Northern Arizona University junior Astrid Leutert, a Switzerland native, made a huge improvement at the NCAA Division I Cross Country meet last year, taking 43^rd compared to her previous year's 149^th -place finish over the 6,000-meter course. She improved her time from 21 minutes, 53.4 seconds to 20:44.6 . Let's see how she and her Lumberjacks do this season!

How was your 2008-2009 season?

It was an up and down year. The cross season went really well for me and I had been healthy and stayed injury-free through the fall. I improved a lot compared to the previous year and I just barely missed the honor of becoming an All-American (43rd). I was disappointed about that since I was so closed to it, but at the same time I was quite happy since I moved up from 149^th, the previous year, to 43^rd.

My indoor season was short but still successful for me. I run a huge PR in the 3k (9:23) at the Husky Meet and training was still going really well. Then there suddenly came a turnover at the end of March and I was feeling very tired, physically and mentally. So, I decided to take a little break from running. After that I slowly got back into training and racing and it seemed that I started to feel better again. Unfortunately, I got injured in a steeplechase race in April, which I was running just for fun without any serious training. This injury affected my entire outdoor season since I ended up having more than one stress fracture in my left foot. So, my season was pretty much over after that. The outdoor season has been really frustrating.

What are your goals for the upcoming 2009 cross country season?

Well, my first goal is to stay healthy and injury-free since I am quite injury prone and have been injured and was sick a lot in recent years. Individually, I definitely want to become an All-American at NCAAs. As a team, I believe we can do great things this year, since we will have a pretty strong group of girls. We want to qualify for NCAAs and we should definitely be able to improve on last year`s 23rd place.

I also want to qualify again for the U-23 European Cross Country Championships, which will be held in Dublin in the middle of December. There my goal will be top 20.

What are you doing for running/training this summer?

After taking two weeks completely off, I got back into training at the end of July. I have just been running easy for awhile and have started now with some runs at threshold pace. I haven't done any hard workouts yet. I will still focus on running mileage and building a good base in the next weeks.

Any races?

After my injury, I was still hoping to be able to do some races in Europe since I didn't really have an outdoor season in the U.S. Training was going quite well again, so I decided to run another 5k at a meet in Switzerland. After missing a lot of training due to injury, I completely didn't have the strength anymore to run a fast 5k, so I ended up dropping out. After that my motivation was totally gone, so I took a break.

What are your non-running summer plans? How are you spending all your time?

I went back to Switzerland for the summer and I was having a fantastic time here. I enjoyed being around my family and also had the chance to hang out with some of my best friends. I relaxed a lot in the beautiful Swiss Mountains and was biking and hiking there. I also made a short trip to Italy and Germany, was shopping, swimming and just relaxing. I also took two online classes which kept me busy for awhile and I worked for a bit.

What do you do for fun aside for running?

Coffee drinking (a lot) with teammates and friends at Macy`s in Flagstaff—the best coffee place I have ever been—relaxing, reading, watching TV, traveling and doing outdoor activities as much as I can (for example cliff jumping in Winslow, AZ).

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

Since I am not talented in cooking at all and also don't like spending lots of time in the kitchen, I always appreciate the good homemade meals prepared by my mum in Switzerland. I am not a big fan of the Swiss kitchen and prefer more the kind of food from Southern Europe, therefore I would probably ask my mum to cook me a good and fat piece of fresh salmon with grilled Mediterranean vegetables and some kind of potatoes. For dessert, I would go for the chocolate cake made with original Swiss chocolate.

Can you explain your training a little bit?

On the build up to racing season for cross country, I am running probably at 70 miles a week. In a typical training week, I am doing usually some kind of threshold run, some intervals (1,200m repeats) and a long progression run. I respond really well to the threshold runs, so they are a very important part of my training. Aside that, I am just running at an easy pace, do strides and core. It's absolutely great to do all the running on the beautiful and soft trails in Flagstaff.

Can you explain the running scene in Switzerland as best you can?

It is very different to the US. We don't have a college system with associated sports, so everyone is basically just running for a club where a coach is responsible for the athletes. Switzerland is a very small country, therefore we have not so many good runners here. Running is not as popular as other sports like alpine skiing, therefore there is not so much support. Though, in Switzerland, road races held mostly in fall and winter season are very popular among the entire population.

How hard is it to make an international team in Switzerland?

For international competitions we don't have to run trials or anything similar to that, we basically just have to hit the standards given by the IAAF and EAA. It is pretty tough to get the standards and to qualify for Europeans, Worlds and the Olympics.

In cross country, it is definitely a lot easier to qualify for international championships. There are no standards and the national coach will just decide who can make a team.

How did you find the Northern Arizona University in the first place?

I was always planning on going to the U.S. for studying and running since I liked the idea of combining school with sports. With the help of a friend from the U.S., I started to contact some universities by myself and at the same time I got contacted by schools.

At the European Cross-Country Championships in 2006, I met Coach Hayes who was the head coach at that time at NAU. We had a good talk and stayed in contact over the next months. At the end I had to choose between three schools. Since Flagstaff was known to be one of the best places to run, the school was located at altitude and there was a great group of girls, I decided to go to NAU.

What are some things that you like about training in the U.S.?

The best thing is that I have girls to run with every day. It makes training so much more fun and I also think it is essential to have other people around that can push you in workouts. In Switzerland, I had to run a lot by myself, even in workouts, which I didn't like. I also like running with a team and competing together at competitions. It is so much fun and motivating.

What are some things that you don't like about training in the U.S.?

It is not actually about the training, it is more something about the racing. I am not a big fan of doubling and tripling up at some track races here, but I guess I got used to it now(laughs). I just try to see it in a different (positive) way, maybe as a workout. I was not used to doing that before I came to the U.S.

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

Not an easy question! But I think in cross country, the 1200m repeats (usually six times) at Fort Tuthill, located a little bit outside of Flagstaff, have always felt really hard and I have been struggling there a lot in the past. The loop is pretty tough since there are no long, flat parts. If you are already tired and are having bad legs before the workout, it is going to hurt a lot.

Can you give me a crazy running-related story?

It actually just happened this summer when I was home in Switzerland. One day I have been going on a long road bike trip with my dad. We were riding up a famous mountain in Switzerland and we were both happy when we finally reached the top. After lunch, I had the idea that we could now run from that mountain to another one, which was quite the distance. My dad didn't find the idea as great as I did and he didn't want to come. After I didn't stop persuading him how great it could be, he made a deal. He said that he was going to come with me, but only if I would carry the road bike on my shoulders while running, so I would have it harder and he could keep up with me. He hoped I would say that I wouldn't do that. But I wanted to prove him wrong and was up for it. So, that was the deal. All right, we started first running up, me having the road bike on the shoulders. I was struggling but I didn't show it. People hiking there were looking pretty weird at me and they were wondering what the heck I was doing with a road bike on the shoulders and that all on a dirt path where a ton of stones and rocks were. It definitely was tough and my shoulders started to hurt. Somehow I managed to get to the top of the other mountain, but I was definitely exhausted and felt like dead after I got there. It was fun though, but really stupid as well.