Hey there everyone! Hope your all getting excited for the next three weeks of cross country.

Last Week's Racing News:

Overall we had a GREAT day at Marymoor Park on Wednesday. Many of our runners ran big personal bests. Congratulations!! Make sure you check your results and compare to previous meets to see just have much you've improved since the beginning of the season!!!

The Newport Boys suffered a tough loss to Bellevue, but placed second overall at the Bellevue City Championships. Our boys ran without Alex Jeffers once again. Alex's knee is improving, but was too sore to risk the race, and as we now know Brent Magnusson was coming down with strep. As a result, Bellevue beat us 30 to 45. However, Dan Doperalski, Dan Hutchins, Alex Poplawski, Neil Baunsgard, Jacob Dance, Nick Ling and Andrew Coover all ran tough races despite being a little tired from last weekend. Jacob Dance had a particularly great day, running his best time of the year. Complete boys results are posted at: http://www.newportxc.com/results_boys_2006_belcity.html

The Newport Girls looked very strong on Wednesday, scoring only 25 points to beat second place Bellevue's 40. This was a big day for the Newport girls after having lost to Bellevue earlier in the season. Jillian Altizer had an awesome day, riding her newfound confidence to new levels. She ran a very smart race, tailing Bellevue's #1 through two and a half miles and then making a strong move for the lead. Her personal best time of 19:32 won the meet. She was followed by Lydia Ngai, Dana Dixon, Jillian Raftery, Christine Dollard, Natty Plunkett and Lindsay Brooks. Jillian Raftery has been making particularly significant improvements in her last few races. Complete girls results are at: http://www.newportxc.com/results_girls_2006_belcity.html

This week Ruby Brallier and Greg Haas were recognized for their improvement.

And, based on the way everyone ran on Wednesday, we are very psyched to watch awesome performances in this coming Thursday's JV races.

SEVENTEEN Newport girls ran under 24 minutes in Wednesday's race: the varsity seven plus Katrina England, Ruby Brallier, Emily Meyer, Taryn Blache, Kendra Barton, Hannah Neibulski, Ana Mackert, Rachel Jiang, Steffi Terasaki, and Rachel Wirtz. Let's see how many more we can get on the sub-24 list!!!

SEVENTEEN Newport guys ran under 20 minutes in Wednesday's race: the varsity plus Sam Staples, Josh Glantz, Greg Haas, Alex Bell, Brian Li, Michael Hutchins, Alex Strohofner, Steven Soroka and Ryan McCord. There are a few who are right on the bubble - go get it at Lake Sammamish guys!!!

Important Info:
Although the coaching staff has tried to instill good habits with regard to warming up and warming down, several of you still seem to be either forgetting or misunderstanding the importance of this part of being a cross country athlete. The instruction we give to you with regard to proper pre and post workout and race routines aren't just intended to force you to run extra miles - there is a purpose!

WARM UP:
- What's the reason for it? In order to run fast your muscles need to be warm and loose. If they aren't you'll be running tight, which will most certainly hinder your performance. Your stride will be shortened, you form won't be as fluid, and you'll quite simply be SLOWER. More importantly, if you don't warm up properly you risk injury. If you try to make a tight muscle move quickly it is much more likely to pull.

- How do you do it? A good warm up includes three pieces - stretch, jog, and strides. They all serve and important purpose and no part should be skipped.
Step one: Stretch well. Be sure to go through your entire stretching routine and include all muscle groups. Spend extra time on spots that feel tight. This part of the warm up process helps to add flexibility to your muscles. (Many runners - including me - like to jog a little BEFORE stretching so that my muscles are warm and able to stretch further).

Step two: The warm up jog. Even if you jogged a little before stretching, it's important to get a good warm up run in prior to racing. This run should be at least 10 minutes long and brisk enough that you are sweating when you finish. If it's cool out the day of the race, be sure to put sweats on prior to your warm up. Staying cool while you warm up may allow you to look fresh and pretty for a few minutes longer, but it defeats the purpose of the jog. You should ALWAYS have some kind of warm up pants on during your jog unless it is VERY HOT out (quite frankly it doesn't seem to ever get hot enough in WA to ever skip the pants and wear shorts in a warm up). Gradually increasing the pace of the run during the warm up will help to get you fully warmed up and prepare your body for what's ahead.

Step three: Strides. Believe it or not, we don't just do these to look cute and show off our team spirit, strides play a very important role in the warm up process. You should do at least 6 strides prior to a race, gradually picking up the pace as you go. Strides serve to further loosen up your legs and prevent the fast pace at the start of the race from being a shock to your system. They also get your heart going and get you excited to race. Adding high knees and butt kicks to a few of your strides can help too. Keep moving until it's time for the gun - stay loose.

WARM DOWN: (And YES it is called a WARM down and NOT a COOL down - the entire purpose is to keep you body WARM before it gets CHILLED and tight). - What's the reason for it?
As I said above in my dig at all of you who make fun of my use of post race vocabulary :o) , it's called a warm down because you are keeping your body warm and loose so that it can recover from the race. The VERY worst thing you can do right after a race or workout is sit down for 15 minutes and get cool right away. Your body needs to continue moving for a while so that the blood pumps through your muscles and rinses all of the lactic acid out of them so that you can recover from the race more quickly. If you let them get cold and tight fast you are asking for an injury.

- How do you do it?
JOG!!!! Do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars - JOG. As soon as you've changed out of your racing shoes (if you wear them instead of trainers) and checked in with your coach get a group of your teammates together and jog for AT LEAST 10 minutes. Save the chatting with friends and family for later - it can wait 10 minutes. If your parents want to leave right after the race, ask them to wait 10 minutes. It is very valuable and important time, and as long as you don't dawdle, it doesn't take very long.