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!