Four More Pumas Break Through at Time Trial Today!

Our team is a little unusal in that we require our runners to demonstrate a level of fitness before we will enter them into competition.  We do not cut athletes from the team, but we require athletes to meet a fitness standard prior to allowing them to wear the MCHS jersey in competition.
The standard is 14:00 for two miles for Boys and 16:30 for Girls.

In our experience, everyone on our roster will eventually be able to meet this requirement if they maintain consistency in their training. However, this doesn't mean that the path is easy or without some discouragement along the way.  Up to today, we still had about half a dozen runners that had not met the standard after multiple previous attempts.  These athletes deserve praise for their perseverence - for sticking with it even if they've tried and failed before.

For many of them today was the day all of their perseverence paid off!  Here's what happened - the team running at Stanford tomorrow took charge of the time trial - keeping time and pacing the time trial runners.  Four of them made the standard and another made great improvement and was only 6 seconds off!

• Renzo Espinosa 13:26
• Jack Cowell 13:56
• Cam Baker 13:59
• Krista Shreve 15:40
• Taylor Cerini 16:36 (just missed! - next time for sure!)

Congratulations to everyone!

September 26 Interlock at Shollenberger Park, Petaluma

We took about 50 Pumas down to Petaluma to get in some racing today, and they raced very well!  The goal was to use pacing to try to stay in control for the first mile, then to race.  Many valuable lessons were learned - those that went out way too fast learned that they need to be more disciplined.  Others went out a bit faster than planned, but were able to sustain their effort through the 2nd and 3rd mile.




Big Improvements:  We had quite a few runners that competed on this course a year ago and showed really strong improvement:  for example, Eva Byrne 23:23 this year / 26:00 last year; Haleigh Frye 21:37/24:24; Clare Gilmartin 22:16/24:07; Ellie Petty 22:36/25:28; Tommy Smail 17:32/20:24; Evan Drake 17:45/20:32;Kevin Moe 18:33/20:45!

Link to Complete Race Results

Information for Stanford Invitational, September 29

Rosters: 

• Girls - Natoli, Palladino, Thigpen, Breedlove, Ahern, Carolina Avelar, Perry; alternates- Mahoney, Fitzgerald, Greco
• Boys- Anderson, Luft, Bartlett, Jensen, West, Metcalfe, Morrison; alternates: Hay, Jones, King

Schedule:

• 8AM: Greg leaving early to watch races get registration picked up, make sure everything is set-up (passengers TBD)
• 9:15AM: Sheryl (5), Lisa (6) and Steve (5), Jennifer, and Melanie leaving with VB + VG athletes
• 11:30AM athletes arrive at course 
• 1:00PM race start - Varsity Boys 5K Division 2
• 1:30PM race start - Varsity Girls 5K Division 2
• 2:00 PM alternates leave (walking) to pick up pre-ordered sandwiches; bring to Potter House
• 2:30PM leave course - walk about less than .25 miles to Governor's Corner (Potter House) for lunch and chat with Stanford athletes
• 2:45PM meet for lunch and chat with some or all of these current Stanford athletes
• Erik Olson (Novato/cross country), Austin Meyer (Maria Carrillo/soccer), Maya DiRado (Maria Carrillo/swimming)
• MCHS providing lunch for athletes and listed alternates - others make their own arrangements please -(if you are interested, we are ordering sandwiches here)
• 3:15PM wrap up and head back to cars
• 5:15PM get back to Maria Carrillo

Directions: Total time from From MCHS to course entrance should take less than 2:15. 

• From Santa Rosa, highway 101 south across Golden Gate Bridge; follow Route 1 (19th avenue) through San Francisco to Hwy 280 south; follow 280 south to Sand Hill Road (eastbound ) exit.  Proceed east on Sand Hill Road about 2.1 miles to Stock Farm Rd.  Make right on Stock Farm - free parking isdirectly up on your left ( near the intersection of Stock Farm and Oak Road). (link to map)
• 1/2 mile walk from parking to course entrance: Oak Road to Searsville Road to Fremont Road (just follow everyone else!).  . (link to map)

Spectator Tickets: Spectators may purchase admission tickets for $10.00 on the day of the meet only at the course. MCHS provides entrance for competitors and listed alternates only, all others must pay their own way.

5K Course Map (click here)

Previous Year Maria Carrillo Results (current 5K course only) - click here

Competition Plan by Runner through 10/13 Meets

Having a large and talented roster is both a challenge and an opportunity!

It's a challenge because we have more talented runners on the roster than we can properly utilize in some meets.  For example, we would like to give some of our faster JV runners an opportunity to compete for the lead in some smaller races, but some of our more experienced runners are "in the way."  So we need to schedule a variety of meets for everyone to get developmentally appropriate competitive experiences.  And of course there is the not so small challenge of transporation and logsitics!

On the other hand, having a big roster also allows us to be creative - we can be competitve in many cases by drawing on different combinations of runners.  Our hope is that this keeps more people fresh and involved through the seasaon.

This is a long winded way of introducing our competition plan for the next three weeks.  No one is entered into all of our meets.  In most cases, we are trying to have our runners compete in one meet per week, and in a few cases, two meets in the same week.  Finally, the competition plan also takes into account limitation in transportation (one bus can carry 50 runners, for example).

Click here to see current competition plan by runner. (green "x" = entered into meet, red = not entered in meet). 

Pasta Feed Schedule!

This can also be found under "Calendar and Schedule" link in right hand margin of the blog.

•     Friday, September 28^th
Hosts: Nicklas & Gunderson
Location: 1015 Winding Ridge Rd.

•     Tuesday, October 2^nd
Hosts: Byrne, Petty, & Gilmartin
Location: 3645 Midway Dr.

•    Tuesday, October 16^th
Hosts: VanDenburg
Location: 5864 Sailing Hawk Ave.

•     Tuesday, October 23^rd
Hosts: Bartlett & Hordyk
Location: 311 Gemma Circle

  Thursday, November 1^st
  Hosts: Cowell and Frye
  Location 7033 Foothill Ranch Road, Santa Rosa, 95404

Week 6 Update

This week did not include any scheduled competitions, but much was accomplished behind the scenes.

Here are some of the highlights of the past week:

* Focus on Speed and Efficiency in our running! 
We have been doing quite a bit of fast running lately. While we have not abandoned our long aerobic training (EZ pace), Interval training (I pace), or Anaerobic Threshold training (ST pace), most of the month of September has been characterized by a higher proportion of what we call "R" running or Repetition training (Speed Repeats).  This has taken the form of short but fast intervals, short but fast hill repetitions, and strides.  Goal:  prepare our runners to be efficient in their training and racing by adapting to fast running after a long period of summer (long slow running) miles.  Moving into fast running can coincide with some sore or strained muscles - so we have moved through this phase cautiously and been monitoring for any problems.   Most appear to have adapted well and we seem to be mostly in the clear now.

Next week we begin a phase emphasizing longer "I" pace intervals that will take us through most of the month of October.

* Splitting some workouts by Stanford / non- Stanford roster.  We have segregated some workouts (like the tempo run discussed below) for our Stanford roster (including a few alternates).  The idea here is to adapt the workouts slightly to each group's different needs, and it also provides an opportunity for the coaches to provide some more focused attention on smaller training groups.

* Tempo Runs - this week featured two tempos - one for the Stanford roster on Wednesday night, and another for the remainder of the roster scheduled for Friday afternoon.  From the feedback we received, this is a very popular workout! 

What is a tempo workout?   It involves running at a steady pace which is slower than a runner's 3 mile race pace but faster than a pace than they would usually run for a longer distance run.  Most of our tempos are 20 to 30 minute long runs where the athlete holds a pace roughly 1 minute per mile slower than their best time for one mile.  Each team member is assigned to run in groups based on their racing pace.  Each group has a target pace - their assignment is to help each other hold pace (not too fast, not too slow).  The pace is designed to approach the border of "the pain zone," but not to cross over.  It's fun to watch the groups work together to accomplish their task - they need to communicate, pay attention to their splits, and trade off leading to make it work!

Goal of tempo workout: idea is to help the body adapt to accumulation of blood lactate that occurs when a runner exerts themselves at race pace for a longer period of time.  It's a great way to achieve racing fitness without undergoing too much physical stress.

Up Next Week:  Interlock Meet hosted by Casa Grande at Shollenberger Park on Wednesday, September 26.  This meet will be attended by all eligible runners not competing at Stanford on Saturday, September 29.

Drivers needed for Off Campus Training Runs!

As mentioned at our parent meeting back in August, an important part of our training program are the off campus runs. These are typically 2-3 times a week at either Channel Drive (Annadel), Park Trail (Annadel) or Howarth Park (Spring Lake/Annadel). They allow the coaches to give the kids an opportunity to run on "real" cross country trails, which keeps it more fun, interesting and challenging! In order to transport a roster of 84+ kids it takes many parent volunteers to help.

We know that some of you either missed the opportunity to sign up at the parent meeting or have started later in the season. Here is what you need to know:

Coaches and seniors transport about 33 kids on any given day, which means we need 51 more seatbelts....approximately 8-9 more drivers each time we leave Carrillo. We meet on the basketball courts at the entrance to the track at 3:30pm (3pm on Mondays) for short announcements from the coaches, then load up the vehicles for the trip to the park. After dropping off you passengers, you are free to walk or run, run other errands or just relax until the kids finish approximately one hour later.

Be there to pick them up and take them back to MCHS typically around 5:30pm.

With a roster this large, it has been a challenge every time so far to find enough rides.

If you are able to help out, please contact Melanie Bartlett with dates available and #passengers at RMBartlett5[at]aol.com. See below for upcoming dates - thank you!

Wed 9/19 - need 10 more seats
Mon 10/1 - need 10
Thursday 10/4 - need 24
Friday 10/5 - need 33
Thursday 10/11 - need 36
Monday 10/15 - need 15
Thursday 10/18 - need 44
Friday 10/19 - need 33
Thursday 10/25 - need 42
Friday 10/26 - need 35

Puma Depth on Display at Viking Opener, Sep 15

Congratulations to all the Pumas that took part at the Viking Opener!  The coaches were very proud of how our runners stepped up and raced well. 

The theme for the day was "test your limits" and this meet provided a chance for some of our runners further down the roster to show what they could do and score points in divisional races, and they certainly stretched themselves and took full advantage of the opportunity.

Photos:

• Photos Courtesy of Todd VanDenburg
• PD Running Blog

Personal Records:  We continue to see fantastic year over year improvements.  Twenty six of the thrirty runnners who had run this course before beat or matched their PRs!  We had some athletes put up RIDICULOUS improvements - here are a few:  8% improvement: Jordan Scoby, Ellie Petty, Sophia Mahoney and Brooke Talkington; 9% - Castine Jaffe and Clare Gilmartin; 10% - Evan Drake; 11% - Jacob Everest; 12% - Brendan Bellaire (fo real) and Sam Gearing; 13% - Ean Franceschi; 19% - Jackson Yates; and 21% (3:28 improvement!) Jeffrey Marin.  Great job everyone!

• Click here for complete PR Report

Team Results:

• Boys Frosh/Soph; 2nd (out of 23 teams)
• Girls Frosh Soph: 3rd (out of 20 teams)
• Boys Junior: 1st (out of 18 teams)
• Girls Junior/Senior: 1st (out of 20 teams)
• Girls Open: 1st (out of 17 teams)
• Boys Open: 2nd (out of 18 teams)

Individuals:

• Top 15 in their race: Jr Boys: Michael King (6th), Spencer Jones (7th), Dante Hay (9th); Jr/Sr Girls: Sophia Mahoney (9th),  Claire Greco (12th), Kelly Fitzgerald (13th); F/S Girls: Shawn Cichosz (10th), Abby Orgish (11th); F/S Boys: Jordan Scobey (5th); Ryan Nguyen (15th); Open Girls: Sophia Ramos (3rd) Allison Bartlett (4th) ,Tessa Nicklas (7th); Ellie Petty (10th), Kayla Hordyk (12th), Brook Talkington (15th); Open Boys: Jackson Yates (6th), Antoine Thibault (7th), Lucas Azcarraga (8th), Tommy Smail (9th), Kevin Moe (12th), and Quinn Gavin (14th)
• Top 15% of Runners in their Grade: Frosh Boys: Jordan Scobey (2nd frosh boy overall), Ean Franceschi (7th), Jackson Yates (17th), Antoine Thibault (18th); Soph Boys: Ryan Nguyen (12th), Evan Drake (14th); Juniors: Michael King (6th), Spencer Jones (7th), Dante Hay (9th); Frosh Girls: Abby Orgish (4th overall frosh girl), Castine Jaffe (8th); Soph Girls: Shawn Cichosz (7th); Junior Girls: Sophia Mahoney (5th), Kelly Fitzgerald (7th); Senior Girls: Claire Greco (6th)
• Complete Puma Individual Results Report

Season End Celebration Set for Dec 8 + Changes to Schedule

Everyone please save the date for our season end celebration:  Saturday, December 8,  from 6 to 8pm at the Maria Carrillo Small Gym!

Also - we have a final change to our competition schedule.  The coaches have decided to drop the Rough Rider Invitational on 10/13 and add the Clovis Invitational on 10/6.  The Clovis meet will have a roster of roughly 25 - it will include Varsity plus the top 5-7 Frosh/Soph runners.  The ideas is to leave MCHS around noon on Friday, stay the night in Fresno, race early in the day and be back in Santa Rosa by mid afternoon on Saturday.  This meet uses the same course used for the California State Championships in November.  More info to come.

Click here to see updated schedule.

Sep 12 Super Septo Results

The coaches were very pleased with the work that we put in at this meet.  Not all work is physical - in this case it required mental focus and discipline.  We gave the team some very specific pacing assignments and pacing groups -- and with just a few minor exceptions they did a very good job of hitting paces and staying together.

One measure of our success using this approach is the "spread" between our scoring runers.  This is the time gap between the finishes for the team's first and fifth runners.  The girls did a good job with this - keeping a very narrow gap through most of the race and finally finishing with a 1:16 spread between runners #1 and #5.  The boys did even better - their gap was only 18 seconds!

• Link to Boys Varsity Results
• Link to Girls Varsity Results
• Link to Boys JV Results
• Link to Girls JV Results

Information for Viking Invite on Sep 15

Coming up this weekend is a "nearby" and fun meet- The Viking Opener. This meet format is a bit different - it is mostly made up of small teams segregated by grade level. We will be using this meet to provide an opportunity for some of our faster runners further down the roster to show what they can do!

• Driving Instructions! - click here to get parking passes. You will need to park at Swimming Lagoon parking lot (click on map left to enlarge- Montgomery Drive to Channel Drive to Violetti entrance) - BUSSES ONLY will be allowed at Oak Knolls "back entrance" via Hoen!
• Athletes! Please verify that the information on your race tag is correct, especially the specified gender and grade level. Otherwise, you may be disqualified from your race. You may only compete in your grade level race or the Open race - you may not 'race up' a division. If there is any problem - please let Ruben know!
• Schedule: 7:30 - 8:30 a.m. Course open for walking 8:35 Junior High Boys and Girls (unlimited) 9:00 Frosh/Soph Boys (5 max.) 9:20 Frosh/Soph Girls (5 max.) 9:45 Alumni 10:15 Junior Boys (5 max.)10:35 Junior/Senior Girls (5 max.) 11:00 Open Girls (unlimited) 11:25 Senior Boys (5 max.) 11:45 Open Boys (unlimited) 12:10 Team Award Presentation
• Puma Race Rosters: click here to see rosters
• Results! Will be posted on site as they become available, and can also be viewed online at: http://espn.go.com/high-school/track-and-xc/california and http://running.blogs.pressdemocrat.com/

Ed Sias Interviews on Flotrack

Posting some of the post race interviews from Flotrack

Watch more video of 2012 Ed Sias Cross Country Invitational on flotrack.org

Watch more video of 2012 Ed Sias Cross Country Invitational on flotrack.org


Watch more video of 2012 Ed Sias Cross Country Invitational on flotrack.org


Watch more video of 2012 Ed Sias Cross Country Invitational on flotrack.org


Watch more video of 2012 Ed Sias Cross Country Invitational on flotrack.org

Watch more video of 2012 Ed Sias Cross Country Invitational on flotrack.org

Watch more video of 2012 Ed Sias Cross Country Invitational on flotrack.org

Updated and Complete Ed Sias Recap

We had a really fun and gratifying day at the Ed Sias Meet on Saturday, September 8. It was great to see so many parents and siblings making the trip out to Martinez to help with transit, watch the races, attend to our runners, take some pictures and generally support our team!

• See some great photos here (thanksToddVandenburg)
• More photos here (PD Running Blog)

This was our first “real” meet, so we learned a lot about the 2012 edition of our squad. Like a Polaroid photo (remember those?) it’s interesting to see a picture emerge. Here’s what we are learning:

• We have a great group of young people. These guys are a joy to be around, and they seem to enjoy each other’s company. There is a terrific “vibe” of sincere support and friendship! They are also (generally) very good about listening to instructions and taking them to heart.  They also love to race!
  
• We have an unusually deep level of talent. Looking over the results of this meet, you can see that the median runner on our team (middle of the pack) is in the top 25% of their peers among the 1700 runners that competed. Our JV squads are faster than 75% of the Varsity teams among the 40+ schools that took part! As someone phrased it, “we have an embarrassment of riches.”
  
• The peak is high. The top of our team can be very good – barring injury and illness, we are in great shape to challenge some of the MCHS all-time team marks and to meet or exceed our season end goals at NBLs, NCS and State! The challenge will be to manage our emotions and expectations through the season – want to peak at the big meets at the end.

And now, a recap of the meet...

Personal Records: We always start out by recognizing improvement – this is the foundation of everything we do.

25 of 29 runners that had previously run this course improved their times and set a new PR. Some exceptional, extraordinary improvements included Sam Perry (-7%), Eillie Petty (-8%), Michael King (-9%), Sophia Mahoney (-9%), Evan Drake (-9%), Shannon Palladino (-10%), Zac West (-14%), and Ryan Anderson (-17%) – WHHAAT???? (this is not a typo)

• Click Here to see PR Report.

Team Placings:

• Frosh Boys, 2nd place (out of 18 teams).
• Frosh/Soph Boys, 1st place (out of 28 teams)
• JV Boys, 6th place (out of 23 teams).
• Varsity Boys, 1st place in Large School Division (out of 15 teams)
• Girls Frosh/Soph, 1st place (out of 19 teams)- this was a remarkable performance! - we had 6 girls finish in the top 9 (140 runners in this race). Only two teams in the Varsity races ran a faster team time.
• Girls JV, 1st place (out of 19 teams). These girls did a terrific job of running together as a pack and finished with 4 runners in the top 9, and the top five in the first 15 spots!
• Girls Varsity, 6th place (out of 16 teams). We placed our top junior and senior girls in this race, and they did a really solid job of holding their own against some tough competition.

Individual Placing:

• Runners that finished in top 10 in their race (there were 21 of them!): Jackson Yates (9th in Frosh Boys), Spencer Jones (won JV race), Michael King (2nd in JV race), Zac West (4th in F/S Boys), Ryan Anderson (2nd in Boys V), Harrison Luft (6th in V Boys), Colin Bartlett (7th in V Boys), Nick Jensen (10th in V Boys), Shawn Cichosz (3rd in JV Girls), Abby Orgish (4th in JV Girls), Castine Jaffe(6th in JV Girls), Emma Wright (9th in JV Girls), Andrea Natoli (won F/S Girls), Shannon Palladino (2nd in F/S Girls), Shaz Breedlove (3rd in F/S Girls), Carolina Avelar (5th in F/S Girls), Allie Ahern (7th in F/S Girls), Sam Perry (9th in F/S Girls), Allison Bartlett (3rd in Fs/JV unltd), Ellie Petty (6th in FS/JV unltd), Tessa Nicklas (8th in fs/jv unltd) - interesting fact:  although we comprised just 4% of the runners at this meet, we took 23% of the "top 10" places in the races we competed in!
• Runners finishing in top 10% of the runners in their grade: Carolina Avelar (3rd fastest of 160 frosh girls at meet), Allie Ahern (4th frosh), Abby Orgish (9th frosh), Castine Jaffe (14th frosh), Emma Wright (18th frosh); Andrea Natoli (3rd of 239 soph girls in the meet), Shannon Palladino (5th fastest soph), Shaz Breeedlove (6th fastest soph), Sam Perry (14th soph), Shawn Cichosz (17th soph); Brynna Thigpen (10th fastest senior girl of 123); Jordan Scobey (5th fastest of 262 frosh boys), Ean Francheshi (12th frosh), Jackson Yates (19th fastest frosh), Zac West (8th of 307 soph boys), Ryan Nguyen (29th soph ); Ryan Anderson (3rd junior of 257), Colin Bartlett (6th junior), Nick Jensen (8th junior), Spencer Jones (22nd junior), Michael King (26th junior), Harrison Luft (11th of 172 senior boys at meet).
• Click here to see complete Puma individual report

Finally- posing with all our awards at the end of the day before heading back to the bus...

Fast and Happy Pumas at Ed Sias!

Just a quick preliminary note to let everyone know that we had a lot of fun and success at the Ed Sias Invite on Saturday.

Seventy Pumas made the trip to compete against 40 other schools.

Here is a rough recap:

Frosh Boys, 2nd place - Jackson Yates with top 10 finish

Frosh/soph boys, 1st place - Zac West with top 5 finish

JV Boys - Spencer Jones 1st, Michael King 2nd overall

Varsity Boys, 1st place - Ryan Anderson 2nd, Harrison Luft, Colin Bartlett, and Nick Jensen in top 12

F/S girls, 1st place - Andrea Natoli 1st, Shannon Palladino 2nd, Shaz Breedlove 3rd, Carolina Avelar, Allie Ahern, and Sam Perry also in top 10

JV Girls, 1st place - Shawn Cichosz, Abby Orgish, Castine Jaffe 3rd-5th

V Girls 6th - Brynna Thigpen top Puma girl

Many more excellent results and stories to tell - will update with more on Sunday, Sep 9.

You can also check to see if the Ed Sias website has been updated with results in the meantime.

Ed Sias Invite 9/8 - Now Includes Race Lineups

Here is an update with more info on Ed Sias Invitational.

WHO: Puma Lineups by Race

WHAT:  This Saturday, 9/8 = ED SIAS INVITE with 40 schools competing and over 2000 runners at Hidden Valley Park in Martinez! Link to the event website for more details + video, pics and results from previous years

WHEN: Be at MCHS 6:15 (yes, AM!) = BUS leaves at 6:30; we should arrive at 8:00 with the first race at 9:00; we'll leave at 2:45-3:00ish and expect to be back at MCHS around 4:30 PM.

Race Schedule

• 9:00 = Boys Frosh
• 9:25 = Boys JV
• 9:50 = Boys Frosh/Soph
• 10:15 = Boys Frosh/Soph and JV
• 11:05 = Boys Varsity
• 11:55 = Girls Varsity
• 12:20 = Girls JV
• 12:45 = Girls Frosh/Soph
• 1:10 = Girls Frosh/Soph and JV
• **Break**
• 2:00 = Awards Ceremony and Dance Party (+ lots of shwag give-aways!)

HOW (to get there to watch):

• DRIVING DIRECTIONS: (click here)
• COURSE MAP and ELEVATION DIAGRAM: (click here)

Important! - Pack a lunch or bring some $$ to buy something to eat = there will be a BBQ and concessions at the course. Also, bring a water bottle and [especially for girls who run later in the day] remember to eat something and keep hydrated throughout the day! This will be a long day - consider bringing homework and a foldable (soccer type) chair.

GO PUMAS!

First Pasta Feed of 2012 - Friday Night!

WHEN: Friday, September 7,  6-8 PM

WHAT (to bring):

• Freshman: Drinks
• Sophomores: Bread (garlic bread too)
• Juniors: Salad
• Seniors: Dessert

WHERE: 585 Caber Drive, home phone 538-4658. (Hicks House)  (Sorry - no pool)

HOSTS: Jensen and Hicks

DIRECTIONS: From Calistoga Rd, East on hwy 12, left on Los Alamos, Left on Scotland, Left on Caber. First driveway on the right.

HOW:  There will be many of us at this event.  Please demonstrate your sincere appreciation for the host family's hospitality and consideration for others by employing your best manners and decorum... a gentle reminder that we are guests at a teammates's home, not camping out in Tahoe!

Team Scoring Update on Intersquad Meet (Updated with 2 mile splits)

As mentioned in our previous post, we adjusted the scoring of the intersquad meet by skipping the scoring place of anyone whose pace slowed more than 2.5% in the final mile.  We did this to encourage runners to be more disciplined in their pacing and to not go out too fast.

Here is the pacing report (click here)

After adjusting, GREEN wins both the Girls and Boys races.

• Girls: Green 100, Gold 111
• Boys: Green 102, Gold 108

After practice on September 4, Green team members were presented with coupons for a free scoop of ice cream at Oliver's Market (Thanks Oliver's!)

The girls ended up being much better at following our instructions than the boys. Of the 25 girls with splits, Sophia M stopped for Cecilia, 22 met the objective, and 18 actually negative split 3rd mile (pretty sure Sophia M would have negative split also) - so we give 92% of the girls a passing grade, 72% with A's.
Of the 33 guys with splits, 22 met the objective, 12 actually negative split their 3rd mile - so we give 67% of the boys  passing grades, with 36% A's.

Some impressive "sandbagging" performances (these are some runners that did a great job following directions, plus now we know they are capable of going out somewhat faster!)
*Shawn Cichosz - 6:48 last mile, 47 sec negative split for last mile!!
*Abby Orgish - 6:57 last mile, 34 sec neg split
*Castine Jaffe, 7:01 last mile, 30 sec neg split
*Haleigh Frye, 7:05 last mile, 21 sec neg split
*Allie Ahern, 6:40 last mile, 19 sec neg split
*Carolina Avelar, 6:42 last mile, 17 sec neg split

*Jeffrey Marin, 6:39 last mile, 46 sec neg split
*Brian Padilla, 6:51 last mile, 29 sec neg split
*Colin Bartlett, 5:18 last mile, 21 sec neg split
*Antoine Thibault, 6:08 last mile, 15 sec neg split

More video from 2 mile point...

September Workouts Posted, Ed Sias Invite Up Next

First, please note that the September WORKOUT SCHEDULE has been posted

WHAT'S NEXT? ...This Saturday, 9/8 = ED SIAS INVITE with 40 schools competing and over 2000 runners at Hidden Valley Park in Martinez! Link to the event website for more details + video, pics and results from previous years:

Logistics = Be at MCHS 6:15 = Bus leaves at 6:30; we should arrive at 8:00 with the first race at 9:00; we'll leave at 2:45-3:00ish and expect to be back at MCHS around 4:30 PM.

• DRIVING DIRECTIONS: (click here)
• COURSE MAP and ELEVATION DIAGRAM: (click here)

Important! - Pack a lunch or bring some $$ to buy something to eat = there will be a BBQ and concessions at the course.  Also, bring a water bottle and [especially for girls who run later in the day] remember to eat something and keep hydrated throughout the day!  This will be a long day - consider bringing homework and a foldable (soccer type) chair.

Ed Sias Schedule
(Greg will share at Friday's practice which race each runner is entered in):

MCHS XC has a total of 83 runners entered in 9 races:

9:00 = Boys Frosh
9:25 = Boys JV
9:50 = Boys Frosh/Soph
10:15 = Boys Frosh/Soph and JV
11:05 = Boys Varsity
11:55 = Girls Varsity
12:20 = Girls JV
12:45 = Girls Frosh/Soph
1:10 = Girls Frosh/Soph and JV
Break
2:00 = Awards Ceremony and Dance Party (+ lots of shwag give-aways!)

GO PUMAS!

Monday, 9/3/12 8:30AM Run!

WHAT: A fun, easy pace, long run 
WHERE: Howarth Park (trail head adjacent to Lake Ralphine) 
WHEN: Monday, 9/3/12 at 8:30 AM

...WHY YOU SHOULD GO?    ...Because when you get back, we'll have homemade Breakfast Crepes from our very own Alex "Big Ticket" Morrison waiting for you right after the run!

Please contact Greg if you can bring fresh fruit and/or some juice for drinks.   -Expecting 20-25 people or so; parents and sibs, come run with us! 

Hope to see ya there!

-Greg
Cell: (707) 291-2967
greg.fogg@comcast.net

Intersquad Meet - 8/31/12 at Spring Lake

Due to confusion about meet dates, we originally thought we would be attending our first competition on Friday, August 31, but later found out that it was scheduled the following week.  So we decided to have our own informal "intersquad" meet at Spring Lake on the 31st instead, and we are sure glad we did.

One big objective this week was for everyone to learn our warmup procedure and the Spring Lake Course. Objective accomplished.

We divided the the boys and girls into two teams apiece - the "Gold" and the "Green" teams.  We scored the top 10 runners on each side. 

Our instructions to the team were pretty simple.  We wanted them to be diciplined in their pacing in this effort.  Go ahead and race, but you need to be able to run your last mile at a pace that is at least as fast as your first two miles.  If you fade too much on the third mile, your placing will not count for your team.  This clause forced them to run their first two miles in a more conservative and "under control" manner.  In other words, we wanted them to save themselves for the third mile a bit more than they might naturally do when they race.

As of this writing, we still need to complete the analysis for who met the pacing objective - we will update final adjusted meet results soon.  In the meantime, we are posting the unadjusted results here:

• Unadusted Boys Results
• Unadjusted Girls Results

Most everyone did a great job of following instructions and executing the race plan.  We even had some very nice PRs today (we were not expecting this at all).  The coaches were very pleased with what we saw.

Here are the PRs:
-123 seconds Kevin Moe
-86 seconds Kelly Fitzgerald
-63 seconds Ryan Anderson
-55 seconds Shannon P
-50 seconds Alex Morrison
-15 seconds Nick Jensen
-15 seconds Zac West
-8 seconds Samantha Perry
close call: +8 seconds Evan Drake

Finally, here is a short clip of our first 20 runners coming through the 2 mile split (more video to come)