Parents and Athletes,

What a great week of practice we had. We started with a little more challenging long run on Monday with Movie Hill, then some great hill intervals at Central Park and then our first official hill night at COC. All together I saw you guys push yourselves and hopefully prove you have a little more in the tank when you feel completely spent. That probably goes for a lot of you parents as well. J Thanks parents again for hanging in there and supporting your kids, we can't do it without you.

The FitDu was Saturday before practice and ended up putting a little snarl in things. Thanks to coach Andy and others who stepped in to start the warm-up's when the racing wasn't quite finished. I knew about the race but unfortunately until we experienced it I didn't know the extent my friends had gone to make a truly great event. Next year I will work harder to promote it with our team. Anyway, flexibility is one of the biggest keys to success and I think we all gave a little Saturday so thank you.

What's on the docket for this week? Monday night we're going to take it a little easier in the running category. We'll go average for distance but.... We're going to focus a lot on core and leg strength. Pounding the miles can tend to kill progress at times so we'll mix it up a little. Tuesday night we'll be at Central Park and everyone will run a mile time trial. We'll do some more running before and after but this will be a great chance to check your fitness. Thursday we'll be back to hills at COC and it probably is time to introduce the newbies to Killer Hills Evil Twin. All I can say is hills build strength, strength wins cross-country races and helps everyone improve, therefore we run hills.

Great job most of you bringing plenty of fluid during the workouts. You can't live on water alone so please remember an electrolyte drink. Just a reminder also, I will be providing a one night clinic on nutrition. I haven't set a date yet as I am waiting to see how many of you will respond with interest. I don't claim to be a schooled nutritionist, my goal with this is to add a key ingredient in the way I coach. Knowing some basics of sports nutrition will increase your kids consistency in training and racing. Hopefully preventing illness and giving them the best opportunity to maximize every stage of running. Some of you may wonder which products I use and recommend. They are made by Shaklee which is the leading nutrition company in the world and has been for over 50 years. I've personally been using their products for over 15 years. I will briefly explain the products but again, there is no pressure to use them, I'm happy sharing my experience. Last year I ended up bringing a lot of the products to practice, making them available to purchase. I'll be doing that again in the next couple weeks.

Ok, I think that about does it for this week's news. I am very encouraged with the team, both veterans and newbies. You guys are looking strong. I am also encouraged with the new parents out training with us. Again, the more the merrier and all of us together are what makes this team so amazing.

Thanks again, let's have another incredible week!!

Coach Jeremy