Cross Country Finishes Season Strong

Coach Lisa Mikkelsen
This year 23 student athletes started their Cross Country season with varying levels of fitness and preparation for running—for some, this was their first time running Cross Country. I’m proud to say that our runners really blossomed over the course of the season.

This year 23 student athletes started their Cross Country season with varying levels of fitness and preparation for running—for some, this was their first time running Cross Country. I’m proud to say that our runners really blossomed over the course of the season.

One of the mantras that we used during practices was “Last One Best One.” We would say it before our last 600M repeat, before our last hill repeat, before our last round of strength training. By the time we got to our last meet, the MBIL Championship, we held a visualization session after which Assistant Coach Jeff Adams made “Last One Best One” our theme for the final meet. It was certainly appropriate!

In Cross Country, the top five finishers for each team score for the team. Typically, a team will have the same group of runners score for the team. While we were fortunate to have Miles Ogden-Powers ’18 finish high up each meet, after Miles, CSW had many runners score meet after meet — different student athletes stepping up and scoring for the team.

Another great example of the team’s progress: our two-mile test. At the beginning of the season, the runners ran two miles as fast as they could. We re-tested partway through the season — of the 15 runners who ran both times, 13 of them ran faster, most of them significantly.

In addition to being more physically able to run faster, many of our runners learned what we called “peeling the onion,” where we say you peel back the layers of pain that you can handle while running. This is part of the mental toughness that many of our runners developed during the course of the season.

It is rewarding to work with athletes who are willing to work hard, who want to have fun and who clearly enjoy the benefits of their effort. They were so coachable and made us proud!

About Lisa Mikkelsen
Lisa was preparing for a 50K when a friend encouraged her to add Crossfit Endurance to her training. After a successful race with help from the Crossfit Endurance methods, Lisa started attending Crossfit classes more regularly and fell in love with the variety of movements and motivation from other athletes. A consummate athlete at the start, it wasn’t long before Lisa began competing at the local, regional, national, and global level. Lisa was part of the Affiliate Cup winning team at the Crossfit Games in 2011 and won the Masters (age 45-49) competition in 2012 and 2013. Lisa opened Crossfit Never Doubt with her husband, Thomas, as a place to share her passion and welcome everyone to join the FUN and fitness of Crossfit. Prior to her competitive Crossfit career, Lisa was Director of Global Technical Education at EMC, Master’s (45-49) Indoor National record holder in the 400M, Ironman Kona Qualifier and launched the Inov-8 brand in the US. Lisa’s favorite Crossfit movements are double unders, deadlifts and ring dips and when she’s not at the gym, she is attached at the hip to her family; doing anything from a destination running event to hanging out at the beach.

The Cambridge School of Weston is a progressive high school for day and boarding students in grades 9–12 and PG. CSW's mission is to provide a progressive education that emphasizes deep learning, meaningful relationships, and a dynamic program that inspires students to discover who they are and what their contribution is to their school, their community and the world.