Former Edgewater star Will Bridges is currently a red shirt freshman running for Florida State University. During his time at Edgewater, Bridges finished in the top ten in the 1600 meter outdoors his junior and senior year and finished ninth at the 3A Cross Country Finals his senior year. See what he has been up to in this feature we call Where Are They Now?
What was the biggest adjustment you had to make to compete at the college level?
The biggest adjustment I had to make was learning how to be as efficient as possible with my time. The training has a lot more volume and as a consequence takes a lot more time. Therefore you need to optimize your productivity so that you can have time to rest because recovery is as important as the workouts.
Is there anything you can tell high school athletes to better prepare them for the college experience?
The best advice that I can give to high school runners is to keep your head down. What I mean by that is to leave your high school ego at your high school. The NCAA is a very competitive program and you may not make an immediate impact on it like you did in the FHSAA. You may not even make an immediate impact on your college team. I had to start back at the bottom when I got to FSU.
You had a lot of great moments in your high school career. What stands out the most?
My best high school running memory was during my freshman year when I placed second in the Southern Stars large school race. I only ran 17:08, but that was a 71 second PR and that's when I realized that my running career had some potential.
What do you miss most about running in high school?
What I miss about high school running is competing locally with my friends.
What piece of coaching or advice that someone gave you has been the biggest help?
The best piece of coaching that I have received is "learn to listen to your body". That has helped me avoid several injuries. One day off or one missed workout beats taking off weeks of training any day. Also in workouts, especially your freshman year, you are going to be pushing your body harder than ever. Another important part of that advice is to think to yourself during the last interval "could I do one more?" You don't want to finish workouts on empty, you can only do that for important races in college.
Personal Bests
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1,600 Meter Run4:26.79
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3200 Meter Run9:26.68
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5,000 Meter Run15:23.69
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8000 Meter Run24:43.20
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