Courtesy of Mike Orazzi
Could you please introduce yourself? (majors/minors, any clubs/organizations, other involvements on campus)
I am a major in International Relations and a German Studies minor on the East Asian Studies Student Advisory Board, a Walter Commons fellow, in CISLA, and a member of Women’s Cross Country and Track and Field [team].
What does your summer training regimen look like as prescribed by your coach?
I was told to start at 20 miles per week, increase that by five to ten miles every week, and slowly [add] some faster reps and more strides and all of that fun stuff. We have strength and conditioning training as well.
Do you listen to anything when you train? If so, what are some of your top running songs?
Can’t go wrong with ABBA. I pretty much just look up running music or or play my ‘Plane Playlist’ for flights which is the only playlist I have downloaded in order to save data. Sometimes I’ll listen to a podcast but they’re sometimes hard to hear when I’m running.
Did you travel this summer? And if so, how did you have to adapt in order to complete your training in foreign countries?
I went to Taipei, Taiwan using money given to me by the Chu-Kuo Fellowship for Chinese Language Study and stayed in a student dorm there. The weather, heat, and humidity took some getting adjusted to, as well as the rain. [There are] A lot of storms there so I would usually run in the evenings or nights or early in the morning to avoid getting heat stroke, but sometimes I would run in the middle of the day because I was lazy. Also, hydration was important, but it was fun to find new routes and I’ve always found running to be a way to see new areas. I [also] saw a lot of cool birds.
Did your high school cross country coach provide summer training guidelines? If so, what were they like?
Yeah, we just met for captain’s practices [during the summer]. [Coach Jim Ford] was not present at them, which he said was to give us time to bond with one another. We would usually be with our captain or high school alum and run at alternating locations around town or sometimes out of town occasionally, but [we] would try to switch up the scenery, and they would mostly be distance runs over the summer.
How does Coach Bishop’s summer training program differ from your high school training?
Obviously we’re all in different locations so we can’t meet together so it’s very individual which is sometimes a challenge. Honestly, it’s more of a challenge when I’m home because there are more distractions at home, and I have work as well. In terms of the training itself, I would say in general my previous coach focused more on mileage during the season and he would assign us a number of miles to run, whereas Coach Ned usually assigns us an amount of time to run for, although I found that to somewhat be the case and somewhat not be the case over the summer as he gives us day to day minutes to run but we track our mileage overall, like we say how many miles we ran in a week and that’s how our progression works.
What are some goals that you have for the coming cross country season?
Given that I’ve been [on the team] for a year, definitely having a stronger start to my cross country season. I’d like to [also] improve my times for the 3K and above. And even knowing what an attainable short term goal would be, because I think I often have trouble setting those which is an ironic answer to this question, but usually in my mind they’re a little bit vague and I’m just looking for general improvement, but just knowing what an attainable goal would be for where I’m at, and sleeping more.
How important would you say staying conditioned during long periods of down time without competition like summer break is with regards to improving times when in season?
I think it’s definitely important to maintain your progress that you made the entire previous season so that you can have a progression beyond just one season or one academic year of training and competing. I think it’s also important to have consistency with your body and to notice patterns and things that work for you while you’re training by yourself outside of the team setting, because maybe you’ll notice more about yourself and what style of training works for you when left to your own devices and when your focus is not on competing.
Given that you are a rising junior, will you be studying abroad in the spring and miss out both indoor and outdoor track seasons? If so, how do you plan to follow along with the team’s training?
The past two track seasons were the most fun I’ve ever had during track [and] I came to unexpectedly very much enjoy it. Unfortunately, I will be missing those because I will be studying abroad in Shanghai [in the spring]. I guess I will adapt the same way that I did this summer, which is just strive to find routes and establish habits quickly, and [to] keep in touch with my teammates and coach to maintain accountability and to remind myself why I do this. And also just to treat [running] as a fun way to explore a new place, which it is, I found that to be a good motivator. I also hope to find a running buddy or buddies to stay accountable.
