Rising to the Occassion 

By Scott Bush

After a runner-up performance at the USA Club Cross Country Championships at the end of 2013, Amy Van Alstine entered her 2014 racing season with high hopes and great momentum. The University of Richmond grad ran personal bests across the board, on the track and on the roads, while joining Northern Arizona Elite this January. Then came the USA Cross Country Championships...

In Boulder, Van Alstine ran strong and threw down a decisive move with less than a mile and a half to go, one the field simply couldn't handle. The final margin of victory, 22 seconds, shocked running fans from coast-to-coast, as Van Alstine took home her first U.S. title. 

We caught up with the Flagstaff-resident recently, discussing her U.S. cross country title, the drama behind her NACAC Cross Country Championship no show, what's led to her big performances over the past year and much more.

Stay in Touch with Amy: Twitter | NAZ Elite Bio | Video at USA XC Champs

Scott Bush (SB): You were supposed to compete in the NACAC Cross Country Championships, but had some travel issues (to say the least). What happened?

Amy Van Alstine (AVA): We had A LOT of travel issues. Pretty much, everything that could've gone wrong, did! It was a very frustrating 3 days! It finally came to end for me when I wasn't able to get on a flight to the Port of Spain due to weigh restrictions on the plane. I was on standby for that flight and was told I would definitely have a spot. Due to their certainty, I paid to stay in Houston overnight to make the flight the next day. Well, I'm not sure why I believed them after everything else that had happened. They had 3 seats open and said they couldn't allow any more passengers, because of the weight restrictions. I tried to convince them by telling them "I'm a little runner" and also the fact that United is our team USA sponsor and somehow can't get me on any planes, but no luck! They had already sent my bag to Trinidad and Tobago, which they weren't supposed to do, since it was an international flight. I still don't have my bag.

I could go on for a very long time about how disappointed I was with how United handled everything, but I won't!

Moving on to the positive part of the weekend, the team had enough girls to score and dominated the team competition. Kellyn also won individually, which was awesome to hear!

I wish I could've been there to compete for Team USA for a second time, but I guess it was not meant to be. Next time, hopefully everything will go smoothly.

SB: Congratulations on your big USA Cross Country Championship victory! What an impressive race. Knowing what your race strategy was coming in, how did the race play out for you?

AVA: The day before the race, I envisioned a bunch of different scenarios for how the race might go. I always do this but I realize it's pointless! The way the race played out suited me well though and I couldn't have asked for a better scenario for me. Our coach, Ben Rosario, wanted us to stay relaxed through 4k, and be very aware of what everyone else was doing, so we could make a move, if necessary. Going into it, I didn't think anyone would be willing to take it out, since everyone would be worried about the altitude. I felt really good, so I just continued to increase the pace without getting out of control. The race was really similar to a lot of workouts we do in Flagstaff, where patience is important and you must increase the speed gradually. I knew I wanted to save a good amount of energy for that last 2k lap and wanted to make sure I didn't hit the dreaded "wall".

During the race, I was thinking I needed to get away from Jenny Simpson and try and increase the distance between us. My worries were having Jenny close to me and having it come down to a sprint, which could've been bad. I mean, I have a decent kick, but not a Jenny Simpson kick!

As I approached the final lap, people kept calling out my lead of "10 seconds" or "30 seconds". Since I wasn't sure, I tried to not let it bother me and just kept focusing on staying mentally in the race. 

SB: You had a terrific runner-up performance at the USA Club Cross Country Championships. What did you learn from that race that you applied in Boulder?

AVA: Well, I think the courses were very different, so I ran them completely differently. I do think that having a cross country race under my belt before Boulder definitely helped.

Since I hadn't run cross country in over 2 years, I was very nervous before clubs and didn't know what to expect. I definitely felt more prepared for Boulder and was more confident in my training.

SB: What has training been like for you over the past few months? What type of work are you putting in?

AVA: Training has been different than with my previous team, McMillan Elite. My mileage is a bit higher and the workouts are slightly higher intensity for me. I think with McMillan Elite, being conservative with training when I first moved to Flagstaff worked well for me. I was with McMillan Elite for over a year though, so the change in training was necessary for me to continue to improve.

The first month with the new team took some adjusting and I wasn't feeling very confident due to some mediocre and even bad workouts. Luckily, it only took me a month to really adjust to it and start feeling the benefits of the harder training.

Before cross, we did a lot of workouts on grass to prepare, which helped a lot! Looking back, one of the best workouts in preparation for cross was a 5 mile cut-down workout in Flagstaff @ 7000 feet, which basically simulated how the race went in Boulder for me. In the workout, we ran 6:00, 5:50, 5:40, 5:30, and finally 5:20. It started out feeling very comfortably and then the last 2 miles were really hard. I did hit the "altitude wall" and had a lot of trouble the last 800 meters. I hit 5:21 for the last mile though and was happy I was able to cut down almost perfectly with the help of our awesome pacers. (Tully Hannan and Tommy Rivers Puzey)

Also, the week before Boulder, Ben had us run an indoor mile in Flagstaff. Kellyn and I ran 4:45 and 4:46converted to 4:35,4:36 or so at sea level.The race was a rust buster and gave us a taste of the lovely feeling of racing at altitude. 

SB: With so much success in cross country, what does the rest of 2014 look like for you in terms of competing? Will you focus more on the roads or track or both?

AVA: I'd like to focus on the 5k on the track and then have a mixture of road races in there. I will be racing distances on the road from 5k to 15k, so kind of all over the place. I've been wanting to run the longer distances on the roads for a while but my mileage was pretty low, so I've been slowly working on getting my mileage up, so I can compete at a high level at the longer distances. My first longer race will be Gate River 15k, which I am very excited about racing.

SB: You're part of Northern Arizona Elite and things seem to be going well. What's the team like and how's the group helping you reach new levels of fitness?

AVA: The team is great! We have a total of 4 women right now and each one brings something great to the table. We have Stephanie Rothstein-Bruce, who has been around a little longer than the rest of us in the professional running world, so she is always giving us great tips and advice. Then we have Maegan Krifchin, who is a half-marathoner/marathoner. Kellyn Johnson and I are more into the shorter, quick stuff, but Kellyn does the half-marathon as well and will be debuting in a marathon most likely this year. We work well together, because Kellyn and I are more into speed, while Maegan and Stephanie are more into longer, endurance type stuff.

I think the dynamics are great and the vibe is positive. For me the training environment is very important and I like it to be a happy one! Our coach, Ben, is 100% behind our group, encouraging us and pushing us to get better each day. It will definitely help us get to that new level of fitness. 

We also have 5 fast, dedicated guys on the team who have similar goals. It's very motivating and inspiring to be a part of each team member's journey and I look forward to reaching the next level with all of them!

SB: You came out of the University of Richmond, where you were a very good runner, but not quite at the very elite ranks of the collegiate level. How have you progressed since graduating college and what do you feel has allowed you to continue improving so well?

AVA: I attended the run pro camp the summer after graduating college and decided I wanted to continue my running post-collegiately. I trained in New Jersey for a while after college until moving to Flagstaff in March of 2012. I had a really successful last year at Richmond, where I was consistently training, which was and still is very important for me. I had a nagging calf injury that was affecting this consistency and finally, we figured out how to prevent the injury from putting me out for weeks. The secret for me was ice baths, deep massage and then graston. I had a lot of scar tissue from when I originally injured the calf muscle and that's what the problem was! I kept reinjuring it and it became a not-so-fun cycle of getting fit and then getting sidelined after racing on the track. Thankfully, I almost have it all figured out.

Once moving to Flagstaff, my coach, Greg McMillan, had a very conservative approach to my training, which was smart and worked for me. I wasn't doing anything crazy and really stayed running easy paces. My workouts were also not super high intensity.  I raced two months after getting there and had a big pr in the 5k at Payton Jordan. That gave me a confidence boost and I knew I made a smart decision coming to altitude to train and put my trust in my coach.

The altitude has been a big factor for me in my progression. I was lucky I didn't have much trouble acclimating to it and am a strong believer in the benefits of altitude for training.

It also helped to have so many professional runners to look up to in Flagstaff as a young runner. The combination of seeing random professional runners throughout town and training/spending time with my teammates has been a great motivating factor for me. I'm pretty convinced that Flagstaff is the absolute, perfect place to train. If only, I could get my whole family to move here!