2008 Woodie Awards
Sports journal: Claudia Aguilera
The life of a cross country runner
Issue date: 9/6/06 Section: Sports
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As a Division I runner, I make a great deal of dedication to running by training all year long and balancing a nutritious, healthy diet. Along with dedicating a great deal of my time to cross country, I also have to make time for: studying, a social life, and a part-time job.
Many think that cross country runners just run around everywhere, but that's not all cross country is. Cross country consists of double days of running, along with strength training/conditioning, abdominal workouts, and weight training. Our coach, Randy Rau plans our workouts. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays are our long runs, where you see us running around Moraga, and Tuesdays and Thursdays are our hard days, which consist of speed training (track workouts, intervals, hill repeats, tempo runs, etc).
What do I go through every day? Every morning I roll out of bed at 6:30 to make it to morning practice at 6:45. Morning practices consist of a 2-4 mile run, along with strength training/conditioning exercises. After morning practice I have class and work, followed by our second practice at 4:00 p.m., when we have our more intense workouts, which vary from 5-10 miles. Along with training, as a runner I must drink a lot of water and make sure I consume the necessary nutrition for my performance.
As a senior Division I athlete, I can say I have gone through a great transition from a freshman to a senior. As any student athlete, we all experience struggles such as: injuries, illnesses, relationship issues, and many other problems. We all have our ups and downs, some of us more downs than others. Since I have been in college, I have been through a lot and luckily, have learned from all my experiences. These experiences have made me the person that I am now. I sometimes tell myself that I wish some of the struggles that I encountered never occurred, but these past experiences only have made me stronger as a person.
Despite the fact that I sometimes find myself extremely overwhelmed with my busy schedule as a student athlete, I enjoy cross country a great deal. I have been running cross country since my sophomore year in high school and plan to run and stay fit for the rest of my life. This is my senior year and my last season, and my goal is to give it all that I have and try to make this last year my best!