By A.J. Mitchell, Contributing Writer
With cross country coming to an end, the St. Bonaventure men’s and women’s cross country teams will soon be turning their attention toward the spring track season.
Donavan Lowe, a sophomore on the men’s cross country team, expressed how difficult it can be when transitioning into track season. Despite the transition, he says at the same time, it’s still running.
“For the races, you really have to mentally prepare yourself for the closer contact and possibly running all out more than one race,” said Lowe. “Once the offseason starts, and since it is a long one, we really focus on getting in a lot of mileage and trying to increase that mileage each week,” said Lowe. “Because we are preparing for track, the closer we get to the season, the more speed work we will focus on.”
Sophomore Christine Walsh stated how cross country in the fall helps her prepare for the spring season.
“This part of the season prepares me for track because I will still be racing the same distance in the spring, this way I can work on improving my consistency for the same distance,” said Walsh.
Walsh said there are some differences between track and cross country that some people aren’t aware of.
“The biggest difference between cross country and track that some people don’t know is cross country is more of a team aspect,” said Walsh. “Track has sprints, distance and field, so if your team is weak in one of those three fields, the score will never be high enough to place. However, in cross country everyone is running the same distance and only top five score for each team. When everyone is in the same race, it makes it more competitive.”
She discussed how cross country training is different than track because you need to work on higher mileage and hill work. A track will always be flat, but a cross country course has hills and inclines. “
I train hills for both track and cross country though because I think it helps build endurance and make an athlete stronger overall,” said Walsh.
Lowe highlighted the variety of events in track as opposed to cross country.
“In track, you can run anything from the 100-meters to the 10k, and the great thing is you can put each runner in their own event to maximize your team score,” said Lowe.
Dan Janak, a freshman on the men’s team, agreed with Walsh, saying cross country has more of a team aspect since everyone runs in the same race.
“There are multiple events in track, unlike cross country,” said Janak. “I enjoy track because it gives me a chance to run shorter distances and faster paces.”
Janak plans on taking at least three weeks off from running in order to re-cooperate.
“I hope to stay in shape, but continually running 50 miles a week can destroy your legs,” said Janak.
Sydney Beeman, a sophomore runner, generally runs mid-distance, so she focuses more on speed.
“For my workouts, I do shorter distances with faster reps and try to consistently hit my times,” said Beeman. “It’s definitely a huge adjustment going from cross country to track mentally and physically. I tend to get more nervous and anxious at track meets than cross country so I have to mentally prepare myself in different ways.”
The St. Bonaventure men’s and women’s cross country teams will be traveling to Buffalo, New York, to end their season at Audubon Golf Course in the NCAA Northeast Regional Meet on Nov. 10.
