Runners already working
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lions and Lady Lions cross country teams have picked up the pace in preparing for their first meet of the season.
Training became a bit more intense as coach Ginger Norton has finalized her schedule, adding a meet a week earlier than originally planned.
Albany will now open the season Wednesday, Aug. 31 at Haskell. The runners will compete in seven invitational meets before district competition in October.
Norton said adding Haskell will allow her to get a better read on her runners’ progress over the first month. Albany began preseason training on Monday, Aug. 1.
"We’ll see how everyone does,” Norton said of how adding the meet will affect the athletes’ training schedule. “I may not be taking the whole team. We’ll see how that pans out.”
Norton said the Albany runners added to their training regimen during the second week of practice.
“The first week, we did a lot of grass work, building up speed and strides and sprints,” Norton. “We also did one day of training on hills.”
The second week saw a slight change in emphasis.
“This week, we’ve worked more on our endurance, going longer on our running,” Norton said. “We’ve run for 10, 15, or 20 minutes depending on how they’re doing, then we’ve increased their pace at the end over, say, the last three minutes.”
So far, the runners have been up to the challenge, Norton said.
“The kids have just been doing a great job,” she said. “It was kind of hard starting on Monday and it always is because we do a little bit longer distance.”
Following the Haskell meet, Albany will compete at Eula on Tuesday, Sept. 6, followed by meets in Abilene, Hawley, Hamlin, Rotan, and Anson. The District 10-2A meet is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 12, at Anson.
A Rotan meet on Wednesday, Sept. 28, filled a hole in the schedule. With a full slate now set, Norton said she can now focus more on running and less on administrative duties.
“I’ve just got to get all my entries in,” she said. “There are entry dates, so I’ve got to make sure I stay on top of that and get everything in on time.”
— —
