Interview with Senior Emily GousenTwo weeks ago Arlington native, Emily Gousen led the women’s team to a second place team finish at the Lou Onesty Invitational where she also finished second in 18:06. What follows is an interview with her.
Q. How much of an improvement was your performance?
A. When I ran at Panaroma Farms my freshmen year in 2004, my time was at least 2 minutes slower. I didn't break 19 minutes in a cross country 5k until ECACs 2006, at Van Cortland Park in New York. Read more.
Q. How much of an improvement was your performance?
A. When I ran at Panaroma Farms my freshmen year in 2004, my time was at least 2 minutes slower. I didn't break 19 minutes in a cross country 5k until ECACs 2006, at Van Cortland Park in New York. Read more.
1 comment:
Q. Did you run at all with UVA All-America who won the race in 17:16?
A. To be honest, I didn't even see Emily Harrison from after about the mile marker. I was about 5-10 meters behind a pair of UVA girls for almost the entirety of the race, and it was really helpful having them to look to and keep me mentally focused.
Q. Did you run as a pair with W&M runner Kayley Byrne who finished in 18:30?
A. I wasn't really around Kayley during the race, I worked more with the UVA girls than anyone else.
Q. Did the entire top seven run in the meet?
A. At this point, we ran all the girls that are injury-free. Unfortunately, there are a handful of girls that have performed in the top-7 in past seasons, but had to sit out for various injuries. Thankfully, none of the injuries are too serious and we expect to see them out racing soon with the rest of the team.
Q. What has your mileage been like recently?
A. This has been the first summer where I have pushed my mileage. In the past, Kathy has been conservative with overall volume, but since I've been injury-free for about a year and a half now, we decided that I'm ready to up the mileage. We started the summer at about 40-45, and increased by 5 miles every 2 weeks. I've been at 65 miles a week for about 5 weeks now, and should stay there until early October.
Q. What have you done in terms of intervals this season?
A. Already we've had the opportunity to get some good quality workouts in this season. Summer training was pretty intense, and we did a variety of fartleks, pace runs, and hill workouts to get us in shape for our arrival back in August. While we focus more on base training over the summer (longer pace runs, strengthening workouts, etc.), when we get back to school there is a transition over to more speed work and shorter, faster intervals. We just completed our first mile repeats workout this past week, and I'd say it went really well. We did a workout a few weeks ago which really helped us prepare- mentally and physically- for our first race back at UVA. We did paired 1,000s on a hilly terrain at WISC. Kathy divided us into groups of about 4-6 people, and we did anywhere from a total of 4 to 6 thousands. We were given 2 minutes rest between thousands, and 5 minutes between sets (although the majority of this rest was active). She didn't give us pace targets, but instead we were instructed to start at about 90% effort and pick it up to about 95% by the end. This was a great race simulation that mimicked the tired, lactic-acid feeling at the end of a race when you still need to maintain an intense pace. We worked really well together in groups and had a very productive workout.
Q. Where do you do your interval workouts?
A. We usually travel on workout days. Our usual locations have been York River State Park, Newport News park, and a new place called WISC, Williamsburg Indoor Sports Complex. But now that our home course at Eastern State Hospital is race-ready (the grass is mowed, tree roots are marked, logs and sticks are out of the way), I think we'll be going there for the most part.
Q. What are your personal and team goals this season?
A. Kathy likes to discuss personal goals with each of her teammates, and this season I've decided that I'm going to try and get All-Region (top-25 at NCAA Regionals). I also really want to see the team go to Nationals, especially since I have never had the opportunity to race at Indiana. As always, one of my top priorities is to stay injury-free.
Q. What are some lessons you have learned from running?
A. I've learned so much about the sport of running from both my coach, Kathy, and former teammates. Kathy is living proof of how hard work and commitment can pay off. It was also helpful to have older teammates to look up to when I was younger. In addition, my high school coach Bill Findler (who recently passed away this past June and ran for W&M) was the first person to introduce me to track and cross country and he instilled a work ethic in me that I will keep for the rest of my life.
Post a Comment