Mind Over Matter

I was so relieved that my alarm clock woke me up this morning. The previous two days, I set it to eight o'clock so that I could wake up today without a shock, but I just don't ever remember the alarm going off. Maybe I just slapped it to shut it up, rolled over, and then went back to bed. But I just don't remember. I must have still be half asleep, right? There's no way that I can sleep through the alarm until it decides to shut up itself. I'm not that heavy of a sleeper.

So I did get out of bed at seven o'clock and tired waking myself up by watching a half hour of TV. Normally I don't do this, at least, not on school days. Normally I just jump into a routine that hardly gives me any free time whatsoever. Then I ate at seven-thirty, just a bowl of Kix, but I should throw a fruit in there, too. But in the morning, I'm never hungry. Ever. And even though I had an extra half hour this morning, it was no different.

After that I went downstairs, fired up my laptop so I could watch a couple videos on the self-start rule (which was our homework) and got dressed. While I was listening to the video, not watching it, I put on my shin guards. I don't remember a lick of that video except that the dude had a British accent. Not surprising, since field hockey is much wider known in Europe than in North America. Probably an understatement, there.

With everything on, we got Ben out into the truck and we drove on to practice. The whole time I kept glancing nervously at the clock, because we had left the house late, and sure enough, we got to practice a minute late. I was relieved, though, because there were a bunch of other people who got to the field at the same time as me. Pssh. False sense of security.

Practice started, and Coach Craig started off by saying that we had to do burpees because there were ten people a minute late, and one or two (I forget which) five minutes late. So we started off the practice with fifty-one burpees, in sets of ten, and then eleven. I don't like it burpees. I don't even know if I did fifty-one, because there is no way that I was counting when other people were shouting out different numbers. I have a hard enough counting my consecutive jumps when I jump rope alone. And I don't even get to three digits anymore. I'm still determined to break my seventh (or eighth) grade record of five hundred and sixty eight consecutive jumps. That was even before gym officially started, too, when we had a few minutes of free time.

But anyway, after the blasted burpees, we went on to do what is called Metcon one. We had to sprint five yard ladders, up to fifteen yards, and then do ten sit-ups, then ten more burpees, then twenty lunges (ten for each leg), then ten push-ups, and then mountain climbers. We had to do that five times in a row. In the end, I was so tired I could barely count any of my individual ten things, let alone figure out what group or whatever I was on. Unsurprisingly, I was one of, like, the last three to finish.

Practice didn't end there. Then we broke up into three groups of about ten and went through sticking obstacle courses. I started out with having to trace the pattern of a star in a controlled dribble, and then I went off to doing spins (again, in a controlled dribble) around a set of cones, and finally my group ended with a controlled dribble around another set of cones. I think the last one might have been the easiest. Then to finish off the practice, we sprinted six sets of fifty yards, which we are supposed to accomplish within seventy five seconds. I was one of the first, eh, maybe ten finished, but I didn't make it on time. I'm one of the fastest sprinters on the team, I just don't have everyone else's stamina.

Then I got to go home, but I was so tired and sore I could barely take a shower. Thankfully, I got to crawl into bed for another three hours, but I was still semi-conscious the whole time. Especially when Joe barged into my room demanding if he could go to the neighbor's. "Go away" didn't work with him, and he kept asking it over and over again until I got mad at him. Which wasn't that hard to do, since I was sore and tired and I had another practice to go to later.

Two I got up and ate a very measly lunch, because I just can't eat right now. Then I watched some Discovery show about mothers not even knowing they're pregnant. I though that the person picking me up for practice wouldn't be around 'till about quarter to three, but she pulled into the driveway at quarter after two. With surprise, I greeted her, threw everything into my duffel bag, grabbed my stick and cleats and climbed into the car with her.

She's cool. We talked the whole time there, don't ask me about what. Meanwhile, I was struggling to get my shin guards and socks on, topping it off with my cleats. Sure, the shin guards feel like a nice, warm hug to the shins, but damn, they're a pain in the butt to get on, man. Especially when I have to pull my soccer socks over them. Soccer socks are meant for soccer shin guards, not the thicker field hockey shin guards.

Anyway, unsurprisingly, we were the first ones there. So we sat around in the car and talked some more. Then Leah pulled up next to us, and we held a somewhat weird conversation between the three of us (sometimes) through car windows.

But then we had to get out and get down to practice. The team was determined (at least, most of us) to get everyone there on time, so every time someone was cutting it close (or actually did come late, but the main coach wasn't there so we didn't do more burpees *dance*), the whole team already on the field started shouting "run!" So they ran, in the most part.

Practice started off as normal, partnering up with someone that has about your same athletic abilities (earlier this morning I was paired with Leonie, a German exchange student, and then later I was paired with Megan, who's cool, too), and we didn't have to do burpees. Or Metcon one. Instead, we jogged around half of the field for ten minutes while Coach Keeley shouted some instructions at us, like to sprint or run backwards or do the bear crawl, skip. I wasn't behind everyone while we did this, but I was lapped by Megan and Megan (uh, two different girls) once, and there were only, like, three or four people behind me. I wanted to stop and tie my cleat that became untied, but Coach Craig saw it as well and told me to tie it after warm-up. Pssh.

So then the people who were trying out for goalie went and got suited up while the rest of us did some sticking drills. I think we started off with pulls, but that was near the end. I lost something, I think. Then, with a different partner than with the pulls, we had a girl play offense and another play defense, while the offensive player was, obviously, trying to get past the defense with pulls while the defense was supposed to be using jabs to unsettle the ball, claim it, and then get past the offense, who had suddenly became defense. Then we played Queen of the Box, but I hardly had any energy left at the end, so when I was playing defense (always my favorite), I could barely move. And it didn't help that I got paired with Megan (the one I was warming up with) at the very end, who is a superb field hockey player, and I could barely comprehend she got past me, she went so fast. And I was tired.

After that, we gathered around the coach again to do more of those sprints, and the Coach said he had two numbers in his head, and if we met those numbers, we wouldn't sprint in tomorrow's practice. While Leah managed to meet his second number, five girls did not finish the sprint within seventy five seconds, so we have to sprint again tomorrow.

Then we went home. And all I did was lay on the couch, I was so tired, even though Mom was yelling at me 'cause I was drenched in sweat. Ick.

But after my shower, I did seem to loosen up a bit, which is good for now. I just hope that I'll be able to do whatever Coach Keeley throws at us tomorrow in the morning practice. I think I'm tired today, I still have to do two-a-days for the rest of this week (though going up to Grandma's sounds like a very inviting idea on Saturday, so I can at least miss the second practice then).

I said yesterday that I really wanted to call Henry, but I was just too tired to all day. Not such a very good idea. I'd go to bed now if I didn't want to watch the finale of So You Think You Can Dance. In the meantime, I dunno what I'll do, but role playing is out of the option. Did I say that right? I wouldn't be able to get into any of my characters' personas. Even Gambit. Or Vammy (Vamoose, an OC of mine). Nightcrawler I struggle with already (I'm getting better at him again), so it definitely can't be him.

Anyway, yeah.

Oh--mind over matter! I just realized I didn't explain the tittle! So while we were doing Metcon one and the ten minute "jog," the coaches kept yelling out at us, "mind over matter." Meaning that the bodies have no say, that we have to keep pushing ourselves on. I kept muttering things under my breath every time they said that, and at one point either Sara or Olivia actually laugh/snorted at one of them.

SONG OF THE DAY: Don't have one today . . . no thought for songs, just jog, sleep, JOG, nah, sleep . . .