Hey Everybody! My name is Adam Bradtmueller and I’m going into my junior year at Sarasota High School.   Most of you may know me as "Zack Summerall’s teammate”.  This is just the reality of being the teammate of such an exceptional runner…A few weeks ago I was asked by my coach if I wanted to do a blog for DistancePreps and periodically post my thoughts throughout my junior season of Cross Country.   Of course, I jumped on the offer immediately. I would like to thank DistancePreps for giving me this opportunity!




I hope everyone has had an awesome summer full of training.  I know it’s been great down here in Sarasota. After coming off of a successful track season where I ran PRs of 4:18(1600) and 9:26(3200) I was ecstatic to start my training for this Cross Country season.  This summer I have really focused on adding more strength training and I can see it paying off immediately in my tempo runs and hill workouts. For me every workout is all about keeping up with my teammate Zack. Over the summer I rarely try to pass him because when I do it ends up turning into a sprint battle which is not a good thing when you're halfway through a tempo run.

After a great summer of training I feel confident in my ability to improve on last season’s results.  It will be tough, due to the unprecedented depth of 3A, but I would like to aim for a top three finish at states. The biggest goal I have for this season is to qualify for Foot Locker Nationals. Coming into this season I am very excited, along with Zack, to lead the Sarasota squad.  As for our team, we were rattled with the news that one of our teammates will not be running cross country this year.  The loss has focused our team in a steely determination to achieve results that will exceed those of last year. Such as moving up from last year’s 3rd place regional finish to win the regional championship.

One thing that helped our team continue to grow as a family and become closer than ever, was a five day trip to Brevard, North Carolina.  In Brevard we were able to execute crucial hill training in great weather on the most beautiful trails I have ever seen. Also since running does not consume a great amount of time, there was plenty of downtime to relax and bond as a team. Down in the basement of the cabin, where we stayed, was a massive bathtub which we “abused” as a 4 person hot tub.

We used our "hot tub" so much that the girls CC team never had hot water for their showers upstairs. The best part was that the girls didn't know about our "hot tub" so they were always wondering why they never had hot water. (The girls may or may not be mad at me after they read this)?

Now that summer has come to an end and school has started it is almost time for racing. I am very excited for this season, not only for myself but for all of Florida. There are some great talents in the state and I simply cannot wait to compete with them. I would like to end this blog by wishing everyone reading this a great, injury free season. GOOD LUCK!