Cliff Running

My day started with our taxi ride to conditioning. I got in, rolled the window down, and heard a whistle. I looked to my right out of the window and saw a gypsy boy saying, "America!". Haha, I have to admit, it definitely made me smile! Our morning conditioning was a 40 min run. I don’t think I have ever run for 40 solid minutes in my life! We were going up to the mountain as we had done before, but I was confused because I definitely remember there being nowhere to go but up! I was right. When we got to the top, we put our things in the locker room and started stretching. Our trainer said he was running with us today. We started on the same path we had done before, then we reached a place where we could pick 3 different trails: straight, down, and up. Well, he picked up. So we literally started on a winding trail up the mountain for about 8 min but seemed like a lot longer. The trail was about 3 ft wide. The majority of it was mulch but there were rocks mixed in. I basically just looked down the whole time to avoid tripping over the rocks or stepping wrong and twisting my ankle. When we finally reached a stopping point to stretch I looked down. All you could see were trees. I couldn’t even see the trail we were running on. If we fell, it would most likely be game over because we were basically on the edge the entire time. On the way back down I was walking to keep from falling. Brittany, on the other hand, couldn’t stop herself so her and the trainer were about 50 feet ahead of me and the rest of the team. Knowing how close to the edge we were made the trip back down a lot more stressful!

Today at our second practice we had 9 people, so we still couldn’t do 5 on 5. The practice involved a lot of shooting and a lot of drills. I pretty much play everything but the point, even bringing the ball up the court for the majority of the drills. Our coach speaks English, but in practice, it sounds like Romanglish. Some of my teammates can understand English but not speak it, so I’m learning more Romanian basketball terms. At times he will even start a sentence in English, but finish it in Romanian. The majority of our plays are numbered 1-4. So I might hear: one, two, three, four, or I might hear: unu, doi, trei, patru. So not only do you have to learn the plays but you have to be able to recognize them in both languages. It’s definitely challenging, but every day I find myself recognizing more phrases. I am so blessed for another chance to play the game I love regardless of what language it is in!