With three weeks of summer practices in the books, we are staring down finishing our first month of training this season. That’s crazy to me, since it seems we just got started! With that obligatory, “time moves so fast” reference, here we go!
I. Week 3 Recap
I think people are starting to feel the rhythm of the schedule now, and are getting comfortable with the team. We are working hard to make practices meaningful and fun and to keep everyone on the team feeling involved. If anyone on the team is feeling isolated or left out, please feel free to talk with me (whether coach or parent), and my sincere apologies in advance…it’s certainly not intentional.
We’ve had a lot of people in and out of town (which is to be expected!), so attendance was a little hit and miss, but that didn’t prevent us from having fun overall. I want to give a special shout-out to our athletes who came to our Saturday long run yesterday at Jeremy Ranch. It’s a ways to travel, and I’m always a little reluctant to ask athletes and parents to go that far out of their way, but everyone who attended had a ton of fun. It really is one of the best places to run in Utah. As proof of that, we saw Katelyn Tuohy, a top professional runner and one of the best female high school and college runners ever out doing her long run on Saturday as we were driving home. We also saw runners from Taylorsville and Alta High Schools (with some of the top distance athletes in 5A) out doing their runs while we were there. I’m proud of our runners for getting out there and putting in the work.
On Tuesday, we had our athletes run a 400M time trial at practice. While many of our athletes have run track before, not all had raced a 400M, and so it was a new experience. Even for our athletes experienced at racing, it was a stretch, since it’s been a while since they’ve been asked to run at these speeds. Even though the only time they’ll approach this speed during our season is in the first 100M of a race, we do this time trial to get a sense of where our athletes are at with their speed at the start of our season. Special shout outs to Addison Waite (Sr.) and Lyla Wiser (Jr.) who came in with the top times at 58.5 and 68 seconds, respectively. All our athletes did well. A 400M is an incredibly…uncomfortable…race, and I’m proud of our runners whenever they give full effort!
A huge tank you to the Moes, Pierces, and Simonses for putting together our team breakfast on Friday at Oak Forest Park! It was a huge success, and the runners (and I!) really appreciated it. And thank you to Dawn Agren and my wife Roslyn for helping (as always!) put together breakfast on Saturday for the team at Jeremy Ranch.
For these first three weeks, we’ve been meeting to do form and strength work at Northridge each Tuesday/Thursday. Our athletes know how much we’ve been trying to emphasize them to ALWAYS run with good form and build good muscle memory. The Tuellers and Coach Shelley have been invaluable in helping with this. As discussed more below, we will have just one more of these practices — on Tuesday of this coming week. But — because anything worth emphasizing is worth doing always — we will continue the emphasis on developing strong running form and mechanics, just in a slightly different way going forward. It may not have been the funnest thing we’ve ever done as a team, but we are convinced of its importance. We’ll be earnestly seeking athlete feedback on how we can improve it in coming years.
II. News & Announcements
A. Wednesday (36th Street Trailhead in Ogden)
This coming Wednesday, we’ll be meeting at 36th Street trailhead in Ogden to run on some of the foothill trails. We’ll have different options for runners who go different distances. Some runners will run a short version of the Gib’s Loop trail, others will run the full loop, and our advanced runners will run a loop that includes a trail up Waterfall Canyon. It should be a lot of fun. Here are the anticipated routes:
We will have someone to lead each route to make sure runners get back to the trailhead. Because of the different distances, we may have runners coming back at different times. That’s OK. Most runners should be done between 8:15 and 8:30 AM. The Ogden foothill trails are beautiful and runnable, and this should be a fun day for everyone.
B. Scavenger Hunt
We will have a scavenger hunt on Thursday. The team will be divided up between boys and girls. The boys and the girls will each start at separate locations at precisely 7:05 AM. There will be a coach present to start each team and hand them the first clue. The clues will direct each team along a different route, with stops to find clues along the way. Each team must stay together, and must take a team photo (or their entire team) after finding each clue.
Although the boys and girls will run separate routes, both routes will lead the teams to the same location, where there will be a final clue. The team that finds and completes the final clue first, and then tags me (Coach Bentley), wins!. The winning team gets ice cream bars. More details will be forthcoming, but I will notify parents in the GroupMe of the starting location and ending location (with the final clue) so that you can drop off and pick up your athletes — do not tell your runners where you will be picking them up!
C. UHSAA Moratorium
USHAA All-Sports Moratorium starts on Monday, June 30, and continues through the week of the 4th of July. There is no official practice allowed during this week for high school competition teams, and, although we are running summer training through our club organization, we will observe this rule (since I think it is healthy for all involved — athletes, families, AND coaches!).
Even though there is no official practice, it is VITAL that athletes continue to run during this week. They can do this on their own, or, as I would recommend, in groups. The captains usually organize some options on their own, but I will encourage athletes not to miss this week of training, as it will set them back if they simply take the week completely off.
D. Friday/Saturday, June 27/28, 2025
You’ll notice on the summer schedule that I missed the fact that USHAA Moratorium doesn’t start until June 30 (I inadvertently kept last year’s affected dates). As a result, I did not schedule team practices on Friday, June 27, 2025, or Saturday, June 28, 2025. This was a mistake on my part. Since I understand that people plan around the schedule I send out, I am not requiring athletes to attend practice on June 27/28, 2025. However, for those who are interested and available, I will be leading the following runs on those days:
Friday, June 27, 2025 @ 5:30 PM — Ogden River Trail (Ogden Running Company) (with post-run river soak and popsicles…this is a traditional run for our team!)
Saturday, June 28, 2025 @ 7:00 AM — Long Run (Start at Nicholl’s Hollow) (with cold breakfast to follow)
Again, while these runs are fully optional, it should not be optional for our athletes to miss training on these days. They should get their runs in wherever they are. It can be done with just a small bit of prioritization, even if they are traveling in the vast majority of cases. I wanted to make them available for our team so those who are in town had a team option. Please note that the Friday run will be very hot, so athletes should dress for the weather, plan to moderate their effort, and come to enjoy a post-run river soak!
E. 4th of July 5K
As I mentioned previously, we expect that ALL of our athletes will run a 4th of July 5K, or do an equivalent time trial. Five kilometers (5K or 3.1 miles) is the standard cross-country race distance, and this is an essential benchmark we’ll use in structuring each athlete’s training going forward. We expect that each athlete will run and give full effort in this race.
While many of our athletes will run at the Layton Liberty Days 5K, there are a number of other options, including the Centerville Freedom Run, the Kaysville Rotary 5K, and the North Ogden Cherry Days 5K, to name a few. I don’t care which they choose to run, but each athlete should sign up to race. If he or she is in a location where no race is available, he or she should run a 5K (~3 mile) time trial.
Again, this is important. It is NOT optional. If you believe you have extenuating circumstances, please communicate with the coaches ASAP. Thanks!
F. Design Competition
I spoke with our athletes about this on Friday. I am working on designing t-shirts for our camp this year. I want to incorporate Rudyard Kipling’s saying, “For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.” I am hopeless when it comes to designing, and so I will pay someone to do this for me. I told our athletes that I would rather pay one of them. So, I am giving them the next 2.5 to 3 weeks to come up with a design. If it’s one that I like, I’ll pay our athlete who designed it, and we’ll move forward. If I don’t see any I like, well, then I won’t pay, but hopefully this will be a fun opportunity for one of them. I hope it doesn’t totally backfire…I don’t want to offend anyone. Here are the details:
- Design represents the quote (“For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.“).
- Amount: $250.
- Basic Conception: A pack of wolves running, simple line art style that can be printed on a shirt, probably more abstract (but open to whatever), somehow subtly highlighting or emphasizing one of the wolves. The designs should convey the idea of the importance of training, and succeeding/learning together.
- No copyright infringement or plagiarism. I don’t care if they use AI to assist them in the design.
- This is a work made for hire and would be the property of NRXC to continue to use, though I don’t care whether they also use it elsewhere.
So, encourage your kids if they are artistically inclined! Fingers crossed this works out!
III. Weekly Training & Schedule
This week’s training schedule is summarized in the table below, and the specific training details are providing in the linked PDF.
| Date | Location | Time | Type of Training Day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday, June 23, 2025 | Fernwood Recreation Site | 7:00 AM | Standard trail run + hill sprints |
| Tuesday, June 24, 2025 | Northridge High School | 7:00 AM | Form/mechanics work + strength |
| Wednesday, June 25, 2025 | 36th Street Trailhead (Ogden) | 7:00 AM | Easy trail run |
| Thursday, June 26, 2025 | Locations TBA | 7:00 AM | Team scavenger hunt + strength |
| Friday, June 27, 2025 | Ogden Running Company (Ogden) | 5:30 PM | Easy run + river soak |
| Saturday (June 28, 2025) | Nicholl’s Hollow | 7:00 AM | Long run + breakfast |
| Sunday (June 29, 2025) | N/A | N/A | REST. |
Here is this week’s training PDF: https://northridgexc.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/NRXC-Week-4-Running-Schedule-2025.pdf
IV. Other/Points of Emphasis