The Running Vikings

Kevin and Robert believe that keeping you as a parent/guardian in the loop is going to be key to a successful season. We will post weekly newsletters on this page along with having scheduled zoom calls or meetings to take any questions and to discuss what important things are coming up next.

June 5, 2023

Hello Montgomery Vikings Athletes, Parents, and Guardians!

I hope you all had a good last week of school! In this week's newsletter I am going to list some important dates and details along with a brief discussion on summer training.

Important Dates (in chronological order):

  • June 12: Optional on your own training begins. Check the Summer Training Page. If you have any questions please reach out to Coach Robert or Coach Kevin.
  • June 13: Bob Shor Summer Track Series (5:45-8pm @Montgomery HS) The Montgomery XC team will be providing our services to Empire Runners as a fundraiser for our team. We would love/need some volunteers to make sure that we can run these track meets efficiently. If you or your athlete are available to volunteer on any of these dates (June 13, June 27, July 11) please email Coach Robert (RunRobertFast@gmail.com)/Kevin (kevin@kelmapping.com).
  • June 27th: Starts official Summer Training (5:00pm @Montgomery HS). For our first practice we will be meeting at Montgomery HS before the Bob Shor Track meet to go for a little run and have some introductions. Then if you could stick around to help out at the track meet that would be wonderful.
  • June 28th: We will be starting normal summer runs switching between Channel, Park Trail, and some optional fun destination runs. You can check the Summer Schedule for dates/times/places. 

Running Camp

This year's running camp will be in Arnold, CA at the LaFrance's Cabin. It will run from July 26-30th. We will be arriving the evening of July 26 and leaving the morning of July 30th.  If your athlete is interested in Summer Running Camp please let Coach Kevin and Coach Robert know by filling out this form: 2023 Summer Camp Interest Form.

XCStats

This season we will be using XCStats for communication and each athlete needs to create an account. Please see directions below in the May 25th post.

Importance of Summer Training

If you have not done so yet, please please take some time off of running before hopping back into summer training. Your skeletal system takes about a month to recover from stress whereas your muscular system takes about two weeks. Starting on June 12th will give you plenty of time off and will give you about two weeks before we start the Summer Running Club to sort of get back in the groove again. If you take a look at the summer training schedule, it is nothing crazy. Summer is all about building up a nice strong foundation so you can have something to work off of when Fall Cross Country training begins. For those that were on Girls Varsity last year or if your goal is to be on Girls Varsity this year, this becomes really important since our goal as coaches will be to get y’all to peak at states rather than before states while also keeping you highly motivated and injury free for the long season that this depends on. You will also see within the Summer Training Schedule, strength and form exercises. If you have worked with me this past Spring you will know how important form is to me and how important I think form is for you as a runner. Please feel free to reach out if you do have any questions or concerns.

Best,

Coach Robert/Kevin

May 25, 2023

Hello Montgomery Vikings Athletes, Parents, and Guardians!

Today we had our XC meeting with your athlete and we discussed important dates and details.

Important Dates (in chronological order):

  • June 12: Optional on your own training begins. Check the Summer Training Page. If you have any questions please reach out to Coach Robert or Coach Kevin.
  • June 13: Bob Shor Summer Track Series (5:45-8pm @Montgomery HS) The Montgomery XC team will be providing our services to Empire Runners as a fundraiser for our team. We would love/need some volunteers to make sure that we can run these track meets efficiently. If you or your athlete are available to volunteer on any of these dates (June 13, June 27, July 11) please email Coach Robert (RunRobertFast@gmail.com)/Kevin (kevin@kelmapping.com).
  • June 27th: Starts official Summer Training (5:00pm @Montgomery HS). For our first practice we will be meeting at Montgomery HS before the Bob Shor Track meet to go for a little run and have some introductions. Then if you could stick around to help out at the track meet that would be wonderful.
  • June 28th: We will be starting normal summer runs switching between Channel, Park Trail, and some optional fun destination runs. You can check the Summer Schedule for dates/times/places.

Communication

Kevin and Robert believe that keeping you as a parent/guardian in the loop is going to be key to a successful season. We will post weekly newsletters on this page along with having scheduled zoom calls or meetings to take any questions and to discuss what important things are coming up next. 

Running Camp

This year's running camp will be in Arnold, CA at the LaFrance's Cabin. It will run from July 26-30th. We will be arriving the evening of July 26 and leaving the morning of July 30th. Please have your athlete let Coach Robert or Coach Kevin know if they are planning on going as soon as possible so we can put together the fine details. 

XCStats

In addition to posting news here on VikingXC, we will be using XCStats for communication. XCStats will help us streamline communication and also provides a great platform for tracking individual and team statistics. Please have your athlete create an account and make sure they put parent/guardian contact in as well. To create an account they will need to get a registration code from us and then go to https://xcstats.com/registration.php?school_id=975. If they participated in Cross Country last year then they need to pick their name from individuals with results. The provided email addresses allow us to create email lists and the provided cell phone numbers allow us to use text messages to communicate. For additional help go to the Getting Started with XCStats guide.

Team Captains

We are also lucky enough and thrilled to announce Max (Boys) and Amrie (Girls) as our team captains this year!! If your athlete has any questions about practices, meets, etc. First steps will be reaching out to these two individuals.