2009 Challenge

As part of our team this year, we will be working towards a well rounded fitness program that will not only strengthen each of the athletes for cross country running, but also improve their overall fitness for future sports.

I have setup a President's Challenge group at http://www.presidentschallenge.org. As soon as they register, they can join our group and log their last 14 days of activities and earn points. I just finished logging my last 14 days of activities and it took less than 15 minutes. In addition to the workouts we will be doing, they can get points for many different activities, from house chores to skateboarding, and more.

The group information is as follows:

YOUR GROUP NAME IS: Southern High School 2009 Cross Country Team
YOUR GROUP ID NUMBER: 85548
YOUR GROUP PASSWORD: xc2009

In addition, I will be working with the school to test each athlete for a President's Fitness Award.

Many athletes also have questions about weight. I have posted some guidelines on www.southernathletics.org. I suggest anyone who wants to gain or loose weight, consider tracking their nutrition at www.fitday.org. It is a great free site that can be used to show calories used, calories consumed, track weight, and review nutrition. They can make their fitday space open to the public and share it with me, parents, friends, etc. to get feedback and suggestions.

A final element of a healthy lifestyle is sleep. We need to encourage students and athletes to get on a regular schedule with 7 to 8 hours of sleep, or more. This is the perfect week to start that transition. Athletes should be getting up and doing a 15-30 minute easy run in the morning this week as part of training. It is ok to do this without breakfast, as it will help them develop a fat burning metabolism. But, as soon as they are finished, they need to eat a balanced meal with carb, protien and healthy fat. A great recovery drink is low-fat chocolate milk.

Dream Large, Act Strong!

Coach Doug
www.southernathletics.org