Summer 2021

 

Time to Get Back To Basics

OK team.  Over the past year, we've let a lot of things slip.  The most important thing we've lost is the institutional knowledge of how to be serious about what we're doing and still have fun at the same time.  A number of you have begun to think it's OK to NOT PAY ATTENTION to important instructions or interrupt me or your teammates when we're making legtimate points.

This will stop now.  

The things that have made this team so special over the past 5-6 years are:

1. Our attention to a positive team culture where everyone shows everyone else respect
2. Our ability to find joy in doing the training necessary to reach the level of succes to which we've become accustomed.  

If you cannot do the two things above, or if you think that whatever you have to say is so important that you can ignore me or your teammates to have some sort of lame side conversation during team meetings, you do not need to be on this team.  

Summer Training Makes Fall Champions

We used to have shirts with the above slogan printed on them.  I've gone away from talking about championships in the past.  I'd rather learn to LOVE THE PROCESS than continuously talk about winning titles as if that is the only goal worth having.  

That being said, my teams have won more titles during my time at HHS than all the other sports put together.  If you love the process, love your teammates and treat them with respect, I promise you that you will find success.

Let's take a look at the summer training on this spreadsheet

• The primary stimulus is the main effort of the week.  You will certainly need an easy day after this day.  
• The secondary stimulus is a session that will be challenging, but not as draining as the primary stimulus.
• The speed development day should feel relatively easy and you should be able to go hard the next day. 

Summer Schedule

I understand that not all of you will make all of our practices.  You will travel with your families, work, or potentially have summer school.  The beauty of distance running is that if you are motivated and enjoy the process, you can train effectively on your own.  David McKay spent the summer of 2003 in the Netherlands with his mom's family and came back to win the TVL opener, the TVL Championship, and place 3rd in the Sac Joaquin Section.

That being said.  Summer running is usually easier and more fun when you do it with teammates.  So, here's our schdule

June: 14th, 16th, 17th, 21st, 23rd, 24th, 28th, 30th, 

July: 1st, 5th, 7th, 8th, 12th, 14th, 15th, 

Camp will run from July 19th to July 24th at Twin Bridges, CA  The top 7 boys and top 7 girls from the summer program will be invited to make the trip to camp.  Those who do not make the trip to camp enter the 2 week black out period where we don't have team practices.  

Official day one of practice begins on August 2nd.  School begins August 9th.  

Summer mileage begins June 7th and ends September 14th. 

What do the Best Teams Do? 

It's super easy to find out the answer to that question these days.  The internet is a wonderful tool for learning and sharing information about our sport.  Take a look at the video below to get an idea of how the top 2 teams in the United States prepared for the 2019 season.  

TVL/SAL Meet #1

FINALLY 

After months of on again, off again practice, school and training, we've finally got a REAL CROSS COUNTRY MEET under our belts!

Hughson Boys Lead the JV Pack

The Stanislaus County members of the Southern League and Trans Valley League met up at Diblo Grande for our first of 3 meets this year.  Hughson showed off the fitness we've been slowly developing over the last year by winning every division: JV Boys, JV girls, Varsity Boys, and Varsity Girls.  

Our JV boys were led by Ezra Arambula and Hudson Conners, who both set 2 mile PRs of 12:05.  Ezra and Hudson were pushed early on by Logan Prescott of Denair, but eventually pulled away to win by 46 seconds.  

Conners and Arambula lead Prescott just prior to the 1 mile mark

Our JV girls were led by Maggie Scarioni and Julie Parks, who also both set PRs on the day.  

Julie, Maggie and Jocelyn lead the JV girls

In the Varsity Boys race, Joe Lighthall led 9 Hughson runners into the top 12 overall.  Joe was joined early by Evan Espinoza, a 4:47 miler from Waterford High.  Eventually Lighthall pulled away to win by 40 seconds, while Espinoza was overtaken by Brian Campos of Hughson for second. 

Lighthall and Espinoza approaching the mile mark. 

The varsity girls race was the one competition where we did not have the individual race winner, as 2 tough runners from Waterford, Carmen Figueroa and Monica Gutierrez, led from start to finish.  However, our girls packed well, taking places 3-7 to easily win the team competition. A resurgant Camille Haupt led our girls, in the absensce of normal #1 runner Taylor Scheuber, who was nursing a lower leg injury.

Camille (1205) leads our girls' pack

It was very gratifying to see our kids experience the success that comes from persevering through challenging circumstances.  I'm very proud of this group. GO HUSKIES!

MEET RESULTS

A full recap of all the Stanislaus Country Cross Country action can be found at the StanCo Blog

HHS Team Store

 Hey Guys! Our Team Store is up and running. 

These items are 35% off the list price and a portion of each sale goes back to the team

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!