XC: Break from racing leads to intense workouts

Bonners Ferry cross country has had a week break between races and has been focusing on pushing some boundaries while recovering from injuries before competing in two races in three days.

Every September the team has a workout called the “Special Tuesday in September,” where they have an intense track workout.

“The veterans know about, where at some point when they see a track workout on a Tuesday in September they know they're about to have a hard workout,” said Tyler Warner, Bonners Ferry cross country coach. “So we did that on Tuesday, but we balanced it out with some easy, long-mileage days. We did a little over an hour's worth of hill repeats last Thursday as well.

On Thursday, Oct. 5, the Badgers race Kellogg and Lewiston on Saturday at the LCSC course.

“These two courses are great opportunities for PRs if run correctly, so we've been talking a lot about strategy and how to approach each mile, or how to stay engaged in long open stretches of a course,” Warner said.

The Kellogg course is flat and is similar to running a track meet, he said.

“So you really just have to attack it at the pace you want to maintain, but it gives you a great chance to play with pacing,” he said. “We have so many new folks that are trying to put pieces together and I think we started to see some 'aha' moments at Priest River.”

Likewise at Lewiston, there's a whole different strategy there, he said, noting the course has a long gradual uphill portion, but it makes nearly two-thirds of the course downhill.

“If attacked appropriately this can also lead to fast times, which I think has led to a higher attendance in addition to this course being North Idaho's host site for the state meet rotation,” he said. “We ran there last year and did not have a great day at state, but I'm hoping we can have a better outing this time around despite the early morning and having raced two days earlier.”

Coaches discussed the difficulty of having two races in three days, but Warner said the team’s training schedule is designed for these difficulties.

“We usually have hard practices on Thursdays followed by recovery. A hard Thursday practice is usually more intense than what they'll end up running for a race,” he said. “So I'm thinking we just let the team go wild this week and see if we can get some PRs the next few days.”

Looking at upcoming district races below are how the Badgers match up.

Top Bonners Ferry boy, Micah Thomson, is ranked 12th in league, with a best time of 18:48.8 which he earned on Sept. 21 at the Ivan Benson Invite in Priest River. Thomson is ranked at the 3A Idaho state level just below the top 50 ranking.

In the 3A Intermountain League, Timberlake has nine of the top 10 boys runners in districts with five in the 17-minute range. The top two runners in the league are also Tigers, Jacob Barnhart and Caleb Royce with times of 15:55 and 15:56.

They are also ranked first and second in 3A state and No. 21 and 22 overall in the state.

The sole Cd'A Charter runner that breaks up the Tigers’ dominance is Nathan Russell, ranked at third in league at 16:10.0 a time he earned on Sept. 30 at the 6th Annual Battle for the 509.

For the Bonners Ferry girls, top runner Sydney Beckle is ranked fifth in the league at 21:08.9, a time she earned at the Ivan Benson Invite in Priest River. She won the race and is currently ranked 17th in Idaho 3A.

Badger sophomore Matisyn Stiern is ranked seventh in league with a time of 21:57.4.

Timberlake had the league's second and third place runners in Vannessa McLauchlan at 19:07.5 and Lolo Eggleston at 20:47.6. McLauchlan is ranked second in 3A state.

Cd'A Charter has the top ranked girl in league, Annabelle Carr with a time of 18:31.2, ranked No. 1 in 3A state and holding the 11th best time overall in state overall.