hell day

i have just awoken from a most glorious slumber. since this slumber has ended, it has made me feel very sleepy and awful. and i truly hate feeling like this when i have work that needs to be done. i'd rather just plop back onto the bed and sleep for the rest of the night, but i need to get about half an hour or so of studying done for spanish. i was barely able to finish my algebra without falling asleep.

you may be wondering why i titled this entry "hell day". in fact, i'm sure you are. and there is a reason. again, i'm revolving my blog strongly around soccer practice. but then again, the outcome of soccer practice can easily influence the outcome of the rest of the day. i was actually having a fairly happy day until soccer practice. let me explain.

i arrived at soccer practice noticing the intense heat. i thought to myself, 'surely today will be an easier one. the coach would have to be out of his mind to run us too hard'. i look back on those thoughts and laugh. actually i don't, but i wish i could. it really wasn't too funny. coach harrell arrived late, so coach wiles had us run 6 laps until he got there. 6 laps is typical, but we had no idea that 'six laps' was the final destination, because he said "alright guys, start running laps, i'll tell you when to stop". we weren't sure if we were supposed to exert more energy for 2 or 3 laps, or pace ourselves for a longer amount. it turned out that we were meant to pace ourselves. none of us did. however, being the strong willed athletes that we all are, we kept up our pace (for the most part) and finished, although many of us heaving from lack of breath. about this time, coach harrell arrived. after a 3 minute water break, he had us line up on the sideline, facing the middle of the field. (middle school has already retreated to the refuge of the other side of the field, with coach wiles). we all stand and wait for awe-inspiring words from the coach, only to be disappointed, when he greeted us by saying, "well, i like to call this 'hell day'. didn't know it was coming, did you?". i felt like laughing and crying all at the same time. anyhow, it went a bit like this. from the sideline we were standing at, we easily did 10 sprints back and forth to him. this swiftly drained all of our energy. of course, we all knew this was 'hell day', so more fun was on the way. after the sprints we jogged two more laps. so far, this running would equal about 2 or so miles. next we did something i really hate. we line back up on the line, and we begin jogging forward. he blows the whistle once, signifying to keep jogging. twice, to signify sprinting. and thrice, to change direction. i don't think anyone understands how tiring this really is, until they do it themselves, especially after the things we had just experienced. next came indian sprints! hurray! we run laps in a big line, and the person at the END of the line sprints to the front, and so forth and so on. we did 5 laps. to end the 'hell' segment of the day, we did suicides, by running backwards half of the time, with 10 push-ups at the end. i never knew 10 push-ups could be more rewarding. it honestly felt good after using my legs so constantly. after this, we simply did drills and such. but it's safe to say that this was one of the more physically demanding practices of the season. in fact, about 75% of it felt like an out-of-body experience.

of course, i overplayed that a bit, but not much. i just thought everyone would like to know what i went through today. and if not, hey, it's my blog. haha, so that sort of gives me the authority to do with it what i please. wow. alright then.

i think i'll go study for my spanish test, eat something, then try to enter into the glorious slumber that i abandoned only half an hour ago. i hope it welcomes me back.

goodnight.