With the 2012 indoor track season well under way, the ISU women’s track and field team is getting down to business during practice in order to meet a bar set high by the coaches.

The past two months of practice for the women have been a solid and healthy stream of workouts ranging from hills to long distance to short sprints.

“I feel like I’m getting better and better [every week],” said distance runner Betsy Saina. “The training has been going really, really well and we aren’t going to change anything.”

Saina had the weekend off while only a few members of the team traveled to New York. While staying here in Ames, Saina said she was still focused on this weekend’s meet.

“It was a tough decision to make,” Saina said. “We thought we could take off [last] weekend just to get ready for this weekend. We just kept training low key.”

Coach Corey Ihmels said there has been a lot of focus in the group and the past weekend was a success for the entire team.

“The group that stayed back had a great training day Friday and Saturday,” Ihmels said. “Those kids have gotten a lot out of the past few days.”

The coaches said they also are pleased with how practice has been able to prepare their athletes for weekend competition.

“We’ve been training really well and it’s really easy to get caught up in watching everybody run fast and watching times throughout the country,” Ihmels said. “We’ve had a good demeanor during practice and energy levels are high.”

Assistant coach Travis Hartke said coming off the trip to New York for the New Balance Invitational will help and not hinder the team for this week’s classic.

“Everything builds on itself, it’s not like we look for one thing to get better,” Hartke said. “I think the races this [past] weekend helped us tactically because everybody learned a lot from [the competition]. This week is just getting ready for the [Iowa State] Classic.”