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

I was so exhausted from this last week that I slept 14 hours straight last night! (6:45 pm - 8:45am) I guess I really needed it.... I've forgotten the last couple of days to put in my pushups and crunches: Thursday - (40, 80) and Friday - (41, 82)! Pretty soon I'll be up to 50/100!

Well, I went on an experimental 3-miler (summit light) from my house. (43, 88 - lost track of those...) Knee felt a titch achy on the .5 warmup, but easy enough to run through. About a mile into the run it was feeling pretty hurty and continued the rest of the run. But it does feel ok when I run uphill, so maybe I'll just run uphill the rest of the season. Ice. (Alchemy 128.4)

This afternoon at practice (44, 88), we did some firestation hills. I don't really know how far or fast I ran since I seem to have misplaced my watch again. (But I'm putting it in as 7 because Decker's blog says that Jeff said it was about 7.5  and I didn't do as many hills.) We ran out to the firestation hill, I ran 7 of them and ran back around the Telegraph way. I've found that I am VERY out of shape after taking time off. Out of breath most of the time, not used to the heat anymore and overall crap-for-crap. (DST 185.2)

My knee still sucks, so I'm just going to run through it and deal with it - I'm going to a physical therapist tomorrow, so I hope that'll help. Also, I talked to our school's athletic trainer and he looked at it and thinks it's some sort of tendinitis in the tendon base of my hamstrings, or something like that. Tendinitis sucks. Icey icey.

Morning arctic circle w/ 2x track warmup. Took it reasonably fast - 7:31, 7:29 and 7:05. Knee hurt lots from the get-go and got steadily worse the whole run. Yuk. Angry face. (Alchemy 131.9)

This afternoon, I went to a physical therapist to see what he could do about my knee's issues. He basically said a similar thing as the trainer yesterday - my lower hamstring is inflamed and causing tendinitis there - so he 'therapy-ed' it, did some exercises, massage stuff, stretching and such. He taped my feet and my hamstring and told me to only run until it hurt, then stop, stretch, ice and be done for the day. But he says it's ok to start doing some cross training on a bike, so I'll do that to at least get some aerobic work in. At practice, I ran the warmup and halfway through it was hurting lots already, so I just finished up and didn't do the rest of practice. (45, 90) (DST 185.7)

At PT today I got to do the elliptical for .75 miles. Whoopee. Rhett says I can 'beat it up' (referring to my hamstring) at the race on Saturday, so I guess that means I have the OK to race in Vegas!

This evening, I rode my stationary bike for some fartleks. Warmed up 2 miles, then did a fartlek pyramid of 1 min. hard/easy, 1 min., 2, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1 (all of these minutes being hard, then easy of that amount of time). Biked a total of 8.8 (5.4 hard) miles during the workout, then I did a 2 mile cooldown. Knee was pretty good most of the time, had a couple of hurty times - by the end it was getting pretty tired out. I'm just going to not count biking or swimming miles.

Started out with a little experimental jog around the track until my knee started hurting, so I actually ran a whole whopping .25 miles today. Then biked the Foremaster run (6 miles). And man, those hills give the quads a burn! And I got going SO fast on the way down! Last mile knee was getting pretty sore, so maybe I'll avoid going up that industrial road at the end of the ride next time.

After PT I squeezed in 3 easy miles on the stat. bike before I hurried off to our team night. I don't think my butt will handle sitting on a bike much longer. Ouch! Knee still pretty sore. I'm excited, but kinda scared for the race tomorrow. Goals: 1- Not die 2- Top ten 3- Break 20:00. Cross fingers.

Well, we were supposed to have a race in Vegas, but the bus died, so that didn't work out, which was very disappointing. Then, I was going to go on a nice, long bike ride, but I decided against it since my butt is getting increasingly sore from our bikes' hard saddles.

So, instead, I went swimming. Man, do I suck at swimming! I did a total of 32 lengths/16 laps for a nice 800 yd. workout doing mostly front crawl w/a little backstroke thrown in. I probably could've done more, but on the last couple laps my knee was getting hurty (wow, it really gets old saying that), so I stopped at 16.

AM - Ran on track until it hurt - 1 lap. Biked backwards Hospital run, got a reasonably ok workout in for once. (DST 186)

PM - (47, 94) Biked backwards Foremaster as a warmup for my repeats this afternoon. At about halfway, knee started acting up and was sore the rest of the way. Drove home and did 3x2 mile repeats (since it takes about the same amount of time to bike that as to run 1 mile) on my stat. bike. Times were 5:50, 5:42 and 5:30. I really felt like this actually gave me a workout and it went pretty well, though the knee was/is still lame-o. And I used some bike shorts this time, so my butt didn't get quite so badly beat up. I biked a total of 21.4 miles today!

While biking the WF 8 this morning, I almost died a couple of times! I just couldn't see much in the very darkfulness- I barely swerved in time to miss biking straight into a 'road work ahead' sign, then I couldn't tell that the lane of road I was using ended abruptly with a half foot drop to dirt and bushes, so by the time I knew, I was down the drop and into the bushes! And cars are scary! So, I need to be more careful. And get a headlight.

Did elliptical for .4 today at PT. Knee bugging me much this afternoon and I'm feeling quite sickly - eew yuk. No bike this afternoon. Bleh. (48, 96)

Sick nasty. Lost 5 lbs. Woo-hoo.

Still underweight, weak and sick-ish today, but I ditched the last couple minutes of 4th to go see how running felt on the knee - did 2 whole laps on the track and it actually felt mostly normal!!! Then went to some PT and Rhett gave me the ok to start up training again as long as it feels ok. (And no more PT unless it starts sucking again!) I am SO EXCITED!!!! And I get to race tomorrow (at Murray) and the next day (at Provo)! Yippee!!! (Alchemy 132.4)

Not the greatest of races. Pretty much I'm way out of shape. Knee felt mostly good during the race, so that was a plus, but I don't think I did as well as I could've in some ways. Of course not being able to breathe and not having eaten all that much lately since I'm still trying to shake off a flu probably didn't help matters much. But it's just frustrating knowing that I should've been so much faster had I not had to take all this freaking time off. Argh. (DST 187) (DD spike 9.1)

On the plus side, though, I've found that from all my cycling cross-training I've done, my quads are invincible. Not quite... but they didn't even burn at all pushing up all the hills, it was pretty sweet.

Legs very stiff today. Ran an extended warmup and stretched lots with the girls, knee was kinda hurty during warmup and stretches before the race. Right at the start knee was bugging me and it niggled at me during the whole race, so I think I let it get to me when I got tired out in the middle portions. (won't happen again!) Also, I don't think I pushed it as hard as I could've, especially the second half of the first mile and first half of the second mile when I kinda lost confidence. My last mile, though, I think I pushed quite well.

After the race, I was pretty frustrated (p.o.ed) and took off to contemplate my suckiness in solitude for a while, then slapped myself and got what positive encouragement I could out of it. Then I ran a really slow mile and a bit cooldown around the block. Knee pretty sore. And legs a lot sore. (Alchemy 134.9) (DD spike 12.2)

AM: 3 on arctic circle mostly easy - 7:35 pace or so, I still feel so out of shape, way sore and sick, so it wasn't the most triumphant morning ac run I've done by any means. knee blah. (DST 190.5)

PM: Grass loop warmup and such, (49, 98 - tomorrow I'll make my goal of 50/100!!!!) DI loop warmup, then pyramid grass-loop workout: 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1000, 800, 600. Had a kinda odd attitude today, which helped me do well on the first couple, but the later middle ones (namely the 1200 and second 1000) were lacking. And felt pukey sick nasty most of the time. Eew. Times: 2:04, 2:54, 3:17, 4:43, 3:21, 2:49 and 2:04. Knee was better than I'd expected, but worse than I'd hoped. Legs are pretty haggard from starting up from almost nothing with 2 races and speedwork, ow. (Alchemy
141.4)

Today I did 50 PUSHUPS!!!! And 100 CRUNCHES!!!! YEAH! Then I ran slow Foremaster run with Annie and Alise. 9:17/mi avg. Felt like I was on the edge of puking the entire run, like something was stuck in my throat and trying to come up. Yuk. (DST 197)

Later, I went and got a massage from April (Bundy? I think?). Steve H. arranged it for me to see if it would help my hamstring/knee issues out. It was amazing how much tighter and out-of-whack my left leg's muscles were compared to my right! I almost died when she was working out some issues in my hamstring and quad, but now - after the fact, it feels so loose and good. If it keeps being an issue she says I can just call her up any Saturday to get a deeper massage to keep fixing it. And she wants to give me a massage the week before State. Wow. Today has been the most relaxing ever.

Goals for tomorrow's race: break 19:00 and WIN!

Ran a nice easy/asleep summit light run to loosen up this morning. Knee felt really good for the first 2 miles, but the last one it was getting sorer - but not horrid at all!! Felt nice to run in the cool morning by myself and just relax. (Alchemy 144.4)

The race was pretty unorganized, first we thought the girls went first, so we warmed up, then they told us boys were first, so we just stretched slow, then they told us we were starting 5 minutes after the boys since it was a one-loop course, so we hurried over to the start w/o finishing stretches. Then some school's boys totally missed their race, so the officials were going to start those boys a minute before all us girls, then when they shot the gun for them, they told us girls to go with them when we weren't expecting it at all and they hadn't told us we were going with the boys - they'd said the exact opposite! So the start was really crappy and late. Weird.

Then the course was pretty crazy! It went out in the dirt desert on some 4-wheeler trails or something, with some intensely steep hills (up and down - ow) and the whole race there was tons of wind (mmm...sand...yummo). The race itself actually went reasonably well, I still think I could've pushed better in a couple of places when I let myself settle and my hamstring almost died on all those hills, but overall not bad. And I won!!! Got one of my two goals for the race, since my time was 19:09. Dern. (DD spike 15.9)
 

I was so tired out yesterday that I fell asleep w/o setting my alarm last night! So no morning run for me today.

At practice this afternoon, we did a fun run out to chuck-a-rama with an ice cream stop at Arctic Circle on the way back. Yum! (Though my belly really didn't like running on ice cream in the middle of a run. And they wouldn't refill my cone after I emptied it - darn it!) Ran out kinda quick w/ Holt and Trevor, then I ran slower back as my knee was being pretty sore again. Argh. (Alchemy 149.1)

I got to sleep in 'til 6:15 this morning!!! It was amazing - I got 7 whole hours of sleep!!! Then at practice I did Dogpound AT by myself. It actually went really well and felt good - yay for cool weather! Half mile splits for the AT section were: 3:23, 3:13, 3:01, 3:00, 3:08 and 3:13. So the mile splits were 6:36, 6:01, and 6:21. Looking back on my track season's AT runs, these were actually really good times comparatively - first mile was slow-ish, but my second two are the fastest I've EVER run them! I'm pretty stoked about today's run - it really felt awesome (with the exception of some knee issues on the last mile and half). (DST 201.5)

Ditched the pep assembly to go run before our choir retreat, (50, 100) ran easy AC and boy did it feel awful. Kinda depressing that I felt so crummy after such an amazing morning run, but I think it had a bit to do with being starved and dehydrated. Ran around 8:20 pace. (Alchemy 152.6)

Drove down early from Pine Valley to run the race, I'd gotten a little less than 2 hours of sleep, so during the race I was basically running on pure adrenaline and a cookie. Warmed up with the team a bit over a mile, stretched and lined up for the race - hoping to win it, esp. since they give good prizes for overall winner. My race strategy the whole race was to stay with Erica Schramm (who beat me at this race last year) and out-kick her at the end, however, she was just a titch faster the whole race and increased the gap between us by a slight margin over the course of the race. So she beat me. Dang it.

I did run a good race overall, though, beating last years' time of 19:31 by 34 seconds, so that was satisfying. Also, had I gotten more sleep and been less sore (my right calf esp. has been sore since last Friday) and worn out from yesterday's AT workout, I think I would've done a bit better. Cooled down barefoot a bit less than a mile after racing, then drove back up to Pine Valley - yippee. And that DD spike is not my favorite at all. And my legs are kinda (really) hammered from going from three 10-15 mile weeks in a row to a 40 mile week. (DST 202.8) (DD spike 19)

Freaking early AC run (I woke up at 4:37 - that's not natural!), it was actually pretty chilly out today! Finally. Ran an extra warmup around the school trying to find an open door so I could use the potty. I finally found a port-o-john by the tennis courts. Run went ok, the running was mostly good, but the knee hated me lots so that was discouraging. 7:37/mi avg. (Alchemy 156.4)

"Mile" repeats for today's workout, after all the warmup and stuff (50, 100 - I'm going to stay there for the rest of the season) we ran down to the industrial loop and did the less-than-a-mile loop 4x. I died. They went so:

1- 5:13, feeling good, excited to run mile repeats (heaven only knows why), felt really strong and comfortable.

2- 5:16, well I thought I pushed it harder on this one than #1, but apparently not. It was pretty discouraging.

3- 5:23, ouch. How pathetic am I? I swear I pushed just as hard as #2 and harder than #1, yet I still got a totally lame time. Argh.

4- 5:20, this last one probably would've been slower had I not severely needed a potty break, so I got a longer recovery before doing this one, then did it by myself.

Ran back to HS w/ Jac. I'm trying to not let this sucky workout get me down. My knee was pretty lame, esp. at the start of all of the repeats. Overall, I think I pushed really hard on this workout even though the numbers don't really show a great workout. Mark (our HS trainer) said he'd tape my hammy somehow tomorrow to try and make it feel better. We'll see. (DST 208.6)

Went out at freaking early again (cold!) and ran to the summit light and back - I really like that run! Concentrated on keeping my shoulders and arms relaxed, esp. on uphills, not favoring my left leg and pushing the second half of all miles. No watch, but it felt fast and good. (DST 211.6)

Mark taped my leg right before practice, so I was a bit late and had to hurry through warmup, stretches and exercises (50,100) and neglected agilities. Went long today out on the river 8-miler, my goal was to keep it around/slightly under 8:00/mi avg. which I managed kinda with an avg. of 8:02/mi. Guys started before us, so it was hard-ish at the beginning with nobody around, then I caught up to Jeff and it was really nice to run with him until he stopped for a drink, then I caught Willy, but he was too chagrined to be caught by a girl and sped up like crazy when I started running with him. Ha! Then I passed some people who had done the 6 miler! Ha again! Really good run today, worked hard keeping the last mile on the industrial road uphill faster - 8:20-ish. I'm not really sure if the tape helped at all, it felt basically the same, but I'm going to leave it on for a day or so and see if anything improves. (Alchemy 164.9)

Did my morning run during the last of 5th and the first of 6th period since I accidentally slept in (until 5:37 ha). So I ran AC at around 10:30am, basically my legs are pretty tired out from yesterday's run - I haven't run 8 miles straight since July 5! "What the X?!" So 8:10/mi avg and my left ball of the foot is still bruised from running Richfield & Swiss Days in the XC spikes. Ouchie. (Alchemy 168.4)

Afternoon run, when I was stretching, I think I stretched my hammy too much and it hurt more on the run. Angry face. AT Dogpound, legs still pretty beat, sore and tired, times weren't horrid, but not as great as last week's - 6:28, 6:21, 6:35. Ran most of it with or around Jeff, he way helped me push on that last mile up the hills. Good workout, though not great. (DST 216.1)

Accidentally fell asleep on the living room floor and slept there all night 'til 6am so I didn't get in my morning run or finish my homework. I'm all sore from sleeping in odd positions - ouch. This afternoon, we did an easy 4 - running the warmup loop plus 2450 3.5-miler, but it was .25 short, so I ran around to finish up. Avg. 7:45/mi. Felt relatively good. (Alchemy 172.9)

Goals for tomorrow: break 18:50 and win! 

Got up around 5:30 and ran easy easy easy slow 1.55 miles around BH to loosen up. (Alchemy 174.5)

Warming up and such was kind of weird, it took forever to round up all the ladies and get going, so the first 5 minutes of my warmup was just jogging in place waiting for them. Finally, we ran around 3/4 mile or so, stretched, prayed and got to the start. I really feel like I ran a pretty good race today, instead of going out and settling into a pace like normal, I just went out and pushed hard hard and kept pushing the pace the whole first two miles. I almost died the last half mile, but I made it to the finish, ran a good time and legs were satisfactorily dead afterwards. (Though that Spanish Fork girl passed me up, dern.) (DD spike 22)

Cooled down a mile and a quarter or so - first bit w/Annie. I'm pretty happy with today's race, not just how I did, but how the rest of the team did! Almost our whole team PR-ed by a lot, it was really great to see those ladies improving now as it's all coming together as the season's coming to a close. Sweet! And lighting the PV w/ the whole XC team at half time of the Homecoming football game was most excellent, especially the pyrotechnics! (DST 218.1)

I was planning on going long early this morning before our 9am choir rehearsal and all the Homecoming dance activities today, since the guys said we wouldn't be doing anything before 9am. However, they 'surprised' us by waking us up at 6am to go have breakfast (except I was already awake). So, I was kind of (a lot) mad at them. Because the only time I had after that to go run was right before the dance, when I would've liked to have been getting all ready and nice-looking for the dance. Argh.
So I ran a 6-miler then and only had 45 minutes to shower and do my hair and such. Curse inconsiderate boys. However, my run went pretty well and it was perfect out (even at 5pm!), ran really easy (8:30's) at the start to let my tired legs recover from yesterday's race, then picked up the pace a little bit (7:30's) toward the last couple of miles. (Alchemy 180.8)