Hughson Fall Sports Awards Night

 Hello Cross Country Parents and Athletes.

We've come to the end of another great season.  This season saw our Varsity Girls and JV Boys capture more TVL titles to add to the team's impressive collection.  Now it's time for us to get together one last time to celebrate all of our athletes' accomplishments.  

The fall sports awards night will be at 6:00 PM tomorrow evening.  The fall teams will meet in the theater at 6:00 PM for academic awards, and then we'll split off to the Cafeteria for our team awards.  All athletes who finished the season up to TVL finals, and their families are welcome to come.  

We'll be doing a potluck dinner, so please see below for what to bring

Seniors: Bring Drinks (enough for 12-16 people....there aren't very many of you)

Juniors: Bring Desserts

Sophomores: Bring a side dish (salad, fruits, potato salad, etc....)

Freshmen: Bring a main dish (enough for 4-8 people).  

If you have not done so already, please return your uniform at the banquet or during school on Monday.  

Supercross Volunteers Needed

Supercross Is Just Under 3 Weeks Away

If you're new to our team, this is by far our biggest fundraiser of the year.  We have 46 cross country teams coming from all over California to race on our very own cross country course that starts and finishes in our stadium.  The meet is a lot of fun, but needeless to say, WE NEED A LOT OF HELP!

Please navigate to this Sign Up Genius, to see where you can help out

Here's a promo video I had made a few years ago.  ENJOY!

Racing Shoes on Sale!

 Lance Armstrong once said, "It's not about the bike".

It's not about the shoes either, it's about getting in the best shape possible.  However........

Once you start getting in good shape, it makes a lot of sense to invest in a decent pair of racing shoes.  While the biggest gains in racing come from hard training and proper nutrition and recovery, a good pair of racing shoes can still provide a boost of up to 10 seconds per mile.

I'm including a couple of links to online shoe retailers who have closeout specials going.  The shoes are sorted from cheapest to most expensive.  Warning, the cheapest shoes are very limited in size availablity . 

Dick Pond Athletics.  - The sizes on this site are pretty Limited.  The Nike Zoom Victory is a great spike, but it's not cheap, even at blowout prices. 

First to the Finish - I like the Kilkenny shoe, but the sizes are limited.  There seems like a pretty good size selection on the Asics Resurgence Spike.  Don't by the Hyper LD6.  It's a track spike.  

Week 16 Workouts

 Hey Team.  

I'm going to start posting our weekly sessions on the blog on Sundays. This way if you need to run in the mornings.  

Here is Week 16

ALSO.  No morning workout this week.  With the temperature coming back down, I don't see a need to do the morning sessions.  

Snack Bar Volunteers and Raffle Ticket Sellers Needed

 Hi Team

We have our annual snack bar duty.  We need PARENT volunteers to work the snack bar and STUDENT volunteers to sell raffle tickets.  This is a great fundraising opportunity for us. Money made at the snack bar funds the booster club, who buys our uniforms.  Money made on the raffle goes directly to our program.  Please sign up for one or two shifts. 

Parent Snack Bar Sign Up

Athlete Raffle Ticket Sign Up

Practice Schedule - 8/2-8/10

Practice Times: 7:00 AM AND 3:00 PM

The main session will be in the morning.  The afternoon session will be specifically for heat acclimation.  

Wed - 8/2

• AM: Easy run + drills + top speed
• PM: Warm up + drills + weights

Thu - 8/3

• AM: 40 min tempo or 20 min threshold + 4 x 200 depending on the athlete
• PM: Warm up + wickets + Core

Fri - 8/4

• AM: Easy mileage + Weights
• PM: Off or OYO

Sat - 8/5

• Long Run (20-25% of weekly volume

Sun - 8/6

• Off or easy mileage as needed for weekly volume

Mon - 8/7

• AM: 6 minute test + long WU and CD
• PM: Easy run + weights + stretch series

Tue - 8/8

• AM: Easy run 30-60 min
• PM: Shake out run + stretch series

Wed - 8/9

• AM: Easy Run + Drills + Speed
• PM: Warm up + drills + weights + Stretch Series

Thu - 8/10

• AM: Varsity only - Warm up + drills + 24 min threshold + 4 x 300
• PM: Warm up + 20 min threshold + 4 x 300 (varsity easy run) + Stretch series

Other Important Early Season Dates

8/16: Black and Gold Intrasquad Meet

8/25: Screamin' Scott Scrimmage (Friday Evening)

9/6: TVL Opener

9/8: Snack Bar and Raffle Sale at home football game (Mandatory for Woodbridge kids)

Team Physicals

 Hello Team!

If you have not gotten your physical yet, now is your chance to get one for FREE..

Please follow this link for info on how to register.  Physicals are on 8/2 from 8:30-11:30 AM

Athletic Clearance Update

 A number of you have gotten your athletic clearances updated

Thank you!  However, we still have a way to go

Please view this spreadsheet summary of our athletic clearances 

• Green means you're cleared for the entire season
• Yellow means you're currently cleared, but your clearance will expire before the end of the season
• Red means you are not cleared, or your clearance will expire before the first day of practice on 8/7/23

If you are Red or Yellow, you may not attend camp until you are green

If you are red, you may not start practice on 8/7

If your physical expires before September, you may not start practice until you are green

Physicals - Home Campus

 All High School Sports Require That Athletes be Cleared to Play.

Hey team.  I'm a bit disappointed.  I arranged a team physical for you for a very reasonable price, where all of the procedes would go back to the team account.....pretty good deal, right?!  Well, LESS THAN 1/3 OF YOU HAVE UPLOADED A PHYSICAL TO HOME CAMPUS!!!!!

You will not be able to attend camp with us nor start official practices until this is taken care of.  Here's what you need to do

Step 1: Go get a physical.  If your doctor cannot get you in in a timely manner, there are a number of local chiropractors that will do it for a reasonable cost

• Hughson Chriropractic - 883-0415
• Lutes Chirpractic - 538-4500
• Crawford Chiropractic - 216-5588

Step 2:  Take a digital photo of both sides of your form and upload it to home campus. (Please print the form and take it with you to the appointment)

• Follow the home campus link above.
• Click California
• Log In (or create a new account if you've never done this before)
• The process takes about 15 minutes.  You'll need your insurance information to complete the registration.  

You are a team of high performing people.

BUT FOOTBALL IS KILLING YOU WHEN IT COMES TO GETTING KIDS CLEARED. Stew on that for a while.  

Sign up for Track Meet Donations and Volunteer Slots

Remember, participation is Mandatory in order to be eligible for CAMP and WOODBRIDGE.

Sign up here for Snack Bar Donations

Please use this link to Sign Up Genius to volunteer to bring items for the snack bar.  Most items were picked from Costco Inventory.  

Sign up for shifts to work the snack bar

Please use this link to Sign Up Genius to volunteer to work in the snack bar on the days of the meet.  Each shift is 4 hours and we would like at least 4 people per shift

Huge Fundraising Opportunity

USATF Youth Track and Field Meet to be Held at HHS.

Hey team.  I've been contacted by members of USA Track and Field who are looking for a place to hold one of their meets.  The dates of the meet are

July 15

July 16.  

This is a great opportunity for us on 2 counts:  First and foremost, this is a HUGE opportunity for us to raise funds by running a snack bar.  I've spoken to the person in charge and he says we can expect up to 1,000 athletes for the 2 day meet.  Kids and parents at a meet for 2 days tend to purchase a LOT of food.  Second.  This is an opportunity for OUR athletes to compete, if they so choose.  

Fundraising

As most of you know, we no longer have access to the Brooks family cabin at Echo Summit for our camp.  This means that I've had to rent a cabin for this years camp.  The rental has completely drained our account.  

If you are planning on going to camp, you will need to help with this snackbar fundraiser.  I am making participation in this fundraiser MANDATORY for athletes in order to attend camp AND in order to go on the Woodbridge trip.  The selection criteria for camp and the Woodbridge trip will remain the same, however, non-participation in this fundraiser will disqualify you from both trips.

This is what will be required

1. A donation of food or drinks to the snackbar.  This does not have to be a huge donation.  We can turn a 5 dollar case of water into a 35 dollar profit.  I will be putting out a list of items we'd like donated.  Please choose AT LEAST ONE DONATION ITEM from the list.  Items should not exceed $20.00.  If you'd like to donate more than one item, we would of course welcome that.  Any items donated are items we don't have to pay for from the team account and simply add to the teams profit.  
2. You or a family memeber working at least one shift in the snack bar.  Shifts will be 4 hours and I'll be looking for at least 5 people per shift.  

We will need more help and donations than just the small percentage of the team that is going to camp can provide.  I am asking all of you to at least consider volunteering and donating.

I will be sending out a couple of sign up genius registration links within the next couple of days. 

Competition

This will be a fun, low stress opportunity for any HHS athlete that wants to compete.  I will have information in the next few days on how to sign up.  

First Day of Summer Practice! 6/12/23

 Hey team!  Tomorrow is the first day of summer workouts. I will not be there this week, as I'm still with my family in Iceland.  Coach K will be in charge.  He will have detailed plans for the week.  I'm posting a brief outline.

OK, guys here's the week.  Experienced runners, this should be a 80%-90% week. You know what that means.  New runners.  On the days we don't come to practice, you should just try to do a little jogging on your own.  If you can do a mile, that's great!  If 3 miles is easy, then do that.  If running 1 lap around the track is tough, then just try to do that......the point is, know where you are at and then just try to make that level comfortable before progressing to anything more.

Experienced runners should aim for an easy shakeout in the afternoon's on the day's we practice

Monday: 

If you're new you will run a 400m time trial after the warm up.  Then you'll do some lunges, push ups, sit ups, etc.....

If you're a returning athlete, you'll do a 6 minute test.  Then you'll do some lunges, push ups, sit ups, etc.....

Wednesday:

All athletes will do a brief warm up.  Experienced athletes will lead everyone though the "track team" warm up.  (Lap jog, walking wu, atomic wu).  Then experienced athletes will do 3 miles easy + 10 x stadium ramp.  New athletes will just do 10 x stadium ramps.  These should be done FAST with an easy walk down recovery

Thursday:

Warm up together, like Wednesday.  Experienced athletes then do 1 mile easy, progressing to moderate, then 3 x 50 stride then 24 minute tempo on the roads (out 12, back 12) and record the distance.  1 mile CD.  

While the experienced runners are doing the tempo run, new runners will run a 1200m time trial

Training Groups

For right now, break yourselves into the following groups

• Group 1 - Returning athletes who ran distance the previous year in track OR, have been back to running for at least 2 weeks
• Group 2 - Returning athletes who did a sport other than distance in track during the spring and have not started back to running yet.
• Group 3 - Returning athletes who have not done anything since last cross country season
• Group 4 - Brand new athletes to the cross country team at HHS who have had some running experince (ie, local 5k, middle school track) OR who have recently played sports like soccer, or basketball
• Group 5 - Brand new athletes to HHS cross country who have never played a sport before.  

These groups will change as the summer goes on and as we learn more about your strengths and weaknesses.  

HOKA Summer Mileage Club

 Hey Team.

Hoka has gotten on board with something we've been doing for 25 years....a summer mileage club.  Check these instructions for how to register and get free gear.  

Joe Lighthall - State Champion!

 I'm sure you've all already heard, but Joe Lighthall became Hughson's first ever Track and Field State Champion last Saturday at the 103rd California State Track and Field Championship at Buchanan High School in  Clovis.  

Here's a video of the race.  

Joe's still training for Nike Outdoor Nationals and then later in the summer, the USA Track and Field U20 Championships.  He'll be out training with us during summer in order to stay ready.

Here's a video of a workout he just did this morning!

Team Physicals - June 2nd.

June 2nd

3:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Wrestling Room at HHS 

Hey Team.  We've got the opportunity for you to get team physicals for CHEAP.  

Crawford Chiropractic will be conducting physicals on Friday June 2nd from 3 pm - 6:00 PM in the wrestling room at Hughson High School.  The cost is $25 dollars and Dr. Crawford will donate 100% of the money back to the teams at HHS.  This is a no lose scenario for us at Hughson Cross Country

Remember, you will need a physical this year, so you may as well get one CHEAP  and have all of the money go back to our team.

I hope you all take advantage of this opportunity.