Scholarship Dinner

Last night five of our athletes and myself attended one of the premier athletic events of the school year at the President's house. The President and his wife host a dinner in their backyard for athletes representing each sport, head coaches, and our scholarship donors. It gives the donors an opportunity to interact with the athletes and coaches whom they support on an annual basis. It is a great event that also provides an opportunity for our athletes to speak with very successful supporters of our university and the community as a whole. You never know when this might lead to a job opportunity after graduation.

Our team's attendees included: Klaudia Rokossa (pole vault), Alyssa Abbott (xc/distance), Chelsey Kaplar (long sprints/hurdles), Langley Iverson( high jump) and Sarah Grimm (throws).

Using names and events above can you guess who each athlete is?

Picture #1 is the girls "chillin" by the pool before dinner. Picture #2 is the "just finishing dinner" shot.

Morning Weights

We do our strength (weights) workouts on Monday and Wednesday mornings before classes starts. In the past we've gone in the afternoon after our running workouts. However, our upperclassmen voted to go in the morning this year to get it out of the way. So far it has been a great switch.

Student Athlete Orientation

The annual student athlete orientation BBQ was held last night on the sixth floor of the football stadium press box. Over 95% of the student athletes were able to be in attendance for games and a great meal. The athletic administration holds this event to help kick off the new school year by having athletes from all of the different sports participate in table games and other fun activities.

Our athletic director, Dr. Chris Hill, welcomed the student athletes back to campus and wished them good luck on another great year in their sports and in the classroom.

The picture above features five of our returning track & field athletes. Sophomores Bree LeRoy, Klaudia Rokossa, seniors Laryssa Simpson, Whitney Wellington, and sophomore Lucy Yates all enjoy the festivities.

Workout Tuesday

Today was our first workout of the first week of classes. I was pleased with the overall effort. I thought our groups worked well together and helped push each other. It was a little warmer than it was supposed to be, but our kids stayed hydrated and handled the work load well.

We ran on a gravel road that is in Red Butte Garden which is just above our dorms on campus. It has a little shade and there are always other locals running up there so we weren't alone. It was perfect warm up run from our locker room up to the parking lot. There is actually a concert there tonight and the band was doing sound check during our warm up. They sounded pretty good for an unknown group. Although, they have competition for fans tonight as Def Lepard, Cheap Trick, and Poison are in town playing at USANA amphitheatre for all of you hair band fans.

After the workout I think everyone felt good about the quality and quantity. A few of the gals did a longer cooldown before everyone returned for stretching and a cold whirlpool to help the legs recover.

We will lift again in the morning and go on a recovery run tomorrow afternoon. Thursday we will be at Liberty Park for some threshold running.

Long Run Saturday

After a solid week at camp up in Park City we returned to campus and SLC. This morning we got up early (7:30am) and did our long run on the Jordan River Trailway. We have several athletes who are at different levels of their training. Some are in fantastic shape after a solid summer of running while others are nursing some minor injuries. I asked everyone to add 4-5 minutes to their longest run of the summer for today's run. We all started together on our out and back run and then split up into groups as needed along the way. After our tough hill session yesterday, we made sure not to go out too hard this morning. Overall, I was pleased with the progress we made again today. We still have a ways to go, but everyone finished in good spirits and some of the injuries are slowly getting better. With full time access to our training room and PT equipment we hope to have some of these lingering, overuse issues fixed in a few weeks. The women know it is on them to get to the training room and take care of themselves as well as eat and hydrate properly per some of our discussions at camp. We have a great sport nutritionist who is also providing our team great support in that area.

Tomorrow the team will be on their own per the NCAA's mandated one day per week off from practice. I'll check in Monday after the first day of classes and let you know how we are doing. Enjoy your weekend. Go Utes!

Last Day Hill Workout

We started our final day of camp with a morning hill workout near the resort. I felt really good about everyone's effort. We still have a few injuries that we need to keep a close eye on, but overall we have better depth than we've had since I arrived here at Utah four years ago. I feel like the freshmen are all fitting in very well and trying to learn from our returners. The returners look stronger a year later so we should have a great battle for spots later in the season when the championship meets limit the number of runners we can travel.

We will finish up camp with ice baths and breakfast followed by a team and individual goal setting session before heading back to campus. The freshmen still need to take a walk around campus to get an idea of where their classes are. We will also pick our meet gear and get locker assignments from our outstanding equipment guy, Chris Anderson.

Day 3 Trail Run

This morning we were up fairly early for breakfast and then I spoke to the team about concentration and mental focus. Our veterans talked about some of the techniques they have learned and currently use to stay focused before and during races. Our sport administrator, Zack Lassiter, joined us for the day as well.

A run that we were all excited about was maybe even better than most of the women had thought it would be. After a nine minute gondola ride up to 8,000 feet from the resort headquarters we took off for an easy morning run followed by some running drills. We ran in groups of two or three with 30 second intervals between groups. We did this because running everyone together on a single track trail is more dangerous and the pace is typically more erratic.

After the run and drills we enjoyed lunch at the Red Pine Lodge under perfect blue skies. We ended the morning/early afternoon with a short hike to explore some of other trails in the area.

We have returned to our rooms for some afternoon down time before our second run of the day just before dinner. Enjoy the pics and video from our time together this morning.

Team Camp...Day 2

It was another full day of camp here at The Canyons in Park City, UT. A morning run, a goal setting session, a trip to the local farmer's market, an afternoon run on the trails, some running drills, a circuit workout, an outstanding dinner, and even a short dip in one of the three hot tubs under the stars to end the day.

Both runs took place on the trails between Park City and Kimball Junction. We had to take a ski lift from the resort down to the Farmer's Market. Dinner was chicken, potatoes, sweet corn (farmer's market), asiago ciabatta bread (farmer's market), and a cinnamon apple dessert. It was awesome. We had discussions about individual and team goals in the morning. After dinner we discussed the importance of pre competition routines.

Finishing the night under the stars in the hot tub was a well deserved treat after a long day. Tomorrow we will take a gondola ride up to 8,000 ft for a late morning run and then lunch.

Camp is Underway...Go Utes!

After morning meetings we arrived at The Canyons Resort in Park City for our annual team camp. What an amazing property with some of the best views in the world. Our rooms are spacious and our team. Our evening run was very relaxed followed by stretching (see pictures) and dinner. The team is split into three groups. Each group is responsible for one dinner. Tonight's menu was spaghetti, meat sauce, salad, and garlic bread. It was amazing and the aroma filled up the entire hallway. After dinner we went through our team handbook (a necessary evil), and then did some ice breakers to help the gals continue to get to know each other. I had the team line up alphabetically by first name and then by last name. Then they tried to line up from West to East by where they were from...we have a few geographically challenged individuals! Next was "knots" where eight gals get in a circle and grab the hands of other people in the circle. The object is to unwind themselves out of the knots and in a new circle. One group did it fairly quickly....the other group took quite a while. It was funny watching them twist, contort, step over, and step under each other. Finally, we played the telephone game. The message started as....Sanya Richards ran 49 seconds for the 53rd time in her career to win the world championships in Berlin today. It came back to me as...Sanya Richards won the 1000 meters in 50 seconds today....ha ha ha ha.

Day two tomorrow....More pictures and details tomorrow. Sleep well.

Denver Video

Thought I'd also post some video from my trip to Denver. Hopefully, MLB and/or the Rockies don't come after me for showing the Rockies run out on to the field at the start of the game. If I end up in video jail I hope all who read this will consider giving to my bail fund :)

Go Cubs Go!

I spent the weekend in Denver with my brother, Mike. We went to the first two games of the Cubs/Rockies series at Coors Field. We stayed downtown on the 16th Street pedestrian mall which also provided lots of activity and restaurants. We sat in the fifth row behind first base both nights. Those were amazing seats, especially at that stadium, because of how close the field is to the stands. Even though the Cubs haven't won a World Series in 100 years and haven't even been to the WS since 1945 being a Cubs fan does have it's advantages....even the road games feel like home games. Both nights their were just about as many Cub fans in the stands as Rockies fans. That always makes for an interesting atmosphere in and out of the ballpark, before and after games.

Pictures include a ballpark view from our seats and Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee at back with bench coach, Alan Trammell and manager, Lou Pinella looking on from the dugout.

This was my last official vacation of the summer. The cross country team reports a week from today and practice starts the following day. So the excitement of a new season and new team will be building all week.