MXC 2011 Weekly Update - Trail Work & Race This Weekend!

This is a special reminder email about this weekend's activities! Saturday, August 27 - Trail Work. This year we will be putting down new wood chips on the trail in the middle school woods. We will need lots of wheelbarrows, pitchforks, rakes and shovels. 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! - We want everyone to sign up for this race. It includes free entry to the water park after the race. We also get fundraising help form this event, as $10 donation is made to the team for each runner that signs up from our team! It would be great to have 50+ guys show up with family and friends and raise a bunch of money to pay for our uniform program and trail maintenance! Also note that time trial results are up on the website - www.moorestownxc.org.

RunSignUp goes Mobile!

RunSignUp has gone mobile! With 9% of visitors to our website coming from mobile devices (and growing!), we wanted to optimize their experience by making our site as simple to use as possible.

The new interface works on Android, iPhone and iPad devices, and the reviews have been great!

The RunSignUp mobile interface is designed to be simple and straightforward, with larger fonts and bigger, easily press-able buttons, to make race registration a breeze!

And best of all, race directors do not need to do anything! Your race registration is automatically optimized for each runner coming to your race webpage. Simply post your race at www.RunSignUp.com.

MXC Weekly Update- Spring Track Edition - Time Trials

Welcome to Spring Track! We have about 30 guys out for the Distance team and 60+ overall including the sprints, jumps and weights. This is the largest distance crew we have had out for Track, which is a good sign! The only downside is that track does not have the same opportunity for everyone to run in every meet like Cross Country does, but there should be plenty of chances for everyone to run some races.

We had our annual season opening 2 Mile Time Trial (actually semi-annual counting XC). We had 27 guys run it - another record. Overall we were very pleased with the results. The guys that had been running all winter showed it. Some of the guys doing winter sports also showed a great start - the Inglis brothers, Howard, Caffrey, Orzechowicz pop to mind.

Of course it would not be a time trial without someone losing it - and Kramer came thru for us on his final lap taking a moment to fertilize some grass...

You can see the times on the www.moorestownxc.org website along with the new VDOT. These VDOT's will rise rapidly by early April when racing starts in earnest. There is also a link to the Spring Schedule.

This coming week, we will get easy miles in on Monday and Tuesday. Then a good interval workout on the track on Wednesday and then some Threshold on Saturday.

As a PS, congrats to the guys who ran the Indoor Sectionals. In the 3200, Shipley ran a nice PR (indoor and outdoor) in 11:06. Rothman also PR'd BIG with a 11:54. Samocki and Sieggreen ran good 1600's for having no speedwork. Kevin Horten and Munilla did a bit of a spped workout running the 800. Munilla especially had a nice kick at the end.

Bickel Running Review of 2010

To follow up on last year's promise, here is my yearly review of the running part of my life. I’ll cover Coaching, the new Trail Project, the Moorestown Running Company, RunSignUp and my personal running. You can read about the business side of my life here.

Coaching
While I really like everything I get to do, this has to be my favorite. During Spring Track Sam Weintraub had an unfortunate "football" injury that caused him to have a tough season. It was a shame since he had a great base and would have qualified for States. Fortunately he has gone on to run at University of Rhode Island and make the Varsity squad this year. Tyler Ems had a nice spring season and decided to run at Loyola. It makes me very happy when guys graduate and continue running at the collegiate level. Of course the highlight of Spring Track had to be the emergence of Anthony Horten as the most talented runner we have had the pleasure to coach. He figured out what it takes to be good during this season and dropped from 4:40 to 4:24 in the 1600.
Of course Cross Country – MXC – is the best season. We had 73 guys on the team this year. The great thing about XC is that everyone can do it and focus on improving. We were very lucky to have an amazing group of Captains - Dylan Monaghan, Anthony Horten, Brett Samocki, Forrest Klawunn and Paul Rothenberger. In addition, we had the best Freshman class of all time show up - a great group of guys who will make sure the program carries on even though we graduate 5 of our top 7 runners. We extended our dual meet win streak to 30 winds over the past two years, won the Liberty Division and finished 5th in States Group 3 (second largest schools). Again the highlight was the continuing progression of Horten. He won the South Jersey Open and Burlington County Open and finished 5th at States. My biggest fear all year was not to screw him up, and for the most part we achieved that. I can't wait to see him in the Spring and at college as he continues to improve.

One of the best things we have done as a team is to put on the yearly Moorestown Turkey Trot. It has turned into a real tradition in town – a way for people to connect on Thanksgiving morning, many collegians come back to reconnect with their high school friends. We had over 800 registrants this year who all went home happy and ready to eat turkey…

It is cool to see MXC alumni running in college – Healey and Weintraub at Rhode Island, Ems at Loyola, Ringwood at Hopkins, Matteson at TCNJ.

Trail Project
We have completed our second trail in town! In addition to the MXC course at the high school, we now have a 2.5 mile trail around the perimeter of the Swede Run Open Space land on Westfield Road. You can read more about this effort and our long term goal of creating a network of trails for walking, running and biking throughout Moorestown athttp://www.moorestownxc.org/Trails/.

Moorestown Running Company
Two years ago I put together a longer blog just on the store. We continue on the same path - focused on the running community in Moorestown and the surrounding area. One of the highlights is the growth of the Moorestown Distance Running Project – which has dozens of runners now and winning and competing in many team competitions. Of course the real core of the store are the great people working there – Joe Halin, Ralph Harris, Ed Scioli, Maureen Shockley and our latest addition, Colleen Hughes Tindal (former MXC runner). The good news is that we have finally made a profit. Although it will take us another 10-15 years to recoup my original investment, it is a great step forward and makes us a real, ongoing business.

RunSignUp.com
You can read more about this one in my business blog. From a running community perspective, we are working with great running organizations like the Road Runners Club of America, Weight Watchers, www.RunningintheUSA.com, and a number of timing services and race directors across the country (as far away as Alaska and as close as Moorestown). Everyone that uses it seems to love it and find it much easier to use than anything else out there. It is also cool to have grown a team that will make sure we keep moving forward fast. I'm also very happy that Jack Wickens introduced me to the USATF program where businesses can help people training for the Olympics, as this is how Jordan Desilets and I met. 2011 is really a year focused on partnerships and growing and building out a bunch of cool technology for this community. It will be fun.

Personal Running
What started out as a promising year, ended in injury and frustration. I ran a "controlled" 19:00 at the Haddonfield Adrenaline 5K and then a quality 31:06 at the Scott Coffee Moorestown Rotary 8K on a hot and humid day. My goal was the USATF National Cross Country Championship in December. They have age group team competitions and we have a number of 50-60 year old guys who are pretty good in the Moorestown Distance Running Project. Unfortunately in the beginning of August I had a mis-step on a sore plantar (arch in the foot) that has put me out of commission until just last week. I start a long recovery now - doing 2 miles every other day for a week or two and then a slow increase. In addition to not being able to pull the old man's XC team together, the real frustration was not being able to run with the MXC team during this past fall season. Hopefully I will be back to running again fully by Spring Track in March. And maybe another shot at an old man XC team race...

MXCSummer Update - 8/1/2010

Three weeks until official first practice - Monday, August 23!

The summer has flown by. It looks like a fair number of our top runners have been getting in a good summer of training. Horten, Samocki, Monaghan, and Inglis are all regulars at the benches this summer. Sheehan was having a great summer but has an injury - we'll see how that progresses... Klawunn has been pretty steady except for Lacrosse. Nece ran his whole time in Japan and is logging about 40 per week on his own - nice job! Rothenberger says he is running more than last summer and should come into the season ready. Also good reports from Lentz and Lavery. Hope the rest of the returnees are getting miles in ...

Our Freshman class looks very strong this year. Horten, Inglis, Munilla, and Wright have been regulars with occasional appearances from Rothman, Spirgel, Kramer and Caffrey. Thanks to the Klawunns for hosting the newcomers party a couple of weeks ago!

If your name is not listed above, drop me a line and let me know how your training is going. Or better yet, come run at 8AM at the benches!

A number of guys are heading up to the Running Works Camp Aug. 16-21. It is not too late to register - http://www.runningworks.com/camps.html. For those of you going, make sure you do not over-do it up there!

We will be cranking it up pretty quickly this year in terms of mileage, so make sure you use the next three weeks to get ready. We'll do a regular distance run on Monday the 23rd and then do the two mile time trial on the track on Tuesday to get a feel for where everyone is on their training.

Also, make sure your paperwork is in. Here is the link for the paperwork, including physicals - http://www.mtps.com/800401015111530/lib/800401015111530/Sports%20Physical%20Info.pdf. As per high school guidelines, you can not practice with the team if your paperwork is not complete.

Also, there is mandatory concussion testing taking place on August 18 at the high school at 1PM. Room numbers will be announced later, and we will have to schedule a make-up for the guys at running camp.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the benches on Aug. 23!

MXC Update - 6/21/2010

Welcome New Runners!
We currently have 66 guys signed up for Cross Country this year. That includes 43 returning runners, 4 new Seniors, 3 new Juniors, 5 new Sophomores, and 11 new Freshmen. I have put a link to the roster and contact information on the website. Please let me know of any corrections needed or if you would like your name removed.

Remember, it is not too late to sign up. So bring get your friends to come out. Nearly everyone can run, and achieve the success of getting PR's. The beautiful thing about running - everyone gets to play!

Stay tuned for information on a get-together for new runners in a few weeks.

MXC Summer Captains Practices
We have started Captains Practices every weekday morning at 8AM at the benches between the Middle School and High School. We've only gotten about 15 out the first two days - so pass the word.

Summer is the time to really make your season. While you may not like getting out of bed that early, it is a good feeling of accomplishment. And it is definitely the way to avoid injury during the season.

As a reminder, here are the miles we are looking for per day. This should all be slow and easy to build a base during the summer.
Championship Squad (typically about the top 12 runners):
June - 7 miles, 6 days per week.
July - 8 miles, 6 days per week.
August-November - 9 miles, 6 days per week, plus 3 miles on Sunday.
If you are doing more, just make sure you are coordinating with Eagles and Bickel.

Varsity Qualifiers (aiming for sub-19, which earns a Varsity Letter):
June - 5 miles, 5 days per week.
July - 6 miles, 5 days per week.
August-November - 7 miles, 6 days per week.

New and non-Varsity Runners:
June - 3 miles, 5 days per week.
July - 4 miles, 5 days per week.
August - November - 5-6 miles per day, 6 days per week.

If you are not home to participate in Captains Practices, then take advantage of the fact that you can run almost anywhere!

New Version of RunSignUp in Test Mode

There is an exciting new release of www.RunSignUp.com coming next week! We would like to invite all of our race directors to be a part of our testing process. All you need to do is go to http://test.RunSignUp.com. You should be able to login with your usual username and password (there is a convenient button if you forgot your password that will set up a new one for you). We have your registered users for your race as of a few days ago. The best thing to do is go in and try to add some of the new features, like store items or a donation or a coupon code and see how your race page looks. Go ahead and add runners to your event. The credit card processing is NOT hooked up – so there will be no charges if you test that out. And we will not be saving any of this data or any of the changes you make to your test race. Let us know any feedback or suggestions. Thanks! Here is a look at the major new features:

• Easy Family Sign Up. Allows a person to sign up multiple people at the same time, making things faster, easier and less expensive.
• Custom Questions. You can now ask runners for additional information – such as if they want to be on your newsletter mailing list, or how much they have been training, or what they like most about your event, or how many years they have run your event, or even what team or relay they are a part of (we will have a better solution for that in the next release in June).
• Donations. You can now accept simple donations. You can set up predetermined levels, and people can donate anonymously. This can also be a separate widget that you put on your website all year round to accept donations to your charitable organization.
• Store. This gives you the ability to easily sell additional items, such as Pasta dinner tickets, or perhaps race logo clothing. Again, this can be a separate widget that you could have on your website all year long. There is also the ability to have a cut-off date for ordering. This is convenient for doing pre-order only items.
• Store Order Management. Manage your orders with adding shipping information, archiving orders, and doing partial refunds.
• Coupons. Set up any number of coupons. For example, you could have an “Elite” coupon to take 100% off the cost of a race. You could have a “USATF Member” coupon to take $2 off of a race. Use any combination of $ and %, as well as set what type of registrations can use it (first time only, once per family, etc.)
• Participants Widget. Use this to show who has signed up for your race. Since you can upload paper entries for free, you can show all runners who are registered for your race.
• Custom Email templates. We now allow race directors to customize the emails that are sent to race participants.
• Easier to use Race Director page. We have gone to a full menu system on the races page that will allow you direct access to more functions. This makes it simpler for you to use and allows us to keep bringing you great new features.

Unless we find bugs that delay us, we plan on releasing the new system on Monday, May 10. Please take some time and let us know what you think! Thank you!