Maia Getz

NAeye: What sport do you do?

MG: “I run Cross Country.”

NAeye: How long have you been running?

MG: “I have been on xc since 7th grade, so this is only my third year.”

NAeye: What is your highest achievement in your sport, this season?

MG: “I believe my highest achievement was making the after season team that goes to WIPIALs and possibly States.”

NAeye: What are some challenges you face in your sport?

MG: “I think the hardest thing about Cross Country is that it is pretty individual during meets, so if I want to do well I have to be motivated because if I don’t do as well as I hoped all I can blame is me. However, the other girls on the team are so nice that even if I have a bad day we all lift each other up and cheer each other on. I guess it is also hard to balance Cross Country with school. Most of the time I’m working on homework pretty late because I had practice or a meet which takes up at least 2 hours usually more when it is a meet.”

NAeye: How do you keep  in shape during your off seasons?

MG: “During my off season this year I plan to do indoor track and cross training, such as biking, weights, and ab workouts.”

NAeye: Why did you decide to stick with this sport and what do you love most about this sport?

MG: “I just simply love the sport. The team is great. We all have so much fun together, even during hard workouts, and most of the time it is the thing I look forward to at the end of a long day at school.”

NAeye: How do you prepare for your meets?

MG: “Our coach (Coach Neff) has us do tempos, hill workouts, and creates runs on our home course to train for meets. He also makes sure we do injury prevention, SAM, and Mega abs so it is less likely we’ll get injured.”

NAeye: What is your training like?

MG: “For the season, first we start out with summer training for 5 days a week at 7/ 7:10 in the morning. During the summer we ran Monday, Wednesday and Friday as hard runs, and Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturdays were recovery days. As the season has gone on, because of the amount of meets, our schedule has changed and we have less workouts to reduce the risk of burnout. Also, the days after the meets our runs are usually no more than 30 minutes long because we are all pretty tired and sore.”

NAeye: What are some of the goals you would like to achieve in the future?

MG: “Right now my goals for Cross Country are to get sub 20 minutes in a 5k race and run States, but those might not be possible this year, so they are my long term goals.”

NAeye:  Do you have any superstitions or routines you do before your meets?

MG: “I do have some superstitions, every meet day I have the exact same breakfast and lunch and I wear the same pair of socks (I still make sure to wash them, though).”

NAeye: What is your favorite pre-meet snack?

MG: “I usually like to have peanut butter and pretzels as a quick snack before a meet.”

NAeye: What is your favorite post-meet meal?

MG:” I don’t have a food that I always eat after a meet, but chocolate milk is definitely a go-to recovery drink.”