LAGRANGE – They’ll be lacing up the running shoes bright and early next week.

The Troup High cross-country program will be hosting a five-day running camp that gets under way on Monday and goes through Friday.

While the camp will mostly involve Troup High runners, coach Peter Anderson said any local high-school runners are welcome to participate, as long as they don’t mind getting out early.

The camp, which cost $20, will begin at 6:30 a.m. each day and go through 8:30 a.m.

With the cross-country season set to begin in a few months, Anderson felt the camp would be a great way to get the runners together and put a plan in place for the remainder of the summer.

“We got to talking, and we felt like with our schedules for the summer, we could get the new kids in,” Anderson said. “We’re going to have fun, but the focus of the camp is get the kids to understand how to run, and how to prepare to run, how to take care of their bodies, and how to approach running, especially in the summer.”

Anderson’s hope is that after the camp is done, all of the runners will be able to continue training on their own until the team gets together again.

“The focus is to kind of get them in a position where they can run on their own,” Anderson said. “And then we’re planning on having a preseason camp at the backside of July.”

Anderson said the camp will be for runners of all skill levels.

“I do want my experienced runners there, too, but we’ll be working across the spectrum,” he said.

Anderson said he and the other cross-country coaches had a meeting last week about upcoming plans for the program, and he was encouraged by the response.

“I’m really excited about it,” he said. “We had a meeting on Tuesday, and I think we had 30 parents and 20 kids signed up.”

Anderson has a number in mind as far as how many runners will participate next week, but if it’s considerably more, he’ll be OK with that.

“That’d be a good problem,” he said. “We’ll figure it out and go from there.”

CAMP INFO

WHAT: Troup High Cross Country Summer Camp

WHEN: Monday through Friday, 6:30 a.m. until 8:30 a.m. each day

WHERE: Troup High

COST: $20

INFORMATION: Email Peter Anderson at anderson@troup.org, or call Troup High at (706) 812-7957 to speak with coach McWhorter or coach Kelley

Reach Kevin Eckleberry at (706) 884-7311 or on Twitter @lagrangesports