We’re off an running! We had a great first week of training. It wasn’t without some hiccups, but we’ve got a great group and kids (and parents!), and I think everyone had fun. Now we can start getting into the standard pattern of our training this summer and make some good progress.
I. Week 1 Recap
This week we spent more time at Northridge than we will any week until we start school. I’m sure it was not our athletes’ favorite, but I think the time spent working on form and mechanics is important, especially for our new runners. Speaking of our new runners, I wanted to highlight some of them —
We loved having so many 7th and 8th graders with us this week. Please keep coming out! It’s been great to see Brit Kraining, Xi Hazard,Hannah Cook, and many others. They’ve integrated right into the team. Over the years, we’ve had many sets of twins on our team, and now we have the Pierce Triplets! Hopefully, Aubrey won’t get too sick of me teasing her about how difficult it is to tell her apart from her brothers, Kennan and Brennan ,haha.
On our Weber River Trail run on Wednesday, I was running out trying to find our team’s lead group, when I came across Sawyer Dance, one of our new runners this year, running all the way out towards the city offices in Riverdale! Sawyer has had a great week of training, and I’m already needing to hold him back a little bit.
There are too many others to mention. Landon Strong and Koleson Davis have an infectious enthusiasm for all things cross-country, running, and music, and our captains have been outstanding at reaching out to our new runners. Addison Waite is well-known as one of our faster runners this year, but is also becoming known for his love of Taco Bell. All this has me enjoying each day and got me very excited for a great season to come!
II. News & Announcements
A. Practice Times and Durations
Thank you, everyone, for being patient with us as we work through the kinks of implementing our offseason plan! It takes some time, and some of the practices during Week 1 went long as a result. I think we have some things figured out that will help us go a little faster (mainly me communicating better with the other coaches!) and the kids now know many of the exercises/drills that they have to run through (which will speed up the time it takes for us to rotate through some of our stations). Fingers crossed that we’re more efficient this week. We are really trying!
Our goal is that, on normal easy run days, we’ll be finished between 8:15 and 8:30 AM. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, our goal will be to be finish with our running portion of the workout by 8:15, and the strength portion of our workout by 9:00 AM.
B. Garmin Watch Order
The Garmin watch order went into Garmin on Friday, June 6, 2025. We still have to coordinate payment through the district, which should happen on Monday, June 9, 2025. Please watch for an announcement when fees are up on myDSD and make payment promptly–THANK YOU! I hope that the watches will be here by the end of this week. Thank you for your patience!
C. Team Store
The team store is still not open…and this is my fault. I will get in contact with our representative from TeamUp Sports early this coming week and try to get some alternative designs. As soon as it is open, I will let you know. Again, everything is optional — there is no required team gear or player pack.
D. Volunteer Needs
Thank you all for being so responsive to our request for volunteers! Our next team breakfast will be on Friday, June 20, 2025, at Oak Forest Park. We are covered for volunteers — huge thanks to the Moes, Pierces, and Simons!
I will do my best over the next couple of days to get the volunteers sheets linked to the website. Thanks for your patience in the meantime.
E. Mileage Reporting
I have posted on Band the Google Form that our athletes should use to report their mileage for Week 1. Please encourage them to do this. It is vital for us to provide effective coaching. I will emphasize this to them repeatedly, but parent encouragement can help a lot, too! Thank you!
II. Weekly Training & Schedule
This week’s schedule is summarized in the table below. The details of each day’s training are linked in the PDF below the table.
| Date | Location | Time | Type of Training Day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday, June 9, 2025 | Fernwood Recreation Site | 7:00 AM | Easy trail run + hill sprints. |
| Tuesday, June 10, 2025 | Northridge High School | 7:00 AM | Form-focused workout + weights |
| Wednesday, June 11, 2025 | Weber River Trail | 7:00 AM | Standard easy run |
| Thursday, June 12, 2025 | Northridge High School | 7:00 AM | Form-focused workout + strength circuit |
| Friday, June 13, 2025 | Nicholl’s Hollow | 7:00 AM | Standard easy run + core |
| Saturday, June 14, 2025 | TBD by Captains | TBD by Captains | Long run |
| Sunday, June 15, 2025 | N/A (Rest) | N/A (Rest) | N/A (Rest) |
This week’s assigned training can be found linked here: https://northridgexc.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/NRXC-Week-2-Running-Schedule-2025.pdf
The captains will announce the location and time for the Saturday long run in the Lads subgroup (for the boys) and the XC Girls subgroup (for the girls) on Band.
III. Other/Points of Emphasis
From time to time, I’ll post a video with some information for our athletes to the team YouTube channel. Since I don’t care too much about production value or editing, it’s a relatively easy way for me to communicate some points of emphasis to our runners each week.
I may not get this done each week, but this week’s video can be found below.