Team Dinner, T shirt order, Practice on Wednesday

Phoenix,

Travel

If you haven't looked at the travel information, you can view it above at the "post season travel" link at the top of the website (on mobile, click home and it is in the dropdown menu).

Team Dinner

On Thursday we will be having a team dinner at the Wheeler home at 5:30 PM (128 N 700 W Kaysville 84037. Please bring $2 to offset costs. 

T-shirt order

If you would like to order a teal t shirt, if you didn't get one from the team store, please fill out the link below and I will get them ordered for you.

t shirt order

Practice on Wednesday

Those of you in the class will meet at 1:40 by the driving range. From there we will warm up over to the  Farmington City Regional Park again. Those of you coming after school please just come to the park. We will be doing a moderate difficulty fartlek (sweedish for "speed play") around the fields there. Be sure to bring water.

If you have any questions please let me know.

Coach Jacobson

Post-season Travel

Parents and athletes,

Part of the experience of the cross country team is doing post-season trips in an attempt to qualify for nationals, and to simply have fun together as a team. There are two trips that are the most popular for high school teams, and they are Nike southwest regional in Arizona, and Eastbay West regional in Southern California. I would like to do one, or both, of these trips this year. For that to happen I will need some help.

 

As you may know by now, getting trips approved the school is a very difficult process. One that I am hoping to get done, but at most we would get one trip per year. Therefore, if we hope to travel as a team it will mostly be done through parents as the facilitators. For these trips, hotels need to be booked, transportation organized, and money collected. Legally, I cannot handle the money. This is where a parent assistant would come in: helping coordinating receiving payments and booking hotels. I am more than happy to work together to organize things, but I would need someone to collect the money and reserve the hotels.

 

I make it a point to always be completely transparent in what the money will be used for in trips like these. Before finalizing a cost, I will send out a pricing breakdown of the expenses we would pay for.

 

Below I will give a brief explanation of the trips, and I will also include details about Bob Firman for those who are wondering about that.

 

Would you fill out this form letting me know trips you would potentially be interested in? If both, please select both. By filling out this form you are NOT committing to the trip, obviously, this is just to give me an idea of what trips we should do, and where to put our focus.

 

Post-season travel interest

 

Nike Southwest Regional, aka NXR https://nxrsw.runnerspace.com/

 

Nike Southwest regional xc championships are held each year the third week of November (11/19 this year) at Coyote Run Golf Course, Mesa, AZ (before last year it was held at the Barça Residency Academy outside of Casa Grande, south of Phoenix).

 

From this meet you can qualify for Nike Team Nationals as a team or as an individual. The course is flat and fast.

 

In the past the team has driven down in a bus, or with parents carpooling. The most race-friendly option is to drive down on Thursday. Preview the course on Friday and hang out around Phoenix for the day. On Saturday we would race and then head home. Many of you were a part of this last year and some of the details may have been slightly different. I'm not sure on the cost, probably $200ish to pay for hotels, the race, and transportation.

 

Eastbay - https://eastbayxc.com/west/

 

Eastbay west regional xc championships are held each year during the first weekend of December in Walnut California at Mt. SAC. The course takes you over a few very strenuous hills with a very fast final mile screaming downhill and has you finish in the stadium.

 

From this regional meet you can qualify individually for the national championship, the following week in San Diego.

 

Typically during this trip we would drive down on Thursday, check into the hotel, eat dinner, go to bed.

 

Friday we would preview the course, grab some lunch, and the go down to Newport beach for the rest of the day.

 

On Saturday we will check out of the hotel and go to the races. After the races we will check in to the new hotel and then go to knotts berry farm, Disneyland, or 6 flags for the remainder of the day.

 

On Sunday morning we head home.

 

The cost for this trip has cost usually around $300 per person, depending on what hotels and theme park we go to (more if it is Disneyland). Parents who drive have their hotels paid for from that cost, and some gas money was given as well.

 

The one variation we did on this trip was fly down on Thursday morning, go to Disneyland the rest of that day. Friday we previewed the course, grab some lunch, and the went down to Newport beach for the rest of the day. On Saturday after the race we flew home.

 

The option to fly is safer and faster, but it runs more expensive on account of the rental cars. It also takes a lot more coordination to make sure we can all get on the same flights. I am open to the idea, but it becomes a bit more difficult.

 

Bob Firman https://www.bobfirmanxc.org/

 

I've never done this race before, so I'm going off the advice of friends and other coaches.

 

We would be leaving on Friday afternoon, arriving in Boise in the early evening. We would do an easy run, dinner, then off to bed.

 

On Saturday we would rise early to get to the course. There are races that span until about 4 PM. After the races we would head home and arrive late.

 

This one might be organized differently, in the event we have a small enough group, I might just have each person arrange their own hotels.

Coach Jacobson

8/28 update

Phoenix,

I have a ton to go over, so get comfortable before continuing. There is a meet recap, Bob Firman information, some forms to fill out, the schedule for the week, which has changed since Friday at practice, and a team dinner on Thursday

Meet Recap

It was great to get out with the whole team and race together again. We have a great group of kids that I have loved working with. I'm having a lot of fun and I'm hoping you are as well!

There were many outstanding individual performances, and as a group our effort was phenomenal. I also loved to see the support that you showed your teammates before, during, and after their race. I was looking through the strava posts of the race and I am often pleased to see many uplifting comments towards your teammates - I love to see it, keep it up! At the same time, I encourage you to speak to yourself the same way that you would a teammate in a similar situation. None of you would disparage a teammate who had a tough day, but would you do it to yourself in your own mind? Give yourself some credit, find the positives even on a tough day. Each day you should identify 3 things you did well, even if it isn't your best day, and you will see a change in the way you think, and you will see increased confidence, and therefore performance. This is an exercise we are going to start doing on a regular basis. 

Shout out to two seniors who both came in 3rd in the JV races, Emma Albrechtsen and Shane Grover! They helped set the tone for the day, as did all you came through with maximum effort. Well done to each of you, even if it wasn't your best race. Now, let's keep working to get better.

You can find the results for pre-region on the meet schedule.

Practices this week

On Monday we have the 8th period class. We will be holding practice at the Farmington City Regional Park - which is right down the road from the high school, just .9 miles north. 

Those who are in the class will meet at the usual spot by the driving range, and then we will warm up to the park. Those who are not in the class will meet at the park (by either warming up to the park, or coming directly there). Looking forward to some mile repeats there!

On Tuesday-Thursday we will meet as usual at the same time and place.

Davis High invited us to join them for a workout on Friday at Nichols Hollow (doing 1200m repeats up the hollow in a relay style. They are also working to get some hay bales to add some low hurdling in there (which makes it pretty fun) (let me know if you have any of those). 

More info to come on this event, but it will likely be after school, so those in the class will either choose to do a similar workout before (much less fun) or you can work in my classroom on homework or we can go over racing strategies, pace breakdowns, etc. together. 

We will treat this as a recreational meet, with a team dinner the night before. It's going to be a lot of fun!

Bob Firman

Bob Firman is a highly fast and popular race held near Boise Idaho on September 24th. It has been cancelled the last few years so I know many of you have been itching to go back. Spencer won the JV race the last time he went, as a Freshman. There are races for all abilities, so it isn't only for the top runners.

We are considering taking a group up there this year (unofficially, not through the school), but we really need to get an idea of how many of you would be interested so we can plan accordingly. If you are interested, please reply to this email by Monday evening, so we can make sure we get enough hotels. You can find more meet info at  https://www.bobfirmanxc.org/

Race breakdown info

Because I'm new to FHS, I don't know most of your running history, including your personal best times in other events. In order to learn more about you individually, and help tailor workouts to your skillset, will you take a few minutes (or just seconds if you have a great memory) to fill out the form linked below? It's optional, of course, but it will help me know how to better coach you. 

Racing History

I have a second form for you to fill out which will also help me be a better coach, and that is one where you can submit your mile splits from each of the first two races and two time trials. This one will probably take a few minutes while you look up each race. For anyone unsure of where to find those times, it would only work if you are tracking your races with your watch. If you have strava, you can check your activity, and scroll down to the graph at the bottom with your mile splits next to it. If you use garmin connect you can go to the activity then scroll over to the loop (before the graphs) and you can see the mile splits there. If you are using an apple, samsung, or fitbit product, then I have no idea how to help you lol.

Mile splits/Pacing

Team Dinner

Our first team dinner is going to be Thursday 9/1 at 5:30 at the Wheeler home (128 N 700 W Kaysville 84037). Please bring $2 to help offset costs. We don't have a meet this week, but consider this a make-up because I didn't get one for last week.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Coach Jacobson

8/21 update

Phoenix,

School is upon us! Which, you know, is a bummer that summer is over but exciting because now the season is about to get into full swing. I cannot wait to get into the thick of the season.

Pre-Region Race

We had a strong final week of summer and I'm looking forward to our second race next week, which will be the first for many of you. The meet is on Thursday, 3:30 PM at Layton City Park. The bus will leave at 2 - if that changes I will let you know. 

We are allowed 14 runners in the varsity race, which is 3 miles, and everyone else will be in the JV race, which is 2 miles. The decision on the 14 is always difficult, but if you look at the Nerd Report, which you can find on this website, you can see where you have shaken out over the first 3 races. Priority was given to the last race and to people who have been practicing regularly, but some who missed the first race will obviously be entered into the varsity race, if they've clearly been running at a varsity level. Now that school is here you cannot be missing practices and expect to compete, except in cases, like illness or travel, where missing is unavoidable. 

You can view the preliminary entries for the meet at the end of this post. If your name is not on there and it should be, please let me know so you can be added. If your name is on there and it shouldn't be, because you'll be gone or ineligible, please let me know so I can take you out, and, if you are a varsity runner, I can add someone into your place.

Registration items

If you haven't yet, please pay the summer fees which were entered onto mydsd. 

If you haven't completed register my athlete, (most of you did it weeks ago), the final deadline before you can no longer practice is 8/29. If it isn't done by then I cannot allow you to practice or compete until it is done. I cannot allow you to compete this week if it isn't done. Remember to bring the hard copy of your physical to me if you haven't yet.

Practices during the season, with and without the class

Some things are going to be done a bit differently than they have been in the past so I will appreciate your flexibility, as I have all summer long.

On A-days, when we don't have the class, for the time being we are going to start at 2:40 PM, and the freshman will try to arrive by 3:15 PM. We have a good group of freshman that will be able to run together and get some quality work in together. On days that we are doing intervals or repeats, the freshman will be able to jump in with the older kids as soon as they arrive and won't have missed very much.

I recognize this is the first year that we have had a cross country class so there is going to be a bit of a learning curve. On typical B days we will start practice at 1:20 (20 minutes after lunch concludes so you have time to get changed and out to practice (we also start 20 minutes after school on typical days for the same reason). Freshman who are in the class, depending on when their previous period concludes will probably come a bit after that, like 1:40ish, but that will depend on the student. We'll work this out as we go along. Those of you not in the class will start at 2:40, or, for freshman, at 3:15. 

On class days when we have meets, I will post an announcement in canvas on the instructions for the day. If the bus is leaving at 1:30, we won't meet until we get on the bus. If the bus is leaving at like 2, then we will probably need to meet at like 1:45 so you are accounted for during the school day.

Check canvas for details on the first day of class. Always plan on meeting at the school unless otherwise posted. The first two days will be at the school for sure, then we will reevaluate for the next few days.

Also, many of the items that you ordered from the team store are in! If you'd like to swing by my office (1781) or room (1604) on Monday I can get them to you. 

Looking forward to a great week!

Coach Jacobson

8/14 update

Phoenix,

First, thank you so much to all the parents who helped make this past week a positive one for all of our kids. The meals and activities were a lot of fun and it made this week better for everyone involved. So again, thank you!

Meet Recap 

(Results can be found by viewing the meet schedule; I've linked them next to the meet name).

We had our first meet on Saturday at the Premier Invitational. The two things that were consistently on display during the four races were effort and support. I was very pleased to see how hard everyone was pushing themselves, but I was even more pleased to see you all running around the course to cheer for your teammates when it wasn't your turn to race. That is something that is key to a successful team.

Earlier this week we set some team standards, among those were the ideas that we consistently work hard, and we support each other. You lived up to those standards yesterday, may you continue to do so. I even heard people introducing themselves to each other to learn their names (we have a big team, you're going to have to ask people's names at some point) so they could better cheer for each other. I love it!

I often like to get to the 2.5 mile mark so I can give you one last bit of encouragement going into the final 800m. It is my favorite part of the race for sure. In the JV boys race, when Jacob Smith got to that point of the race he had about 30-50m of space between him and the group ahead of him, so I just encouraged him to try to close that gap and pass as many people as he could and I said "tell me afterwards how many you pass!" since at that location I am unable to see the finish (which is worth it to me so I can be in that spot). He kept it rolling and later told me that he passed 7 people. That's honestly crazy. That is a lot of ground to make up in a relatively short amount of time. It was awesome to see. 

The goals of running here were to shake off some rust from a lot of base building miles, and get some racing experience from which we can learn. Both of those were easily met. I had several kids come tell me they ran the fastest races of their lives, which is a payoff of their hard work. There were also many kids who did not have their best race ever. Both were expected. It is more rare than common to have a personal best in early August, but it happens. Whether you had a great race or a tough day, what we need to get out of this is what can we learn from this race? There will be little things we can change around the race to help you for the next one, but the biggest key for long term improvement is consistency. If you had a rough day, rather than ruminating about the disappointment, identify some key things you can do differently, and get yourself ready for the coming week. It might be as simple as hydrating or recovering better, or it could be as complex as changing some habits which lead to missed practices (like you habitually sleep in - which won't be at issue for much longer). Regardless, we'll be back to work tomorrow to work on improving, so no need to stew on the negatives.

Weekly Schedule

This week's schedule looks a little more complex. Us teachers/counselors go back to school this week, and with AM meetings we are unable to do morning practices. However, I did get approval to have morning practices on Tuesday and Friday. So, please check the time of each practice in addition to the location.

Week 10 - 100%
Monday	August 15	Skater Park - 2:30 PM	Distance run/heat training	4-7 miles
Tuesday	August 16	FHS - 7 AM	Progression Run	3-8 miles
Wednesday	August 17	Forbush Park - 2:30 PM	Easy Run/Heat Training	4-7 miles
Thursday	August 18	Freedom Hills Park - 2:30 PM	Easy Run/Heat Training	3-8 miles
Friday	August 19	Forbush Park - 7 AM	Saga repeats	3-8 miles
Saturday	August 20	Optional Team run - location tbd	Long Run (Easy pace)	5-11 miles
Sunday	August 21

Physicals

Again, I need the hard copy of your physical ASAP. Thanks.

End of summer party

We can't let summer end without one more team pool party. So, on Friday at 5:30 the Austin's have volunteered to host a pool party at their home. I hope you all can make it, it should be a lot of fun!

If you have any questions please let me know.

Coach Jacobson

8/7 update

Phoenix,

We are officially beginning our season on Monday. We are also holding an "at home camp," which means we will be having a variety of team activities during the week, sometimes multiple times per day. Please do all you can to come to the activities.

The purpose of our camp is to build our TEAM, and by that I mean we intend to get better in areas that will help our team grow, namely through combined relationships, our purpose, and our culture. By the end of the week I hope that you have stronger friendships and relationships with your teammates, I hope that we are on the same page of how to achieve our personal and team goals, and I hope you are more determined to give your very best everyday and to help others do the same.

Parents have volunteered to host meals and activities for you, so please be respectful and appreciative of their efforts. I also ask that for each meal, each person bring $2 for the hosts to help offset costs/time spent arranging the meals. This will be money well spent, trust me, I've heard some of the menu items.

Parents, if you emailed me and I haven't replied, it is possible I didn't receive it. I have scoured my emails and hope I have replied to everyone, so if I haven't, please send another one. 

If any parents would like to help another who is already hosting, please let me know and I can send you their information.

Camp schedule

Week 9 - 80-90%
Monday	August 8
7:00 AM		Barnes Park (East Side)	Grass repeats, so bring xc flats if you have them. Distances TBD	3-7 miles
8:30 AM			Team Breakfast at the park after the run/Goal Setting
Tuesday	August 9
7:00 AM		Pioneer Park	Easy Run, strides	3-8 miles
8:30 AM			Breakfast provided at the park after the run
2:30 PM		Forbush Park	Team Activity (dress like you're running, but not your best shoes)
Wednesday	August 10
7:00 AM		Vita	Trail Run, Easy	3-7 miles
8:30 AM		Heritage Park (Kaysville, just down the road from Vita)	Team Breakfast
5:30 PM		Wheeler Home 128 N 700 W Kaysville	Team Dinner and Pool Party
Thursday	August 11
7:00 AM		Heritage Park	Fartlek, at tempo effort (1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1) (equal time on/off)	3-7 miles
AM			Breakfast Provided at the park
9:00 PM		719 Sheringham Ct	Movie Night!! MacFarland USA
Friday	August 12
8:00 AM		Pioneer Park	Pre-Race Easy Run	3-4 miles
9:00 AM		Hess Home (1 block from Pioneer Park	Team Breakfast
Saturday	August 13
6:30 AM		FHS	The bus leaves at 6:30 for the Premier Invitational	5k + warm up and cool down

RMA

If you haven't finished register my athlete before Saturday, you will not be allowed to compete. Therefore, go finish it as soon as you can. My AD tells me only about half of you have it done. It only takes a few minutes (besides the physical), so go do it now if you haven't. Remember, the physical is good for 1 year (not the school year as I originally, erroneously said). Once you have it, upload it to the website. I do not need the hard copy of the physical.

Meet info

The meet this Saturday is at the Cottonwood Complex in SLC. The buses will depart at 6:30 AM and will return around 11:30 or 12. You can see the order of the races at the link for our schedule at the top of this website.

Uniforms

I have ordered new uniforms (back in May), however they haven't yet arrived, so we will be using the old black uniforms. If you do not have a uniform, please fill out this link and I will get one for you before Saturday.

XC Class 

We have an XC class during 8th period. I encourage each of you to get in the class. This allows us to miss fewer classes when we leave early for races, to finish practices earlier and have more time for family, homework, work, or otherwise. I believe 9th graders can be in the class, although they would arrive a bit later due to schedules not matching up perfectly, and that is fine, just talk to your counselor to confirm. If you have any questions about the class please let me know. It is not mandatory, but it is encouraged.

Meet Entries 

Below is the list of the entries thus far. If you aren't on here, or are on here but shouldn't be, please let me know so we don't pay for your entry. If I don't hear from you, and I don't see you at practice I will take you out of the meet so we aren't paying for unused bibs.

The decision on who would be in the varsity races came from the two time trials. When a would-be varsity runner was out of town the next person was filled in. For future meets, it will generally come from who has run the fastest times on the previous course. The decision for Varsity at region, divisionals, and state will be a bit more complex, but I will share the methodology for that in the coming weeks (in a nutshell, it's who has been running the fastest times over the past few weeks, so there is an element of dependability, consistency, and of course, fastest times).

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Coach Jacobson