While the weather conditions are about to change this weekend, the warmer than normal fall elements have impacted the way that cross country runners are training right now.
For instance, Aberdeen Central has switched some of its more strenuous workouts to the morning hours and saved after school practices for more recovery and cool down periods.
“The thing that we really look out for right now is heat illness. We’re not even talking heat stroke,” said Central boys’ coach Greg Murley. “If you get heat exhaustion, you’re not coming back in 10 days. That stuff’s like the flu. Even though it only messes your training up for 3 or 4 days, it messes your body up for quite a while.”
While Central was planning not to compete in a scheduled meet in Watertown today anyway, the warm conditions reaffirmed the decision. The Golden Eagles will now set their sights on the Eastern South Dakota Conference meet on Saturday, Oct. 13.
Murley said the Central coaches are doing what they can to monitor their runners.
“I think a lot of people go into cross country coaching, thinking, you know what, I’m going to be able to do my workouts with the kids. … I spend a lot of my time in my pickup hauling water around,” Murley said “and making sure we’re doing this safely.”
Murley said the weather has impacted which routes the runners take to train throughout week.
“There’s certain routes that we can’t run,” he said, “because I can’t get to them very easily to give them water.”
With Central squads that feature dozens and dozens of runners, it takes an orchestrated effort to make sure they have what they need.
“At any one time the hundred kids we have out for cross country are in a five-mile square radius of us,” Murley said, “so getting them water is pretty important.”
Murley said that runners have to run in hot conditions every year, but noted that “it’s just lasting longer than normal.”
Murley said that distance runners prefer cooler conditions rather than warmer temps.
“Guys don’t recover super quick from the heat,” he said. “There’s kind of a limit of body fat that helps them cool, too. … The guys just don’t have the body fat to cool themselves down.”
The veteran coach noted that there’s a big difference for people depending on their overall weight.
“You get a 120-pound kid or a 130-pound kid that’s losing 5 or 6 pounds of water weight, that’s a pretty good volume of weight,” Murley said. “It’s not like a 250-pound guy losing 5 pounds. You’re talking proportionally a lot of fluids there that their body counts on.”
At the end of day, the coaches will do whatever they feel is right when it comes to tending to their runners.
“Safety is everything for us,” Murley said. “We need to make sure we protect the kids a little bit.”
