Pre-Track Season Checklist: Strategizing Before The Debut

Pre-Track+Season+Checklist%3A+Strategizing+Before+The+Debut

Britta Wolker, Journalist

As Spring-time rolls around, it suggests the perfect opportunity to set goals for the upcoming track season. Yet, in order to be successful in achieving those goals, a lot of behind the scenes strategizing occurs beforehand. A few of those strategies consist of fundamental workouts for specific distances, plenty of warm-up, cool-down, and stretching time to avoid injury, and staying consistent, yet not overworked.

As a little bird once said (or an elementary school Swun Math instructor), practice does not make perfect; but perfect practice makes perfect. As a way to get the legs kicking and mark a starting point, an optional All Comer’s mile race was held early February. As a way to train middle to long distance runners, weekly distance training at Eastbluff Park and track workouts at Costa Mesa High have been implemented (…excuse the current absence of a track at CDM). As a way to coach sprinters, there have been daily practices at Costa Mesa to work on form, block training, and of course fast leg turnover. Although these details may seem insignificant, together they build a house. How?! Well, they piece together a metaphor; the practices and opportunities given are the bricks, the cement is smoothed down when progress is made to ultimately, well, build a house.

Truly and sincerely from the noun track: I am greatly dreaded, yet the only way to move past me is to go around me. (Get it, because it’s a circle)? As tough as running may be, every six mile or 10x400m workout that ended on the verge crying, terrible cramping, or the classic tumbling to the grass to cope scenario, it all becomes worthwhile. There is no better feeling than the satisfaction of improvement and hard work. Everyone feels the same pain…so it’s a good bonding experience! It’s just about having the right attitude and trusting the process. “I don’t know how I do it sometimes. I just do it. I think to myself that I’ll feel good about myself after. I don’t even think anymore, I just run” notes Sophomore Claire Qui.