Hello runners! Attached is a suggested plan for Week 9 of summer running. I’d like this to be a low mileage week for you, so for this week only…if you are thinking “hmm, should I go the short way or should I extend this run?”, for this week, take the shorter route. Make this a comfortable week!
Saturday, August 9, at 7 AM will be the first official practice for MVXC 2025! What does “first official practice” mean?
- Your coaches will be there! Coach Flatow will be back as head coach for his 15th year (holy smokes). Coach Smith will be back coaching cross country again–in addition to his cross country coaching, he will also work with any sprinters and hurdlers who sign up for cross and make sure you are ready for a fast track season*. Coach Sam is in graduate school and Stanford and is working out her schedule to be available as much as she can, and Coach Tyler is going to try to balance work and fatherhood with helping you be a stronger runner. And…teaser…we will have a new coach for the 2025 season, a collegiate distance runner and Monta Vista alumna…more to come on this, and you will be able to meet our new assistant coach on Saturday!
- “Official practice” also means that you must have your athletic clearance approved by the school to participate. If you are not cleared, I need to send you home, I don’t have the ability to clear you (only Mr. Bonacorsi and Ms. Myeasha can clear you). As I type this post on Saturday, August 2, there are 17 athletes who are cleared to participate, eight that are “pending” and waiting for Mr. Bonacorsi to review their applications, four who have some problem with their concussion screening (these four need to retake their concussion test and then reapply so their status is “pending”), and 14 athletes with incomplete applications. I encourage everyone to try to get to “pending” status before Sunday night. Mr. Bonacorsi will probably go through and clear everyone who has complete applications early in the week. After that, you might be swept into all the football, field hockey, water polo, etc. problems…so please, please, see if you can knock out your application today!
- Starting Saturday we will begin taking attendance so we can work to get a clean roster as soon as we can. Saturday is going to be a kind of reverse attendance–if you miss practice on Saturday, you will not be marked absent, but every athlete who is at practice on time we will get one additional allowance for a missed day later in the season. So…an extra reason to get cleared and come to practice!
Have a great week of running, have fun with the last days of summer! Your coaches are so excited to see you soon and start our season together.
–Your Coaches!
*Cross country is great for sprinters and hurdlers, as well as soccer players and basketball players, and wrestlers, and…
