NORFOLK, Va. — Mateo Canga likes the fact that cross country is an honest sport.
"You can't really lie to yourself," says the Maury High School junior. "Your time is really like...tells you how successful you are."
Based on his times, the numbers don't lie.
He's run a time of 15 minutes 17 seconds twice twice this season for 3.1 miles and in the process has capture both the Eastern District and Class 5 Region B titles. Canga would use the two hours he'd have to work out with his team to improve, until adversity robbed him of those two hours.
"I was looking for the sophomore break out season," he says. "I got two stress fractures."
Out of that adversity, "I let myself be angry about it. Really sad and then I looked at how can I prevent this."
According to head coach Bryan Bennett, it turned to obsession. "The moment he is done with the workout, he's thinking how can I maximize the benefits of this particular workout."
Canga added, "After you're done with the workout, you're not fitter than you were before, but it's how you recover from it."
For him, the process continues. "So really focusing on minimum eight hours of sleep. Really focusing on the fueling aspects," he says. "Also focusing on the mental stuff."
Bennett says he's added breathing exercises to his routine, race visualization along with studying the course itself. No detail is left uncovered to help him be a better runner.
If there is a line in cross country, it's that greatness is the clock. For Canga, his greatness is everything else.
"I want to be as good as I can and know that I've reached the most I can do and I've achieved the most. I think that most of it is loving the process."
