Running for Nebraska: It's amazing what you can do when you rediscover your passion

October 26, 2010

It's amazing what you can do when you rediscover your passion

Today was a lot better for me regarding running, I haven't felt as good as I did all season, which is a good thing because it means I'm getting better :) I did a morning run and then today's practice was easy, just a run with 8 x 100m strides with 100m jog in between, a cool-down mile and some drills and core. It felt really natural today, not completely effortless but I was a lot less tense. Sometimes, as my mom would say, you have to leave the brain in the dorm before you go to practice, haha. So its getting better, yay! It's also starting to get colder here, the high tomorrow is 60 and it was really windy today, I thought I was going to fall off my bike.. I had my biology lab midterm today, its about that time in college when the number of tests you have left in the semester is shrinking and finals are in a month and a half already! This weekend is the Missouri vs. Nebraska game at home, while the Cross country team will travel to Stillwater Oklahoma to run in their final Big XII Championships, it is an eventful week.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Why Nebraska?

When I began the college search I knew that I wanted to continue running at the NCAA Division 1 level. I desired a school rich in pride for its sports with good academics as well. I found this in Lincoln, NE. College sports are a very big deal in the state of Nebraska and it shows in the school's facilities and coaching staff. I picked Nebraska because of all it had to offer me as a student athlete and because of the at-home feeling I got on my visit and with the team. Quite a few of my teammates have become a lot faster since their high school PR's and this was a good indicator to me that I could trust in the training tendencies of my long time Nebraska Cross Country coach Jay Dirksen. A graduate of South Dakota State in '68, Jay was an All American steeplechaser and has coached at Nebraska for 28 years producing a total of 3 NCAA National Champions, 1 U.S Olympic Trials Champion, 20 Cross Country NCAA All Americans, 39 NCAA Track and Field All Americans, 5 Big XII Cross Country Team Titles, 6 NCAA Regional Titles and 22 NCAA Cross Country Teams.

Before Nebraska

I ran four years of Cross Country and Track for Great Oak High School under coaches Doug Soles and Daniel Noble. I was a four year letter winner in both sports and went to Nike Cross Nationals all four years. Some notable awards include #1 Freshman in Riverside County in 2006 and Freshman of the Year, as well as the #3 Sophomore in 2007, winner of the Long Beach Invitational, the Mt. SAC D1 sophomore girls champion and Sophomore of the Year. My Junior and Senior seasons I was a team captain and the Most Improved athlete on the track team, Junior and Senior of the Year as well as 1st Team All-League in the SWL, a scholar athlete, a member of the 2008 Riverside County Academic Team winner (gohs xc), part of the CIF Southern Section team champion in 2009, and the tie breaker of Great Oak's 2009 Runner Up accolades at the California State Meet. In track I was the Inland Empire 1600m Champ, held senior records in the 1600m (5:02.54), 3200m (11:09.10), and 3 miles (17:19, xc); and was a California High School Heisman Finalist in 2010.