All week the deep gray clouds set the dramatic back drop for our afternoon workouts. Gloomy and ominous, the air was especially humid yesterday as we warmed up for a hill circuit around a local park with gravel trails, tall pine trees and thousands of yellow wildflowers. We are sweating by the time we finish the two-mile warm up. As we change our shoes from trainers to flats, our coach tells us to prepare for the most challenging workout since outdoor track season.

We completed five reps of a hill circuit that left us exhausted, as promised. I won’t bore you with the details of the workout itself. But the post-workout “high” came from the pride of crushing such an intense workout. I love climbing into the van with my teammates to head home from a challenging practice, blasting the radio. Showering and lounging in bed with Pandora afterwards seems like much-deserved reward.

I’m in no hurry for monsoon season to end. Running in the rain feels like playing at recess :) You would never know that my shoes were brand-new one week ago, but cross country shoes just aren’t meant to be white!