january 25-29

This week during cross country practice wasn't that exciting. this week i have been more tired than i have before. I've been loaded down with all kinds of homework, and ive been staying up late. Lately my days have consisted of waking up early, going to school, practice till 6:30, get home around 7 o'clock, take at least 30 minutes to eat, then do my AP U.S History homework and pre-cal till about 10 and then go to bed, and do it all again. My energy has been running thin thats for sure. So this week on monday we ran about 6 miles at a 7 minute pace and that was pretty tough but i made it through. On tuesday we didn't hae school because of snow, and coach couldn't run with us that day so i took a day off, but don't tell anybody! Then on wednesday we had a workout and i'm pretty sure i almost died. We had to do three 1 mile repeats and he wanted us to do them all out sprint as hard as you can, and i was so tired. I ran as hard as i could but i know i didn't do very good. I'm not that great at running hard for less than 2 miles. i'm better at running distance at a good pace. Thats why i run half marathons instead of measley little road races. So the entire time i was running i just wanted to stop and cry because i was so tired and our worouts and runs have been so tiring, but i pushed through and made it to the end of practice, coach always says discipline makes you tougher. Also i think last weekend was our UK track meet, which was SO much fun. I got second place in my 800 race and our team didnt do so good in the 4x800 because one of our runners wouldn't hand me the baton so we lost some time and a couple of places. But it was lots of fun hanging out with mallory and sydney and claire bear.....our freshman. Anyways, this thursday we did another six miles at 8 minute pace but i ran it at about 7:30 pace, and thankgoodness Friday is an off day. As much as i love running and could never stop, i sure hate it sometimes!

This week has been a crazy week so far. On Monday our coach planned out for us a tough workout. He had us running on the track doing 3x600's and 6x300's. I was doing pretty good and was keeping a very good pace, and on our 5th 300 my coach looks at me and he says i want you to be in the lead when you hit 200 meters. So we began. In the lead for the first 100 was my friend jamie, and then we came up on the 200 mark. When we passed the pole, i don't know what came over me. All i knew was all of a sudden i was in front of the entire team, speeding ahead, and hardly out of breath. My coach was screaming, "Go, Go, Go!" and my friends sydneys dad was telling me to get my butt up there. In the last 10 meters claire started catching up to me and just barely passed me, but i wasn't too upset because what i had just done, i had never pictured myself to be able to do, and i have to admit i was pretty proud of myself. Then on Tuesday we were supposed to run 5 miles but i had become sick that morning and was not able to run that day, but i see it as a well deserved break! Then on Wednesday we had a 6 mile run, what we did was we ran a steady pace for 10 minutes and then did 90 seconds of all out sprint, and then we slowed back to our normal pace for about a minute, then did 60 seconds all out sprint, and then normal pace for a minute, and then we did 30 seconds all out sprint and then normal pace for another ten minutes. We did this twice and finished our 6 miles in about 45 minutes, which is pretty good. Oh and i forgot to mention that the entire time we ran this, it was raining. On Thursday we did another 6 miles with our coach, and this run was a CP run, which means coach's pace so our run wasn't so easy. But it was definitely an interesting run, our coach was feeling a little adventerous, which he does quite a bit, and he took us running into a area that had a cluster of medical buildings in it. He suddenly stops at one of the buildings and goes, yall come in here with me, i have an apppointment i need to go to real quick, and we all just kind of stand there like,"are you serious?" so we follow him and he goes to the water fountain, gets a drink, turns around and goes just kidding, and starts cracking up, so we follow him out and he takes us up this steep hill and once we get over the hill we see a graveyard right below, and of course, he wants to run through it. So for about 15 minutes we run around in a graveyard, and it was creepy because it was dark and raining. We eventually finish and come back to the school to do some 8 minutes abs, not my favorite, and then he lets us go home. This Saturday we have our first indoor track meet, of which i will be running the 800 and the 4x800 but its going to be one long day. We leave at 6:45 in the morning, we drive 3 hours to Lexington to go to the UK meet, then my race doesn't start till 3:42 and my last race is at 7:45, and we have to go eat afterwards, so i wont be getting home till real late, but oh well. Just another life in the day of what my friends call me, "a running freak."

This week as a cross country runner it has been pretty interesting. We had about 3 inches of snowfall last week, and this week it still hadn't melted. So on Monday our plan was to run 40-45 minutes, but our plan drastically changed when we noticed how icy and snowy, and full of slush our roads were. So what we decided was we were going to run about 6 miles but at an easy pace so we can be careful on the trecherous roads. About halfway through our run, my coach spots a little kid playing in the snow outside of his house and my coach goes, "Hey guys watch this." My team stops as we watch our coach pick up a ball of snow, chunk it at the kid and then run like a maniac down the road. We ran after him, and i was like, "Coach did you know that kid?" and he replies, "Nope." We all just started laughing. (He does crazy stuff like this all the time.) Then on tuesday coach said he wouldn't be running with us so me and some of my teammates, Sydney, Jamie, and Madison, decided we would go for a short 5 mile run. We reach our halfway point which just so happened to be greatharvest and we went inside to get some bread samples, and then headed back home. On Wedensday we had a workout, we hate workouts, but fortunately we had it cut short because there was black ice all over the roads. He had planned that we were going to run 3x1,000 meters and 5x200 meter sprints. We were so happy when he cut it short because we were all slipping and falling and he was afraid we would get hurt. It was also getting very dark and some of our girls were running into poles. Thursday was an interesting day, We ran the frederica loop which is about 6 and a half miles. This run goes right through the middle of town, and we are always having to dodge cars. While i was running across a bridge a car came over the white line and was heading straight for me but fortunately the moved over fast enough before they could hit me. It was pretty scary. Our cross country team never has a boring run. It's always full of suprises, excitement, and sometimes exhaustion. This weekend we are going for a 7 mile run, then stopping at startbucks for some coffee. Its going to be a blast