The veteran of the specific field events came to coach the beginners. I decided to join Hurdle to make a good use of my long legs. The coach for Hurdle taught us necessary pre-workout because hurdlers will have a higher chance of straining a leg muscle from jumping over a high hurdle. One of the pre-workouts required us to get in a crawling position and lift the leg like a dog peeing over a fire hydrant. The pre-workouts looked funny because we were focusing on the leg muscles. When I came back home, my whole body was aching from the extreme workouts. That night, I took a long hot shower to relax my muscles not knowing that tomorrow will be worse. The next day of practice, the coach made us jump over the hurdle. I went over to the hurdle to
By this time I would be on the track getting my workout in to run the 300 hurdles. I was solid in that event, but the events I took the most pride in was the 400 and the 4 by 4. It had been a rough ending to basketball season but this would be the major turning point for me. I could make it all up by going to state. My track coach knew my coach from middle school so she has heard quite a bit about me. I never really had training or anything I just ran at first. I started to do summer training and ran with a local track team. Coach George wanted me to run the 200. It was new to me so we trained in the mornings before school. She bought in the assistant coach and he had me and few more girls lined up on the track. He wanted us to stand side by side and sprint out and merge into lane one. It was kind of crazy because we were all kind of jumbled up together. The first time as I merged into lane one my legs tripped another girl and she fell so I felt bad. So the third time I tried to make sure I didn't trip anyone up because my legs were so long. I dodge tripping the same girl but I almost hit another. By the fourth time I was really just over it, I jerked my body one way and my hip went the other. I ended up limping to the finish line. I thought it was just a little kink and I could just pop it out. I was completely wrong. It was way worse than the ankle injury. I guess it was a sign from good telling me to
I ran as fast as I could, I was tired but knew that I had to keep going. The sun shone down ferociously making it very bright and torrid. I felt sweat drip from just above my brow into my right eye. My eye began to get a burning sensation just as I turned the corner. My muscles ached, but I knew I had to shift into overdrive and pick up the pace. I started to run faster and faster. I began to get the feeling like I was about to throw up, but knew that I couldn’t stop now. I continued to sprint to the finish, and just as I crossed the finish line I looked to the clock and noticed that I set a new PR. The feeling of happiness that swelled up inside me took me back to the practice on the tuesday of the previous week: That day it was hot as fire
On my first day of rocket football practice in fifth grade I was nervous. This was the first year at my new school I would be playing football; Because of this I felt I had to prove myself to the players and the coaches. Unexpectedly, my coach yelled promptly at 6pm for us to fall into a line. Out of fear of running laps we all compelled to orders. Being the new guy, I was shoved to the fresh start of the line, after chatting with the two coaches beside him. Suddenly he began to speak in a less tempered voice. In such a way that made it seem he just realized he was yelling at kids to begin with. Calmly, he told us about how we were not allowed to practice without our helmet, shoulder
Today is the day for State track, the day I been working the whole season. When we pulled up to the stadium there were lot’s of people. I was so nervous, because I never been to a track meet like this before. We got everything unloaded from the suburban, walked into the stadium and was suprised how many people was there. When it was time to walk over to the discus ring, I saw girls throwing far. I was nervous. It was time for me to warm up and I had three practice throws. The first one was close to the hundreds, second one past hundred, and third past hundred and five. I looked over at my grandpa and he smiled. He said, no more practice throws, I was happy but nervous at the sometime. When it was my turn I went up to the ring and threw around the hundreds. After I got done
Constantly being criticized and picked on by gnarled and wicked coaches who only accepted perfection. Trying my best to finish routines while tears welled up in my eyes impairing my vision like raindrops on the windshield. Running faster than a bullet to the bathroom stalls, the only place I could be concealed from the coaches to cry so they wouldn't mistake my pain and frustration for being both mentally and physically fragile. Every day I had to thrust through the hard times trying my hardest not to give up. The boulders on my back soon shrunk down to pebbles and I felt as free as a bird. Hours upon hours I spent pushing my body to its maximum. Sprinting down the vault runway as my surroundings became a blur; my feet slammed the cushion floor accelerating with every stride I took. Swinging back and forth on wooden bars covered with white chalk causing skin the size of quarters to rip off my hands. Mounting a four foot tall beam which was rougher
I approached that year’s conditioning with a pessimistic attitude and wondered why was I doing this when I’m not going to run in meets. Just like the year before, I assumed that conditioning and practicing would be obsolete. I braced myself for another disappointing year. Every winter day after school, I braced myself against the cold with a hope that this season would be different. I went into the first day of practice feeling in shape and optimistic. But just like freshman year, there was no preparing for the ache and suffering of the first practice. With the season approaching, our coach timed us to determine who would run in meets. Our coach divided us into groups based on how fast she thought we were. When a senior saw that I was in the first, slower group, he said that I belonged in the faster group with them. Hearing that compliment from a senior changed my outlook on the season might go. As the first track meet approached, we split off into groups so we could perfect our technique based on the event we were running. As I was jogging around the track wondering whether this year was going to be the same as last year, our coach summoned me over to perfect baton handoffs for the 4x100 meter relay. As the realization hit me that I was going to compete, I thought, “I’m not going to relinquish this spot because I labored profusely to attain
Spring of my junior year in high school, I joined track with wishful thinking. I’m going to do track, run sprints, and get into great shape for summer. However, with my luck it didn’t work out how I wanted. A week into the track season, I went to our school’s field to play a pick-up game of soccer. In the process of going to the field, I had to climb over a fence. Simple? I really should of thought this through, but didn’t. As I jumped over and landed, a loud pop sound came from my knee loud enough for my friends to hear. I sat there crying in front of my friends for a minute or two, but got up trying to walk it off. As you can see no is not an option for me, as I tried play a soccer game with a swollen knee cap. I was confused what happened, I didn’t know exactly happened. But sharp pains were shooting through my leg as I limped around the field. Little did I know a swollen and bruised knee meant torn ligaments.
It was the beginning of the track season a few days before our first track meet. My friends and I were running around the track and my leg gets tense. Not terribly unusual I've had charley horses before, but then there's a pop and my leg gives. I stop running and my friends help me up and to the athletic trainers. They tell me I have sprained my hamstring. This was heartbreaking for me as this was the year I was going to run with my friends in the sprints and high jump as I was unable to last year due to a similar thing happening but with my feet. I was not going to accept this defeat and choose to show up every day to practice and to the trainers for rehabilitation. At meets, I would work around the track at either the high jump pit or the long jump pit. I would give my teammates words of encouragement as often as I could. I held the
On the first day of practice I was extremely out of place. I was among athletes who were six-foot and had played high intensity sports before. The first week came as a slap to the face for me because we trained harder than I had ever done in my life. Over the next 3 months of winter training I began to fall into place among the other athletes and to my surprise I was placed in the upperclassmen quad. This boat was predicted to be the fastest boat that we raced so there was a lot of competition for it. Since there were two other upperclassmen that weren’t in the boat my placement in the quad was always being reevaluated to ensure that it had the fastest athletes in it.
I was hurdling pushing off my leg in mid air and I felt a pop in my right hamstring. I thought I had a charlie horse or something. I fell on the ground holding my hamstring. I was stuck on the ground for a while and the trainer had to bring some crutches down.
When I was in the fifth grade, I signed up for a program called The Girls on the Run. We had to run a 5K race. That meant running around the edge of a park three whole times, although I didn’t learn this until after I was done running the actual race. We practiced a great deal and worked hard to increase our stamina and speed. We met at the end of the day and we always had bright red, sweaty, exhausted face. Once I ran so much that I felt like I was going to vomit, I could not breathe and had severe fatigue. I had a panic attack because the race was coming soon! That day was the worst day of practice, but
HIITs are high intensity interval training techniques that alternate short bursts of maximum exercise efforts followed by a short, timed rest period. This type of cardio training gets your heart rate up quickly and keeps it up for 15-30 minutes. The benefits to HIIT are numerous and are easily incorporated into your normal exercise routine.
With the wide variety of Iowa State University students on and off campus everyone has different opinions on exercising at the Lied Recreational Athletic Facility. Since the workout facility is easily accessible for me, I choose to take time out of my day to work out every day. This electrifying change in my daily routine has altered my college experience and time management skills because while I’m exercising it gives me the opportunity to relieve all the stress I encountered during the day. Even with all the school the work I have experienced so far it keeps me on my toes when I have to balance education with the amount of time I want to spend at the gym. Also, by me going to the gym it keeps me in shape for sports and extra-circular activities that I want to engage in. I played basketball, football, and baseball my entire life and now that I have all this free time it really gives me time to focus on some of the hobbies I have more than ever before.
Dating back to a cloudy, and gloomy school day in middle school I started to feel very sick. It felt as if someone was doing jumping-jacks inside my stomach, and I had a headache the size of a grapefruit. After school I gear up to go to track practice thinking I would take it easy, however my track coach had a different plan in mind. He announces that we are going to be walking over to Crissy field to run from the beginning to the end of the trail, and back. Being the naive kid I am, I feel as if I could make it there and back, not knowing the run would be almost four and a half miles long ! The
Somehow, I found myself being one of the last runners in the weight room before the coaches had to leave. Lifting became a place where I could overcome my initial