It has been a long but productive two weeks for Iowa since the Hawkeye Invitational. After both the men’s and women’s team put up strong numbers during the season’s opening race, the past few weeks have been all about preparing for the climb in distance and logging more miles in training.

“We’re at the high-volume time of the season where we’re still building up a lot of strength,” said head coach Randy Hassenbank. 

The athletes have been running well over 70 miles a week in most cases, so it appears that the training is definitely ramping up leading to this weekend’s meet. Hassenbank is not worried about the quality and speed right now as much as getting the athletes used to running a high volume of miles.

“Later on in the season, we’ll ask them to pull back on some of the volume and do some faster stuff,” said Hassenbank.

This will be the first travel meet of the season, but the athletes and coaches were very optimistic and looking forward to traveling. Because the team travels for most of their meets, it is clear that the athletes and staff prefer traveling and it is more of a normal schedule to them.

“Getting to travel the day before and preview the course will be a lot nicer along with having a lot of downtime to get ready for the race. It will be a lot more comfortable,” senior Nate Mylenek said.

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Both teams are focused on working together and staying together as long as they can during the race. With a senior heavy squad, the men’s team especially likes its current team chemistry that it has built through the past few years. 

“The guys team has always been very close. We’ve been operating the same way we have been in the past,” said Mylenek. “Ideally, we just want to run as a team this weekend.”

The race will be the first competitive 8k race of the season, 2,000 meters up from the previous race. This will be the competitive distance for most of the season for the men until the Big Ten meet, where the distance goes up another 2,000 meters to a 10k. Staying together over the longer distance this week will be a key to the team’s success. 

On the women’s side, the race ramps up to a 5k instead of a 4k, although the race is not at the full 6k that the other competitive meets are normally at.

Hassenbank is looking for the women’s team to be much more aggressive out of the gate because of the shorter distance, but still wants to see a team-first approach.

“This weekend, we hope to keep practicing putting up a tough united pack as a team and racing confidently with the other women at the front of the race,” senior Megan Schott said. “At the Hawkeye Invite, we showed our ability to be aggressive from the gun. I think this weekend we can pair that racing mentality with the more controlled and consistent training pieces we’ve been working on.”

Individually, Mylenek does not necessarily have a placement goal, but has some goals for himself and the team this weekend.

“I just want to get out there and execute my first 8k and feel comfortable doing it,” said Mylenek. “Ideally, we just want to run as a team.”

The Hawkeyes will be up early for the meet on Saturday, with a 9 a.m. start time at the Woody Greeno Invite in Lincoln, Nebraska.