Oregon Duck junior, Alex Kosinski, took eighth at last year's NCAA Cross Country Championships, as her team took second behind Washington. Not racing this summer, Kosinski and the Ducks are getting another shipment of the top recruits in the country, including Jordan Hasay, and look to take the national championships this fall.

Can you sum up your outdoor season after you didn't make the finals in the 1,500 at the NCAA and USA Championships?

I wasn't super excited about it, but I wasn't disappointed either because I was consistently running my PR for the year. I was waiting for a breakthrough race and it never really happened. That gives me a lot of room for improvement next year. I wasn't disappointed with it because I was consistent. I just never really had the breakthrough race I was hoping for the entire season.

What would that breakthrough race have been?

I ran basically the same time every time I stepped on the track. If it wasn't a super-slow race, I would run 4:18. I was looking for a breakthrough race with time.

What are your summer running plans? Are you doing any races or anything like that?

I'm just taking it easy right now. I took some time off after track and I'm getting back into running right now. I'm starting back up again and basically getting in training runs. I don't know when I'll start doing workouts again, probably not for a little bit. I'll talk to my coaches soon and figure out when I'll start doing my workouts.

What's easy mileage for you right now?

I'm not really even shooting for a number right now. I'm just going for time, like 40 minutes or an hour, maybe six days a week right now.

How about non-running plans, are you doing anything fun and exciting?

Not really. I'm just relaxing, sitting by the pool and shopping. It's so hot here. I can barely go outside. I have to run super early. And it's like 105 today, it's hard for me to even go outside. I'm not used to this heat.

And you spend most of your days in a cool, well-air conditioned room most of the day, or how do you spend your time?

I run in the morning then...(laughs) I'll go back to sleep and nap a lot. I don't have a job or anything over the summer, so I don't have that much to do. I'll go shopping or hang out with my family a lot, like my aunts and uncles. I went to Tahoe for the Fourth of July with some people on my team and I'm going camping next week.

Going into this cross country season, what are your goals going to be?

As a team, we're getting a ton of new freshman in...like nine or something. They're going to contribute to our team a lot. I just want to improve on my times. I hope I can just run faster than I did...it's just hard to say a place. I want to run faster and as a team we want to improve on our place that we got last year.

Which would mean you winning the national championship.

Yeah, but it's hard to say.

The Ducks just picked up the biggest recruit in the country in Jordan Hasay. She's from California like you. How much have you run with her in the past and are you two close at all?

My last couple of years in high school, we raced a few times. When I went to Poland for Junior Worlds, she was my roommate. We hung out a lot there. I really like her and she's hopefully she's going to have a big impact on our team. Hopefully so will a lot of our other recruits too. I don't know what all of them have done, but I'm sure they'll contribute.

You went through the same thing they are going to. You were a top-notch recruit and you were very successful with that. What kind of advice are you going to give Jordan with her joining a team like Oregon's?

Well the thing for me was, I never thought I was very good at cross country, so I didn't have super-big expectations of myself going into the season. I didn't feel a lot of pressure. I'd tell her not to put pressure on herself and she'll have a great season.

So, what are you studying?

Sociology.

How do you think your training differs at Oregon from runners at other D1 schools?

Our training, I like a lot, because in the workouts, we never go 100% all out, like, “last interval, you're going to die on the track.” We stay relaxed and run within ourselves. I think that gives us something left for racing. We never run ourselves out because we always run relaxed on our workouts and don't race each other in practice. My training partner is Nicole Blood (Nicole Blood KWIK-E) and we always do all our training together. She's a great training partner.

You train with Nicole, who's more of a 5,000-meter runner and you're more of a 1,500-meter runner, is your training really individualized or is it individualized to the entire group that you're in?

I feel like I could do a 5k, because I can run cross country. She's like 1,500-5k. I run with her a lot because I think I'd be better at the 5k than I would at the 800. Most of my workouts are with Nicole and sometimes I'll finish up with our 800 girls, so I can get more speed in. Sometimes I'll finish up with Zoe. Mainly, I'll do every workout with Nicole.

Is there anybody else in that group, or is it just you two?

Sometimes other people will come in. If it's a longer workout, maybe other 5k or sometimes 10k people will come in. Sometimes Zoe Buckman will come in. Usually it's always me and Nicole and sometimes people come in. It's like people coming in and out of our group.

Other Oregon athletes I've spoken to are a little secretive about their training. Can you tell me a little about your training and what kind of mileage you hit during cross country?

I'm not all that high. I think I'm around 60-65. I think I'm going to try to go up a little higher this year. We do a lot of tempos during cross country and I don't really like that very much.

You like to be on the track?

I like to be on the track. In track, we'll do a lot more interval stuff and I like that a lot better than going out and doing a 20-minute tempo or something.

Does that mean that you don't look forward to cross country, or is it like each season is long enough where you look forward to the next season every time?

I like cross country. In high school, I didn't like it because I wasn't very good at it at all. In college, I started to get better at it. I like each season. Indoor is probably my least favorite. I still like it. I just like outdoor track and cross country the best.

What's the hardest workout you've ever done?

I remember a really hard workout last year. We just started the season at camp and we were running around a golf course. We did it by ourselves too, because we were just getting back and we didn't know where everyone was with their training over the summer. We were running in a line and they'd blow the whistle and then we'd run really fast. Then we wouldn't know when they were going to blow the whistle to run slow. You'd just run fast and didn't know when they'd blow it again. I just died. Everyone was passing me and I had to turn around and go my own direction (laughs). It was really hard because we went for a long time and I didn't know how long we were going to go. It had to be over a half hour. That was everyone on our cross country team that went to camp.

Looking down the road, what are your big goals in the sport of running?

I definitely want to run after college and keep running as long as I can. I don't want it to end in college. I want to see what I can do afterward.

If you could have one meal, prepared by anyone, what would you have and who would make it?

Well, my mom isn't a very good cook at all. She never cooks. My favorite food is sushi and we always go out to get it. My grandma makes really good sushi. It would be sushi from a really good restaurant where I live.

Can you give me a crazy running-related story?

A funny running story that I can think of happened my freshman year during cross country at regionals. My parents usually come to my races but for this race my grandma decided to also come. She is a little Japanese woman who is about 4’9 and has a difficult time understanding English. Well, it was right before my race and all of the teams were in the assigned boxes doing their pre-race strides. I was getting ready for the race to begin and doing my last minutes stretches and drills when I hear, “Alex, go for number one! Go for number one!” I look over to see my grandma in our starting box with one finger in the air. I don’t even know how she got into the starting area because the only ones allowed in are coaches and athletes. My coach Maurica (Powell) runs over to and tells me I have to get my grandma out of the starting area. I run over to her and try to explain to her that she cannot be here and she has to leave. She stands there staring at me confused as I frantically try and direct her out of the starting area before the gun goes off. Luckily I was able to lead her away just in time.