I am not sure how the idiom of “wearing many hats” came about, but with the changing of the seasons it is time for me to once again get out my coaching hat, dust it off, and be prepared for an adventure. My official title is “assistant women’s cross country and track coach” at Augsburg College. However, in practice I try to be a number of things: coach, inspirer, confidant…the list goes on. Whatever I may be at the moment, I know one thing for sure, I get just as much benefit out of coaching as the girls do. Helping the Auggie girls reach their goals and dreams helps me to remember that every time I step out the door to go for a run, I am doing it because I love it.
Augsburg is a highly accredited college, but it is also a NCAA Div. III school, meaning there are no scholarships to persuade athletes to commit to our program. All the athletes there training and getting an education are doing so because they love the sport too. Being around these young ladies really helps to remind me every day that I am here doing what I love and I should be very grateful for all the fantastic opportunities that I have in my life.
Tonight I am changing my hat again, back to athlete. I am competing in a local 5K, to help support one of Team USA Minnesota’s biggest sponsors – Life Time Fitness (LTF). I spend time at one of the many LTF’s around the twin cities almost every day and in the winter sometimes multiple times in a day. Without their state of the art facilities and support of our team, training in Minnesota in the winter time would be very tough. However, supporting the Torchlight 5K really is a no-brainer…race a 5K and then attend a free party! As my younger sister would say “no duh”, I am going to run.
It will be nice to run off some of the rust tonight in the 5K, after some tough weeks of training, I am looking forward to it. Last Friday I did a really tough workout of 2 ½ mile repeats over a very hilly course. I obviously didn’t learn from my 7mile race, because I once again went out too fast on the first 2 ½ miles, running under 5:20/mile pace…boy did that bite me in the butt. I was still able to finish the workout at 5:30/ mile pace, but it made the workout tough mentally. My coach Dennis had to step in and help me realize that I am stronger than I think I am, and when I put my mind to it I can do anything. Another thing I am very grateful for when it comes to coaching, that I have my own great coach.
So now, I tip my blogger hat to you and say thank you for joining me on my journey. Thank you for supporting me in my quest of becoming an Olympian!
No comments:
Post a Comment