After helping Southeast of Saline capture a Class 3A state championship last season, Zachary Carlin enters this year with a different responsibility.

With two of the Trojans’ top runners and leaders gone, Carlin is ready to step into a larger leadership role and help guide a younger team.

“I am most excited to take on a bigger leadership role for the team,” Carlin said. “This past year, Southeast lost our two best runners, and they were great leaders to the rest of the team. With them gone, I look forward to stepping up as one of those leaders for the rest of the team.”

Carlin wants to be more than just a talented runner. He wants to be someone his teammates can look to for motivation throughout the season.

“I want to inspire and motivate the entire team to work hard to accomplish their goals,” he said.

Carlin’s offseason preparation did not go exactly as planned. He spent the summer recovering from foot surgery, which prevented him from following his ideal running schedule.

Instead, he focused on maintaining his fitness and strength through an intensive cross-training and weightlifting program.

During his peak weeks, Carlin cross-trained for more than seven hours per week, using an indoor spin bike and aqua jogging. He also lifted weights three times a week.

“I didn’t have the ideal offseason training I was hoping for because I was recovering from foot surgery; however, I was put on a very intensive cross-training and weight-lifting schedule to keep my fitness and strength up,” Carlin said.

Although the training looked different than he originally envisioned, Carlin believes the work can still pay dividends when he returns to competition.

“This training block was not what I envisioned it would look like, but I’m hopeful it will set me up to be successful during the season,” he said.

Carlin is also focused on strengthening the mental side of his racing.

Last season, he felt he sometimes held back when races became difficult late. This year, he wants to develop the mindset necessary to continue pushing when fatigue sets in.

“One specific area that comes to mind is my mentality during races,” Carlin said. “During races last season, I tended to hold back as things got challenging towards the end of the race.”

He used his cross-training sessions to practice pushing through those difficult moments. On the spin bike, Carlin intentionally increased his effort whenever he felt like slowing down.

“Whenever all I wanted to do was slow down or put in less effort, that’s when I pushed myself even harder, until I was finished with the rep,” he said.

Carlin hopes that mentality will carry over to the cross country course.

“This type of practice is what’s going to build my mentality stronger and stronger, so that during races, I can fight the urge to slow down and leave everything on the course,” he said.

Carlin does not have a specific time goal for the season. Instead, his primary individual objective is to successfully return from his injury and build toward his best performances when the postseason arrives.

“I do not have any specific time goals, but I want to feel like I compete well at every meet I go to, and build up enough strength and fitness to have good performances at Regionals and State,” Carlin said.

Carlin enters the season after earning All-League honors with a fourth-place finish and All-State honors after placing 20th at the Class 3A state meet. He was Southeast’s No. 3 runner as the Trojans captured the team state championship.

“Last season at State, I competed really well, and I was extremely proud of the All-State honors I received,” he said. “This season, my biggest individual goal is to work hard enough to get to the same place I was last season and get All-State honors again.”

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