Ben Vanderbosch is a 2018 graduate of White Bear Lake High School. He now runs at the university of Montana.
o High school PRs: 800m (1:58.42), 1600m
(4:17.95), 3200m (9:34.14), and 5000m (15:59.39)
o College PRs: 1500m (4:01.18), and 10000m
(32:32.6)
Discuss the transition from high school competition to
competing at the college level. What adjustments have you had to make in order
to be as successful as possible?
Staying on top of the little things has definitely been the
most important thing for me. I go to school really far from home so it's really
easy to be lazy and eat like garbage or to stay up late playing video games
because no one's there to stop you. I've really had to stay on top of myself to
not do those things. Going to the doctor or the athletic trainer when
something's bugging me is also something I've had to stay on top of because
again, no one's telling me to do these things or making appointments for me.
Since everyone is so good in college and especially because I compete against
schools like NAU and Southern Utah the little things can be what pushes you
over the top.
Tell us about your training regimen by giving a general
overview of what goes into getting prepared for your next big event.
Right now, I'm building up my mileage to get ready for
summer cross country training. I have a new coach who just came on last fall,
so I don't really know what the training is going to look like. I'm guessing
from what we've been doing that it's going to be a lot of longer tempos on the
slow range of tempo pace which for me is like 5:40-6:00 pace per mile. My coach
also loves workouts that give you a really good indicator of what kind of 8k
shape you're in and we usually do 2400's with 400's on the ends and you see how
many you can do and if you survive a certain number then you're ready to run
that pace for a full 8k. Other than that, I'm just going to try to stay
consistent with my mileage and smart with my workouts and balance of recovery
days to hard days.
What athletic-based goals do you hope to accomplish
during this upcoming year?
This year I'm looking to have a really consistently
competitive set of seasons because last year I was really slowed down by stupid
injuries and sickness and I even had to redshirt indoor track because I was so
out of shape from how much time I took off at the end of the cross country
season. Time goals are kind of hard because you don't know what courses you're
going to be on and what the weather is going to do and those are both really
important because a lot of my races for both track and cross country are at
altitude. With that being said I'd like to be in the top 30 at conference and
the top 50 at regionals which would be considerably higher than I've ran in the
past. I'd also like to run in the mid 24:00's for the 8k. For track, I don't
really have any goals for indoor because that's not really my focus but in
outdoor I'd like to be pretty far under 15:00 in the 5k and around 3:50 for the
1500m.
How has your training and schedule changed because of the
current pandemic?
The coronavirus was a big bummer for me because I sat out
indoor and I was just getting back into good shape for outdoor. I ran a 4:23
mile on the lane and a half we shoveled on our outdoor track in mid-February
and I could tell that I was in considerably better shape when the season got
cancelled so it really sucked that I didn't get a chance to show off all my
hard work. I've now shifted into cross country training and not a whole lot has
really changed except that I'm not really doing workouts and I'm just
rebuilding my base. The real cross-country training will start in June.
Do you have any advice that you can offer an incoming
freshman on how to best deal with the higher level of competition they'll
encounter at the college level? Also, what tips can you provide regarding the
balance between training commitments and academic demands?
Definitely go in with an open mind. I think that it was a
little easier for me to shift into the higher competition level in college
because I wasn't really winning that much in high school. I was good but not a
state champion or anything, so I wasn't really used to leading races and being
in the front pack. I think it's hard for some people to get used to getting beat
and not being able to hang with the top runners and even your teammates. So,
just go in knowing that maybe you'll probably not be winning a whole lot and
try to remember what it was like when you were a freshman in high school
because it's the same process all over again. For me, balancing training and
school wasn't all that bad because freshman year your classes aren't really a
big deal and for the most part it feels like you're taking a bunch of AP or
honors classes from high school. Sophomore year I switched my major from
Wildlife Biology to Digital Art so a lot of my work is on a computer and it's
stuff that I'm already pretty good at so my homework isn't that hard and when
it is I'm learning stuff I'm really interested in so it doesn't feel like a chore.
That being said, some of my teammates are in crazy majors like Biochemistry and
Neuroscience and they definitely have a lot more commitments than me because
labs are three hours long and sometimes even longer and it usually isn't
possible to skip. Luckily our coaches, and most likely a lot of coaches, are
really good at shifting practices and meeting individually if something doesn't
work out. Most schools also have an academic center where you can go study and
do homework without being distracted and we're even forced to get in a certain
number of hours per week as a freshman. If I had to give one essential tip for
balancing out school and everything else, it's to create a calendar. Whether
it's online or in a physical planner or something a calendar is super important
for managing your day because no one's going to remind you when class is and
when homework is due and what day your test is on, so a calendar is definitely
essential.
