Oh yea...track.

When I first started this blog I had every intention of it being a blog that dealt mostly with my athletic career and all things related to track and field. But a month and a half in and some of you might not even be able to tell I’m an athlete! I suppose the biggest reason for that is that I started writing in my off-season and I’m just now getting into the swing of things with practice and so forth. There is only so much I can write about the monotonous training one does on the path back to fitness and that is what is taking place for at least another couple of months. But today I decided to get get back on track, so to speak.

Starting to train after a whole summer of competition with little actual training and subsequent time off where I act as if I’m actually allergic to working out is hard on both the body and the mind. The littlest things seem extremely difficult and you begin to wonder if this could possibly be the same body capable of running repeat 300’s when jogging two laps seems like such a laborious undertaking. I began “moving around” about two weeks before I moved out to Tucson but it was pretty much just child’s play and just enough so I wouldn’t feel guilty. My first week here was your basic welcome back activities where you begin to realize just how much the next few months are going to hurt. This second week is going to put a stamp on that.

Today was one of those days that I can never quite do justice to by just explaining. We had a mile run, stretching, drills, more drills, and build-ups…for the warm-up. I hate it when I feel as if I should be done after I’ve only done enough to say that I’m now ready to work out. Then it was ramp runs. Basically you run up the ramps of a football stadium, from the very bottom to the very top where people with nose bleed seats are located, and it twists and whatnot so it’s basically 8 different ramps you go up until you get to the top. Once you get to the top you don’t pretend you’re Rocky and stand with your chest pumped up as you breath heavily. You jog to the other side of the stadium to run down the other side so you can reach the bottom and turn around go back up. And that equals 1. Actually I’m not even sure why we count 1 since it’s not like we stop after we finish a set. The whole workout is continuous so you don’t stop at all until you are done with the workout. It’s an evil little trick my Coach plays on us.

It’s days like these where the idea of not having training partners and having to hurt all by myself makes things that much harder. Luckily, I was able to recruit my friend Jennie, who is a pro softball player, and another one of her teammates. Jen is always up for a good workout and even though she might never join me for a workout again after today, I am so glad I had her there today to push me and to know that I wasn’t the only one in pain. It makes all the difference in the world.