June 23-28 (Week 4)

Thanks for all those that helped with our flag fundraiser. That ended up being a pretty easy and quick way to make a little money for our program. 

As coaches, we just want to say how great a job everyone is doing this summer. So many of you have been pushing out of your comfort zone and trying to grow and get better. Many of you have been very consistent at being to practice - even when it is tough and every other teenager is sleeping in, you get up and push yourself. And you've been great with the kids at Summer Club, coming to team parties, and all that other stuff that makes us an awesome program. It really is you athletes who make PVXC the best! We do realize that the next week or two is pretty packed for a lot of you. So we just bring up our same goal: when you are in town, be to practice; if you are out of town, do your best to get some running in.

***We've been having some communication problems using Remind - If you haven't been getting our message (usually one is sent Sunday to remind you to read the new blog announcements for the week), it may be because you don't have the Remind app (this is something Remind has changed). If that is the case for you, please get the Remind app and then join our class - parent code: @pvxcparent / athlete code: @xcchamps 

Purpose of the Week's Workouts: Click here for a link to this week's workouts (Week4). Remember that consistency is key - let's get those runs in on a consistent basis, and you'll see a lot of growth over the next month. We are changing our Saturday long runs to 6:30a. Hopefully that extra 30 minutes gives us a little break from the heat. We encourage everyone to be to Saturday mornings. Update your minutes from Week 3 here: Weekly Minutes. 

Doubles and Running in the Heat: This week we are starting to add doubles for some of you (doubles = a second run for the day). The purpose of doubles is to get more running in; but for now, the purpose is to start getting used to the heat. When school starts, most of our main practices will be after school. As we know, it is very hot around here, so we need to start acclimating to the heat. So these next few weeks, we will assign a short (15 min) run in the afternoon a couple times a week. Silvers, Blacks, and Whites are expected to get this run in. For our younger runners, Maroons, this is optional. Our best advice for these runs is to wear loose fitting and light colored clothes, soak down your hair and maybe your shirt before you head out, be drinking consistently throughout the day (you should be drinking 100 oz of water a day and probably an electrolyte drink as well), and stay close to your house or somewhere you can cool off if you don't feel well. It would be smart to run a short loop a few times so you can stop off and get a drink or even cut the run short if you aren't feeling good. Always know the signs of heat stroke. And always let someone know that you are going out for a run (or even better, go with another person) so someone can be keeping an eye for you. Running in the heat can be difficult, but it is also something we need to work on, so please be careful and smart.

This Week's Schedule:

Monday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) - Youth Summer Running Club 8:30-9:45 (everyone plan on staying and helping out)

Tuesday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) / weights after at PVMS (usually takes about 45mins) / afternoon on own or organize own group (Silver, Black, White expected; Maroon optional)

Wednesday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) 

Thursday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) / weights after at PVMS / afternoon on own or organize own group (Silver, Black, White expected; Maroon optional)

Friday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Highland Park (Everyone)

Saturday: 6:30a at Sunrise Park (Everyone / optional for Beginner)

Book Club Reading: Here's our article for this week's discussion: The Power of Positive Self-Talk. On Wednesday we'll talk about it for about 10 minutes at the end of practice.

Upcoming Events:

• WEEKLY ACTIVITIES: Waffle Wednesday (Wed after morning practice - location TBA) / Team Party (often Thursdays, info will be shared each week at practice)
• High Altitude Camp - July 28th-31st at Jacob Lake. Cost is $90. We will need to get this planned and figured out who is going, parents driving (staying for all or part). This is a VERY worthwhile event to be a part of... everyone on the team should make it a priority to join us. Those who are new, talk to your teammates about camp and see why you should plan on being there too. Please take a minute and fill out the following form for participation. Registration and Payment are due June 16th. We've past our registration date, but we know a few of you have let it slip... Please take care of it today! If there is a payment issue, get the registraion done, and then talk to coach about later payment.

PVXC Thought of the Week: "Don't underestimate the power of small wins. Celebrate your achievements, no matter how minor, to build momentum and confidence. This positive reinforcement can fuel your motivation and drive towards larger goals. Acknowledge your progress."

-Steve Magness

Closing in on a month of running this summer, and now is a great time to look back that all you've accomplished. In another part of this thought, Magness says that, "too often we don't see the small wins. We look past them." Take a few minutes today and think about your own journey in running. It may be years, it may be only a few weeks. But that reflection is a powerful tool. See how far you've come. Maybe this week you can 10 minutes for the first time, or you conquered Washington Steps, or maybe you can look back a few years and remember what it was like to get your first long run in and now you are burning 10 miles in just over an hour. Whatever it is, take a few minutes and be proud of yourself for your growth and enjoy those feelings. Now, let's keep it gowing!

June 16-21 (Week 3)

Another great week of XC. It's crazy to say, but we are already 2 weeks down of the summer. Sometimes it seems we have a long time until we race or the beginning of school, or whatever. And sometimes, that leads us to be a bit casual in our focus (maybe we miss a practice because "It's a long summer and we don't even race until August" or "I can learn these drills and do them later when it's closer to the racing season"). However, everything will be here quicker than you think. So let's enjoy our summer, but let's also use it to be focused and getting better every chance we can.

***We've been having some communication problems using Remind - If you haven't been getting our message (usually one is sent Sunday to remind you to read the new blog announcements for the week), it may be because you don't have the Remind app (this is something Remind has changed). If that is the case for you, please get the Remind app and then join our class - parent code: @pvxcparent / athlete code: @xcchamps 

• Take a look at the slides for Panther Distance Crew Weight Program - each has a video linked to it to help you learn the correct form. Watch these and get a sense of what you would like to do for our first days in the weight room as we do week 2 of weights.

Purpose of the Week's Workouts: Click here for a link to this week's workouts (Week3). We should be starting to feel a bit of improvement by now. The consistency of the first two weeks should be helping us run further and maybe even a little quicker. Keep being patient and pushing yourself, and also take a minute to take a look back at how far you've come already. Update your minutes from Week 2 here (and go back and get week 1 if you didn't, but don't get too far behind): Weekly Minutes. Also we've split Maroon into 2 groups; read about the difference and maybe where you should be back on the intro tab of the workout spreadsheet.

This Week's Schedule:

Monday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) - Youth Summer Running Club 8:30-9:45 (everyone plan on staying and helping out)

Tuesday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) / weights after at PVMS (usually takes about 45mins)

Wednesday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) 

Thursday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) / weights after at PVMS

Friday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Sullivan Park (Everyone)

Saturday: 7:00a at Warner Valley Exit (on the Southern Parkway)(Everyone / optional for Beginner)

Book Club Reading: Here's our article for this week's discussion: How to Stop Making Excuses by Tony Robbins. On Wednesday we'll talk about it for about 10 minutes at the end of practice.

Upcoming Events:

• WEEKLY ACTIVITIES: Waffle Wednesday (Wed after morning practice - location TBA) / Team Party (often Thursdays, info will be shared each week at practice)
• Washington City Flags - we will setting up the flags for Washington City on June 19th  (Juneteenth) as a fundraiser for the team. We'll have the details on that at practice this week, but we may need to be to practice a little early that day because of helping set up (we'll also organize take down for those that can help).
• High Altitude Camp - July 28th-31st at Jacob Lake. Cost is $90. We will need to get this planned and figured out who is going, parents driving (staying for all or part). This is a VERY worthwhile event to be a part of... everyone on the team should make it a priority to join us. Those who are new, talk to your teammates about camp and see why you should plan on being there too. Please take a minute and fill out the following form for participation. Registration and Payment are due June 16th.

PVXC Thought of the Week: "To try is to risk failure. But risk must be taken because the greatest hazard of life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, live, and love."

-Leo Buscaglia

Liam picked a great article for us to read this week. Please read it... please be part of the discussion on Wednesday (even take some time and talk about it with your family). I really love the topic of overcoming excuses and specifically the reasons why we make excuses (reasons like fear and uncertainty). This quote goes along with that idea. I personally can attribute everything I have back to working through fear and uncertainty. I'm actually a very introverted and shy person and would probably prefer to never push myself out of my comfort zone. However, as I've learned at various stages of my life, I have tried to push beyond the fears that hold me in my comfort zone. And not that everything has turned out perfect because of this (I've still had setbacks and struggles), but I know that every joy I've had has come because I overcame a specific fear at a specific time which allowed me to (as the quote says) "learn, feel, change, grow, live, and love" and become the person I am today.

June 9 - 14 (Week 2)

(Those who are looking for info about our Youth Summer Running Club for grades K-8, click here and you'll find the info you need)

A great first week of XC. It was great to see all our new teammates! This is going to be a fun season for PVXC.

Parents and Athletes, if you haven't read over the info for Week 1 - including registration, physical, and videos about warm/cool drills - go back and check it out please. We'll also leave this stuff up one more week - it is definitely not too late to join (bring a friend), we start weights this week (learn the info), and check out the other stuff:

• GO GET SOME FRIENDS TO JOIN YOU! Running is a social activity and having friends out there with you is one of the very best things about XC. Call up some friends and invite them to come out with you
• Take a look at the slides for Panther Distance Crew Weight Program - each has a video linked to it to help you learn the correct form. Watch these and get a sense of what you would like to do for our first days in the weight room during our 2nd week of practice.
• HOKA Summer Miles Program - if you want to win some free swag just for doing what you're already doing over the summer, check it out.
• We would also like to recommend those who are running with a smart watch to connect to Strava, so as coaches (and you as athletes) can view the data from your runs. Here's a quick video for Garmin; Here's a vid for Coros; Here's a vid for Apple Watch; Here's one for FitBit (this one is worth it just for the voice!)
• Check out "Intro" tab on the workouts (found below) and start thinking about what Level you should be running as we start up the season - we'll help you with this for sure

Purpose of the Week's Workouts: Click here for a link to this week's workouts (you have to request access on your school account to see the workouts, so get that done if you haven't yet). The summer is the most important time in XC beause it allows us to build a big engine. Without building a large base, you won't have anything to go from later. Update your minutes from Week 1 here: Weekly Minutes.

This Week's Schedule:

Monday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) - Youth Summer Running Club 8:30-9:45 (everyone plan on staying and helping out)

Tuesday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) / weights after at PVMS (usually takes about 45mins)

Wednesday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) 

Thursday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) / weights after at PVMS

Friday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Sullivan Park (Everyone)

Saturday: 7:00a at Confluence Park (by Dixie Center)(Everyone / optional for Beginner)

Book Club Reading: We'll talk about our first article (a chapter from a book titled "10-Minute Toughness" by Jason Selk) on Wednesday for about 10 minutes at the end of practice. Please read through this chapter and take notes on ideas that seem useful and important.

Upcoming Events:

• WEEKLY ACTIVITIES: Waffle Wednesday (Wed after morning practice - location TBA) / Team Party (often Thursdays, info will be shared each week at practice)
• High Altitude Camp - July 28th-31st at Jacob Lake. Cost is $90. We will need to get this planned and figured out who is going, parents driving (staying for all or part). This is a VERY worthwhile event to be a part of... everyone on the team should make it a priority to join us. Those who are new, talk to your teammates about camp and see why you should plan on being there too. Please take a minute and fill out the following form for participation. Registration and Payment are due June 16th.

PVXC Thought of the Week: "The secret to greatness? It's not a routine. Not hacks. Not motivation. It is the willingness to keep showing up long after the novelty wears off. To stay in the game when no one is watching. To work for years for a payoff that might never come... Champions are built in the space when no one is watching."

-Steve Magness

Hopefully you see a connection between last week's thought and this week's... We talked about CONSISTENCY (and we'll continue to talk about it a lot). Magness continues in this quote to say that, "progress often feels like watching the grass grow". What a great analogy. If you watched out your window all day every day, you would never realize your grass was longer than before. But at some point in time, your parents would yell at you to turn on the mower and get to work! Because even though you aren't noticing it, that grass is always growing... little bit by little bit. Same thing with our running. Every day that you lace up your shoes and show up to practice (or go get your minutes in when you're out of town), you are growing that grass. Last week, we were all pretty excited to show up to practice because it was new and we wanted to be around our friends we hadn't seen for a week or two. But now, we are into the summer and it's just normal. I'm kinda tired; it's kinda hot; I don't know if I'm getting any better; I'll be out of town; or whatever else. The next couple months are really going to be the time that "Champions are built". Keep coming out. Keep finding motivation. Keep making friends. Keep growing!

June 2 - 7 (Week 1)

(Those who are looking for info about our Youth Summer Running Club for grades K-8, click here and you'll find the info you need)

So, for those that are new around here, each week we try and post some things for ATHLETES and PARENTS. Please read all the way through all the stuff and do whatever needs to be done, note important dates, and whatever else. Here's a few things to check out this weekend as we prep for practice on Monday, 7:00a at Washington Elementary:

• read through the Parent/Athlete Meeting slides (if you weren't at the meeting... or even if you were and you want a little more detailed explanation of PVXC) - IF YOU AREN'T GETTING OUR TEAM TEXTS (parents and/or athletes) SEE THE INFO IN THE SLIDES
• get your physical if you haven't yet (make sure you upload pictures of your physical to registermyathlete and then turn in your physical to the HS)
• get familiar with the Pre-Run Warm-Up stuff (vid below) and Post-Run (SAM vids on the side tab) stuff we do. Also, check out all the docs on the right labeled under "XC Training System Info" and request access to those with your school google account.
• start running a little - if you run a few times this week 5, 10, 20-25mins it will make a big difference in how you feel next week
• GO GET SOME FRIENDS TO JOIN YOU! Running is a social activity and having friends out there with you is one of the very best things about XC. Call up some friends and invite them to come out with you
• Take a look at the slides for Panther Distance Crew Weight Program - each has a video linked to it to help you learn the correct form. Watch these and get a sense of what you would like to do for our first days in the weight room during our 2nd week of practice.
• HOKA Summer Miles Program - if you want to win some free swag just for doing what you're already doing over the summer, check it out.
• We would also like to recommend those who are running with a smart watch to connect to Strava, so as coaches (and you as athletes) can view the data from your runs. Here's a quick video for Garmin; Here's a vid for Coros; Here's a vid for Apple Watch; Here's one for FitBit (this one is worth it just for the voice!)
• Check out "Intro" tab on the workouts (found below) and start thinking about what Level you should be running as we start up the season - we'll help you with this for sure

Purpose of the Week's Workouts: Click here for a link to this week's workouts (you have to request access on your school account to see the workouts, so get that done sometime soon). The goal right now is to build... a big foundation, a big engine... whatever you want to call it, we build! The summer is the most important time in XC. Without building a large base, you won't have anything to go from later. We will also be doing "something fast every day". This is a philosophy we have held for many years at PVXC. Cross Country runners aren't slow - we aren't out getting ready for marathons, we race 3 miles, not jog 26.2 - we push ourselves to run fast right from the start. To help emphasize the importance of summer, we will be instituting the Summer 60 Club... we have 76 days from the beginning of summer XC on June 2 to the end of the first week of school on August 16th. The goal of the Summer 60 Club is to encourage each of you (no matter your level or where you're starting from) to get in at least 60 days of running throughout the summer. We'll track this as we track our Weekly Minutes (do this at the end of the week). Our reward will be a cool running shirt.

This Week's Schedule:

Monday: First Day of XC! Monday 7:00a at Washington Elementary - bring water and a towel (for stretches and drills on grass). (Everyone) - Youth Summer Running Club 8:30-9:45 (everyone plan on staying and helping out)

Tuesday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone)

Wednesday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) 

Thursday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone)

Friday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Sullivan Park (Everyone)

Saturday: Form your own groups and get your run in

Book Club Reading: Each summer, we do some reading and talk about it as a team. This summer, we will be reading an article a week about some topic chosen by our captain and coaches. We really encourage everyone (including parents) to read our article and grow from the ideas that are in it. Here is our first article (a chapter from a book titled "10-Minute Toughness" by Jason Selk). Please read through this chapter; take notes on ideas that seem useful and important; and on Wednesday of next week, we will be talking about it.

Shoes... Shoes... and more Shoes: We don't have a lot of equipment for running, but what we do have is very important... shoes. Parents and athletes, take a look at this short guide to running shoes and when to replace them. There are a lot of places you can get new shoes (specialty stores, online, etc.); however, the key is to get the right fit for your particular foot, not necessarily just the cheapest or cutest. A specialty store will help fit you in the correct shoe. You can also get some help from coaches who have some experience in identifying various foot types and getting you in the correct type of shoe (neutral, cushion, support, stability).

Upcoming Events:

• OPENING SOCIAL! BRING A FRIEND... Time and date TBA
• High Altitude Camp - July 28th-31st at Jacob Lake. Cost is $90. We will need to get this planned and figured out who is going, parents driving (staying for all or part). This is a VERY worthwhile event to be a part of... everyone on the team should make it a priority to join us. Those who are new, talk to your teammates about camp and see why you should plan on being there too. Please take a minute and fill out the following form for participation. Registration and Payment are due June 16th.

PVXC Thought of the Week: "Consistency over intensity... Good results take consistency, not heroic efforts... success is not determined by a great day. It comes from stacking month after month of solid days. Consistency compounds."

-Steve Magness

One of the biggest ideas that we preach at PVXC is CONSISTENCY. It is actually pretty easy to say you want to do something amazing. And any people can go "get it" for one or two days. But to really become the great person (in everything, not only running) it takes a long time of consistent effort. So as we get ready for a long summer and a long season, let's think about consistency. Some people wonder why we start running in June when we don't race for awhile - after all, it's your summer; let the kids chill out and have some time off Coach! But we know that to reach what you want to become, you have to start now, and you have to put the time and effort in for a long time. How can you strive for consistency this summer even as you have vacations and camps and all sorts of other stuff? That's a great question for you to ponder. Those who really make some progress this year will find an answer to it early this summer.