In Sickness and In Health (and In Hell Week)
These past two weeks have flown by. Between competing in Miami, putting together last minute travel plans, and dealing with my (hopefully temporary) loss of hearing, I've basically been waiting for a weekend to take a breather and get my sh*t together.
Unfortunately, this wasn't the week for that. I'm heading back to Florida next week for two more meets, which I'm pretty excited about. Until then, I've got a ton of errands to take care of (and a movie to watch), but more on all that in a later post.
The Beginning Of My Outdoor Track Season
Last weekend I competed in Miami for my first outdoor meet as an unattached athlete. I've always enjoyed Miami's Hurricane Invitational Meet - it's always nice to get away from Boston's annoying winters and I've had pretty good openers whenever I've run there.
This year was no different. The weather started off with slight clouds and drizzle, but the sun was quick to come out. My 100 went pretty well. I ran 11.60, which is comparable to the time I ran last year (11.64). I was happy enough with it.
My start still needs some work (doesn't it always), but the latter half of the race felt amazing. Halfway down the straightaway I felt myself hit a great stride and I was even able to speed up in the middle.
Last year, I really struggled with the last half of my races. I just felt tired, and could never finish them the way I needed to. During this 100 I felt an immediate difference - and this difference really showed itself in my 200 race.
I actually stumbled in my start of the 200m (darn you, second step *shakes fist*), but I righted myself pretty quickly and pushed the curve as much as I thought I could. In hindsight, I probably could have pushed a little further, but it was good just to have the feeling of a 200 under my belt.
I ended up with an unofficial PR of 23.84 (unofficial because there was too much wind [+2.8]). Still, the fact that I was able to hit 23 seconds in my first 200m outdoors has got me excited for more.
In Sickness
I actually had (and still have) a cold that just won't quit. It transformed into a sinus infection, which has made breathing during practice difficult on some days, and is even affecting my hearing now.
I've got my fingers crossed that I'll feel better by next week, so I won't have to deal with it while competing, but who knows. I've been able to get through practice just fine, so it shouldn't affect my races too much.
The Week From Hell
Speaking of practice, I've decided to dub this past week "hell week". Seriously, I haven't had practices this hard since my freshman year of college, and I'm pretty sure it was only hard back then because I was sleep deprived, out of shape, and constantly dealing with some sort of illness.
I got booty-lock on both Monday and Wednesday and got quad-lock (if that's even a thing) on Thursday.
I now dread hearing the words: "We have sleds today." On top of that, I also ran a 500 for the first time in my life. That was an...experience. Of course, I died at the end, but I did pretty OK for a short sprinter, in my opinion (my time was 1:19, for anyone interested).
Despite the super hard difficulty level of this week, I know it's just another stepping stone to reaching my goals for the year. Knowing Coach Lambert, he'll also attribute any and all of my future PRs to everything we did this week, too. Which sounds both good and bad, haha :P
This was a super long update but it felt great to sit down and finally get my thoughts from the past few weeks down.
What Has Your Toughest Day Been Like?
I'm curious to know what the hardest workout you've ever done is.
It doesn't matter whether you've done track or not, I'd still love to hear about it!
