It's been a fun season for the cross-country team so far! Out of our 15 runners, 7 are new this year, so it's been a lot of getting used to the daily workouts, figuring out pacing, and working on our running form. Even though 8 of our runners are from "down south," we all struggled with the heat early on. We even had an indoor practice one day, which is the first time I've done that since I've been coaching.

Least favorite workout: hill charges on the University hill! We ran 2 miles down to the UW-EC for warm-up, then did 5-6 charges up and down the hill. The hill itself is brutal - extremely steep and 1/7 of a mile long. But it's all part of the shared misery that bonds our team--AND it pays off when we face hilly courses like Fall Creek!

Favorite workouts: Saturday morning runs. These are generally our long distance runs - we're up to 6 miles this week, running to Lowes Creek County Park and back. Maybe the thing everyone likes about these practices is the chocolate-chip muffins we share afterwards.

Our last two meets were very encouraging with two second-place finishes. The last meet we only lost by ONE POINT, which brought home to all of us how important each and every place is! This last meet also gave us a chance to preview the course that will be used for this year's conference meet. If we keep improving and working hard as we have been, our guys team has a strong chance at winning the conference title this year!
-
Steve Sydow
Head Track/XC Coach
Immanuel Lutheran HS

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