While others are subconsciously savoring those last few moments of sleep before their alarm clock sounds, senior Logan Winfield is out running on the Country Day field.
On days when running after school conflicts with soccer practice, Winfield arrives at school at 7:30 a.m. for 20-60 minutes of running on the back field.
“(Running) makes me feel fit,” Winfield said. “It just feels really good. Winning a cross-country meet feels like winning a soccer game, but more.”
Some other big motivators for Winfield are the section, state, and Stanford Invitational meets. At the Stanford Invitational, a 5K race which took place on Sept. 23, Winfield ran a time of 17:04, placing eighth.
“It (was) much more competitive,” Winfield said. “People from all over were there. It was basically the best people from a bunch of different schools.”
Winfield began preparing for these events right after last year’s cross-country season.
As part of this training, Winfield started doing intervals, or runs of different lengths and speeds.
In fact, he ran almost every day over the summer—the longest distance being 14 miles, a feat which took him 98 minutes to complete—and ran an average of 40 miles a week.
As for a coach? Winfield has both the cross-country coach Nick Domich and a coach online.
At the suggestion of his dad, he found his coach at runsmart.com for only a small monthly charge. This coach supplies Winfield with running and workout schedules.
These schedules include everything from a tempo run, which is a four-mile run at 90 percent top speed, to 400-meter and 800-meter intervals.
“I would just feel bad if I were to cheat,” Winfield said. “But it’s always better to have someone to run with or a new place to run.”
Winfield’s dedication and hard work have resulted in better times, he said. During last year’s cross-country season, Winfield competed in a 5K race at Granite Park. His time was 17:40. This year, Winfield ran in the exact same race with a time of only 16:04 and 11th place.
“He has surpassed Marco Siragusa (‘10) as Country Day’s all-time fastest distance runner,” Domich said. “It takes a lot of dedication, ambition and hard work to improve as fast as he has.”
Even though Winfield doesn’t plan on applying for any running scholarships, his dream school for running is The Colorado School of Mines.
“One has to have a sick sense of humor to have fun at this sport,” Domich said. “And luckily he does.”
