This year I decided to try something new: joining the Hidden Valley High School’s indoor track team. For the first time in my life, I gave in to join a team and it has been going better than I thought.
Throughout my first two years of high school, I swore I didn’t want to join any sports, but coming to Virginia made me want to push myself more to get where I wanted mentally and physically. Adding Track to my schedule not only passes time by being active, but also helps clear my mind of unnecessary anxiety.
The first week of joining the team was a bit difficult because I haven’t run in a long time, so I took that time to learn how to control my breathing and running form properly. My team of sprinters usually run on the track field. It has been very cold outside and that has been making it difficult to stretch and run outside. After the first few days I found myself already feeling more comfortable during the warmups before we started running through the different distances. So far, I know the 50m and 100m range is not too hard for me but 200+ is way more difficult for a beginner.
Due to the weather for a couple of days before our Thanksgiving break, we ran inside the halls of the school and did many work outs in the weight room. All of this left me very sore for a few days because we did many core focused exercises along with legs and arms, overall a full body work out. Getting into the habit of stretching more is slowly impacting my progress in being more active during practice as well as helping me slowly become more productive. Some days I don’t feel like going, but the good feeling after practice motivates me to continue.