Canada has been good to me so far!

Last year I was training in a unique way. As a Volunteer Coach at Oakland University, my training took place with the Oakland Track Team, before or after their practices, or at completely differnt times. It was a long year training like this. When it came to outdoor training I was beyond exhausting myself. Working a night shift job (4pm-1:30am or 3am) I would get home and eat another meal before sleep, and getting up at 7 or 8 am to get to the Oakland practice, then do my workout, then head to the university to do my lift. By the time I got home I would eat lunch, make my work lunch, and shower and head to work again.

After a while of this schedule I met my current coach, Shelby Johnson and my schedule had to change a bit so I wasnt destroying my ability to train. At this point my coaching was limited and it made sense for me to focus on me.

My season to this point was not sucessfull, I had crashed, and been DQ'ed. Finding a new coach couldnt have come at a better time. Work with Shelby was different for me, being that he was a very hurdle specific coach. My training week consisted of 3 days a week of lifting and 6 days of hurdle work at the track. 6 days a week on hurdles was very intense but we only had a few weeks to save my season.

My first and second race after begining with Shelby, my goal was to finish the race. At this point he wanted me to start refining and look for races in Canada. I had never really considered Canada as a place to race but I began activly searching for races. The first meet I found was at Windsor, a short 1.5 hour drive from home. Being close, my coach and father were able to make the trip with me. This race was the first time I saw improvement in my time, not only on my season but on my career. (Keep in mind I was coaching myself at a univeristy without an indoor or outdoor track). On the season to that point my best was 14.8, this one round meet I ran a 14.55, a .16 career (42') record.

I then found a meet in Toronto, so 2 days later I found myself driving to Toronto with my dad. Toronto was another good meet for me. Running 14.54 and 14.38, I kept taking time off my career best. Although this was a good result and I was very happy finally seeing times drop a bit, I wanted more. I met a female hurdler who had been at the Winsor and Toronto meet, who suggested I go to Ottawa for my next meet.

3 days later I was on a plane to Ottawa with my dad for a quick trip to race. My first race that day was not the greatest, breaking my streak of personal bests because I was the fastest slow hurdler that day. My time was good enough in heats to be in the A Final, and that meant I could chase down some faster guys, and that is what I did. Finishing at this meet with a 14.31, a total personal best improvment on the week of almost half a second. All together in that 8 day span I ran:

• Thrusday - 3 time trials (practice)

• Saturday - 1 race

• Tuesday - 2 races

• Saturday - 2 races

During this Tour east through southern Ontario I raced against around the top 15 of Canada's 110m Hurdlers, all of whom ran in the Canadian National Championship.

I wanted more....So I found a low key meet in Calgary to see if I could continue to imporve my time. The first week of prep for this meet I was still on the high of that Ontario tour. I ended up running a time trial with a hand time in the 13.7 range...first time ive ever seen a 13.

The unfortunate thing about the improvements I made in the 8 or 9 weeks I had a new coach was that it took alot to do. I was training 6 days a week. All of this kicked my butt and the week leading up to Calgary my body finally said it was in charge again. I raced in Calgary, won easily, but was nowhere near my best time. This was clearly the end of my season.

I worked hard, saw results, and was excited to continue after a bit of rest.

Canada was good to me so far!