With the end of the spring semester, high school students in Lawrence began their summer break on May 24. While many students have an array of extracurricular activities during their summer, cross country athletes make sure to carve out time for early morning runs in preparation for their upcoming season.
Summer sports conditioning schedules amongst Free State’s athletic programs have become a yearly tradition. Athletes participating in fall sports take advantage of the break to hone their skills and bond with their teammates.
Junior Crosby King, a returning runner for the program, is excited and ready to participate for the upcoming cross country season. Like many other athletes, King commented on how essential it is for him to condition during the summer for a successful fall season.
King emphasized that summer conditioning gives a cross country athlete a head-start towards their athletic pursuit since it can be harder to improve on during the season.
“Summer is really just to help you build a base,” King said. “When you’re in cross country season, it is so hard to build mileage because you’re just so focused on working out, long runs, pool days, meets [and] pre-meets…there’s so much more going on.”
One of the school’s oldest summer conditioning programs led by cross country Coach Steve Heffernan continued with their annual Summer Running. His program dates back to the summer of 1998 and invites athletes around the Lawrence area to participate in early morning runs at 7 a.m. starting at Munchers Bakery.
Boasting a number of over 120 athletes attending his project throughout the summer, Heffernan’s program gives an opportunity to rising middle school runners, high school athletes and alumni who want to improve their endurance by running their miles with a group of athletes who have been running for a really long time and even students who want to try out a new sport without having to worry about racing right away.
“We’re fortunate because we have enough runners at every level, whether they’re a beginner…or maybe at the top end of trying to run quite a bit. We have people for folks to run with,” Heffernan said. “That’s really our big benefit. Our numbers help provide a community at each kind of level of running for people to experience and enjoy.”
While summer conditioning does offer a plethora of benefits to athletes, over exercising in the summer heat may also take its toll. As cross country and many other summer conditioning programs are primarily outdoors, both King and Heffernan pointed out the importance of conditioning and taking care of your body, especially for athletes wanting to have a healthy fall season.
“[It] is a lot more of an attack of adapting to the heat…because not everyone’s around a water bottle as much as they are during the school year…[so] to a lot of people, the main concern is just getting enough sleep and getting enough water to be able to run well and get your mileage up properly,” King said.
Regardless of the obstacle, King and many other athletes are keen for a successful season. These Firebird runners will officially hit the trails on August 19 for the start of the KSHSAA’s fall season.
