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Monday: 10 minute warm up, 14 hill repeats with downhill jog rest, 10 minute cool down
Tuesday: core work
Wednesday: 10 minute warm up, Pyramid workout: 400, 800, 1600, 800, 400 at 2-mile pace with 400 jog rest between each, cool down.
Thursday: 25 minutes easy followed by 4 strides
Friday: FIRST TRACK MEET!!
Saturday: 35 minute run
Sunday: off
This week really flew by… I only got the chance to practice with the team once this week (on Monday) because there were so many other things going on. I’m glad my coaches are so flexible in that way though, and that I am actually motivated to do the workouts on my own. I really miss being able to run with the team on those days, and I usually end up running at night when I miss practice, but as long as I am ready for the meets it’s all worth it. I was really nervous going into this week, because I didn’t know if the training I was doing on my own would be good enough to keep me ready for the meet on Friday, so I think I overdid it a little bit. Like on Wednesday our practice up at UMaine was cancelled and I couldn’t remember what the workout was supposed to be, so I just did my idea of a hard workout, which ended up being a lot harder than the 600 workout that we were supposed to do that day. I was freaking out for nothing though, because the meet actually went really well.
My coach ended up having me run the 800 and the 2 mile, which I was a little nervous about because the only event between them was the 200, and I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough recovery time. Also, the air in the field house makes me cough so much, especially after the 800, so I bring a thermos full of boiling water mixed with menthol cough drops to every meet, and breathe in the steam to help my throat. It really works, and my runners cough is gone by the next day if I use it. Anyways, even though I was a little worried about the recovery between the 800 and the 2 mile, I ended up having plenty of time, because they ran two heats of the boys 800, and I was ready to go by the 2 mile. I was pretty happy with my times for it being the first meet. I ran the 800 in 2:34 and the 2 mile in 12:37. That leaves a good base for me to keep improving those times, and I hope to drop my 800 time by about 5 seconds (but no more than that in the open 800, because a 2:29 would break my older sister Marya’s senior class record, and she would kill me…) and my goal for the 2 mile is to run at least 40 seconds faster, if not more. I felt really strong in the 2 mile, probably because I was being lazy and didn’t really push myself as much as I could have. It was my first time ever running the 2 mile indoors, I never ran it as a sophomore. It seemed like it took forever, and I’m so glad they had someone telling me how many laps I had run at the finish, because I would have had no idea what I was doing otherwise. I ended up running slower than 5k pace for the 2 mile, but I’m ok with that for the first meet. My goal for my two events was to run negative splits, which I did for the 800, but I’m not sure what my splits were for the 2 mile because I didn’t know exactly where the mile marker was. At one point during the race my coach told me that my mile split was 5:20 something (waaaay too fast for the 2 mile), but I’m pretty sure it was more like 6 something because I kept a pretty even pace throughout the race. As for the rest of the meet, I am so excited about how well the rest of the team did!! DANIELLE BROKE THE EMITL 55m DASH RECORD (TWICE) HER FIRST TIME EVER RUNNING IT!!! That was so amazing, we went crazy after the prelims, and probably got in everyone’s way trying to find a good spot to watch the finals in the already crowded field house. I’m so glad that she actually did indoor this year. Last year during outdoor track we both promised each other we would do indoor, but then when the winter season came around she tried out for basketball and made varsity (of course… she’s just good at everything) but then about 2 weeks into preseason she quit basketball and joined track!!! I think with her and the other sprinters (they all did really well too, taking the first three spots in the 55m dash) and with the depth of the distance team, we will be able to do really well as a team. Our distance squad was phenomenal, and we should be even better next week because our #2 runner from cross country was in Aruba and will be back for the next meet. We have the biggest distance squad for both the boys and girls that we have had for indoor track in a really long time. Almost our entire varsity boys cross country team decided to do indoor this year, and two other varsity girls from cross country are doing it for the first time. Overall, our girls finished second to Bangor in that meet, which was exciting. It’s still too early to set any goals for the team, but I think this first meet was a good indicator of what’s to come.
Next week should be pretty exciting, because we have a meet on Tuesday and then the Black Bear relays on Friday. At this point my coach has me running the mile and the 4x8 in the Tuesday meet, and Ellsworth will be there so hopefully I will get to run against Brianne Dunn for the mile, so we can push each other to post some good times.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!
Monday: 10 minute warm-up, hill repeats, 10 minute cool-down
Tuesday: 5 mile run
Wednesday: 10 minute warm up, 10x200’s at 800 pace with 200 jog rest between each one, 10 minute cool down
Thursday: off- track practice cancelled
Friday: 25 minute run followed by tag games with the whole team
Saturday: warm up, 800 tempo, 400 tempo, 400 sprint, 200 sprint (with 3ish minute jog rest between each), cool down.
Sunday: 40 minute run
I always used to think of the winter sports season as just a way for me to stay in shape and stay active, and I can’t say that I have ever cared as much about the winter season as I have about cross country or outdoor track. This year is different. I am more excited and ready for this indoor season than I ever thought I would be. I think this could have to do with the fact that I haven’t just stuck to one sport during the winter season, and doing different things has made me appreciate running that much more. For example, every year I have done a different winter sport; my freshman year I played basketball, my sophomore year I ran indoor track, and last year I did swimming. Pretty much the only reason I did swimming last year was to keep me from injury (but then I ended up sitting out for the state outdoor track meet because of injury anyway…) So this year I figured I had nothing to lose by going back to indoor track. Every day last year on the way to swim practice we would drive past my favorite running trail, and every day I would think how much I would rather be running. This definitely clinched my decision to go back to indoor track this year, because while I dreaded swim practice every single day, I don’t think I have ever dreaded a cross country or track practice. I didn’t want to break the tradition of trying something new in the winter though, so along with track I tried out for show choir, and I made it! It has been a little tough having to miss track practice and run on my own twice a week, especially because it gets dark so soon and I can’t stand running on a treadmill… but I am happiest when I am busiest, so I think everything will work out just fine.
Anyways… as for the workouts this week, the hardest part was definitely the weird changes in weather. On Monday it was below freezing with the wind-chill, and there was a four inch layer of snow while we were doing hills, which made it really slippery because the hills were so short and steep. By Wednesday (which was also my birthday!!) all the snow had melted, so we could do our 200’s on a clear track. It was actually really warm and even though it was a really hard workout, it was the best one of the week. On Thursday there was freezing rain, and all after-school activities got cancelled halfway through. By the time we got sent home, there was a layer of ice over all the cars, and it took about 20 minutes to clear it all off.
Saturday was supposed to be our first practice up at UMaine, but I had to take the ACT test in Bangor, so I ended up doing the workout on my own. I had originally planned on just meeting everyone at UMO after my test, but I underestimated how long the test would take by about two hours… By the time I was actually done it was after 1:00, and I couldn’t stand driving in a car for another hour and a half after sitting in that test room for 5 hours, so I decided to do my workout right at Bangor high school. All I had brought were shorts and a t-shirt, because I thought I would be able to go to UMO, so I got some weird looks running around in my shorts. I felt even more stupid after that though, because after running around the school a few times looking for the track to do my workout, I remembered that the track wasn’t actually at the high school, and I had no idea how to get to where the track was. I did remember having a cross country meet there a couple years ago, and there were some nice trails in the woods, so I decided to run there instead. I was supposed to do an 800, two 400’s and a 200, but I was pretty much estimating each one because they weren’t on a track, so I probably ended up running a lot longer than I was supposed to for each one. I’m not sure how effective the workout actually was either, because the trails were glazed over with ice in a lot of spots, so I had to slow down from a sprint every once in a while. Plus I got a little bit lost on the trails, but eventually I found some of my footprints in the snow, and just followed them out of the woods. I got lost again trying to drive back home from Bangor, and since I don’t actually live on MDI (I live on Islesford, another island like 2 miles off the coast of MDI) I just barely made it back in time to catch the last boat home.
I am definitely looking forward to next week because our first meet is on Friday against some big schools like Bangor and Hampden, and I think a few KVAC teams too. My coach wants most of the distance team to run the mile, so as far as I know I’ll be running the mile and probably a relay or two. At this point I’m just ready to start actually racing, so I don’t really have any expectations for the meet, other than to start posting some solid times.