Jessica Minty 's Journal

January 20, 2009 Entry (Posted January 20, 2009)

The New Year is always a thought-filled time for me, as it is for many people. I find it impossible not to think about the goals I have set for myself over the next twelve months. I am excited to work harder than ever towards those goals, and hopefully to see that work pay off with victories and new personal bests. The New Year is also a time when I reflect back on the year I have just experienced.

My first fall at ZAP can be described in one word: patience. I spent much of my days adjusting to a new life and beginning to climb back from my largest break in training. Last spring left me physically and emotionally exhausted, and it took much of the summer to for me to regain my balance before heading to North Carolina to join ZAP. Never before have I had to take such a large step backward. I therefore had no precedence for knowing how long it would take for my legs to get back under me, for my confidence to return, for my "spark" to reemerge.

It was a fall of transition. I continued to learn about myself as an athlete: my needs, my dreams. I began adapting to Pete's aerobically-centric training, putting in more miles than I ever have before. I grew familiar with a new area and lifestyle here in the mountains apart from the working world and the bustling activity of Boston. I adapted to a new family of my teammates. Transition and patience. I was working harder than ever before and waiting every day to see the results show in my performances.

While I am not back completely yet, I feel that I am beginning to come around. As the 2009 racing season begins, and as races fall into place on the calendar, I look forward to the tight, banked, indoor tracks, the sound of pounding feet around the boards, and, of course, to knowing exactly what the weather conditions will be like. I find that, as a former New England athlete, I have always appreciated indoor track. It is a safe haven from the icy, snowy sidewalks, cold temperatures, and tirelessly blowing winds. At ZAP, we place no real emphasis on the indoor season, but I simply adore the energy around the indoor track. With the hopes of being sharp by early April's outdoor meets, I am going to be racing through the winter to be ready to go when the time comes.

2008 was an incredible learning experience, but I have a feeling that in 2009 I will begin to see real progress towards the goals I have made. My teammates and I are excited to kick off our winter training in Tallahassee, FL next week. It will be a welcome change from my standard winter training locales in Boston these last two years and Maine before that. Something tells me ski goggles won't be necessary for any runs down in Florida (unlike a few days at Colby College, in central Maine). Being able to wear shorts outside in February will be a new experience for me, and I am even looking forward to putting on sunscreen ;)

Happy and Healthy New Year to you!

Introductory Entry (Posted September 15, 2008)

Greetings from Blowing Rock, NC!

I have been at ZAP Fitness just over two weeks and already I feel very much at home. It would be hard to find a more perfect runner's paradise than here in the mountains: the weather is mild; the trails are well-groomed and perfectly hilly; the views are breathtaking. Also, to my great pleasure, the breakfast spots serve bottomless cups of coffee and stacks of fluffy pancakes that can feed roughly six people. Talk about a post-long run utopia!

ZAP is an incredible opportunity for me because it allows me to focus on my training fully. This is a distinct change from the way I have pursued my sport in the past. In college, academics necessarily took center stage as I pursued a degree in economics. After graduation, my job at an economic consulting firm held precedence over running. While I still wanted to run (and run well) after college, my career left me without the time and energy to do many of things I feel I need to do in order to perform at my best.

For the last two years, I was able to run well, while at the same time working occasionally above 90+ hour weeks. It was not always pretty, but it was possible. For example, last year, at the Tufts 10K, I was in the office all day, every day, for 40+ days straight and at work until midnight the night before because we were filing a number of reports the next day. Highly caffeinated and very sleep-deprived, I was still able to run a new best time for the distance, but I will never know what I could have done if I had been able to train and rest properly in the weeks and months before the event.

While I truly believe it *is* possible to work a full-time job and run well, I felt my life was out of balance and I wanted to make a greater commitment to my passion. I am already feeling the benefits of being able to train without car exhaust and pavement, sleep more, eat better, stretch more, ice my legs and get massages, and also to simply be around dedicated athletes who share the same goals that I have.

To say that Blowing Rock is different from Boston would be a vast understatement. The two places are more unalike than alike. The only traffic one experiences here is when a cautious Florida tourist or a rafter of turkeys is in the road up ahead. The only light and sound pollution here are provided by stars and crickets. There are no Starbucks within an hour's drive. Unlike the three options I had within a 5 minute walk from my apartment in Boston. Happily, there are no loud and dirty buses blasting by me on my training loop.

And yet, like the view of Boston from the Charles River, Moses Cone Park is beautiful every morning, in the fog and rain, or on crystal clear autumn mornings. And every day, just as in Boston, I wake up excited to get to work; only now my office has just changed a bit: my cubicle is much more expansive. 'Just another day in the office,' I often tell my teammates as we run past another incredible view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

ZAP has been a huge change from the downtown Boston lifestyle, but it is one that I believe will pay substantial dividends down the road. Pete and I have set high goals for me that I am working towards every day. I wake up feeling very lucky to be able to fit my day around my training instead of building my training around my day. I look forward to writing more about ZAP and my training soon. Until then, happy running, wherever you are!