I'm ashamed to admit that I kind of forgot about my blog after just two posts. That's a little sad, isn't it? In my defense, I'm busier than I am used to with working, coaching, and being a coach's wife. I'm not ready to give up watching some tennis so I've worked hard to make it to as many of the Redskin matches as I can. That wasn't very many, but at least I got my fix until girls season starts in March.

So how is my team doing? Since my post a month ago, I've lost two girls to stress fractures. So half my girls team is in a walking boot. Not cool, but not all completely my fault since I wasn't on the scene until August 1st. Stress fractures don't happen in 3 weeks so I choose to believe they were going to happen regardless of how I worked them. The good news is both girls have made comments about next year so this injury hasn't turned them off to the sport forever! I just might have a full girls team next year! And with a summer of conditioning under their belts, we'll be able to run through the season and see some good drops in times. The girls who aren't limping around have been working hard at dropping their times. The Fairfield course was the first good, fast course the team ran so they saw a significant drop in their times. They both dropped 3 minutes from the previous races. The next race was County Clash which was another fast race. Sadie ran an identical time, whereas Lena fell behind 37 seconds. Still in the 29minute range which is where they wanted to be. Lena was a trooper at West Noble Invite where she was the only female Bruin in the high school race. She fought a side cramp for over half the race and finished just over 30 minutes. Now that Sadie is back, I look forward to what these two will run tonight at Jimtown and at the notoriously fast New Haven Invite on Saturday.

My guys are entertaining, to say the least. Jesse and Noah have dropped time at each race thus far this season which is not an easy feat. Ethan has worked hard in his first two races dropping 33 seconds from his County Clash time to West Noble one week later. Ben is fighting a bug right now so tonight will be all about mental toughness to get through the race and hopefully feel better for a fast New Haven race. Jordan is not ready to let Noah have the 3rd runner position and has fought him off at the finish the last two Saturdays. It is great to have 3 pairs of people running nearly identical times. They always have someone pushing or pulling them in practice and at meets. Austin continues to work hard and this past weekend at West Noble, he dropped 90+ seconds off his PR thus far this season. I don't expect another drop that significant, but I believe he's broken through and is in the next phase of his running.

I have no idea what the course is like at the Ferrettie Baugo County Park, but I have faith my runners will hit the course hard and compete to their best ability.

My goal for the boys team tonight is to show up against ECA and beat Jimtown. You've gotta feel bad for teams you beat 15-50, but that is my goal for the Bruin-Jimmies race tonight.

I'll let you know how we do....