By Amelia Smith
To begin Week 5, we came back to everyone’s favorite challenge: The Grinder. This torturous mini workout of a 1.3 mile climb up a series of almost-continuous hills created a rather interesting start to our training week. In this challenge, as a t-shirt is on the line, each girl attempted to get up the hill in less than 10 minutes, and the boys in less than 8 minutes. In addition, this challenge unintentionally becomes harder each year, as the footing worsens after every rain storm(which we’ve had a ridiculous amount of as of late). After a warm up approximating 1 ½ miles to the bottom of the hill, the timer began and we started our climb back to the top. When all was said and done, only one person beat the Grinder, our very own Erin O’Shea. Though some people had better days than others, we were all fairly content with the results, especially given the tough footing.
Thanks to the threat of some serious inclement weather, our training schedule was rearranged so that the next day we took on another workout, the Rail Trail Sub T. Twice a season, for this workout, we (technically) cancel practice and go off campus to our local rail trail. The workout intends for us to complete a 3-4 miles workout at a pace slightly slower than tempo, with a focus on the second half. The worst part of this workout is the unexpected uphill on the way back—the first half seems to be flat, but when you turn around it is most definitely not flat, it is uphill. Coming in a close second for the worst part, however, was the (friggin) tree we had to jump (we are distance runners people, not hurdlers) mid workout. Regardless, soft dirt under foot, we sent out our training groups at their respective times, although an effort is more valuable than time in this workout. Everyone ran 3 ½ or 4 miles worth of the tempo, a pretty good showing. I can say, however, the last 800 meters felt so long, and the slight curves in the trail made the finish line unforeseeable until about 20 meters left (That’s a lie, the whole thing felt long). We also did some full body mobility work after the workout, where our coach Becka remarked on our flexibility, or lack thereof. She made us do head circles, which made a surprising amount of us rather dizzy, and the rest I can’t remember because I was dizzy.
Wednesday is my favorite day of the week, “long run day”. The weather was great, and not at all like we anticipated (We did two workouts in a row for good weather :() Each week we bump up the range by five minutes and this week was 70-80. Getting off campus, we (the girls team) ran down through the center of town and nearby trailer park, before returning back to Mascenic. Somewhere in the middle there the girls split into two groups, and while I can’t speak for the other group, running up Mascenic hill after 2 days of workouts and a long run was painful for myself and everyone I was running with. As follows every longrun, we did strides, yoga walks, and jump ropes, and as always we looked like some serious goons doing yoga walks.
Thursday=Race-Prep=Starts. This week, we spent our starts trying to determine line arrangements, who would start where, and who is next to who. As it turns out, I (Amelia), despite being slower than many of my companions, seem to have a better start than them, and found myself in the front row with the O’Shea Twins. Five starts and D-Flex in the freshly mowed grass left us green and itchy, just in time for our 20 minute “cool down.” Not much interesting happens on race prep days and this day was no different.
The monotony of Thursday was contrasted by the excitement of the next day. Friday marked the very first formal 3 mile race of the year. It also happened to be Mascenic’s very own homecoming meet. Ten teams, excluding ours, were set to show, and everyone was itching to run. At 4PM sharp, the horn signifies the start of the girls race. The girls went out in a pack, with runners 1-4 holding closely together towards the front and runners 5 and 6 following closely behind. Our duo of runners 7 and 8 held their own, working in the middle of the race. The first lap was meant to go out controlled, with the second being used to run hard and fast. In the end, the girls did just that, and placed 1st overall, with the scoring five as 2-3-5-6-11. The boys race then went off, with a similar plan to the girls: have a controlled first lap in a group of four, then use the second lap to run your fastest. The boys ended up coming in 2nd overall, with two of our boys PRing. Altogether, it was a good showing for the Vikings.
