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

Happy New Year! I've been a-slackin'! Well, sorta... since I've switched to Flotrack logs (as per Reeder and Mike Spence's request), it's been too time consuming to write two logs for every day. So, the fastrunningblog has suffered a bit since WAC. At this point, I'm not sure if I want to continue FRB while I'm using FT, but I think I'll at least put race results up here (if I remember). As for now, I'm trying to find a reasonable way to export my last 4 years of logs! Oh, and the color for the year is..... oRange. 

Easy shakeout for the pre-race workout today. Later we went to the track to figure out pacing - ran a few laps easy, accelerating did a 42 lap pretty easily, then jogged some more tried out a 41 and after a couple more easy laps, hit a 39. Mostly felt good, I think I can hit a solid time tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'm running the 3000m at WSU's invitational. Starting off the season, its hard to gauge where I am fitness-wise, so the goals for the race are a little vague. Kim and I are going to go out hitting 40's and see how it feels, if the two fast Montana girls (9:30 seed times) stay around that pace, we'll do our best to stick with them. If they go out crazy fast, we'll just stick with the WSU girl with a 9:50. Overall, I'm aiming for a 10:00. I guess we'll see how reasonable that is tomorrow! :)

Pretty good race. The first lap was right on pace - 40, then the next few laps were pretty slow - 42, 43 etc. Took control after the third lap being so slow and picked up the pace a bit to get back on track for 10:00. By 800m, we were about 10 seconds off pace total, and I was bugged. Fortunately, the Montana girls finally made a move and I hung with them, elbowing the second girl as much as was necessary to keep from being cut off. After a couple laps, she dropped off and I just stuck on the shoulder of the first Montana girl for nearly the rest of the race. I lost her as she picked it up on the last 2 laps. We ran 40s and then 39s pretty consistently and I finished in 10:06. I wished I had stuck with Montana though, she hit exactly 10:00. Still, I managed to run my second best 3k time ever! Woo!

After the race, I coughed my lungs out forever (I've been sick for the last week or so) and my body started freaking out, lots of dry heaves, cold sweats, nausea, dizziness, disorientation and such. I think it had something to do with the medicines I've been taking for my cough these last few days. Never have I felt so wretched after racing. Hopefully I'll get over this stupid cough soon.  

First time I've raced the mile since May of '08! Time was pretty good - altitude adjusted it was a 5:01.28. Wished I'd run at least 1.29 seconds faster! Still, I ran a solid race and definitely could've run faster. 

First lap, I took it out with an SUU girl and we hit a 37, which was close enough to GP to be fine with me. Then we settled pretty thoroughly into straight 39s for the next 6 laps. Some jostling of places and such, so at the start of my final lap I was in third and doing fine. Then I remembered "sprint mechanics" and took off like the devil himself was after me! Passed up both the girls ahead of me and ran a 34 for that lap. Woo! Definitely should've started my kick a lot sooner. Now I know I can run that fast pretty easily, it makes me want to do the mile again to see by how much I can break 5. But next week I'm doing the 3000m at UW (and going for the school record, hopefully a low 9:40 or better)! Then at conference I'll most likely be doing the 5k and 3k double. So maybe later... :) Good race overall. 

 Ran 8 miles with Jessie and Alex for our cooldown/longish run, then after the rest of our awesome performances (seriously, it was an awesome day for the Aggies!) I ran back to the hotel with Cherise, Merissa and Hannah.  

Woo! I was aiming for a 9:45 today and ended up getting pretty close! Plus, I broke the school record by nearly 5 seconds and PRed by 12! Winner of a day, I'd say. 

Got bumped up to heat 2 of 4, so I raced later in the day - 4pm or so - so I had all day to get nice and antsy. :) Warmed up outside on the trail and got soaked along with muddied before the race. Still, I stayed warm and had just enough time to do some strides, get my spikes on and get ready to go! Bang, and go. Race went out quick, but I stuck to pace pretty well and (from what I managed to hear of splits) hit a 78 400m, then a 2:36 800m and a 5:14 mile. Started passing up the field as I kept on pace as the race got harder. With 3 laps to go, my splits were slipping a bit and I worked to maintain my pace. Still, I managed to keep it up well enough and even had a couple seconds worth of a kick, though a couple girls on the back stretch boxed me in and "threw off my groove." Bums! Finished, exhausted, and treated myself to a caramel filled Cadbury egg. Mmmmmm. 

 Winner winner chicken dinner!!!!! Excited to run even faster! 

Crazy crazy race! Broke up the NM twins, but I wish I could've gotten that first one. Darn! Still, it was a tough race, the details of which will come later. Right now I need to sleep. 

Ok, so here's how the craziness went down. Planned out with coach to hit 42s per lap until halfway, then race my booty off with whatever happened from there on out. So Kim and I took it out with the NM twins right with us and hit 41.8-42.2 forever. It felt great. Then the twins started to move. One passed me and sat right in front of me while the other tried to slide in behind her. Twin 2 ended up running in the second lane a lot. :) Still, it was tiring to keep right in that spot and I clipped Twin 1 a few times in a row and she told me to give her some space. So I hollered back for her sister to give me some space! These sort of outbursts occurred a couple more times throughout the race. Hehe. With about a mile to go, Thing 1 went crazy and started pushing the pace lots. So I stuck on her for about 2 or 3 laps, then I couldn't hold it anymore and she gapped me. With about 3 laps to go Thing 2 passed me and I wanted to die. Still, when I finally got to the last lap, I got up on my toes and kicked like there was no tomorrow. Passed up Thing 2, and as I did so she hollered to her sister that I was coming. After the warning shout, Thing 1 picked it up and I stopped gaining as quickly. Another 50 meters and I think I would've had her though! Finished in a 17:13, only 3 seconds off my best 5k ever (which was run at sea level outdoors). Freaky fast! My mile splits were about 5:36, 5:35, 5:20. Ow. Man, I hate those twins sometimes/most times.

Tomorrow I run the 3k with 33 people in my heat! Woot. Ranked 2nd going in... we'll see. 

Crazy race again! Why so fast!?! It's conference, people! Still, pretty happy with the meet all in all, even with some disappointments.

So, the plan in this one was to take it out at 40-41 and hold that as long as it could then go with the race. Went that way again, like the 5k. I took it out at 37 (due to the hugeness of the heat) and got our pace settled at 40s, then at about 8 laps to go, a few girls started making a move and I didn't really want to go with it. (My legs were just a bit thrashed from yesterday.) Still, I went with it to the greater extent, just sitting on some people's shoulders as I stuck on the lead pack. With about 5 to go they really started hammering it out and I didn't feel like I had it in my legs to go with them. Still, with Kim passing me up and Alex too, I just wanted to keep within shooting range of the leaders, hoping my kick wouldn't fail me. So, I drifted off a bit but with 2 laps to go I started accelerating and on that bell lap I gave it all I had to pass up the pack. I got past all the girls except Hannah from Idaho whose seed time was 4 seconds faster than mine. As I got up to her with about 50 to go she realized I was out-kicking her butt and got up and went. She's a miler. I was doomed. Still, I nearly had her and she only beat me by a second! Time of 9:54 was 7 seconds off my PR from Seattle (also a sea level type) and on tired legs, so wow. Just wow. Those races went a whole lot faster than I was expecting, that's for sure.

Our team ended up getting second to Louisiana Tech by ONE MEASLY POINT!!!! Such a bummer! Lots of shoulda/coulda/woulda occured, but that's how it went down. Sad day. 

Now that indoor's over, I'm super stoked for outdoor and the STEEPLECHASE! My hurdling has been getting lots better and I'm finally fast again, so I'm ready to tear it up out there! Woo!

First steeplechase of the season! I forgot how sore you get after the first one and my legs are dead. Still, it was an ok race, felt stiff and fatigued going in but managed to hit an alright time for the first race of the season (though I was aiming for a 10:40). Started off the race right with the pack, we hit a fast first lap so we relaxed a bit for the next which was nearly on pace. Then the pack fell back really fast and I was by myself for the last 6 laps. Tried to keep the pace up between hurdles, but kept hitting 91 instead of 90 (long track for an outside water barrier) . My hurdling was pretty good overall, my left lead wasn't too great, and by the end all of them were less graceful. Water barriers were awesome though! I hit all but one with my good leg and one-footed every landing - I didn't even got my shorts wet. Champion! Still, I can do lots better. And run at sea level next time. :) 

Geez, I haven't been on here in forever! Still, I've been running and racing and all that good stuff at USU all season and now school is finally out. On Tuesday we fly out HAWAII for the WAC championships and I am super excited! I'm racing the steeplechase on Thursday afternoon and the 5k on Friday night. I'm ranked 1st in the steeple, so I'm hoping to take that one and then see what happens in the insanity that is brewing in the 5k. Should be awesome! Hopefully I'll remember to check back in with results after the meet is done... if I'm not too busy snorkeling and hanging out on the beach!

Individual WAC Champ for the first time!! I'll throw on all the gory details later, but for now I'm just excited to be the winningest! I even thoroughly biffed it on the second lap and still won the race by 8 seconds or so :) Super pumped, tomorrow we'll see how the 5k goes! Eep!