Busier than expected...

Today ended up being much busier than anticipated, so I did not get a work out in :(  Had a great time volunteering this morning.  Caity and I had a great lunch.  The store was an adventure, but Krystal's cookies are all ready to go.  Ended the day celebrating Matt and Jeff's Birthdays a little early.  Had a great time with those guys tonight, it was nice to see them all again.  They always make me laugh, but I am so the Penny of the group! HAHAHAHA!

Tomorrow we are off to OH, so I probably will not be able to post again for a while.  Happy New Year if I am not on here again!

First day of recovery...

Had a wonderful Christmas yesterday with the family...It is always great to stay  at home and just enjoy being together. 
Yesterday was also the first day that the antibiotic really kicked in.  I am starting to feel better.  My throat is no longer killing me, but I am still just really tired all of the time.  Even the stairs just drain me.  But decided to try to get a work out in anyway.  Road the bike at a nice pace while Jared and I watched some NCIS.  Just thirty minutes, more tired than I should be, but felt good to be going again.  Hopefully, now I will be able to pick up the pace leading into camp!

Hope that everyone had a great Chirstmas!!!!!!!!

Sore Throat Shutdown

So unfortunately after just one day of getting back on track I developed a sore throat.  Took yesterday off to get better.  It did not help much.  Woke up this morning feeling even worse.  Spent most of the day on the couch.  With some medicine and rest I am feeling a bit better, head still hurts.  Maybe I will be better tomorrow. 

First workout in a while

Dont really know what has happened to the past few weeks, but besides one sad run today was my first real workout since the meet.  I just have not really had  much motivation...tired from the very long semester I guess.

Today I did get myself going go.  I spent an hour on the bike, with pick ups for 1 min after every 4 mins.  So 11 total I think.  It was not a super tough cardio workout, but got the job done for today.  Then I did push ups, 1 set of 25, 1 set of 15, and 10 clapping push ups, a workout I stole a while ago.  In between sets of push ups I did coach patty's 2 min abs.  It is really bad how out of shape my arms and abs have gotten, but I got it done.  The goal is to get workouts in every day this week, so this was not a bad start.

Don't know if anyone reads this any more, but thought I would update it since I had the time.

Not a lot to report personally...

We had our first meet yesterday.  Personally it was not a real great day.  No heighted at 2.45 (8ft).  Ended up running much harder when it was compition time than I have been at practice so I ran myself way under.  If I was going to fail that was the best way in which to do it.  Not thrilled with yesterday.  Just trying to be content with the fact that I have been taking off on all my jumps, no more of this scared thing.  Its early, so itll be ok.

Was really excited for the team though!  Overall it was an amazing day!!  Congrats the freshman pole vaulters for clear their first collegiate heights!  As a team it is going to be a great year!! Dont think coach has ever looked so happy after a december meet before!

Turkey Trot!

Kels and I got up nice and early and headed down to our race.  We were scheduled for an 8k this morning.  It was a pretty chilly morning, and there were a bunch of people there.  Race went off at 9:10.  It was amazing to run without hills!  Race felt great! I actually managed to run without stopping, more than I can say for my other 5ks...  Was not super fast, but felt great.  Especially for a pole vaulter who never runs more than a mile at a time :)  Had a lot left at the end.  Some high school girl, running the 5K i think, tried to out sprint me in the last 150m.  So as I saw her coming though, I took off.  Prob ran about a 20 sec 100 to finish!  I def do not know how to run distance races yet!  But hey, I am learning!  Overall it took me 42:38, unofficially.  I am quite pleased!

Finally some time away!

It has been a really busy and tough few weeks!! I am def glad that it is over and I am away from CNU.  Love my friends and all, but really happy to be off campus and with the fam.  Practice has been going well, excited for our meet in just over a week!  The training focus this week is a little different for me though.  Kels and I are running an 8k tomorrow so we did a nice 30 min run on the beach today.  It'll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow, but going in with no expectations means I can be nothing but content with my time.  Its def not my specialty so here we go :)  Should be a nice week, hope everyone else is enjoying their break as well!

off to a good start...

So practice actually began a week and a half ago, but with all the craziness going on with school, I have not had a chance to post.  It has been really nice having practice again.  Life is even crazier, loosing those three hours, but I really enjoy spending time there.  Lifting has gone well.  Maxed essentially  the same as fall camp.  Running has also felt really good!  The best part though has been pole vaulting.  He has us doing one handed jumps all of the time now.  It was a little weird at first, but I like it.  Really makes me jump up.  today we started working them to flats.  The greatest improvement for me came on the take off.  I am actually jumping up rather than just getting pulled off the ground, which is particularly noticeable with these cause it hurts my shoulder.  Coach got all excited today because of the excess energy that gave me at take off.  If this keeps up, it is gonna be a good year.

First day!

Track practice began today, so there goes anytime I may have had to relax...  I am excited though, I have missed practice and my teammates.  At least I wont have to worry about doing workouts on my own anymore! 

Today was a very chill first day.  Coach talked for the first half hour.  Then we went through the warm up kinda slow.  Followed that with some sprint tech work and acceleration/start drills.  Finished up the day with planks.  Then he made me lead stretching...We were actually out of there by 5:30!  Complete craziness!  Overall it was a very nice first day.  I am well aware thought that I am going to be incredibly sore for the rest of the week...

Back to work

Today I got my first work out in nearly 2 weeks. Didn't have two of my morning classes so I went to the freeman center.  Did a nice 5 lap warm up.  For my workout I ran 3 sets of 150, 100, 50.  I felt surprisingly good for the lack of work I have done lately.  not sure I would want to know what my times were, but my legs felt great.  Finished off with a 3 lap cool down to make that a mile.  Then did quick 2 min abs and some push ups.  We will see what kind of soreness I am feeling tomorrow.  I am sure it wont be good.  Monday will be interesting but at least i moved a little today.  I am excited to get this season rolling.

disappionting morning run

Yesterday, marissa and I walked Busch Gardens all day, so I am counting that as my workout for the day, little whimpy I know...

I had a lot of work to do today so I wanted to get up and get my workout out of the way.  That went just fine.  I was up at 9 and running by 9:15.  The plan was to just do a quick two mile loop.  I headed out feeling fine.  It was tough but I was doing fine.  I hit the 20 min mark with over a quarter mile to go and was really disappointed.  Also had to stop and walk about 100 m, cause my breathing got out of control.  In total it took me 25 mins which is beyond sad.  I have a lot of work to do to make up for these past 3 months.  Its a good thing my competition is never more than 100 ft!

Fall Break

So now that it is fall break (cant believe the semester is halfway over!!!) and i have a little bit of time on my hands, I am hoping to get a workout in everyday.  This morning I went over to the track.  I ran a mile of jog the curves stride the straights, 5 min rest, then a mile of jog the straights stride the curves.  I was pretty proud of myself.  I was tired but i made it happen!  Afterwards, i did a set of 2 min abs, and 25 pushups.  Lots of my upper body strength was missing this morning :(  Then I played around with handstands for a while, since coach wants us to get better at them.  That was fun!  Not a bad first workout since monday!  Hopefully this can be a good start towards getting back in shape for practice in 2 weeks!

Good luck to the CNU soccer teams today!

Finally!

Got a workout in on monday, it had been over a week :(  Just went out on a run, ended up going the whole noland trail.  In all it was 5 miles.  half mile to the trail, 2.5 on the trail, .5 mile walk, then last two miles of the trail.  It actaully felt really good.  I cannot believe how much i was able to do despite my lack of training lately!  The rest of the week has been busy again, but hopefully I can at least get in 1 more work out this week.

unfortunately life has been a little to crazy for workouts.  Research has gotten really busy, but I have gotten a lot done.  Hopefully I will be able to recover time in my schedule to get back to running here soon. One half hour run in two weeks is really bad!!!  Oh well, guess life happens sometimes.


Congrats to the Volleyball team for their win last night!  and Good luck to Soccer and Football in their games today!!!

Quick workout

Yesterday, I did get myself to the indoor track.  Ran 3 sets of 4 150s.  They were tough, but felt pretty good!  But lab took too long so I got there late and didnt make it to lifting.  Today was packed, no time for a workout.  Happy to say that I have the highest grade on my p chem test in my class, but it was only a 75... got the weekend to get that up!  Also, had a nice meeting at J lab, really excited to get started on my project next tuesday!  Gonna be a chill rainy weekend.  Games are even starting to be canceled because of the storms we r supposed to get.  Theres a really good chance our car wash for SAO wont get to happen.  Not good, should be an interesting weekend!

Ooops falling behind!

Sorry to anyone out there who actually pays attention to this!  I have been slacking on keeping it updated.  My workouts have not really been much or all that regular the past few days so its hard.  Last thursday, i did a nice 4 mile run.  Stoppped for just a sec at the half way point.  It was really hot so I was thankful for the rain.  Afterwards I headed inside for some lifting. Front squats and hang cleans, overall it went really well.  Friday was a busy day with 5 hours of class then a meeting at Jlab.  So I did not get a workout in.  Marissa and I had fun this weekend shopping and doing lots of homework.  It has been good to spend time with her lately!  Monday, I did the same run as thursday, this time no stops.  I was really happy with myself!  It was much cooler so that made it easier.  Just did some auxillary lower body stuff, got a lovely blister on my foot right now... Tuesday, I was back at the gym hanging with little kids.  They know me now and give me hugs and stuff, they are so cute!!!  Wednesday I wasnt feeling real well so I just did some abs and pushups in my room and called it a day.  It was nice seeing the mens soccer team kick butt though!  Today I am hoping to get  a workout in after lab.  Got a big P chem test tomorrow so we will see...

I have definitely realized this semester that there are things in my life more important than track.  While I want to be all I can be, I am not going to kill myself over workouts this semester.  Doing well in my classes, getting my service hours in and becoming involved in research are much more important right now.  I want to continue getting stronger and ready for the season, but I am not going to kill myself this semester to do it.  If that means working out a little less than others, then thats just how it goes.  However, I will be ready to rock come November!  Just doing a little priority work right now...

fast week!

It has been a challenge this week getting in work outs when I don't have to be at practice!  Monday I was able to get in a nice lower body lift.  However, trying to run afterwards was nearly impossible!  But I did get at least some level of workout in!  Tuesday, my work out time lost to volunteer time.  At least I spent 2 hours moving around with kids.

Today (wednesday), I did a much better job.  After some work in the lab, I headed out to the track.  Because of my crazy week, I chose to do the running workout that is scheduled for tomorrow today.  It was 3 sets of 3 200s.  It was actually incredibly hard!  I got through the whole thing, but was wiped out by the end.  I know I was running slow, but I have got to get my base back.  After my run, I headed back in to ratcliffe for a nice upper body lift and quick abs.  Today was a pretty good day.  Cannot believe that it is Thursday already!!  This week went so fast!!!

All done with Fall Camp!

Had a really nice practice yesterday!  Learned our new pole vault warm up, lots of med ball work and handstands, its super fun!!  We even got to jump a little bit.  Things went much better than Thusday!  After practice we went to the weight room!  I was a little disappointed in my maxes... Only 5 at 180 for back squats, put my max about 5 pounds lower than before.  The same happened for hang cleans, 5 at 105.  After some great interviews for SAO, some of us headed out to the soccer game.  Convientely, it started really late so we only missed the first 15 mins!  It was an incredibly intense game against VA Weslyan, should not have been as close as it was!  But a nice goal in the first half of overtime gave us the win!

This morning, we had practice at 9.  I wasn't real happy about getting up...  We took our "test,"  we had to write out a description of our main event.  Then after a warm up he videoed us doing an acceleration and a short approach.  Practice only took two hours, but then we spent another 2 hours getting all the mats out under the stadium for storage.  It was terrible! Took forever!  Did get to ride in the back of a flat bed truck though, that was fun!

Finally, good luck to the CNU men's soccer team in the game tonight!  Wish I could be there!  Know they will be awesome!

Almost there!

Today was Thursday, finally.  It went much better than originally expected!  I got really lucky and woke up on my own at 5:15, how I have no idea.  My cell phone decided to lose its mind and delete all of my alarms!  But somehow I still made it to practice by 6!  That is way too early for practice!  It was incredibly excited though.  I got to do a whole bunch of short approach work!  Actually left the ground and everything!  I was definitely rusty, and my hands are sore, but it was wonderful! I am really looking forward to getting the season going and seeing what I can get done this year!  After my very busy day of class and lab, I headed back to the weight room for bench testing.  I was super happy to max and 5 reps of 135, the equivalent of a 152 lbs single rep max!  It actually went up despite my failure end of summer!  After we finished up, we did a nice ab routine.  Then I headed back for a nice quick dinner, and off to our last event of recruitment!  I am really looking forward to interviews tomorrow!  The 3 girls who have been coming are really amazing!  Tomorrow is finally Friday!  I am so looking forward to being done with this crazy week!

Oh hey this is also my 100th post!! crazy!

More Craziness

I need to do less, my life is too busy!  This is nuts!  Yesterday was nearly a 20 hour day for me!  And I had about and hour and a half of down time!  Today has been nearly as ridiculous!  Practice was good.  Warmed up, did some more general jumping drills then headed to the weight room.  Today was front squat and hang clean maxing.  I was concerned cause my lifting schedule has not been what it should be lately.  I was quite surprised that my front squat max only went down 5 pounds and my hang cleans remained the same.  So that is looking good for the rest of the week!  I can't wait for this week to be over.  It has been really hard and I am really looking forward to a break.

Fall Camp

So this is pretty much the craziest week of my life!!!  Not only is it our first full week of classes, it is fall camp for track and recruitment for SAO!!  So much going on!  The first two days of fall camp have gone well.  Yesterday we spent 2 hours going through our warm up which ususally takes barely 30 mins!!  It was painfully slow!!  Its great to be back with the team!  The freshman are really great!  After our ridiculous warm up we did some med ball work.  Today I was up bright and early for 6 am practice because I had volunteering this afternoon during practice.  Getting up that early was tough, but since it was me and the throwers I got to do the warm up at real speed :)  Then I spent some time on acceleration drills.  Finished up the morning with abs and a nice set of push ups!  While getting up was terrible, it was really nice to have my workout all done before my day even began.

Overall, this week has been good.  After a very lazy weekend getting back into the swing of things is hard.  But life seems to be going pretty well.  Classes are good.  Working at the gym today was nuts!  Some how they were a teacher short so I ended up teaching a class all by myself.  They are really nice, it is def different from aerials, more team, less classes, but it went really well.  My voice is now completely gone though! Looking forward to the rest of the week!

Back in the swing of things

This has been a crazy week!  Tuesday morning before I came back to CNU, Kelsey and I ran for about 45 mins.  I got lost so I have no idea how far I went.  Wednesday I managed to get out of bed and go for a 20 min run before class.  Thursday afternoon my lab ended earlier than anticipated so I went out to the track to get in a sprinting work out.  I ran 3 sets of 150,100, 50.  Friday was crazy and I didnt make it out.  I am trying to establish a good routine but it has been really hard with the hurricane break and all.  But hopefully it will get better soon.  Next week we have fall camp so I will have to do stuff, which is good.  Hopefully after that I will be better about working out.  It will be great to be back with the team again!  Last night it was great to watch the CNU men's soccer team win a nice 5-0 victory over Catholic University of America.  Looking foreward to watching them play again tonight!

Hurricane Break!

what a first week at school!!  Earthquake on tuesday, then evacuated for a hurricane friday!  It was nuts!!  quite an eventful first day at school!!  I did a few haphazard workouts, but I am still working to get back into routine!  Thursday afternoon I headed over to the track and ran a mile of stride the straights jog the curves.  I did some push ups, one set of 25, one set of 15 and a set of 10 claps  :)    in between sets I did two sets of 2 min abs.  It was really hard!  Been a long time since I have used those muscles! Guess ive got some work to do before the season starts!

Friday Kelsey and I headed out of the area and back to Pittsburgh/Ohio for Kole's first birthday party!  I cannot believe he is one already!!!  He is so incredibly cute!! It was so much fun playing with him all day saturday!!!  Sunday morning, Kelsey Meghan and I got up and headed to a park near them.  The loop they wanted to run was 5 miles.  I hung with Meghan for the first half.  Then went into a bit of a psycho mode and went crazy for the last half and pulled away from her.  Had to slow down every once in a while to get directions :)  It felt really good to push that hard on a run!  But I still have lots to do if Kels and I are going to run a 10 k in october!  It took me just under 45 mins to run the loop!  Not bad, since that is the farthest I have ever run!!!  After a great breakfast and some cards, Kels and I got back on the road.  We are now in a hotel in Williamsburg and hoping to be back to normal by tomorrow night!  Been quite a week, but I can honestly say that I am really excited for this semester.  I think it is going to go better than I originally intended!

Back to School

It is very different being back at school.  To those of you who actually enjoy reading this, I am sorry I have been slacking lately.  It has been a crazy few weeks.  Last week at the beach I did get back to working out.  Meghan pretty much ran vacation boot camp!!  She had Kels and I up every morning to run.  Then we went on Bike rides with Auntie Pat, and in the evening we would attempt to swim.  I was proud of myself for being able to run with her for the most part, especially towards the end of the week.  It has been a while since I really worked out.  Having someone else to motivate me was awesome.

Now I am back at CNU.  I have been to nearly all of my classes.  Some stuff with profs has changed and been a pain, but I really think it will work out, and I am looking forward to seeing what happens.  It has been great to be back with my sisters, roommates, teammates and friends again.  I missed everyone a lot.  Happy for new friends and glad to still be close to the older ones.

Yesterday morning I got up and headed to the track to run 30 m cut backs.  It was the first time I had sprinted in like 5 weeks!!  I did 2 sets of 10 with an extra at the end of the second.  They felt pretty good, but today my legs are sore.  Yesterday was a tough day overall, and I was super tired last night. Rather than get up this morning and run I waited until after my class.  I am so excited for Inorganic!!  And Dr. Fattah is going to help me get research!!!!!!  I ran a 2 mile loop around campus, my body wasnt super into it after what I put it through all day yesterday, but I need to get to work if I am going to survive a thanksgiving 10k!!!  Now to spend the rest of my day with errands and homework! Fun stuff!!

Hiking???

So Dad decided that we were going hiking today.  So we got up at 8 and headed to the poconos.  3 hours and a stop at Denny's later we were at the park.  Unfortunately, it was pouring down rain, and did so for the entire 2 hours we walked!  It was still a blast though!!  The waterfalls were sweet!!!  Overall, it was like a 5 mile walk.  Not a bad workout for the day, and I had so much fun with my parents and brother.

Trying to remotivate...

These past few weeks have been rough for me.  For some reason I have not had the motivation to work out very much.  I have been working a lot, and work has been tiring me out.  It been weird but I have been incredibly lazy.  I am trying to get re-motivated and get back into it before I go to school.  I was supposed to go to the Y today, but instead I took a 2.5 hour nap.  When I woke up I felt worse than when I went to sleep!!!  I some how got my act together enough to get outside and jump rope.  Felt like it would be fun.  It was actually really hard!!  I did 3 sets of 100 forward, forward, backward, right and left.  Then ended with a set with crossovers cause they are fun.  Added up to 1600 jumps total.  My legs were tired and it was actually a really tough cardio workout since I have been lazy lately.  Hoping to find new motivation and get moving again soon.  If nothing else I am excited to go to the beach and plan on swimming laps there.  Then, when I go to school I know i will get going again.  Just cant shack this exhaustion...

Another day at the gym

Today I had a haircut about 2 hours after i was done with work, so i chose to stay and work out.  The team girls were there so I headed down to the mini gym to be out of the way.  I started with some jump roping to warm up.  Then did 3 sets of 15 step ups on each legs.  Next was 3 handstand holds, 30, 45 and 60 secs.  Followed by 3 sets of 2 min abs.  Then for some more legs i did 3 sets of 1 min wall sits, and 3 sets of 10 box jumps.  For some more arms I did 3 sets of 20 push ups.  To round out the abs I did 3 sets of 10 windshield wipers up against the wall.  Happy with my haircut.  Overall it was a nice day, little more motivated to get working out again.  We will see how I feel in the morning, may just try to go to the y  after work.

Gymnastics workout???

So today, after a moderately painful trip to the dentist, i went to work about 45 mins early and decided to workout a little before I had to start teaching.  I did a quick circuit of stuff that I remembered doing so long ago...  It ended up being a full body workout which was a nice way to wake up all my muscles and hopefully get them going again.  I started with chin up pullovers, much harder than I remembered,  did 10 on the first set, 5 on the second.  Then I did 10 dips (both sets).  Next was leg lifts, both sets of 10, much harder than I remember when done on the wall!!  Then I did upside down rope climbs,  i was quite pleased with how well these actually went!  after wards was an ab exercise I don't remember the name of, I laid on the floor, held the support of one of the bars, and tried to lift my body up from my shoulders as straight as possible, i think both sets were of 10.  Then I headed over to the beam where I did a bunch of calf raises, and 1 set of 10, 1 set of 8 single leg squats, i guess u would call them.  Surprisingly, my legs were stronger than I remember!!  These felt really good on my right knee, some of the strength it still needs to recover!  Finished out the circuit with sets of 5 handstand push ups!  Overall, it was a nice day.  Great way to kill time before taking the kids to the bowling alley!  Hopefully, I can get myself back on a more regular workout routine soon, but honestly since november I have not taken more than a week off, so I think my body is enjoying a little time to recharge.

morning run

Very proud of myself for waking up at 7 this morning and going on a nice mile or so run.  The hills killed my legs and it was already hot!!  Still glad I went out and did something!!  Got lots of good shopping done this morning with my parents and now heading out to spend sometime with Meghan.  Can't believe I leave in less than 2 weeks!!

Aerial's!

Been a very full week of work!  I am excited it is the weekend! California took more out of me than I realized!  I have been so exhausted all week, all i want to do is sleep, and I have been!  Because of that my motivation to work out has been slipping.  Tuesday I just did abs, wednesday i took totally off.  Thursday I go up and ran about 2.5 miles, which felt really nice.  So far today I have not done anything.  Beginning to think that this will just be a week of rest.  Might get up and run a little before we head out tomorrow.  Guess my body needed some time to recover.  Hopefully my normal energy levels return soon.

BACK!!!

I am finally home.  San Jose was absolutely amazing!! I cannot imagine a better way to have spent my summer.  All the pics are up on facebook.  Unfortunately, I got incredibly busy while there, with class work, and updating this blog quickly lost priority.  But now that I am home, I am back.  For the most part I was good at working out while there.  The last week I was wiped out and developed a cold so I ended up sleeping in every morning except for monday, but I did get to the gym most evenings.  I am absolutely gonna miss that class.  I learned so much, and I made what I know will be life long friends.  I am happy to be home, and am really looking forward to getting back to school in a few weeks.

Today I got back to working out after several days off due to travel and such.  Got up around 7 this morning, and it was already hot and humid.  Started my warm up with something I have not seen in a while, a hill!!!   That mile actually felt really good, guess the work I did in Cali paid off!!  Then ran approximately 60 m in the yard.  It was fun dodging trees and running on the side of a hill! hahaha!  The plan was to run 24 total.  I was dying in the humidity.  Started with a set of 7, then 6, then 7.  Then stopped for a while, thinking I needed to be done.  But after a few mins inside, I put my shoes back on and headed out to finish the whole thing.  They were not particularly fast or anything, but I am proud of myself for finishing the whole thing.

This afternoon I headed to the basement to get a little lift in.  Started with 3 sets of 8 handstand push ups, 3 sets of 10 dips, 3 sets of 10 curls, and 3 sets of 8 military press.  Next round had 3 sets of 20 push ups, 3 sets of skull crusher series (minus the middle one), and 3 sets of behind head tricep raises with weight.  Finished up the day with 3 sets of consecutive 2 min abs, was struggling by the 3rd set but made it through.  Overall today was a good day, very productive.

4th of July!

Today was a great 4th of July, slept in til just after 9 this morning then did lab all day until around 3 when we headed out for our run!  It was hot!  Started with a mile warm up only to find that the normal park was filled with a 4th of July picnic, so we changed course and went on campus to find a spot.  Ran 60 m today.  2 sets of 6.  I was so excited to start but then the early stages of heat stroke set in, I did not drink nearly enough water today!  So my speed dropped of significantly!!  Got clear through the first set then went on a mission to find water.  Ran 6 more then skipped a set of 2, then finished out the last 4, opted out of the bonus to today as well.  I am quite disappointed in myself for letting this happen again! I need to get better about drinking water!  Overall it was still an alright workout, finished up with 2 mins abs and stretching.  Just finished up the 2 labs that are due on wednesday and getting ready to head out to some fireworks with group!  Its exciting to celebrate the 4th in the US this year!!

Too Many Lab reports!

Been a long time since I have been able to post because my days have been full of class lab reports and studying.  Did still manage to get several good workouts in, but have not had the chance to write about them.  Wednesday was a "light" day.  Went of the mile loop around campus.  Kurt decided to go hard though turning my day off into one of the fastest miles I have run!!  That afternoon, after taking a mid term that went ok, we headed to the gym.  Did an arm work out, it was good, my triceps were sore for days!!  Thursday was back to the 3 mile run before heading to Berkeley National Lab for the day.  Pleased with my run, but let myself easy up a little since the previous few days had been so rough!  The trip was great, it was so cool to see the place I spent so much time learning about in the Spring, and being at a place where real scientists do real work!  Friday morning we got up and headed to the pool again.  Excited to have Jeff join us.  It was great to have a second coach!! My swimming has gotten much better!  Managed to do a full 50 m swim with flip turn and all!!  Excited to continue getting better.  Saturday had no structured workout but we spent the day at the beach playing volleyball.  It was an amazing day!!  Could absolutely go back again!!  Today was a light shake out kinda day.  Quick light 20 mins run this morning then a trip to the gym this afternoon.  Sunday's are ab days for Kurt so I decided to see what I could do.  I was quite pleased with myself!  Started off with crunches ups, toe touches, heals to the heavens, twists and 6" 12 " with a weight ball.  Then did some mountain climbers with a ball. Finally we headed in to the actual weights.  The circuit consisted of side pulls with a weight (made my day on the second set when I walked over next to some guy who thought he was pretty legit, picked up a weight 5 lbs bigger than his and did the same exercise!!!  hahaha love it!!!)  broomsticks, knee up series on the pull up bar, decine abs and decline twists.  Did not quite get to finish because the gym closed at 5, but none the less it was a great work out!!  Hoping my abs are sore tomorrow, been a while since that has happened!  Now dinner and back to lab reports!

Back to running!

After our swim yesterday, Kurt and I got back on the normal schedule and headed out for the normal tuesday run, 3 laps around the SJSU campus.  Very proud of myself for holding on for real for the first two full laps, and getting to the last corner before Kurt got back.  I pushed myself well this morning and was proud of it.  Then had some good morning recess time, Lab, lunch, rad safety test, lab again, volleyball in the rain (which was amazing!!) Pizza for dinner, and then studying...  Midterm tomorrow!  also very excited to get to talk to Michael for a few mins!!  been way to long!!  Looking forward to a light run tomorrow and hopefully a lift in the afternoon if I survive this test!!!  But for now my brain is done studying and I am headed to bed!

What a Monday!!!

So after a wonderful weekend, I got up this morning for my first swimming workout!!!!  I am definitely still a failure but it was so much fun.  Kurt took me through a little of swimming 101, but I just need to get comfortable.  There was no real workout this morning, just swimming laps, right now I can barely survive a lap!!!!  Wanted to learn how to flip turn, but always ended up just flipping and not hitting the wall!!  It is weird to be wearing good enough goggles that I can trust them to keep the water out!! I am still closing my eyes more than necessary!!  Despite the lack of plan it was definitely a workout!! I was so tired afterwards!!

Unfortunately, our professor for the week has a urinary tract infection and was unable to lecture, this resulted in us having the afternoon off!! So after some volleyball that resulted in me getting burnt :(  Kurt and I went to the gym.  I did not have a plan for the day so I decided I would tag along with him.  I really love learning new exercises and trying new things so it was fun!  Today was a shoulder day for him, so now my shoulders are pretty sore!  We did a whole bunch of stuff!!  shoulder shrugs, military press, these strange things where you put weight under ur legs while sitting on the end of the bench and pull it up til it hits ur legs (apparently I can lift more than the other TA!! hahaha!!!!!)  Then we did a circuit that included shoulder series work with light weights, bar rows, standing military press, somethings kinda like flys but on your stomach and pull ups.  For the most part I did 3 sets of 10, there were a few where I did not quite hit it though.  It was a great arm workout, but because the exercises were new I did not quite no what weights I need to be lifting.

Overall it was a great day!  Much more relaxing with plenty of time to get done all that I needed to.  Some crazy stuff is happen in the next few days, so we will see!

Finally Friday!!

I was so excited that today was Friday!! I got nearly 7 hours of sleep last night and it was wonderful!! I was still really sore, but was excited to get out and sprint.  Last nite I was told that todays workout was death sprints!!!  It was close, but definitely an overstatement!!  Marked out 50 meters then ran 100 m cut backs.  First was 2 sets of six.  Then pushed it up to 200 m for the second set!! I was flying on the 100s!! Even managed to win one!!!  Apparently Kurt did not know it was a race!!  I informed him that everything is a race!!  But I got destroyed on the 200s!!  Three cut back were just brutal with sore quads!!!!  But made it through anyway!! Can already tell I am getting stronger!!  Then enjoyed some intense volleyball time after a great dinner at a Japanese steakhouse!! Today was a great day, but the 7+ hours of lecture made my legs even more stiff!!  Now my brain is just done and needs some time to relax!!!  I am so excited for the redwood forest and the beach tomorrow!! Gonna be a great day!

SORE!!!!!

So i was right, my legs felt like lead when i got up this morning!!! i was a little upset at my alarm for going off at 6:00, but knew i would be upset of I bailed on running this morning!!  Kurt and I decided it was ok to just go for a random run today rather than running the usual tuesday/thursday loop.  We headed off in a new direction and just explored for a little while.  Ended up going to a new part of town.  Also, I now know where the walmart is!!  Overall, it was 34 mins, at a decent pace, heart rate barely elevated, but legs very tired!  Today was a full day with class and lab, so with too much sitting I got very sore.  Now i am having issues getting up and down the stairs!! It is aweful what happens when u stop squating for 7 weeks!!  But my legs should be good to go for a sprint workout tomorrow.  Things are much better right now since the lab that is due tomorrow only took like 2 hours rather than like 15-20!!  Hopefully the rest will be more like this one!  I am looking forward to guest speakers and dinner tomorrow!!  Cannot believe it is gonna be friday already!! This week went crazy fast!

Lab reports ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Way too many lab reports to do!!! I have nearly finished 3 since I got here and have done the lab but need to write the report for 4 more!!! and it has only been a week and a half!!! Holy cow!!  At least I am getting faster at them.

Got a little better sleep last night and was not nearly as upset when my alarm went off.  Today was just an easyish mile in the morning.  Ran at a faster pace than last week, less chatting, but def not breaking any records.  Today's lab was a little shorter and I was able to get in a lift this afternoon!!
3x10 shoulder press with 30 lbs weights
squats 10 at 135, 8 at 155, 6 at 175 (then failed at an attempt at 4 at 185, not a bad day back!) with 3x8 leg lifts
3x10 calf raises each direction with 30lbs weights
3x10 incline press with 30 lbs weights with 3x12 back extensions with a 30 lb weight
3x8 box jumps with 3x11 dips
Michael's push up series with 3x10 incline abs
2 mins abs and 5 mins on the elliptical to finish up.

So I'm gonna be very sore in the morning.  Most likely gonna do another slower run to just get my legs moving and postpone tomorrows run to like Saturday morning when my legs hopefully won't feel like Pb bricks!

Rough Day!

Today started out rough, when I was disappointed to hear my alarm, then I lost a contact!!  My run this morning was not the best  Just over half way through lap 2  I got a very bad stomach cramp!! Kurt was nice and walked about 50 m with me until it relaxed a little.  Because he was nice I was able to reach my goal for the morning of holding pace for 2 whole laps, cheated a little, but technically i did!! haha!!  But by the end of the second lap, my body was done.  I am really tired and pretty stressed out from all of the work I have to do!!  But with a up of coffee this morning lecture was fun and lab was bearable!  unfortunately, because lab took like 5 hours I did not have enough time to go to the gym,  spent 4 hours working on a lab report instead!!  I will play tomorrow and thursday by ear in that respect and just see how it goes, if I am not able to start lifting again until next week when things calm down, thats ok.  Overall, I am really enjoying this class!! Lectures are really interesting, labs just take way too long!!

Sleepy Monday!

So I have not been getting the sleep I need lately, so waking up this morning at 6 after going to bed at 12:30 was rough.  But nonetheless by 6:15 Kurt and I headed out on the warm-up, about a mile.  Then we went to the field and ran 60 m sprints.  2 sets of 10.  I was happy that I kept it so close!!!  Obviously I expect to loose, but its nice to feel like I am at least holding my own!  It was tricky running in the grass, lots of holes and the ground was wet!  Then we simply had to run an extra 2 to pick up the plate we used to mark the 60 m line!!  Overall it was a good work out.  But I was struggling to be awake during the 3 hours of lecture this morning, especially because it was mostly review today, but I made it, and I made it through a really long lab.  Now workin on some homework, finally starting to transition back into school mode!  But its gonna be a long week.

Sunday = work day!

Not too much of an off day for me today, but very happy I was so productive!  Got up just before 7:30, threw my laundry in the wash then headed out for a run with Kurt.  Did the same loop as wednesday, just over a mile.  Had fun making him sprint out the finish even though his legs were sore from the day before.  Went hard about 50 m from the finish and knew he wouldn't let me win (which i didn't :( ) But it was fun nonetheless.  Then after a nice breakfast I got to work on my lab report.  Fought with it for several hours before heading to the weight room.  SJSU has a decent weight room, not breath taking by any means but it will serve its purpose for the summer.  Took me a little while to get acclemated with the area then got going.  Decided to go for a full body workout.  It has been a while since I lifted so I kept it light.  Started with 3x8 NG pulls, with leg raises  (great to have the equipment to do these again).  Then headed over to bench, 3x8 at 95 lbs, low weight but I was by myself and it was my first day in a while.  Also, the clips for the bar are terrible!  Don't think I will be doing many workouts where I need to change weights!!  With bench I did decline abs with a 25 lbs weight.  Then 3x 5 cleans at 95 lbs, and 3 x 8 sets of the shoulder series.  Finished up the lift with 3x8 lance step ups with a 35 lbs weight with 3x8 decline russian twists with the same weight.  Ended the day with a nice cool down on the treadmill.  Afterwards its was nice to catch up with my parents a little, and get to talk to Michael, been a while!!  Then spent several hours trying to finish up this ridiculous lab report,  all done now.  Got a pretty busy week ahead, but hoping to reintroduce lifting into my schedule.

Friday!!!!!!

So once again this morning I got up early to run, today was a sprint day.  Kurt and I did a mile ish loop for warm up.  I was super pleased that I kept up much better than monday morning!  Prob because I wasn't wearing my bag.  The we hit the field and measured out 100 m.  The workout for this morning was pyramid style.  100 m cuts backs, from 100 to 500 meters then back!  I felt exhausted by the first 400 and did my best to get through the rest.  Luckily, I am super competitive so I would never stop.  So glad I got through it  but i was miserable while I ran it.  then we headed back and headed off to our last day of class for the week!!  Today was a very interesting but very long day!!  I loved the guest lecturers tonite, but my mind was hurting by the end of it.  Dinner was great! I am really looking forward to taking the day off and enjoying San Francisco all day tomorrow!!!!

Gettin Better

So this morning I already noticed an improvement in my running.  I held pace with Kurt for about 100 meters farther than I did on tuesday.  But at that point I felt on the border of hard to breath sobs so I backed off some trying my best to keep myself just below that point.  But once again I ran the whole way,  more than I can say for my 5K, so I'm getting better.  My lungs still need to get stronger in order to keep up with what my body can do.  Class today was really interesting, its getting much less scary now that we know what to expect.  Lab also went well to.  Tonite is an easier night than last nite, so we r looking forward to spending some time together relaxing again.  Tomorrow is a sprint day again which will be exciting, looks like a hard workout.  Then Saturday is an off day from running as we head out to San Francisco.  Overall, I am starting to really enjoy myself as I set into a routine and get used to doing work again.

Nuclear Boot Camp!!

So this experience has been refered to by others as nuclear boot camp and I can absolutely see why!! These first few days have been a little rough!  Approximately 3 hours of lecture in the morning, then 3 hours of lab in the afternoon!! Makes for a full day! Especially now that we have lab reports to write a quizzes to take!! But through it all I have managed to continue a pretty good workout routine.  Got up and met Kurt every morning this week.  It helps to have someone else going!  My competitiveness won't let me bail!!! : )  Tuesday was a hard distance run.  We lapped San Jose's Campus 3 times.  It is between a mile and a quarter and a mile and a half.  Did that 3 times total.  Kept up with Kurt nicely for the first lap and about 2/3s of the second, then I could no longer hold pace.  But I did run the whole way.  So now the goal for the summer is to maintain contact longer every time we do the run!!!  This morning we got up and went for a short easy run.  Just one lap this time.  It was at a nice chill recovery pace, slow enough we could chat most of the way!!  Glad the week is moving a long nicely!!  Already looking forward to the weekend trip to  San Francisco!

Up and Running!

This morning I got up and joined Kurt for his morning workout!  I am so excited to have someone to work out with!  Don't know if my body has stopped needing sleep or if I was just excited for today but at 6 o'clock I was up and ready to go!  Started out with about a mile loop round the area.  I was kinda struggling by the end but ill be up for that is no time!!! Then we went to the park and ran 30 meter cut backs.  His call was for 2 sets of 10, with minimal rest between each one.  He also pushed me through one extra one at the end just to always keep getting better.  Obviously he beat me every time but I am proud of my self for keeping up my speed the whole way through.  Then we headed back to the I house got cleaned up and headed to our first day of class!! I was so excited!!  Our prof this week is great.  The majority of the stuff was review from radiohem last semester, I am so glad I took that class!!!  3 hours of lecture is a long time though!!! After a nice lunch we toured a little then went back for another 1.5 hours of lecture!!!  This is def nuclear boot camp!!  But the profs no what they are doing and give us nice breaks where we go to the court yard and throw a frisbee or volleyball, and they make sure we have snacks!!  I'm gonna do a lot the next 6 weeks but im sure it'll be awesome!!!

first days of nerd camp!

So I have finally made it to San Jose and I love it!!!  Some of my classmates decided to be clever and call this nerd camp, in the most loving way possible.  It is a blast to be with others who are so excited about chemistry, particularly nuclear, and it’s great to have other people understand the humor of science jokes!!!  Everyone is great, the International house is really nice, campus is pretty!!  It is all pretty wonderful!  Yesterday was a very long day because I was up early for my flight then I had to stay up late in order to adjust to the time change quickly.  I was incredibly tired but made it.  Yesterday was not an incredibly active day for me since I spent over 8 hours traveling, but once I got here I walked the neighborhoods and played Frisbee with some of my classmates, I was not the best at Frisbee since we were basically playing at what would have been 10 or 11 o’clock at home!  but it was a blast.  This is a very active group.  This morning after breakfast we headed over to campus and threw a Frisbee and football for a little while, then we walked around and explored the city of San Jose for a little while.  When we got back we were introduced to In and Out burger which is apparently a big deal here.  It was good.  Then we played cards for a while.  Afterwards, my roommate Ali, and another guy, Logan went on a run to explore campus for a while.  We went for like 30 mins, made it all the way down to the track and back.  It was nice, then we joined back up with the group and messed around with a volleyball.  Afterward, we headed out to our first dinner as a group, a place called The Elephant Bar.  It was very good!!  Later we wander the neighborhoods some more and even stopped at a house with an orange tree where they let us pick some oranges!  They were so fresh and delicious!!!!  Tomorrow I am waking up and joining one of the TAs, Kurt, who is a big workout buff, for a morning workout.  Very excited to have someone to workout with!!   Could be a very productive 6 weeks in that area!!  I am really looking forward to tomorrow!! Don’t think I have ever been so excited for a class to start before!!!  Loving San Jose!!!

Quick Lift/ Getting ready to go!

After work yesterday I spent the afternoon packing and getting ready to leave.  Then headed down stairs to do a quick lift.
5x5 Incline bench (95lbs) much harder than I thought it would be!
4x8 decline abs with 25lbs
3x8 split jumps each leg, 10 lbs weight, with 3x8 leg raises on the decline
3x5 side/back lung series with 3x5 shoulder series and 3x8 squat curls
was supposed to do wide grip pull ups but couldn't use the bar and i did not feel like dealing with slipping off the bar so instead I did 2 x8 handstand push ups.

Today  I worked for 5 hours so now im wiped after workin with kids all day, so made the decision to relax and finish packing rather than try to fit in a workout.  Excited and anxious to get going tomorrow!

Distance Intervals?

So today I made an attempt at some kind of distance interval workout.  Headed out early this morning in order to avoid the majority of the heat!  Did about a half mile warm up.  Then did repeats of loop that is some where around 1000 m I think.  Did this three times and hit them all at just over 4:30.  By the third one i was exhausted and it was humid.  Knew I had a long run home so I called it a day.  Half mile cool down.  Then 2 min abs to finish up the day.  Spent the rest of the day shopping with mom to get ready for my trip, then spent 2 hours with kids at Aerial's, had to coach strength.  Believe me the kids were thrilled!!  Overall a good day!  Can't believe this week is half over!

Busy day!

For like the first time this summer, I can say that today was a pretty busy day!  Got up this morning to be at Aerial's to work camp from 8-12.  Kids were great had a lot of fun!  Then came home for a little while and got my lift in before heading back to Aerial's to cover a 3 yr old class.  They were much more work, but they were all really sweet kids, 7 3 yr olds at a time is just a little much!  But as for the lift here's how it went:

3x8 BB rows (1st at 65, 2nd and 3rd at 75 lbs) with decline with 25 lb weight
3x5 hang cleans (1st at 75, 2nd at 85, 3rd at 90) with 3x8 russian twists with 25 lb weight on decline
3x8 shoulder series and 3x8 curl to press with 8 lbs weight
3 x 8 NG pull ups with 3x8 leg lifts

Overall it was a great lift, I was very sore after yesterday so it was nice to give my legs a chance to recover.

Here we go

Today I began my plan to simply follow the workouts Michael is doing at Activedge, but just be a week behind.  I have never seen the results I would like when I attempted to create my own work out plans so I am gonna steal theirs : ).  The workouts as originally designed can be found out activedgetaf.blogspot.com, I will change them when I need to simply because my circumstances are much different!  So this afternoon after morning battles with the lawn mower and 2 hours of mowing grass, I headed to the track.  On memorial day they did a 200 track workout.  So today I did 3 sets of 200 hard, 200 jog, 200 hard, 200 jog.  Between sets I took a 2-3 min rest.  Both warm up and cool down were half mile jogs.  It was really hot and I was beat when i finished but I got it done.  unfortunately i forgot to take my watch with me so i have no idea what kinda of times I hit.  oh well, I ran hard and thats what matters.  After running some errands while I was out I attempted the lift they did last week as well.  It was a challenge both because it was hard and because I certainly dont have the same equipment at home they have at the gym.  Started with 4 sets of 5 bench working up from 115-130 lbs, accompanied by 4 sets of 6 lance step up with each leg with a 45 lbs weight.  Then, did my best to do decline DB bench.  Managed to do 3 sets of 8 working from 8 lbs weights to 15 lbs weights because thats all i've got!  Next was 3 sets of 8 dips  with 3 sets of 8 back squats (since i dont have a BOSU ball) working from 130-150 lbs.  After that I did 3 sets of 10 plyo (clap) push ups with 3 sets of 10 row the boat (frog) abs.  Finished up with 3 sets of 20 DB curls, since I only had 8 lbs DBs!  Then decided to add 3 sets 0f 25 side cruches on each side, because my abs felt left out! It was defa lot of work, and I'm pretty exhausted now, will be sore tomorrow!!

Frank's Run

This morning I woke up pretty nervous about my run today!!  It was a beautiful morning once i got out there and i started to feel more comfortable.  Gun went off at 10 o'clock.  First mile went well.  Hit right about 8 mins.  But by the mile and a half point my feet started really hurting and got a cramp in my side.  The next mile was really hard for me.  I really need to work on holding on to my motivation and not letting myself loose focus on runs like that.  Will try to do some work on this over the summer but for the most part I think this will be my life post college.  I was quite pleased though that I was able to hit nearly a 2 min PR for this run last year coming in at 26:40.  It was great to see everyone again!  As always thanks to the Colden family for supporting me!!  It is wonderful to be part of such a great cause!  http://www.franksfund.com/

Race Prep

In order to prep for my race in the morning I decided to have an easier work out day.  Ran just over 3 miles at a relatively easy pace in order to prove to myself id be ok!  Took me 32 mins in all. Then came back and did the old ab workout Coach Berg always had us do.  Felt good.  Then got in a good stretch.  Planning on stacking up on carbs and resting up tonite, looking forward to running tomorrow!!  Hope its a good turn out to support a great cause!

Nice Morning Run

This morning i got up a little earlier and was able to be at the track just after 9.  I decided to try the workout Michael and group ran yesterday morning.  He wanted to see how my times compared.  So I did a nice half mile warm up then got started.  The work out was 400 m shuffles.  I managed to get through the first in 1:23, the rest were 1:28, 1:31, and 1:25 respectively.  The last one may not have been entirely accurate because an 8th grade gym class showed up to use the track between the 3rd and 4th reps!  So I ran that one on a grass field behind the school, with an estimated 100 m mark.  It was a tough work out.  The first time I have run a 400 in a workout in a very long time.  i am pretty happy with the times I was able to hit, I know I can do better but I it was a good place to start.  Then I did about a 5 min run for cool down and headed home.  Spent about 45 mins working on my juggling skills!! I am getting much better!!  Finished up with a set of 2 min abs and a good stretch.  Once again a good workout.  Spent the rest of the day doing a great deal of nothing.  Cannot wait until I have things to do again! just over a week!!  Mom and I went for a nice walk through the neighborhood to end the day.

On the track and on the Bike

yesterday was a great day for the 1st annual Spring-ford all  comers meet!!  It was a fantastic turnout and it was a lot of fun to see everyone again.  Hit the track with some other alum for a 4x800.  We were destined to loose but it was fun to run it anyway!  I lead off and came in in the low 2:50s.  I was excited that it was faster than the one I ran in the pentathlon indoors this year.  Overall, it was a great time!

Today I decided to stay inside and ride the bike rather than go outside and celebrate national running day because it was ridiculously hot again and i did not get my act together early enough to beat the heat.  Today was a recovery day cause I was really sore from yesterday!  Rode for an hour and half, nothing special, just moving.  Then I did a little lifting.  3 sets of 10 incline sit ups with a 35 lbs weight.  3 sets of 10 split jumps with a 25 lbs weight.  3 sets of 8 hand stand push ups.  3 sets of 10 leg lifts off the bench.  3 sets of 10 step ups on each leg with a 35 lbs weight, and 3 sets of 10 rows with a 65 lbs bar.  All in all it was just over 2 hours of work.  Felt really good.  Looking forward to making more improvements this summer.

Happy Memorial Day

After a nice memorial day service in Royersford I decided to get my workout in before it got too much hotter.  I ran just over a mile at a decent pace before i decided to call it, because it was so hot.  Came finished that part of the workout up with about a half mile cool down.  Headed home for some water then to the back yard to finish up the workout.  Decided to get in speed work on the hill in the hard.  Its between 10-20 meters at a pretty steep incline.  Did 5 sprints up jog down, then 2 sets of 2 foot jumps, 2 sets of single leg hoops on each leg, 2 sets of A skips, 2 sets of bounding then finished up with 5 more sprints.  Headed inside for some abs.  3 sets of 25 full sit ups, 25 six inch leg crunches, and 25 twists with a 35 lbs weight.  Finished up with what i call Michael's push up workout, because it was his design in Oxford!!  Set of 25 push ups, set of 15 push ups, then 10 clap push ups for 50 total.  Overall it was just over an hour of a workout.  Pretty content with what I got through today.  hopefully it boded well for the work i need to get done this summer.  now looking forward to enjoy the evening with the fam.

Tired

Today decided to do a bike workout in order to give the back of my foot another day to heal.  So I went a little big and borrowed part of a workout from Michael and Brian, that they did over winter break.  I only did half though, but it was enough!!  The workout was a 45 min ride.  5 mins light 15 secs hard, 4:45 light 30 secs hard.  Continued increasing the length of the hard segment by 15 and decreasing the light by 15 until the hard segment was 2 mins.  This left just under 4 mins for a much needed cool down.  After that I intended to do some major lifts.  I made it through 3 sets of bench, the first a set of 10 at 95 lbs, then a set of 8 at 105, and a set of 6 at 115.  Afterwards I did 3 sets of 10 back squats at 115.  Then just seemed out of motivation and energy to do much else.  Finished up with a set of 2 min abs and called it a day.  Now time to get ready to head across the state to visit fam for the weekend, very excited!!

Sub 7!

After two days of workouts that consisted of cleaning for hours at the gym (which is a moderate workout, I was a little sore!!!)  I finally got back out to do a real workout today.  After a couple of hours working with great kids I headed outside.  Attempted to protected the blistered area on the back of my foot with a band-aid but it was off by the end of my warm up.  I am pretty sure that the problem on monday was only caused by my shoes not being tied right, since that was the first time I wore them, because all they did today was pull off the skin from the blister, no new ones formed!!  This is very exciting because I love those shoes and would be upset if I could not use them!  So after a half mile warm up I ran a mile through the neighborhood.  It was the fastest mile of mile life, coming in in just under 7 mins.  Because I measured the distance by driving it, it is not completely perfect, but it was as close as I could get to a mile.  Then I came inside for a little body weight lift.

3x8 bench dips with my feet up
3x8 split jumps on each side
3x25 side crunches on each side
3x8 handstand push-ups
3x8 single leg calf raises on a  ledge on each side
3x20 v-seats
3x15 push-ups
3x8 box jumps
3x10 windshield wipes

Overall it was a good workout, very pleased with where i am but hoping to make a lot of improvement throughout the summer, so here we go!

Back on the run!!

After a nice week off I decided that I needed to get out of the house and move a little bit.  Especially since my high school team is hosting an all-comers meet the day after memorial day, where I will compete in something, looks like it may be as part of a 4x8 at the moment.  But since that is only a week away and im putting in some hours at work this week I wanted to get a run in today.  The plan was to run a 2.5/3 mile loop.  unfortunately in order to leave my house I have to run up a pretty steep nearly 300 meter hill, which does not all for easing into runs.  But once I got going I was feeling really good.  Around the 2 mile mark the same breathing issue I had one my last run with Michael hit me again, but since I was by myself I had less motivation to push through it, so I only got through just over 2 miles.  Did discover a pattern in the two episodes though.  Both times I had not prepared to run during the day.  I had not eaten much and was very underhydrated.  Also, both times I had done some level of activity for the few hours before I attempted the run, last time walking the mall, this morning cleaning the pit.  So I can blame myself and make sure I don't let it happen again!  Also tried my hand at the bench challenge the activedge team used as part of their race last weekend.  As many reps of bench as possible with half your body weight.  So I weighed myself and set it up. But once again was stupid and did not warm up or anything.  Only did 40 reps not quite the 50 I wanted :)  but thats ok, I have not lifted in about a month, Ill hit it before the summer is out, maybe even before i leave for cali!

Disappointing end, Exciting beginnings

The meet on saturday was a disappointing way for me to end my season.  First warm ups went wonderfully, everything felt great.  I had no problems at all jumping on the big pole!  But I had one where I did not land as deeply as I would like and the fear set in.  Messed up the rest of my warm up and I was unable to clear 3.11.  Did enjoy talking to Joe from Vertical Assault, been a very long time since I have been there!!

Now I must refocus and look towards next year.  Everything is now directed towards getting myself on the plane for indoor nationals, only 295 days to go!  Looking forward to two weeks of recovery from a very long season, then have to get back to work and get ready to go for next year!  No more excuses for not being at nationals!!

As a recap of the season, overall it was pretty good.  Managed a 6 cm PR over the course of the year.  While this may not seem huge I can tell I have improved in other ways.  I got over being unable to jump in practice or warm up, its not perfect yet, but its better!  Also, what I think was the biggest improvement was the change from jumping on a 12' 120 lbs pole to jumping on a 13' 130 lbs pole!!  This means I am jumping much better than I ever have before, even if the heights are not showing it yet.  Hopefully with the work I can will put in this summer I will be able to develop the athleticism I need to really show improvement!

Good luck at Nationals to Dira, automatic qualifier in the 400 hurdles, Rich, automatic qualifier in the decathlon and provisional qualifier in the high jump, and Matt Winker, automatic qualifier in the 800!  Also, hopefully Brittany can retain her spot and go in the Long jump, and Congrats to Jenna for hitting the provo mark in the High jump!  Also, Congrats to all the graduating seniors of 2011!!!

This was a good year for our team, obviously we can be a lot better but I really believe that an attitude change has begun to take hold that will lead us to amazing things in the next few years!  Looking forward to bringing in nearly 60 new freshman!! Should be an awesome year!

Rain at Roanoke!

Yesterday we made the 4 hours trek to Roanoke college only to get hit by a thunderstorm!!  By the time it cleared up the meet was an hour behind schedule! Thankfully it was a very small meet!  I had a pretty decent day, came in at 3.10 m ( just over 10 feet), cleared it on my first attempt.  Then, went right over 3.25 m (10'8") on my first attempt as well.  Unfortunately i was unable to hit 3.40 m.  But on a fantastic note I had no hamstring pain whatsoever so I am looking forward to competing at Swarthmore tomorrow!!  Should be a great evening!

not much of a pre meet

Hamstring felt much better today, but in order to be in the best possible shape for tomorrow and saturday Coach decided that I should not do to much today, just warm up and some plant work.  This left me very antsy and wanting to do something.  Joey thought it was entertaining and thought i was more likely to hurt myself messing around when I was not allowed to jump!  Then we packed up the pole and took them to the freeman center.  After a quick lunch I have spent the rest of the day cleaning in case I am unable to qualify this weekend and head home monday.  Nearly everything is done now.  all that is left is to pick everything up and leave.  Also still have a small paint chip on my wall that needs fixed.  Moderately annoyed at the RAs lack of helpfulness when I asked if they still have paint.  Looks like I will be trying to track down a maintenance person in the morning!  Looking forward to heading to roanoke and jumping again!  Hopefully it will be a nice day!

Progress

So today the hamstring felt much better.  Managed to get through the warm up and a good amount of short approach jumps before it tightened up on me again.  So then headed into the weight room and biked for about 35 mins.  Felt really good to do something athletic!  Continuing to take care of the hamstring and hope that it will be good to go for pre meet tomorrow and the meet on thursday!

More Hamstring trouble...

So after this weekend my hamstring started to get sore.  Went to see Lindsey this morning and she said that it felt very tight and appears to be right on the verge of a pull.  So had to take it easy at practice today.  I only did some short approach work before it started to feel really tight again.  Made sure to ice afterwards.  Very frustrated that I have to deal with this thing again, but hopefully I can get it healthy enough to be competitive on Thursday!

Back on Track!

Ended the week with two moderately productive practices.  Still lacking a little confidence but got through what I needed to do.

This morning I headed down to the track bright and early for our last home meet of the season.  Girl's pole vault began at 9.  I was a little nervous after last week and my warm up was a little rough.  Took me a while to get going, but came in early to have a little wiggle room.  3rd attempt clearance at 9 was not pretty but got the job done.  Best jump of the day was at 10'.  Then managed to get right over 3.26 m, about 10'8.5".  Which put me number 2 o the all time list!  The coach had me go after 3.55 m again.  First attempt was good but blew through the pole.  Could not seem to get that jump back on the last two attempts.  But now I have two more meets to go after this to get it!  Looking forward to building some confidence and going after a provo mark!

Rain...

Woke up this morning to a pretty good rain storm.  Headed out to practice anyway.  By the end  of the warm up we were all drenched.  Luckily the workout was short and all we did was 5 110m, with full recovery.  Felt pretty fast today though!  Then spent some time in the bookstore picking up some stuff for the fam!  Now just relaxing for the day and avoiding the rain.  Little bit bored with my life as a pro-athlete but oh well it is kinda nice to have some time to chill.

Life as a Pro-athlete

So with classes being done I get to spend the next two weeks or so being a professional athlete!  Which actually means I will prob be kinda bored and catch up on my tv watching!

Sunday afternoon I spent the day with Marie going through freshman rooms then watching Grease!  I was really glad we got to spend sometime together before she headed home!

Yesterday we had practice at 9 am, it was a pretty chill practice with the conference award ceremony followed by a light shake out a some approach work. Then enjoyed a day at the beach with Marissa and a wonderful dinner with her fam.  Keeping the friends and family of fellow CNU student Nick Smith in my prayers!

Today we did not practice until 12:30 because of the Newport News public school field day taking place on out track.  Today was a jump day, Coach is getting me back to a 7 step approach because that is what feels right.  It was really hot today and i am starting to feel this long season, so I lost momentum a little early!  planning to cool pool tomorrow so I can convince myself to hold on a little longer!

MEN are Conference Champs!

Congrats to the guys team for their victory this weekend!! They worked really hard and totally deserve it!! The girls had a much harder time and finished up second to Methodist, who is just too deep in the sprinting events.  Congrats to the boy vaulters for taking 2,4,5 and 6!!  Also Amanda cleared her first height and managed to get over 7'3"!!!  I had a bad day, lets just leave it at that.  guess they have to happen every once in a while, but hate that it had to be at conference.

Was so excited my fam could be there to visit though!  It was great to see everyone!!  I am really looking forward to heading home for the summer in  few weeks!!  Also so glad Andrew was able to stop by!!  And Michael was able to stay long enough for the meet too, even though he had a really bad day of his own!

Crazy to think the semester is over, but looking forward to a change of pace.  Have to refocus and get ready for two more last chance meets!

More Rain!

So today in anticipation of rain we had practice inside!  It was fun to move the other pit around!  Practice went really well felt great, only did shorter approach stuff though because the pit is new and hard so coach did not want anyone falling to it from any great height and hurting themselves.  Then headed to a quick dinner and spent the next 4 plus hours studying for the two exams I have tomorrow.  At least they will be over around noon!  Excited to see my parents and grandparents tomorrow!  Also, Conference gets rolling tomorrow at 5 !  Lets go CNU TF!!!!

Rained out!

Went to practice today, got all warmed up before Lindsey pulled us into the room under the stadium because the golf course siren went off announcing lightening in the area!! Tried to wait it out while coach went over stuff for the meet the weekend. No triple jump just going after the girl in the pole vault!  Got to the point where we would not be able to start again until five so Coach just let us go since most of the team wants to go to the memorial service for Brian 'Swerv' Herrmann, a basketball player who was killed in a car accident last weekend. 

Finals are rolling along, enjoy a little rest since I have til Friday for my next exam.  Excited to celebrate Michael's Birthday tomorrow with Dinner here tonite!  Im getting better at this whole cooking thing!  Hopefully he enjoys it!

Continued prep for conference!

Took a leadership final this morning, hand is sore from writing, but went well.  Then enjoyed a very chill afternoon since my next exam is not until friday morning.  Also had a nice cook out with the SAO girls!

Practice today was quick but still got a lot done.  Still not sure if I am triple jumping, but seems more likely! yay! Pole vault went ok, did not have a lot of time to spend there.  Runs started out great and I was jumping well.  As my step got more correct I started to get weird and could not get jumping.  Then headed over to triple jump to get in some really good bounding work!  Coming back to pole vault didn't go well, I was unable to get my run back after leaving.  Luckily we got all out work in before the rain hit.  The start of practice gives me hope that it is there, looking forward to hitting it this weekend!

Finals Week

Had a nice weekend off leading into finals week.  Enjoyed the time to relax, Marissa and i got in some good shopping.  Michael and i had a good run, though I did nearly die because I could not breath after about 2.5 miles.  The results of dehydration and excess heat.  Then had a nice dinner with Michael's teammate friends.  Easter sunday was very nice, went to 8 am mass with Michael, then he came with me to Northside at 10:45, lots of church!  managed to successfully make cheesy potatoes for dinner with Kels.  According to grandma i am now successfully domesticated! not sure how I feel about that!  After a fun dinner, enjoying the successful completion of lent, came back and got to work studying.

This morning i had my toughest exam of the week, radiochem.  Went much better than expected, took a long time but overall I feel pretty well.  Had a good practice this afternoon.  Working on building my confidence for this weekend! should be big!  triple at 10 then pole vault at about 2:30.  I am currently seeded about 7th for triple so I am looking forward to the chance to compete and hopefully pick up a few points.  In the pole vault, I am seeded second behind the jumper from Penn State Behrend who hit 3.50 back in march.  She has not done took much since so it will be interesting to see!  Hopefully she does well so she can push me to some new heights!!!

Preping for my leadership exam now, then have essentially three days to get ready for physics and o chem in friday.  Everything is falling into place!

ALL Done!

Once again the time got away from me and I have been negelecting posting!  Overall it has been a good week.  Wednesday practice went well, had several good attempts one the 13, 130 pole before my legs got too tired.  Then hit the weight room for one last day of lower body.  Got there with enough time to do 3 sets of front squats, 5 at 160, 4 at 155, and 3 at 150.  Then spent the rest of the evening writing a paper for my honors project!

Thursday was a busy day!  Last day of both honors and leadership, Then a few more hours on the paper.  Followed by a tough practice.  One paper the workout did not look hard, 3 x 300 with full recovery.  But when running at race pace and still not feeling 100 % healthy it took all I had!  Did manage to stay pretty close to the times given though.  The range was 45-49 secs.  I ran the first in just under 48, then second at 49, and the third at 50.5.  Def pleased.  Afterward, we hit the weight room for some upper body work. 
 3 sets of 10 bench at 105 lbs (moving my grip out made it easier! Thanks Michael!)
2 sets of 10 shoulder press at 50 lbs
2 sets of 10 incline press at 50 lbs
2 sets of 10 low rows at 25 lbs
2 sets of 10 NRG pulls at 75 lbs
2 sets of 10 Lat pulls at 75 lbs
Overall a pretty good day.  Managed to get my paper all done and printed out.  Turned it in friday morning

Last day of class today.  Disappointed my radchem prof did not get our tests back, but i will live.  Also, pleased to end o chem with a 95 on my last test, especially when I did not study much!

Today's practice was a little more rough.  Legs were kind of sore from yesterday and running felt awkward.  Could not get a consistent step going from any distance, even my three steps were weird.  Coach told me to just call it a day and let the legs rest over the weekend.  Then watched my team finish up a round of the circle game.  Now its on to a relaxing weekend of studying for finals!

Also very exicited about the Easter packages from Grandma and Grandad and my parents!  Looking forward to enjoying them once lent is over! Only two days!

From PR weekend to week under the weather

The home  meet this weekend was absolutely exciting!!  It felt great to PR in the pole vault especially when I was the only one left jumping! New PR is 3.21 m or 10'7".  After this jump coach sent me straight to 3.55 m about 11 9, the provo mark for nationals.  Didn't make it but could certainly happen in the next few weeks! It was great to have Michael, Mr. Zimmerman, and Andrew there to support me!!  Triple jump was also pretty exciting! managed to make it to the pit on 3 of my 6 jumps,  farthest was 9.41 m, about 30 feet, just excited i made it in!

Was also incredibly excited to watch Michael and the team play W and M on sunday!! It was a beautiful day!  They played a great game and ended with a 0 - 0 tie.  Was great to see Michael start, he played real well!! Already looking forward to their season in the fall!

Then by monday pick up some sickness from michael, strange form of a cold that is just making me super tired.  Made the jumping day on monday a little rough!  Still did 3 sets of back squats though, 5 at 200, 4 at 190, 3 at 185.  Then an ab workout.  Tuesday was also a little rough felt very slow on the 5 120s.

Hopefully todays jump day will go a little better!  Excited i took my last o chem and radiochem tests this week!  nervous to see the results on friday! Also quite happy to have met several of my CA classmates via facebook!  Starting to get really excited for the trip!

Busy week!

Wow this has been another very busy week, no time to post!! Overall it was a pretty decent week!  got clear into the pit from just inside the 28 foot board with a half approach for triple!!!  Wednesday's jump day went well, even managed to take a few jumps on the 13 130!  Could be a nice pole to move up to tomorrow!  Thursday we did a pretty tough run, 4 sets of 2 150 (walk back the hundred in between)  these were all supposed to be at full speed.  Hit the first around 23, the second around 22.  then got a whole bunch of bad starts because I always managed to stand behind the person who missed the start!!!  But did manage to pick off a bunch of people as we were running.
Today was a kinda rough pre meet.  Triple jump run throughs felt great!  It was way to windy to pole vault though, tried a few but the wind got so bad it was literally pushing us off the run way!! Its ok though, sometimes it is best to have a bad practice the day before a meet!!! Hopefully the rain will hold off so we can have a great last meet, and so the CNU men's soccer team can tear up in their game against W and M!  Should be a fun day!

Crazyness

School has taken over this week, making the blog much more difficult to keep up with.  I had a great practice on monday, took a bunch of good attempts at a 3.50 m bungee, (11 6).  Coach said that if the standards were up i would have been over it!  Also, I was on the big 140 lbs pole!  13 foot pole here i come!!!!  then we ran to the weight room to get in what we could 3x back squats 5 at 200, 4 at 190, 3 at 185, and 1 set of full cleans 5 at 110.

Today was a good workout, got in some good long jump and pole vault approach work.  Then we hit the bleachers.  3 sets of 4 single flights (62 steps : ) ) working on top speed mechanics.  Legs were shaking by the end, but was similar to a lifting workout not an endurance work.  then headed off to lab, only 1 left!!!  and we made slime today which was fun!  Afterwards, I decided to go visit Michael at the ticket office selling tickets for the high school soccer game, ended up staying and helping for about an hour!  It was fun though!

Looking forward to having all of this work done and getting to have a great meet and go to a good game this weekend!

Cold

Yesterday, we were up at Lynchburg, where it was once again cold.  I was really excited to jump and for the first time all semester I had a really good warm-up. By the end of the warm up I had already moved up to the 12' 140 lbs pole! I thought it was gonna be a fantastic day!  Came it at 9 feet, some how managed to miss my first two attempts because I was not jumping.  Finally got over it on the 3rd attempt.  Then went right over 9'6", felt like I was on a role.  Missed my first two attempts at what was supposed to be 10, only to find it was 11.  They moved it back down and I still did not clear it until my third attempt.  My first two attempts at 10'6" were getting close, but on the third one I lost it and ran though, not happy!  There were only 6 girls so I still took third, but I am ready to have a better day.

Taryn had a pretty good day and after a rough start cleared 9.  Joey opened at a PR of 4.50 m, not sure what that is in feet!  Also, Chris looked good in his outdoor debut.  Good day for the team. Weather is supposed to be better this week so I am hoping we finally get a nice day on saturday for our first of three home meets!

busy busy busy...

Life has been crazy with classes finishing up and the season in full swing so I have been a Little short of time to post latly.  Yesterday was a good workout day of 2 set of 4 150s.  Then hit the weight room for upper body,

3x10 bench at 105
2x10 shoulder press at 50
2x 10 incline press at 50
2 x 10 NRG pulls at 77.5
2x10 Lat pulls at 77.3
2x10 low rows at 25

Then today we were out at the track for a quick pre meet.  Legs feel good, had a slight relapse but did get a good jump at 3.50 m in today!  Looking forward to heading up to Lynchburg in the morning, but for now back to work!

Real Live Pole Vaulter!

Today I had without a doubt, my best practice while at CNU.  Because I am not long jumping this weekend i decided to just get right to work pole vaulting.  I really took my time and got myself really jumping from 0s, 1s, and 2s.  Everything was feeling awesome and by the time I was at a 4 step I was holding just as high as I did in competition last weekend!  I then moved up even for for a five step, then again for a six.  I had absolutely no issues taking off today, must give credit to Michael for his help in regaining control of my thoughts, I had let myself see myself crashing everytime I took off, rather than having a safe drive plant.  This instilled a fear that kept me on the ground.  Happy to say I am finally over it!  By the time I was at a 6, I was crushing the little pole I have been vauting on lately.  Coach moved me back to the 12' 130 I jumped on in indoor.  I hit it right away.  Within five jumps I was back in the shed with fish trying to find bigger poles.  We found a 12' 135, again, no problems.  I had several fantastic jumps where I felt truly upside down, something I have never done before.  It is weird to actually see the box below you when you are upside down on the pole, but it felt awesome.  By the end of practice I even got in two solid jumps on the 12' 140.  They were not quite as good as my jumps on the 135, but that is def a pole I will be moving up to during competition.  I am soo happy today! I felt like my pre surgery self for the first time today! It was fantastic! now I cannot wait to get to Lynchburg and see what I can do!  Was nice to hear Coach say i looked like a "Real Live Pole Vaulter!" rather than the wimp I have been lately!

We jumped for so long that we were very late getting to the weight room, but I did manage to get through my big lifts.

3 sets of front squats 5 at 160, 4 at 165 and 3 at 170
3 sets of hang cleans 5 at 100, 3 at 110 3 at 105

That was not the workout design for hang cleans but after all that jumping at practice I was exhausted and gave those sets all I had.

end of the semester craziness

Everything is coming to an end very soon which means all of my class  are going insane, it seems like everything is due next week.  Means I am a little stressed out but I have a plan and it will be ok.

Practice today was good, got there at 3:15 to do approach work before the work out.  Just ran 2 sets of 5 80s, supposed to be a speed work out so we had full recovery the whole time.  Kinda made for an easy workout, but I felt fast.  Then headed out to lab and tutoring so no lifting today.  Back to full practice tomorrow.

Broke the Curse!

Today I had a pretty exciting vault practice.  But first spent a good deal of time at the long jump, everything there went well.  Started out vaulting with some good short approach drill.  It was incredibly windy and warm but luckily all the wind was a tail wind.  Finally moved to short approaches with just a few minutes left before lifting.  First one step was fine, second and third were still good but would not jump. The fourth I knew would be my last, and I finally got myself off of the ground!!!  First time I have jumped from a full approach in practice since conference!  It felt great!!!  I am so glad I can see myself getting over this fear stage!! I am exciting to see what happens now that I am practicing again!

Then Taryn and I headed to the weight room to get in what we could before we had to leave.
3 sets of back squats- 5 at 200, 4 at 205, and 3 at 210
3 sets of hang cleans- 5 at 110, 4 at 115, and 3 at 115

This was a challenging lift to say the least.  Then we headed out to get ready to go to the PLP speaker, Rosemary Trible.

Lucky Weather

I was nervous this morning as we headed out to the William and Mary track.  I had seen morning showers on the forecast and thought it might make for a rough day.  Thankfully, I got lucky and it was sunny and even warmed up a little while I jumped.  I had a pretty good day.  Still no jumps in warm up but I am done with that and it will be gone on monday!  First jump at 2.80, 9'2", was rough but pulled myself together for a very ugly but effective second attempt.  Then went right over 2.95m, 9'8", on the first try.  Apparently the entire field wanted to come in a 3.10, 10'2", so I ended up waiting for quite some time before I got to jump.  This wait showed on my first attempt and my run was way off so I bailed.  Then went a little to the right, but still over it on the second attempt.  Then the bar moved to 3.25m , 10'8", a PR and new spot on the all time list.  First attempt I did not jump well and just got a huge bend out of the pole.  My second attempt was right on point, but I just tapped the bar on my way over.  On my third attempt I took off weird and did not get a full jump in. Dissappointed that I did not get the height today, but I know its there and I will hit it next week.  Also really glad Michael was able to come this morning! It is nice to have someone there to talk to to distract me a little from my nervousness while I jump!

Sadly, the boys were not as lucky as me and had to deal with spontaneous torrential down pours, crazy wind gusts and drastic temperature changes.  Neither Fish or Joey had a real great day.  Glad Coach let me stay to watch and help them rather than going to the high school meet.  Unfortunately that did mean that I got back to late to go to SAO service as well : ( 

Overall it was a good day.  Congrats to the boy's 4x800 for breaking the school record!!!!  Also, I got to see HG run on the Rider 4x800 team.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to find her after her race but its cool to see old teammates run!  Glad my outdoor season has been so consistent and has yet to be interrupted by serious injury.  Hamstring did not hurt at all and shin only started to hurt towards the end!  Looking forward to getting back to work this week to prep for Lynchburg next weekend!

Still cold, but less rain

So the weather was a little bit nice.  It was still very cold, but did not really rain, sprinkled a little but nothing major.  Went to rehab this morning for my legs, hamstring feels much better, but shin is still a little funny.  Ate lunch then turned around and went to the training room to heat before a quick premeet practice.  Fish Joey and I ran our own pre meet from 2-3 before the high school meet got underway.  Felt pretty good, but did not have a lot of time to do too much work! It was nice to practice without rain, but I am looking forward to true spring warmth!!!!  Spent the following couple of hours watching the high schoolers compete.  It was really cool to see the team from Great Valley here!! Can't wait to see how Tommy Doyle, a fellow vertical assualter, does tomorrow!

Got a busy saturday ahead with W and M meet in the morning, high school meet in the afternoon and SAO service project in the evening!  Should be fun!

I guess you could call that practice...

This is certainly how I felt standing outside in the rain all afternoon!.  We spent the entire time setting up for the high school meet.  Actually, Coach Wingard and the boys set up the pole vault pit while I stayed out of the way!  Def a smart decision because I managed to be in the way both time I tried to help!  It was very cold and raining so I am glad we decided not to jump and just enjoy the rest before a quick pre-meet tomorrow. 

The inside of my calf was a little more sore today.  Lindsey thing it is a muscle problem, so hopefully I can get it worked out soon!  It is not bad enough that I can't practice, just annoying. 

We did not even lift today!  So I am definitely going to get a set of abs in before I go to bed! It was nice to have a rest day but not sure why I had to spend it standing in the rain!  Oh well, hopefully pre-meet is awesome tomorrow so everything can be on for saturday!!

stupid rain!

It was ridiculously cold and rainy today!  Luckily the rain let up as practice got going.  We did a little approach work then hit the track for a pretty tough work out.  four sets of 150, 100, 50, with just the walk back to the line in between.  We had 6 mins between sets.  Legs felt a little slow, but the endurance part felt good.  Went to rehab for my hamstring and shin this morning.  hamstring felt great but the inside of my shin is getting worse, have to see what lindsey says tomorrow!

Then we headed inside finally to the weight room!
Upper body day:

3 x 10 bench at 105 lbs (light compared to monday!)
2 x 10 shoulder press at 50 lbs
2 x 10 incline press at 50 lbs
2 x 10 low rows at 25 lbs
2 x 10 NRG pulls at 75 lbs
2 x 10 lat pulls at 75 lbs

overall a good day, except for the rain! looking forward to W and M this weekend!

20!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday I was unable to post because I was busy eating a wonderful dinner made by Michael and Marissa for my birthday!!

Practice yesterday was good.  Got some long  jump approach work in and found out that I am jumping on saturday at William and Mary.  The work out was tough.  3 sets of 4 120s with an 80 meter walk in between.  I felt pretty fast but was worn out by the end.  Then we went to the weight room for an upper body workout.

3 set of bench press, 5 at 130, 4 at 135, and 3 at 140 ( this was tough!!)
then some auxillary stuff, decided to step up my game a little
2x8 shoulder press with 30 pound weights
2x8 incline press with 30 pound weights
2x8 low rows with a 30 pound weight
2x8 lat pulls at 87.5
2x8 NRG pulls at 87.5

During practice yesterday the tightness in my hamstring came back some, so I talked to Lindsey and she had me ice and come to rehab this morning.

It felt good once I got warmed up at practice but decided to take it easy and stick to short approaches, everything went really well there!!!

Think I might be developing shin splints on the inside of my left leg too, so I need to take care of that.  Guess it is that time of the year, my legs are really getting worn down, only about a month to go! crazy!!

Did not get to lift today because of lab.  Plan to do some abs with Michael a little later!

despite my busy schedule, today was definitely a nice birthday! I can't believe I am in my 20s!!! It is crazy that a new but very exciting decade is beginning!! 

Also happy to note that housing went very well this morning! Wilson 427 here we come!

Long Weekend

So because of track this weekend I had Friday off from class and the meet definitely made this one loooonng weekend!  The bus left friday morning at 6 am and we were in Lexington at Washington and Lee just before 10.  Watched the multi-athletes get their events started, then Pole Vaulted at 1.  It was nice to start at a lower height this weekend, its been a while since I have come in after opening.  I opened at 9 feet, 2.75 m, after another stetchy warmup, the problem this time was that it ended after my first full run.  But I still managed to get over 9 ft on my first attempt.  I also had first attempt clearances at 9'6", 2.90 m, and 10", 3.05  m.  My three attempts at 10'6" were close, but I was unable to get over my PR height from last year.  It is nice to be jumping at it already this year though!!! The other vaulters also had a good day, Taryn jumped 8'6" Fish 13'6" and Joey 14'6" ( a new PR and meet winner). 

After the vault Taryn and I headed over to long jump.  Had a decent day, my three jumps were all very close but got progressively longer.  The farthest one was 4.57 m,15',  not quite my PR but close.  Then we layered up for the cold evening and toughed it out long enough to stay to watch the 5 and 10 k runs, the men's 10k did not start until 9:50 and it is over a half hour race!!! It was worth it to support my teammates though.  Headed to the hotel, then got back on the bus at 9:45 the next morning to start all over again.

Triple jump started at 1. I was really nervous, the last time I triple jumped it did not end to well.  Unfortunately one day of practice was not enough to give me the confidence I needed to jump successfully.  My knee felt fine, but I was hesitant to jump off it for my third phase and ran through all three jumps.  But I have two weeks to get my act together and try again at Lynchburg.  Then I ran the 200 in the cold.  Did manage to finally run sub 30 with a 29.62.  Then cheered on teh 4x8s, the last event of the day and left the track by 6.  Got back to CNU at 10:30, about 41 hours after we left but over all it was a good weekend for all, especially Rich who auto quaified in the Decathlon, and Asare who provod in the Triple jump! 

Now spending the day catching up on work and getting some kind of run in at some point. 

Morning Practice!

Got up bright and early this morning to go out to morning practice at 7:30 because I had to make up a test for tomorrow during practice this afternoon.  It was fun running with Amanda and the weather was surprisingly nice!  Luckily there were four sprinters out there so our endless relay work out worked.  We ran laps as a group that consisted of a 1,1 and 2.  This meant that the first person ran a 100, to the second who ran another 100, to the third who ran a 200, to the fourth person who started the set over with another 100.  Each set consisted of all of us running a 100,100 and 200.  We did 4 sets total.  I was pleased with my running today.  We did not time or anything, but they felt good.  Not so tough that my legs will be sore for tomorrow.

Then I headed off to a busy day of classes.  Physics lab went an hour longer than normal which was frustrating because I was late to make up my test, but it was pretty easy so I am confident in the grade.  Then I headed back out to the track for our pre-meet meeting.  The team set up the hurdles then we got the poles ready to go.  Its been a very busy but very productive day.  Not looking forward to the 6am bus tomorrow, but thats ok, the weekend should be fun!