Storm Run

This post is being written in real time simply because I just received an email from the other coach. Apparently against my word, my father had emailed him to tell him (in a polite way) to not give me such a hard time about not competing this season. My father had told him that me and the top coach had already worked it out and that "it would be great" if the two of us could just move in from there and stop arguing with each other. At first I was infuriated and a little bit scared, but my older brother (who has a very big eye for public acceptance) and my dad both assured me that it was written in a very friendly way. Plus he said that the other coach had already responded with an apology, claiming that he "was just kidding" the entire time. But I have to admit, from then on, we simply never spoke to me another during practice. But I did see him eyeballing me every now and then. Part of me honestly felt pretty terrible that I had pretty much ruined a relationship between me and a coach who had such a good friendship with me during my early days as a runner.
Speaking of running, I recently found myself in a fairly perilous situation when I decided to be stupid and not check the weather forecast for this past week. I decided that I had taken too many shorter-run days and decided to go my usual 4-mile Lands-Sake Farm run through the golf course, past the town center, and around Newton St all the way back to my house. What I did not know is that about one mile int my run I would be met with an extreme rainstorm. The worst part abut it being wet and windy was that it was also 45 degrees (which is pretty good considering the winter New England has had this past year). I usually like running in the rain, but not when a car runs through a puddle and splashes the hell out of you. The worst part came a the very end: I saw in the distant woods and tree fall down and then there was a loud cracking sound on one of the trees above me. Then it gave way, I'm lucky I had energy that day, because I had to sprint so fast to dodge that massive tree. Lucky for me that was the only tree that fell down that day, but I didn't know that at the time. So I stayed in the middle of the road whenever there were no cars to dodge more possible falling trees on the sidewalk. I was in fat even more lucky when I made it home, as I heard the first loud instance of thunder as soon as I stepped through basement door.

Offseason solo-runs

I have recently began to run on my own now that indoor has ended for my brother and the vast majority of the team, who did not qualify for the state championships once again this year. It reminds me of outdoor sophomore year when I ran a qualifying time of 4:51 in the varsity one-mile. The original qualifying time for states was a 4:55, but there was one problem. So many other runners had great days state wide that day alone that way too many people had qualified; thus the qualifying time wad then changed to 4:46, where it has remained ever since. The past 4-5 runs on my own have been better due to the weather temporarily warming up. I cannot remember the last time in was in the high 50s during late January in Massachusetts. I am usually not my best when running alone, on one hand I have the benefit of being able to stop when I'm tired if I feel the need to do so. But on the other,  I have nobody to communicate with and keep me going for longer, plus I cannot make water breaks for myself unless I feel like spending hours setting up water checkpoints before I start each of my runs. The only other major problem I have with my neighborhood specifically is how hilly it is. It is pretty much impossible even for me to do even a short 2-mile at an average pace without tiring myself out. My neighborhood was built on a large tectonic area and therefore there is basically no flat land unless you spend thousands hiring landscapers to make it for you, like the Meadowbrook School with their soccer field. But I try to make the best out of it.  I haven't said it yet, but one of my neighbors is the legendary Garrett O'Toole, who I sometimes say hello to as we pass each other on our runs. Every once in a while, I would see him doing sprint drills up the long hill of Meadowbrook Road; my father and I agreed that doing the same would greatly help my sprinting and endurance. So I began doing them as well; of course not with him (I wouldn't want to look like I was stealing from him). Needless to say they have helped quite a lot, the set I do consists of three sets of three, each one a little bit faster than the last. I'm not going to lie to you and say that it is easy. Believe me, it is a huge pain in the neck, but "no pain no gain." There are times when I seriously consider skipping it, sometimes I actually do; however, I do not want to cheat myself. And I will keep this up until outdoor. After moving on from whatever I suffered from last year, I am looking to have the best season of my high-school career this Spring.