What a week it has been! I am so proud of all of our hawks and the work that they have put in. I believe that they will soon find that all the effort they have put into this season will come back to them. Last week, even though I wasn’t there on Monday, I heard about many hawks working hard. Mia had an outstanding workout, pushing the whole time and finishing all the way through the finish line. Cal also attacked the hills, making up a lot of distance on his fellow hawks. On Thursday everyone crushed it, working hard relay after relay.
As I am sure you all know, we had no meet this weekend, so I hope that everyone got in their long runs. Long runs are important to help build a base on top of what we are doing in practice. This coming weekend, for those of you participating, we have the Clarksburg Country Run 5k on Saturday. I know that this is a team favorite, and I hope that many of you can be there. If you are not running the 5k, you need to get in a long run! I need to register our athletes for Association Championships this week. Please be sure to RSVP on the team app – and if you are not planning to participate let me know at practice this week. At this point of the season, we are focusing on “sharpening the sword.” This means that the workouts are becoming shorter, but faster. Really focus on speed in the upcoming workouts. Think about shortening your stride, moving your arms faster, and anything else that might help you remember to run fast. As we are reaching the end of our season every workout counts so make sure that you get in the right headspace before practice. We are also going to be training in the dark from here on out. PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR HEADLAMPS TO PRACTICE! We have done a great job avoiding injuries this season – let’s not experience any unforced errors by running in the dark! Our practice schedule this week will be as follows: Monday - Intervals at Marshall Hills (Meet at the Boathouse)
Tuesday - Rest & Stretch Wednesday - On your own
Thursday - Swamp Tempo (Meet at the Boathouse)
Friday - Rest & Stretch Saturday or Sunday - LONG Easy Run and/or CLARKSBURG 5K
REMEMBER: What you put into your training will dictate what you get out of your races. Train Hard, Win Easy! Coach Eric
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Alright Hawks, we are getting amazingly fit, super strong, and ready for our championship season to begin! This past week we had some hard workouts, and everyone did great! This coming week, we are working hard again, getting sharper now that we have built our strength. After this week, our practices will begin to taper and we will get ready to peak for Associations and Regionals!
Speaking of our championship races, please let us know what your availability is over the Thanksgiving weekend. If you aren't planning to participate, we need to know as we figure out our teams. This week's practices are as follows: Monday - Intervals at Marshall Hills (Meet at the Boathouse)
Tuesday - Rest & Stretch Wednesday - On your own
Thursday - Swamp Tempo (Meet at the Boathouse)
Friday - Rest & Stretch Saturday or Sunday - LONG Easy Run
REMEMBER: What you put into your training will dictate what you get out of your races. Train Hard, Win Easy! Coach Eric Another big meet - another spectacular performance by this Hawks team! Overall our girl's team finished second in the club division, only losing to the Buffalo Chips - a really impressive feat! Special shout out to Mia who finished as our fifth and final scoring runner as an 8 year old!
Individually, we had so many amazing performances I will struggle to capture them all, but I will try! First, let's compare times for those who ran the same meet last year. Every single Hawk improved their times (except Josie, who was sick), with some of the biggest improvements including Tyler (1:48), Maddi (1:11), Sonia (1:21), Michael (1:45), and Mackenna (1:13). Those are some massive improvements over 1 year! A second way to look at our Hawks' improvements is to measure their quickening mile paces over the season. Putting aside the Cottonwood meet and its uber-challenging hills, it is helpful to look at how improved our athlete's mile pace has been over similar distances, and every Hawk has demonstrated improvement! Natalie, for example, was running around 7 minute pace at the beginning of the season and has held a 6:05/mile pace over the past two meets! David, Jack, Cal, Stella and Hadley have all improved their mile paces by 30 second or more this season, while new runners Max and Mac have improved by nearly 1 minute! This is the goal of our program, improved pace means we are improving all of our "Cs" - capacity, conditioning, and courage! This week we go back to work, with our next meet several weeks away we can put some finishing touches on our conditioning and be ready to compete in our championship season! Here's our schedule for the week: Monday - Intervals at Marshall Hills (Meet at the Boathouse)
Tuesday - Rest & Stretch Wednesday - On your own
Thursday - Swamp Tempo (Meet at the Boathouse)
Friday - Rest & Stretch Saturday or Sunday - LONG Easy Run
REMEMBER: What you put into your training will dictate what you get out of your races. Train Hard, Win Easy! Coach Eric All the Hawks put up impressive performances at the second SRA meet on Friday, with everyone improving their times (except Tyler who fell and still almost ran a PR). What amazing performances by all, but we want to highlight some off the most impressive ones. Gyan had the largest improvement with a 2 minute PR! Natalie had the second biggest PR of 1:07, followed by Mackenna, Mason, and Max who all improved by around 40 seconds. Connor, Pier, Henry, and Maddi all ran the course for the first time, and did great! We also had a number of Hawks medal in this meet, including Elias (as a Miwok), Adeleine, Pier, and Sonia. Special shout out to Natalie who missed grabbing a medal by 2 tenths of a second!
On the team side, we made a serious statement! Our 6th grade and under boys finished 3rd out of 34 teams, while our 6th grade and under girls team finished 4th out of 33 teams! Our 7th/8th girls team also did great, finishing 5th out of 19 teams. Way to go! This coming weekend we compete at the Flat Sac Cross Country Meet, our last meet prior to the Association Championships on Nov 19th. (Some of the Hawks are planning on running in the Clarksburg Country Run 5k on Nov 12th.) Flat Sac is an annual tradition, run at Gibson Ranch north of Sacramento, and is always one of the athletes' favorite courses. The races begin at 9am so we need everyone there by 8am. The tricky part is parking, please see the event info on the Team App for more info. This week's practice schedule is as follows: Monday - Intervals at Marshall Hills (Meet at the Boathouse)
Tuesday - Rest & Stretch Wednesday - On your own
Thursday - Marshall Hill Tempo (Meet at the Boathouse)
Friday - Rest & Stretch Saturday - Flat Sac XC Meet Gibson Ranch, Sac County
Sunday - Long Run on Your Own
REMEMBER: What you put into your training will dictate what you get out of your races. Train Hard, Win Easy! Coach Eric What a great effort by our Hawks this weekend at the NorCal Striders Meet! It was a long drive, but most of our athletes were able to make it and experience real cross country for the first time this season! They competed in their age groups, fought hard on uneven trails up and down steep hills, and finished strong! In this coach's opinion, the 2k was a little too easy, the 4k was super tough, but that 3k course was a perfect cross country challenge - not sure if all our Hawks would agree though!
Across 8 races we earned 6 medals (top 5 finishes) with Elias and Pier winning their age groups, Natalie coming in second in her race, Mia finishing 3rd, and Josie and Audrey nabbing 5th place finishes. That is a great showing for our team! But beyond those, we had a bunch of other notable top-ten efforts. Sonia and Hadley finished just out of the medals in 6th place in their respective races, David finished 7th and Jack 10th in their race, and Max was 9th in his race. The coaches couldn't be happier with where the team is at midseason, and we continue to have high hopes for the team as we move into the second half of our campaign. Remember, while we have a number of upcoming meets, our ultimate goal is to peak for the Association Championships on November 19th (which coincidentally will be on the same course we ran this weekend). This week we have the second SRA meet on Friday afternoon. It will be at American River College again, parking will be $5 and remember that parking gets backed up so try to arrive early to make entry easier. To the extent we can, we need the runners at the tent by 3:45 to get their bibs and start warmups, as the first race begins at 4:45. With a meet on Friday, this week's practice schedule is a little lighter than last week. We are now transitioning from building our strength endurance to sharpening into strength and then speed - metaphorically honing the edge of the blade we have crafted through our hard work so far this season. Here is our schedule: Monday - Intervals at Marshall Hills (Meet at the Boathouse)
Tuesday - Rest & Stretch Wednesday - On your own
Thursday - Swamp Tempo (Meet at the Boathouse)
Friday - SRA Meet #2
Saturday or Sunday - LONG Easy Run
REMEMBER: What you put into your training will dictate what you get out of your races. Train Hard, Win Easy! Coach Eric Delta Hawks are rolling into the middle of the season! We are doing some amazing work, getting into great shape, and avoiding injuries - this is right where we want to be! Next weekend most of us are traveling up to Cottonwood to compete in age group races in the NorCal Striders Youth Cross Country Meet. Our runners in the 8-and-under age group will run a 2k race, our 9-10 and 11-12 age group runners will compete in the 3k, while our 13-14 runners have to complete a 4k. These are the distances our athletes will compete in at Associations, Regionals, and Nationals, so this is a a great trial run for everyone!
Speaking of the end-of-season meets, I added the championship meets to the events on the Team App, and they are on our website calendar (as well as the athletic.net calendar if you're checking that page). There are some unknowns still related to these meets as the details have not been released, but there are some things we know for sure. First, runners have to qualify for Nationals through the Regional Championship, and qualify for Regionals by competing at the Association Championship. The dates are certain: Associations is the Sunday before Thanksgiving (11/19), Regionals is the Sunday after Thanksgiving (11/26), and Nationals is on Saturday, December 9th. Currently, the Association Championship is set to be held at the same course we are visiting this weekend in Cottonwood (though there is some effort to move it to the Bay Area: we will know more in a week). The location for Regionals is definitely Woodward Park in Fresno, and Nationals is Tom Sawyer Park in Louisville, KY. In the past, in order to advance from race to race you need to either be on a top-5 team or in the top 30 in your age group. Without the race details, I don't know if that will still be the case, but let's assume that it will. We have a good chance to get a large group of our kids to Regionals - I want all of our athletes that qualify to be able to join us in Fresno as that course is famous because it hosts the California High School State Championship Meet each year. Based on our current roster, and barring injury, I think we have a 9-10 boys team that will qualify for Regionals, as well as an 11-12 girls team, along with a number of individuals in other age groups. Parents: please see me or Coach Galen to discuss, based on our experience, what it might take for your athlete to advance so we can all be prepared to work hard and compete at the end of the season. For this week, we are still doing the hard mid-season work that builds us toward a successful conclusion to our season. We will be meeting at the Boathouse for the remainder of the season. It will be getting dark earlier and soon we will need to bring headlamps to practice - please be prepared. Here is our schedule for this week: Monday - Intervals at Marshall Hills (Meet at the Boathouse)
Tuesday - Rest & Stretch Wednesday - On your own
Thursday - Marshall Hill Tempo (Meet at the Boathouse)
Friday - Rest & Stretch Saturday - Easy Run if you want Sunday - NorCal Striders Youth Cross Country Meet
REMEMBER: What you put into your training will dictate what you get out of your races. Train Hard, Win Easy! Coach Eric The Delta Hawks had a great showing at the SRA Meet on Friday! Almost all of our athletes participated, and everyone ran great. What was most remarkable was the way all of our runners fought through the adversity of the short start and tricky turn. Several Hawks fell during the race, but they got up, continued to compete, and finished with pride!
A special shout out to our medal winners SONIA BROWN (6th place in the 6th grade and under) and ADELEINE GLENN (9th place of 7th/8th grade). They both competed in races with hundreds of local kids and were able to garner top ten medals. But the truth is every Hawk had a great race, because every one of them started the race, competed, and finished strong. The coaches are so proud of you all! This coming week we can do some harder work, as we don't have a meet next weekend. We will be at Lock Hills on Monday and the Boathouse on Thursday. This will likely be the last week at Lock Hills as the sun will be dipping low and we don't want to run on the unevenness of the sand in the dark. It's a good idea to invest in headlamps now, as our practices will soon be in the gloaming and eventually in the dark. Here's this week's schedule: Monday - Intervals at Lock Hills (Meet at STONEGATE ELEMENTARY)
Tuesday - Rest & Stretch Wednesday - On your own
Thursday - Marshall Hill Fartlek (Meet at BRIDGEWAY LAKES BOATHOUSE)
Friday - Rest & Stretch Saturday or Sunday - LONG Easy Run
REMEMBER: What you put into your training will dictate what you get out of your races. Train Hard, Win Easy! Coach Eric Another great week of training in the books for out Hawks, and for those who could join us up at Jenkinson Lake we had a good long run and a blast playing in the water!
This coming week, we have our second meet of the season on Friday afternoon. The Sacramento Running Association kindly hosts a series of youth cross country meets that have always been very fun and full of teams from all over the Sacramento region. This year, the location has moved to American River College, located at 4700 College Oak Dr, Sacramento. Parking will be $5 per vehicle, cash only. Please use the main parking entrance off of College Oak Drive and park in the garage located directly north of the ARC Track Stadium by proceeding straight at the roundabout. Parking fees will be collected by volunteers as you arrive; you do not need to pay at the kiosks. From the garage ground floor, you can access the course by proceeding west via the walkway between the tennis courts and the ARC Soccer Stadium. The first race is at 4:45, so I need all Hawks to arrive by 3:45 on Friday. Because the race is on Friday, our Thursday practice will be a little easier. However, come to work on Monday as we will be doing one of our hardest workouts at Lock Hills this year! Here is this week's schedule: Monday - Intervals at Lock Hills (Meet at STONEGATE ELEMENTARY)
Tuesday - Rest & Stretch Wednesday - On your own
Thursday - Marshall Hill Tempo (Meet at BRIDGEWAY LAKES BOATHOUSE)
Friday - SRA Meet #1
Saturday or Sunday - LONG Easy Run
REMEMBER: What you put into your training will dictate what you get out of your races. Train Hard, Win Easy! Coach Eric The Delta Hawks Racing Team builds incredible young runners! Our three remaining OHs (Original Hawks from the 2019 inaugural Delta Hawks team) have developed into strong, competitive runners and amazing leaders. That is our mission - to develop the next generation of confident, competitive elite runners in the Sacramento region.
Outstanding performances across the board at the Josh Ruff Memorial Invitational were a demonstration of the Hawks' team accomplishment! We had four runners earn medals (Adeleine and Natalie, Elias and Pier) and the girl's team placed third overall. More importantly, we had younger runners boldly competing against bigger middle school athletes, representing the next generation of elite runners rising from the Delta Hawks ranks! On the girl's side, Josie was the fastest 4th grader in the race, Hadley was the fastest 3rd grader, and our new runner Mia Jackson was the fastest girl under 3rd grade! Meanwhile, our 9-10 boys really dominated for their age, with Pier finishing in 16th place, followed by David, Jack, newcomer Evan Jackson, Tyler, Cal, and Cameron. When Henry joins us, we will be a force to be reckoned with! We won't have another chance to compete for two weeks, but the next race will be a fun one where 6th-grade and under compete in their own race and then 7th/8th graders race each other - giving our younger kids a little more opportunity! This week, we focus on training. We will be at Lock Hills on Monday and the Boathouse on Thursday. Here's the schedule: Monday - Intervals at Lock Hills (Meet at STONEGATE ELEMENTARY)
Tuesday - Rest & Stretch Wednesday - On your own
Thursday - Swamp Relay Run (Meet at BRIDGEWAY LAKES BOATHOUSE)
Friday - Rest & Stretch Saturday or Sunday - LONG Easy Run
REMEMBER: What you put into your training will dictate what you get out of your races. Train Hard, Win Easy! Coach Eric Guest blog by Coach Alicia!
It is common for athletes to experience anxiety when they are participating in a sport. Your amygdala is the part of the brain that processes emotions and can cause anxiety and stress symptoms. The amygdala is also known as the “fight or flight” center of the brain as it will sometimes send signals to the rest of your brain that something dangerous might happen and pump stress hormones into the body. This is a really important part of our brain, but sometimes the amygdala gets it wrong and sends out alert signals to your body when they aren’t needed. Think about walking down the street and you see a stick lying ahead of you. You might not be able to tell right away if it is a snake or a stick. Your amygdala might interpret this as dangerous and cause your heart rate to increase and adrenaline to go through your body before the rest of your brain catches up and realizes that it is just a stick. Something similar can happen before a race or during a challenging practice. When your heart rate increases and breathing becomes more shallow, your amygdala might kick in and send messages to your brain and body that are not accurate. When we start to feel anxious, nervous or stressed while running, we want to be able to calm our amygdala and the rest of our body down as quickly as possible. One of the most effective ways to do this is with breathing exercises. Three simple breathing exercises to practice are listed below. It is important to practice these on a frequent basis and not only in the moment when we are trying to calm down. The more your brain and body get used to these breathing exercises, the easier it will be to use them before a race or anytime you are feeling anxious. Three Breathing Exercises 1. Titled Head Breath: inhale for a slow count of four and tilt head left (ear to shoulder) and exhale for a slow count of four as you center your head; inhale for a slow count of four and tilt your head right (ear over shoulder) and exhale for a slow count of four as you center your head again. Repeat this for 1-2 minutes. 2. Box Breathing: Inhale for four counts, hold your breath for four counts, exhale for four counts, hold your breath for four counts. Repeat this for 1-2 minutes. 3. Relaxation Breathing: Place your right hand on your heart and left hand on your abdomen with thumb on diaphragm (center of chest bone in the middle of the ribs). Let your belly rise and count 1-2-3-4 on the inhale. On the exhale, your belly falls and count down 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. Repeat for 1-2 minutes. Again, practice one or all of these techniques on your own before race day. Then, if you start to feel that amygdala fire up and your anxiety start to rise, you can use one of these exercises to bring yourself back to a healthy feeling of nervous excitement - that is a natural way to feel before any competition and, if accepted, can actually help improve your performance! If you have any questions, let any of the coaches know. We are happy to talk through this with you one-on-one. Now let's get out there and fly! Coach Alicia |
AuthorDelta Hawks Coaches Archives
April 2024
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