Run, run, run. Train, train, train.
The Texas Tech cross country team has most of September to focus on training with the sport having four meets spread out over time for the 2008 season.
The Red Raiders have two weeks to prepare for its first meet at home, the Red Raider Invitational on Sept. 19.
Tech coach Jon Murray said the Red Raiders face extensive training and have the opportunity to strengthen their team before the Red Raider Invitational.
"The whole month of September is basically training," Murray said. "Not real exciting flashy stuff. We are not out there every week on TV, we are just out there working hard."
The Red Raiders run on dirt roads, train on the intramural soccer fields and have routes around the city of Lubbock.
Murray said cross country is a self-disciplined sport where athletes run in isolated places.
"I mean that is the sport, it's a lonely sport," he said. "You get out there and run in places where people don't go. We run on dirt roads, doing our business."
The Red Raiders practice at 6 a.m. during the week and have hour-long recovery runs on most afternoons.
Cory Higgins said this early in the season staying in Lubbock and training is the No. 1 priority for the Red Raiders.
"I'm expecting some pretty hard weeks ahead," he said. "Because we don't have a meet until our home meet and then that's a pretty low key meet in itself. So we'll probably train pretty hard for the next month or so at least."
In a week with no scheduled meet, Asia Diaz said the team will have an added run that is an hour and a half long.
"I don't think we would perform as well without enough training," Diaz said. "Most cross country teams run a lot of mileage and if we didn't practice in the morning and afternoon, then we wouldn't get the mileage we need as far as a base."
Part of the training includes early Saturday morning runs as well.
Murray said all the difficult training the team does only helps to strengthen each individuals' ability to perform, physically and mentally.
"They work really hard, a very optimistic group of people," he said. "They are successful. They are successful in life because they have the discipline."
Most of the cross country athletes that compete in the fall run distance track in the spring. Compared to the Tech track team last season, which had seven meets in five weeks before the Big 12 Championships, cross country faces four meets in eight weeks before the Big 12 Championship meet.
Diaz said on the track team, the cross country runners train in a different style and are split into two groups depending on the distance they run from the 800-meter to the 10-kilometer run.
Cross country develops more camaraderie between teammates compared to track, Diaz said. It is because of the team-oriented style of scoring.
"Cross Country is prestigious because it is like more team," she said. "We do get team standings, but not every meet in track. So this is more team (oriented), and it's a smaller group so it's way more intimate. We get a lot closer to each other."
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