Madeleine Takahashi is running in a bubble this year and so far it's working like a charm.

The Sturgis junior has won her first two cross country meets of the season with times that have even impressed Takahashi, the 2007 Class AA state cross country champion and 2009 Class AA 1,600-meter run winner. Takahashi was a little disappointed in her 2008 cross country season, so she and Sturgis cross country coach Scott Peterson looked at ways they could help her get back to top form. The biggest problem, she admits, was a matter of getting too nervous before races.

"My cross country season last year wasn't as great as I'd like it to be," she said. "The biggest races I had I would get very nervous for and I generally didn't place as high as I would have hoped to place. Then my coach and I had a talk and I came back in track and just concentrated on running for times instead of running for places. My coach calls it my bubble. He says when I'm running in my bubble I run my best. That's when I don't pay attention to how the other runners are running because you never know if they're going to be running very well or not so well that day. You can only control how you run, so I started setting time goals and if someone ran faster than me that was fine."

That talk certainly produced some results as Takahashi bounced back from a disappointing 21st-place finish at the Class AA cross country meet to win the 1,600-meter run and finish second in the 3,200-meter run at the state meet. She has taken that success and literally run with it through the summer and into the fall.

"In all honesty, this is just a continuation from a strong track season," Peterson said. "She used that as a springboard into the summer, she had a great summer of training and put in quality miles, and you're seeing the results of that now."

Takahashi blew past the field in the season-opening Dakota Early Bird Invitational cross country meet by more than 1 minute, 11 seconds, and surged past a group of Wyoming runners to win the Northern Hills Invitational in an impressive time of 14:14.39.

"I've been really pleased with how it's going, actually," Takahashi said of the young season. "My times have been faster than I was expecting this early in the season. I've been breaking every goal so far that I've set for myself."

Peterson has also been very pleased with what he's seen from Takahashi, who holds a grade point average just a hair below 4.0 after getting an ironic "A (minus)" in physical education.

"She's very smart, and not just in the classroom, but as far as her diet, how her body feels and when to back off, which is very important in distance running," Peterson said. "Last year she had a tendency to get caught up with who's in a race, who she had to worry about. This year she's doing a much better job of not worrying about her competition and just being in her bubble.

"The race in Spearfish was a good example. Last year she probably would have tried to jump ahead, but she held back and let the Sheridan girl (Danda Morin) dictate the pace, kept her time in mind and ran her race."

In addition to the solitary miles Takahashi put in this summer, she also went to a running camp where South Dakota State head coach Rod DeHaven gave her some drills to help incorporate more arm movement into her stride. Takahashi feels her mental outlook, the stride change and a little more physical strength have all factored into her quick start this season.

"He's a really good coach," Takahashi said of DeHaven. "He really helped me a lot with my form and how to take care of injuries and things like that."

Another big help for Takahashi has been the presence of a couple of strong teammates over the years - Jessica Engel and Tera Potts. Engel now runs at the University of Oklahoma and Potts competes at South Dakota State for DeHaven.

"Tera's been a great teammate and running partner for Madeleine over the past three years," Peterson said. "Tera's commitment and dedication had a big impact on Madeleine's attitude toward running. I've been lucky. I've had some incredible runners over the past couple of years. A lot of coaches don't get one of that caliber."

While Takahashi certainly has her eyes on some state goals this season, she's eyeing a different race entirely.

"I want to be able to get a good 4K time to push me into regionals," she said of the Nike Heartland Regional cross country race, which will be held Nov. 14 at Yankton Trails Park in Sioux Falls. The top five runners in that race qualify for the Nike Cross Nationals event to be held in Portland, Ore., on Dec. 5. "That's kind of the big picture right now."

As long as she remembers to take that bubble with her she'll do just fine.