Running Blog

Easy 30 minutes up Green Canyon today on my own. My legs and lungs were feeling it today so I turned around at the 25ish mark and then ran down a different trail that I hadn't done yet for a bit. At practice Heather, Megan and I did 10 minutes warm-up then 6 floats. They felt fine but I was struggling to figure them out. Coach Spence helped me fix my arms during the max-out portion. I think once I get doing them some more I'll be more confident and be able to do them better. Then we did core. Heather and I had a good talk, and Jackie asked me about my DogTown shorts.. those are always good for starting conversation. Tomorrow I have a hill workout with Megan.. sorta nervous, sorta excited.

Today was.. an experience. First workout since senior year. I was sorta sore from yesterday.. I don't think it was the floats, even though Coach said they might make us sore. I think it was from my futsal game last night. Don't tell my coach though. I don't know how happy it would make him to know I'm playing in soccer games every week.

Anyway, today Sydney, Megan, and I had 4xgradual hills and 6xsteep hills up Old Main in our spikes. I liked wearing my spikes.. I've never had any like these before. They're super light and thin.

We had 20 min warm up on this neato trail that I never knew about before and that felt fantastic. Had some good get-to-know-you conversation with Sydney. Then the gradual hills were fine.. they're mostly a form drill. The steep hills were.. something. I only did four- not necessarily because I was tired (my breathing was fine) but because my muscles tightened up so badly on the fourth that I was barely moving by the end. I'm sure it looked pretty pathetic to anyone walking by. I'm not super bummed out about it though.. I'm very aware that I'm out of shape and it's gonna take a while to get back to where I was. But man, it's crazy to think that there was a time when six of those hills would have barely fazed me (they're honestly not that fast or long, just super super steep. Overall, easier than Sunrise). After I finished my legs were shaking like none other. I physically couldn't stand still- I looked like I was having some kind of seizure, I'm sure. So that was embarrassing.10 minute cool down after and then a chocolate milk. 

Not much running today except what I got in with Spencer while we were cheering at state. The girls did well. I'm proud of them and what they've accomplished this year. 

AM: 35 minutes on my own down the trail from Tuesday. Felt good and the weather was nice. It's getting easier and easier to run up the stupid hill to my apartment.

PM: Well, all the 800 girls thought we were supposed to run this morning so we all did 35-40 minutes. Turns out Coach wanted us to get our mileage in this afternoon. So instead of a long warm-up/cool-down, we just warmed up to the XC course and then had no cool down. Anyway, we had 2x2 laps strides on the 500 m loop. On the first set, we just did 100 m on, 100 m off. It felt good to get a little speed in there without going all out. The next set we threw a 200 in there. I started to get a bit tired here but not terrible at all. Afterward, Coach talked to us a bit about the plan for the indoor season, then the other girls started setting up for the fun run tomorrow while I ran (literally) all the way back to my apartment (with my backpack on) so as to avoid being late for work. So I guess I got some sort of cool down.

AM: 35 minutes on my own. Had a close call where I rolled my ankle and nearly biffed it but managed to catch myself just in time. My right arch/shin area kinda ached today.. might ice it at some point but I don't have time right now- I have a math quiz in half an hour (wish me all the luck you possibly can), then at that point I'll be lucky if I make it back home to shower before 10.

PM: Megan, Sydney, Heather and I had weights with the sprinters this afternoon. It was fine except that I am apparently not mentally competent enough to figure out snatches and power cleans. Physically I think I can do it, but I can't wrap my brain around the concept and so eventually the coach gave up trying to help me and told me to practice my form this weekend. I had to leave before core though so I could get up to my advisor's office for my spring registration appointment. Then I had to book it down to Jazmin's office to turn in my paper, then back home to grab food and change, then down to the XC course to help with the 5k. Lately my entire life has been one long power walk to my next destination. I feel like I'm never anywhere, I'm just always everywhere. I kinda like the busy-ness, except for the lack of nap time. Tomorrow is just a longish run with maybe some strides at the end, so I can get a nap in after that. Then I might hang out with the team. Also I need to clean. And meet with the registrar. Oy.

Well. This morning I couldn't make myself want to run so I figured I'd get some cross training in. I got my bike from the basement, stuck it in my car, ran (figuratively. I actually drove) to Wal Mart to buy a stopwatch & helmet, then headed up to Green Canyon. Now I'm not exactly the world's best biker, so you might wonder "why would she want to bike up a rocky canyon trail when she's not even good at riding a bike?" The answer to this is that because I am not very skilled on two wheels, I wanted as few people as possible to witness this endeavor. It's not that I don't know how to ride a bike or that I've forgotten how (supposedly that's hard to do). It's just that biking was never my favorite method of transportation/exercise, so I never did it much and my biking muscles/skills are probably pretty underdeveloped. Also the bike I have is weird and I have a hard time controlling it. It has those plastic foot holder thingys and sometimes my feet get stuck when I stop and then I panic and fall over. Anyway, I made it probably 20 minutes (that's an estimate. I accidentally stopped my watch after 5 minutes.) and decided that was the end of my biking adventure for the day. Except probably I should only count 15 of those minutes because the way back to the car consisted of the bike rocketing down the hill while I sat as still as possible and compulsively slammed on the brakes every ten seconds. So.. that's the end of that. I might practice biking more just to get better at it.. but probably not.