Compassion, Kindness, humility, gentleness & Patience

...Recently I've found myself reflecting on these items daily.  I'm a very optimistic person, I believe the vibes you put out into the world are directly reflective of what you receive in return. Maybe I'm just tricking myself into a happy life, or maybe this is a bunch of crap but to me it has made my life so much more rewarding to be enthusiastic about the people in my life and their achievements.

Outdoor season honestly has not gone the way I had originally envisioned it to go. In each of my steeplechases something has fallen apart. Whether it be my fault, someone else's miscalculation or the universe being mad at me it doesn't really matter. There are no excuses. 2010 was such a year of perfection of where I had come from and where I was going; so to have theses races now has been very cumbersome. Now I say that, look back at it and think wow, without theses mishaps I may not be set up to enjoy and tactfully execute greatness when the time comes. The truth of it all is that I'm in great shape so that's what becomes frustrating when not performing at my highest.

Going into the last few weeks of preperation for the Olympic Team Trials I'm actually feeling mentally and physically the most focused and ready as I ever have been for a national championship. I'm so thankful things are falling into place and that I'm showing up to the starting line without a hitch. I know in the past I have trained hard early peaked early and tried to hang on. I really think we've timed it perfectly this time. Life is all about timing ALWAYS.

I've moved from Flagstaff to Park City, Utah. It felt like the right thing to do leading up to the trials. I'm able to be around both of my coaches and I am not working 30-40 hours a week plus training(: I'm big believer of following my heart and listening to it as much as possible when the options are tangible and reasonable. The reality of the matter is that I have been searching for a big, heaping, missing piece of myself; a piece where my true talent and passion thrives. It's a good time to feel great and I'm so thankful for the opportunities as these may be my last couple steeplechases. Running at this level has been amazing. I also think I'm close to reaching my potential in my event; a goal I set out to reach when I started this professional running thing. I feel good about the realization of this. It makes me feel very at peace and happy. I feel such a strong force pushing me forward into the coaching realm right now and I'm super excited to pursue that endeavor when the opportunity comes. I will be living the dream I originally set out to achieve; although I've enjoyed the beautiful ride along the way!

                                   Hanging out with Carly and Shelbo at the Condo in PHX

                                          The view from the place I stayed in Park City, Utah

                              Rail Trail and Linds and I at Olympic Park.. "Light the Fire Within"

                                         My First Road Mile and Win in Edmonton, Alberta!

Some of my friends in Salt Lake!

My best friend Kellie and her new born beautiful baby boy Northman!

To do our Jobs we have to believe that defeat is Not an Option

Since the indoor season life has been back to the grind. Working 30-40 hours a week plus my training schedule. I love both of my jobs so it makes my life pretty stress free. I took about 10 days down after USA's that double kind of kicked my butt. It's just a little too tough for me at this time with the altitude component. It's also not entirely important but heck it was a lot of fun!

I'm still not entirely moved to track workouts on a weekly or bi weekly basis yet, which is good! Still building that strength. I think I'm almost out of this phase of training which will be welcomed with open arms! I have however opened up my outdoor track season with a win down at ASU! I ran the 3200 meters for the first time in 9 years. I ran a 2:20 personal best(10:04)! It was fun to see what I could do and a good precursor for a future 5k I will be running in a few weeks! I was feeling pretty sluggish leading up to that race so to come out on top was a huge accomplishment. Once again I was able to play with some race tactics that will help me later on down the line. That day was about hanging on and saying yes until it was time to kick and kick is what I did.

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to have the ASU coaches put on a 2k steeplechase simulation for me the morning of their meet. I ran 6:39 by myself on an outside water pit (not my jam). This time is 8 seconds faster than I ran last year in the same type of race simulation; once again hosted by ASU. It was so great to have Coach Kepler there to scream at me splits and tell me when I was falling off. My second lap was actually my slowest. This is a good sign for me, that means I had a lot left and could have ran another K at that pace. I'm super excited to open up my steeple season next week at Stanford. Hopefully it will own my steeplechase PR once again, but that will be a mighty big feat to open up that fast!

Here is a video of my best water jump from last week: (Thanks to Andy Ponce de Leon)

"A person like me can't be stopped. If I put it in my mind they can't stop me... Ain't gonna stop me"- Friday Night Lights

It's time to discuss what's going on currently in my life and let's finally talk about the U.S. Indoor Championships. For those of you that have not seen the 3k, check it out here on RunnerSpace: http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=25&do=videos&video_id=59994
Obviously, I lead for most of this race. When I saw the start of the race developing into a 10 minute 3k race, I wasn't interested anymore in my initial race plan(hanging out for the first mile then hammering with everything I had). I immediately laughed; then got to work on clipping off :76's, what I thought would be fairly realistic for me to run at 5,200ft. Once the group caught up to me my mental and physical capacities were blindsided. I gave into the pain of altitude and crumbled slightly but had I not gone for it I would have never gone to that dark place. This was important in my training because I have only been on the track for workouts a handful of times during this indoor season so each race has been another opportunity to test my fitness and get a little bit more fit. The following day in the 1500 I was able to execute a proper race plan coach Kep and I pieced together. I went with 600 to go, made moves on the straight aways and hit a huge freakin wall with 300 meters to go!!! I absolutely had nothing left! It was great!

The following week I was to continue training but that huge wall I hit took a few bricks out of me. I decided to listen to my precious body and give it some rest. I saw my massage therapist, Monica. She fixed my SI joint. It had been out for a few weeks leading up to USA's but I didn't wanna do anything out of the ordinary so I just dealt with the pain. I'm back on course now. First hill workout in awhile today, long run with progression in the middle on Sunday, light threshold Tuesday followed by a lil steeplechase track session Friday night in beautiful, warm Tempe! I hope everyone is having a fabulous week!

XX -ShayShay

The view at 7,600ft after my hill workout this morning!

I also celebrated my 27th birthday while in Albuquerque(:

200 meter into the 3k when I suddenly realized my race plan was changing before my eyes!

Positivity, PR's and No Problems

Baby Sis, Shelby and me after our first ever track race show Down(: at the Dempsey.. we both came out on top(2 PR's and a Sun Devil School record)!

The girls after our races! (Me, Dawn and Linds)

Here we GO! All aboard! Yep, we're back on the PR train folks. I'm so stoked with the process that is currently happening in my life. I enjoy each and every opportunity to get on the track and improve a little bit more, each stride of the way. I'm currently in a strength phase of things which makes it a little bit tougher to sprint at the end of a race. For example, earlier in the week I've done a 2 hour run with a fast progression in the middle, plus the 70 or 75 miles I've ran during the week on top of that! I'm sure not complaining about it though these workouts are pertinent to what will come later(June 25th and 29th). I'm feeling stronger and strangely more confident than ever. This weekend taught be a few good racing techniques to take with me to USA Indoor Championships in 2 weeks. What are those? 1. Committ and say 'Yes' the instant a move is made in the race(no hesitation). 2. Be an Ass kicker(sorry for the language but it goes back to my Northern Iowa roots). The mental aspects of my races have been tough now for almost a year but I have to go back to where I came from and remember how to do things the right way. My workouts are where they should be for this time of year so now is the time to put it all together. In both of my races I responded very well but was a little hesitant and at the end when I should have kicked I didn't. Now is the perfect time to learn from my mistakes with just under 2 weeks to go to USA's! I'm stoked, I'm committed and ready to say 'Yes'. Hope y'all are aboard when the train leaves(:

Steeplechics Gone Leuven

Up and Down the Streets of Leuven

Here are some of the things that have been going on in the last week. This is what I like to call Europe Part 1..

1500 Steeple Time Trial-Brought to you by 7,000 ft.

Here is a little preview from a week and a half ago of how my training has progressed since what I would call a poor showing at USA's. I was able to go back to Flagstaff, refocus and figure out who I am and what I want as a runner. At 7,000ft you take about 12-13 seconds off for a 1500 meter flat race, so you can do the math. This was a great glimpse of what is to come on the track here in Belgium. I for the first time all year was able to gauge what I was capable of running on that given day. I trusted the work I had put into my training the previous month and went for it. Stay tuned to my blog for more videos! Sherill, Sharin and Sharindsay have a lot more entertainment for y'all!