We will meet at City Park on Saturday, June 14th, at our usual spot at 7:30am.

What do you need?

1. A watch. Most of our runs are based on time spent running, so you absolutely need a watch. You absolutely do not need a fancy GPS smart watch. The best running watch when most of your older coaches were fast was the Timex Ironman, which is still a great running watch and available for about $35.You can find good running watches (digital watch with a stopwatch function) for $20, and it will last your entire high school running career.
2. Good running shoes. These will cost you a bit more than your running watch and need to be replaced every 3-6 months depending on how many miles you are running each month. East runners get a discount at Runners Roost; the staff there will help you find the right pair for you. If you have a favorite running shoe, you can generally find good deals online.
3. Clothes comfortable for running and appropriate for the weather. Obviously it is getting warm this time of year. You don’t need anything fancy or name brand, just comfortable. If you are new to running, whatever you wore to play soccer or lacrosse or play outdoors on a warm day will be appropriate.
4. A water bottle. Fill it with water!
5. An awesome attitude and readiness to challenge yourself.
6. If you use an albuterol inhaler for exercise, it is not a bad idea to have this on hand.
7. Arrive well hydrated. Most of our runners will have a small snack prior to running so their energy stores are not completely depleted when arriving at practice, though we discourage a heavy meal in the two hours prior to running.

What to leave behind?

1. Earbuds. Talk to your teammates during the run! Also, we need to listen for traffic and your coaches. (Earbuds are not allowed by CHSAA when we race).
2. Anything of high value you don’t want to carry during your run. We may not have a safe place to store your things during our runs. We sometimes are able to store phones in someone’s car during the run, but if you don’t need it, don’t bring it.
3. Fear. Nobody is ever expected to anything for which they are not capable. Everyone is capable of doing hard things and becoming a better runner. (And not everyday is hard).

If you missed the kickoff meeting last month, the slide show for the meeting is attached here.

Meeting Slides

Our summer running plan is published on the website FinalSurge.com.

If you have not run with Denver East previously, you will need to create an account on FinalSurge using an email address. Once you have created your account, email Coach Kohuth (steven_kohuth@dpsk12.net) and let him know which email account you used to join FinalSurge. You will receive an invitation to join the Denver East team on FinalSurge; once you have joined the team you will have access to our training plans and you will be able to record your workouts on the website to share with your coaches.

There are three training plans posted on FinalSurge, Beginning, Intermediate, and Varsity; all summer training plans begin on June 9th. (Side note – returning runners who have completed their 2 week break following the track season should start running this week; 20-30 minutes of easy running every other day would be sufficient). Beginning is for our athletes new to cross country with little or no distance running experience; Intermediate is for athletes with previous running experience including ninth graders with more rigorous club experience in middle school and our returning high school runners who did not run track in the spring; and Varsity is for returning runners who ran track in the spring. (Another side note – it is not required to follow the Varsity training plan to run on the varsity team in the fall; more years than not we have newer runners improve rapidly and make our top-7. In general, we would rather you run a little less and increase your training incrementally than jump into a training plan for which your body is not ready to adapt and risk injury. Ask a coach if you are uncertain as to which training plan to follow).

We would like to see you at summer conditioning (M-F, 8a, City Park), but with access to our training plans, you can complete all of the same training on your own, no matter where summer brings you. We will review some basics of the summer training plan (which we will continue to update throughout the summer) in a later post. Your first assignment for the summer is joining FinalSurge.

The three most important words in Cross Country? June, July and August! This is when champions are made!

We will kick off our summer conditioning on June 9th at 8am at City Park. Meet behind the Joseph Thatcher Fountain near the Esplanade entrance to the Park.

This season we will be meeting Monday thru Friday at 8am at City Park. On Saturdays, we will meet at the student parking lot at East High School and drive to an alternative location for a trail run – follow the website for more information on Saturday plans

Monday, June 9th, and Wednesday, June 11th will be special “9th Grade Cross Country Academy” practices for our new runners only. (Prospective Captains may join). This will be a chance for new runners to meet coaches and learn our practice routine.

All our practices have runs planned for a wide variety of runners – from those brand new to running to those with years of varsity experience.

Keep following the website. We will be posting information here frequently as we countdown to the beginning of our summer practices.

Meet at the Commons at East at 6pm of Thursday, May 22nd, for our 2025 informational meeting and season kickoff for Denver East Cross Country 2025.

This meeting is for new and returning runners as well as their parents and guardians. Meet or reconnect with coaches and teammates as we discuss our summer training plans and the plans for the fall season.

Remember, the three most important words in cross country are “June, July, August!”

Meet at the Commons at East at 6pm of Wednesday, May 22nd, for our 2025 informational meeting and season kickoff for Denver East Cross Country 2025.

This meeting is for new and returning runners as well as their parents and guardians. Meet or reconnect with coaches and teammates as we discuss our summer training plans and the plans for the fall season.

Remember, the three most important words in cross country are “June, July, August!”

Your summer plans should include cross country camp. #1 on your list should be our own East Angel High Altitude Camp. If you are curious to try something in addition to East’s camp, consider exploring one of the many camps around the country and explore running someplace new. Below are links for the Wildwood Overnight Girls Camp on the Oregon Coast – the leaders of this camp are highly regarded by our coaches. Many university programs offer camps during the summer – below is a link for CSU’s 4-day cross country camp at their Mountain Campus the first week of August.

East Angel High Altitude Camp 2025!

Sign-up now! We filled every spot last year. Same fun, new content.

July 15-17, 2025, at Snow Mountain Ranch

Use this link or the QR code below to save your spot.

Wildwood Girls Cross Country Camp

CSU Cross Country Camp

Workout on your own or get together with a teammate: warm-up drills; 15 minute run followed by 6 minutes at threshold, and then another 5 minutes of easy running. Then go right into alternating running 1 minute fast, 2 minutes easy 5 times, with the fast segments at 3200m race pace effort. Finish with another 10 minutes of running. Go indoors for post-run core and SAM. See you next week!

Monday 2/10 at 4pm

Thursday 2/13 at 2pm

Tuesday 2/18 at 4pm

Friday 2/21 at 4pm

Dress for the weather! See you at the track.