Written by Newspaper Staff Reporter Lexie Hunter

The cross-country runners here at Allatoona train very hard for their season. They practice five days a week from 3:45 to 5:45 and meet on Saturday mornings, though larger meets such as region and state can occur during the week. Their practices start in Coach Parsons’s room, where he will explain the training plan for the day and have a team meeting. After that, they run for about ten minutes to warm up and proceed to do dynamic stretching and drills. Depending on the day and what they did the day before, they will either do workouts that help them get faster or a long run to build endurance. In between those days, they do recovery runs at a slower pace to give their bodies time to rest. After they’ve done their main run for the day, they do core work and more stretching to prevent injuries. As far as meets go, the team will arrive and go to their designated waiting area, and then they get 45 minutes to warm up before making their way to the starting line. They do drills and short sprints to help them break a sweat before they start the race. The last thing they do before they start is meet as a group for a last-minute pep talk from the coach, where he explains the upcoming course. When the race is over, they regroup with their teammates to do a cooldown run. Runner Will Magee says, “my favorite part of cross country is seeing that self-growth and improvement, being able to see myself get better throughout the season.”