Well the summer has finally come to a close. The past 9 weeks have been full of work and running and I have loved every second of it. I am currently sitting on the couch at my house watching the US outdoor track championships and waiting to leave for work in about an hour. The past week was one of my busiest yet. While I had Wednesday off at my internship, I used that time to start research on my final project, which I explained in my blog post last week. I have found a few different injuries that have an increased risk when super shoes, or max cushion carbon fiber plated shoes, are used too much. I will be giving a presentation on my findings to the physical therapists on Wednesday morning, which will be my last day at the PT. 
Outside of my research and working, I have been spending the rest of my time running, working, eating, and sleeping. I hit my first full 100 mile week of the summer after coming close, but not quite hitting the full amount, in 2 of the last 3 weeks. I worked 35 hours at Domino’s, spent 8 hours at the PT on Tuesday, and had a double workout day on Tuesday. I also went to another group run on Friday. I got an invite to do a workout with the Army WCAP team, headlined by 2x Olympic medalist Paul Chelimo. Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures with the team, mostly because when I am in an environment like that I do not want to come off as starstruck, but it was an incredible experience to be running with a group with that much success. I ran a half marathon personal record in that run and crashed for a 2 hour nap right when I got back before work. I always shoot for 9 hours per night of sleep because of how hard I am pushing my body in all of my other endeavors. Now that I am finished with both jobs, balancing training and schoolwork is much easier than balancing training and working. That has me very excited for the upcoming season of cross country.
As the summer ends and I head back to school, you will be able to find me in Mount Vernon living my life essentially the same as I did here. My only goal for the season is to win the cross country national title in November. My coach and I have agreed that we can throw away the entire regular season of racing in pursuit of this goal. If the readers follow Cornell cross country at all this fall, they will see the team led by newcomers and younger student-athletes for most of the season. I will be base building. The 100 mile weeks and double workout days will continue until mid October, when I will open my season. Cornell has had one women’s cross country national champion but never a men’s champion. I am hoping to end this streak and bring another title back to The Hilltop!
Besides the ever-present running grind, I will be finishing up the last few prerequisites for PT school as well as my last few required credits to graduate. I have a sports psychology class coming up that I am extremely excited for! I am still deciding my exact plans for the next few years. I am trying to get into PT school at Iowa, but I also have a PT tech position at Boulder Run Physio if I want to move back to the Boulder area! I hope that at least a few people followed along with my summer. It may not have been exciting compared to some of the other summer internship students, but I have worked extremely hard for the last two months, and I was so busy that I did not have any time to get into any kind of trouble. I am very excited to get back onto campus and see all of my teammates and friends again while still living the same simple lifestyle that I did all summer. I believe that I accomplished my two big goals of making connections in the PT and running worlds, and I am excited to see what the future brings in those endeavors.