Moscow

What I believe....

1st - I believe there are things that happen for a reason. How ever I do not think God ever intended for us to just sit back and watch our lives "happen". I believe that he expects us to do, to try, to attempt, to live. There are times where things happen that are out of our control and I believe that these things that we have no control over are the "things that happen for a reason". 

2nd - I believe that Heavenly Father is very patient and really truly wants us to learn, especially the important things. God is the Master, and a Masterful Teacher. I believe that He sees us completely, our strengths, our weaknesses, and most importantly where and when we are ready to grow. And because He sees this He knows just what we need in our lives to make us grow and learn, and therefore we are presented with "tests". The "tests" at the beginning are small and guidance is given, and then once we start to make personal progress we are eventually left to ourselves to see what we will do, to prove to ourselves what we have truly learned. I sincerely believe that God will guide me and hold my hand to help me in times of need and learning, but when I'm ready He lets go, just as a parent does when their babe is learning to walk, and watches to see what I will choose.

This year has been so crazy with my running. Most of you do not know that I have been having great difficulties with my feet. A solution may be coming in the near future, but as of now it sounds like I have joint capsulitis in my toes on both feet. This started a bit last year and this year it reared it's ugly head again. It has been so painful that I have had difficulty in even walking around the house, let alone putting in miles around the track in sprint spikes.

This year started out so rough I though that I might be done running, it was so difficult to train because I would show up to practice not knowing if I would be able to do any running. Taking breaks doing cross training, getting different treatment, seeking help from those around me who's profession it is to treat these kinds of things, but to no avail. The problem remained, and persisted.

I feel I have to add that I may be crazy to train for the 400m Hurdles and even crazier to run the race, but I am not an idiot. I was told by multiple medical professionals that running would not make the problem any worse and I just needed to try and get the inflammation out of my joints as much as possible. So treatment and ice were the magic cure for me.

Fall turned into winter and with it the beginning of Indoor season. I really wanted to work my speed this year so I started racing the 60m and 200m to work on that speed. If you have read some of my first few posts you will already know that I pulled my hamstring in February this year (1st time in my life to ever pull anything, and it was quite serious). It took a good 6-8 weeks of very intense and painful rehab and treatment before I was able to get back into sprinting. But the most important thing was, I made it back and that hamstring is stronger than it was before and I believe that I am stronger now having gone through that experience, which blessing I was promised when Kyle laid his hands on my head to give me a blessing of comfort.

The indoor ended and so began a difficult outdoor season. I had ups and downs but each day was a day of uncertainty...

"Will I be able to run today?"

"Will my foot allow me to do what I must to get into shape?"

"What crazy cross training will we need to do if I can't run on the track today?"

"Will I be able to make it through workouts?"



My times reflected that this year. But I'm lucky to have such a supportive Husband and family. I also am blessed to have an incredible coach, who had to get quite inventive this year with my workouts, training, and cross training.

After arriving in Formia, Italy June 1st I met Antonio an athletic trainer who had an ultrasound machine that was not a heating, but a cooling ultrasound. This little machine (well it was quite large to be honest) took so much of the swelling out of my feet that I was able to run again, with minimal pain.

Though all the ups and downs this season I had some really great personal growth as well. I was able to find what I needed to do to run my best race. In the past I had had mental errors that cost me opportunities to run some good times and to place better in races.

Despite the injuries that I have described a bit above, the fact is I was in shape still to run some fast times physically but mentally I was holding myself back. So the coach and I spoke about believing in myself (I must believe that I can do it). Looking at my practices I had a lot of indications that I was ready to run fast, so I had a belief that I could run fast.

The thing that I struggled with the most was my focus. The funny things about focus is I was focused on my race but I was focusing on the middle of the race when my body was still at the starting line. Which is not good, my focus needs to be where ever my body is at that moment in time.

First meet in Europe this year happened to be in Torino, Italy. This race I had decided I was only going to focus on "the next hurdle", "the next hurdle", all the way until the end of the race, this way I was trying to force my focus onto the present. To my surprise and relief it worked and I had the best race of the year.

This breakthrough made me feel like I had not only turned a page in my book of progress, but I felt like I had gone through a few chapters.


On Aug. 10th I arrived in Moscow, with my first race in the World Championships just 2 days away. I was excited and a bit nervous.

The picture is dark because we are in the shadows
Kyle and I in front of the Olympic torch, just outside of the Moscow Olympic Stadium.

THE RACE
Going back to the beginning of this way too long blog entry I spoke about what I believe...
 God knows us and knows when and where we are ready to grow and progress and so gives us an opportunity to see what we will do if left to ourselves.

Well apparently after running in the first round of the Moscow World Championships I need to go back and re-read those chapters in my book of progress I thought I had just flown through, and passed with flying colors.

My mind was a little crazy warming up, it went into hyper-mode and I instead of taking my time and focusing on one thing at a time, and staying in the present I started trying to accomplish multiple things at one time. The dreaded sin of multi-tasking.

 There are times athletes speak of "being in the zone". And I bet everyone has seen athletes who are "in the zone" - if you have never experienced this the best way to describe it is...


If you can leave reality behind, and your surroundings melt away the more you read and engross yourself into your book, you my friend have "been in the zone". The only way to truly get into the zone is to be focused on the present. You cannot be thinking about how many more pages until the chapter ends, how many more chapters in the book, you must be focused on the sentence you are currently reading. It is the same with sports, you must be focused on the current task at hand. For an athlete to truly be at their best and to be able to walk away and say I did my very best today they have to be in "the zone".  I would not say I choked at Worlds, rather I would say that I gagged a bit. I ended up running 56.53 and finished 19th over all.

The good news is that I feel that I have tremendous support behind me, and I feel that I can move forward from this experience keeping my head up and remembering what I have learned here in Moscow so that the next opportunity that presents itself to me I will be ready to jump right in ready to go.

Frustrating as ever!

Moscow 2013 400M Hurdles Women Heat 4 IAAF World Championship

Italian National Finals

With a temperature of 93 degrees, and humidity at 36% - Finals were more ideal racing conditions than the previous days prelims.

I ended up drawing lane 4 for the finals and felt like I was ready to run fast. I got out well the first 6 hurdles. I was moving very efficiently, keeping 15 steps between hurdles. The last few races when changing step patterns from 15 to 16 steps between hurdles I have done a better job at making the transistion much smoother.

I ended up hitting hurdle 8 in the race with both my lead leg and my trail leg, and so I think that killed a bit of my momentum, but it did not break me - I stayed on my feet!

 I ended up 3rd over all and it was still a good race. I thing there are a few things that I need to fine tune and with Kyle arriving on the 31st of July I think we can really get to work on those things. It always feels good to know that you still feel like you can go faster and it is only small things you need to adjust to drop some time.

Just to give you an idea of how hot it was the day before, or how hot it felt like it was the fastest time yesterday was 58.

Picture on the awards stand after the race

Now preparations for Moscow can begin - but to be honest they began months and months ago in the fall when I was doing all my tempo runs and lifting weights, and all of that stuff building my base to carry me through the season. It's true what they say - "Preparation day by day keeps the heart ache away". There's nothing worse than knowing that you could have prepared better but CHOSE not to.

Italian nationals day 1

One thing true about running. I'm not sure anyone ever likes the look on their face while they are running.

Side views can be a little more flattering because the entire face is not in the forefront of the camera and you can see that the person is actually making progress on their journey how ever long or short it may be.

Apparently I have not forgotten my swimming habits of "blowing" the air out so you can take a breath when you surface again.

I am happy to say that I must not have pulled those running faces so long that they froze.

Today when athletes were asked "how did your race go?" Their reply was "It was hot", then when asked "how was your time?" The reply was "It was very hot!" Everyone just running fast enough to qualify for tomorrow. So "in bocca del lupo" to all competing in the finals. 

On the train

So after landing in Rome and taking the Lenardo express to the Rome termini station we hopped on the 90 minute train down to Formia. To our surprise there was standing room only, and the word room is used quite loosely. The train was so crowded that we didn't even attempt to enter in the main seating area, we stayed in the compartment where you first step onto the train. 

There was a good 10-12 of us standing in this area all cramped for space and just enduring the heat of the day. And for those of you who have traveled public transportation on a hot day know all too well the stench we were all soaking in.

I looked around and most people in the train car were trying to advert their eyes, choosing to look either at their phone, or out the window. Most it seemed, were just the local commuters heading home after a long day of work in Rome. One gentleman took up a position directly in front of me. 

I have really tried to learn as much of the language as possible and so had taken up the habit of packing my moms Italian-English dictionary around with me, and when I wondered what certain words were in Italian I would take out the book and look up the word. 

So being stuck quite literally in a corner of the train I pulled out my book and began just picking pages at random. (I'm sure Kyle was shaking his head at me pulling out my "I'm a foreigner and have no clue how to speak the language book")     

The gentleman across from me glanced at the book and then when he realized that I was noticing him noticing my book he looked away. 

So I asked myself "what does he think of me and my book?" So I put my book away and waited for my chance. As soon as that awkward moment of when two strangers meet each others eye - and I know all of you have had this experience before... well that moment came and I opened my mouth and asked him where he was going, this started quite a conversation. It turns out he was traveling with another guy on the train, both spoke little-to-no English so they knew more English than we knew Italian. 

As we tried to communicate, one of the guys would try to look-up words on his phone, but lost the signal as we entered the many tunnels along the way. So to continue the conversation out came the dictionary book. 

Kyle and I were asked if we were on vacation to Napoli, we said no then Kyle began to explain that I am here running and competing for Italy. The conversation turned to Bolt and I laughed and showed them my picture with him (which I had taken only a few weeks before). He laughed and said something we didn't understand and with our looks of puzzlement he enlisted the help of others around us on the train. He found another guy who interpreted for him "he says it is a fake" replied the interpreter. We laughed and said no and contributed talking by looking up words in the dictionary and eventually Kyle had them googling me. It was really very funny and once they googled me they wanted to take a picture with me.  It seemed as though they were instant fans.

So there you go, my first fan experience here in Italy. The thing is I have wondered what Italians would think of me, having the lineage but not the language down. But really they were very excited for me, and happy to meet me. One of the guys it turns out is a boxer. So we have not only the chariots of fire thing going in this little compartment of the train but rocky as well. Only in Italy right!?!

Washing machine wars!!!

As the title would imply more than one washing machine is involved in this story - the association is by name only not ability.

When I left Utah I came to Italy expecting to wash my clothes in the sink or shower the majority of the time, I was hoping to find a laundromat that on occasion I could really wash and clean my clothes. So when I discovered that Formia had not only a washing machine but 2 front load washers I was over the moon with excitement.

Thursday morning before workout Kyle and I went to wash our clothes. Both machines were being used so we left our stuff in the room and went out to workout. 

Later that day Kyle went back and found one of the washing machines empty so in went our whites and on went the machine. When Kyle came back he told me that he wasn't sure about that machine, he had to unplug it and restart it to get our clothes going. So I'm already really skeptical about this things ability to really clean our clothes. After 2 hours we go back to take our clothes out and dry them. The machine says 1 minute left, but as we sit and wait for 5 minutes we realize that the washer is not working. So we hit pause and tried to get our stuff out, however those of you with front loaders know that the door locks, well as far as the machine was concerned there was still 1 minute left and the door was to remain locked. Kyle decided to put it through a quick spin cycle and maybe that would reset it. Well after not spinning and minutes passing by, we tried other things - like unplugging the machine, I think we pushed just about every button on it and after debating about breaking the door to get out things out (my idea, Kyle said NO), I fiddled with the knob that controls the speed the machine spins at, and bam we heard the click of the door unlock and we opened the door as fast as we could, grabbed our whites which were sitting in dirty brown water and took them back to the room. 

Kyle was convinced that they were washed, I think I could have convinced him to put them in the other washer had it not been full of stuff. So back to the room, we used the shower head to try and rinse them and hung them out to dry. Upon checking to see if they were dry or not I took one of the dry fit shirts and smelled it, it was defiantly not clean, so I checked another and another. None were clean but now it was evening and so we decided to wait until tomorrow to try again with the other washer. 

We went back to the laundry room in the morning before practice and the one washer was full and washing. We were not about to use the other washer again, which was still full of water anyway. So we decided to check in a few hours. Kyle went back to check on the situation, and when he returned to the room he told me that one lady (we see her at lunch with a bunch of kids, who are not training they just show up for lunch- I think they must be orphans or something) was rotating her laundry. This went on all day, we never found a time that she was not using the washing machine. 

Determined and not being able to sleep very well because of our stiff mattresses Kyle awoke at 6am and went to put our whites in the laundry and found the washing machine to be full but not running, and being the gentleman that he is he didn't want to take the stuff out and make someone upset, so he just returned to the room. I woke up at 7:30 and went to do the same thing, and of course it was full and running, and apparently the person who put their stuff in the washer took the stuff out of the washer and just sat it on top of the machine. Later Saturday afternoon I went into the laundry room and found the lady rotating her laundry, I pointed at the machine and then at my watch she said no and showed me her other bag that was to go in after this wash finished. Then she pointed at the stuff on the washer that she had taken out, I shook my head no, and said "that's not mine". Then she had the odassity to point to the broken washer implying that I should use that washing machine. I shook my head no and pointed to the only one working. Then I put my stuff down next to the washer and left. 

It wasn't until I got down the stairs that I realized what I should have said -that she should use the broken one if it works so well. But of course I always think of these things when it's too late to say them. 

The story ends well we eventually got our whites and colors washed in the working machine. I guess I mislabeled this post because this was not a washing machine war it was more of Kyle and I getting our butts kicked by a 5 foot tall, 100 lb, very quiet woman just taking over the washing machine. I guess the only war was when we tried to extract our stuff out of the first machine that was broken. Adventures of city life and reasons why I love living in a house in a quiet neighborhood. 

Catching Up

Yes there has been a bit of sight seeing while I've been here in Italy but I do have some business that I have been taking care of as well. I cannot believe how well the Italian federation F.I.D.A.L and my club ACSI have treated me. The people in charge have just been so welcoming and inviting to me and Kyle.

My club ACSI has a blog that they give updates about their athletes on and if you would like to view it in the original format here is the link....CLICK HERE

Thanks to google translate I have been able to read about what has been written concerning my season this year so here is the google translate version...

JENNIFER FA 'SERIOUSLY: 55 "70 MINIMUM AND B TO THE WORLD!

July 7, 2013 Press Office

Jennifer Rockwell is serious. On the way back from the splendid debut with the national team in the European Cup in Gateshead and after ten days of hard training in that of Formia with the coach / husband Kyle, went to a meeting in Switzerland and today he ran the 400h winning them in 55 " 70, minimum B for the World Championships in Moscow. Third Manuela Gentiles in 56 "38. Soon we will see still at work maybe even the 400 planes away where we think it might be surprising record time.

Since they mention Switzerland, I will fill you in with that meet.

Let me set the stage for this track meet. In Italy they do not determine who will be selected to represent Italy at the World Championships through their Nationals meet, like they do in the US. The IAAF (world governing body for track and field) has come up with standards for each of the disciplines in Track and Field. There are 2 standards or marks that place you in consideration for the World Championships the A standard and the B standard. Each country at most is only allowed 3 athletes per-event at the World Championships. A country can take 3 athletes who have all hit the A standard, so for my event the time for the A standard is (55.40). Countries can take athletes who have hit the B standard but if no one has hit the A standard then that country can only take 1 athlete with the B standard, and for my even that is (56.55).

So why am I getting into the tiny little details???? Competition of course. There are 2 of us here in Italy who are running about the same time. We have both hit the B standard but neither one of us has hit the A standard. So that means that only one of us can represent Italy at the World Championships. When I first arrived I raced in Turin, Italy and my competition just happened to be at that same meet. We raced and I came out as the top Italian with a time of (56.61).

1	5	42	Muhammad	Dalila	USA	54.66
2	7	45	Spence	Christine	USA	55.99
3	3	39	Ebersohn	Annerie	RSA	56.39
4	8	44	Rockwell	Jennifer	ITA	56.61
5	4	43	Pedroso	Yadisleidis	ITA	56.86
6	6	40	Gentili	Manuela	ITA	56.94
7	2	38	Doveri	Francesca	ITA	57.05
8	1	41	Latini	Giulia	ITA	1:02.10

 Then I was selected to go to the European Team Championships meet. This meet was so fun because typically track meets are very individual but this was a team scoring meet. Each Country participating could only put 1 athlete in each of the events, points were scored by what place each athlete finished and they also had different classifications. So the top league is called the "Super League" then they have the 1st league, 2nd league, and 3rd league. The teams in each of the leagues are all fighting to get to the Super League. How do they get into the "Super League"? Well the bottom 3 countries from each league move down 1 league and the top 3 countries move up 1 league.

Super League countries this year were...

Final Standings

Pos	Country	Pts
1	Russia	354.5
2	Germany	347.5
3	Great Britain	338
4	France	310.5
5	Poland	305.5
6	Ukraine	291.5
7	Italy	260.5
8	Spain	251
9	Turkey	197.5
10	Belarus	155.5
11	Greece	152
12	Norway	137

First League

Final standings

Pos	Country	Pts	Note
1	Czech Republic	351.5	Promoted to 2014 Super League
2	Sweden	311
3	Netherlands	299
4	Romania	297.5
5	Portugal	269
6	Finland	251.5
7	Ireland	242
8	Belgium	236.5
9	Hungary	226
10	Estonia	211
11	Bulgaria	206	Relegated to 2014 Second League
12	Switzerland	206

As you can see the teams in red move down a league and the teams in green move up a league for the next European Team Championship meeting. So it was really a fun meet to run in, even if I was selected to be drug tested.

I ended up running even faster than I did in Turin, Italy with a time of (56.32). Apparently I like to finish 4th in my races.

Gateshead, England   EUROPEAN TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS

400 m hurdles	22 June, 2013
1	Eilidh Child	GBR	20 Feb 87	54.42
2	Hanna Yaroshchuk	UKR	24 Nov 89	55.27
3	Vera Rudakova	RUS	20 Mar 92	56.20
4	Jennifer Rockwell	ITA	18 May 83	56.32
5	Elif Yıldırım	TUR	11 Feb 90	57.07
6	Christiane Klopsch	GER	21 Aug 90	58.00

Even with this improvement I still did not have the A standard. But I still had the fastest time of the Italians that can represent Italy at the World Championships. 

Now here is where it gets really interesting and the battle really begins. I was not selected to go with the Italian team to the Mediterranean Games, so two other Italian girls went and represented Italy and one of them ran 55.89. So now the hunted becomes the hunter (that's me).

Mediterranean Games 2013 Results

400 meters hurdles

June 27, 2013

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Note
	4	Hayat Lambarki	Morocco	55.27	PB
	3	Lamia Lhabz	Morocco	55.51	PB
	6	Manuela Gentili	Italy	55.89	SB
4	7	Francesca Doveri	Italy	56.65	PB
5	5	Birsen Engin	Turkey	57.72
6	2	Özge Akın	Turkey	58.13
7	1	Mila Andrić	Serbia	1:01.33

Now that I have fallen behind on my mark Kyle and I were in a bit of a scramble to find another 400 hurdles race. I did have to make the decision of sitting and just waiting for the federation to decide because even though I had a slower time they in reality could choose me over her. But not wanting to leave things to fate I decided that if I had the chance to run I would. 

It was a bit of a risk for me to run again though because there are a lot of things that affect times in a track meet. For example when I ran in Gateshead, England it was very windy. The level of competition can also affect performance, if I have no one to be competitive against it is difficult to run fast.  The track surface is yet another thing that affects performance, the truth is some tracks are just faster than others. 

After contacting my agent Kyle found out about this meet in Switzerland!!! and so we booked our flight, found a hotel and off we went to the land of watches, cheese and chocolate (not very exciting for someone who is not a chocolate lover).

We landed in the Geneva airport and met other fellow athletes going to the same meet. One of them Marina Tomic a 100m Hurdler was from Slovenia. She filled my head with wonderful thoughts. She told me that everyone runs fast at this meet, she had theories about the track being shorter than a standard track and that was why everyone ran so fast. She ended up running the A standard for Worlds in her race and we got to see it happen before I raced. So positive feelings all around. 

Before this race I told Kyle I didn't want to know who was in my race. I just wanted to "stay in my own lane" and run like mad. I was just about finished with my warm up when Kyle came to me and said "do you need some motivation?". We have been married long enough, and he has been my coach long enough that I knew what he meant by this phrase - my competition for the Italian World Championship Team was at the meet and we would be racing again! - I must say it takes a really good coach who knows his athletes well to know what they need to hear before racing even if the athlete thinks they know best. I responded with "well it's going to be a good race".

I don't want anyone to think that I dislike this other Italian, on the contrary, I would love nothing more than for both of us to be able to run at the World Championships, in fact I would love Italy to have 3 girls all with the A standard racing at the World Championships, but perhaps another year. 

So this meet in Switzerland was like a mini "Trials" meet for the Italian spot at the World Championships for the 400m Hurdles. The weather was a bit windy but the thing about going head to head is that the conditions are the same for everyone and you can really compare the 2 athletes side by side and it is a fair judgment. 

Kyle filmed the race and I don't know how he did. I think he took all my nervousness from me and placed it on his shoulders and I was completely relaxed and felt totally in control of my destiny. The race was a battle to the very end, most of the race we were neck and neck with a South African in the lane between us. As we came around the turn and onto the home straightaway we had 3 hurdles before the finish line. I was running extremely well focusing on only the next hurdle and I had transitioned well (no stuttering). I felt like I was accelerating with each hurdle that I crossed and before I knew it I found myself crossing the last hurdle on a dead sprint to the finish line, in my peripheral vision I could see my competition, still there still fighting. So with one last surge of energy and trying my hardest to maintain good running posture and form I.....


La Chaux De Fonds, Switzerland 2013 
RESULTS


....not only beat the other Italian in the race but I also ended up winning the race completely!!!

So now the hunter moves back into the hunted position again. I was really wanting to hit that A standard but who can complain about a season best time right? Here is the video of the race, Kyle was standing where he needed to yell at me to transition so its difficult to see who crosses the finish line first but because you read the above you know how it all ends. Now we just wait to see what will come next.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE RACE

I'm in lane 2 and all 6 lanes are full

 

The Colosseum

What a fun day in Rome!!! A few years ago Kyle and I traveled with the BYU Women's Track team to Europe. During that trip we visited Italy, but we were in the Northern part of the country and so we did not venture as far south as Rome. So for Kyle today was a special day, he was about to see something that he had wanted to see his entire life...
                                                                                       ...the Colosseum.

It truly is amazing to see, the structure itself is the largest amphitheater in the world (according to Wikipedia). We took the subway from the Rome Temple sight to the Colosseum stop and as we were leaving the subway we could see the base of the structure before even exiting the building.

These first few pictures of Kyle do not show his face because I was following him out of the subway (and I had been here just a week earlier with my mom) and he was getting his first glimpse of the Colosseum.

Here we are at one end of the oval structure and if you look down in the center of the Colosseum you can see what looks like almost a maze, this is where props, gladiators, animals, basically anything that would be included in a performance was housed before being presented to the crowd. If you look closely you can see a stage that has been built part way out over the staging area, back in the day it would cover the entire staging area down below.

As we were being cheap and not wanting to wait or pay extra money for a tour we happened to find ourselves next to an English speaking tour so we listened in for a bit and we found out that Men and Women were not allowed to sit together at the Colosseum, men were closer to the stage, women above the men, then slaves were allowed at the top of the structure. It made me laugh a bit because the Colosseum reminds me of American Football stadiums and today the wealthy prefer to have their suites at the top of the stadium but maybe that's because of all the giant flat-screen tv's that they are packed with.

For the amount of time that we spent here and we really didn't spend that much we got to see a lot and just like single flirts would say we left wanting more. When we get a chance we will go back and visit the other sights near the Colosseum because we were told their is a lot of history "up on the hill" adjacent to the Colosseum.

P.S.

Il gelato è fantastico qui a Roma!!!