So far, we’ve only had 3 practices to work on pole vault. However, I think my teammates and I have learned a lot, and I’m proud of our progress. We’ve learned how to correctly hold the pole, run with it, plant it, time our jump, and even get our steps for meets (marking chalk in the parking lot so we know exactly how far away to stand in order for our jumping foot to land where it needs to). While this is a lot of growth in a short amount of time, we are still very far behind other pole vaulters in the state that have a pit to practice. We will need to work harder than them if we want to stand a chance against them. In order to learn more about the sport, I am going to research some techniques and drills, and I will provide you all with those resources (if you are interested).

In past seasons, our track and field team hasn’t had the opportunity to participate in many field events. These include long jump, triple jump, high jump, pole vault, shot put, hammer throw, discus, and maybe even javelin. So far, we’ve had some success in hurdles, long jump, and triple jump. However, we lack resources for real practice. We don’t have a track or a pit, which are necessary to safely practice these events. We can do alright in the throws, but that’s it. This season we now have access to pole vault! We have a coach, and 2 poles. I am ecstatic! I will be participating in pole vault this season and will keep you updated.

https://www.pressherald.com/2017/06/02/the-bar-has-been-raised-in-the-girls-pole-vault-in-maine/

 

This year, I am one of the 5 captains for the track team. I’m nervous about the responsibility, but am excited for the opportunity to grow as an athlete and teammate. This season, I have some goals. My first is to be a good captain. I want to be an encouraging teammate and make sure everyone feels welcome on the team. I also want to improve in the 400 meter dash, and hopefully make it back to states.

With the holidays coming up, I’ve been craving cookies like crazy, so its been hard to keep up with my clean eating for track. However, I may have solved my predicament! I found a new recipe to try that has a ton of vegan protein, is easy, and looks delicious.

Vegan Cookie Dough:

http://www.nutritionistinthekitch.com/vegan-protein-packed-cookie-dough-overnight-oats/

I’ll be sure to try out this recipe and let you know my thoughts!

In this post I would like to break down my plan for success this season. Dropping time in an event is no easy feat. It takes time and consistent training. With that in mind, I would like to break down my season into stages, and keep a “workout log” to keep track of my progress. I will also keep track of my race times in this log.

The stages of my training will consist of each weeks’ workouts. I can’t put much planning into workouts, but I will focus on completing each with my best effort and according to my coach’s instructions.

Besides workouts, another vital part of my training is my nutrition. I plan on staying more consistent with meal prep in order to keep myself in check and ready for each run. I am also considering taking a Creatine supplement. This is a substance that is naturally found in muscles and is used to restore their energy after it is expended. Most of us get Creatine from the meat we eat, but being vegetarian means that I have much less in my diet. Supplementing with Creatine will help me recover faster during workouts, allowing my intervals to be more consistent, and it will aid in long term recovery as well. If you guys are interested, I can write an entire post just on supplements. Be sure to let me know your thoughts 🙂

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/fitness/fitness-supplements-the-good-the-bad-and-the-bcaa-1.2728276

 

In terms of success, I find that I am most likely to succeed if I have a goal in mind and a plan to accomplish it. That is the first step I take in the beginning of any challenge, being running related or otherwise. Having a list of steps in place allows me to only focus on a single part of my goal at a time, so that I don’t get overwhelmed and I can put all of my energy into it. I recommend that in all areas of life, you set goals for yourself to keep you on track and happy with your progress.

For this season of Indoor Track, I hope to get my 400 time close to my outdoor time from last year. My time is 62 seconds, but in an indoor track with more turns, that time will be equivalent to 64 seconds. Besides specific times I would like to hit, I also want to focus on getting out of my comfort zone. I want to try the 800 meter dash, and I want to be able to put more into relays. With these goals in mind, I’ll be sure to follow up this post with my plan to accomplish these goals.

Hello again,

Now that cross country is over, we are heading right into the indoor track season, meaning that I finally get to run as a sprinter again! I get to transition from my 45 minute runs to 20 minutes and then run shorter workouts. These could by sets of 200s for instance. The shortest distance we will run is 50 meters and the longest being 500.

With this new season, we will also have less meets and they will be much farther away (there is only one indoor track in Delaware…. ). I am most excited, however, about the possibility of running at the Ocean Breeze Invitational in New York. I haven’t been fast enough in years past but with my recent PR I hope to make it! I will elaborate on this season’s goals in my next post 🙂

http://www.milesplit.com/videos/pro/248876/high-school-2-mile-varsity

So it seems that I am due for another recipe post, since I’ve been bombarding my blog with exercise content. Time for some nutrition info. Instead of going super in depth on this recipe and its benefits, I figured I would just share it and let my readers use it if they’d like. My recipe for Vegan Fried Rice is delicious, and fills me up with lots of energy and nutrients. Enjoy!

https://minimalistbaker.com/easy-vegan-fried-rice/

 

In this post I would like to briefly summarize my most recent workout, in the hopes that it gives a good snapshot of my current abilities, and where I hope they will progress to.

We started our Monday workout with 2x 400m at an even, steady, race-pace. This means that we are running about at our mile split times that we hope to hold during the race. For me, this was around 7:30, so for the 400s, I was aiming for 1:50. Then, we ran 1 mile as fast as we could. I ran mine in 6:40. We then ran 1 800m as fast as we could. I ran a 3:03. We then finished the workout with 2 more 400s, with whatever speed we had left. For me that was running them in 93 seconds.

We had this workout on Monday so that we had enough time to recover before our Friday meet. Our Tuesday-Wednesday runs consisted of 4.5 mile runs, and Thursday’s practice was just 35 minutes of running with drills. With this schedule, and making time to stretch and roll out our muscles, we would be all set for our meet.

Since I’ve given a background for this site, and covered some nutrition, I figured that it was time I addressed exercise. Being a sprinter in indoor and outdoor track and field, running cross country was a rough transition for me. However, with consistent training, I have gone from a 12-minute mile to being able to hold a 7:30 pace for a 5k. I reached this pace last Friday, and finished with a time of 23:39, a personal best. By staying so consistent with my runs, and putting a lot of effort into workouts, I was able to progress to this point. I cannot stress enough how important consistency is- without consistent training and consistent effort, you simply won’t improve.

In order to setup and provide context for my future posts regarding cross country and track, I am posting a link to explain common workouts and how they help you improve.

nomeatathlete.com