The local running club is putting on a 5K race and 1-mile fun run on 3/13/10. For those of you who are running track, we'll be in Farmington. But tell your friends and family about this event. For details go to: http://web.me.com/southsanjuan/The_Pagosa_Area_Running_Club/RACE.html
Also, there are some photos of you all on their site:
http://web.me.com/southsanjuan/The_Pagosa_Area_Running_Club/YOUTH_ON_THE_RUN.html
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Mills College Cross Country/Track News 2009-2010
Hi all!
I wanted to share my experience running in college after being a member of the Pagosa Springs High School cross country team (I graduated last year in 2009). To start, if any of you are interested in running in college, you should.
I'm a freshman (or should I say freshwoman? Mills is an all women's college.) at Mills College in Oakland, California. During my college search, there was a point at which all the small liberal arts schools I was considering began to look the same, so I began to look for things outside of the usual academics, etc. that mattered to me. Cross country was one of the most important. When I visited colleges, Mills made a positive impression as soon as I met Laura Davis, the head cross country and track coach. She introduced me to team members and took a walk with my parents and me on the trails while the team did their workout. She seemed genuinely interested in having me run at Mills. My experiences with the cross country coached at other schools weren't as good in that it seemed that the runners were treated by the coaches as numbers. After that, I chose Mills.
At the beginning of the fall semester, I arrived a few days early so I could attend the cross country camp at Point Reyes, on the coast, just north of San Francisco. This is something like our Sand Dunes camp. It was a hard three days of running, but the entire team welcomed me warmly. I discovered the nature of running for a Division III school. There are runners good enough to run DI, but there were also girls who had never run a step in their lives, but wanted to see what it was all about.
After the trip, and throughout the season, the team just grew closer. Because of the spectrum of running experience on the team, the competition between team members is at a minimum and everyone genuinely cares about her teammates. Laura, our coach, care about each and every one of us and tailors workouts to our specific needs. For example, it's always been easy for me to just go out and run ten miles or so, even if I haven't trained in a while, but I don't have much in the way of fast twitch muscles. Laura had me doing speed workouts all season, even if other members of the team had other workouts, yet we'd all be there, running together.
Towards the beginning of the season, I had trouble with low iron levels. This was probably due to the fact that I am a vegetarian and had tried to be a vegan after graduation. Because of the combination of being vegan, being female, and being a runner, my iron level kept dropping and my performance was severely affected, and I had to decrease my weekly mileage until my iron went back up. Though I was running significantly slower than I had my senior year of high school, my coach supported me through all of it.
After a season of hard work, my team won conference and quailified for the NAIA National Championships in Vancouver, Washington. Despite all difficulties, I was one of the top five runners on the team an got to compete as one of 300 runner's in the women's race at nationals.
Now that I have been taking iron supplements and go back to simple vegetarianism, with the occasional exception of grass-fed, free range, hormone/steroid free beef and a a winter break of solid training, I am back up to 60 mile weeks and am participating in track. Our first meet is in two weeks! I will be running the 5,000 and 10,000 meter races, depending on the meet. Since NAIA offers half-marathons and marathons in some meets, I will focus on these distances my junior and senior years of college.
Again, if you are at all interested, please consider running in college! Take advantage of as much coaching as you can! When it came to coaching and team dynamics, I could not have had a better season. Continuing your running career, especially at a smaller school that is more oriented towards academics, is fun and most certainly fulfilling.
I hope everyone is doing well and keeping up with winter training! Good luck next fall!
I wanted to share my experience running in college after being a member of the Pagosa Springs High School cross country team (I graduated last year in 2009). To start, if any of you are interested in running in college, you should.
I'm a freshman (or should I say freshwoman? Mills is an all women's college.) at Mills College in Oakland, California. During my college search, there was a point at which all the small liberal arts schools I was considering began to look the same, so I began to look for things outside of the usual academics, etc. that mattered to me. Cross country was one of the most important. When I visited colleges, Mills made a positive impression as soon as I met Laura Davis, the head cross country and track coach. She introduced me to team members and took a walk with my parents and me on the trails while the team did their workout. She seemed genuinely interested in having me run at Mills. My experiences with the cross country coached at other schools weren't as good in that it seemed that the runners were treated by the coaches as numbers. After that, I chose Mills.
At the beginning of the fall semester, I arrived a few days early so I could attend the cross country camp at Point Reyes, on the coast, just north of San Francisco. This is something like our Sand Dunes camp. It was a hard three days of running, but the entire team welcomed me warmly. I discovered the nature of running for a Division III school. There are runners good enough to run DI, but there were also girls who had never run a step in their lives, but wanted to see what it was all about.
After the trip, and throughout the season, the team just grew closer. Because of the spectrum of running experience on the team, the competition between team members is at a minimum and everyone genuinely cares about her teammates. Laura, our coach, care about each and every one of us and tailors workouts to our specific needs. For example, it's always been easy for me to just go out and run ten miles or so, even if I haven't trained in a while, but I don't have much in the way of fast twitch muscles. Laura had me doing speed workouts all season, even if other members of the team had other workouts, yet we'd all be there, running together.
Towards the beginning of the season, I had trouble with low iron levels. This was probably due to the fact that I am a vegetarian and had tried to be a vegan after graduation. Because of the combination of being vegan, being female, and being a runner, my iron level kept dropping and my performance was severely affected, and I had to decrease my weekly mileage until my iron went back up. Though I was running significantly slower than I had my senior year of high school, my coach supported me through all of it.
After a season of hard work, my team won conference and quailified for the NAIA National Championships in Vancouver, Washington. Despite all difficulties, I was one of the top five runners on the team an got to compete as one of 300 runner's in the women's race at nationals.
Now that I have been taking iron supplements and go back to simple vegetarianism, with the occasional exception of grass-fed, free range, hormone/steroid free beef and a a winter break of solid training, I am back up to 60 mile weeks and am participating in track. Our first meet is in two weeks! I will be running the 5,000 and 10,000 meter races, depending on the meet. Since NAIA offers half-marathons and marathons in some meets, I will focus on these distances my junior and senior years of college.
Again, if you are at all interested, please consider running in college! Take advantage of as much coaching as you can! When it came to coaching and team dynamics, I could not have had a better season. Continuing your running career, especially at a smaller school that is more oriented towards academics, is fun and most certainly fulfilling.
I hope everyone is doing well and keeping up with winter training! Good luck next fall!
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