7/3 update

Braves,

Thanks for a great week. Monday we had an awesome tempo run and it was great to see how hard each of you was working to push the pace. Wednesday we saw impressive commitment to doing each of the four sets of mile then 800. That kind of effort and commitment will help you be successful. There was a good turn out on Friday for our trail run, and I hope that inspires you to do your distance runs on your own every day. It can be difficult to get up for early practice, but a lot of you have been doing it consistently all summer long. You’re doing a fantastic job at being dedicated and we commend you for that. It is difficult enough to get up that early, and it is a whole other difficulty to prepare yourself to work hard once you get to practice. For the most part everyone is giving their all day in and day out. As mentioned before, that it was creates success. Let’s keep it rolling.

We are halfway through summer. It is unbelievable how quickly it is going, and in a very short time you will either be regretting not running on the days that we haven’t met, or you will be extremely glad that you did. Building a base is fundamental (no pun intended) to success is XC and track. What we do when we meet is absolutely not enough to build a proper base. If you are running on your own as well then what we do will help you be successful. Now is the time to commit yourself to running on your own if you haven’t been, and to increase your weekly mileage if you have been. Our job as coaches is not to criticize you when you haven’t been putting in the proper work, but to encourage you to do so, to be better, and to commit yourself to excellence.

With that in mind, send me your running logs from this past week. Very few of you have been sending them to us and that is disappointing. Even if you have not been running on your own, please send it to me. I am not looking for an opportunity to criticize or call you out for not putting in enough miles, because you already know what you should be doing. We just want to know what you are doing so you can be accountable. So send those to me as soon as you can.

This coming week is Moratorium so there is NO PRACTICE all week. We will resume practices on Monday, 7/11 at the usual time and place. Just because there is no team practice today does not mean you should not run, because you definitely need to be running. Feel free to meet up with your teammates and go for a run. I would discourage doing any intervals this week. Don’t go do mile repeats on your own at the track, even though that sounds like a blast. Use this week to get in a lot of miles on the roads or the trails. Vary your routes, paces, and times. Enjoy your week off, though, we will miss you guys. It has been a blast so far coaching this group because of the positivity and hard work you have been putting in. Thank you for that.

So many of you deserve to be highlighted in these emails but I can’t get to everyone. Laurie has been working hard all year, and this week she stood out. She was there each day ready to put her full effort in. Even when it was obvious that she was tired or hurting she still was going full effort. Often we feel tired during one part of a run, race, or workout and we let that defeat us for the rest of the way. Laurie bounced back well from some difficult stretches to finish the rest of the workout hard. That kind of mental toughness is key to improving as an athlete and a person. On the boys side Braden came and worked hard and stepped up. I’ve been impressed with the effort he has put in the last month. Honestly, from two months ago during track season to now, he looks like a completely different runner. Our hope is that each of you can feel that as the days and weeks pass, that you have become a different athlete. As you work hard each day and overcome the difficult stretches you will get there.

Our season pictures will be posted to the link below. The link can also be found on our website. If you take any pictures you can just drag and drop them onto this page so we have pictures of the season. It will be easier to take pictures once we start getting into racing season. I have uploaded a few from our practices if you want to take a look. https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMe1CwlaYOXlM0N_6R_pxkaGBvT63EAG8Z31wgCcjSEDZEM6CTNDhT8gnmJM6E59g?key=SkNkQjU2eWE3V1JyU2FjY2NqUllhTDVtd2NiRm1B

Thank you for all that you do. We are proud of this group and are excited to hit the next half of our summer training. We hope you all enjoy your independence day. We are going camping with our two month old so wish us luck. If we look like zombies next week at practice you’ll know how it went.

Coach Caitlin &

Coach Jacobson