Yug Kolla is a senior on the Rock Ridge track and field team. A long term endurance athlete, Kolla has become a leader on the track team. Along with competing in school, he runs marathons and triathlons. In this Q&A, Kolla shares his motivations and goals in endurance sport.

Q:  Which seasons do you compete in for Rock Ridge?

A: I’ve competed in Cross Country, Winter Track, and Spring Track for all four years of high school.

Q: What events do you prefer to run during indoor season?

A: During the indoor season, I love running the 1600m and 4x800m races.

Q: What events do you like to compete in overall?

A: Overall, the 1600m race is my favorite with the 5k being a close second.

Q: When and why did you start competing in endurance sports?

A: I started running long distances when I was eight years old. My dad began running 5ks and 10ks for fitness, and I joined him for fun. We both trained together and grew fitter, the 5 and 10ks turned into triathlons and marathons.

Q: Do you plan to continue competing in endurance sports in the future?

A: I plan to compete in endurance sports as long as I possibly can. The beauty of endurance sports is that, barring some freak accident or condition, you can compete in them for decades. They’re not nearly as harsh on your body as some other sports.

Q: What is your relationship with your coaches and team like?

A: My relationship with my coaches has always been great. At Rock Ridge, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to run for the school and train for triathlons. Instead of pushing me away and forcing me to choose, they were incredibly accommodating of my situation and encouraged me to do both. That cross training was instrumental in my development as an athlete, and helped me get to the national level as a triathlete. 

During my first two years, most of the people on the team were upperclassmen, and even though they were older than me, I still came to become close friends with them. Because we trained and raced together, despite our age differences, we saw each other as equals, and we all motivated each other to perform as well as possible.
Q: What kind of training do you do for Rock Ridge track and how is it different from triathlon?

A: The length and pace is very different. For triathlon we mostly have very long runs at a pace that is manageable. But with Rock Ridge track we have a lot shorter runs but we will keep maybe 70% of race pace. For example, we might have a thirty mile bike ride for triathlon but we only have a three mile run for track. 

Q: What are your academic interests and how has competing in endurance sports affected your academic interests?

A: For Cross Country and Track, as distance runners, 50-75% of our runs are easy runs. We run for a set time or distance in groups at a conversational pace, with a warmup before and cooldown after. Once a week we do long runs, running 25% more than normal. The other training days are workouts, consisting of faster pace runs for specific intervals, or laps on the track. For intervals we would run something like three miles at 80% of our 5k race pace and for a track workout it would be something like 4 x [200m at 85% sprint, 400m at mile race pace, 200m at 85% sprint]. After about half our runs we also do either a core or strength workout as well. 

Triathlon training is a different beast entirely. It consists of 3 sports, so we have to train almost 3 times as much. Also, for triathlon training, almost every single session is a grueling workout. One of the run workouts consisted of 3 x [1200m at 5k race pace, 400m all out] with no rest between the 1200m and 400m. 

Except for a race, I would never push myself that hard for Rock Ridge cross country or track. There’s also a lot more strategy that goes into triathlons, and when we’re not training, or even in breaks between sets, we’re discussing strategy. 

Q: How do you mangange both academics and athletics when your athletics have such a demanding schedule?

A: I love designing and building things, which is why I’m going into engineering, specifically robotics or aerospace. 

Competing in endurance sports has an incredible effect on your life. By nature, they require many many hours of training. You have to train endurance to compete in endurance sports. This leaves you with not as much time for anything else, whether it be school or extracurriculars. 

From fifth grade to tenth grade I competed in robotics while also training for triathlons, and didn’t have as much time for myself as I would like. However, because my time was limited, I looked to make the most of it. Instead of trying 100 different things, I focused on what I knew I enjoyed and needed to be successful. While it would have been interesting to experiment with other academic subjects like science, business, or music, my athletic commitment led me to the decision to dive deeper into what I already had a passion for instead of trying to find a new one. In my case, I think it worked out perfectly because I really do love engineering and triathlon, and don’t want to compromise on either.