Special News: Saturday, August 27 - Trail Work. Yes, we are still planning on doing work Saturday starting at 8AM. If the rain is too bad, we may call it quits early and we may decide not to put down all the mulch - but there is still plenty of cleanup work we need to do. We will need lots of wheelbarrows, pitchforks, rakes, shovels as well as shears for trimming brush. We also need parents to come and help with this as well. We will be doing this starting at 8AM instead of the normal run. Sunday, August 28 - Clementon Park 5K and Splash World Classic! - This race has been postponed until Sept. 18. We have a real race the day before, so we will not be doing this as a team activity. This Past Week We had a good first week of practice. Most of the guys showed up - with daily totals of over 50 each day. Some guys are missing, much to our chagrin. I only hope you have been running. Time Trial - We held a time trial on Tuesday to get a sense of where the fitness level is for everyone. The results confirmed we are not as strong up top as we were last year. On the other hand, we had a lot of good, solid performances for the early season. This is a team that can certainly develop into a solid contender and hold our dual meet winning streak going as well as win the Liberty Division. Also note that time trial results are up on the website - www.moorestownxc.org. Miles - We are taking a new approach with this year's team. It goes back to the basics of needing to run to be a good runner. We're taking a page from my college Coach's playbook. His basic XC philosophy was that the races were long enough that the key was aerobic capacity - how much oxygen could be delivered by the heart and lungs to the muscles. The best way to expand this system is to run for long, slow distances. It also has the benefit of minimizing injuries as opposed to running fast. As the season kicks in we will have a number of races that we will learn to run fast and be tough. But we need the aerobic systems to be able to sustain us for the full 5K. We have broken the team into three general groups - Low, Mid and High mileage. They have a goal for running 5, 7 and 9 miles each day Monday-Saturday. We have a good pack of around 10 guys in the high group and they all look solid. The Mid's are a bit larger group and also look solid, although some that did nto get full mileage in this summer are feeling tired. The Low's are still a mix. Some will be moving up to the mid's over the next couple of weeks. Some are still working on the 3 mile level, but will see steady improvement and get up to 5 in the next couple of weeks. Logging Miles - We have a Uniform Program, where runners can earn uniforms, shirts and even sweats. To earn a uniform (that you keep for the 4 years you run), runners must complete 100 miles. T-Shirts are awarded at 250 miles, 500 miles, 1,000 miles and every 1,000 miles after. That is based on total cumulative miles during a runner's career on the team. We also award full sweats with embroidered name for runners who run over 500 miles from June 1 thru the Turkey Trot. We are using a new log program this year - you must signup to be part of the MXC Club and then you will get weekly assignments as well as be able to log your miles. We are using this effective for all miles after June 1. You do not need to transfer Voomaxer miles - we will keep track of those. Go to
https://www.runclubsignup.com/Club/NJ/Moorestown/MoorestownBoysCrossCountry and
join the club and start logging miles. This Coming Week - We will continue the pre-season training schedule, meeting each morning at 8AM. We will likely have a workout or two that involves some hills at threshold pace. If we are not able to complete trail work tomorrow, we will have another work day next Saturday. | 
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