been really really busy finishing up at work and packing and freaking out and having hysterical laughing fits… I haven’t done a workout in two days but tommorow i’ll need to just to calm myself.
the good thing about all this is that i’ve been eating more normally… the attitude stays as it always does, but i’m not starving myself lately.
ive also realized that I will have speed and strength testing on monday and i’ll mostly need to rely on what i can do naturally for speed since i haven’t been able to train on my ankle. i don’t even know what the strength part is, i am really disorganized ahhhhhhh
i’m leaving on monday and jumping straight into all kinds of training right away, hopefully my ankle is ready for it.
OH MY GOD
i am really depressed about being in really good because it is all for naught… there is no substitute for being in good RUNNING shape! field hockey pre-season kicked my ass today, god knows if i will make the team… i wasn’t even going to try, but the coach said she wants speed so she asked me to try it out.
it’s ridiculous, but i guess thats why they’re so good… not as if it should be any easier i guess.
4.5 hours of playing and straight up running today, i am already sore.
yesterday was a running test which i did ok in, middle of the group. It was more about speed endurance and endurance than about speed, so considering I haven’t run properly in ages it went ok. Then max lifts which was great- i think i ended up being the winner overall (chinups, bench, squats) Their weights are in kilos so i was really confused about what weights i was doing because i started off treating it as pounds… i still haven’t taken the time to convert it, i’ll get around to it tonight.
it was a little scary to do the testing yesterday because i got no sleep and was in the car all morning and then moved into my room and said bye to my parents and my hamstring hurt from being nervous. Just a really volatile period of time, im surprised no one got injured. also to my horror they insist that you do squats all the way down for your max which i have never done… i guess i have always been taught that below parallel=bad. Some of these girls had never lifted weights before and i was really afraid of some of the things i was seeing. The coach wanted at least 4 inches of thigh and calf touching but I was lifting pretty heavy and i couldn’t stop at the point and i had to go ALL the way down to the ground which fucking sucked but oh well. at least it’s over. The track coach is going to take over my lifting next week, whatever ends up happening.
it’s a little weird being away from home, but it’s awesome. everyone is so smart and works really hard. the food could be a lot worse, it’ll just be an adjustment from the amazing food at home.
How far away from home? two things will happen regardless of the distance - you will get homesick. I go to school an hour and a half away from my house, I have a car and can go home anytime I want - I still get homesick. But you will make some of the most incredible friends you’ll ever make, which is more than enough incentive to hang around.
my sister actually will be a senior at school with me, so that will help. she also has a car and we live 2.5-3 hours away, so it’s definitely doable. I’m a little homesick, but not much… i think i was really ready to go.
as for the miserable strength test- i did 6 3/4 chin ups (a lot of girls couldn’t even do ONE!), 112 lbs for bench, and 144 lbs squat to the ground.
2.5 hours of drills and games (lots of sprint-jog-sprint) then a mile run to cooldown.
yes i am really sore, just about everywhere! Got to miss the second session today for orientation stuff, and i have to miss scrimmaging tommorow for more of it, but we are meant to do a pool workout tommorow which should feel good.
the track coach wants me to start a lifting program sept. 9th, the first day of class.
thanks numba… i was ok with it considering some of the circumstances.
had pool session tonight- a series of one minute on one minute off sprints, then 30s on, 30s off. of course it was in the deep end so you had to go really fast to keep your head above the water… it was pretty hard but it felt really good.
muscles are a bit less sore, and ankle is holding up ok so far. i’m sort of questioning how much i really want to play, i just don’t really know how i feel about it yet. it’s really frustrating to not be able to make myself stand out for speed and speed endurance as i normally would since I couldn’t run all summer :mad: injuries suck.
the debate of the hour… do i go out or do i stay in? early morning practices are a killjoy.
morning session was actually awesome, we did hills: the hill is question was VERY steep, probably about 50-70 meters, and gravel. We did a set of 7 sprints with a jog around and down. I think I am getting a little more back to normal, because guess who finished the set first by a longshot Im probably underestimating the effect that the whole college adjustment thing is having.
anyway, then we had drills with runs/sprints in between which I also finished first in, and we have a 2 hour skills session this afternoon. I’m looking forward to starting lifting next week, and I miss my core circuits… now that things are settling down I think I can get back into a program.
i got cracked in the knee in exactly the wrong place and the bruise is a killer… i had alreadt tweaked my knee somehow, but now the bruise is cancelling out the rest of it.
afternoon session was just… ugh, awful. I was meant to be a runner! notice how the one practice i thought went great was the one that involved the most running and the least actual playing. field hockey is really fun, but i just feel really inept and clumsy and like i don’t belong and it is kind of miserable. im going to have a conversation with the coach to see what she thinks because i don’t really want to waste my time… but at the same time I have never in my life been a quitter.
If it detracts from your track training, then why are you doing it? Kind of sounds like you’re getting pushed into something you don’t like, do what’s smartest. Then again, I don’t like giving people I don’t know well unsolicited advice. I guess I’m just talking as a track-biased member of CF.com that thinks you shouldn’t get pressured into another sport if track is what you really love to do.
I can’t decide… i think i usually feel like this at the beginning of FH and usually end up having a good time, I just don’t know yet if this is different. i use it to stay in good shape and also to stay out of trouble since I am more productive when I have the structure of practice every day, but so far I am kind of miserable, you do have a point!
What can I say, team sports are so different then track. Some people are more the team sport type and some the loner type … and some convert from one type to the other !
When I started sprinting I looked for a large training group because I didn’t like training alone, having done team sports my whole life before this, but as I’ve progressed I’ve begun to relish training alone more and more. I do love relays more then my track teammates, that must be a trace of team sports that’s left in me.
i still have really mixed feelings about playing- this morning’s practice felt great, i had this feeling of belonging and i was playing better and running well, and everything was fine. then later this afternoon i dozed off and went to the second session all groggy and felt sort of like I would throw up and just got really frustrated. I was the dominant player on my high school team and was named an all-star player for 3 years, each year playing a different position, so I had a lot of confidence in myself. But now… I didn’t expect to be great in comparison to everyone else1 but I am playing a lot worse than I know I can and I keep making mistakes when I get the ball because I get nervous and feel pressure to prove myself. It sucks.
Soreness has gotten better except for my right hip flexor which KILLS. Everyone has been going down with injuries all week (9 injured out of 25 so far, 2 with hip flexors) and between my hip flexor and my bruised knee… i hope i am not the 10th to need to sit out! My ankle ached on the walk home tonight, but it has been holding up very well generally. What is aching more is actully my joint deformity, but there’s not too much I can do about that besides have surgery which I would like to avoid.
I am so exhausted, i bet my heart rate is through the roof. The one good thing about all this is that I have been eating in huge quantities, and while the food here isn’t ideal, it could be a lot worse.
had only one morning session this morning, thank god. I got more sleep last night, so I played a bit better. We went to watch the harvard vs. Umass game in the afternoon- they play on turf where you have to be in EXCELLENT shape and its a big advantage to be fast. Our turf field isn’t ready for another couple weeks, but when it is it’ll be a great advantage for me.
no practice tommorow, then back to double sessions for a couple days until classes on thursday. various aches and pains are holding steady, nothing getting worse.
glad to hear you are doing better. do you know where northeastern university is? im going to go check it out soon, and i think its in MA, so i dont know, i need someone to show me around when i go…
Im probably underestimating the effect that the whole college adjustment thing is having.
!
