Rayna Maggelet is an ASU Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication student assigned to cover Arizona Lutheran Academy for AZPreps365.

Coach of the Arizona Lutheran Academy’s cross country team Mish Aleisa has many talents, one being an excellent mentor for his athletes. 

Running and coaching in the Arizona heat on a daily basis is not an activity for the weak, and the Academy’s cross-country runners are anything besides that. ALA cross country team practices Monday through Friday from 3:20 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. 

“We train at the hottest time of the day,” Aleisa said. “That’s all you can really do is acclimate to the heat, but to understand that at 90 degrees, you’re adding about a minute to your time.” 

Races typically begin at the top of the morning or later in the evening to avoid the scorching sun.

By doing this, this can prevent dehydration and overheating. Overheating has numerous negative symptoms for runners such as muscle cramps, headaches, nausea, dizziness, and excessive sweating. 

“After Ojo Rojo [Invitational], you kinda expect race times to be slower because Ojo Rojo was so cool in the morning,” Aleisa said. “Then we had an afternoon meet and still had a couple of PRs, which is fantastic.”

After practices, a handful of the runners would say ‘We feel good, we’re feeling great. I could PR today’ which is reassuring for the coaching staff that they are training their athletes at the right level, according to Aleisa. 

Arizona Lutheran has a new training program that gives them more rest. Surprisingly, cross-country, specifically girls cross-country, has the most injuries of any sport because they get pushed too hard and run every day when their bodies aren’t ready for it, according to Aleisa. 

“Training at the right level has really been my focus this year,” Aleisa said. “Creating an actual training routine that doesn’t cause injury but allows them [the runners] to grow and speed up, but it’s all personalized to their fitness and VO2 max.”

ALA senior Ryan Schmidt is a four-year member of the program and began his cross-country career under the mentorship of Aleisa. Within the last four years, he has grown from being inexperienced to one of the strongest runners within the program. 

“My first three years running, my mental game wasn’t great,” Schmidt said. “Working with coach Aleisa has really strengthened my mentality. He tells me ‘Embrace it. It’s gonna suck but embrace the suck. Let’s run’.”

Another athlete who has also faced roadblocks in the mental part of cross country is ALA junior Ava Wadhwa.

“In the past few years I used to get really mad at myself after my races,” Wadhwa said. “I didn’t think it was healthy mentally and physically for myself so now I’m just accepting where I’m at.”

The coaches aren’t worried about their athletes' placing, it’s more about personal times and improvement while the runners are managing to stay healthy and eventually can start pushing for those placings.

The Coyotes are trained to take it slow at the start of the race by going at their own pace and not rushing to the front of the pack. Their second or third mile should be their fastest, according to Aleisa. 

“I’m trying to grow at every practice and be better today than I was yesterday,” Wadhwa said.