Snow and track meets are not a great combination. So during the winter months, especially in central New York, college track teams enter the indoor season.

But as spring starts in late March, a new outdoor season begins. The only problem for schools like Syracuse is that around them, it isn’t quite spring yet.

Throughout the outdoor season, the Orange flies to most meets, as opposed to the indoor season where most can be reached by bus. This season’s schedule includes two meets in California, three in Florida and two in Virginia. Maintaining runners’ diets, adjusting to different climates and managing logistical issues are all part of the change from indoors to outdoors.

Assistant coach Dave Hegland, in charge of Syracuse hurdlers, sprinters and jumpers, said the team must schedule flights in the fall before knowing how each runner will perform in the indoor season.

“That’s the hard part of it I think,” he said. “We just do the best we can and try to leave ourselves options in terms of group blocks with airlines where you can change names when possible.”

Because the team has to leave earlier, normally on Wednesday or Thursday, to make flights or Thursday races, runners often end up missing more class time. Hegland noted most runners schedule no classes on Fridays to minimize time missed.

Despite more traveling and less class, Hegland said the team’s overall GPA tends to be higher in the spring semester than in the fall. Some runners feel that the more chaotic schedule actually helps them to focus on studies.

“In the spring as soon as you slack on one thing it’s completely over for the semester because you’re missing three days of class,” hurdler Danielle Delgado said. “So I feel like there’s less time to slack. There’s no chance for you to slack.”

The difference in temperatures is also something Hegland said the team has to adjust to. Not only is it generally much hotter, but outdoor temperatures vary day-to-day and meet-to-meet, unlike in controlled indoor tracks, Delgado noted.

Kadejhia Sellers said that staying well-conditioned is important to making sure the change doesn’t throw anyone off.

Running in the heat is something that sprinters tend to prefer, Hegland said, whereas distance runners typically favor cooler temperatures. The reason, he believes, is because jumpers and hurdlers go through particularly big ranges of motion and the heat helps them stay loose and warm up faster.

“It’s definitely a big difference,” Sellers said. “I think you prepare yourself by just doing the small things … make sure you’re hydrating well, make sure you’re getting enough sleep, make sure your diet’s well.”

While traveling, the logistics of feeding everyone are different than for team sports, Hegland said. In track meets, everyone is running at a different time so everyone is on a different schedule. The team tries to organize team meals but also give each runner a per diem to spend on food.

Delgado said she prefers cooking her own food but is happy as long as restaurants are in walking distance or can be quickly accessed by Uber. Sellers likes going to whichever food store is closest and also packs her own protein to make sure she will be able to get enough.

Along with changing nutrition, runners — save for sprinters — have to adjust to different time zones. The sprinters dodge changing time zones as the group usually heads south for meets, Hegland said.

It’s typically long-distance runners who fly west. Hegland said any time-zone changes are more disruptive for sprinters than for distance runners because sprinters typically need more time to get sharp throughout the season.

“Generally, the longer the distance, the fewer times you do it,” he said. “Like, marathoners run a couple marathons a year whereas on the other end of things, sprinters and short distance people are running races pretty much every weekend from January through August.”

Nonetheless, runners are adapting to the challenges of a changing season and running outdoors, even if it still seems like winter in Syracuse.

Published on April 9, 2018 at 9:21 pm

Contact Eric: estorms@syr.edu