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

Started off the morning with a chilly warmup, followed by a chilly steeplechase. It actually went really well, went out a bit fast but got into a good fast-ish pace, dug deep and pushed hard to the finish. And I got about the same time I ran last week but that was at sea level! Pretty happy about this race! Afterwards, I cooled down for about a mile - we ran around the zoo that's really close to  the track and I saw two giraffes, a zebra and some cool birds (just from the outside since we didn't pay dollars to get in).

A few hours later, I warmed up again. This time it was with Amberber and for about 2 miles as usual. When I checked in, I apparently wasn't registered, so I just ran in place of Aimee Haertel who wasn't there. Then we got ready and barely made it to our start for the open 3000m. Just went out with the leaders and cruised at a pretty constant pace, not very hard, just pushing a little. Passed up the leaders and took control with two laps to go, as I did so, the announcers were very excited that Haertel had taken over the lead. With about 30 meters to go, someone told them that I was Ruth Hilton, so then they called me my correct name finally. Funny stuff. My time was pretty slow - a 10:38, but I was really just going for the win and some experience doing a double, so it was a lot of fun! Overall, a great day of track and field (even though it was chilly and pretty dismal for most of the day). (K2 781) (L spike 24)

Coach decided to give Erin, Amberber and me another recovery day today since we'd all done more than a 1500 on Saturday. We just did an easy paced (well, to Erin, easy paced) hour long run. I'd warmed up a couple miles before that too. Then John convinced me to come to the fieldhouse and work out with him for a while, so I did many abs and core exercises and then made him run a 100/200/400 pyramid with me. He died so it made me feel a little better about myself. :) (K2 791)

At 9AM or so John wanted me to go workout with him, so I went with him and while he lifted heavy things, I ran for a four miles on my flat loop. Then we did abs together and I made him run a mile with me. After the mile, I did 20 more minutes and called it quits. My abs and back are pretty sore. And I have my first day of work today! Woo! (K2 799)

My back and abs and shoulders and everything is so sore from working for 6 hours yesterday plus all the exercises John and I have been doing. Eh. So I got up this morning and did not want to do our assigned workout for today... especially since I had no stopwatch of any kind, so I had to go to WalMart and get a $10 before doing my workout. Anyway. After all that, biking for a few miles and such, I warmed up for 12 minutes, then got started on our workout.

First set was 2x1000 @ GP 3:20-3:30 with ~3:30 recovery. Times for these were 3:24 and 3:26. Not bad considering my sore/tired-ness, though I was hoping to hit the low end of GP. 

Second set was 4x600 @ GP 84 for 400, then 1500 race effort for 200 with ~4:00 recovery. These were really hard. I could hit the pace for the 400 no problem, but only ended up going a tiny bit faster when I tried picking it up for the last 200. Anyway, times were (400/total) 82/2:02, 83/2:02, 82/2:01, 83/2:00.

Finally, the 3x300 @ GP 48-51 with ~2:30 recovery. Oh the slowness! I felt like I was going all out for the whole thing and I barely managed to hit 52, 52 and 51 for the set. Ow. I don't know where my speed went, but I want it back.

Overall, it was a quality workout, though I didn't feel super great during most of the reps. Cooled down on my two mile course, really slow, then called it quits for the day. More work tonight and a final tomorrow! Whee. (K2 802) (L spike 27)

After my final final, but before lunch with Prof. Bornholdt, I ran around on a nice easy 50 minute loop. Felt good. (K2 808)

Worked this morning from 10am to 2pm, then hurried on my bike over to practice and barely made it! Then Kim and I warmed up for a mile, then coach had me do the 5k/10k workout with her, instead of the steeple workout.

2000m - 800m @ 3:00, then 400m @ 1:20, then 800m @ 3:00 again, felt  hard and tired, probably from having minimal sleep and being on my feet at work all morning. Bleh. Recovery was a 1000 walk/jog.

1600m - each lap was 300 @ 1:06, 100 @ 20 seconds. Felt better than the 2000, partially because I wore my spikes on this one. Still feeling pretty fatiuged though. Recovery was another 1000 walk/jog.

1000m - ran at 1:30/400m pace for the whole thing, except for two pushes, each of us took off for 10 seconds at random once during the rep. Felt better, kind of a cool race simulation.  

Cooled down with a mile afterwards. (K2 812) (L spike 29) 

So tired this morning. John's parents got into town pretty late but we went to dinner with them anyway, then John and I stayed up even later after dinner. Ugh. Anyway, I slept kinda late considering the lateness. And, since we were going to go to breakfast with the parents before his graduation, I only gave myself minimal time to run. So, I just did a little 45 minute run. Easy but exhausted. (K2 818)  

Got from coach the final decision on what I'm running at WAC this weekend: 3000m steeple on Friday, then the 10,000m later that day and if I'm not comatose by then, then 5,000m on Saturday. Sounds like death! Whee. 

Today's workout wasn't too bad. Warmed up a mile, then we did a 2000m of 300/200 on/off (on at 5000 race effort), then had a 800 walk/jog recovery, did 3x300s @ GP 51-54 (times were 50, 52, 51), then another 800 walk/jog and finished it off with two laps of stride-the-straights, jog-the-curves. Cooled down another mile. (K2 821) (L spike 31)

Chilly, fun, crazy run in the rain this morning. Just ran up to the BST for a minute then ran back home. Then I did some abs and such at the fieldhouse and then ate food and headed off to work! (K2 827)

Got up early and did our workout before we left to Louisiana. Pretty easy and all that stuff. Whee. After 12 hours of total travel time, we arrived in Ruston, Louisiana and did a 10 minute shakeout. (K2 831)

Easy run today from the LA Tech track with the team, then ran back to the hotel from the track with Caroline. (K2 835)

Goals for tomorrow: Not die. Top 5 in both the 3k steeple and 10,000m. Not have to do the 5k on Saturday due to my excellence tomorrow.

Geez. What an exhausting day! It was really hot and humid before and during the steeplechase, then it was a little cooler but even more humid for the 10k. Before we warmed up for the steeple, we just sat around in the shade with ice bags under our armpits and on the back of our necks, trying to keep our core temperature down. That was fun. Then, about 20 minutes before race time, we warmed up for a few mintues, stretched out and did a drill or two and got on the line to race!

Steeplechase race - started off the first 200+ about 2-3 seconds fast,  relaxed a bit and ended up with Steph and Marissa for the first couple laps. I was feeling good and I was racing my plan, so I decided to pick it up a little and started making up ground on the next couple girls ahead of me. With 3 laps to go, I passed a non-teammate, then with 2 to go, I passed Alicia. On the last lap, I could see a NM girl ahead, but I couldn't get her. Took 4th place, Erin took 2nd.  Cooled down a few minutes after, then went back to the hotel to rest up for the 10k.

Our 10,000m ended up getting postponed for 2 1/2 hours because of a thunderstorm, we raced at 10:30 pm. The men's race right before ours got cut short (9 laps early) because of the thunderstorm and the coaches and officials decided to take the places as they were at that point! Not great because our guys had a "start off super slow and catch everyone at the end" plan, so they ended up in 3&4 when they probably would've been 1&2 in another few laps. Bummer, but what can you do? NCAA regulations are strange. So, I'm guessing that outcome made strategy go differently in our race.

10k race - warmed up a few minutes for the race, then Kim and I got on the line. It was so humid, I was pretty wet from the get-go, but they had people out to spray us down and to give us water during the race. My only real hope in this race was having a nice big pack stay slow for the first half or more, then being able to pick it up later and make it come down to the last 2-3k. That failed, probably due, in part, to how the men's race got messed up earlier. First lap went out really slow, then Flores, Lee-Painter and Kim took off from the pack after about 300m. Veseth peeled away next, then a three others soon after - all within the first three laps. So, there went the whole pack idea. Having never done a track 10k before, I didn't know how fast I could/should go, so I just tried to stick to a 6:05-6:10 pace. By 8 laps in, I was completely by myself, with almost 100 meters between me the the next girl (ahead of me or behind). So after that, I just tried to stick on pace (which had sagged to 6:20's or so). Tried a couple pushes with 10, 8, 6, 4 and 2 laps to go but there was no catching the next girl ahead. So I took a wonderful 8th place and scored 1 measly point for all that misery. Time was around 39:11, so nothing spectacular. My calves are totally thrashed. Cooled down with 2 laps, then I went home.

My legs were so thrashed from yesterday's Steeplechase and 10,000m races that I warmed up for the 5k and felt like my calves were broken. Still, coach wanted me to do it, so I started the race and it was pretty painful from the get-go. It felt like I was running mile race pace but I was just going 5k pace. I was in a good position race-wise for the first 4 laps, then my over-tired legs decided they weren't going to run fast anymore. Over the next few laps, many people passed me and I wanted to die. So, I gave the coach the "I'm dead and I want to drop out" signal and he nodded. I'd finished 8 laps. Eew. This weekend I raced a total of 40 and a half laps on that track. I hope to never do that triple ever again.

Took a few days off, I've just been working and hanging out with John. Today my legs felt not-thrashed and I wanted to go run. So I did! Went a bit longer than I'd planned, but it was fun overall. I ran along the canal trail to 19th north. While running, I saw a total of 54 ducklings! They are so freaking cute! Most of them (41) were tiny little guys, I wanted to take them all home with me. Anyway, I looped it around to 16th east and back home through campus. Felt good, though I was a bit tired by the end. I need new shoes. Muchly.

Went on a fun, crazy run with no watch around Logan town. Headed out planning on going up the canyon on the river trail, but when I got to the BST, I just wanted to do that. So I did! Had lots of fun just running fast and fun and going on adventures up crazy little trails and along the canal up there and up the mountain for a while. Then I ran back home by way of the BST again and through campus. Fun times. No idea how far it was.

Another fun run today! Planned on doing 25 minutes or so but ended up doing more, oops. I headed out by the temple, then down on the Canyon road and then up on the canal trail back up to my house. Fun stuff. I just love running whenever, wherever I want. 

Just did an easy 20+ minutes with John up on part of the flat loop. Most of the time I can't get him to run with me, so I was excited he came! I did notice that his speed was inversely proportional to the distance from the fieldhouse. Funny. Still, it was fun and a comfy run. After the run, I did lots of abs and he made me lift some heavy stuff with him. 

Legs are tired today, no idea why. But, I got the first summer training e-mail from coach yesterday so I got out and did a run. Went out on the flat loop and near the end did 5x30 second pushes at 800 effort. Not the greatest, but I got it done.