There's another girl here...

After a year of being the only girl on my team I finally have a teammate! Her name is Anna Leigh and she’s very talented, and speedy!

            Last Saturday we did a workout together where we were supposed to run 4 times the mile in around 5:45. “Don’t go out too fast,” Joel said, “so you won’t get too fatigued.” But I knew that at 5:45 pace I was going to be fatigued the entire workout, especially since my mile PR is only about 5:35. But at least that is less scary- you’re not afraid of when the pain will come, you know it will be there with you always.

            The first two Anna Leigh beat me by a couple seconds and I ran 5:51 and 5:49, the third one we ran together and when we got to the last lap she started really moving and even though she was fighting for air as much as me she found some to encourage me to go with her. So I had to run the last lap faster than I thought my legs could ever go and into more pain than I thought possible. We finished in 5:51-52, probably 4-5 seconds faster than I would have done on my own. Joel only wanted her to do three but he still wanted me to do four so I ran the next one on my own after only five minutes ( I felt like I needed 10 minutes! or an hour.) By myself my legs felt so heavy and I ran 6:07 despite best efforts. Still it was definitely the fastest mile repeats workout I have ever done and I’m glad to have a new teammate to share the pain with! After practice we went to Robeks for a nice protein smoothie- yum! They make then a lot tastier than I do at home.

            Yesterday I ran a 1k all out in 3:21 and then 3 400s in 77-78. We had a push up contest at practice because none of the boys thought I would be able to do a push up because I am a girl. I did 47 and beat Joel and Mark and Cory only beat me by one. The next day Mark did 50 just to beat me, but I'm pretty sure I can do 51. Analeigh has yet to do the push up challenge, but I think girls can be good at pushups. It is not just about your arm strength but your core strength as well, and even if we have less to push up with we also less to push up so it is pretty proportionate. Proud to push up for girls in the push up war!