Junior Year XC Season in Pictures

Team Hootenanny at Coach Mike's house during the summer!

Camp Runamok- The boys team after playing football

Pasta Party at Coach Erin's the night before the UCR Invite

The girls after the UCR Invite

The gang at the LA County Fair

LA County Fair Day- He gave all of the girls free stuffed animals! :)

Team Bonding- Decorating our pink shirts

Girls Team and Coach Erin after the Pomona Pitzer Invitational

Coach Sydney's race goals for the team before the Twilight Invitational

CSUF Twilight Invitational

Last Pink Tuesday of the season and we went all out!

My twin and I after the race at Multi's

SCIAC Multi's at La Mirada Park- Strides on the line

Halloween Party with the xc girls :)

Team Huddle before Conference Championships

Pep Talk from Coach Mike before SCIAC Championships at Prado Park

7th Annual SCIAC Midnight Mile- The girls ready to cheer our boys on!

21st Birthday Dinner with the team at California Pizza Kitchen!

The seniors and Coach Mike at our end of the season party

End of the season cross country party at Laser Island! (Missing a few)

Thursday Shenanigans

They are the reason I get through my long days! I love my teammates!

Thursday's never cease to disappoint me. I don't think I have had a cheerful Thursday this semester. I don't even believe it is possible to have a cheerful Thursday when you spend 16 hours at school like I do. By all means, if anyone ever wants to cheer me up on a Thursday, I wouldn't be opposed to receiving a skinny vanilla latte or candy. I have come to the realization that I am not a very complex person: as long as I get my daily latte and have my sugar fix, I am a happy camper. So anyways, this was how my Thursday unfortunately played out.

We had a work out scheduled this morning and we got the opportunity to train on Pomona-Pitzer's course. Because we are racing Regionals at Pomona-Pitzer in a couple of weeks, it was good to familiarize ourselves with the relatively flat and fast course. Thankfully, the course is very simplistic which definitely works in my favor. Despite how badly loop courses suck, my odds of getting lost or turning the wrong way significantly decrease. I honestly don't know how it is possible for me to fail so badly with direction when I literally run all over the place. I guess I like to keep things interesting. :)

The workout was successful. Minus the 400's that is. But that is besides the point; I know that I need to work on my leg speed and I am confident that in time, everything will fall into place. Before I start complaining, let me say that our hard workouts are almost always on my off days (Monday's and Wednesday's) so I don't have to worry too much about rushing to class.

I hate being rushed with a passion. My first class on Tuesday and Thursday's is Counseling and Interview Skills and I like to be prepared because it is one of my favorite classes. Another ridiculous, but very important side note is in regards to my outfit choice for today. I definitely knew that it was going to be a "look good/feel good" kind of day because I was extremely excited about my outfit.

Okay now going back to the workout. I usually have plenty of time to get ready on Tuesday's and Thursday's. Well today, scratch that. We got back to school at 8:40 and I frantically ran to the locker room. So much for the "cute" day. And so much for preparing for my mock counseling and interview session. To make matters worse, I had to forgo my only vice, a skinny vanilla latte, after my daily routine of waking up at 4:50 for practice every day.

It is a good thing that I don't have very high expectations for Thursday because my day didn't start to pick up after that. Although, I did get my latte. And we did get out of Astronomy a little bit earlier than usual which was a good thing. After spending over an hour and a half last week calculating the mass of the moon by hand, I was more than thrilled at the thought of getting home in time to watch Grey's Anatomy. No one should ever have to calculate the mass of the moon by hand, especially when Google is only a few hand movements and clicks away.

Basically, this was a pointless blog entry. However, I would say that it represents my Thursday's perfectly, and, therefore, my random tirade is appropriate and necessary.

PS. I am still contemplating my blog post about the Conference Championship race this past weekend. It will be posted after I figure everything out. Until then, goodnight and I hope you all had a more pleasant Thursday than I did.

Redemption 5k

Pasta Party at Coach Erin's House :)

La Verne XC Women's Team after the race

After missing what was expected to be our only 5k of the season, the girls team was disappointed to say the least. I know that I was really looking forward to setting a new personal best and establishing the tone for the rest of my season. When we missed the race due to a lack of communication and failure to abide by NCAA rules on the race directors part, I did everything that I could to brush it off and move on.

Sunday came and after spending the morning with my dad getting coffee, as per our usual routine, I got a call from Coach Mike. Coach Mike mentioned the idea of racing the 5k at UCR the following weekend and wanted to know my thoughts. I was ecstatic at the thought; I would get to race my 5k as planned and I knew that it would be a worthwhile performance because I felt confident and prepared. Coach warned me that it was only up in the air at that point in time, however, he would do his best to get the girls into the race.

Turns out, we got to race our 5k after all. :) I managed to set a new personal record in cross country by over 14 seconds and I couldn't have been more thrilled. Okay, I take that back; I probably would have surpassed my level of ecstasy if I had beaten a few more CMS and Redlands girls. Overall, it was a successful race for me and my teammates. And I had a fun Saturday spending time with my cross country girls; this includes giving a random host at Mimi's Cafe our number...or Sydney's number that is. (FYI: He still hasn't called but it will happen eventually)

As I fast-forward to this weekend's race, Pomona-Pitzer better be ready because La Verne cross country has high expectations for tomorrow and there will be no holding back or missed opportunities. :)

Life Lessons

All we could do after a crazy and disappointing day was smile...so that is exactly what we did. I love my teammates!

I feel like I am constantly apologizing for my blogging laziness! With that said, I really am sorry for not updating sooner but this semester has been hectic to say the least. By the way, I am writing this instead of taking a nap like I should, seeing as I got about 3 hours of sleep last night and did an uphill tempo run this morning. I can guarantee however that within the next hour, I will definitely be passed out in my bed and will remain there for a good couple of hours. Thank goodness for not having class until later tonight!

And now for all of the updates. We opened our season at the Fullerton Opener held at Carbon Canyon Regional Park. They decided to change the course up this year and unfortunately, the new course consisted of 2k loops around the thick grass. Unfortunate, but I knew that I would suck it up and give it my all. I have been experimenting with this new strategy of opening up with a controlled first mile and then picking it up from there. I struggled to remain calm and the hardest part was being okay with not being in the front of the pack. I followed the plan however and came through the mile a second off of my intended goal pace. The race felt long and painful. And I spent the next few miles trying to play catch up which was kind of fun. I had no kick which wasn't surprising but I was hoping I would at least have a little something left in the tank considering my new race strategy. I finished in 47th place out of approximately 215 girls and my time was the farthest thing from satisfactory. However, all the times were slow that day because of the course change-up and there was no way to compare the times this year from last year.

Now let's fast forward to the second race of the season at UC Irvine. I can say with confidence that it is a day that I will never forget. The week leading up to the race, I was nervous. I had a very disappointing mile repeat workout on Wednesday and I felt like I didn't have much confidence approaching the race. Similar to the Fullerton opener, I was hoping to blow my time from last cross country season out of the water. Driving to the race on Saturday, we notice that the weather is cold and overcast. We all make the comment about the perfect weather, getting excited to race our only 5k of the season. As we get to UCI, we notice that the sky drastically takes a turn for the worse. A trip to the bathroom sends us all running for cover as a lightning bolt hits the ground and thunder violently follows. We run back to the cover of the parking structure and Coach tells us that the race will be postponed due to the lightning. At least 10 laps in the parking structure pass by before we decide to head up to the field to complete our warm-up drills. As we are running up to the field, we notice that all of the teams in our race have already sprawled out across the starting line. Panic washes over us, along with the realization that our race is about to go off and we are not even close to being ready. The gun goes off before we have time to decide what to do. I did the first thing that came to mind. The army of runners pass by us and I am rushing to throw my warm-ups off. At about the middle of the pack, I decide to "jump" in the race and go for it. Micaela and Andrea chaotically chased after me and we were off. We raced a solid mile before Coach pulled us out. All I can say is that at least I picked a good spot in the race to jump in; Pomona Pitzer girls surrounded me on all sides and a few Oxy girls also joined.

Moral of the story is that we missed our race. The race started on time and we didn't make it because we were under the impression that the race would be postponed due to thunder and lightning. In the 6 years that I have been running, I have never missed a race. While I was upset and disappointed that I didn't have a chance to compete, I also knew that it was an experience I would never forget. I learned that our lack of communication with the officials is the reason why we missed the race. So for future reference, if ever there is a confusion or misunderstanding, the best option is to go to the race official and demand clarification. We finished out the day with a long run and had a great time cheering on our boys. They all did an amazing job and I was very proud of them for succeeding despite the odds and the disastrous beginning to the day.

I am looking forward to the next race, whether it be at UCR this coming weekend or at Pomona-Pitzer in a few weeks. No matter what, I am going to be ready to run fast! :)

Running and Vacation

The family at my cousin's wedding :)

So this past week, I headed up to Northern California for my cousin's wedding in Pleasanton. As excited as I was to see my cousin get married and to experience my first wedding, I had a feeling that it would be a tough week for me in terms of training. Vacations are a bittersweet thing; as grateful as I was to get away for a week and to let myself have fun with family and friends, I also knew that running was not a priority.

Before we embarked on the 7+ hour drive up to Pleasanton, my parents made it clear to me that they were not going to be worried about my training schedule. It simply wasn't on the list of important things to do on vacation. I knew that it was going to be up to me; I would have to find a way to get my training in without "sacrificing" vacation time. Any chance I got I was working out. I may not have been able to run consistently, but any free time I had was spent doing cardio at hotel gyms and at almost every 24 Hour Fitness in the Bay Area. (Well, more like 5 but you get the idea) I got in a few runs but with my lack of common sense and horrific sense of direction, running outside posed to be quite a challenge.

Although I got in almost 2 hours of cardio every day, it just wasn't the same as physically being outside and running to the point of exhaustion. While everyone else was enjoying the vacation and being together, I was miserable because I knew I was taking a huge step back with my training. I couldn't help but think about the upcoming season; specifically whether I would significantly suffer for my "vacation" at the time trial this coming Thursday.

I can't say that I didn't enjoy being with my family because I really did. I am really grateful for the time I was able to spend with my parents and sister before she heads back off to school in a week. However, I just wish they would understand how important this all is to me. I have worked my butt off this summer to have it pay off in the fall. I know I cannot force them to understand my dedication and determination towards what I do, but I wish that they could be a little more empathetic and try harder to see things from my perspective. All that I can do now is take advantage of this last week of solo summer training and get ready mentally for the time trial on Friday morning.

So much for a peaceful vacation.

My Running Journey Continued

I spent my freshman year at Florida Southern College. Although I wasn't happy being a part of the xc/track team and being so far from home, I really enjoyed the school and my sorority. It was a gorgeous school.

Crescent Cruise with Matt :)

Eta Beta Chapter/Founding Sisters

Alyssa and I

The roommate Kass and I

Gamma Phi Beta Suite at FSC

Lake Hollingsworth

Fountain outside of Spivey (Freshman Dorms)

Water Dome (It was a 10,000 dollar fine if you jumped in it!)

Florida Southern College

After a year in Florida, I decided to transfer to the University of La Verne. I couldn't be happier with the decision I made. I love my teammates and coaches and I am so grateful to be close enough to home so that I can see my family and friends all the time. I am going into my second year at La Verne and I cannot wait to see what this year holds in store for me!

La Verne XC Hootenanny 2011

Walnut Creek Running Adventure with Micaela and Andrea

Syd and I before the LMFAO concert :)

SCIAC Track Championships at Pomona Pitzer

Coach Mike and Coach Josh

Making peanut butter cookies with the boys

NCAA Division 3 Regionals in Oregon

Bring it on junior year!