falling leaves....smells like championship season

With Chile pepper rapidly approaching and the championship season right around the corner training has really been picking up, often leaving the legs feeling heavy and the lungs burning but nothing beats the feeling of accomplishment.  Although we the team is still over two weeks from conference and 6 weeks to nationals the workouts have been amazing.  Last week we ran repeat miles at the cross country course and quarters at the golf course.  The miles were the sticking point to the midway point of the cross season.  Many of us felt tired but all of us finished the workout right on pace, the miles went as follows (4:35, 4:30, 4:29, 4:26, 4:28).  Later in the week came the quarters, one of the most grueling workouts imaginable.  The workout consists of 17x400m, half up a hill and half down.  Down the hill we averaged right around 63 seconds for each quarter while averaging 68 seconds up the hill.  After the week from hell we gathered one last time for a beautiful 95 minute long run on the cross course.  We managed to drag ourselves out of bed early enough to catch some lingering fog on the cross course and temperatures in the 50's.  With chile pepper this weekend we ran our only workout for the week yesterday, but I am going to keep this one a secret (maybe I will leak the workout after SEC's).  If you are in the northwest Arkansas area this saturday make sure to come catch the nationally ranked (#6) Arkansas Razorback cross country team.  The gun goes off at 9:45 for the mens race.  Woo Pig Soooie!!!