hills

It is 7:24 am and I have just arrived back in my room after running 12 hills at the Comcast center. For any one who has ever been to the Comcast Center or is wondering what hill I am talking about, it is directly to the left of the main staircase entrance. It is a double hill rolled into one, we start off in flat ground and then begin to stride over the first hill which is some what gentle compared to the second one. After that first hill I maintain my stride, which has been improving since I got here, and then gradually begin to accelerate as I reach the bottom of the second hill. There is a rapid acceleration needed in order to successfully advance this second hill because after the first hill there is somewhat of a slight downward slope that turns back into flat grass. If you can picture this: it is like running a 110 degree angle. That is how steep the hill is. The first four were fairly regular as we started and ended at the points we normally start and finish at. However, after the fourth hill my coach began to move the cones further and further back with each hill until by the ninth hill we stopping right before the entrance to the garage. And once we hit the tenth hill my coach basically threw a cone into the garage and told us to go and find it. It was funny because he hid it all the way in the back of the garage, I might as well had gone back to my dorm, that is how far we had to go. The final two hills my coach put on us, he gave one person the opportunity to decide where we would stop, being that we are all a bunch of competitive jerks it really did not matter who he gave the responsibility to, I knew immediately that we were headed all the way back to the end of the garage because that is what I would have done. That is exactly what we did too, unlike the girls who stopped right as they got to the top of the hill, we pushed ourselves all the way to the end of the garage-three times we did this. I must say though that it was one of the best workouts I have completed since I have been here, I felt light one my feet and I seemed to just roll up the hill and cruise past upperclassmen boys and even some of the girls who start before us. I am beginning to feel like I did when ran all the times that got me here. I am beginning to become me again, the sprinter that never quits. After being disappointed in myself so many times after workouts I am now leading. It is a place that I like to be and a place I see myself staying at now that I have fully adjusted to the intensity of practice. I am happy to be back.