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

After a tropical summer, I forgot that rain is COLD here! So I froze on my run. It felt like my 2-hour run lasted forever! Three times I got really freaked out when the power lines right next to me crackled and sparked blue right before a huge burst of thunder came. I was sure I was done for... but no electrocution for me, thank goodness! Cold cold cold! My cold was almost gone before this run, but I guess this'll prolong it. Now for some hot cocoa to make it all better. Avg. 7:57/mi. (GT 130)

Besides the painful rash(es) I've been dealing with, this morning's run was awesome. Ran out on to the river trail and on it a ways, then back. A bit chilly to begin with, but my legs felt great and quick the whole run w/o pushing at all.  Avg. 7:48/mi. (GT 137.8)

Good times! Today's workout was awesome! Especially compared to last week's speed work on Monday. So, for our workout, we ran out to a park and did some grass repeats - 12x400m in 3 sets of 4. Woo! First set, GP- 1:30 w/1:00 recovery, next set GP- 85-87 sec w/63-65 rec, and last set GP- 80-83 w/97-100. Our times were pretty consistent and we stayed together pretty well throughout. Oops on #1, but the first set was really pretty easy: 1:32, 1:30, 1:28, 1:28. After our 4:00 break, we did the next set - still not too bad and just cruisin' with everybody: 1:25,1:25, 1:25, 1:23. The last set was a bit harder and my heartrate didn't slow down much between repeats, but it felt good and we had some great times: 1:17, 1:18, 1:17, 1:16. Really a fun workout and a confidence boost. Then we ran back to the training room and did abs and stretched and ice bathed and all that good stuff. I love college! (GT 141.8) (DD spike 58.6)

Planned out my time wrong, so I only ended up getting 50 minutes of my  run in before our weight circuit this afternoon. I really should go to bed earlier. (Doh!) I ran around up 15th N and onto the Bonneville Shoreline trail for a bit, then back to my dorm the long way. It only ended up being 6.1 miles, but I'm planning on 20 or so minutes later this evening to make up for my mistake with timing earlier. Hopefully. (GT 147.9)

At around 9:30pm, Bryan Janson came with me on a fun, eventful run around town! We'd both never seen the Logan Temple, so we ran there and walked around for a while. A couple minutes into the run back home, my guts killed me! Less than a half-hour before the run, I drank 2 big glasses of chocolate milk and ate some blonde brownies. They were good then, but not later on! My guts were churning so badly that I couldn't even run w/o losing it. So we walked about a half mile to the nearest public restroom. That was the longest half-mile walk of my life! Once that was over, we ran back up the hill to campus, up Old Main hill (by stair), across campus and through the cemetery back to my dorm. It was really fun and relaxing. We ended up going a bit farther than I meant to, though... about 4.3 miles. Good times, though. (GT 152.2)

Easy 45 minute run with a 5:00 push at 6:57/mi pace. Just cruised and ran comfy. Out on 12th and back to the training room to stretch and ice. Legs are a bit stiff from a couple crazy running days and biking everywhere, but hopefully tomorrow I'll be hunky-dory! (GT 157.7)

This course sucked!! Three laps of the same exact loop = no fun at all. Plus the course was long, so times were slow for everybody. But aside from those rather inconvenient facts, the race was good. Not amazing, not bad, just reasonably good. I think I could've run faster by quite a bit, since I just kept cruising along and only pushed it hard a couple times. So, I'm going to do better on that front next time - most definitely! And it was super awesome to see all the PV team and goof off with friends at the meet! Oh, and I got 4th on my team and our team got 4th (almost 3rd - by one point), so not bad there either. (GT 161.2) (DD spike 61.7)

I was so freaked out for today's run after last night's email, but it turns out that Coach made a mistake and wrote 7-6-7 for our paces when that's what the BOYS were doing. We did 8-7-8 and that was awesome. 

So, we warmed up out and around the temple and back easy at avg. 8:10/mi pace (4.2 miles), then took a minute breather at the track. Then we did a 7:00/mi pace push section on the time-trial course for 30 minutes total (4.25). The push section went really well and we ended up being under 7:00 pace for all of the miles: 6:59, 6:59, 6:56, 6:47 and 1:43 for .25.  After another little breather, we cooled down out to the space lab and back a bit slow, avg. 8:20/mi pace, but ok (2.85). Tired out now. It was a good workout! (GT 172.5)

Relaxing morning run up the canyon on the river trail. Comfortable and excellent. Avg. 7:50/mi. (GT 180.1)

Awesome o-possum workout today! We did 6x800m grass loops and they were amazing. First 3, GP was 3:00, then 2:45-50 for the second set of three. The first set just cruised in and was easy: 3:00, 2:59, 2:55. Second set was a bit tougher, but still felt good and times were great: 2:45, 2:43, 2:43. Loved this workout lots and lots. And I love having a fast team! It's so fun to run with girls all the time and to have people faster than me to make me want to be even better. Yay college! (GT 183.5) (DD spike 64.7)

Tired and sore, but a good relaxing easy run.  Went on a new-ish route around on the canyon road. Avg. 8:02/mi. Weights after the run were hard - we did double the circuit. I'm gonna be super super sore tomorrow! (GT 191)

Legs are sore today. But the run was good and fun with the team. We ran out on the canal trail a ways and back with a couple of push sections thrown in. This dog kept running with us and would not stop for 15 minutes or so, it was way funny, at least once I realized it wasn't going to bite me! Fun team run. (GT 197.2)

First off, I'm an idiot. Somehow I thought that 100 minutes was 2 hours and would be about 16-17 miles. Yeah... and I'm supposed to be good at math. Hmmm. Anyway, I now know that 120 minutes is 2 hours. Hopefully coach won't be mad that I ran a bit extra.

Jon, Cody and Paul picked me up and we met up with some of Jon's work people and drove up to the start line of the TOU marathon course and ran down Blacksmith Fork canyon. The first bit was pretty cold, but it warmed up and was comfy by the end. It was definitely a fun run with the guys. I love going along with fast people, they make it feel so easy! Thanks guys for an awesome run and for slowing down enough that I could keep up. And thanks to Jon's work for supplying breakfast afterwards. Also, I'm glad that both my lungs are still intact, though I think I was pretty close to coughing one up a couple times.... Avg. 7:09/mi. (GT 214.2)

(I don't really know if these miles should count as 'fast' or 'slow' because they weren't meant  to be fast, but lots of them were as fast as Monday's tempo section. I'll just stick them in as slow miles since they were supposed to be slow, long-run miles.) 

This week will be about the same as last week, different repeats on Wednesday (maybe) and a race at Montana State University on Saturday! This race is the last one where everyone on the team runs, so it's an important one - as long as I can hold on (or close) to my 4th spot, I should be good.... 

My hamstrings are still sore and tight from Saturday's run! So, that made the run today more exciting... or something. We did a similar workout to last Monday, just a tad shorter and different places. As the warmup, we ran to Coach Reeder's house. Then we did a 5k loop push section and the last mile was uphill and it hurt! But other than that it was good and just cruised along. After a rest, some gatorade and almost coughing my lungs out, we ran back to the track. (GT 223.2)

Today was one of those days when you wake up and want nothing more than to sleep for another 8 hours. Eventually I got out of bed and dragged myself out the door for a run. Glad I did! I went exploring and found some awesome trails. First I went up 15th north to the Bonneville trail and went north on it until it ended, then I ran up the canyon in Kings Nature Park until I got to the Green Canyon Trail and ran on that a ways before I had to turn back to go home. Fun, nice and relaxing run. 7 miles. (GT 230.2)

Bryan and I randomly went on another night run! But this time I didn't gorge myself on junk food right before the run, so it went lots better. Around 11pm, we ran the Canyon Road loop with Old Main stairs and a coupla shortcuts. Kinda went crazy and ran through all the sprinklers we saw, even though it was only about 50 degrees outside! And we yelled out our battle cries while we froze in the water and crazy wind. Good times. 4.5 miles. (GT 234.7) 

Now that my hamstrings are almost back to their normal state, my glutes have decided to be the freakishly sore part of me. Yay. So, today's workout was uncomfortable, to say the least. We ran out to Elkridge park and did 12x400s in two sets. We did them at our 5k goal pace for the first set and a half, then ran fast on the last couple. I didn't get all our times, oh well. They were ok, I guess? Then we ran back to the track. Woo hoo. Another thrilling day of USU cross country practice. (GT 242.2)

Easy as PEASY! Loop run down 10th north onto main, then up 25th north onto 8th east until 12th north, then finally back onto 12th east and home. My butt is still super sore, no fun. Slow! (GT 250)

In the morning we did a little 15 minute shake-out run from our hotel. Super easy and comfy. 

In the evening, we ran around at the course of tomorrow's race for a while. Did a 5:00 push section just to get the legs moving. Later, once I got my new long spikes into my race shoes, I ran around the finish area for a bit, just to get the feel of them. Feeling good! Excited for the race tomorrow. (GT 257.7)

Goals for tomorrow's race: *Keep or improve upon my team place *18:00 or less *RACE it and make it hurt *No regrets

Great race today! Our team got 2nd of 13 teams, I placed first on my team, 8th overall (and got a spike bag, tshirt, socks and some stickers for my prize - yay!) and PRed. It felt awesome! Started out at just the right pace and held onto it, pushed in the right places and finished pretty well. I can still do better on pushing the second mile and starting my kick earlier, but I definitely improved on BYU's race, so I'm happy with it. And I definitely get to go to Notre Dame in two weeks for our next meet, woo hoo! After the race, we ran back to our hotel - about 4 miles. (DD spike 71) (GT 263.5)

Tired out today, I dunno why. Ran an easy long run with the team, out on the River trail and back to the track. And abs and pushups as always. Hamstrings and calves are tight, no fun. But I drank a whole cup of Powerade with 2.5 miles left in our run and I didn't get sick or a sideache! (GT 273.5)

And I got a letter in the mail from JeffF today! So awesome!

Slow easy run up on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail for a while and around the neighborhoods below. Not very eventful... I think I'm getting better at making sure my easy days are easy, though. (GT 280.5)

Sucky workout. We ran to the Lundstrom and did a half-hour of loops around the park - first 200m at 7:04/mi pace, then 6k pace for the rest. I did 11 total and felt crappy the whole time. After, we did two 45 second sprints, then ran back. Left knee is hurting like last xc season, just not that bad yet. Hopefully I can nip it in the bud this time. (GT 285.2) (DD spike 74)

Easy run after class ended this afternoon. Ran around first dam for a while, then up on the River trail for a bit until heading back home. Not a terrible run. Knee still bugging me, though. (GT 292.3)

Today's workout: 8:00/mi pace out to first dam, 7:00/mi pace section back to the track and finally 8:00/mi pace to the firestation and back. The middle tempo section went really well (6:43/mi avg pace for 4 miles) until the last half mile up 10th north where I lost the pack and dropped to 7:05/mi pace. Not awful times, though, especially for how I was feeling. The knee is bit worse than yesterday, still manageable though. (GT 301.7)

Mid-morning run out on 12th, then onto the canal trail for a while until I got half-done. Then I ran back to the training room and stretched and iced. First half of the run was pretty good, but the second half sucked - that's when the ibuprofen wore off. Oh well! Avg. 7:53/mi. (GT 311.9)

6x800s at Elkridge park. On the warmup out to the park, I felt pretty crappy. Once we got started on our 800's though, I got feeling better! The first set of 3 went by quick and just cruised along- 3:00, 2:54, 2:59. On the little ups and downs of the park, my knee was giving me some trouble. So for the last set, Caroline and I stayed on somewhat level ground and just did 3x3:00s, since we had no GPS. They were at around 2:45-2:50 (per 800) pace I'm guessing. After, I ran back pretty quick with Jessie and it felt good. Icey dicey after! (GT 319.2) (DD spike 77.1)

Random milestone of the day:

Today, my 2008 mileage total (1863.5) surpassed my 2007 mileage total (1856.5)! And it's only September... cool beans.

Jason and I randomly did our run for today at 12:45 am this morning! We just cruised around town and enjoyed the cool weather, empty roads and had a good time. Ended up going to bed at 2:30 am. Good thing my first class today is at noon! (GT 326.7)