8/28 update

Braves,

I can confidently say that this past week was our best yet. We worked hard on Monday and followed that up with some great performances at the pre-region meet on Tuesday. We have been very happy with the level of commitment at practice and at the race this week. We repeat this a lot, but being at practice every day ready and willing to work is crucial to what we are trying to accomplish. The results from the pre-region race were encouraging. They showed us that if we are able to put in the level of work that we did this week, each week, then both our teams have a chance to qualify for state. For that to happen we need to continue to train hard, be healthy, and get more racing experience.

One of the highlights from Tuesday’s race was seeing Kiwi sprint to catch up to Leslie (even if that was originally done because she didn’t realize where the finish line was…). The two of them pushed each other over the final 200m and finished better than they otherwise would have. It is effort similar to that, not just in meets but in practices as well, that will propel our team to its goal.  After the race, amidst exhaustion, there was a number of people who we heard say, “that was fun!” I completely agree; racing is fun when you give your all. Cross Country is fun when you give your full effort each day at practice or in a race. This season is a journey and I hope we remember to enjoy it all one day at a time.

Remember that if something is hurting, make sure to ice it every day. Make sure to communicate your aches and pains to us so we can monitor them. Sometimes it won’t be a big deal to run through it, but other times we will want you to cross train or rest.

We have two races this week. We race on Wednesday in Ogden and Friday at Utah State. For times and addresses please refer to our team website. On Wednesday you will be excused at 1:30 and Friday at 1:20. Those who will be racing varsity on Friday can go to Wednesday’s meet, but won’t be racing 100%, we’ll have you do a run before and maybe after to get a different type of workout in.

We have uploaded a bunch of pictures from the meets onto the website, and if any of you have pictures you have taken at meets feel free to upload them there as well. The website is www.bravesxc.blogspot.com and the pictures link is on the side of the page called “2016 pictures.”

We appreciate all you are doing. We know it can be challenging to balance school, xc, and other responsibilities, but it is worth it. Make sure you continue to eat right and get plenty of sleep each night (8 hours or more). Get some good rest this weekend and we look forward to getting back at it on Monday.

Coach Jacobson

Coach Caitlin

8/21 update

Braves,

Recap>preparation>team expectations>Tuesday race information>season vision

This final week of no school was an interesting one with our first race on Thursday. Those of you who went and competed showed a ton of effort. As Coach and I stood near the finish line to see each of you finish we saw your expressions as you rounded the turn. Everyone looked exhausted from the effort you had been putting in. Even with the evident fatigue, somehow you still managed to finish strong over the last few hundred meters. It is that kind of effort that you put in on race day that needs to be shown in practice day after day which will carry us to our goals at the end of the season. Use that effort in everything you do and you will find success.

As classes begin on Wednesday make sure you start strong and prepared. A lot of you are new to Cross Country so balancing your classes will be different from what you have done in the past. Make sure to manage your time wisely so that you stay on top of your school work while still being at practice every day, fulfilling your other responsibilities, AND getting enough sleep each night. Sometimes it can seem like a lot, but when you break it down one day at a time and one week at a time I know you can do it.

Now that school is starting our team should finally be at full strength as people get back from vacations or summer jobs. It will be nice having everyone there each day. With all the races we have coming up we only have a few days to prepare each week. We have planned our schedule so that we have enough days to work and improve while still getting the race experiences needed; the races and workouts will work together to help you be as fast as you can be by the end of the season. If all we did was race we would plateau very quickly.

In an effort to avoid that problem while rewarding those who are at practice each day, we won’t be able to enter those into races who are missing practices. We cannot skip practice then expect to race the next time. We decided this as a coaching staff after last track season when kids wouldn’t practice but would suddenly be on the bus when we were going to a meet. This is not being said because of any of you; you have been great. A few kids missed most of last week but still raced and that was just fine because we knew people would be out of town with summer, so that is not a problem. Now that school is beginning we simply cannot be missing practices and then expect to race. Frankly it would be unfair to this team, especially your teammates who are counting on you to allow anyone to skip practices then show up to race.

That being said, we understand that many of you are involved in other activities so we know you may miss from time to time. If you let me know via email or text (through the reminder app) before practice, we can work it out for you to still race. Please don’t just tell me at practice that you won’t be there a certain day though, because my brain gets too distracted at practice to convert that information into long term memory. I need to read it through email or text to fully process it. We also understand that injuries are a fact of the sport and some of you have a few ailments. Still come to practice even if you are hurt so that we can monitor how you are feeling. We will either have you not workout or we will have you cross train so you still get some cardio work in. Having battled through injuries we understand that it is extremely frustrating and delicate, so we aren’t going to just make you run through something that requires rest.

As a member of the team we need you there at practice each day. Cross Country is obviously a unique sport where the team counts on each individual member. Practice is where we improve as a team, and working with the group motivates us to be better, not just for ourselves but for the people around us who are also sacrificing for our team. Each of you contributes to our team, and when you miss a practice the dynamic changes. The team needs each member, and each member needs the team. We are lucky to have a team that is great to be around and who works hard. Let’s get to work each day, enjoy the moments running together, and when we have a full bus coming home from state we can look back proudly at what we accomplished as a TEAM.

I neglected to share in the email last week who are team captains are. The team chose Amelia, Blake, Braden, Dallin, Emmie, and Laurie as captains. Though any number of you could have done an outstanding job as a team captain, these six are excellent examples of hard work, drive, dedication, and determination. Look to them as examples of how we want our team to be in this season, and in the years to come.

As you know we are next racing on Tuesday. The bus will be leaving at 1:50 (assuming it arrives on time). If the bus is on time, we will be leaving from the fieldhouse at 1:50. A few of you would have missed the bus had it done been late last week. We will leave without you if you are late simply because we need to allow for plenty of time to get to the meet (drivers have gotten lost before) and get warmed up before the races.

This race is pre region, so we will only be competing against the other schools from our region. It is going to seem like a really small meet compared to Thursday. This is going to be a fun meet because it will show how we match up against the other schools. Our team goal is to qualify both our boys and girls teams for State – something that hasn’t been done in a number of years at BHS, and not since our region changed, which added a few powerful teams. As the season progresses we will talk with our captains and try and set few more specific goals for our team. In order to qualify for state we need to place in 4^th or better as a team at region on October 7^th. The region race will be at the course we run on Tuesday. No matter what our team results are on Tuesday we will understand that we have a ton of work to do to get ready for region. It’s going to be fun to see how we match up early in the season with the other teams.

As we said before, our philosophy is to peak around Region and State. We are not trying to peak by Tuesday. With that in mind, we are going to practice reasonably hard on Monday. In the short term (on Tuesday, for instance) this may cause you to not feel as fresh as you might like, but that is by design. We work hard early in the season, taper at the end, and then we’ll be ready to roll in October. With so many races, if we don’t run hard before meets early in the season then the tapering at the end of the season will be much less effective.

This week is going to be great. Practice on Monday is at 2:30. Bus Tuesday is at 1:50. After school practices will begin at 2:40, (Junior high kids will begin at 3:15).

If you haven’t clicked on this link to see the schedule for the season I encourage you to do so and bookmark it. On the right side of the page it says 2016 pictures, I have uploaded the pictures from the meet on Thursday that I took, so go take a look at those. Any of you, parents or athletes, who take pictures at a meet feel free to add them to that page. It’s a very simple drag and drop process.

Have a great weekend, the Olympic men’s Marathon is Sunday morning at 6:30 and my friend Jared Ward is racing so tune in if you can. See you Monday!

Coach Caitlin

Coach Jacobson

8/14 update

Braves,

We have a lot of announcements in this email, so be sure to read it thoroughly.

Minicamp was extremely successful and we were able to put in a lot of miles and get used to running in the afternoons as well. Now that summer training is behind us we will begin our typical school day and race routine. Our first race is on Thursday of this week. We will let you know if you are running JV or Varsity on Monday or Tuesday of this week. At the end of the email I will include the names of who has been entered in the meet. If you won’t be here to race, please let me know TODAY so I can take you out and we don’t have to pay the entry fee for you, or worse, lose a varsity spot. The bus will leave for the meet at 3:15. We will meet at the field house to be picked up, and we should be back a little after 7. The course for this meet is the state course, so we have a nice opportunity early in the year to get experience on it.

In order to be prepared for the meet, we will be issuing uniforms after practice on Monday. You need to have completed register my athlete and paid the fee in the office to be able to race, so please take care of those. I keep forgetting to mention this, but it is something that will be extremely helpful for you. I recommend investing in a pair of racing flats. Racing flats are smaller and lighter than training shoes and typically have a space where you can put in spikes. They still have rubberized bottoms, unlike track spikes, but they can have spikes inserted into them. The advantage of having racing flats is they are lighter, faster, and more agile. You wouldn’t train in racing flats (except to break them in, or on pre-race days) because they aren’t meant to endure the rigors of season long training, but they are great for racing. A good place to get racing flats would be Wasatch running in Centerville. I usually recommend that store because of their selection and the discount that they give BHS athletes. Just tell them you run for Bountiful and they give you a discount. Striders in Layton is also a good store. I often recommend against online stores because you don’t have the chance to try them on and verify that they fit your foot well.

Practice this upcoming week will be 2 PM each day except Thursday because of the race and Friday might be a different time, so stay tuned for that. The reason we are going into afternoons now is so that we are used to the heat. Make sure to bring your water so you can hydrate between sets. After Monday you did a lot better and not stopping during sets to drink, and that will be very helpful in our heat preparation.

There has been a slight change to our meet schedule. On Sept. 9 we are no longer going to the Murray invitational. The reason for that is so that we can run hard on the Wednesday before, which is also at the state course, and then be ready to run the next Wednesday at our district meet. Ultimately it will allow us to get 2 quality races in with plenty of rest instead of cramming 3 races in 7 days and wear us down. We are also going to add a meet on either Friday the 2^nd in the afternoon OR Saturday the 3^rd in the morning. We will decide which of those we will be attending by the middle of this week. If you would like to check the schedule and find out where the meet for this Thursday is, please see http://bravesxc.blogspot.com/p/2016-schedule.html

We have had a very productive summer training, but we still have a lot of work to do. Remember that our team goal of qualifying for state is a process that isn’t accomplished just at the region meet. Though we qualify at the region meet, the process started back in June and will continue until the end of the season. We are on the right track, but we need each member of our team to step up and increase their level, so that our team can make that jump. This is an awesome and uncommon group, so we must take advantage of it.

Here is who is competing on Thursday, if your name is not on the list but you would like to compete, send me an email and we will see if we can get you in. If you are on the list but are not going to be there, let me know ASAP so I can take you off. Thanks, See you Monday at 2!

Coach Caitlin

Coach Jacobson

Isabelle Barlow                 

                Leslie     Brand                   

                Emmie  Dyer                     

                Kiwi        Hogan                  

                Victoria Jones                   

                Kaela     McPheters         

                Sadee   Pack                      

                Anna Sophia       Rorrer Warner                  

                Kamora Wayman                             

Tyson    Fox                        

                Andrew Hess                    

                John      Hess                     

                Ben        Liston                   

                David     Miller                   

                Stratton Tidwell               

                Gabe     Ure                       

                Justin    Wood   

Ryan      Giebel                  

                Luke      Hughes                

                Dallin     Mason                 

                Daniel   Mason                 

                Blake     Nielson                

                Ryan      Roodbol              

                Aaron    Stanley 

8/7 update

Braves,

Monday is the beginning of Mini Camp. This is the first week that we will track attendance, and it will help determine who letters at the end of the season. I understand that some of you will be out of town, so let me know if that is the case and we can work it out where you will still be able to letter. Plan on minicamp being strenuous, but you will be better for it. On the days we practice twice we will being doing a run in the morning.

The schedule for next week will be as follows: Monday @7:30 & 2:30, Tuesday @7:30, Wednesday @7:30 & 2:30, Thursday @7:30 & 2:30, Friday @ 7:30.

Monday morning is a team picture we will be taking for the football program this fall. I hope most of you can make it for that.

On Wednesday we will be having a “time trial” of sorts. It will be a 4 mile run, but we want you to go out and give it your all. We will be using that in our considerations of who will be on the varsity or jv teams to begin the year. It won’t be the only factor, obviously, because it is only one workout, but it will help make the picture a bit more clear.

Friday you will vote for the team captains this season.

A few of you have not finished register my athlete. Some of you still need to get physicals. At this point it is late and we are hoping the state doesn’t crack down on late registrations. It absolutely has to be done before the first race, or we cannot enter you.

The first race is going to be on Thursday the 18^th. That is less than two weeks away. Exciting times are upon us. Honestly we are so excited for the season to get rolling. If you are not going to be in town for that first race, let me know so I don’t enter you and waste that entry money on someone who isn’t going to be here. Some of you have already told me you won’t be around, but please tell me again, by responding to this email, so I can make sure I have it correct.

I have attached here the order form for clothes this season. If you want to order something, please pay in the office. Any checks should be made out to Bountiful High but make sure they know that it is for cross country clothes order. Do not bring me any money because I will just direct you to the office. The items on here are just options for you; you do not have to order anything. You can order none, one, or many items, it is all the same to us. If you do want something bring the order form and the receipt to me by Wednesday after the morning practice. I’m going to submit the order by 10 AM on Wednesday, so have everything in by then.

Everything we have done all summer has been a huge stepping stone for the next month or so of training, all to be ready for this season, particularly region, which is where we have a chance to qualify both teams for state. It is not an easy goal, but one that we can attain if you put in the work. Prepare yourselves to take it up another level. You’re ready.

Enjoy the Olympics this next week in your free time.

Coach Caitlin

Coach Jacobson