Just Call Me Murphy

Murphy's Law roughly states anything that can go wrong will go wrong. That statement seems to be holding quite true for my life. The past few days have been overflowing with bad luck.
After a long day of fighting through minute problems, I had a clumsy moment that ended being the cherry on top of what is about to be as sucky-week sundae.
A good friend of mine, Chris Scheideman, was picking me up outside Irwin to go to Sonic. I wasn't in a hurry, I wasn't messing around, and I definitely wasn't looking at the sidewalk. As soon as my shoes touched the glassy surface my body was briefly airborne before I hit the pavement. Luckily, my greater trochanter, the large bone in your upper thigh that seems to stick out a little bit, broke my fall. I was immediately welcomed by sharp, stabbing pains down my leg and into my lower back. Chris kindly got out of the car to make sure I wasn’t dead, and I tried to brush it off as much as possible.
In the morning I realized there was something wrong besides just a bruise and some soreness. I ended up sitting in a doctor's office for a couple of hours waiting for x-rays. As of now I do not have any fractures, but I can't run until all the pain is gone when I am walking. So, with conference coming fast I am patiently waiting for things to hurry up and heal.
The only good news is that things have to get better from here....right?

4:08.8

Butterflies are pounding inside me, I can feel them colliding with the sides of my stomach. There is energy tingling up every inch of me. I strip off my sweats as Katey Wegemer, our first leg of the 4x400 meter relay steps to the line. BANG! Katey soars away with the sound of the gun, two laps later she hands the baton to Kesley Heckathorne for the second leg. We are right in the mix of the pack. She flies past on her first lap, and I shuffle down to the exchange zone. As she fights the pain of the last stretch, I can feel myself anticipate the feel of the cool metal in my hand. Our exchange is sloppy, but once it is safely in my hand I am gone. Around the first corner I pass two girls and slip into second. The first 200 meters are gone in a flash as I feel myself digging deeper. I swerve into the second lane to pass the first place girl and pull back into the curve for the final stretch. My stomach is no longer filled with butterflies, but in a knot. My head is pounding and I know this is as fast as I can go. With all my teammates screaming me on, I hand the baton to Ashley Miller, our final leg. Handing off to her in first place position means one thing, victory. I try to watch her leg as I fight the extreme pain that is the 400. Kesley screams, "62!" a four second personal record for me. All the coaches are going crazy as Ashley crosses the line well ahead in first place. Now for the agony of waiting. The screen refuses to show us our official time. Finally we know.

4:08.21. Less than six tenths of a second faster than the qualifying mark. Nationals, here we come.

Work'n For the Weekend

With three meets under my belt, I am finally getting used to the unique qualities that compose the indoor season. The tracks have ranged from 160 meters to 300 meters, making each race a completely new experience. My races got turned upside down when I realized I was going to have to face the mental challenge of more laps per race.
The first meet at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa, was a new experience all around. The biggest struggle was the air. Running indoors kills your throat. I have exercise induced asthma anyways, and breathing air that dry really does a number on your breathing.
The size and air are aspects that I will get used to as more meets pass. As a team, our main goal is to train through indoor to peak during our outdoor season.
Next weekend we have a meet at Cornell in Mt. Vernon, Iowa. Wish us luck!

Clean Up

We're back. The 'Cats bundled up in tights, under armor, hoodies, hats, and gloves to fight off the winter chill. As we sat in the gym most of us wondered if we had ran enough over the break to get us through this practice alive. We soon found out that we wouldn't be running. Immediately after the sigh of relief came the groan. Instead, we would be clearing the snow off the track.
When we got to the track, we went out in small teams and alternated the work (as to make sure none of us froze). There were two guys in the front with snow shovels, then two more guys with upside down rakes, and then a trail of about six girls with brooms. We kept this formation and switched every six minutes. Two hours had gone by and we weren't even down with the first curve.
My thoughts? I thought I had left the farm? Why do we have a maintenance crew if we have to clear the track? After two hours of everyone complaining, including me, we had cleared 150 meters, apparently enough for coach. We were done.
I would have to say, I think I would have rather had an actual practice. We will have practices on both Saturday and Sunday afternoon because of promising weather. The forecast predicts 60 degrees, I'll have to dig out my shorts!
Our first meet will be on Jan. 11, in Lamoni, Iowa.

The Bright Orange Book

We had a team meeting instead of practice on Friday. From now until Jan. 3 practices will be on our own. In place of having team practices for the next three weeks, we were given bright orange books with our workouts in them. They have been stuffed full of interval workouts, weight training schedules, and results of past meets.
On top of the information we need to train on our own, the meet schedule for the season is printed on the back. After taking a gander at it, I realized just how much time track is going to consume. Compared to cross country, track is a long season. Indoor track rolls straight into outdoor competition with only a week off in between (if you qualify for nationals, two weeks off if you don't).
There was a little humor handed out with the bright orange books. On the inside cover lists the Coyote Track and Field Faculty. As athletes received their books they quickly noticed the misprint. Turns out that Coach Kindler's previous team, Kansas Wesleyan, was the Coyotes. Needless to say, the 'Cats gave him a little grief for the mistake.
Break is looking to be relaxing if the expected ice storm doesn't prevent me from heading home when I wanted. Hopefully, the roads will be cleared by then, or better yet, we just won't get any ice.

Dropping Temperatures & Increasing Speeds

As the temperature drops the splits for our intervals speed up. Now when Coach calls the distance runners over, that is not me. I am headed off with the sprinters. Odd, I know. Just a few weeks ago I was running over three miles for a race. Now I will be running less than a mile.
The workouts are consisted of shorter intervals at a faster pace; a much faster pace. It is such an increase that I am using muscles that my body forgot I had resulting in some extreme soreness. It's okay though, my gimpy walk has to make some people smile. On top of the faster pace, I have started lifting three times a week; creating muscles I definitely do not have.
One of my biggest challenges so far has been a hurdle drill. Six hurdles are set up touching each other to make a continuous line in one lane. You then have to step over the hurdle without turning sideways or swinging your leg over. This is supposed to improve flexibility and work on coordination; neither of which I have been blessed with. After we did that a few times every other hurdle was raised. We then had to go over one and then under the next with our butts lower than our ankles, all with only one foot in between each hurdle. Now imagine me going up, down, spinning, smacking into hurdles, and mumbling sarcastic remarks about how stupid this is. It was quite the show for the rest of the team. Needless to say, I will have to keep working on my flexibility and coordination.
As for the rest of the Cross Country runners, they are off to Baton Rouge tomorrow morning to participate in a half-marathon. Good luck to all of them.

On the Track

I attended my first track practice yesterday afternoon, and compared to the fall season of cross country, track's workload is looking promising.
Let me fill you in on the happenings of the rest of the 'Cats. Some of the cross country runners are going to Louisiana for a half marathon in Baton Rouge the beginning of December. To prepare for this, they are spending their off season logging as many, if not more, long-slow miles. Yesterday they went on a ten mile run while me and some other middle distance track people switched to actual track practice.
Our workout consisted of walk/jogging to the track, stretching, drills, and done. Yes, that is correct. My watch, which I did not have to use because I did not have to run continuous miles, read 4:14 p.m. A miracle for me. Needless to say, I am looking forward to practice this afternoon and tomorrow. A red, eight-lane track beats ten miles any day, for me at least.
Dec. 8 is the first chance for the Wildcats to compete. Only a few tracksters will get to compete at the first meet. It is mostly division one and division two schools, so Coach will only be taking the athletes that he feels are ready for strong competition that early in the season. As for me, I doubt I will be in those select few with my illness a few weeks earlier and just now getting back into training, but nevertheless, I have high hopes for track..