I can do it. I will do it NINE times!

1/2 mile warmup, then we stretched and did agilities (like everyday). Heptathlon today: first 100m hurdles - ok I guess... 21.14 or something, then high jump - 4' 4" so good!!! (best on team!) 200m dash - 31.40 ok? ha. Shot put: 17'6" not great, but ok (considering the size of my arms :) Then I ran "anaerobic threshold" 4 miler. Kind of hard, times slow and tired legs: 7:00, 7:02, 7:11 and (my watch ran out of batteries for the last mile) approx 6:40. Anger.

1/2 mile warmup and stretches/agilities, Heptathlon again: long jump - 13'6" (?), javelin - 45'6" (ok), 800m - 2:36 which was slower than I wished but sore legs made racing crap and plus, the competition was nothing (next was 2:49). Then after, Ally, Mitch Westhoff and I ran 4.5 (bank w/o extra loop), I had eaten too recently, so I felt like crap the whole way. Yuk. Super sore legs, too.

Kinda angry because I forgot to set my alarm for 6:30 so I could to run before day date (Preference dance) because the rest of the day I was swamped. Angry face. We did hike and run around a bit, though.

1.25 mile warmup, then 6x800m repeats @ 2 mile pace with 400m jogs in between. Goal pace: 2:50's. First 2:53, felt ok, kinda slow, but paced it well. I don't remember all my times, but all were faster than 2:53. Last 2 were 2:50 and 2:49 - good workout, hard, but not bad, felt strong overall. 3/4 mile cooldown.

2x around track warmup. Ran Dogpound with Coach Holt - supposed to be recovery, but I ran kinda fast: 7:38, 6:52, 7:01 and 7:37 (avg. 7:17). Felt a little tiring, but good overall. 

2x around track warmup. Then anaerobic threshold run to Chuck-a-rama and back. First half mile easy, then picked it up to a 7:01 mile then 6:53 mile and finally a 6:35 mile. Rolling hills the whole run, so although my times weren't the greatest, I pushed really hard. Relatively good times (better than last week on the exact same run). cooled down on last half mile.

2x around track warmup. Hand-off practice with Rachel Goethe for Medley Relay. Easy run because of meet tomorrow, ran Dogpound (4 miler) with Erin Riggs.

First track meet of the season!

Warmed up for the 3200m: 2x around track and once around Hurricane school (about .5 mile). Race was all right, I guess... I wasn't really ready mentally for how freaking long it feels to run 8 laps around a track. yuk. Splits were 1:24, 1:29, 1:32, 1:31, 1:34, 1:37, 1:37 & 1:28. Pretty good except laps 5-7 were really slow. 5th place, time was 12:12.58 - 10 seconds off state qualifying! I think I'll easily be able to get my time down there since I didn't push as hard as I could've (I think...). After I finished, I took off my shoes right away like I always do and noticed that my hamstrings were (and still are) quite tight.

Cooled down 2x around school. 

First track meet of the season today!

Warmed up for the 1600m race: 3x around track. Great race, ran in my Nike Zoom Rival MD spikes.Lap splits were ok, 1:17, 1:25, 1:26 1:18 (I need to speed up those middle ones a LOT) and my time, 5:27.14, was only 2 seconds off qualifying for state! Also, I got 2nd place, only one girl from Ogden beat me and I think if I had started my kick earlier I would've caught and possibly beat her. I felt really strong the whole race, so I'm really happy with it as a starting point for the season. Then cooled down by running 2x around Hurricane school (about .5 miles each lap).

Warmed up for the 800m race: 2x around school. Wore my spikes, my calves were getting a little tired from running in them. As the race started, I forgot how short the 800m is so I didn't take off fast enough. My calves burned the entire race, there was a really strong wind against us on the back straightaway and that was no fun. 3rd place, time was 2:31.99 - not great, but okay considering I haven't put in a lot of speed work yet this season. Kind of frustrating though.

Right after, I had to rest as best I could for my 800m leg of the 1600m Medley Relay (200m, 200m, 400m, 800m) which was right after the 800m (it always is, argh). When I got the baton from the 400m leg girl, Rachel, we were in second by about 30 meters. The wind was still terrible, and my calves were so stiff, sore and tired. All that kept me pushing it was the thought that it was my last race of the meet. I passed her on our first lap and ended up beating her by about the same margin she had been leading by. My split was 2:32 - about the same as the other 800m I ran. We got 3rd overall since there was another heat of teams after us.

I was kinda frustrated about the 2 800m races that I didn't feel went well, so I began cooling down with some music around the school 2x. I was so grumpy about the races that halfway through going around the school the second time, I took off into town and just kept running a big loop around, I'd guess about 2 or 3 miles. By the time I got done, my calves were still totally stiff and sore that I could hardly run on them. ow.

I didn't run today because my parents are lame and wouldn't let me because I was sick yesterday. argh.

My calves are still stiff and sore from saturday at the meet! Warmup 2x around track, then a big grass loop (.75) Track work today: 4 x 1200m at 3200m pace with 600m jog recovery. Goal pace: 4:30 or less

1 - 4:25, went out well, felt kinda fast, but not hard

2 - 4:30, relaxed a bit too much on my first two laps (it felt good though) and had to push harder my last lap to get on pace

3 - 4:27, worked better first two laps, my calves were getting tireder and stiffer pushed last lap again to get a good time

4 - 4:22, went out hard and pushed all 3 laps and beat all the boys (none of the really fast ones were in town *wink* )

Good workout, felt strong the whole time and now my legs are more sore, whoopee. Then .75 mile cooldown around Sandstone elementary with Ally Robison.

Dropped off my car at the shop to get speedometer/odometer fixed then ran to practice (1.5 miles) from there. warmedup 1/2 mile on track then we ran Dogpound (4). First 1/2 mile was warmingup then anaerobic threshold with Jeff Frodsham for the middle 3 miles - mile times were 6:23, 6:11 & 6:42 - pretty good and about the pace I wanted...felt good on the downhills for miles 1&2, but the last 1/2 mile was uphill and my time barely stayed under 7 min/mile. cooled down the last 1/2 mile. overall good run, legs are still stiff from yesterday and the meet on fri/sat.

1/2 mile warmup on track, then stretched. Easy recovery run today, 4 miler to Chuck-a-rama from PVHS and back. Very nice, ran with Eric Goold out and Lindsay Judd back.

Lifted a little: Bench - 3x10 @ 50 lbs and Squat - 3x10 @ 75 lbs

After, I went with some of the track team and played Ultimate Frisbee at Sandstone Elementary. That counts for a mile or so of running... we only lost by 1. ;) and we had a heckofabunch of fun.

1/2 mile warmup on track, then we ran out to Sunrise Tire (1.5 ish) to do some hills. Ran up East Ridge of Foremaster (.25 up) 5 times - went pretty well, my legs are tired from lifting so it was a bit hard to get going and by the end my quads were burning SO much, pushed well most of the time, I still have a little bit of a hard time going fast enough at the bottom because I know what's coming up later, but I tried keeping fast the whole time, not just pushing at the top half. Then ran back, trying not to go ultra-slow and succeeding a bit. Legs are pretty sore.

Went on a nice easy long run from my house today. Chased some geese off the road for a car or two and moved large weeds off it too (good turn daily?) went well overall, legs are still sore from lifting and yesterday, but i think my calves have finally recovered from last week's race. My run was supposed to be a 9 miler, but my parents picked me up about a mile from the end to go on a hike - 5.4 miles and hard with my cute nephews ;). Ended up being only eight, but i'll survive, I guess. Felt pretty nice to go on a long run, I haven't in a while, but I'm not quite used to them anymore so it took until mile 3-4 to really get into it. There was this old (65ish) guy 100m or so in front of me at about mile 3 so I sped up to catch him. 'twas pretty easy. Then after I turned around on my out-and-back he had turned around too but earlier, so he was approx. .5 mile ahead of me. Pushed hard to try and catch him, but he turned where my run didn't go when I was about 10m behind (and closing the gap fast). Shucks. Overall a nice relaxing run.

Started morning runs this week to get some more mileage in. At 5:30 went out by my house Stake Center run 3.5, went pretty easy, avg. 7:46 min/mile. Felt great, since there was no traffic, I had a good time running in the middle of the road (on the yellow lines and in the lane). Fun times on a nice easy run.

Afternoon at Track practice, 2x on track warmup then ran Green Springs 5 miler with Ally and Nikki Johnson. Just went nice and easy, stopped for Ally once and Nikki another time to go potty. Knees weren't liking me a whole bunch, my left is bugging me a bit under my kneecap and my right on the outside, a bit like ITB tendinitis I had in my left last year but not nearly as bad. Once we got back, we did 9x100m striders on the track, those weren't too bad. Lifted after that: did 3x10 Hamstring curls (at 10), 1x10 Leg Extensions (at 8) - they hurt my left knee so I stopped after one set, 2x10 laying on your stomach and doing a curl-like thing with legs (80 then 70) 2x5 leg lifts, 2x10 each on mid/in/out calves on leg press (90 lbs) and 1x10 bench press (55 lbs) - would've done more, but I had to run off to voice lessons. Iced knees when I got home for a while.

was late to practice because of solo&ensemble after school today, but i hurried really fast and made it in time to warmup to coach's room (to get my spikes) and back and come in on everybody else's 2nd repeat (while i was doing my first). ran pretty well overall - we did 5x1000m repeats with a 400m jog recovery in between. my goal pace was to get around low 3:40s. they were AWESOME!!!!

1 - 3:38 - good time, i felt kinda fast, but it wasn't too hard, there was a bit of wind though

2 - 3:36 - still feeling great, a titch tired but not enough to slow me down at all

3 - 3:36 (again!) - getting way under pace and feeling awesome, legs a bit tired, but almost halfway, pushed really well against increasingly hard wind - i had to close my eyes to avoid getting turf bits and dust in my eyes - yuk.

4 - 3:33 ! - wore my spikes and sped up even more, kept my split times down where i liked them and pulled in a great (way under pace) time. wind was really hard and it started to rain at the end.

5 - 3:33 (again!) - tired, but i pushed it hard to keep my time where i wanted it, in spikes still, left knee a bit of trouble, but now bad

 great workout overall! i'm so elated!! woohoo. 3/4 mile cooldown on big grass loop with jeff frodsham, josh decker, eric goold and alex baker

Morning run, 2x on track warmup, then Arctic Circle (3) with ALLY (she has a blog too)(and has lucky teeth). Anyway, we went pretty fast, the first half I was really tired and wanted to go slow but Ally was pushing it more, so I went with her. I finally got into the run on the way back and it went pretty well and I ran fast. During the run I was trying to run with higher knees to see if it helped me run faster and easier. I felt good for the most part, used some different muscles so it was a little more tiring than just running faster w/o higher knees

After school at practice, 2x on track warm up. We ran AT Dogpound (4) , the first 1/2 mile was warming up, then the last 1/2 mile was cooling down. middle  mile times were alright: 6:39, 6:20, 6:47. slower than last week, but yesterday's workout was harder. while running, my legs were so tired, left knee hurting a bit esp. on the downhill (mile 2).

Warmup 2x on track, then easy 4.26 miler with Jeff, Josh, Zac Zabriskie and Nikki Johnson since we have a meet tomorrow. calves kind of tight, ran faster than i probably should've for an easy run (7:46 avg.), since my legs are dead, but i really didn't want to go slow. knees bugged me a bit, esp. left, iced them when i got home.

Goals for Friday and Saturday's meet (here at PV!):

3200m - break 12 minutes (and qualify by time for state, definitely)

1600m - low 5:20's (and qualify by time for state, definitely)

800m - not die. mid-high 2:20's (possibly qualify...i hope)

Warmed up with the team (.5 on track) then warmed up later for the 1600m (.75 on track). Meet started a bit late so I ended up warming up too much too soon, no fun. Race was alright, I pushed well on my middle laps, but we didn't get splits for our races at all because our coaches were busy running/hosting the meet. During the race there was a headwind along the home straightaway and a bit of the curves leading into and coming out of it as well. On the other straightaway, you couldn't even feel it pushing behind you. Oh man! It was a hard race, I was really tired throughout, I thought I was pushing, but when I'd give a little surge to pass someone or something I realized I had more to give even though my legs felt sore and tired. Kind of frustrating. (time 5:30) Only got beaten by a 5A girl and a 4A girl (fastest was 5:24) Sad that I didn't get my goal of qualifying, but I can do it next time!!!!   Cooled down once around track.

Today's events were the 3200m and then the 800m.

Woke up late (8:20) and threw on my uniform and sped to the HS for the meet which started at 9:00 (the 3200m was the first event). I didn't get breakfast except for 1/4 of a piece of bread as I drove to the meet. I ended up having plenty (mostly) of time to warmup (2x on track) and stretch for the race. Before the race, we did a cheer of "We love 8 laps, woohoo!" The race was amazing!! Not too many elbow wars at the start (which was nice) and I felt pretty strong the whole time. I remembered to push laps 5-7 even though I was getting pretty tired, stuck about 15 feet behind the 3-girl pack leading the race most of the time, but lost them on the 7th lap. Kicked it hard my last lap (it is so exhilarating to only have one more after the seemingly endless 7 other ones) and got a total time of 11:45.88 and qualified for state (by 17 seconds!) and met my goal by a long shot!!!

Warmed up with a big grass loop (.75) then signed in at the bullpen and did agilities (left knee hurt a lot doing high skips and high knees) and warmed up more with the other girls running the 800m (Ally & Nikki). The race wasn't that great, my legs were out of juice from running the 3200m so hard. The start was no good, they did a waterfall start instead of a staggered waterfall and we had too many girls trying to push to the front the whole first 100m. The official lined us up in our lane order, so I had to be in lane one and got clobbered at the start, which didn't help my race out at all. Overall didn't do so hot, just out of juice. Oh well. I'm kind of frustrated with the 800m this year, I did really well at it in previous years, but this year I'm really struggling to do well at it. Maybe I'll get into it later in the season...? Time was 2:31.65 ( .3 seconds faster than last week...) no fun and frustrating, didn't meet my goal at all.

After cleaning up after the meet, I went on a easy-middling 5-miler from the HS (Bank run), knee was a little hurty after the first couple of miles. I am a little disappointed that I didn't make it to a 40-mile week (by .8 miles) this week. I just wasn't counting during the week, or I would've run a 6-miler instead. Shucks.

Work harder at practice!!!

Morning run with Ally, 800m warmup then a little stretching, then Arctic Circle. Avg. pace, Ally's calves were sore and I stuck with her, we stopped at the turnaround for her to stretch, my knee was mostly fine, but after the first mile it hurt on and off the rest of the run.

Afternoon practice, warmed up 2x on track, did agilities (doing butt kicks and high skips made my knee hurt so I only did them on my right side) and stretched as a team. Then we did a big grass loop warmup for our speed work. We did 2 sets of 5x200m repeats at 800m pace with 100m jog between each rep as recovery. Goal pace was 36 sec. (for a 2:24 800m):

*First set: 34, 35, 36, 35, 34. Didn't really know how fast to run for a 200m, so I didn't do a good job of keeping my times consistent. All were at or below goal pace though.

*Second set: 33, 36, 35, 35, 33. Wore my spikes for this set, so my first one was out of control! I didn't know I was running that fast, then I tried pulling back a bit for the next one and did it a little too much. 4&5 I was happy with keeping them consistent, then coach told us to get our fastest time on our last, so I went all out and tied with my fastest one.

After, I lifted, 3x10 of leg extensions (7), leg curls (10), lat pulldown (3) and in/out/mid calves (90). extensions hurt my knee so I decided not to do them anymore. 2x10 of squats (95), bench (55), back & abs (10). Pretty tiring, then I went out and did a 2 mile cooldown (DI loop), just to get my legs moving after workout and lifting. Iced knee when I got home.

Well I just finished typing this run up and my computer died, so here goes again.

Warmup (.5 like always) agilities and stretches. AT run on Dogpound as usual... except I forgot my watch, so I borrowed coach's and it only tells time, so I approximated the middle 3 miles' time to be around 19:45 (avg. 6:35/mile). Not bad for such a windy day, though the wind was at my back for the first 2 timed miles so they were ultra-fast. The last AT mile was so hard: it was chilly, the wind was against me, it was uphill, my knee was hurting and i was panting the whole way! Overall, I felt like I worked hard and had a good workout today. When I got home, I iced my knee for a while.

Morning, warmup and stretches then Arctic Circle with Allie. Really slow, I felt totally crappy the whole way out. It was really cold and knee...blah blah blah. Finally the last 3/4 mile or so I felt a bit better, so I picked it up a little.

Afternoon, couldn't go to practice because of Region Vocal S&E, so once we performed, Allie and I went out for a run in Hurricane. Pretty cold out still, warmed up on their track, then we ran out 2.5 and back. It sprinkled a titch on our way out, 1.5 in my knee blah blah blah, we got to run through a peach orchard, just for the heck of it. Right when we turned around to go back, it started winding and raining a lot on us. Very cold, the stinging kind. We went through the orchard again and it was fun!! Running in the rain through an orchard! That is so cool. Period. And we ran over a wooden bridge. And saw horses. Yeah. Rained a little more the rest of the way back. We ran really slow, just enjoying our run and letting tired legs rest.

Oh, and I thought that I had a pebble in my shoe in the middle of the heel after about mile two, but when I finished and went to take it out, I discovered that a stick (presumably from the orchard) had stabbed through the entire rubber heel of my shoe and almost punctured my insole. I tried to pull it out from the bottom, but it broke off, so I spent a long time trying to push it out with the end of a hanger. Unsuccessful. I did get the ends shorter, so it won't poke me anymore and decided to give up. (any more ideas on how to get it out?)

Goals for tomorrow:

1600m - STATE QUALIFYING! Give it all I've got!!!

800m - better than freaking 2:31. mid to high 2:20's!!! Ditto to that last part!!!

3x on track warmup for 1600m, wore Allie's spikes for the race since I lost mine after practice on Monday. There was a fall in the first 50m, so we had to re-start and that was no fun since I had gotten a better start on the first one. I planned out my lap splits to be 1:18, 2:40(1:22), 4:04(1:24) and 5:24(1:20). I got all of them right on, except for my last one, which was 5 seconds slower than anticipated. Mostly really frustrated because I was so close on all my times and then I blew it on my last freaking lap.  argh.

Big grass loop warmup for 800m, w/Allie's spikes again.  I was aiming for a 1:11, 1:17 on it, but my last lap was slower and I got 2:29 or 30. At least it wasn't 2:31, but I still think I should be doing better. I feel like all my 800 times this year are sucking and it used to be one of my best events and I'm really frustrated because I feel like I'm putting tons into track this year and not doing as well as last year.

So that's why I decided that I wanted to do the Medley relay too. We got together a team really quickly and ran it and won it, even though my split was 2:32 and I felt like it was slower since my legs were dead.

Then coach suggested I run the 3200m as well and pace Ally. So I did, but I guess I was a sucky pacer since we totally missed the time we were going for (12:40) getting a 13:07 or something. Surprisingly, after that I run I felt much better and wanted to do the 4x400 with Ally, but there wasn't any room in the race for us.  My knee has been acting oddly, only actually hurting occasionally, but just feeling really stiff and weird after about half of my race and after as well. It's kinda odd and I have no idea what the heck it's doing down there. Probably throwing a techno rave with strobe lights and stuff. Man.

Morning run at my house, .25 mile warmup, then ran from Whipple Ct. out to 2450 and back (3), pushed it a little just to get my legs moving, they're sore from yesterday's craziness. On the hill right at the end, I usually pick it up and go hard up the hill, but my legs were so drained that my push was not very effective. Then .25 cooldown back to house.

Aftn at the school by myself again, ran .5 warmup on small grass loop, then ran the bank run (my favorite!) I didn't really feel like taking it easy, every time I'm not satisfied with a race, all I want to do is run really fast on workouts, but because coach said to, I tried to keep it easy and slow. I did sprint past the sign that clocks your speed and got it up to 14 mph, just for fun. Knee was stiff most of the run, the last mile, it started to hurt more and not just under my kneecap, but on the outsides like it was in a vice or something, mostly achy and no fun. Frustration.

Later, I went and bought some spikes from the running store that I'm not quite sure I like but I'll try them out on a track with spikes actually in them and then see if I like them. If not, I'll get some different ones. I was also wondering if a brace of some sort would help my knee feel any better.

Long run at my house, .25 warmup to Whipple Ct. then lots of stretching, then ran out into Bloomington on Brigham Rd. past Man-o-war bridge and back on the trail to Vermillion and back to Whipple ct. (8 miles) then .25 cooldown back home. Still didn't want to run slow, but legs still tired so I gave in. Legs were good until about mile 3, then knee started getting stiff and achy with occasional sharp pains as I went on. Right knee bugged me a bit in miles 4&5, but not bad at all. I did pick up the pace a bit on the 6th mile and ran it in about 7:25 or something. Avg. 8:02 min/mile. Knee was a titch swollen when I finished, so ice and ibuprofen when I got done.