Life Amongst the Sheep

After being “home” for a few weeks, the winds blew westward. That’s how I ended up on top of a mountain in New Zealand’s south Island. My uncle travels a lot and his two favorite spots are probably Barbados and NZ. I’ve managed to hit up both in the span of a few months. Gold star for me.

So what’s it like here? Training camp life. Train, eat, sleep, make new friends and try to get a few minutes of spotty internet connection from time to time.

Honestly, it’s been great. Wanaka itself consist of a few blocks of little shops and café by the (cold) lake. The roads surrounding Wanaka lend themselves quite well to hour upon hour of quality riding. And the running trails…oh the running trails….

The company is top notch. Some crazy people out there, but as long as they channel it the right way, then they become winners. That’s my theory anyways. Lots of learning going on. Lots of little things to work on, things to tweak, a never ending process. Process process process…

Tea and crosswords in the morning remind me of home. Although NZ crosswords are different, they have more black squares. Adaptation necessary.

Just finishing up this block of training here before our little group is off to Sydney, Australia, to take on the rest of the world in an epic battle on the blue carpets in front of the opera house. Stay tuned.

Your friend the Mountaineer

Home #2

Home

I got to go home last week.
Well, one of my homes.

I had to redefine that concept a few years back

Home was Winnipeg, where I grew up, with my parents and my friends and my coaches and people who cared, with the places I kept going back to. Familiarity.

Then I went to school. Home was still home and school was school.

Then my parents moved and all of a sudden, I had a home where I didn’t have a house and I had a house that didn’t qualify as home.

And at the same time, school became that place where I had friends and coaches and people who cared, with the places I kept going back to.

Sounds awfully like home to me.
So what now?

I keep it simple. In my mind, I have three homes. I don’t believe in discrimination.

Thanks for everyone in my Motown home for a great couple weeks. Not a single solo run, Black Bear evenings and Zenclay mornings. Shout out to all the peeps at Friday breakfast, that freshman year tradition that keeps on givin’. And I picked the best Saturday to go home, Beat Feast for the win. Got to hang out with the girls, remember how it feels to take a test a stress out about a paper. Ride the Percy and of course, not start packing till way too late because the conversation at Mountain State is too good. And Schiff and lil’ Sean had to get the s’mores dessert pizza, of course.

hey there...

Long time no post

I raced today, national championships...kinda of a big deal i guess. Ended up 6th. solid race. Got to stand on the podium with Paula and Kirsten. Sweet deal. Sweet race. sweet people.

Great posting again. See you in 6 months.

Gandalf



tonight, i was gandalf at dinner.

The Tempo Loop

There's this place in Morgantown called the "Tempo Loop". All the college runners know exactly where it is. Somewhere in Suncrest, a nice jumble of random streets make up a loop about a mile a a half long. How it came to be exactly the way it is today, no one really knows (alright, Sean probably had a bit part to play in it). The veterans talk of a time when the tempo loop was quite a bit longer, spilling into Universtiy Av, which could be dangerous when workouts where held at the high time of Morgantown rush hour traffic. As the name sugests, it is mostly used for tempos, although it can also accomodate fartlkets or road intervals. Needless to say, it is use a lot. There comes a time in every West Virginia girl's running carreer where she might realize she knows pretty much every crack in the road, every corner angle (urban designers around here dispise clear cut 90 degree intersections) and every incline, down or up, she might encounter.

Sometimes we go fast on it, sometimes its more of a controlled workout. Saturday it was controlled. But it also happened to go fast.

Best Average Ever. 5:39 per mile. big thanks to Jess O and her crazy arms for bringing that last mile down.

Looks like a good season ahead...

Highlights

I realize why people blog more during race season: not much happens at other times of the year. Everyone trains, but thats not hardly interesting enough for the rest of the world to read. However, I will ignore that fact and post an update on my life anyways.

#1. Charlie is still alive. In case anyone was worried, it's been proven that I can take care of 1 goldfish for a few weeks without him dying on me. We're planning on investing in fish food soon. Big commitment.

#2. Everyone is running great. We do track workouts during cross season sometimes, so it's easy to see how everyone is progressing. We had one Tuesday, and the fast group was fast. We're putting it all on the line next Friday, at the Penn state meet. That's when we'll know how good we are. Also, Tad took some sweet pictures of the last race which can be found here.

#3. The crazy midterm stuff at school is almost over. This is now the period of in-between-ness when I can relax a bit. And update my blog. And call home.

#4. Gatherings at the house tend to turn into dress-up dance parties. It seems to be quite inevitable. But yesterday this came through as well, thanks to freshie Sarah M.



wicked. Why not use the talents you have eh....

Awesome

I made it on Flotrack. My life is now complete.

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

He doesn't believe me, but it's true we haven't talked about nationals much. It's true. Also, there's a video of the race. Funny part at 1:20.

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

The whole experience was really cool. It's quite somethin;, the entire day, they had races going with over 300 runners in each, and it seamed to never stop. Who knew so many people even ran in the states. I thought people were supposed to play video games and eat junk food. For West Virginia, the whole team ran great, and we ended up winning the race. Congrats to Guelf to who came second, there were some good teams out there. From what I know anyways. (I don't know much).

Well, I have to go do my life in homework now.

Until later,

Take #423

I lost count of how many times I've tried to do this already. But didn't someone say "It doesn't matter how many times you fall, it's how many times you get up". Or something like that anyways.

I feel like a runner now. I guess thats what happens when you run a lot. So we'll see if feeling like a runner makes me run like one too.


We're leaving for Paul Short on Friday, and last time I checked with the coach I was racing. Shoul be fun :-) Most of the team is racing, either the college race or the JV open version.


On another note, we have a new roomate at the house. Everyone welcomed Charlie home this Saturday. We all hope he doesn't die.