SLOHS Cross Country team after their CIF meet. Courtesy of the SLO High Cross Country team.
Winter sports have begun at San Luis Obispo High School! After some great performances from our Fall sports teams, athletes are ready to end this season with even better results. SLOHS’ Cross Country team is one of our school’s sports that made it to State. Even though their season just ended, it’s already time to prepare for Track and Field in the Spring.
Athletes of any sport need to make sure their health and body are in top condition for future games or meets. It’s very important that Athletes are ready to enter their next sport, but there’s two common things that can ruin their season: sickness and injury.
“Injury has deeply affected my season because I injured my achilles after the first race and could no longer run most of the week, and for a sport like xc this is detrimental. For about one and a half months I had to train primarily on elliptical and ran once or twice a week and ran every other race. Eventually I took greater measures to heal and was able to finish the season uninjured,” says junior Ethan Feeser.
To maintain good health, get a proper amount of sleep, for teenagers the amount recommended is eight to ten hours. Also eat well and drink a good amount of water. If forgetting to drink is a problem, a good way to be reminded is to set a timer on a phone or watch.
“I got Covid before the first race but it was not a big deal. I just didn’t run for a few days and was able to resume running,” said Feeser.
Some of the best ways to prevent injury are quite obvious but very necessary. Getting in a proper warm up and cool down are essential. Athletes need to make sure they’re using proper equipment and listen to their body. As an athlete one of the most important ways to stay safe is something that even the best forget to do sometimes, stretch. Stretching is a must before and after a physical activity, keeping muscles loose and increasing blood flow.
“I need to strength train, use hand sanitizer to keep myself from getting injured or sick,” says Feeser.
Using this information all athletes should be prepared to rock any sport they choose to go into. Now let’s get ready for the winter sports season!
Source: sleepfoundation.org
