WINTER TRAINING

Right before our school went on Christmas break, I talked with my coach and asked him how many miles I should be running. He told me I ought to be up around 30, which made me lie and say I had done 28 the previous week. I would've done 28 miles but the day I had scheduled a 7 miler, there was some nasty weather. It scared me though, into thinking that I would be completely terrible come February. I had finished my first season as a member of varsity for xc and ran at the state track meet for my previous track season. That small taste of being good had me wanting more. It seemed that the 5 or 6 days a week that I had spent running since November wasn't good enough. I wanted to be more than good enough though, I wanted to accomplish something more. The effort it would take to achieve this took something that I wasn't sure I had.

I was running almost everyday, yet I wasn't doing enough running on those days. The cold weather and lack of daylight to run in wasn't exactly motivating me, but it didn't seem to be the biggest problem. I could overlook these things as long as I wasn't bored. A good route would get my mind off of winter and allow me to focus on something else. The problem was finding somewhere to run. I had found myself doing the same route over and over without any changes. I didn't know where else to run though without running up large hills. One day I ran up those hills, being driven by immense boredom I had concocted a 5.65 mile route consisting of 3 large hills. There was new scenery to watch and it was more of an out and back route that made it harder to skip out on. The challenge it gave me was even better, it forced me to expend the effort that I might make me better.

The weeks since then have involved running that same route while changing up some of the ins and outs. The hills may have gotten a little easier but they were still tough. I found myself having to stop some days and rest my legs but I always went on without walking up them. However, there was one hill that challenged me more than the others. It wasn't the longest or the last one, but it was the steepest. It seemed like no matter how I paced myself, I could not get up it without stopping. Until one day I did. I slowly struggled up it with terrible form but I made it. From then on, the hill no longer seemed as big of an obstacle. It wasn't every day that I could run up it without stopping, but I no longer viewed it as a problem or something that should stop me. It wasn't out to get me, it was just there.

One of my neighbors (also a runner) who lives down the hill, was talking about me with my mother yesterday. He told her that I was built like a Kenyan (only a runner would think this was a compliment) and that I should run the Bix this year. He also said that he was both impressed and inspired by my hard work and determination. He has seen my running up our hill and thought that while some people may have raw talent, not everyone has dedication.

My first reaction to this, was to enjoy his compliments but also to underscore them. I thought that if he would have known how hard it was to get myself outside, how I had struggled with those hills, or how I couldn't wait to get my run over with, that he would disagree with what he had said. I thought I could've done more, that the extra miles I had done weren't enough to benefit me. Even when talking to my teammates who haven't been running very much, my opinion didn't change.

I now look on it with a different perspective. I think of how I was miserable through most of my runs, but I also think of how I did those runs. No one was forcing me to run those hills yet I did. Maybe I do have determination. Maybe all that running I did amounts to hard work. Maybe that was what my winter training was about. Not hitting certain times or doing a certain number of miles, but the going out and running part. I think that is what has made me stronger runner more than anything.

The willingness to undergo tough workouts and do the extra mile is something I hope will carry over to track practices. I have complained many times about our practices, but this winter I found that even the hardest were necessary. I now find myself willing to do those practices because they may be hard but the mental and physical benefits are far greater than the effort I give. To quote my beloved Nickelback "what's worth the price is always worth the fight".

THE OVERLOOKED SPORT

I am willing to overlook the lack of people at our xc meets and the lack of support we get at school. I ignore the fact that there is almost no one running xc and that there are more girl's bowlers than xc runners. I, usually, deal with the fact that not many people care about my sport. Sometimes it gets to be a little too much.

At the pep assembly today, which are important for that fact that they eliminate 10 minutes off of each class, the AD started to announce "the achievements of the fall sports teams". He talks about how wonderful the football team is, girl's swimming, golf, volleyball......I thought they'd stick xc in the middle since we didn't go to state but at this point I realized we'd be at the end. Except then he talks about how our school received the sportsmanship trophy because of football and volleyball (what an honor). The football team didn't even officially get to state. They even talked about the dance team more than us. I don't even consider that a sport and I've taken 12 years of dance. Maybe if the routines were more advance than ones I could do 4 years ago it could graduate to a sport level.

Apparently the xc team didn't achieve anything in our season. Sure, we weren't super amazing, but we didn't place last at our meets. We put more time and effort into our sport than probably most of the other sports. Nobody else woke up at 6 in the summer to run before it got to be 90 degrees. They didn't practice in thunderstorms or with lightning flashing over them. They didn't run up hills that have been described as "giant" or that are popular for sledding. Other sports might practice when it is hot out, but they have something called drink breaks. We don't have those in xc.

At practice in August one day, we had to run for 42 minutes with more than 30 minutes of that sprinting, around a track in about 90 degree weather. There was two big gatorade coolers sitting by the football field that allowed the players to get drinks. I had to pass those coolers every single lap and imagine how wonderful a drink would feel. For 42 minutes without shade I looked at those coolers that held ice cold liquid. So when the football player who had just gotten a drink out of a hose cut in front of me on the track and said "I wish we could have practices like that, all they do is jog", I lost respect for other sports. We had been running for more than 20 minutes before he started his practice and there's no way he could've RUN our practice.

During the summer I would sometimes have to run at 9:00 at night so it would get down to 85 degrees. I went through countless amounts of ice throughout the season to make sure I could stumble through practice the next day. I ran a meet where I actually had to numb my leg with ice before hand so I could run. I put up with terrible repetitive sprint practices at Vito's, where I refuse to eat because those practices have ruined it for me.

True, there are fun parts or else nobody would join xc. But to overlook us in achieving something is not fair. I achieved so much in xc this season. I ran 10 miles. I PRed in basically every distance and can run 5 miles with under an 8 minute pace. I ran 7 miles in under an hour, when last season it took me 10 minutes longer. I PRed in my xc race by almost 30 seconds for a time of 16:24. I achieved something in xc. My team achieved something this season. Apparently no one cares.

HILLS

This post is purely to show off my dedication to running. I need someone to brag to other than my family who's tired of that, so this will work.

I live towards the top of a hill that is 418m long according to mapmyrun.com and some conversions. It's pretty steep, in the winter time if it's icy or really snowy, everybody has to park their cars at the bottom of the hill and walk up. Whenever somebody drives up it for the first time, they always make a comment about how steep it is.

Since I am already bored with running around my neighborhood, I decided to do hill sprints....up my hill. I've wanted to do this before, mainly during the summer when training for xc but somehow doing hill sprints up my hill in 90 degree weather didn't sound fun. Mainly I've wanted to do it just to see how many I could do. Since it was a wonderful bright and sunny 47 degrees outside (perfect running weather) I decided today would be a good day to try out the hill. Although the most I've done was two hills but there's always a first. My younger sister only thought I could do two while my mom didn't give me an exact answer but she said I would do what I was determined to do.

First hill: 2:22. Over 418m that are flat that would be terrible, but this is a hill with over a 30% grade at some parts. The first one was okay, but it was only the first one.

Second hill: 2:35. This hill was hard mentally. They all were really but this one was one of the hardest. I was repeating to myself things like "dedication. commitment. hard work". I kept thinking that if people saw me they would think "oh wow, she's so dedicated. Only someone really committed would do something weird and hard like that". That kept me going not only through this hill but also the others.

Third hill: 2:43. For some reason, this hill seemed to be the hardest physically. I don't know why but it seemed really hard to make it up the hill.

Fourth hill: 2:40. Climbing hills got easier. I sprinted the last part of the flat part of the hill just to get a better time but this hill just seemed easier.

Fifth hill: 2:30. I decided this would be the last one so I sprinted the first part, which wasn't really the smartest but I wanted it to be good. It turned out to be the second fastest, partly because I sprinted the end. The steep part of the hill was really hard because I was going faster but it was still a good hill.

The run report was mainly for me to look back on once I do the hills again, because I will do them again. This run was less about the physical aspects, although I got a wonderful anaerobic workout in. Instead it was about motivating myself and making myself run my hill. To look at it and say I can do that again instead of resting and stopping my workout short. My hill is all about motivation and the mental part of running although there is a physical gain. Just because it made me feel so good, I think I might add it in my weekly workout. This way I will be able to feel better about running and motivate myself.