Wolverine Athlete Spotlight: Aaron Baumgarten
9/10/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
Sept. 10, 2015
Junior/sophomore Aaron Baumgarten had a breakout 2014 campaign for the Maize and Blue, finishing three spots shy of All-Big Ten recognition in his postseason debut. He scored for U-M in three regular-season races, and looks to build on that successful first season in action with an even better 2015. Now with a year of competition under his belt, Baumgarten is ready to take the next big step in his development to becoming a key member of the Michigan lineup. He sat down with MGoBlue.com to talk about his personal progression, a special adventure he had with a teammate this summer, and to preview this weekend's Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational at Penn State.
On his highlight of the summer ... "I went to my teammate Tony's (Smoragiewicz) house for two weeks in South Dakota, because there is a lot of elevation there, so aerobically it's a really good place to run. Plus, it's super hilly there, so we were able to get some good training. One day, Tony suggested a mountain range in Wyoming, so we drove three hours out there and did a really cool 28-mile hike. People usually do it over the course of four to five days, and as a fun little challenge to ourselves we tried to run the whole thing. So we spent about 12 hours doing that and it completely exhausted us. We were broken for the next five days after that, because we climbed about 7,000 feet in elevation. It was the first real adventure I have been a part of because we had some supplies and food, but we were getting our water from mountain streams and purifying it. We climbed boulders and scaled different kinds of elevation with rocks. It was really cool to experience; I was pretty jealous Tony gets to live there."
On his progression from his redshirt freshman year in 2014 to now ... "I feel like I am ready to take another big jump. Now that I have experience with the championship season, I have been a lot smarter about how I approach this season so I can get the most out of my performance. I have been maximizing my sleep and recovery, and I worked my class schedule to match that. On top of that, I have been eating a lot better. Comparing my training from this year to last year, we are doing the same workouts but my times are much, much better. It's looking like this will be a really good season."
On the advantages of opening up the season at EMU's 5K before this weekend's 8K race ... "The 5K got the taste of racing back in my mouth, so I am really excited to run 8K this weekend. I think it plays a lot more into my favor. With a 5K race, it's over relatively fast, but with an 8K I can work into it for the first couple of miles before speeding up towards the end of the race and passing as many people I can. I think that works really well in my favor."
On racing on a golf course this weekend, but training on a lot of soft ground and loose gravel ... "It is definitely a treat for us to run on these golf courses. Running on gravel and long grass is a lot more difficult, and when we get to these nicely mowed courses, you can go a lot faster and get a lot better rhythm. It's a lot of fun to race on golf courses and you can get some pretty good times. Plus, the Big Ten Championships at Northwestern will also be on a golf course, so it will be nice to get a feel for what our championship season will be like later this year."
Communications Contact: Chad Shepard
Players Mentioned
