Top 10 Running moments of 2013

Since we are closing in on the 2013 year, I decided to say my top 10 running moments of 2013:

10. Hanging with Rubis at DIII Track & Field Nationals in La Crosse, WI
 

















 9. Running a lot on my favorite course over the summer




















8. B2B in Platteville, WI with the bros

7. Racing at Griak for the 1st time ever in my collegiate running career




















 6. Last Trip up at Pigeon Lake/Training Camp with the team























5. Berbee Derby- Verona Alumni Reunited


























4. Meeting Arizona's All-American/National Champ Lawi Lalang 





















 









                                                                                                                                                                         3. Running with my Pioneer XC team one last time- Heck of a ride with my bros


























2. Running on one of the coldest days of the year- last day of the 2013 year



































                                         1. Racing the greatest Conference in DIII Nation: WIAC

Top 10 Female Distance Crushes

I have decided to do a blog on my top 10 female distance crushes, here is what I have:

10. Emma-Lisa Murphy:Wisco (Badgers)

















9. Maggie Vessey: USA Olympian/New Balance



































 8. Mandy Perkins: Florida Gators




























 7. Jordan Hasay: Oregon/Nike Oregon Project



















                                           6. Kara Goucher: USA Olympian

































5. Colleen Quigly: Florida State
















4. Emily Sisson: Providence















 3. Katie Flood- Washington/Juliet Bottorff- Duke
























 











                  

2. Emma Coburn: New balance/USA Olympian/Colorado



















1. Cory McGee: Florida Gators/USA Olympian

Jim Drews Invite

We were off to Jim Drews invite at Maple Grove Golf Course in La Crosse on Saturday October 19th, 2013.  We had high expectations coming into the meet & it was time to run fast.  We want to get after it and show what we can do.  When the gun went off, it was a rough start, I had to try to get out of the slump and was stuck in the first mile.  As the raced progressed, finally to start passing people, I was almost feeling a stomach cramp, but still stayed tough through the race.  I had one of my teammates help me out because I was struggling & was able to get back with my teammate, started to feel confident & positive the whole way.  About a 2 or 3k to go, start to progress & passing people.  With less than an 1k to go, I went for it & passed some people, when close to the finish, I kicked as hard as I could.  Once I crossed the finish line, my time was 28:26, still not a PR, but happy that my time went down, & I got the 2nd to last spot for the WIAC conference team, I was soo happy plus excited.  After all I had to go through with the iron deficiency, not running normal/ slower race times & taking iron for the last 9-10 months & getting back into my normal running & racing well, I'm finally get to race one of the best conferences in DIII Nation: WIAC Conference Championship.  That was one of my goals this season & I got it.  Overall as a team from this meet, we didn't do soo hot, we were 13th out of 30 teams, which means we need to look at ourselves & see what needs to be done.  We know what we are capable of, basically the season hasn't really started.  The season starts once we get to the Conference Championship: Step 1 of 3 of road to Nationals.  I am looking forward to it, it's going to be an exciting one.  I think as a team with this week & next week of training, I think we will be ready, just have our minds in the right place, if we can do that, we can still hit our goals/expectations & I believe we can.        

Roy Griak Invitational

It was Friday afternoon on September 27th, 2013, we were on our way up to St Paul, Minneapolis for the Roy Griak Invitational, one of the biggest XC meets of the season.  It's one of the meets where to see where we are at as a team and how we can compete against the big teams in our WIAC Conference & rest of Division III.  Once we got off the bus, we got to run around the Les Bolstad course for an easy shake out, when we were doing our run I was thinking, I feel like I went to running heaven, it's an amazing course, there were some spots with tough rolling hills, but it's a good course.  After the run, got to load up carbs at Noodles & then went to the hotel, stayed at the Country Inn.  Had a team meeting, coach Antczak told us the plan & he said "We've been doing pretty well with workouts and staying healthy, it's time to show what we can do".  Next morning, race day, September 28th, 2013. We did our 7 minute shakeout before breakfast, then I had my pregame breakfast which is a couple of bagels and bananas.  Got to the bus and head to the course.  Once we got there, it was a lot of fans and runners a cross the country, it's amazing.  We started warming up around the course before our race & we had a game plan, basically stay in packs.  After doing our warmup & doing our drill/strides, we huddled up & said, "time to get out relaxed & aggressive, get out quick".  Time to show the rest of the teams what we can do.  Got to our start line, the gun went off, I was a little squeezed in the beginning of the race, but started to spread out during the race.  I kinda started losing the guys at the beginning when we were 400 meters into the race.  Then thought to myself, time to chase down some guys & keep fighting till the end.  Feeling good the first mile, second mile was feeling okay, once I got to the 5k, started to feel the pain from running the hills, thought myself, you trained for this, time to show what I can do.  I kept grinding & pushing through the hills, once I got to 6k, it's time to make a move & start passing a lot of people.  I was feeling the pain, but feeling good at the same time.  When I was close to the finish, I tried to kick as hard as I can.  I was able to finish on one of the toughest courses of my XC collegiate career & I'm happy with it.  My time was 28:56, not what I wanted, placed 126th, not what I wanted.  I knew after the race I have some things to work on & learned a lot from the race.  What I learned is you have to get out quicker early in the race & how bad do you want it.  We didn't place very well as a team, we were 5th overall behind Eau Claire, Oshkosh, Bates, & Wartburg, we knew we were better than those teams.  Hoping to get our guys back from injuries & get our minds back in the right place.  We now know that we have some work to do & get our confidences back, coach Antczak knows we are better than this, we just have to get our other guys like myself step up.  If we can do those things, we should still be able to hit the goals/expectations that we set back in August.                   

Whitewater Invite

First meet of the season on September 14th- Saturday 2013 at Whitewater, Warhawk invite.  Excited to race my first 8k of the season since last year.  Our main competition was our WIAC rival Whitewater, we know what we were capable of doing, basically going out in packs.  The gun went off & the 2013 XC season begins.  I felt good in the first mile, a little quick, but stayed in control, the two mile, stayed relaxed, same with the third, stayed with my team mate Drake for most of the race, once we got to the woods I was feeling but all of a sudden the gravel hill got to me, we had to run through that son of a gun twice, the 4 mile was a little slow, but once we got through 2nd gravel hill, was able to establish & going after it all the way to finish.  When I finished my race, saw the time was 28:44, 11th for the team, I was very happy, an improved time from last year by 3 or 4 minutes, definitely taking the iron for the last 9 months has helped me tremendously.  I was a spot short of possibly racing Griak, but heard was the alternate, so pretty happy with that. We won the Warhawk invite, like the 5th or 6th year in a row or something. Overall the team ran really well, I was pleased.  Our 1-7 ran a decent first race of the season, still some work to improve, but we know what we needed to work on, so basically having a good week of practice & possibly getting ready for Griak in a few weeks, while others getting ready for the Beloit-Old English invite this Saturday.  

PigeonLake/XC 2013

Last week we were up North near Drummond, basically Pigeon Lake.  We did a lot of fun activities such as the canoe relays, guess your time, & ultimate frisbee.  We all had a great team bonding during the nights of bonfire.  It was a great week, got to hang with the freshmen along with my bros, the freshmen were pretty cool.  Had some pranks off & on during the week, which always happens when we were up their.  The runs were great as well, to me that's my favorite part of Pigeon Lake is running with the crew, we all had fun & work together.  We set goals as well, we have high expectations this season, this year our goal is to get back to Nationals and place well.  I'm really gonna miss Pigeon Lake soo much, it was one of the best times I have had in my five years being up there, this definitely tops it.  After the good week of practice, I was ready for the Alumni meet, basically my preparation worked very well, basically being smart on workouts & easy days, along with eating proper nutrition.  Then Saturday came- race day, we had our gathering for Alumni, basically top 20 for veterans while the last 4 reserved for freshmen/sophomores,  my goal was to break 24:00 & get top 15 for team.  Went out alright in the first mile was at 5:48 first mile, then as the race went on I heard at the three mile 17:52, then thought to myself, alright have a chance to break 24:00.  During the race I was basically in good enough position to make the team, got after the last hill & sprinted when going down the hill.  Once the results came up, it was either 14th or 15th overall for team placing, my time was 24:03, I was very happy with the result.  Now it's my 3rd & final year of XC season, I have high expectations for myself this season,  we as a team do too, I'm really looking forward to this season. First meet is a week from today at UW-Whitewater, back to the good old 8k races.        

Last Half of Summer Training/Pigeon Lake

Well my last half of summer training is almost coming to an end.  I would have to say it's been a successful one.  Putting in solid mileage which I haven't done since last November.  My last half of strength training has been great, getting a lot stronger and faster.  Put in some good hard runs & tempo miles- manage to do 4 or 5 miles of it, hitting the pace that I wanted to hit, so I feel pretty good where I am at.  I'm pretty looking forward to my last time up in Pigeon Lake for Pre-Season training camp. It's a great way to start the season with a fun team bonding.  Doing canoe relay, frisbee, campfire, running & other fun stuff.  The good reason that we go to Pigeon Lake is because that we set goals & expectations for ourselves. For us we have high expectations, we have the talent, basically all of us have to contribute, if we do that, we can definitely have a great XC season. Hard to believe this will be my last time going up to Pigeon Lake, hope to end it with a bang & enjoy every minute of it. We leave on Tuesday August 27th & come back Saturday August 31st, it's going to be a great time.               

Summer Training 2013- Halfway Mark Recap

Well I'm halfway through my summer training, I am very pleased where I am at.  It started off building up mainly doing easy,cruise, little bit of hills, & tempo for the first 4 weeks. Once it got to late June to early part of July doing a lot more Cruise/Aerobic, fartlek, progressive, & tempo, increase those intensities a little bit week by week.  My max is 400 minutes- 100%.  Which is roughly between 60-70 miles.  My strength training is going well too for my first half of summer training, doing a lot of circuits, some weight lifting, mainly 2-3 times a week, feeling a lot stronger than I was last year.  With another 5 weeks of summer training to go before pigeon lake, hope to continue to keep improving and getting ready for an exciting upcoming fall XC season. 

B2B weekend with P-Ville XC Crew

B2B weekend- went from June 28th through June 30th.  We had around 20 people doing it.  Did it at Mound View Park in Platteville, Wisconsin.  We had to do 49 laps around the M- basically the loop is triangle shape, the run is 7.2 miles, we had one person run while other person bike.  We had to do the loop twice, the third was half & half.  My run was very good, the first time was 43:23, second time was 43:51, half (3.5) was 22:47. After the loops were done we had 25 miles left. So we had one person run for 10 minutes then we keep the rotation going till we get to East Dubuque, IL.  After we were done, got to see the beautiful view of the Mississippi River.  We did beat the time when the whole thing was done.  After we were done, ate at Antman's house, had burgers, chips, veggies, & watermelon, for desert vanilla ice cream.  So overall it was tiring, but worth the weekend of running & fun.       

Rough time/Progress Part 2

When I went back to my hometown- Verona for Spring Break, I started to get some decent running in.  Only doing 30-35 minutes during that time, mainly easy.  Still stinks that I couldn't do any hard runs still, but happy that I can increase my minutes.  When the end of Spring semester is almost over, around April, I was doing between 35-45 minutes, getting comfortable with the running.  Before I left for the semester, talked to Antman, he gave me some good advice on my summer training, he said basically to work on my core- power core and get good quality mileage in.  When I came home after semester is over- last month, started doing runs that I haven't done in a while, doing some tempo, fartlek, cruise/aerobic and hill runs.  I definitely miss those runs, it's definitely helping me getting my speed back and my confidence.  A few weeks ago, had my physical and got my iron blood test, the results came out great and now I only have to take my iron once a day.  Lately, for minutes- now doing between 50-70 minutes.  It's great doing longer runs and my pacing for those runs are going very well. Doing my core as well and starting to feel more stronger- weights/med ball. After all of those hard times of not being able to do any good quality running in the last 5-6 months, it's finally starting to pay off so far this summer.  Looking forward to continue my progress this summer and hoping it will turn out to be a great upcoming fall 2013 XC season.          

Rough Time/Progress

It all started way back in November 2012 during my Thanksgiving break.  I was doing a 10k at the Berbee Derby in Madison, WI.  I was feeling alright in the first half of the race and then all of a sudden I'm starting to not feel right.  My legs and my body were about to give up on me, almost dropping out of the race.  My mind told me to keep going and finish the race.  The time I raced was my worst, it was 45 something, usually I run low 35's in this race.  After I finished the race, I realized I need to get myself checked out.  So I went back to school- UW-Platteville, visited the doctor and told him what was wrong with me, told him my running and racing have gotten worse and worse. So he suggested to do an iron blood test.  After the results came in, he told me I have runner's anemia, which is iron deficiency.  So he suggested that I take iron pills three times a day to start out.  Then said to start eating more red meat and veggies like a salad, leafy greens.  The doctor suggested that I should take a month off from running.  So I agreed with him, took a whole month off no running.  But once winter break started, started doing around 20-25 minutes for the first few months.  It was good to get back into my running and getting back into shape.  The sad part I wasn't able to do indoor and outdoor track.  But during the early winter months- January through February, I was feeling the running is starting to come back.  My iron blood tests are making huge improvements as well.  Took one in March before spring break, he was pleased with the results.  He said I can increase my minutes, but don't go too high on minutes.  So I took the advice, when I started started doing 30-35 minute runs, it was feeling good.