Injury Teaches A Lesson
After Easing Up A Bit, BC Runner A D-3 All-American
Posted: November 23, 2012
BRIDGEWATER – As strange as it sounds, Olivia Mills breaking bones in both her legs may have helped her become a better runner.
Now a senior for Bridgewater College’s cross country team, Mills was diagnosed with stress fractures in both shin bones last winter, shortly after just missing All-America status at the 2011 NCAA Division III championship meet. Like most stress fractures, Mills’ injuries were due to overuse – in part because, as she put it, “I don’t really take my easy days that easy.”
In the following 12 months – which also included a back injury last summer – Mills finally was forced to back off before gearing up to full throttle … and now she’s the first All-American in BC women’s cross country history.
Mills, a 21-year-old Fredericksburg native who won her second straight Old Dominion Athletic Conference Runner of the Year award this season, finished her cross country career with a 26th-place showing at nationals on Saturday, completing the 6-kilometer course in 21 minutes, 49.3 seconds. Finishing in the top 35 made her a Division III All-American – an honor that slipped through her fingers at last year’s meet, when she faded from 30th to 42nd in the final 1,200 meters.
Part of the reason she didn’t fade this time, Flynn believes, was getting hurt.
“Because her body was beat up so much [before the injury], I think it forced her to run easier when she needed to run easier [during practice],” said Flynn, in his third year coaching the Eagles. “In the past, she really wouldn’t take her easy days easy. She would work hard between her workout days, which I think would make the season a little bit longer and drag on, and her body would be a little bit tired by the end of the year.
“… By listening to her body, not only did it help with her injury, but it also helped with how her body felt at the end of the year.”
The stress fractures did prevent her from running for nine weeks last winter – Flynn said he came close to having her take a medical redshirt for the entire outdoor track season. But she kept in shape through pool workouts and ran a personal-best 17:02 in the 5,000-meters to earn an invitation to the D-III outdoor track championships. At the national event May 26, she ran a 17:26 to finish 10th – also just outside the All-American level, which is the top eight runners.
“I was definitely shocked,” Mills said of her PR-race. “…I was, like, singing, and I was just excited beyond belief, because I couldn’t believe that I had just gotten a time like that.”
Over the summer, lower-back issues often forced her to replace running workouts with physical therapy sessions and strength training this fall. She was careful, though, to incorporate easy days into her routines.
And off days weren’t the only occasions where Mills had to learn to ease up.
For most of her college career – which included a year at NAIA school Montreat in North Carolina before transferring to BC, which is closer to her hometown – Mills habitually started races running too fast. She would tend to fade in the final stretch – as she did at the D-III cross-country meet last season, where she ran in the top 35 the first three miles of the roughly 3.7-mile race before fading to 42nd.
So this season, in addition to taking her easy days easier, she also learned to pace herself at the sound of the starting gun.
“I would be like, ‘Oh, I feel great!’ and go out really hard, and then feel tired later,” Mills recalled of races such as the 2011 nationals. “The end of the race is at the finish line. It’s not at the mile mark.”
This year, Flynn said they decided to treat the first 3 miles “like a workout” before starting the real race in the last 1,200 meters. And this year, Mills gained ground, moving up from 33rd to her 26th-place finish.
As she spoke in Flynn’s office this week with the All-American medal hanging round her neck, Mills said she was “beaming” when it was first wrapped around her in Terre Haute, Ind. Formerly a swimmer and even a competitive bowler before taking up running in high school – she didn’t even know what the term “cross country” meant until she was a high-school freshman – Mills repeatedly said she’s been unsure of her abilities throughout her career, even as the accolades have piled up.
Becoming an All-American after two broken legs was no exception.
“Going to nationals the last couple years, and watching the All-Americans up there on stage, I never thought that I’d be one of them,” Mills said. “It’s pretty exciting.”
Now a senior for Bridgewater College’s cross country team, Mills was diagnosed with stress fractures in both shin bones last winter, shortly after just missing All-America status at the 2011 NCAA Division III championship meet. Like most stress fractures, Mills’ injuries were due to overuse – in part because, as she put it, “I don’t really take my easy days that easy.”
In the following 12 months – which also included a back injury last summer – Mills finally was forced to back off before gearing up to full throttle … and now she’s the first All-American in BC women’s cross country history.
Mills, a 21-year-old Fredericksburg native who won her second straight Old Dominion Athletic Conference Runner of the Year award this season, finished her cross country career with a 26th-place showing at nationals on Saturday, completing the 6-kilometer course in 21 minutes, 49.3 seconds. Finishing in the top 35 made her a Division III All-American – an honor that slipped through her fingers at last year’s meet, when she faded from 30th to 42nd in the final 1,200 meters.
Part of the reason she didn’t fade this time, Flynn believes, was getting hurt.
“Because her body was beat up so much [before the injury], I think it forced her to run easier when she needed to run easier [during practice],” said Flynn, in his third year coaching the Eagles. “In the past, she really wouldn’t take her easy days easy. She would work hard between her workout days, which I think would make the season a little bit longer and drag on, and her body would be a little bit tired by the end of the year.
“… By listening to her body, not only did it help with her injury, but it also helped with how her body felt at the end of the year.”
The stress fractures did prevent her from running for nine weeks last winter – Flynn said he came close to having her take a medical redshirt for the entire outdoor track season. But she kept in shape through pool workouts and ran a personal-best 17:02 in the 5,000-meters to earn an invitation to the D-III outdoor track championships. At the national event May 26, she ran a 17:26 to finish 10th – also just outside the All-American level, which is the top eight runners.
“I was definitely shocked,” Mills said of her PR-race. “…I was, like, singing, and I was just excited beyond belief, because I couldn’t believe that I had just gotten a time like that.”
Over the summer, lower-back issues often forced her to replace running workouts with physical therapy sessions and strength training this fall. She was careful, though, to incorporate easy days into her routines.
And off days weren’t the only occasions where Mills had to learn to ease up.
For most of her college career – which included a year at NAIA school Montreat in North Carolina before transferring to BC, which is closer to her hometown – Mills habitually started races running too fast. She would tend to fade in the final stretch – as she did at the D-III cross-country meet last season, where she ran in the top 35 the first three miles of the roughly 3.7-mile race before fading to 42nd.
So this season, in addition to taking her easy days easier, she also learned to pace herself at the sound of the starting gun.
“I would be like, ‘Oh, I feel great!’ and go out really hard, and then feel tired later,” Mills recalled of races such as the 2011 nationals. “The end of the race is at the finish line. It’s not at the mile mark.”
This year, Flynn said they decided to treat the first 3 miles “like a workout” before starting the real race in the last 1,200 meters. And this year, Mills gained ground, moving up from 33rd to her 26th-place finish.
As she spoke in Flynn’s office this week with the All-American medal hanging round her neck, Mills said she was “beaming” when it was first wrapped around her in Terre Haute, Ind. Formerly a swimmer and even a competitive bowler before taking up running in high school – she didn’t even know what the term “cross country” meant until she was a high-school freshman – Mills repeatedly said she’s been unsure of her abilities throughout her career, even as the accolades have piled up.
Becoming an All-American after two broken legs was no exception.
“Going to nationals the last couple years, and watching the All-Americans up there on stage, I never thought that I’d be one of them,” Mills said. “It’s pretty exciting.”