The Hill City-University athlete will be hoping to continue her recent success as she jets off overseas next month for a series of international races in a bid to qualify for her first world championships.
Greene’s year started with a bang when she broke the the New Zealand resident record to win the national women’s mile title at the Cooks Classic in January.
She finished with a personal best of 4min 32.92sec, third behind Australians Georgia Griffith and Sarah Billings, to break Anne Audain’s resident record (4min 33.93sec) set 40 years ago.
She competed at the world cross-country championships in Australia the following month, came second in the senior women’s 1500m at the national championships in March, and broke her senior women’s record at the Lovelock Relays last weekend after moving abck to Dunedin from Melbourne.
It has been one of her most consistent and pleasing seasons, under new coach Craig Kirkwood, of Tauranga.
Kirkwood, who started coaching her in August, provided a higher volume of training, but lower intensity, and a recovery week every fourth week kept her injury-free and focused.
"It’s actually really helped," Greene said.
"It was definitely the most consistent season I’ve had. Usually I have kind of burnout by the end of the season.
"I seem to have stayed in good form throughout the whole season, so I was really happy with that."
Greene (29), who is focusing on qualifying for the 1500m, will head to America next month and base herself in Seattle, as she lines up races in Portland and New York.
In July, she will head to the United Kingdom for five races with the British Milers Club and around Europe.
She has until July 30 to qualify for the world championships in Budapest in August and, while that was her focus, she wanted to enjoy the international calendar.
"I was really set on trying to qualify and that was kind of the be-all end-all, but my coach sort of said, ‘if you focus like that then you’re going to get really bitter at the system’.
"He said ‘just get over there, run as fast as you can’.
"First goal is to run sub-4min 10sec for the 1500m and then just get racing experience overseas, because it’s different in every country."
The qualifying time for the world championships is 4min 3.05sec, more than 1sec faster than the national record. Greene’s personal best is 4min 14.8sec .
"You have to go overseas now to get those higher value point races and try and improve your ranking.
"If you don’t run that time, it’s up to the New Zealand selectors to select you — leaves a bit more to chance but it is another way you can qualify."
If she qualifies, it would be her first world championships after competing at world junior championships in 2010 and 2012.
Athletics can be a brutal sport — on and off the track — with Greene having to fund herself to get herself to the international races.
"It’s been amazing, the support I’ve had so far just from all the Dunedin locals. It’s actually so overwhelming."
But it will all be worth it to qualify for the world championships and her end goal of the Paris Olympics next year.
Either way, athletics still gives her that same enjoyment as when she started.
"I think I’d be out running anyway if I wasn’t competitive.
"I love racing, I love training and I like the lifestyle that it can give you. You’re just kind of testing yourself all the time, just trying to get the most out of yourself, mentally, physically, and I just find it really fun."
