Base Training: Island Style

Just another day in paradise...the weather on the beautiful island of Maui begged us to go for a run, and of course we obliged. :-) After an hour of running down the South Maui coastline we followed with uniquely Hawaiian massages before finishing up with a warm-down swim at the Kihei Aquatic Center. Throw in a bike ride and it would have been a PERFECT day! Hmmm...a bike ride...ya, THAT'S what I want to do tomorrow.

I don't know what people are doing back in Portland but I'm guessing there isn't a hole lot of sun tanning involved.

Winter Training: Cascade XC Building the Base

Well, today we went to the Willamette River Loop and ran an easy 11. We had a great group of current and future T-Birds on hand to enjoy a relaxing trot around downtown Portland. You can really feel the bonds forming stronger among our team...we have a GREAT group of people in the program and it's exciting to know that next fall we're going to be strong when we show up to race. It's a good time to be a Thunderbird! :-) -Coach Howard

Running in the Northwest...Nothing Compares!

So today I went up to Forest Park with three of my guys from the program and enjoyed one of the most beautiful settings for a run you could ever hope for. You would think that on a rainy winter day it would be easy to talk about what a crummy run it was, but just the opposite is true. We ran on Leif Erickson trail which has been written up in national magazines over the years as one of the best urban running venues...and it's not even the best place in Portland to run! But I digress...

As we ran past endless Douglas Firs without a car in sight I felt an overwhelming sense of how truly lucky we are to live here in the Pacific Northwest. An hour's worth of endorphins followed by 24 hours of bliss! :-)

The day got even better as we got confirmation that two of our recruits will be coming to Cascade next year. Look for a press release in the coming days with more details. Until then...happy running!

-Coach Howard

PS...if you're not in Portland and want to see Forest Park with your own eyes check out:
http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/finder/index.cfm?PropertyID=127&action=ViewPark

Cascade XC at the NAIA XC Championships...Oh Yes!

I was online yesterday and had a chance to lookup some Youtube videos of the NAIA XC Championships this past year. As I watched the videos I just got incredibly excited about taking our team out there in the coming years. I love the process of building something and we've got some great pieces already in place here at Cascade. Can we get there...oh yes!