Jay Richards

This morning Jack wanted to ride his bike out to the end of the mile long driveway where they get picked up by the bus. Once Jens got word of that, he did too. 10 minutes later took Jake and Jon out with truck. About a quarter mile from the end Jens is running in a full on sprint. Figured Jack beat him or he fell and he had come unglued. Instead, when we rolled up to Jens, he yells out " I forgot my backpack", taking off like Forest Gump. Jake and I were rolling. Told Jens I had it so he hopped in the back. I wonder if he figured he was going to run all the way back and then back out to the bus. I never asked him. Funny stuff.


Jack doing his part on the three r's , turning a cardboard box into a "body armor" he says. Jonell said she could wrap tinfoil around it and Jack said it has to be recycled from the kitchen. Someday Jack will figure out how to run the Maplelag complex on non fuel electricity.
"I'm like Lars" Jens said.
The other night Jake and I did a couple laps on the Loppet course. Conditions are excellent right now with just a few leaves coming down. Our second lap it got dark, real dark. It was kinda freaky actually. Don't recall doing a ride that dark with no lighting on the singletrack. Dark trail dropping in the north facing rocky/rooty tech stuff was a bit hairy but knowing the trail like we do, it worked. "Why are you going so slow". I have a wife and four kids dude.
Jon got the cat to play goalie. Sieve.
Tuesday, Jonell, my dad and I snuck up to Bagely real quick like, like real quick, to watch our oldest nephew Marco dice it up with the fine towns of the north. Hallock, Indus, Roseau, Warroad, TRF, and Bemidji to name a few. I'm getting excited for the winter season seeing the hockey towns waving the flag.
Marco showing good form on the final kick to take third in the JR race.Tons of kids. Fun watching them. They all look different. Awesome energy all over the golf course. Reminds me of Nordic ski meets. He is a natural and could be running on the Varsity but just getting the experience. Maybe at sections, he might run Varsity.
After the race we asked him how it went and he said it was too hot. He says he likes it cold. Only makes sense living in the "icebox of the nation". Their home meet is always the last of the year and he says they do real good because it is always cold. I asked some of the older team mates if it has ever snowed during the meet and they said usually half the time it does. Nice.

Jonell and I both ran cross country in hs. Now and then over the years we will drive by a golf course and I ask Jonell if she like running there. "No". I don't think I ever ran at Bagley but Jonell did. Asked her if she liked the course, no. I said what course did you like. "None, I hated running."Some of my best memories in high school were cc. Our coach was the best, or I should say worst. Whenever you were having a good run or what not he would yell out "Richards, you are the worst don't run like a rabbit" because "the bear is going to jump on your back". The first time people heard that they wondered who the heck this guy was. We would call him Chico. One of the training sessions would be "jackalope" hunting. It was all good until we actually got one and when one of the kids told his parents, some calls were made and there was no more jackalope hunting. Also would go out to the DL airport and run mile intervals on the air strip. He had his pilot license which maybe allowed him to pull it off but I doubt they do that today. He drove the bus to all the meets. He would be backing up and yell out "just let me know when it sounds expensive". Good times. As far as coaching though, he had the whole season planned out with a periodization plan including repetetions, intervals, long runs and easy days. We never had easy days though as our hard working group always pushed what was supposed to be a easy 8 minute mile to end the run instead with a 5 minute mile and full on sprint to the locker room.

Quick trip to St Cloud on Saturday. Busy weekend on tap here. Probably hop in the car asaf to get back to help for the evening. Jake said he wants to ride with me so I hope he takes it easy on me.