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

Wow. Race day. So cool!! Got to sleep in until 8 (UT time) and I'd slept SO soundly, it was great. We got to the race at around 9 (CA time) and we just meandered around, saw that Logan did pretty great (6th!), saw the Cedar girls and a bunch of people from BYU XC camp. From them, I found out that the real Mt. SAC course was closed! Horror of horrors! Yesterday, an Orem (I think) girl had slipped on the slick muddiness, cracked her skull and broken her arm, so that was why I wasn't allowed onto the course last night. Because the course was still really slick, they had switched the race onto their "rain course" that was totally paved. Shucks. The funny thing about this is that it just so happened that the rain course was exactly what I had run yesterday after trying to get onto the real course! Weirded out!

At 9:50, I warmed up on the course and a bit extra - about 2 miles, stretched and went to the start line. People numbered 1-40 got the first line, then we (41-80)were about a meter back and numbers over 80 were about a meter behind us. Made idle chat with people by me until it was finally time to go.

First mile I went way too fast. I'm not sure that I could've run any slower though, because if I had, I would've completely lost the entire pack. So my first mile was 5:38. Yeah. Way too fast. Next mile I was at 11:54 (6:16), so that mile had slowed down a lot. The last mile and .15 was even slower (6:47 pace), even though I thought I was picking it up. Oops. The crazy thing was there was always a milling mass of people around me, so it was really hard to tell where I was place-wise, especially since there weren't any big hills (as there should've been...frown) where you could tell at least a little where you were. Avg. min/mile for the race was 6:15 - so not great, but not awful. I'm so glad I went, though, it was such an awesome experience and a fun finale to my high school cross country career! Sniff...

After, I watched the boy's seeded race. We had to run around a lot to get to the finish in time and we were astounded to see Luke get beat by about 15 seconds! NOBODY beats Luke! I was sad for him, but they were both flying! 14:53 and 15:08 in a 5k! Talk about FAST! Eek. (DST 361.6) (DD spike 37)

Today I had one of those almost perfect runs: great weather, times, feeling, fun and only a couple of annoying things bugging me. I keep reminding myself to go get new shoes and now I really have to because I can feel my PF starting to come back. So as soon as I have a spare minute - or maybe before or after the club run on Thursday - I'll buy some! But the run was so excellent once I got into it - started the first couple miles w/Holt, then I split off and did the "green pole" run as Austin so fondly calls it. Avg. 7:16/mi!!!!! Yeah! 

After, I got back into lifting. I hate lifting. Blarg. 3x11 of all the stuff. Once I'd finished lifting, I ran a backwards big grass loop to cool down. (Alchemy 350)

Went with Holt on an "easy" River Run. Legs a little sore, arms more sore and abs really sore. First 6 I felt mostly good, (except crappy foot stuff) but at about 6.5 I got the most killer side-ache, so I dropped back and finished the run most non-triumphantly. But the times were surprisingly good! I was sure my last 1.5 were at 9:00 pace, but they were actually still under 8:00 pace! One mile was even around 6:50 pace! Downhill... :) Total avg. 7:20/mi. I will definitely need to make tomorrow's run actually easy, no more of this "easy" 7:00/mi stuff that kills me. (DST 369.6)

Nice and easy, same run as on Monday. Ran w/ Fre for the first 2.5, first half was kinda fast, but second half was slow. Left hamstring was acting up on the way back and foot unhappy esp. w/ having to stop-and-go lots with my bad luck at the traffic lights today. And I noticed that I got a bruise from pinching my sideache yesterday! Ouch! Still sore and tired. Avg. 7:59/mi. (Alchemy  356)

Well, today has definitely been interesting... I got in a wreck! I was going straight through the intersection and a lady coming from the other way and turning left turned into me! Fortunately, she was at fault for "failure to yield," so I won't have to pay for most of the stuff. But Kermit is squished in the front driver's side and had to get towed to the repair shop! I'm so sad - I hope he's okay!

 After that, I went and ran with the club. We just went out on the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve trail out and back. I ran with Hayden (a bit) and Jeffry on the way out, but was all alone on the way back. The hilly-ness was killer! I almost died. And the right side of my neck kinda aches and so does my head. So, it wasn't the greatest of runs, I'll suffice it to say. Then I went to Amanda's ward party! Avg. 7:42/mi. (DST 375.7)
 

My neck is SO sore today. I try not to turn my head, but the bouncing of the run and having to check traffic to cross the street was ouchie. Went out into Washington and back, started out w/Holt 'til I turned around at 3.5. 'Twas fun talking about whatever for a while, legs feeling good for the most part and great weather - it almost makes up for running in the 100s in the summer. ;) Avg. 7:38/mi. (DST 382.7)

Morning run with MarcieJ! We ran the Painter's Half course (If you want to see, I just put it in the course tool) w/o the Bloomington loop because I didn't think I should do 13 after a couple taper weeks. Kinda chilly - I'm not used to the morning - but warmed up and had a good run. Neck still sore, not quite as bad as yesterday, but still didn't want to turn my head to look at my watch or anything. Avg. 7:52/mi. Felt nice to go longer than I have in while. (Alchemy 366)

Argh. My computer is wigging out and this is the THIRD time I've typed up this run. So this is the condensed version.

Hospital 7-miler by my lonesome this afternoon. 'Twas a bit too chilly out for short sleeves (eew, numb arms) what with the cold gustiness and all, though the run was still quite nice. Kept the uphilly miles quicker, the neck is starting to feel better, though I still have the headache. Avg. 7:43/mi. (Alchemy 373)

The weather outsmarted me again, so during my run my arms were numb from only wearing short sleeves. Today I ran the Green Springs/Desert/Middleton 9-mile loop and I ran it 'naked!' This weekend's rain had made the dirt/sand the perfect consistency for running on and it was great to just go out on a run, relax, enjoy the beauty of the landscape and calmly (for once) think over the scheduling of my crazy-busy next few days. Yay for running! Left hammy and knee were questionable during most of the run, esp. downhills and paved parts and neck was about the same or a titch worse than yesterday.

After, I made myself go lift weights. Sigh. Just did the usual: 3x11 of leg extension, leg curl, lat pulldown, bench, squat, abs front and abs back. When that was over, I ran a backwards big grass loop to cool down. I froze. (DST 392.5)

Didn't get up early as planned because of a long night of homework ('til 1 am), so I ditched concert choir to run since I wouldn't have time to run the rest of today because I'm singing in Forgotten Carols tonight and have rehearsals all afternoon. Ran out-and-back in Washington for a 7-miler. Was feeling slow, sore and blah, but managed to keep it ok-paced, though not fast by any means. Finally, I remembered to bring a sweatshirt, so my arms didn't freeze! Avg. 7:4?/mi. (Alchemy 380)

Foremaster with 4 hills: 2:09, 2:08, 2:14, 2:12. Felt like I was getting increasingly faster, but I guess not. Didn't really feel like running for the most part, so the run was mostly blah. Glad I got it done, though. No club tonight, Forgotten Carols again. (DST 400.7)

Got up early and ran AP 7 before leaving for SLC for our Choir Christmas trip. I hate the cold and my butt is SO sore! Felt really sluggish the first 5 miles, but finally got feeling ok and went a bit faster on my last 2 miles. Avg. 8:02/mi (DST 407.7)

Went on a morning run from the person who we stayed with's house in Centerville. So flat and boring: up Main street 5 miles and back. Similar to yesterday, sluggish first 5, then got quicker on the last 5. Butt still very sore from hills and feet killing me from hours of high heels yesterday. And old shoes. 8:12/mi avg. (Alchemy 390)

Ally is back to visit! Yay! She came and ran with us today and it was so much fun. And the weather was so nice! Ran the Washington Parkway loop, it was a great run. Kept it easy on the way out, then picked it up a little on all the downhills on the way back. I love this run! Avg. 7:29/mi. After, I lifted - the usual, then backwards big grass loop to cool down. (DST 416.5)

River run, ran with Ryan Nielson almost the whole way and started off with JFree, too. Started out feeling really lethargic and sore, but it turned out to be a really nice run. Mostly because I didn't want to slow down Ryan that much. At the riverside dr. hill, I did 10x10 sec hill sprints on the steep part. Foot was pretty sore for most of the run. Pretty fast times today, with the downhill miles in the middle all under 7:00. Including the hill repeats up/down and all that, my avg. mile was 7:32. (Alchemy 398.5) 

I seem to have a knack for barely missing the club run. As I pulled into the parking lot, I saw the group leaving, so I hurried to put on my shoes and sprinted after them. (At least, I went the way I thought they were going...) I guess not, because I never ran into anybody. Anyway, it was just as well since my run was most non-triumphant today. My foot was killing me the entire time, so I just ran fast to get back to the store ASAP. I didn't have my watch with me, so my distance is just an estimate from time (about 44 minutes). (Alchemy 404)

Since my foot is a wad-o-crap that hurts, I spent the time I would've spent running more miles trying on and buying a pair of new shoes. It was really hard to tell if the shoe fit right because my foot hurt, but after driving Anna crazy, I finally decided on the Saucony Omni 5 with the Blue Superfeet inserts. Next time I will not wait so long to get new shoes when I notice mine breaking down. Hopefully. Haven't yet decided whether to take off tomorrow for my foot to recover a bit or not. We'll see how I feel in the morning.

Ran industrial road out to the furniture store and back from my house in the afternoon. Another perfect weather day - just short sleeves and shorts! Glad to run, but it wasn't all that great. After taking the weekend off, my foot was feeling pretty good, at least until about mile 2. The new shoes are not so good, the first .5 they felt fine, but soon they made my arches hurt (all the while I was hoping they'd feel better the more I ran) and by mile 2 my outer right foot was hurting lots again. At the turn-around, I stopped and took them off and ran for a mile with no shoes, and after a little of that they hurt too, so I put the shoes on again for the last couple miles and made myself finish up w/o stopping again even though my feet were feeling even worse. When I got to my house, I was glad to stop for my feet, but I wanted to run more because the rest of me felt awesome. Walking around is hurting like before I took the weekend off. Curse my feet! And those shoes! At least I have Christmas junk food and presents tomorrow to keep my mind off my lameness.

Merry Christmas Eve!

What an awesome Christmas Day!  

Tonight, I ran the same run as yesterday, but used my old DS Trainers instead of the new shoes and my feet felt better - still the foot hurt for the last couple miles more, but better than the new shoes. If SGRC is open tomorrow, I'll return them and see if another pair there will work better. Since it's Christmas Day, I ran happy and really fast! And I wore my new lightweight and compact windbreaker/jacket that my brother gave me and it was perfect! It can fold up to about a 2" cube! Also, I randomly counted how many cars were on the road (total) during my run and there were 47. Great Christmas run, I love running! (DST 432)

Merry Christmas Everybody! 

After returning my new shoes, I ended up picking the DS Trainers again. So we'll see how they work! While I was at SGRC, Locke Ettinger came in and he's a physical therapist (or something similar), so he took a look at my lame foot and he says my problem is Peroneal Tendonitis with some bruising. Yuk. So I'm going to back off a bit on my miles until it feels back to normal. 

Before dinner, I went on an out-and-back 5 on river road. Not excellent, not awful, foot hurting, mostly uneventful. (DS2 5.1) 

Club run tonight and boy was it ever chilly out! Had a really nice run, went out 2.85 with the guys, then back by myself.  The downhill on the way out was fun and fast with a couple of mid-6:00 miles, then on the way back up I kept it at around 7:30-40 pace. Foot was a bit better today, it hurt a bit for all of the run, but only hurt lots during the last mile. Hopefully by next week I'll be able to get my mileage up a little more without issues. I'm sick of running only shorter runs. Avg 7:10/mi. (DS2 10.8)

AP loop this afternoon, went a bit slower than yesterday's fastness - 7:38/mi avg - still felt reasonably good, foot felt about the same as yesterday, maybe a titch better - I think I'll try 7 tomorrow... (DS2 16.5)

Morning run from the Dixie Center with Marcie, Cheri and Stacy. Felt good, not really very eventful, but it was fun to run with a group of ladies (Thanks Marcie!) and chat on an easy run. They ran the Painter's course, but I decided against it with my foot being how it is, so I cut out the out-and-back and the Bloomington loop for a shorter run. I was hoping it was 7, but it was shorter, so only 6.5 for me. Avg. 7:41/mi (DS2 23)

Industrial out-and-back, meant to go 6, but had to go a bit further to find a porta-john. First couple of miles were awesome, no foot pain at all, but the same gradual increase in pain until the last mile and half were back to much more pain like last week.  I think, however, that it is gradually going away - hopefully I can still try and bring my miles up a little before the Half. Guts weren't agreeing with me much, probably all the junk food getting to me. :) 7:40/mi avg. (DS2 29.3)