April 8-9, 2005

June 17-18, 2005

Alex Kosinski
(Oak Ridge, El Dorado Hills)
"The Move to National Elite Status"

Joe Hartman Photo

Some of the super running done in the Golden State early in the season was by Alex Kosinski (Oak Ridge, El Dorado Hills), who went from a fine Western Regional runner in the Fall Cross-Country season to National elite level times in the spring track season with an early 4:53.50 1600m that Mike Kennedy of Track & Field News indicated was the #3 time in the nation outdoors at that time!! It is always interesting to hear from the source when an athlete makes such a jump, and it appears the improvement was the result of some good, well planned hard work, with some decisions made as to which sports to concentrate on. Alex will be part of a super Girls One Mile field at Arcadia in a week, with her answers below worth reading by all prep distance runners interested in moving up in the class!!

1) Great job early in the spring track season - your 4:53 time put you #3 in the nation outdoors - what did you maybe do differently this winter than last in preparation for the spring track season?
-- This season I did a lot of things differently then last season. One huge thing was that I trained during the off season. Last season I did no running at all until two weeks into the track season. Another big thing that I did was that I quit soccer, school soccer and club. I was making a lot more practices and getting a lot more miles in. And the last thing that I did differently was a started to double twice a week before practice to get in a few extra miles and recover my legs from the workout the day before.

2) How was your training during January and February balanced between interval training and longer runs - kind of how was a typical week between seasons organized training-wise?
-- We mostly did long runs at the begging to get lots of base. But as the season started up we started to do interval training on a grass field.

3) How fast did you expect to run in some of the early meets (like when you ran your first 4:53) - did you think you would run that fast? explain--
--At the early meets I thought that I would be in the low fives but definitly not breaking five. I was really suprised that I ran that fast and beat my times from last year at the begining of the season. It really got me excited to be running fast at the begining of the season.

4) Great race at Stanford - describe it from your end--
--At stanford I got out to a really bad start and was like at the way end pack. I kept getting stuck behind people and never really got into a good stride until the final lap. I learned that I need to get out better at larger meets like Stanford so that it wont happen again.

5) What other sports did you do while you were growing up?
--Growing up soccer was my main sport.

6) When not involved with running or school work what can we find you doing?
--I love to shop, hang out with my friends, and watch movies.

7) Last Book you read?
--The last book that I read was in school and we read The Lord of the Flies.

8) Last movie you saw?
--The last movie that I saw was She's All That.

9) Last music CD you purchased, downloaded, or have as a favorite?
--My favorite CDs are any of the Britney Spears CDs.

10) Any goals for the rest of the 2005 track season you would like to share?
--My goal is to go to the state meet and be in the top 3-5 for the 1600.

11) Eventual goals in the sport after high school?
--I want to run in college and hopefully after college too.

12) What do you see yourself doing in ten years?
--In ten years I'll be 26 and I hope to still be doing something that envolves running.

13) What advice would you have for a person new to distance running and track and field this spring?
--Some advice would be the harder that you work the bigger the reward.

Thanks - Best of Luck Alex!!