On Monday, we had no school, so no practice. As a result, we kicked off our week of practice on Tuesday with a long run. This week’s long run was scheduled for 60-70 minutes, which seemed short after the 80-90 minute runs we did the weeks before. We also had a guest on our run, our coach Becka, who normally can’t join us because of her coach-ly duties. By some miracle she was able to this time, making the run all that much better. We took to the trails in the woods behind the school for our run, as people were operating within varying lengths of time, and spent nearly the entire time discussing potential shorts designs and patterns. As per usual, we wrapped up our day with strides, yoga walks, and jump rope (although our freshman is still struggling to remember this order, despite being asked every week).
On Wednesday, practice was canceled. We all just happened to show up at the rail trail in the next town over to complete a Sub Tempo (yay technicalities). In this workout, we run around a given pace– although effort and feel counts for more than times—for 3-4 miles, depending on where you’re at. We begin with a mile warmup, then head off on the workout, staggering our groups by about a minute. The main goal of this torture is to push the pace and force the athletes to stay engaged throughout the whole 4 miles of suffering (yay suffering). The most exciting part of this workout is being chased (and heckled) by our coaches, Smith and Becka, on bikes, which, by the way, makes you run just a little faster. Throughout the workout, everyone was very engaged, and had an improved workout over the last time we did this. Overall, the crew felt good (lies), although we all agreed the last 800m, which is just enough uphill to feel the burn, was the worst. We ended with a half mile cool down and footwalks (ankle-breaking).
On Thursday, we prepared for our meet at Derryfield School the next day. We began with a ten minute warm up, then met up at the top of a hill, where we’d be completing an uphill/ downhill exercise, a simulation to running around the rock after the dreadful uphill at Derryfield School. After doing 3 of those and talking a little about the upcoming race, we did a 30 minute cool down, then we were done for the day.
Friday was an eventful day to say the least, which should have been expected out of a Friday the 13th. To begin, we arrived at Derryfield School a little bit later than we’d like, thankfully, still having time to get a full warmup in. We stepped on the start line excited and focused, as there was a large pumpkin on the line (inarguably the only important piece of the whole thing). The race took off, and almost immediately became interesting. About 300 meters into the race, the leader began to take a wrong turn, confusing some of the racers behind her. After that little hiccup, the race was going smoothly–despite the uphills–until about halfway. Many of us were confused by the turn around place, which was admittedly our own fault for poorly previewing the course. This confusion led to people running too far and turning around at the wrong place (an estimated 200-400 meters extra). Even with this, the girls remained engaged and didn’t let it get to them too much, which was inspiring to see. The girls ended up winning the pumpkin (and the race), going 1-2-4-5-7. The boys race was slightly less eventful, as they followed the course correctly (as far as I know). Though less eventful it was still fun to watch. The girls even dressed up in costumes to watch them, as we were celebrating Halloween and our last regular season meet. Our boys were also very focused during their race, capitalizing on their strengths well. In the end, Dylan C(not to be confused with Dylan B) came in fourth overall, which was a fantastic race to watch. When given the results at the meet, they came in second overall, which was a good showing. Over the weekend, however, as the results were sent and examined, our boys team had actually won the meet, which was exciting news for Monday’s practice. The Cougar Classic ended up being a fun experience and an enjoyable day for our last regular season meet. Onto championship season!
