Home of the Lancers

Hello TOXC Family,

I hope everyone had a great Independence Day weekend!  We had a great Time Trial last week with tons of improvement.  If you haven’t done so yet, please get yours in today!  I will provide a full recap later in the week once I have everyone’s times in.

Big Bear Update

Saddens my heart to say that we will need to postpone our Big Bear trip.  Hopefully we can do so in the Fall for a weekend.  With all of the current health restrictions, I cannot see a way for us to make this happen.  All I can say is, I am very sorry to our seniors.

SCHEDULE for the next two weeks:

4 Forms Needed to Practice –

Unfortunately if you do not have all 4, we have to send you home.  We need hard copies of all forms. All forms are attached to this email.

  1. Voluntary sports/athletic event consent form
  2. CVUSD summer 2020 athletic conditioning parent acknowledgment form
  3. Authorization to Treat Form
  4. CVUSD Sports Clearance Form (physical form signed by Doctor) Or for those of you who are not due for a physical yet a copy of your existing physical form.  Please note:  If you have already entered your physical into Athletic Clearance you still need to bring a hard copy of this form to practice.  New parents or guardians, we will discuss what Athletic Clearance is during our first parent meeting next month.

Screening Questionnaire 

EACH practice, upon arrival, every athlete & coach will be required to complete a screening questionnaire utilizing a google form via a text message or email on their phone (no parent siganture is needed on this survey). If unable to complete on a phone, a paper version will be distributed upon arrival.  This survey will be completed by athletes once they are in their pods and after coaches have taken temperatures. If a staff member or a student-athlete has a temperature over 100.3 degrees or answers “YES” on either of the last two questions, they may be excluded from all participation for a minimum of 14 days.

Parents and Guardians:  For your reference, this is the form athletes will be filling out daily: https://forms.gle/3NuyChx1oy6xj2yH7

Practice Details

PLEASE NOTE that we must strictly follow the below at all times:

  • Per the guidelines from the School District, our athletics programs are returning on a gradual basis starting with Phase 1 where we will be meeting in small groups of 10
  • Coach or Captain is in charge of each group, athletes are to maintain social distancing of 6′ at all times, CLICK HERE for your group and map of where to meet
  • Upon arriving at Acorn Acres, athletes head to their pods and bring their bags and water bottles with them. Coaches check & record each athlete’s temperature, all forms to be collected, and athletes fill out their screening questionnaire https://forms.gle/3NuyChx1oy6xj2yH7  Parents or Guardians, if your athlete has not received this email, please text this link to their phone so they are prepared to click on it tomorrow.
  • Core & Conditioning then Warm Up starts independently within each group with insturctions written on a sign at your pod
  • Then athletes drop their bags / water bottles at 1 of 8 spaced out cones designated for their group (see map) Someone will be in charge of watching the team’s belongings.
  • Then, athletes proceed back to their pod for instructions for their run
  • Next, athletes are sent off for their run in pairs and instructed to continue to stay 6′ apart at all times; New runners will be staying at the park, returners will be running further towards various destinations
  • Upon completion of the run, everyone returns back to their pod and refer to the yard sign again for instructions on post-run Core & Conditioning, agility and stretching

By us all continuing to do our part, we will meet the challenges of these current times with the strength and mental fortitude that our team is known for. Please continue to communicate with our coaches with any questions or concerns you may have.

ONWARD TOXC!

New TOXC Warm Up

We are also kicking off a new Warm Up, one that is more fluid by incorporating everything into one 15’ warm up.

  • 10’ Easy running
  • Straight into 2’ @ Tempo Effort
  • Continue with 1’ easy
  • Straight into 3 Strides of 10” On (3 Mile to 800m effort), 10” Off
  • Finish with 1’ easy for 15’ of continuous warm up

XC Pics!

We had a Track contingent cheering us on at XC League Finals, Mrs. Brown, Booster Member from Track, took some pictures and wanted to share with us- Click here   Please thank her next time you see her!

Iron Deficiency – Time To Check Again

  • The aerobic energy demand of a 1600m race is approximately 82%. The remaining 18% is an anaerobic energy demand.  The 3200m is 90% aerobic, and the 800m, often thought of as a sprint event, is even 60% aerobic.
  • Recognizing that all distance Track races are primarily an aerobic challenge, oxygen transport is crucial.
  • Approximately 99% of human oxygen transport is mediated by the binding of molecular oxygen to an iron-containing molecule (within red blood cells) known as hemoglobin.
  • If an athlete is iron deficient, their endurance performance inevitably (and, likely, significantly) suffers.
  • Accordingly, we strongly encourage twice yearly iron testing for our student-athletes in order to support the maintenance of optimal iron status.
  • Standard blood panels include the assessment of both hemoglobin concentration and hematocrit, and most importantly FERRITIN.
  • By analogy, hemoglobin and hematocrit are equivalent to “money-in-your -pocket” while ferritin is correspondingly equivalent to “money-in-the-bank.”
  • If hemoglobin and hematocrit appear normal yet ferritin is sub-optimal, one might extend the analogy to suggest that subsequent to spending all available “money-in-your-pocket,” an individual is essentially “bankrupt” consequent to minimal iron reserves (i.e. minimal ferritin or, again, by analogy … minimal or no “money-in-the-bank”).
  • In summary, the opportunity to periodically analyze hemoglobin, hematocrit, and ferritin enables our coaching staff to quantitatively appreciate a student-athlete’s current iron status and to potentially recommend (to parents / guardians) a reasoned iron supplementation strategy (if appropriate) in order to contribute to ALWAYS maintaining performance-supporting, healthful iron status.

Photos to Share?  Upload Here!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/pkayobtphmHFFAan6

Come and see why students describe our Cross Country program as the best experience of their high school lives.

TOHS Cross Country is a combined boys and girls program that has a tradition of excellence including many Marmonte League, Ventura County, and California State Championships and many runners that go on to compete at the collegiate level.

Whether you’ve never run a step in your life or you enjoy running youth track and local 5k’s, we would love to have you come join the Lancer Cross Country program.  We are the most decorated team at TOHS and you will have the time of your life making friends and lasting memories in this wonderful program!

We’re excited for another year of Lancer Cross Country and invite all of you to join us for our first week of practice and activities to see if cross country is right for you! We are busy making plans for our summer training program, which will include pool parties, beach trips, and much much more.

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