coach K

Coach K sent me this email today. I'm passing it on to you guys.

Hi all,

 You need to continue your strength training even without a gym. I've been trying out some home bodyweight workouts and here they are.

Jeff Cavaliere was the Head Physical Therapist and Assistant Strength Coach for the New York Mets before going into private practice.

He still trains pro athletes while maintaining his Youtube channel for the masses.

Athlean-X

https://www.youtube.com/user/JDCav24/featured

The PERFECT Home Workout

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc1E5CfRfos&list=PLRS2DE4P39EdCAYKkWqPfd9b6ZeNodzz2&index=2&t=0s

Home Workout Survival Guide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpBikq-_E3o&list=PLRS2DE4P39EdCAYKkWqPfd9b6ZeNodzz2&index=24&t=0s

7 Most Explosive Home Exercises 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2nerwXm9d4&list=PLRS2DE4P39EdCAYKkWqPfd9b6ZeNodzz2&index=21&t=0s

Bodyweight/Home Workout Playlist

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRS2DE4P39EdCAYKkWqPfd9b6ZeNodzz2

Distance Athletes - Covid 19 Shutdown Guidelines.

Distance Athletes:

Well, we were off to a great start and as of today, based on the section comissioners message, there is still hope that we can salvage a partial season at the end of the school year.  Please see the guidelines below for training on your own during this time.

For the most part, your sessions should look like they have for the last 2-3 weeks with a couple of exceptions:

1. Since you won't be racing, you need to try and simulate the stress of a race periodically (no more than once per week).  
2. Since very long or very hard workouts temporarily weaken the immune system, you should avoid sessions like capillary runs or 90 minute long runs.
3. Because you have lots of extra time on your hands now, you should try to double more frequently, sleeep in longer, and take naps during the day.

I'm going to lay out the most important type of sessions for you in order of priority. 

1. Lactate Threshold - This is the single most important factor for events longer than 800m.  We've been doing capillary runs and sessions of 4-5min fartlek type intervals @ 85% vVO2 with 1 min rest.  You can continue to do the fartlek, but should drop the capillary runs.  Instead, you can finish 2-3 of your runs per week with up to 3 miles at 80% pace.
2. Aerobic Power -  You can develop aerobic power in many ways, but the standard plan is to run intervals of 2-4 minutes at 95%-100% of vVO2 max.  While the long sprint group might do these at 100% of 6 minute pace and take longer rest, your events lend themselves more to doing these at 95% of 6 minute test pace but taking shorter rest.  For example, you have done a couple of sessions of 6x800 @ 95% pace with 2 minutes rest, this is to develop Aerobic Power
3. Aerobic Endurance - In all honesty, this factor could still be listed as number one on our list.  You gain aerobic endurance by doing your distance runs.  Your easy mileage should still make up the backbone of your training.  Focus on doing runs of 30-50 minutes at an easy pace to maintain the aerobic endurance you've built.  Once again, I'm asking you to break up what otherwise might be a day with a 70 minute single run to a day with a 40 minute run and a 50 minute run. 
4. Anaerobic Endurance (Lactate Tolerance) - We have not done much of this training yet, but the ability to tolerate high levels of lactic acid in the blood is crucial to racing performance.  Usually, we address this through racing.  All of those early seaosn 1600m and 3200m races also serve as a great training stimulus.  Since we aren't racing, you guys need to address this in training.  The 20x200m workout at mile pace with 30-40 seconds rest is as session designed to develop lactate tolerance.  Another session is the 5-4-3-2-1.  For this session, run 5 minutes then 4, 3, 2, and 1.  Take only 45 seconds rest between each rep and measure the total distance you covered during the course of the workout.  You should aim for about 2 mile race pace.  So, an athlete capable of running 3200 in 10:00, should be able to cover 4800m in this workout.  The first time you do this session, it will suck.
5. General Fitness and Speed you should continue to do the workouts CoachK has had you doing.  Sessions like Dragon and Minotaur are also great.  Throw in striders at about 800m race pace into your runs a couple times a week or do some easy pre-meet style 200s at the end of some of your easy days.  

Putting it all together (14 day block)

There are too many factors to fit into a one week block.  Most elite athetetes train in 10-14 day blocks (or microcycles as we call them in the biz).  For the most part, you guys have been on a 14 day block this year.

Week 1 (Key Sessions Only)

• Aerobic Power - Example 6 x 600-1k @ 95% vV02 max, 2 minutes rest.
• Lactate Threshold - Finish 2-3 runs a week with 2-3 miles of 80% vVO2 max pace.
• General Fitness and Speed - 6 x 200 @ 800m race pace with 90 seconds recovery, Dragon, Minotaur.

Week 2 (Key Sessions Only)

• Anaerobic Endurance - Example: 5-4-3-2-1 workout OR 1.5 mile time trial, rest 15 minutes, 1200m time trial. 
• Lactate Threshold - Finish 2-3 runs a week with 2-3 miles of 80% vVO2 max pace.
• General Fitness and Speed - 6 x 200 @ 800m race pace with 90 seconds recovery, Dragon, Minotaur.

The rest of your sessions you should fill in with easy running, strides, drills, lunges, stretching.....Remember, for your group, Mileage = Champions.