Colorado Springs For A Year- The “tryout”

One of the worst parts of being an athlete is moving around. At first, it’s fun and exciting. You go places, you meet people and it’s fun.  Then you get tired of following coaches around or moving somewhere just because your coach is there.  And with track and field, you never know where a coach is going to be from year to year. I’m an adult now and pretty much sick of the run around.  So I decided to just live somewhere that was good for training…no matter who is there. If I have to do everything myself (obviously with the support of family and friends), so be it. I’ve been running since I was 5 and I doubt any one coach is going to know more about my body then me.

I really thought I would go back to Orlando after the Indoor track season, but something happened. I realized I made big strides and I did it myself.  I felt somewhat liberated by NOT having to answer to a coach.  I don’t mind it, it’s just when you have a training group that is ultra competitive (while there are huge advantages) there are huge disadvantages. You may feel forced to train hard on a day that you KNOW in your heart you shouldn’t be doing. You know that if you workout hard, it might take 3 days recovery instead of 1 day. You know you might be digging your own ditch, but you feel sucked into it.   With my past health issues with Lyme disease, I just can’t go there.  I have done well because, now that I’m more mature, I actually listen to my body. I can read it.  I don’t know too many coaches who respect that.  Then ones who do, are gems.

Brooks always respected my feelings about my health and how I was responding to training, but the problem was not him, it’s Orlando. I simply hate Orlando. It’s hot as hell, flat and boring and so humid it almost gives me an afro (and not that I’m concerned about my hair, but it makes for very hard training if you run ANYTHING over 800m. I’m seriously considering the 400 through the 1500m.  Part of training well is about being inspired. I had ZERO inspiration there and I was tired of putting ice backs in my groin between sets..just so I didn’t throw up from the heat.

Life is just different now.  I want some kind of home base.

So I think I might of gotten lucky. Yesterday I was on the track and met a Moroccan runner.  He was telling me about everyone who trains here in Colorado Springs. I was shocked. I’m NOT alone.  I’m not sure why I haven’t run into these people yet, but I surely did yesterday. There is a Bosnian girl who runs 400-800m who might be perfect for training and I also heard that some American girl named Jenny is training with Julie Henner at  Air Force. ..which also could be perfect for training.  Not to mention I can go to Pueblo (a city about 50 minutes from here and is at “only” 3,000 feet) to do speed work.  It’s perfect.

So I came back to a place I really liked, to settle in for a year and train high. I am still running Outdoors this year, but my focus after this season is 2011 and 2012 (obviously very big track years).   Hopefully I have made the right decision, but at some point you have to take a gamble (or you could say a guess) and I just did. I really hope it works out.  I’m tired of moving  sh*t out of my way.