Saturday morning. A sweltering 90 degrees outside. The cross-country team getting ready to run their 15 mile long run of the week.
Half marathons are long distances that take a lot out of the runner. So seeing a high school team do them regularly on weekends, with an extra two miles attached, is nothing short of shocking to the average person.
It hasn’t always been this way.
“Past years, I’d run maybe five or six miles max,” senior Ella Jonas said.
The change is owed to a change in leadership. Coach Brian Yueill, after coaching the boys distance track team in the 2024 season, has joined as a cross-country coach, introducing a new running program with him.
“The basic idea for the running program is starting off building the aerobic engine, which is easier miles,” Yueill said. “Then we start adding in threshold works, so you get your ligaments and tendons to withstand the next part, which is the high intensity lungs, legs, everything on fire.”
This initiative differs greatly from what the cross country team has done in past years.
“My running programs were always very structured along these lines, “ Yueill said. “I came up with a program during track that was much like this, and Coach Janda and Coach Wright, and I made it work for our kids in cross country.”
While it is a step up in difficulty, senior Adam Gotschall wholly supports the new program.
“It’s to improve your form for running, and it builds a lot of endurance. I think that’s what he’s trying to get out of it.”
Gotschall enjoys the scheduled aspect of the program, as well as the more intensive running.
“Mileage has definitely been upped. It’s become a lot more structured and predictable to where I can guess what we’ll be doing for the rest of the week,” Gotschall said.
But this upped mileage is far from just a few more miles a week. The team went from six miles as a long run to a normal run.
“My peak, on Saturday, I would run 15 miles, which is insane,” Jonas said. “Comparing that to my years before, I didn’t run that much.”
During last year’s track season, when the program was introduced, there was lots of positive progress. Many students have seen great improvements with the training regime.
“I definitely have noticed a big change. I PR’ed by a minute in the two mile and by 30 seconds in my mile in track,” Gotschall said.
Yueill too has seen massive improvements in his runners under the new training program.
“This season, we’ve only had one meet. There were tons of PR’s in that meet.”
However, while the benefits are undeniably showing improvement the flip side also comes into play. With extra miles, the chance of being injured has definitely increased.
Sophomore Lucas Day, one of last year’s strongest runners, is currently injured due to overuse.
“I’ve been having ankle problems a while now…[it’s been] over a month…and it’s gotten really bad recently,” Day said. “If it gets worse, I don’t know what I’m going to have to do.”
Day said he just ran too much, as the miles under this program were incredibly long and strenuous.
“We ran a lot of miles this summer. It was probably just hard on the ankle,” Day said.
Although injuries have been prevalent, many seem to agree that they are an avoidable part of the process.
“Well, as mileage goes up, risk of injury goes up. [But] If you are still smart and responsible about it, you can prevent injuries,” Gotschall said.
Yueill too repeats the same philosophy.
“The other key piece to any successful training program is you need to take care of the basics: enough sleep, eating correctly, and hydrating correctly. You have to have those other pieces so your body can fix itself. I think we have a lot more opportunity there to improve,” Yueill said.
In the end, the cross country team’s new program has been successful, even in the face of injury and adversity. With the new training program, it will be exciting for the team to see what new distances they will cover over the season.