Spring is finally here...sort of

Outdoor track has officially begun and could not have come soon enough. Though there are differences between this year and previous seasons. Our warm-ups have changed; it used to be sets of extensions like bend-n-snaps, scoopes, high-knee skips, and shuffles. Now we do quad stretches, frankensteins, calve-raises, and running in place for endurance. Also, the workout schedule is different. It used to be a random selection by my coach of what we would be doing. Whether it be a long or short run or a workout day. I'm thankful that this past week has been fairly easy because last week was so difficult; with three sprint workout days in a row. THREE! The worst part about last week was also how warm and humid it became. You've been running in wet-heat before, you know how it is. You sweat, your shirt chafes against your chest, and the worst part is that the sweat heats up and makes you hotter and more tired. The worst part about it is that Tyler and Jillian will always make it into a Kenyan run (a run where you gradually pick up the pace until your sprinting at the end) no matter how many times my coach says to "take it easy" because we'll have a sprint workout the next day. Maybe its just me, because they seem to feel fine throughout the entire run, though me and the rest of my teammates seem to be dying throughout the run. But the only workouts we have done so far that we really hard were the sets of 800s on the track 2 weeks ago and the 600m uphill sprints we did last Tuesday. I was a bit stressed to learn that our first meet was to be on Tuesday, April 5th. Though the current and sudden change in weather has made that possibility very limited.

It's been about three days and so far the meet has been moved THREE times. It was originally scheduled for Tuesday and then April decided to leave for a while and we had a blizzard. Then it was scheduled for Wednesday but Newton-South could not get their track cleared of snow in time. It was then moved to Friday (today), and then God decided to drench us with a rainstorm yesterday and now N.S.' field is flooded like a swamp. Our meet is now postponed to May 11th. As of now our first race is this coming Tuesday, April 11th. In a way I am somewhat relieved that our meet was moved so many times. As the season started later so we were not scheduled to have as much practice time before the season officially began. Plus, with a new season comes new injuries at the beginning, and this gives the team a chance to heal and get one last week of improvement in before our first meet. Hopefully I will not take me long to get back in the rhythm of the mile and move away from the rhythm of a 5k. After all, it has been over a year since the last time I raced the mile. And over two years since I raced it well.