College Bloggers: Erzsebet Nagy (Middlebury College) #4

Erzsie’s College Running Blog #4

Erzsebet Nagy will be a freshman at Middlebury College in the fall. Nagy had a very succesful high school running career that ended this spring with 3 individual state title (1600,800, 3200). Nagy is the Maine All-time record holder for 800m with a 2:13.50 clocking. Follow along as Nagy chronciles her summer xc training as she preps for her first collegiate season.

 

It’s hard to believe that only four summers ago I was training hard for soccer season, thinking that I would be playing in college. Running was an after thought; 5 miles was my max, which I did maybe twice the whole summer. Most of my time was spent developing my foot skills and shooting on my brother in the backyard.

How things change! The following summer when I had made up my mind to run cross country in the fall, I attended the Colby XC camp without much running experience at all (just my sophomore track season). Being new to the sport, I was kind of anxious to go to camp since everyone else had experience (or so I assumed).  I learned a lot in that short week of camp and loved my counselor Morgan Lingar, who encouraged and taught the 8 girls in my group. The morning runs, games of water polo, great dining hall meals, and new running friends all made camp so much fun, and I had no regrets about signing up. I was so exhausted at the end of the week though, and I remember eating a lot of cake when I got home.

The summer before my senior year, I was filled with excitement and pumped to begin my training. Maybe a little overzealous. When my hip pain flared up and rendered me unable to run for a whopping two months (the longest I had gone without running since I became addicted to the sport), I was absolutely devastated. I had to miss the only home meet of the season, my “senior meet” (since runners never get that senior game like other sports have). Finally, when the right doctors stepped onto the scene and I was able to train again, I still felt behind in my training. I had the brilliant idea of running 40 miles the week in between states and New Englands to “make up for what I had lost.” At the time, it made sense to me but looking back, I think that was a contributing factor to my DNF at the New England meet.

Finally, this is the summer before my college running career! When I initially looked at the training plan that our coach emailed the team, I was kind of scared. Not having ever run more than that 40 miles in a week (35 during track season was the norm), seeing that the assigned mileage climbed to 60 was quite intimidating. I knew that I would have to be careful about it and really listen to my body. Mid July, I made it up to 40 miles when I had a really bad IT band problem that left me in tears at the end of several runs. Multiple appointments of sports massage, kinesio tapings, hot baths, stretching, and foam rolling eventually cleared that up two weeks later, but it had me terrified! This week, I hit 50 miles! Other than sore legs (which is to be expected), I am feeling great and so excited to be running for the Middlebury Panthers in the fall!