When temperatures cool and snow starts falling, most high school students retreat to their houses to take out warm drinks and cozy blankets. The thought of being out in the cold seems far away, with the cold windy nights locked behind warmer walls. Despite this chill, some athletes continue training outside during the winter.
While many other athletes may pause training between sports, West’s distance runners continue their running through winter. This comes in the form of winter conditioning, a running regimen for the winter. Runners continue running and lifting through below-zero degrees Fahrenheit temperatures. While not all weeks are the same, even just a look into one week of training shows the hard work and dedication of West runners.
Monday:
On Monday, the boys start with a longer run for the week. These typically last just under an hour, and runners hit up to nine miles. This is one of the major examples of the team’s focus on mileage and overall fitness.
Tuesday:
On Tuesday, the boys have a lifting day in the school gym. After warming up, the boys have a workout consisting of back squats, back extensions, jumping split squats and weighted box step-ups. Even after this heavy workout, the boys still run outside to ensure they complete their mileage.
Wednesday:
On Wednesday, the team is given a workout to complete on the track where the boys run 10 100-meter sprints. This workout is designed to build speed within the runners. After the workout, the team runs a short cooldown before heading in.
Thursday:
Thursday is another lift day. They have a set of Bulgarian split squats, three-way lifts, hip thrusts, vertical rows and total body resistance tucks. After lifting, they run again and stretch to get ready for the next day.
Friday:
Friday is a one-mile time trial. It’s a way for runners to measure their times and compare them to previous times. It’s also used to track the runners’ total improvement at the end of the season. Although the cross country season ended weeks ago, there’s still a long cold winter before the track season starts, and West is going to have runners training in the cold all the way.
