Just do it

Starting a taper week so I will probably be shooting for around 28 miles.  Today I felt like crap.  I am thinking it was due to the afternoonishness.  I really don't like running in the afternoon.  I felt like I was going to poop my pants.  After we got back we did some weight training along with some jumps, leg work and core.  It was actually one of the most intense weight sessions we've had as a cross country team.

Today we jogged down to Fairmont Park which is about 1.5 miles from Westminster.  There we did 4x1000 meter intervals.  Coach wanted us between 3:20 and 3:25 for our pacing.  My splits were 3:19, 3:20, 3:20, 3:25.  We then did 2x400 with splits of 78 and 76.  It was a good workout.  Coach wanted us to relax a bit and not kill ourselves today since this week is a taper week.  We then jogged back and that was it :)

FIRST TIME EXPERIENCE TODAY!!! I will tell about that in a moment.

I normally cross train on Wednesdays because they are the day after speed work.  Last night I also played ultimate frisbee so after all the lifting and speed work and UF my legs were hurting.  My coach wanted me to get about 50 mins of cross training so I swam 50 laps.  It actually took me 45 minutes but I was good with that.  While I was swimming a guy got in my lane and was going faster.  I couldn't allow him to pass me so I sped up for the last 12 or so laps.  It was actually a pretty good workout!  I held him off :)

 Then came the FIRST TIME EXPERIENCE!  I went to the training room and did some foam rolling, sat on a tennis ball for a bit and then stretched.  Foam roller and/or tennis ball = PAIN.  Anyways, after that I prepared my ice bath.  I added ice until it was 55 degrees which is pretty dang cold.  I got in up to my stomach as usual.  My upper body though was also sore so I decided to get the smaller stool.  I THEN SUBMERGED MY WHOLE BODY UP TO MY NECK!  It was so friggin cold!  I began to shiver uncontrollably and could only stay in fully for a few minutes.  After I got out I felt like I would never feel warmth ever again.  It was a pretty interesting experience!

Today was just a normal mileage run. We planned to do about 5-6. All of us have some pretty sore, heavy legs right now so we were keeping it at about 7:40-8 minute pace. We met at Sugar House park and did 3 hill sprints before going back to the school for some core. The ice bath felt real good today!

We did some fartleks at Sugarhouse Park today.  We used the North loop that we had at our conference meet which ends up being about 3/4 of a mile.  We would go hard for a half a mile and then active recovery for 1/4 mile.  That means that your first 200 meters is uphill followed by a slight downhill for the rest.  It was pretty challenging.  It wanted us to keep it at about a 3 minute pace and we managed pretty well.

Went out to Dimpledell trail... I have no idea if I spelled that right.  This is a trail normally for horses.  It's by no means flat.  Pretty much a climb until about 3 miles and there' s a lot of soft woodchippy ground.  Then after 3.5 we just came back.  Not my favorite place to run.  My knee has been feeling some pain too so that's not fun :(