For most collegiate sports, there is a preseason, a regular season, a postseason and an offseason to rest and recuperate before starting the process over again. For runners, these terms have little meaning.
Many of the 13 athletes from the men's and women's track teams who competed at Nationals on Mar. 10-11 suited up again this past weekend as the outdoor track season opened on Saturday with the Snowflake Classic here at Tufts.
The Snowflake Classic is one of four regular-season meets for both teams in a truncated outdoor season. Championship season starts early with the NESCAC Championships at Bowdoin in just under a month, which will kick off five weeks of championship meets culminating in Outdoor Nationals at Benedictine in Lisle, Ill. on May 25-27.
"You have to somewhat maintain your fitness because depending on weather, you have limited opportunities," said coach Kristen Morwick, referring to last season's cancellation of the Snowflake Classic due to inclement weather. Indeed, rain and wind plagued the Snowflake Classic again this year, as poor weather moved in for the latter half of the meet.
"The dates of the championship meets remain the same whether teams get in training or not," Morwick continued.
Weather was a main reason why members of the women's team traveled to St. Petersburg, Florida during spring break to compete at the National Training Center in Clermont.
Although Morwick described the meet as "low key," and only 10 members of the team were present, the meet kept those who attended in shape, including senior tri-captain Rachel Bloom and freshman Jackie Ferry, two of the four members of the 4x400 meter relay.
Since the indoor and outdoor track teams feature the same core of runners, the short break between the two seasons does not allow for a lapse in training.
"It's two weeks in the middle of a competitive year," Morwick said. "You need to keep training and working because outdoor track is a bit of an adjustment."
Unlike most track programs in the country, coach Ethan Barron gives runners on the men's team time off from competition to train during the intervening weeks between the indoor and outdoor seasons.
"We actually have a long transition between seasons compared to most of our competitors," coach Ethan Barron said.
Depending on the competitiveness of the indoor season, some members of each team finish with as much as six weeks between seasons whereas others have only two. It is the responsibility of each runner to maintain their own fitness over each break.
"Obviously guys can't take however many weeks from ending their indoor season to outdoors off," junior Nate Cleveland said. "Guys that end the season early have more responsibility to keep themselves in good shape for outdoors. For the guys who run at Nationals, it's sort of automatic. You take a week off, start running the next week, and then it's outdoor season already."
Cleveland feels that the runners who have a longer indoor season have an easier time preparing for the outdoor season, even despite the shorter rest period. The small break between the two seasons means less down time, keeping athletes on their toes.
"From a personal standpoint, I would rather have less time doing training on my own," Cleveland said. "More time with the team means more getting stuff done. When you have a practice everyday at a certain time, it's easier to get things done on schedule because when you're on your own, the college lifestyle makes it easier to put training off."
Outdoor season is different on other fronts too, with teams having to take into account the weather, the change from a 200 to a 400 meter track, and a change in events. The outdoor season adds a whole cluster of new events that require different training and workouts for success.
Gone are the 600 and the 1,000 meters from the middle distance. The 55 meter dash is replaced with the 100 meter dash and the 400 intermediate hurdles and the 110 high hurdles (100 meters for girls) are added to the mix. The mile is reduced to a 1,500 and the 3,000 meter steeplechase and the 10,000 meters are added to the distance events. In the field, the hammer, discus, and javelin replace the weight throw and the decathlon and heptathlon replace the pentathlon. Additionally, the team has to shift focus to the 4x100 meter relay rather than the DMR, which is only run at NESCACs.
Barron has his athletes doing strength-building and training during the indoor season to ensure that they do not miss a beat once outdoors starts.
"You always keep outdoors in the back of your mind during indoors, and know you're going to be transitioning into those events," Barron said.
Morwick agrees, acknowledging that success in outdoors must come from indoors.
"The fitness for that kind of stuff comes indoor anyway," Morwick said, noting that steeplers do more 5Ks, throwers practice javelin and other events, and the multi-event athletes work on hurdling during indoors. "We have been preparing with an eye toward outdoors, especially on the fitness end of things."
