Recovery

No  school today! I ran from my house up to 15th east, over to 9th south, down to Amanda Ave, over to Sunnyside Ave, up to 17th east, over to Emerson Ave, down to 16th east, over to Harrison Ave, down to 15th east, to Browning Ave, to 14th east, and home. I stopped going up Sunnyside Ave to stretch because my calves were really, really tight. I need an ice bath. On 16th east a bug flew into my eye and made me really mad. If my mood miraculously goes back up I'll try to go for another run today, but right now I'm so mad at that stupid little bug! >:(

Today for early morning workout we did 2 grass laps for warm up and a mile of speed changes on the track. It was our 200 400 chase workout today, so I got put in a group with Maggie, Bischoff, Sargent, Jesse, and Olivia. Maggie, Olivia and I started with a 400, and when we were at about 210 meters is when Bischoff, Sargent, and Jesse started their 200 and their goal was to try and catch us but we didn't want them to catch us. Then after our 400, Maggie, Livi, and I jogged over to the 200 and when Bischoff, Sargent, and Jesse reached the 210 mark on their 400 is when we began to chase them. I caught everyone in that first 200, barely catching Bischoff at the line. We did the 400 200 sets 4 times, me never getting caught and catching Sargent and Jesse and being really close to Bischoff for the last 3 sets. After we did 2 big grass loops for cool down and I got first sailboat shower as usual. I love being a junior. Thank you Camille's mom Rhonda for the delicious breakfast!! It was delicious!

For our afternoon workout, we were to go over what our course for tomorrow is. Jv ran straight up Sunnyside to This is the Place park, while varsity ran the Running of the Leopards course backwards. And yes, that is all uphill. When we got to the pink pioneer house we sat in the shade and stretched for a bit, and when Bill came we went over to the gravel trail. We can't do the same course as last year because I guess the people in the village don't want us running through there. Fine then, we'll just have issues making a new course. We ran around the gravel, and then onto a weird hilly area in the grass. We couldn't figure out a good course, so we'll make one up tomorrow and call it good. We ran back down to the school straight down Sunnyside to be at 6.5 for that run, and since the morning was 5 miles so that's 11.5 for the day. When I got home I sat in the ice bath for 15 minutes and ate my ramen noodles and drank my chocolate milk. Now I'm really, really cold and watching Anna play video games. Ugh my calves better not be so tight tomorrow...

Today we went against Bountiful at This is the Place. I did a 2 mile warm up with the team while Tomy, Natalie, and I put down cones to mark the course. Every time we put a cone down we would scream "CONE!" And when it was a curve that needed lots of cones we would race each other to the curve to put down our cones the fastest. It was great. I changed into my flats with the girls and we went out to the parking lot to pray and cheer with the girls. We went up to the starting line and got pumped, and when Bill said "Go" I went out hard with Natalie and a girl from Bountiful. The three of us went really hard with each other for the start of the parking lot lap, but then the Bountiful girl fell back and I took her crash as an opportunity to get away from the pack. I chased Natalie, and I would make the gap smaller but then I would have a mini crash or she would have a surge in speed, so pretty soon I lost sight of her. The gravel was tough because it was really loose and I didn't get quick turnover at all and it took extra effort to run through it. When we got to the rollies in the grass area, I used the down as my advantage against the Bountiful girl chasing me. We were playing tag and she was it. I pushed through the first lap of the grass, and when I was almost done with my second lap I crashed. Not enough to let the Bountiful girl close to me, because she was crashing too, so I was able to stay strong and get back on the gravel and finish strong 2nd place. I won this game of tag, muahaha. I am a tag master. Good job to all our girls and boys, today was a toughie in the heat but it's Saturday that matters! Good luck then! For a cool down I went over to the grass to watch the boys run and cheer them on and make sure they didn't go the wrong way (Because apparently only the first three girls went the right way and everyone else did some other weird loop...)When I was done watching the guys run I ran along the gravel and picked up cones. I ran into my fellow captains and piled the cones onto the cone rack and we went to pick up flags and bigger cones. It was a pretty good race for me, and I'm excited for Saturday.

This morning we met at the usual time in the usual place, aka 6 am at the track. It was really windy, but luckily the locker rooms were unlocked so us girls went down into our locker room, made a circle out of our chairs, and just sat there in the warm locker room and listened to the wind outside. For a run we ran to the gulley, ran 3 laps, came back, and did 10 barefoot grass strides. In the gulley I ran with Patrick, and Dakota failed at scaring us, but won the scare Natalie game. Our 10 barefoot strides were the full football field, and it felt nice to be barefoot. As soon as we were done I hopped right in the sailboat shower. Thank you Livi's mom for the delicious crepes for breakfast!

After school we met at the track again and while we were waiting for our coaches Lexi came over and opened the locker rooms for us so we could change and be ready to run asap. We had a quick meeting about BYU on Saturday and then went for a relaxing run. We ran up Sunnyside to Gardsmin, over to 5th south, down to the cemetery, 1 lap in the cemetery, and back to the track along 13th east. We did 2 progressive 300s, my first one I was chasing Caden and running away from Javier, and I didn't pass or get passed. The next one I was chasing Jesse and running away from Dakota, and I didn't pass or get passed. Now it's naptime because I finished my homework in 4th period! Huzzah!

Today was sweet and simple. We ran up to Sunnyside park, did a big lap, and met at our tree for 8 barefoot strides. After strides none of us really wanted to put our shoes back on, so we just ran back down to the stadium barefoot. Tomorrow is BYU Invite, so I'm really hoping to do well.

Today was the BYU Autumn Classic. When we got there we set up our spot and went to go cheer for our freshmen and sophomore boys in their race. I also went and talked to my cousins. When it was time to warm up for my race, I ran around cheering for the freshmen and sophomore girls, good job ladies! When the JV boys started I cheered for them for a while and when they were almost done I went to the line and claimed box 20 for our team. Avvy, Maggie, Delaney, and I said our prayer and cheer and did some strides at the line, then I told my cousin "May the force be with you" and we started. I got out fast, but not too fast. By the time we got up to the baseball field, people's start-of-the-race adrenaline had calmed down, so I moved up to 1st/2nd. I ran with a girl from wherever and I let her do all the work. I probably had the biggest smile on my face, because in the freshman sophomore race I had noticed the girl who had outkicked me last year had been smiling the whole race, so I felt like I should smile. It really helped because I wasn't in that much pain, and the girl running with me was doing all the work and I was just using up her energy for her. We gapped away from the chase pack, and at about a mile and a half is when she started to crash, so I started to push harder and challenge myself. I kept gaining distance on her and the others were catching up to her, and on my 2nd lap on the track I heard Emily tell me that Ogden was starting to move, so I pushed really hard my last mile and used my arms to get up the little hills. When I entered the track for the 3rd time, I was able to see how far back the pack was. I had about a 20 second lead on the girl in 2nd, but I wasn't going to take it easy just because I was far ahead. I kicked it at the 300, and in the last 100 as I was lapping someone else she started to sprint with me but then realized that I was finishing and she wasn't. When I crossed the line I was really happy, I had smiled the whole race and it helped me get through it without crashing. I puked in the chute, but I'm getting used to the puking after every race thing, so yeah. We stood there for about 20 minutes waiting for the last girl to finish because the BYU people don't do awards until everyone in that race is done. I had my glory moment today, and even though they had the podium out but didn't use it, it was still one of the greatest moments of my life. I ran around cheering for the seniors for a cool down, and then we hopped on the bus and went home. I feel great right now, I'm happy with my race and I'm going to keep working hard for the rest of the season.