Yes it was rainy out–one of those days that makes it hard to get out the door!  However I had friends waiting at Nisene and once we were out in the weather, it was an incredible day for a run! I hope you are getting your own exercise, whether running or sprinting or lifting or stretching or whatever it is that will get you ready to go.  Just over two months until the Willow Glen Invitational opens our season! Have a great holiday, everyone!  I

The San Jose Mercury-News announced their cross-country all-star team, and Monta Vista’s own Jenny Xu was chosen in the honorable mention section for the second year in a row! Only 36 girls were chosen from the thousands of girls running for the 130+ teams in the Central Coast Section.  Congratulations, Jenny, for earning this honor! (By the way…if you are missing XC…check out the two additional albums posted, one for the Artichoke Invitational and one for the beach party afterwards!    

Monta Vista Distance Winter Running Guide 2012 Simple Ain’t Easy. Here are some suggestions for how to plan your distance training between your cross-country and track & field seasons!  You do not have to follow this guide exactly—this guide is meant to help you plan your running schedule, but you should use your own judgment to make allowances for your academic assignments and goals,  tests, family commitments over the holidays, weather, etc.  Also, PLEASE run with your teammates whenever you can, it will make your

After twelve weeks of daily practice, training, mileage, and hard work…the starter yells ‘ready!’ and the gun goes off, and all of a sudden we realize that in about 20 minutes, give or take, the season is over.  Wow…what a sensation. On Saturday, November 10, the Monta Vista boys and girls competed in the Central Coast Section Championships.  For the second straight year, both boys and girls qualified for the Division 1 championship race, and both teams ran races they should be proud of. Of

Hey team, Ezra did a great job with the team photos again this year!  Also…many of you had lots of fun during the ‘free’ photo session.  We have a lot of fun photos–and fun memories! This year, we bought all the files from Ezra, so the photos are free for you to download–we’ve loaded the photos on the team’s Picasa web site.  These are BIG files so be patient! Enjoy!

MVXC wrapped up the 2012 season with our awards banquet…it was truly a great celebration! Thanks again to all the parents who helped organize the banquet–as well as all the work and support we had all season. Congratulations to all the award winners!  We are proud of all of you…and you should all be proud at how close the vote was on so many categories.  MVXC12 was truly a team, with many team members ready to contribute effort, improvement and inspiration.  The votes for most

Monta Vista cross country hosted our first ever cooking class on Friday night, November 2nd…and it felt like a smashing success! Hosted by Whole Foods-Cupertino and healthy eating specialists Alice and Jamie, 21 MVXC runners all participated in two hours of culinary experimentation.  Different groups of runners prepared six different dishes, including home-made protein bars, quinoa salad, a vegetarian and a chicken ceviche.  When we finished, we shared all our dishes and ate ‘family style.’ Alice and Jamie were pretty much blown away by how

The Monta Vista Cross Country team represented themselves with honor at the De Anza League Finals on October 30 at Crystal Springs. There are some pretty incredible statistics to consider when our results are analyzed: Of the top third of our runners, boys and girls combined, 19 of them had run league finals two years in a row.  Of those 19 runners, 18—95%!!!—improved their times.  Of the first six girls who ran both years, 5 of 6 improved their times.  Think about that…a year of

On Monday October 29, our friend Josh Cox dropped by to say hi and give us some motivation before League Finals.  It’s always fun to see Josh! For those of you that don’t know Josh Cox…he is a professional runner, member of the Mammoth Track Club, 4-time qualifier for the Olympic Trials, has represented the USA internationally, and is the holder of the USA Men’s record in the 50Km. Josh reminded us that League Finals is a celebration of all our training, all the miles

The Monta Vista cannot thank Whole Foods in Cupertino enough for generously supporting the cross-country’s team trip to the Mt. SAC Invitational in Southern California! Whole Foods generously DONATED healthy, fresh, nutritious and tasty sandwiches for all the athletes, coaches and parents who traveled down to Southern California.  So while we were having a long and unexciting drive down I-5 on Friday, rather than have to settle for fast-food along the side of that boring highway, we were able to stop and enjoy a tasty

The Mt. SAC is one of the most incredible experiences a high school athlete can have.  Over 22,000 high school athletes compete in 119 races over two days.  There is a race for everyone, and a chance for every athlete to compete in an elite event. Monta Vista went ‘in force’ for the second time, bringing 31 athletes to compete.  For the first time, we traveled by bus–much more comfortable than cars and a great time for the team to hang together.  Hitting Los Angeles

Monta Vista finished the series of SCVAL cluster meets with a fine showing on the Baylands’ 5K course.   The girls took first in the Varsity division, and on  combined level, while the boys’ placed 5th combined.  Jenny Xu, Maddie Yip,  Julia Chang, Jeffrey Harrison, Steven Lim, Namrata Subramanian, Valerie Lo, Brent Mogensen and Liam McNeil all finished in the top 10 of their races. OK, team, next up for SCVAL is the De Anza League championships!  We look good in the cluster meets, now

Monta Vista Cross Country got it’s first look of the year at the Crystal Springs XC course at the SCVAL preview, and the reviews are in:  We like what we see! The Crystal Springs course is one of the jewels of the local XC community, and it is lovingly maintained by Bob Rush and the College of San Mateo.  The course is in fantastic condition this season. MVXC has not been shy about staking our claims, and we are certainly proud of our name.  We

You don’t have to be in honors Calc to figure out that (28 medals + two championships) (sunset on the beach) = a great afternoon for MVXC! The Monta Vista girls continued their string of excellent performances, winning the Varsity Girls’ championship at the Artichoke Invitational!  For the first third of the race, the Paly girls were right there and looked to have a slight lead over the MVXC squad.   However, as the race went on (and the V girls dealt with Cougar Hill), MVXC

The Stanford Invitational attracts the best cross country teams from up and down the West Coast, and this year was no exception, with teams from all over California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Idaho, Hawaii and I’m sure from other places also.  Yet Monta Vista more than held their own, competing well with these elite programs. MVXC endured another day of adverse weather.   Just to give an idea of how hard the weather was, the average time for the championship girls team was more than 40 seconds

Monta Vista opened the 2012 Santa Clara Valley Athletic League cross country season with the first league ‘cluster’ meet, the Central Park Invitational hosted by Santa Clara High School.  And MVXC opened the season in spectacular fashion! It is often difficult to tell what teams are going to have at the end of the season based upon early season meets.  Not every athlete attends every cluster meets and teams have different season plans.   This week was a ‘heavy’ week of training for MVXC and many

Frosh boys’ team running striders before their first race. Racing is the best.  Even on a hot, dusty day in Salinas, racing is the best.  Every day is a great day to race! And the first race of the season is always special! Monta Vista Cross Country opened our season at the 19th Annual Earlybird Invitational, on the classic 3-mile Toro Park course.  We had a great start to the season, and even if the day was not perfect for our team, we are off and

The newest member of the MVXC coaching staff is Irina Stiasny…Coach Irina is a physical therapist working out of Breakthrough Physical Therapy in Sunnyvale.  With an undergraduate degree from USF and a doctorate in physical therapy from USC, Coach Irina knows her stuff!  And she is a marathoner, too, so she knows running!  Coach Irina has taken charge of MVXC core training and judging from the moans and groans from the athletes, she is challenging the team to work hard and find their limits! Coach

Hello Parents, Welcome to the brave new world of MVXC 2012…we have a record number of kids sign up, and that also means that we are going to have a new challenge of getting our team to our competitions, especially the five weekday meets whjere our athletes are running. I know it is hard for many families to take an afternoon to drive 4 or 5 kids to a competition, but please do this!  Even though they won’t say this to you, your kids want

  Confidence is a choice—we can choose, for ourselves, how confident we want to be going into a race (or anything).  Competence helps build confidence.  Based on the display of running we saw on Thursday, Monta Vista XC looks competent and we all should choose to be confident as the start of the season approaches! The 2012 edition of the Monta Vista Cross Country team got on the line for the first time on Thursday, August 30 to celebrate one of our favorite traditions—the Watermelon

The MVXC Saturday Morning Over Achievers Club A group of MVXC over-acheivers ran the first interval workout on our new track this Saturday…totally fun, as the OA Club record a fine, hard workout to get the season rolling.  This group it was serious!  And the report is…our new track feels nice and feels fast! Thanks to everyone who came out to Saturday’s optional practice–you all really ‘want it’!

MVXC training ‘for real’ seems to start with the first trip up Fire Trail, and on August 23 the team made it’s first run up to the top as a group! More than 70 MVXC athletes made that run–for many runners, this was their first time ever to the top of Fire Trail, but it won’t be their last–we were figuring out that runners who stick with the team for all four years will make more than 100 trips up the fire trail.  That run,

If high school cross country success is earned in July and August, then the Monta Vista Cross Country team looks pretty good for 2012! Sixteen Monta Vista athletes participated in the 39th Annual Dammit Run on Saturday, August 11th…a 5 mile race that is tougher than any cross race we will run this year!  The magnificent 16 included not only runners who will be on the team in 2012…Monta Vista runners also included alumni and a Kennedy runner!  How cool is that? I’m hoping that

Hey everyone, I’d been meaning to post this…but hopefully you have all seen this article when it was published a week ago.  Yes, the MV runners were recognized for our volunteer work in June in the Fremont Older Open Space District! Besides this article, I’ve had several emails from Cupertino residents who heard about the work you did up there, thanking you for your efforts.  One particularly touching note was from the parents of two MV cross-country runners from the 1990s, telling me that she

Harvard coach Priscilla Bayley and coaching legend Joe Vigil at USATF Level 2 I just returned from a week-long educational session put on by USA track and field.  I like to continue to learn, and I did that…but just as fun for me was simply hanging out and talking with the instructors and the other coaches at the seminar.  What a great group! The class I was taking was an advanced endurance training/coaching class.  The instructors were a good group, and included Joe Vigil, who

Hey Team, Finals are over and the summer is stretching out in front of us…and summer seems like it will last forever, but for runners, time will race past us!  So let’s not just sit around and think about training…let’s start running! Here are some basic principles that will help you as you plan your summer of running: 1.  Nurture your running as a lifestyle!  Find a reason to run (almost) every day…you can run while keeping up with your other activities!  If you are

The next time you run to the top of Hunters’ Point, take a short break at the top.  Sit down on the bench, take a look at the Bay, and catch your breath.  And say ‘thanks’ to the twelve Monta Vista cross-country runners who built the bench you are sitting on! For the second year in a row, a dozen Monta Vista distance athletes volunteered for a day at Fremont Older park.  Guided by Michael and Frank, two open space technicians from the open space

A pre-season meeting of the more fanatical members of the Monta Vista Cross Country team was held at lunch time on May 17.  As usual the team was buried in options, encouragement and inspiration… Consistency is the key to successful distance running.  Distance running at it’s best is a year round commitment; the best runners are training every month of the year to reach a peak during the championship portion of the seasons.  This does NOT mean you have to run a zillion miles a

A couple things…at long last, we have some more photos up!  If you click over to the albums section of mvrunning, you will find photos from the El Camino Trials day (by Ezra Gordon), for El Camino Finals and SCVALs all mixed together (by Ezra and Coach Flatow), and the CCS Semi-Finals.  Sorry these are not all more timely!  Take your time and check these out, there are some good photos–you all look great! And we have at long-last set up an MVRunning YouTube Channel!

On a hot day in Gilroy, Monta Vista track & field stayed hot also, sending three athletes onwards to the Central Coast Section Finals! The Central Coast Section covers more than 130 schools from San Francisco to south of Monterey, and only eight athletes (twelve in the 1600 and 3200) move on to the track and field finals in each event.  We are now breathing very rarified air! Kevin Bishop continued his fine senior season with a 9:25.26 in the 3200M semi-final, a time good

When a party is going well, there is no reason to leave, not even when there is a biology text waiting at home to be cracked open.  At least that’s the way the Monta Vista Track & Field team feels when you fill a room full of good friends, athletes telling stories, and a huge pile of pizza! Monta Vista T&F had our year end awards banquet on May 17, and it was a blast.  In addition to the aforementioned pizza pile, we enjoyed a

CCS athletes–your time is coming near! Here is a link to the CCS web site, giving location and time of all the events.  To avoid being asked the question ‘so coach when is my event?’ here is the answer for this Saturday’s CCS semi-finals! Arvind Rao 800M:  2:10 Jenny Xu and Kevin Bishop 3200M (girls run first): 4:10 Gokul Parakulum LJ:  2:00 4×400 Relay team Surafael, Bumpei, Michael and Arvind:  5:10 I think you should try to get to Gilroy about 2 hours before your

On a perfect Friday for track, seven Monta Vista athletes punched their tickets for the CCS tournament at the SCVAL championships. The Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) sends the top 6 athletes in each event to the Central Coast Section (CCS) championship meet, to be held in Gilroy on May 19 and 26. On the boys’ side, senior Kevin Bishop lead the way with second place finishes in the 1600 and 3200.  The 1600 was a particularly thrilling finish, with Kevin and Yohaness Estafanos

Stephanie Brown Trafton, part of the Monta Vista family since her visit to the team in March, set a new American women’s record in the discus last Friday in Hawaii.   Pretty sweet Hawaiian vacation, when you can include a record setting throw!   Stef has been having a great season and we all have great hopes for her in the Trials this June and the Olympics this August. Pretty amazing that she was here giving tips to our throwers less than two months ago!

With personal records galore, Monta Vista had a fantastic day at El Camino League finals, held at the beautiful Fremont High School facility on Wednesday, May 2. I’ll say up front, I couldn’t keep up with all the great performances coming so fast and furious, but here are a few of the highlights: >Senior Ryan Chui throwing down a 16.21 in the 110M hurdles, setting what I believe is a PR in his last league meet for Monta Vista. >Hurdler Allison Win also ran what

***A few more notes on rules and procedures for the SCVAL Qualifier Meet*** >>>All athletes must check in 30 min. prior to the start of their event.  This year, we will have alternates.  Alternates should also check-in and meet at the check-in table 5 min. before race time in case a lane opens up.  Alternates for the field events should check with the field event official prior to the start of the event to see if there is an opening. >>>Athletes must stay off the

On Tuesday, Monta Vista High School had the distinct honor of hosting Dr. Steve Portenga, chairman of the USA track and field committee for sports psychology and the sports psychologist who will be supporting the USA Olympic track & field team in London this summer! Dr. Portenga is a very impressive speaker; he is able to take very sophisticated concepts and make them accessible to everyone.  He talked about how to discover your own motivation, appropriate goals, and the importance of our mindset as we

As we are getting ready for the El Camino League Finals this coming week, it’s fun to think back upon where we have been…remember that wet and rainy Tuesday at Los Gatos?  At first it was pretty fun to be out in the rain, and then it got colder and darker–and much more wet!  You all were so great, and your coaches were so proud of the way you competed and fought despite the weather. You were all brave to get out and compete in

Cool article on Coach Erica McLain on the front page of today’s Mercury-News sports section, and great placement in their on-line edition.  Nice article, Coach!  We are all very, very proud of you…and we are so grateful that you have been part of the Monta Vista track & field family this year.  Thank you for sharing your season with us! Article Link: http://www.mercurynews.com/stanford-cardinal/ci_20498402/grisly-injury-couldnt-deter-triple-jumper-erica-mcclain?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com Photo Link: http://photos.mercurynews.com/2012/04/slideshow-triple-jumper-erica-mcclain-hopes-to-compete-in-london/9759/#8

Friday night update: The following changes were made to the Event Entries list: Steven Lim is now a Sophomore once again…contrary to rumors he was not held back 🙂 Josiah was added to the Varsity 400M race. Kevin Siu was added to the Varsity 100M race. (Nice, Josiah and Kevin…I like seeing the willingness to compete wherever and whenever you can!) Risako will not be competing in the 1600M. UPDATE: Event entries are attached as a download below this posting. Together with the schedule provided

Many Monta Vista athletes went to sleep on Friday night feeling pretty satisfied with their races at Top 8! This year’s CCS Top 8 meet was held at San Jose City College while the stands at Los Gatos are being rebuilt.  SJCC is a fast track and we took advantage of good, hot track weather to record some hot times. Sophomore Anand Rao and freshman Rohan Choudhury both competed in their first Top 8 meet and scored huge PRs in the 800M.  I’m pretty sure

It’s not only current Monta Vista track athletes that are putting up good numbers…some of our gone-but-not-forgotten teammates are setting new personal records, too! Former Matador Mathilde Guglielmi ran both the mile and two mile earlier this week at an invitational in Kansas, recording a 6:13 in the mile and a 13:23 in the two mile.  Mathilde’s mile time is about 30 seconds better than her 1600M PR last year for Monta Vista, and her two mile time is almost two minutes under her freshman 32o0M

Monta Vista athletes are starting to show the results of our training and fitness, with a great showing at our dual meet versus Santa Clara on April 5. We enjoyed a good day of track weather and lots of athletes took advantage of our good fortune.  Our horizontal jumpers in particular had a good day.  Sayali Khare and Ariel Martin took firsts in the triple and long jumps and lead the varsity girls to 14 of 18 possible points, Gokul Parakulum and Caleb Wang brought

Risako Tanida and Nandini Chitale brought home hardware from the 5000M We are still waiting for perfect track weather!  While we are waiting, MV athletes are showing that they are ready to start throwing down some remarkable times.  Fitness was shining through the rainclouds at Fremont High School as despite the rain, MV athletes were winning medals and throwing down PRs all over the track. Usually sprinters and hurdlers suffer the most in wet and cold weather, but not on Saturday.  Rochish Ambati had a

It’s not often you meet someone who has a two biotech degrees from Stanford.  Or someone who was on the NCAA Championship cross-country team–twice!  Or has been awarded a Rhodes scholarship and is headed off to Oxford to pursue a doctorate.  Kate Niehaus is all these people wrapped up in one package. Kate earned a bachelor’s degree in biomechanical engineering in 2010 and a master’s degree in bioengineering in 2011 – both at Stanford. She plans to pursue a doctorate of philosophy in systems approaches to biomedical

All week, we were wondering if the weather would cooperate for the Monta Vista-Los Gatos dual meet.  The storm kept being delayed; on Tuesday morning the hourly forecast on my iPhone said rain at 3pm.  And that forecast was, finally, and unfortunately, correct! I’m not sure this weather is looking good…2:15pm. At 2 o’clock, as the MV track team scrambled for space underneath the snack-shack overhang, the first big raindrops began to fall and the wind began to pick up.  This was not going to

On Tuesday March 20, Monta Vista Track & Field had the honor of hosting a visit from Olympic gold medalist Stephanie Brown Trafton. Stephanie Brown Trafton Stephanie is the current, defending Olympic champion in the discus. At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Stephanie Brown Trafton won the United States’ first gold medal in the women’s discus since Lillian Copeland won in 1932–76 years before!  Stephanie also was a member of the USA Olympic team in 2004 in Athens, and is training for the Olympic

On a frigid–but thankfully, dry!–Saturday, March 17, Monta Vista had a very successful day at the St. Francis Invitational. When your coach arrived just after 7am, it was hard to believe we were going to be running a track meet–what we wanted to do was start a bonfire and stay warm!  If the forecasted rain had arrived, we would had a pretty rough day hiding under our borrowed tent.  Coach, Jenny and Angella set up camp in the St. Francis stands, the rain stayed away,

Monta Vista had a challenging meet against a tough competitor, Wilcox, on Thursday March 15.  Wilcox varsity boys’ and girls’ teams have not lost a dual meet in years–I know that they were 6-0 both of the last two years, I’m not sure how long that streak is going on!  Plus we had a few extra challenges which are a little unique to Monta Vista as in addition to some illness, we had to endure conflicts with robotics, yearbook and quantum mechanics workshops…the challenges associated

On Tuesday, March 20, the Monta Vista track & field team–and especially our throwing squad–will be hosting a very special visitor, Stephanie Brown Trafton. Stephanie is the current Olympic champion in the women’s discus.  In Beijing in 2008, Stephanie threw 212′ 5″ to win the gold medal.  Stephanie was the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in the discus in 76 years, since Lillian Copeland’s victory in 1932! In high school, Stephanie competed in basketball as well as the discus and shot

On a ridiculously cold Tuesday afternoon, the Monta Vista track & field team opened the league campaign against cross-town rival Cupertino. The Monta Vista team checked out the ‘tino track with a little envy.  The Cupertino track is brand new and really beautiful!  The best news is, the same company that build ‘tino’s new home is now working on the Monta Vista track…so, next year, we have our own posh digs! One drawback to the new facility is that all the trees are about 5’

At 9am on a beautiful Saturday morning, Emilio Torres-Gonzalez toed the line for the Frosh-Soph 3200M run at the Willow Glen Classic Invitational, the starter raised the gun and pulled the trigger, and the Monta Vista 2012 track & field season got underway! More than 100 Monta Vista athletes have joined the track team this year, and the 40+ athletes who came to the WG invite represented us well.  Many personal records were posted (among many others, Guhan Venkataraman scored two PRs in the 100M

On Saturday, March 3, Monta Vista track and field opens the competitive season at the Willow Glen Invitational!  More than 40 athletes from Monta Vista will run and jump for glory…it’s going to be a fun day! For the meet sheet, giving information on the Willow Glen Invitational, go to: http://www.mvrunning.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Willow-Glen-Meet-Sheet-2012.pdf For entries, go to: Willow Glen Invite Entries (Updated Feb 27–FINAL)    

Monta Vista’s first track meets of 2012 are fast approaching—the Willow Glen Classic Invitational on Saturday March 3, and our first league meet at Cupertino on Tuesday, March 6.  For many of you, this may be your first track meet.   Your parents may still be trying to figure out what forms they signed, and are a little confused because they thought you were joining a study group for Honors Quantum Mechanics.  So, the time has come to help all you uncultured masses become sophisticated participants

I posted a couple photos of the Distance team running our first sets of hill repeats of the season (shown below), and pro runner Josh Cox texted back to me right away–‘Hills are where it’s at!‘ It’s true, hills give us so much as runners.  Hills make us hurt, make us work, make us stronger.  Hills are resistance work.  Hills are a coach every step, making us get fast with our legs and feet. I was thinking about Josh’s message, and I remembered a pretty

######### UPDATE: Coach Erica McLain competed in style last night, winning the triple jump at the Don Kirby Invitational in Albequerque (February 10).  Coach flew 13.56m/44′-6″ to win handily.  Congrats, coach–see you Monday at practice! Here is a link to the complete meet results: http://www.golobos.com/sports/c-track/stats/2011-2012/completeresultsdonkirby.html Here is a link to Coach’s blog, with a posting including a slo-mo video of one of her jumps.  Oh my goodness!  I can’t wait to see some of you jumpers look like that!!!  I think you will be amazed!

Today was a really cool day for coaches–we got to give a bunch of medals and recognition to some truly deserving athletes on the Monta Vista cross-country team.  We passed out the 13 medals won by our runners at the De Anza League finals–a really great haul!  It seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it?  (But it was worth the wait for such nice medals–finally!) We also took the time to recognize the Junior Varsity girls, who won the De Anza League Championship.  We

It’s our own Coach Barb Acosta in 1989, in the news for winning a big 10K! Coach Barb is impressive to watch today, read about her performance back in the day…very, very cool.