We have so many Hawks running this year!  What a great turn out for a fun meet on Friday - the first SRA Youth XC Meet of the season (of three).  And we placed well as a team again, with the boy’s 7th/8th grade team placing 2nd overall and the girl’s 6th grade and under team placing 3rd!

We had a ton of fabulous individual performances, with three medal winners (Elias placing 1st, Matthew placing 5th, and Harper finishing in 8th place) not to mention Annie placing one spot out of the medals in 11th.  First, I want to point out how much some of our returning runners have improved from this meet last year.  Here’s a list of the best improvements:
 
                              Last Year   This Year
Mackenna             16:38         11:52
Harper                  11:18            8:54
Sophie                  12:53          11:20
Josie                     10:36            9:32
Charlie                   8:17            7:48
Matthew                7:29            7:01

Second, comparing mile pace from last week’s race to this week’s, we can measure improvement this season.  Of course, nearly everyone ran a faster pace this week on a shorter, easier course, most everyone improving 20-30 seconds/mile.  However, we had some significant pace improvements, such as these:
 
                            Josh Ruff Invite   SRA Youth Meet #1
Reagan W.             8:42                     7:30
Lou                        7:14                     6:31
Carlos                    8:48                     7:35
Veya                      9:38                     8:14
Sonia                    8:27                      7:48
Cal                        9:26                      8:48
Tyler                   10:21                      9:07
 
The best news about this meet, though, is that we will return to this same course in 4 weeks to run again - we can truly measure our progress over the season!  Overall, an amazing meet for the Delta Hawks because every athlete started and finished and that’s the most important stat!

This week, we don’t have a meet so we are going to really kick up the intensity at practice. Remember, we practice in the rain so be sure and attend regardless of weather!  We are NOT running at Lock Hills this week, so please come to the Boathouse on Monday and Thursday.  The schedule is as follows:

Monday:  5:30pm at the Boathouse
10 min warm up, drills
3-5 x 1000m intervals at the swamp
10 min cool down, strength

Tuesday: rest and stretch

Wednesday: Gray and Black Group
3-4 mile easy run on your own

Thursday: 5:30pm at the Boathouse
10 min warm up, drills
20 min tempo at Marshall Hills
Ladder 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1
10 min cool down, strength

Friday: rest and stretch

Saturday or Sunday: Long Run!
White/Yellow 3-5 miles
Gray/Black 5-7 miles

As always, if you have any questions, please let us know!

Coach Eric

Despite the challenges of the past week, the heat and the smoke and the uncertainty of Saturday, the Delta Hawks showed up in force and ran super tough at the Josh Ruff Memorial Invite in Folsom! We are especially impressed with our newest Hawks - for some of these athletes this was their first race ever - way to go!
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Our boys’ team placed 3rd overall, with Elias taking the overall win and Matthew running strong to finish 5th overall.  New Hawk Oliver Charkiewicz finished 20th to earn himself a medal and place third on the team, while Charlie and Lou rounded out the scoring Hawks.

Our girls’ team placed 5th even without Adeleine, who was out with an injury, led by newcomer Annie Villavicencio finishing 11th overall and Natalie’s 15th place finish. Both leaders earned themselves medals.  Harper, Audrey, and Sonia rounded out the scoring for the girl Hawks.

Everyone agreed that the Willow Hill course is a tough one for the team’s first meet – it is one of the most challenging courses we ever face – but the Hawks made us all proud by fighting up those hills and giving it their best! 

Mackenna deserves a huge shout out, as she epitomizes the heart of a Delta Hawk.  At last year’s Josh Ruff Invite, Mackenna was new to running and still learning to push herself in workouts and races.  She struggled to finish the difficult course and had to walk at times, but she didn’t give up.  Mackenna has been a Hawk for over a year now, and runs with confidence even in the face of massive hills and huge fields of runners.  Mackenna's perseverance was demonstrated yesterday by her six-minute PR over her time last year, and she’s only getting stronger!  That type of growth is one of our key goals as a team, and she continues to make us all proud.
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This coming week we have some hard workouts, a super-fun meet, and then our team outing at Jenkinson Lake! We will cover details at practice this week; meanwhile, here is this week’s schedule:

Monday:  5:30pm at Stonegate Elementary
Jog to Lock Hills, drills
3-6 x 800m intervals, full rest
10 min cool down, strength

Tuesday: rest and stretch

Wednesday: Gray and Black Group
3-4 mile easy run on your own

Thursday: 5:30pm at the Boathouse
10 min warm up, drills
20 min tempo at Marshall Hills
Rock/Paper/Scissors
10 min cool down, strength

Friday: SRA Youth XC Meet #1
William B. Pond Park, Carmichael
Please arrive no later than 3:30

Saturday: Team Hang Out at Jenkinson Lake!
More details on the team app under “Events”
Arrive before 10am to join us for a long run

Sunday: 
If you don’t get your long run in on Saturday, do it
Sunday morning!
3-6 miles, depending on fitness

As always, if you have any questions, please let us know!

Coach Eric

Well Hawks, this is going to be a strange week.  It is just too dang hot to meet in the evening for practice, so we are going to give everyone their workouts to do on their own – hopefully in the morning before it gets too hot outside, or on a treadmill in air conditioning.

On Monday (Labor Day), Coach Eric and the Thronson kids will be at Locks Hills at 8:30am to do Monday’s workout.  Any Hawk who can is welcome to join!  If you can’t be there, please be sure to get your workout in on your own.

On Thursday, everyone will be on their own to do their tempo run.  To explain tempo: if you imagine your running effort on a scale of 1-100 (with 1 being a shuffle and 100 being an all out sprint), then your tempo pace is roughly 75-80 on that scale.

Please reference the schedule below and let me know if you have any questions.
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Josh Ruff Memorial Invitational
Another casualty of this heat wave is meeting together before our first meet so we can discuss it for those who are new to cross country.  I will do my best to relay important information here, and on the Team App as the date approaches.  Also, see the meet webpage for additional information.

We need to be at the team tent by the Willow Hill course, ready to warm up at 8am on Saturday.  I will be leaving with the kids to warm up and go over the course, so please don’t be late.  Parking at the school lots will cost $5/car.  Do not park in the parking lot of the businesses located near Folsom High School on Iron Point Road.

​The boys run first at 9am, followed by the girl’s race scheduled for 9:20am.  Both groups are running a 1.5 mile course, starting and finishing at the same general location. We will go over starts and hills and what to do in between.  It’s going to be fun!

Here’s the schedule for the week:
Monday:  8:30am at Locks Hills or On Your Own
10 min warm up, drills
3-6 x 600m intervals, full rest
Or 2 minutes hard/2 easy for 20 minutes
10 min cool down, strength

Tuesday: rest and stretch

Wednesday: Only if you've been running
3-4 mile easy run on your own

Thursday: On Your Own
10 min warm up, drills
20-25 min tempo, running around 80% of your hardest pace
10 min cool down, strength

Friday: rest and stretch

Saturday: Josh Ruff Memorial Invite
Willow Hill Reservoir
Folsom High School

Sunday: 
Long run - try to find someone to run with
3-6 miles, depending on fitness

As always, if you have any questions, please let us know!

Coach Eric