Track workout

Last night I did a real track workout with Montlucon Athletisme. I warmed up with Cecile and Anne before doing crazy drills with Cecile and the two men. One drill involved wearing a velcro belt. Another person held onto the attached strings and pulled back to make it hard to run fast. It is actually harder than it sounds, and I provided some humor for the rest of the team with my attempts.

After the warmup and drills Cecile and I did intervals of 500m, 800m, 1000m, 400m, 1000m, and 500m. As usual, she kicked my butt, and the hard icy track didn't help me to feel quick, but I was surprised how fast my times were. I expected my 800 to be around 3:10, but I ran 2:54 and the 400 was 1:26.

In more exciting news, I am running another cross country race on Sunday in Limoges. Also, a reporter from the local paper (La Montagne) is coming to practice next Wednesday to interview Meredith and me. Guy, the club president, is really excited to have Americans on the team and has bent over backwards to make us feel welcome (as have the other members of the team) and he arranged the interview. I am really flattered and definitely nervous to have to speak French to be published!

During the day yesterday the weather was beautiful; the sun was shining brightly and it was (relatively) warm, so when I left for practice on my new bike (!) it was more than reasonable to wear shorts. By the time practice really started in the evening, the temperature had started to drop to near freezing. Everyone stared at my legs when I took off my warmup pants and I had to keep trying to convince them that I was fine in shorts. I had to explain to everyone that 30-35 degrees Fahrenheit really isn't that cold when it can dip below 0 in Toledo. At one point during a drill, I heard my coach shout "Elle est de l'Ohio! (She's from Ohio!)"