June 26-July 1 (Week 4)

Somehow we are already halfway through the summer - which means races are coming sooner than we think. Remember that consistency is really the key to everything. As we hit the second half of this week and into the first part of next week, we are into our moratorium. This is where you get to really prove to yourself how bad you want it. Continue to get your runs in, look for messages from your captains, team leaders, and support squads and know that the work you put in now will have a benefit. If you need proof, look back to where you were a few weeks ago and see how far you've gone since already.

Purpose of the Week's Workouts: Click here for this week's workouts. We're looking to be cautious with our growth, to help avoid injuries. But it is important that you do your part by getting each run in each day (or at least something as best you can). When you miss days or even weeks and try to jump back in where you "should" be, you're not really hitting healthy progression and open yourself up to fatigue and injury. This week, our growth in minutes will really come from the introduction of doubles - a second run during the day. For levels Black and Silver, there are 2 short doubles on the schedule (Tuesday and Thursday). If these days don't work for a short 15 minute afternoon, move them where you can in the week, but try to get them in. It is important that we start introducing these afternoon runs for our buildup, but it is also important to keep them short and to be safe in the heat. So run where you can stop off and get water if necessary. And if you feel any signs of extra heat, stop and get in the shade. Maroon athletes who feel ready have the option to bring in one or two of these doubles if desired. 

You may also notice something a little different on our Strides; so a little info on them: Long Run (Mon) still doing 5x25secs; Half and Half (Tues) still doing 6xStrides barefoot, 4 downhill, 2 uphill; Longer easy days (Weds and Sat) will be doing "Progression of Strides" which is basically just either increasing the number of our strides or the speed, notice that it is a progression which means you need to be consistent with the previous stride work (in this case "A" before we go to "B"), so those who have been at practice consistently throughout the summer are ready to move to "B" this week while those who have missed some should stay at "A"; other days (Workout-Thurs and Shorter Easy-Fri) will remain the same on strides (in this case 4x20 secs).

Finally, now would be a great time to start building in a bit of yoga (if you haven't yet). We don't expect you to be a yoga master, but yoga will help strengthen and loosen some of the key areas involved in running. Doing this once or twice a week will go a long way to keeping you healthy. Here is a great yoga video we have used for years:

Minutes: Check back at what you did this past week and update your minutes for Week 3 Minutes (fill out the form for the week we just completed). 

This Week's Schedule:

Monday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Highland Park (Everyone) / Captains meeting at 6:40a

Tuesday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) - Youth Summer Running Club 8:30-9:45 (everyone plan on staying and helping out) / weights after at PVHS (we'd encourage everyone to come, but not required)

Wednesday - Saturday: we are on moratorium (no coaches)

Book Club Reading: We'll be discussing Week 3 on Tuesday, so get that reading in (go back to last week's post if you need to access the pdf/google doc. Here's the reading for this week: Week 4 Reading pdf / Week 4 Reading google doc 

Upcoming Events:

• High Altitude Camp - July 17th-20th at Jacob Lake. Cost is $90 payment due by June 27th (follow payment info here). Athletes will need to be able to complete 30min continuous run by camp (not right now, but by mid July) and attending summer practice regularly. 
• Parents, we really need to figure out rides so we can plan on how many athletes we can take. So if you can drive up/back (both, leave, stay, whatever) put that in the form and we can get all our plans made.
• 24th of July 2 Mile Run - EVERYONE IS INVITED (athletes should be there, family, friends, Youngsters, neighbors...). Race will start at 7:45a at the Fields Park (team will start practice a bit earlier to be all warmed up).

Athletes of the Week - (We'll post these after we announce them tomorrow at practice)

Team Builder:

Team Builder:

Tough at Practice:

Tough at Practice:

PVXC Thought of the Week: "Arnold Schwarzenegger once said that lifting one weight with total consciousness is equal to ten lifts without being totally conscious." 

-George Mumford

There a lot of good quotes in this upcoming section of the book, but I'm choosing a line from the book rather than a specific quote because I really think it applies to everything we do. Think about how many things we do everyday "without being totally conscious". Imagine that for those things that are truly important to you, you actually put a full conscious effort into them. Not only would you become so much better at those things that are important, but you would actually save time and energy as well. 

June 19-24 (Week 3)

We've got a great energy going so far this season... let's keep it up! Encourage everyone to keep reaching out and finding any friends who might want to join us (it's never too late, but now is way better than later), and also encourage each of you to keep the positive vibes rolling.

Purpose of the Week's Workouts: Click here for this week's workouts. Hopefully, if you've been consistent in attendance, you've noticed yourself getting into a bit better shape. We are still working on building up that big engine and we'll keep building for a bit while we also try to tie in some strength based workouts like fartleks and progressions.

Minutes: At this point, we've hit 14 of our possible 75 days of the summer. Keep working out - even when you're out of town and let's hit that goal of 60 days in the summer. Great job to our 17 athletes who didn't miss a practice this week! We'll track this as we track our Week 2 Minutes (fill out the form for the week we just completed). 

This Week's Schedule:

Monday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) / Captains meeting at 6:40a

Tuesday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) - Youth Summer Running Club 8:30-9:45 (everyone plan on staying and helping out) / weights after at PVHS (we'd encourage everyone to come, but not required)

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

Thursday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) / weights after at PVHS (we'd encourage everyone to come, but not required)

Friday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Confluence Park near the Dixie Center (Everyone)

Saturday: form own group or on own

Book Club Reading: We'll be discussing Week 2 on Tuesday, so get that reading in (go back to last week's post if you need to access the pdf/google doc. Here's the reading for this week: Week 3 Reading pdf / Week 3 Reading google doc 

Upcoming Events:

• Team Party - Wednesday 6:00p at Highland Park
• High Altitude Camp - July 17th-20th 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 due by this FRIDAY! and Payment due by June 27th. Athletes will need to be able to complete 30min continuous run by camp (not right now, but by mid July) and attending summer practice regularly. 
• Parents, we really need to figure out rides so we can plan on how many athletes we can take. So if you can drive up/back (both, leave, stay, whatever) put that in the form and we can get all our plans made.
• 24th of July 2 Mile Run - EVERYONE IS INVITED (athletes should be there, family, friends, Youngsters, neighbors...). Race will start at 7:45a at the Fields Park (team will start practice a bit earlier to be all warmed up).

Athletes of the Week - (sorry if I put these in the wrong spots)

Team Builder: Cassie, Sr. - in her first year with XC, she has been an amazing teammate and brings such a positive vibe to the team. 

Team Builder: Helaman, So. - also a new addition to the team this year, he hard work and positive attitude is contagious.

Tough at Practice: Kamaile, Sr. - another first year XC runner, she sets a great example of hard work and growth each day.

Tough at Practice: Ferrell, So. - has shown great improvement through practice attendance and pushing himself to more minutes this season.

PVXC Thought of the Week: "Be like water." 

-Bruce Lee

I actually have a total crush on Bruce Lee, so I know I've used this quote before! But it shows up in this coming week's reading as well. Now, obviously, I didn't know Bruce Lee personally, so I don't know how precisely he lived all this; but as I read and study more about mindfulness, Zen, the state of flow, and all this other stuff, this analogy of being like water just really hits with me. Once again, we won't really get what's so great about it here, rather use this quote as a starting point for your study of Week 3 reading (Ch. 2 in the book) and if nothing else, think about this idea of being like water and what it means and how it can help you in your life and running. 

June 12-17 (Week 2)

What a great first week! It was awesome to see so many new faces coming out to try this thing and have some fun. And, of course, it was wonderful to have so many back for another year. We gave everyone a challenge to gives this a 2 week try - so keep coming out and give it a full effort (work hard at practice, be involved in team activities, get to know teammates, bring a friend) and we bet you'll want to stay.

Because we have so many new athletes and parents, we'll keep this info up here for one more week (remember if you're reading on your phone, scroll down and click web version so you can see all the links and everything). If you've already read through this and done it, just skip on by:

• 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 (turn in 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.
• 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 Apple Watch; Here's one for FitBit 
• 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 this week's workouts (you have to request access on your school account to see the workouts, so get that done sometime soon). We are still working on building up that big engine. With consistency, we can add more minutes. Sometimes this is tough and hurts a bit and is a bit of a challenge, but you can do it! And remember this idea: The summer is the most important time in XC. 

Minutes: To help emphasize the importance of summer, we will be instituting the Summer 60 Club... we have 75 days from the beginning of summer XC on June 5 to the end of the first week of school on August 19th. 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 Week 1 Minutes (fill out the form for the week we just completed). 

This Week's Schedule:

Monday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) / Captains meeting at 6:40a

Tuesday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) - Youth Summer Running Club 8:30-9:45 (everyone plan on staying and helping out) / weights after at PVHS (we'd encourage everyone to come, but not required)

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

Thursday: Regular practice at 7:00a at Washington Elem. (Everyone) / weights after at PVHS (we'd encourage everyone to come, but not required)

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

Saturday: form own group or on own

Book Club Reading: We'll be discussing Week 1 on Tuesday, so get that reading in (go back to last week's post if you need to access the pdf/google doc. Here's the reading for this week: Week 2 Reading pdf / Week 2 Reading google doc 

Upcoming Events:

• Team Party - Monday 6:00p Boilers Park. Come play some pickleball, swim, hang, whatever. Bring a friend!
• High Altitude Camp - July 17th-20th 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 due by June 27th.

Athletes of the Week - 

Team Builder: Olivia, So. - has brought a ton of positive energy and is really helping out the less experienced runners now that she has been around for a year.

Team Builder: Nathan H, Fr. - one of the most energetic of our new athletes, he is always keeping the positive vibes flowing. 

Tough at Practice: Katie K., Fr. - in her first week with our team, Katie showed a lot of heart working to push with the team.

Tough at Practice: Logan, Sr. - has had a great first week of practice including a very solid long run with the top guys.

PVXC Thought of the Week: "The only way out is always through." 

-Robert Frost

The great American poet could have been talking about a literal way out - like a physical journey (to get out of the forest, you have to go through it), but more likely he is alluding to a metaphysical journey. Many of never work our way through the difficult, painful, scary things in our life. Instead we avoid them and "pretend" that we have gotten better at dealing with something. This, however, is (as the kiddos say) gaslighting yourself. You've simply just avoided something... you haven't gotten through it, you haven't improved. Think of talking in front of a group. This is often cited as people's worst fear. What is the only way to get over this fear? Actually go through it... sometimes over and over and over. How does that tie into your running? Your life? Something to think about as you get into this week's reading and come share with the team at our book discussion on the 20th before Kids' Club.

June 5-10 (Week 1)

(Those who are looking for info about our Youth Summer Running Club, just scroll down another post or two and you'll find the info you need)

So, 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. We've left up the info we posted last week in case you haven't looked through it yet... Those who have, thanks! We've also added a few new things to check out this weekend as we prep for practice on Monday:

• 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 (turn in 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 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 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 everyday". This is a philosophy we have held for many years at PVXC. Distance runners are 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 75 days from the beginning of summer XC on June 5 to the end of the first week of school on August 19th. 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)

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

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 read a book and talk about it as a team. This summer we are reading The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure Performance (a little more info in the quote below). You are totally invited to buy the book or find an online version to read or listen to. You can also download a pdf or google doc version of our reading sections here (You've got to request permission to have it shared with you): Week 1 Reading pdf / Week 1 Reading google doc 

Shoes... Shoes... and more Shoes: We don't have a lot of equipment in 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's a lot of places you can get new shoes (specialty store, online, etc.); however, the key is to get the right fit for your particular foot, not necessarily just the cheapest of cutest. A specialty store will help fit you in the correct shoe. You can also get some help from the coaches who have some experience in identifying various foot types and get you in the correct type of shoe (neutral, cushion, support, stability).

Upcoming Events:

• Wednesday, June 7th, noon, OPENING SOCIAL AT QUAIL LAKE! BRING A FRIEND
• High Altitude Camp - July 17th-20th 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 due by June 27th.

PVXC Thought of the Week: "Life is available in the present moment." 

-Thich Nhat Hanh

This is from our book The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure Performance. We're pretty excited to delve into this book. There is some great stuff, and we implore you to read (ahh... reading over the summer) each week and come prepared to talk about your thoughts with your teammates. Without going too much into depth about this quote, this is an idea that I know helps (helped) me when I am running or doing anything difficult - stay in the moment, you can't change the past, and you can't predict the future; so do the very best at what you are supposed to be doing right now; stay in the moment.