With the start of a new school year and XC season, this is a good time to reflect on my essay about the best way coaches and parents can help their athletes and children. Stop plowing the road for them and light the way from behind. ks.milesplit.com/articles/23…

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The first time I encountered this, I laughed because it was such an absurd question to me that I thought it was a joke. When I realized they were serious, there were some blunt conversations with the team about the difference between a sport and an activity.

I don’t know who needs to hear this but STOP USING AI FOR WRITING, ESPECIALLY TO START THE PROCESS!! If you use AI “just to help me get started and give me some ideas,” you’re skipping the most important, even crucial, step in good writing - THINKING! I don’t care if it’s a work report, school essay, or email to Aunt Sally, learn to sit with the discomfort of not knowing what to say or how to say it. That space is called “thinking” and we have far too little of it being done today. As the old saying goes, good writing is good thinking. You can’t farm that out without dumbing down both yourself and your writing. AI is fantastic for fact checking, grammar/punctuation cleanup, etc. in the latter stages but using it early in the process runs a huge risk of it becoming a crutch rather than a tool.

For my endurance athletes: New standards for Ferritin test when diagnosing Iron deficiency. It used to be if Ferritin was over 15 ng/mL, you were considered "normal." Now: For most adults: 30 is the new threshold. For high-risk groups, it's 50.

Alabama just had a 24 year old Kenyan "freshman" woman win the SEC 10,000m championship. She was beaten in the NCAA Championships by a 25 year old Kenyan "freshman" from Iowa State. Univ. of Texas @ Austin recently added a 25 year old Kenyan as a "freshman." His half-marathon time is faster than the U.S. record. Texas Tech recently had a 28 year old Kenyan "freshman" on its squad.

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Come to think of it, this applies to being successful in nearly every area of life.

Good for Western Michigan.

Males have multiple physiological advantages over females in sport and it isn’t just one variable. At puberty, multiple systems change simultaneously: • Greater lean muscle mass, especially upper body • Larger bones and greater skeletal dimensions • Longer limbs and greater leverage • Higher hemoglobin and oxygen-carrying capacity • Larger heart and lungs • Significant differences in strength, speed and power • Higher ACL injury risk in female athletes These differences compound, which is why the performance gap can be roughly 10% in some events and dramatically larger in others.

The success you seek is in the actions you avoid.

Hard to argue against this hypothesis/assessment. Sure what it looks like.

Big news from NXN w/ now 6 at-large teams instead of 4 from previous years. Also, NY will no longer have its own region as it will be part of the Northeast region. This has been a long time coming, as the NY teams have not been as strong as they were in previous years.

Link to changes to 2026 NXN qualifying process below. Up to 5 at-large individuals will be added to the field as well as the 6 at-large teams. Lastly, CA teams will also be judged by in-season results as well as @cifstate meet. nxn.runnerspace.com/eprofile…

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Exactly right.

Remarkable statistic: Prior to Western Michigan, college football teams were 110,352 - 0 when leading after the end of regulation, dating back to 1869.

RIGGED.

🚨 BREAKING! 🚨 Nike Cross Nationals announces an expansion to the at-large fields for 2026, increasing from four to now six national at-large teams per gender! Also, the Northeast and New York Regions are being combined into a single region in 2026. 👉 nxn.runnerspace.com/eprofile…