6/25 update

Braves, 

We have been having so much fun coaching this group this year that I have lost track of time. I can't believe we have one week until our summer moratorium - meaning we won't be practicing the week of July 2nd to the 8th. Practices will resume as usual on July 10th. 

It feels like summer is almost over, but it also feels like it just started. In a sense both are correct. Summer training is about two months long, which is an extremely short amount of time when you consider your 36-48 months of high school athletics. For you seniors, your time to take advantage of the training is running out; use this time wisely so you leave with no regrets. For you younger athletes, working hard while you're still young will allow you to reach new heights both this year and in years to come. As I type this we are watching the USATF championships in Sacramento (my claim to fame is that I raced at that facility my sophomore year at Weber). The top runners in the NCAA and professionally only got there from turning days of hard work into weeks, months, and years. Your potential as a runner does not show instantly, so stay patient with yourselves, but continue working hard each day. No matter where you are in age or ability, find a way to take the next month of training to the next level, push yourself to truly reach your potential. As we have said before, your contribution to the team has nothing to do with how fast you are, and has everything to do with your dedication, your work ethic day in and day out, and your attitude. You can't always be the best runner, but you can be your best each day, and that's what matters. 

The schedule for this week will be the same as the others. We will let you know where we are meeting for Friday's practice. Thank you to those who have been out of town and let me know beforehand. We know there will be times when you are out of town, just make sure you keep putting in miles. This week we want to get 4-5 more miles than we got last week, so keep that in mind during your runs on non-practice days.

Looking forward to another fun week. On Friday we will mix in something fun for the workout (ultimate frisbee is one idea) as a kick off to the moratorium.

Coach Jacobson 

6/18 update

Braves,

It’s crazy to think that we are already half way through the month of June. We have a lot of work to do to continue to improve this summer. Focus on improving yourself one day at a time. If we can get better day after day, then we are going to see some great results this fall. We are very impressed with how hard you have been working, especially those who are new to the sport. Jumping in to xc can be very challenging, but you have stepped up to that challenge. On Friday we ran to elephant rock, and though a few came back with scraped knees or knocked some bikers off the trail, we really saw some great improvement as a team. We as coaches consider ourselves very lucky to be surrounded by some great kids who are willing and want to work hard day in and day out.

It is important that you keep increasing your weekly milage. Use the app/website “strava” and join our club “braves xc” so that we can see how many miles you are putting in on days that we don’t meet together. It really only takes a moment after each run to update it.

If you haven’t yet, check out our website www.bravesxc.blogspot.com where you can find the race schedule and further information about our team and history.

There are several announcements this week and I need you to reply to this email to give me an answer on some of them.

We will be meeting as usual M/W/F this week at 7:30. We will be meeting at the track each day, except Friday may have a different location that I will update you with sometime during the week.

The summer t shirt order has been placed, but it will take a few weeks for them to get to us due to the printing. Thank you to those who paid on time and got your sizes to me; it made my life easier. There are a handful of you who haven’t yet paid for summer conditioning, so please do so ASAP. The office is open every day from 7:30-3. I ordered a few extra shirts knowing a few of you were out of town and weren’t able to pay yet.

We are going to be having a Cross Country Camp from Wednesday, August 9^th to Friday, August 11^th. The Tidwells have graciously offered to let us use their Cabin in Hunstville where we have great access to some excellent trail running, and other activities that will make for a fun camp, and enable us to get some excellent work in before the official beginning of the xc season. The logistics of the camp will be explained as they become finalized, but essentially we will go up Wednesday and return on Friday. There will be a cost associated with the camp for each person, but I anticipate that being $100 or less. We will do what we can to make those costs as low as possible to provide a great camp, but make it as affordable as can be. This camp is completely optional and we realize the dates may not work with all of you.

We would like to get a rough estimate of how many are able to attend on those days, so will you look at your calendars, and athletes, talk to your parents/guardians, and respond to this email to let me know if you anticipate being able to go, if you definitely cannot, or if you possibly/probably can/cannot attend. This is by no means a binding response, if you say you can’t, but then you are able to later, that’s totally fine. If you say you can now, but then find out you can’t, that is fine too. Just let me know where you think you are at this time so I can have an idea about our numbers.   

This last and final announcement regards the clothing order (NOT INCLUDING THE SUMMER T SHIRT – WHICH IS UNAFFECTED BY THIS CHANGE)

There has been a change to the clothing order that many of you ordered. The company that I go through to order our clothing, and gives us a pretty great discount, was bought out by a larger company the weekend before I placed the clothing order. You all had paid and I was ready to move forward before I was made aware of the change. As a result they no longer offer Adidas products, so the jackets we were going to order are no longer available. The new company now offers Nike and Under Armor, which weren’t available before. I will be sitting down with the rep to discuss our new options, as well as meeting with a few other companies to see if we will still go with the Adidas products I listed. The problem is that the prices may change, potentially significantly with these other companies, as the rep I usually go through has one of the best prices, so there are a few things for me to consider.

Basically what this means, is for those of you who ordered an Adidas item, like the jacket, the bag, or the pants, will either be refunded what you paid, or you can choose to have that money applied to the new items once we decide on what those will be. I will keep you apprised. Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this change. I certainly wasn’t anticipating the change, and it sounds like neither was the rep whom I have worked with.

Looking forward to another great week.

Coach Jacobson

6/11 update

Braves,

Our first week of practices was a huge success. We had over 60 kids come out, with nearly 40 each day. Even better than the numbers was the outstanding effort put forth by the team. If we continue on this path we will have an excellent season. Though off to a good start, we have a long way to go to reach our goals of region titles.

This week will be slightly different with practices only Monday and Wednesday. We will also be having a team trail run on Friday at mueller park canyon (elephant rock) with chocolate milk afterwards. There may be some rain this week, but don't let that deter you from practice or running on your own.

Even though we will only meet three times, you should still get out and run six days. We need to continue to increase our weekly milage, so don't hesitate to go on long runs. Reasonably, for our experienced runners you should be shooting for 40+ miles this week. For some of our new runners 20-30 is more reasonable. Make sure you take care of any aches and pains, typically with ice, and communicate any concerns with the coaches and we can give you some advice.

We definitely recommend running in groups even on days without organized practices. Feel free to use the strava app to communicate any plans, like trails, or any other ideas. Speaking of strava, please download the app, or make an account on a computer at strava.com and join the club "Braves XC" then be sure to log your miles so you can be accountable for what you have done.

Lastly, the fees for summer conditioning are due tomorrow ($25 in the main office). Please indicate the shirt size you want as well, as I am making that order tomorrow. About 20 of you paid but didn't tell me what size shirt you want. Please respond to this email with your desired size. In the event you can't get the fee paid by tomorrow, let me know and I can enter it as a fine, which would still be $25. It will be unlikely that you get a shirt unless you pay by tomorrow. The clothing order is also due tomorrow, so if you choose to order any additional items please pay in the office and leave the order form in my box there in the office.

Let's keep getting better and make this an awesome week.

Coach Jacobson

6/5 update

Braves,

Tomorrow is our first practice of the summer. We will be starting at 7:30 AM at the track, please be on time, so we can begin on time to try and help those that have jobs or other responsibilities get finished with the workout before needing to leave.

We are very excited for this upcoming season and the opportunities that are ahead of us. We have an awesome group returning from last season, and some great kids joining us. I have talked to many of the new kids joining us, and you all will be an awesome addition to our team and will make the team better, and the experience of the season better. We look forward to a fun summer filled with tough training and fun experiences/memories with your teammates. Cross country is a sport unlike any other in part because of how hard you work with and for each other over the course of a long season. Our season is one of the longest, spanning from the beginning of summer to late fall. It is such a fun season that we are lucky to be a part of.

There are a few things to know heading in to this week, so take a few minutes to read through it and let me know if you have any questions about anything.

We will be practicing every day this week only. After this week it will be Monday/Wednesday/some Fridays. Several people have communicated with us that they will be missing certain day(s) this week, and we appreciate that. We realize people are vacationing, so if you know you are going to miss, let us know, and make sure you are still running even while you’re gone.

There is a $25 fee for summer conditioning, that fee includes a t shirt, chocolate milk, Gatorade, and coach’s pay. I just ordered a mountain of Gatorade mix through Gatorade that should last the summer (I will order more if needed). Please have that fee paid by Friday. The office is open all week, and you can pay any of the secretaries, just tell them it is for summer cross country. Make checks out to bountiful high, and don’t bring them to the coaches, because we cannot take them.

Each of you participating this summer will be getting a t shirt. Those shirts will be light weight, red, with our logo printed on the left chest corner, and another logo on the back. These shirts come in men’s and women’s cut, so I will need your preferred sizes.

I will order those t shirts on Monday 6/12 (I am waiting a week to order them so that those who are out of town have a chance to pay/get their sizes in). Along with the t shirt, there is an OPTIONAL clothing order form that I have attached here. You can order nothing, one thing, or multiple things, and that is not a problem at all. Nobody is required to purchase anything, but for those who are interested this is an option. I will send the first round of orders in on Monday 6/12. We will do another round of orders at the end of the summer to accommodate those who missed the summer training. There is a t shirt on the order form that is 50/50 cotton/poly that is different in design and material from the one you all will receive for the summer program, so be aware of that. Even if you don’t order anything, but are doing summer training, please bring me the order form with your size for the summer t shirt. Let me know if you have any questions about any of the items.

I know this is a lot, and we haven’t quite yet started, I am just getting too anxious to wait. We are excited for tomorrow and look forward to a great first day.

Clothing Order

Coach Jacobson