When people think of football practice, they think of football drills. When people think of dance practice, they think of dance drills. When people think of cross country practice, they think of running. However, running was only a part of the cross country team’s training this summer.
Yoga and weight lifting are foreign to cross country runners. This did not keep Coach Presnell, the second-year coach of the cross country team, from making yoga and weight lifting a regular part of his runners’ training.
Runners usually have great strength in their legs. The rest of their bodies do not get much training attention. Weight lifting improves runners’ overall body strength, while yoga improves runners’ flexibility. These additions to their training schedules make the runners less prone to injury.
All members of the cross country team lift weights twice a week. Coach Presnell also arranges sessions once a week for his runners with professional yoga trainers. “I saw weaknesses in our team last year,” Coach Presnell said. “I wanted to fix those weaknesses by making our runners stronger so that we would have fewer injuries.”
The best part? The plan worked. Last season, injuries plagued the cross country team. Now the team is in much better health. Only a few runners mention injuries, and most of their injuries are minor.
Seth Johnston, who is entering his first season as a member of the team, did not expect this type of training. “I thought we would be running all the time,” Seth said, “so I was surprised when I heard we would be doing yoga.”
Not surprisingly, running is still the majority of the team’s training. Coach Presnell wanted to be cautious on this front as well. He takes his runners across Huntsville and Madison to give them the opportunity to run on soft terrain, which absorbs much of the impact that asphalt surfaces do not absorb. He took the team to places like Monte Sano Mountain, the Nature Trail, and the Aldridge Creek Trail to let his runners go on long trail runs without risking injury. This is just another precaution Coach Presnell has taken to ensure that his runners stay healthy and injury-free.
The cross country team’s first race of the season is on August 31st. The training the team has put in this summer will undoubtedly pay off.
