This week I want to share a quick rundown of my running, talk about the little things I'm doing during the season that will hopefully help get me back to Charleston and my Easter break. First, here's a recap of my running: Monday was a six mile run with some hill repeats focusing on lift and stride, I did six total hills. I did an ab workout when I got back. On Tuesday, we were supposed to have a meet, but it was cancelled due to the snow. 
So, instead we did a speed workout of 12 400s. I had about 75s of rest in between each and 2-3 minutes between sets of four. My average lap was 67 seconds. It was a pretty good workout all in all. Wednesday was a distance run going 6 miles and then running one 400 after the run to get my legs used to the turn around. I ran it in 56s and did an ab workout after. On Thursday, we were supposed to have our rescheduled Tuesday meet, but it was cancelled because our opponent was “not ready” to run. Any-who, coach decided to do relay races and divided the team into three teams of six. My team was a little stacked. We ran 400 repeats, 8 of them each. There was a lot of rest in between each 400 so I took advantage of it averaging around 61s a lap. The good thing was my team won, even when we started 35s behind the other two teams. We now have bragging rights!
Our family was split over Easter with my mom and I heading up to Chicago to see family, my Dad and sister in Arizona so Dad could meet with a client and my other sister down in Champaign since she just had her spring break. Saturday, I went on an hour run around Wilmette, Illinois. It was nice to run somewhere else for a change. I ended up on the Northwestern campus which was really nice. Sunday, I did another run in Wilmette followed by an ab workout.
Enough about my runs. I want to tell you some of the little things that I do to become a better runner. Obviously I have to do more than run to get better and I believe the little things I do really separate me from all the other runners in my event. First, as everyone knows, you must stretch before a run. I stretch before and after the run. At home I always drink chocolate milk because it is the best recovery in my opinion, and it taste good! If I don’t have chocolate milk, I have Accelerade, which is like a Gatorade but its powder that I put into water and mix up. It tastes weird at first but I'm used to it. On meet days, I begin by putting my legs straight up in the air against a wall. I do this to let the blood drain from my legs and let new blood eventually circulate back in. Then, I like to do the normal stretching I do before practice followed by a mile run or seven minute warm-up. After that, I do my own dynamic stretches. I put my spikes on when the announcer calls for my event and finally do some strides to get into the pace and mind-set of my race. After the race I like to get my spikes off as soon as possible and cool down for 20 minutes if I’m not running again, if I have another race, I run about five minutes and prepare for my next event by doing dynamics and strides.
Other things I do throughout the week include: working out at the Human Performance Lab, taking an ice bath if needed, and doing some extra stretching. The Human Performance Lab is a strength and conditioning center that helps me with my ‘quick trigger’ muscles. By doing Olympic lifts and plyometrics, I strengthen those muscles. I also do various weight exercises like squats or RDLs (strengthen hamstrings). The workout normally lasts 90 minutes and I feel like it really helps me. I have a video here to show what a clean and jerk looks like. I lifted 50kg, which is like 110lb to show how to correctly perform an Olympic lift. But I have lifted more. At home i do trigger point stretching, ankle stretches with a band and rolling a tennis ball on the bottom of my foot. I have very high arches so I tend to get sore right on my arch. So when I do start to get a pain, I use a tennis ball to roll it out or the trigger point roller if my calf is sore.
The Friday before Easter I was with my Grandpa and we went shopping for vinyls. I had two gift cards to two vinyl stores in Chicago from my Grandpa and Grandma Peg! I added a Vampire Weekend, Mumford and Sons, and Muse albums to my collection. It was a successful day to say the least. On Saturday, we went to my Nana’s house and enjoyed an early Easter meal then we went bowling and played bocce ball at a place called Pinstripes. On Sunday, we relaxed and played games. With regard to the NCAA Tournament, I hate to say my bracket was officially busted Saturday night with Wichita State beating Ohio State. I am happy for the MVC but upset about the Big Ten. Michigan is still in it however and I hope they can make it to the championship with that clutch win over Kansas. The Louisville and Duke game was interesting and thoughts and prayers go out to Kevin Ware who looks to be doing good. Thanks for reading this week!