Friday– November 11, 2005
Training: 20 mins slow and exercises in the am, 60 mins slow in the pm
Where: Thun
Saturday– November 12, 2005
Training: Drive to Tilburg, then 20 mins shake out run
Where: Tilburg, Holland?Quotes: "This is the cool van." Josi http://community.webshots.com/user/josijoy
Pictures from Holland
We had a lot of athletes on this trip to Holland! Three busses full! There were only 2 men and one woman, me…And then the rest were juniors. It was a long drive, but we made it there around 4:30. The place we stayed at was the meet hotel and many of the international teams stayed there as well. At dinner we were informed, much to our dismay, that the course we were to run on the next day was NOT the European Championship course! We didn't have time to go and see the course because it would have been too dark, but one local runner told us that the course was pretty flat and there were a few "obstacles."
Sunday– November 13, 2005
Training: Race Day!!! Junior girls: 4.2k Junior Boys: 5.8k
Elite Women: 6.2k Elite Men: 10k
Where: Tilburg?Quotes: "Did you see me jump over those logs??? Hahahha I told you I could never do steeple!!!!" Me to Fritz as he laughed quite hysterically! I guess I looked terrible!
Results: http://www.tilastopaja.net/static_html/eaa8956779.htm
Where you see SUI, that is Switzerland!!! Hopp Schweiz!!!!
The course: A big loop and a small loop that we had to repeat a couple times depending on what distance we were to run…Course consisted of wide, winding, dirt trails with a few short, sharp ups and downs with 3 huge logs we had to jump over around the big loop. Back in the woods there were these annoying short ups and downs that took one out of one's rhythm. The dirt was fairly packed, but some areas had loose dirt, which was hard to run through. There were tons of spectators, something that we cross runners aren't really used to, but these Euros love their cross! There were a lot more people in Belgium, but there was still a large crowd here.
In the junior girls race, we had 5 in the top 15 (my training partners, Astrid finished fourth and Livia finished 10th!), in the junior boys race, we had 3 in the top 20, men's race Stéphane Joly finished 11 th and Ueli Koch finished 27th (he felt he didn't have a good day today, but his finish was awesome in Belgium!). For the women, the lonely Josi finished 33rd, 2:25 behind the leader. I would obviously like to close that gap!!! I felt allright about my race because it went better than last week, so there was improvement, but I am nowhere near where I would like to be. But we'll say that I am pleased, but not satisfied………But then again, that is part of being a distance runner…never being satisfied, always looking toward the next goal. I am looking forward to the next two weeks of hard training and then my last qualifying race in Paris on the 27th…Here's hoping…One thing that makes me nervous is that the course next week is only 4.4k, and for those of you who know me, I like the LONG stuff and feel like the shorter stuff is like a sprint…but by then, I will have put those thoughts aside!!!!
Pre race rituals…….
We all have our "things" we HAVE to do before our races. For example, my one friend in college had to cut her toe nails the night before every race…another didn't want to shave because she was afraid she would cut herself and loose blood…another had to eat a half a power bar exactly 2 hours before her race...okay, that was me…hahaha…Another had to feel just a tad hungry on the starting line…There are certain routines that we have to go through before our races more for our heads. Skinny always said not to change something before a race. Like if you don't normally pound cheesy poofs down your throat an hour before your race, don't decide to do it on the day of a race! (Steve, Kevin, remember that incident in high school when the people sent us the wrong start times and so you guys were in the back of the bus pounding cheesy poofs and then Kevin, you had to go make yourself throw up since you had just eaten a ridiculous amount. Hahahhahahaha THAT was funny. But yeah, that wasn't your fault! You just pounded them because you thought you were racing an hour later than you really were!)
So my pre race rituals…The night before I put the spikes in my spikes, pin my number on perfectly, . .My number has to be pinned the way I have been pinning it since high school, the way Skinny showed me. I don't just put the pin through the holes onto my shirt…And then after I pin it on, I have to try it on and swing my arms around like I am running to see if my arms touch my number, and if they do, I have to crunch my number around until my arms don't touch anymore….I set out my race clothes, and pack my race bag for race day…Then I have to sleep for 9 hours (but if that doesn't happen, I always say the night before a race doesn't matter, it is the 3 previous ones before then that matter)…Then in the morning, if I race after 4pm, I have to do a 10 minute shake out run in the morning…I have to have something big eaten 4 hours prior to my race (NO DAIRY) and then eat something like crackers or something of the sort 2 hours before the race. Then I have to put on my lucky necklace that I wear for races and my lucky bracelets. They aren't necessarily always the same ones, I just say whichever one I have with me at the time is lucky…If I race well, then it becomes luckier…if my race doesn't go well, I switch out a bracelet or something. HAHAHAHA Now that I am writing it, it makes me feel psychotic.
Anyway, we runners have to be comfortable before our races. We are nervous enough that we can't worry ourselves if we ate something wrong or ate too close to our race. So we try to reduce the number of variables that could possibly make us nervous. For me, when I step on the starting line, I tell myself "you have no reason to run bad today. You took it easy the last couple days, you slept well, you ate right, you're workouts have been going well…stay tough." It is almost a check list in my head so I know I have wiped out any possible variable that could make me have a bad race…So if I don't have a good race, it is that I just had a "bad day," and not that my training is off… We can't run well every race we run, we can only control as many variables as we have control over!
Monday– November 14, 2005
Training: 35 mins easy 6am, before our long trip back
Where: Tilburg?Quotes: "Feel my bladder…it is rock-hard. I really have to pee!!!" -Me to Astrid hahahahaha
LONG DRIVE home. But we made it back safely and are now all recovered!
Tuesday– November 15, 2005
Training: 70 mins slow
Where: Thun?Quotes: "Your running will come together...it is just going to take time, Europe is no joke when it comes to running but you were prepared well by running in the NCAA, you have to remember (and I know you do) that it will take a year or two before you start making a huge leap, this year you are starting to feel everything out, win some smaller meets, get a feel for the larger ones, start up the new training regime, etc. Like a freshman year in college, you are making the transition so your performances are up and down as you try to adjust to your new settings, in the remaining years you will get stronger and make large performance drops." -Gayrad Gayber or Conrad (He is a coach, can you tell?)
Wednesday– November 16, 2005
Training: 5 by 1200m pm 2 mins recovery
Where: Neufeld (Bern) Finnish track?Quotes: "…the great thing about distance running: you can achieve very much, IF YOU WORK FOR IT. so really, if you do the proper work, and not just train hard, but rather right, then you get very far." C.B. just added to my list of heroes
NEXT: November 17, 18, 19, 20 – Oh that's right, you Swissies don't have jello here...
PREVIOUS: November 10 -- What would I do if I what?
INDEX: Unfinished Business -- Former PA XC state champion Josi Lauber's post-collegiate adventure.