REMINDERS:
So, unfortunately there has to be a negative part to this newsletter, and here it is. It seems a fair portion of the Newport XC team needs to be reminded that this is a team sport and not a running club. Practice is NOT optional. As any team members who have been paying attention know - Friday practices have been very important track workouts. Your coaches have carefully planned these workouts to help ensure that each of you reach your fullest potential as athletes this year. In addition, your coaches made an enormous concession to your Homecoming activities by choosing to focus on next week's race in Oregon - holding practices this weekend rather than going out to Yakima. In light of both of those things, the number of athletes who chose to skip this weekend's practices without so much as notifying their coaches was ridiculous and will be a major point of discussion at practice next week.

Let me be very clear - I am not against school spirit or participating in school social activities. In fact, I have been extremely impressed with Newport's school pride and tradition. However, when you let those things outweigh team spirit and neglect the commitment to the team that you made at the beginning of the season, there is a problem. In return for being able to reap all of the rewards that go along with being a student athlete, some sacrifice is required.

AND ANYWAY - Friday's practice was over by 4:30, in no way jeopardizing your ability to hang out before the game!

NOW ON TO THE GOOD STUFF

THE LAST TWO WEEKS OF RACING!

Wednesday September 20 - Newport vs. Bellevue and Mt. Si:
We had a wet but excellent experience in our meet vs. Bellevue and Mt. Si at Mt. Si HS.
Our boys were victorious again both team with Dan Doperalski winning the race, following by Alex Jeffers, Dan Hutchins, Alex Poplawski, Nick Ling, Neil Baunsgard and Jacob Dance. This varsity 7 ran a VERY tough race. The final score was Newport 26, Bellevue 31, Mt. Si 73.

Our girls ran tough races, but were beaten by a tough Bellevue squad. Lydia Ngai fought to the very end beforer losing a close race to Bellevue's #1. She was followed by Jillian Altizer, Natty Plunkett, Christine Dollard, Dana Dixon, Lindsay Brooks and Jillian Rafftery. The girls did beat Mt. Si however, as the final scores were Bellevue 29, Newport 35, Mt. Si 67.

Following this race Alex Bell and Steffi Terasaki were recognized for their significant improvement.

Wednesday September 27 - Newport vs. Issaquah and Liberty:
Although the race had a late start and the course was very tough, last Wednesday was a fantastic example of what the Newport XC teams can do when the work together.

Our boys once again won both races. This week Alex Jeffers took the lead out front, winning the race with an excellent finish. He was followed by strong races from Dan Doperalski, Dan Hutchins, Alex Poplawski, Neil Baunsgard, Nick Ling and Brent Magnusson. The final score was Newport 25, Issaquah 43, Liberty 56.

The girls team was also dominant. Lydia Ngai looked awesome winning the race. Her teammates Jillian Altizer, Natty Plunkett, Dana Dixon, Christine Dollard, Katrina England and Jillian Rafftery all made sure there were very few blue or purple jerseys between them. The final score was Newport 21, Issaquah 47, Liberty 71.

At Thursday's practice three freshmen who all ran awesome races were recognized - Sam Staples, Patrick Figari and Emily Meyer.

BOTH TEAMS ARE NOW 5 AND 1.

PRE RACE NUTRITION:
This year a few individual races have been significantly slower than they could have been because of stomach aches. So I though it might be helpful to go over some dos and don'ts for pre race meals.

General nutrition and pre race nutrition are two different things. While in our overall diet we want to make sure we eat a variety of things, including lots of fiber and vegetables to make sure we get all the vitamins minerals etc that we need, what we eat in the 6-12 hours before a race needs to be focused on fullfilling two basic purposes - providing us with energy and preventing us from getting horrible stomach cramps.

Therefore, pre race meals need to include lots of good complex carbohydrates and be easy to digest. While everyone is different, and some of you have stomachs of steel, in general it's good to be careful with what you put into your body leading up to a race. Personally, my stomach is pretty tempermental - so much so that the nigth before a marathon I don't even put sauce on my pasta b/c the acid gets to me. And my race morning meal consists of a jam sandwich and pretzles (for the salt).

But for most people who aren't quite as weird as me, some good ideas are:
- a bagel or sandwich with peanut butter and a banana or yogurt
- pasta or rice
- pretzles or other high carb snacks that aren't greasy
- Powerbars or the like if you don't totally hate the way they taste (Clif bars can actually be relatively tough to digest in my opinion)
- lots of WATER (you should be drinking 8 glasses a DAY!)
(adding some protein, like peanut butter, to a high carb meal helps the energy burn last longer)

Some things to avoid:
- burritos, tacos, chalupas etc. (you know why)
- lots of vegetables (particularly gassy ones like peppers, broccoli etc.)
- raisens, grapes, prunes, etc.
- dairy products (if you're lactose intolerant)
- candy bars (or other things that will give you a sugar rush but won't provide sustained energy)
- greasy fast food (just don't do it - fries sit in your stomach like a lead weight)
- lots of caffeine - it dehydrates you!

***** It's also good to make sure you give yourself enough time to digest your food. For some people that means an hour, for others three hours. AND be sure to drink lots and lots of water.