CROSS COUNTRY HOUNDS
In what has become a staple of the Jones County cross country program’s offseason, the Greyhounds took 35 runners to the North Carolina mountains last week, taking part in multiple days of camp at Brevard College.
The climate was a far cry from that seen this summer around Gray, trading the hot and humid weather of Georgia for the cooler and less-humid climate of the higher elevation.
“This is the biggest group we’ve ever taken up there. They really look forward to it,” Jones County cross country head coach Geoff Moore said. “The main thing is getting away from the warm temperatures. I think the warmest it got was 75 or 78. It was absolutely perfect training weather. We had one trail run in the morning, and it was about 60 degrees.”
Obviously, the Greyhounds and Lady Greyhounds, from newcomers to veterans, got more out of the week than just being able to continue offseason running in cooler temperatures. The time in the mountains included a broad spectrum of technique, strength training, diet and how to mentally approach running.
“It’s every aspect of running,” Moore said. “That’s the difference between good and great.”
And according to Moore, some of what the JCHS runners got are not exactly fresh pieces of information. At times, it may be something that the Greyhounds coaches have been instilling.
“We’ll be in a clinic and somebody like a coach from Auburn will say something and they’ll look at me because I told them the same thing about 20 times,” Moore said. “It’s helps reinforce what I’ve been telling them.”
And with camp over, the drive toward the Greyhounds season picks up intensity. Time trials, for instance, are two weeks from Saturday for the JCHS runners. Jones County’s first scheduled meet is Aug. 19 at Locust Grove.
“(The camp) comes at a perfect time. We started our group runs the first week of June and have been building up since then. They kept their mileage up around July Fourth and camp kind of culminates all the work that they do all summer.”
