Road to NBNI Blogs, 2015: Kate Hall, Week 2

by Kate Hall

Kate Hall's Road to NBNI Blog, Week 1 |
 

Hello again!  I hope everyone is having a wonderful season!

After my state meet, I took a couple of days off to just let my body relax and recover before I began my last few weeks of training before New Englands and New Balance Nationals.  This past Thursday, I began bringing the volume of my workouts down in anticipation of these big meets coming up.  This is my favorite time of year.  Not only because I’m pumped for the big meets, but also because I love, love, love training at high intensity and low volume.  It’s kind of like replicating the events I do in a way, and I think that’s why I like that kind of training so much.  I run a really short race, but I do it as fast and as powerfully as I can.  It’s the same thing as my workouts right now.

Another thing that has come up with my track life is that I have found out who I will be rooming with in the fall at Iowa State University!  Before I get into that situation, I’m going to explain the reason why I picked Iowa State as my future home in the first place (signing day photo at right).

I took four visits in the fall. My first visit was to Louisiana State University, my second was University of Georgia, my third was University of Oregon, and my last was Iowa State!  Each college that I visited was absolutely amazing and the best part was seeing the differences in each one that I took a visit to.  Each one had some REALLY good positives, and some had some negatives as well!

The thing with Iowa State that kind of stood out from the others though, was that there was literally not one negative about that school and track program.  It was actually a last minute decision to visit ISU.  Coach Brooks came all the way out to Maine on a couple of different occasions to not only meet with me, but also with my trainer, Chris.  Because of this and also a long e-mail from Coach Brooks explaining his plans for me, I was immediately convinced to take a visit out to Ames, Iowa. 

My visit to Iowa State was definitely more personal than the others.  It felt like I fit in with most of the team members from the start and they were all very, very welcoming and friendly.  I already knew a couple of other Mainers who run there as well.  Also, my visit wasn’t your typical football game and bowling.  A couple of the girls took me to a pumpkin patch and we carved pumpkins and also made caramel apples.  We were planning on watching a scary movie as well, but we didn’t have time after all of the pumpkin carving (photo below).

Along with the good experience with the team members, Coach Brooks was the most individualized coach that I had seen yet.  Even though there were five to ten people doing a workout at once, he was there helping every one of them get through each step the correct way.  I was convinced that he truly knew his stuff from the way he really took his time and refrained from jumping into things too quickly.  One thing with me is that I have had a trainer for a very long time, so I have been trained individually most of my high school career.  I was really taught the importance of quality, and not quantity, and Coach Brooks no doubt reflected the thoughts in my mind in terms of the importance of taking the right steps (even if they are baby steps) to truly understanding the things he is trying to teach.

Lastly and very importantly, ISU has exactly what I want for my major, which is kinesiology.  From the moment I learned about what they had to offer for academics, I felt comfortable with pursuing what I wanted to do at Iowa State.

So in the end, it was a fairly easy decision for me to choose ISU.  I can’t stop thinking how I cannot wait to become a host for athletes being recruited so I can tell them my story and hopefully make them feel as comfortable, happy, and confident as everyone else made me when I was there.

As far as my roommates go, I found out that I will be sharing an on-campus apartment with my host from when I was there – and also with another long jumper from Venezuela, who spent a lot of time with me when I was there as well!  I am overjoyed to be rooming with people who I already know I will get along with and have fun with.  I can’t wait!

Good luck to everyone in your upcoming meets!

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