It has been one month since senior Rico Loy has competed in a race for the ISU men’s track team. During that time, Loy said that he has gotten back to the basics of his training schedule.

“It’s been going really well,” Loy said of his training. “We are actually preparing for the [5,000-meter run] at Stanford, so I’ve been doing some longer stuff and getting back to my base with a lot of miles.”

Loy said that while training has been going well, he is ready for competition to begin for him outdoors and finally compete on a full-sized track.

“It’s going to be nice,” Loy said “We’re going to California, so that’s always really nice, and we’ve had a couple good workouts, so I’m really looking forward to that. I know it’s going to be hard, like every race. Especially the [5,000-meter run] because it’s a little longer than I’m used to, but I think I can do really well.”

Also on the distance side is junior Mohamed Hrezi, who also has not competed since the NCAA qualifying meet in Ames on March 3. Hrezi said he will be redshirting the 2012 outdoor season and has been putting in more miles per week than ever before in his career.

“I’ve been doing [5,000-meter] training lately,” Hrezi said. “I’ve been doing a lot of miles. Last week, I did 95 miles, [but] I normally do 60 miles a week, and for the past month, I’ve done over 80 miles per week. I’ve been able to stay healthy, which is good.”

Hrezi will continue to train at a high-mileage regimen for one more week before his mileage is brought down to around 75 miles per week. Hrezi plans to compete in the 5,000-meter run at the Mt. SAC Relays in a couple of weeks in Walnut, Calif. The Naugatuck, Conn., native will compete unattached for the Cyclones.

Hrezi also said that with the increased mileage, it has been important for him to see the trainer, which he said that he does every day for about an hour after practice.

“Normally the more miles you do, anything [injury-related] that’s just nagging just gets worse and worse,” Hrezi said. “You can’t ignore anything. I probably annoy [the trainers] because anytime anything kind of hurts, I’m like, ‘Check this out because I don’t want this to get any worse while I’m doing all of these miles.'”