For Leesville runners, cross country season ended just last week. Though cross country is finished until next year, many are anticipating the arrival of the winter track season.
Winter track is the calm before the storm: It gives the cross country runners who intend on running the more intense spring track a chance to rest from the physically demanding hard workouts and races. It is basically a time for runners to recuperate from the stress put on their bodies during cross country season and begin to heal and focus for spring track.
“Winter track allows us to build our strength and endurance up until outdoor track begins, at which time we will work on developing our speed. Winter track allows us to get our athletes in shape before outdoor track begins, as opposed to spending the first half of outdoor track getting them in shape,” said Matt Cross, distance track coach and cross country coach, via email.
“I think it’ll make me faster. The workouts are much harder in winter track than they are in spring track, so they can prepare us for spring track. I think I will be running [many] more competitions this year,” said Jamie Durham, sophomore sprinter.
Winter track is also a time when athletes reflect on what skills they want to focus on improving.
“[I am looking to improve on] pacing better on longer distance and finishing strong,” said Taylor Hemming, freshman distance runner.
Overall, the track team is hopeful about their upcoming season.
“I think [our team will improve] because we have a lot of good distance freshmen that came up, and the whole cross country JV team got a whole lot better this year. Everyone’s improved so much already in cross country, so I think it’s going to be even better in track,” said Laura Lisowe, junior distance runner and high jumper.
“I expect the track team to build on the progress the cross country team made this year and compete for a Cap 8 conference title. We had several new runners in cross country that should be able to contribute immediately to the track team. With the returning athletes we have, we should be a strong team,” said Cross in an email interview.
The track team is looking forward to winter track, so that they can start the long process of training to improve this spring track season.
