The ISU women’s track team is entering a period where goals and preparation during practices will have two different desired outcomes.

With the indoor track season winding down and the outdoor track season right around the corner, a lull of time will keep some athletes competing for qualifying times for the latter and others preparing for the fresh outdoors.

“We’re not going to have too many ladies run this weekend that ran last weekend, except for [Ejiro Okoro], who will go after it in the 800 [meters],” said coach Corey Ihmels. “Everybody’s going back to work and getting ready for outdoors.”

One runner, junior Emily Meese, will be racing this weekend to obtain a qualifying time so she can travel during the outdoor season. She said she’s still in competition mode as far as practice goes.

“I worked out hard [Tuesday], probably [will take Wednesday] a little easier and then do a pre-meet Friday and race Saturday,” Meese said. “Then [I’ll] hopefully get some good training in in the next couple weeks before outdoor really gets rolling.”

The time in between the indoor and outdoor track seasons can be mentally tough, as well as physically tough for runners due to lack of competition. Runners will try to remain focused on practice in the time period in order to stay fit for the coming outdoor competition.

Assistant coach Travis Hartke said it’s important to make sure the runners recovered after the first couple days after the Big 12 Championships.

“We’re going back to the basics, the aerobic stuff,” Hartke said. “We’re just taking a week where they go out for runs; we haven’t done anything too intense.”

As far as national contenders are concerned, practice was basic to ensure a top performance at the NCAA national indoor meet in two weeks.

“The three young ladies that are going to nationals are getting geared up for that,” Ihmels said. “It’s tough to come back after our conference meet because it’s just a high level of competition.”

Runners who did not compete at the Big 12 Conference meet will be competing in the NCAA qualifier meet this weekend at Lied Recreation Athletic Center. For those runners competing in two weeks in Boise, Idaho, they will have the week off next week to prepare.