Nebraska junior Lara Crofford opened up her 2009 cross country season with a victory at the Nebraska Woody Greeno Invitational on September 19. Crofford placed 45^th at last years NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships, covering the 6,000-meter course in 20 minutes, 45.4 seconds. With another year of training under her belt and a quick outdoor season, we'll see how well Crofford and her Husker teammates can do this year. She provided her answers to Flotrack via email.

How did you spend most of your time this summer?
It was a relaxing summer for the most part. I spent the first couple weeks in Lincoln. I was going to take a summer course but didn’t after I was going to miss a whole week for nationals. Then I went back to Pennsylvania for the rest of it. We have llamas, goats, dogs, cats, rabbits, ducks, chickens, and turkeys. So, I spent a lot of my days helping out on our small farm. I also ran with friends from my club team in high school. It’s really nice having them so close by. I also worked at cross country camp for a week at Shippensburg University, which is about a fifteen minute drive from my house. That was a lot of fun!

Can you explain how your running went this summer? Any fun, local races or anything like that?

It was a really different summer with an increase in mileage. It got tiring at times, but you always know you are there for a reason. Overall, I ran base mileage with a couple of local races here and there. I did a five-miler, a couple 5ks and the Harrisburg Mile. The mile was a change of pace, especially for the middle of the summer, but it was fun running a fast race.

After coming into the 2009 cross country season, how's your team shaping up and what are your team goals?

We are really excited for this season. The team is shaping up very well. The workouts are going well. The conference is going to be tough this year. We finished third last year, so it would be great to equal or better that performance. We hope to be running well at Regionals, so we can make a repeat showing at NCAAs, and better our top-25 finish. It would be the first time in 10 years to make back-to-back trips for our school.

What about your individual goals?

Mainly just improving from year to year is a big goal. I hope to lead the team to another national appearance. I was really close to All-American last year, so getting that this year would be great. Also, I would like to finish high in the conference and region. I have also been trying to develop my speed.

Who are some runners around the league that you like to "key" off of OR do you not do that sort of thing?

The Big 12 has a lot of amazing runners. I don’t base my performance on any certain individuals, but there are many runners that I respect: Sally Kipyego, Lisa Koll and Jenny Barringer are all accomplished runners in the league, and I would hope to someday reach their level.

How is the team chemistry at Nebraska?

This year our team is closer than ever, in part because there are only nine of us. This makes it easier to do things together, so we are pretty tight-knit. Almost the whole team lives in this apartment complex just north of campus, so we spend a lot of time together outside of running as well. We also are very close with the guys’ team, so it’s more like one big team, rather than two separate.

Do you frequent the football games and is it pretty wild?
Yeah, I try to make it to all the home games on the weekends when I’m actually in Lincoln and not racing. The games are always wild. When it comes to football, there is no place like Nebraska! Just getting into the stadium takes a while. It’s amazing though, especially seeing the Sea of Red from the 80,000+ fans at every game. The last game was the 300th consecutive sellout!

Why did you choose Nebraska in the first place, being from PA?

It was a tough decision when it came to choosing a college. In the end it came down to Nebraska and Penn State. Ultimately, I wanted to expand my horizons and go somewhere a bit out of my comfort zone and away from home. After visiting, I loved everything Nebraska had to offer; the support, both academically and athletically, as well as the facilities, really impressed me. I also really liked the team. At the time when I visited I was really quiet, so it may not have seemed that way to them. But I’m always really quiet until I get to know people, then I’m a totally different person.

Can you explain a typical week of training for you? Mileage/Workouts and such?

We usually run on a two-week cycle, generally with two workouts a week; one is usually interval-based, and the other a lactate threshold workout. We have a medium-long run in the middle of the week, and a long run on the weekends. The rest of the days are easy runs which include drills and some core work. On the weeks that we have meets, we only do one workout and have our long run on Sunday. My typical weekly mileage ranges from 70-75 miles/week. I also lift twice a week.

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

I’ve had many tough workouts over the years, but if I would have to choose just one it would be one from this season. It was a four by mile workout. On paper it didn’t look so bad, but the conditions and location proved otherwise. We were dropped off on gravel roads for the warmup. When we reached the vans where coach was, there was a long stretch of hilly, muddy roads (it had just rained prior to the workout by the way). We ran our repeats on this road back and forth, slipping and sliding the entire time, all while climbing up hills with shoes completely caked with mud.

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

It would definitely have to be something my mom makes. She’s a really good cook. Two of my favorite things she makes are chicken stir-fry and a curry dish, both over brown rice.

Can you give me a crazy running-related story?

My craziest running-related story happened to me in high school actually. It was a home cross country meet. The course was between the middle school and high school. I was a mile into the 5k race and I was running down this hill towards the middle school. During this part of the race, I had to cross a stretch of road that exits the middle school. There was a car stopped at an intersection watching the runners go by. Right as I was crossing the road, the lady parked at the intersection decides to pull out right as I am running by. She hits me, I land on the hood, and do a little flip. It took me about a minute to realize what happened. I decide to keep running, and it was slightly painful for the next five minutes, but then I just forgot about it. I ended up winning the race and setting the course record. Afterwards, I couldn’t run for a couple days, but needless to say, they have crossing guards now.