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

First day of track conditioning today: we warmed up 2x on track, did agilities and stretches, had a little discussion and then ran the Washington Pkwy 8-miler. Started off with everybody, ran with Jeff for most of it and finished up with Willy. Boy did I feel awful. I was working so hard to keep my pace good, when it was still hanging around 7:50. Ugh.  My inner ankles and arches were hurting the whole run, I got a few sideaches and generally felt "bleh." By the last 2 miles, I was so sick of sucking that I sped up and determined that I would make up for it a bit and run them better. So I did. Most non-triumphant. Avg. 7:38/mi. (DS2 269.2)

After, I lifted weights: 3x11 of LE-7, LC-10, LPD-3, BP-55, SQ-85, and Abs-5. Then I ran 4x100m barefoot turf strides. My feet and ankles still hurt. Iced. Bleh.

Track again! Was still pretty lame-feeling for the most part, left ankle still not liking me for almost the entire run. Took it easy to the cemetery with Holt, then ran the cemetery loop for one 2-in-a-row tempo, then one easy, then one tempo again (GP 6:20). Wasn't expecting much goodness out of these, but they were all right.

The in-a-row miles were 6:14 and 6:14 (though my watch said .98 miles for 6:20/mi avg. exactly for both). Then I ran the slow easy one, but on the downhill bit, I rolled my right ankle on the edge of a large-ish rock - ow - and came perilously close to faceplanting it, and just jogged it off, though it still smarts a bit. When I finished the lap, I noticed my watch had run out of batteries, so I jogged around a while until Austin and Kimz finished up theirs and swapped watches with them for the last one. It felt pretty icky, with ankles quite ouchy, but 6:12, so not bad. Paused to stretch before jogging slowly back. 7:13/mi total avg. Iced at home. (DS2  278.2)

Easy Green Springs 6, felt lethargic and tired again. And sore on top of it! I seem to be having a really crappy day today and a quite crappy week this week. Ran the first mile with the guys, then slowed up a little and since my ankle is not liking me still, I stopped at the turnaround to give it a bit of rest and rub it out a little. A bit quicker on the way back with the downhill. Avg. min/mi 7:40-ish. (DS2 284.7) 

At 4:33am (six minutes before my alarm was due to ring, grrr) I woke up, got into my warm clothes and drove to the school, then ran the Hospital 7-miler. For the first time this week, I actually felt reasonably good for most of my run. On the last mile and a half, snow flurries were coming down nice and gently, which made for a bit of fun catching them in my mouth and seeing how white my sweatshirt was getting. Avg. 7:34/mi. (DS2 291.7)

After that I lifted weights by myself. (While listening to good music! Ha!) 3x11 of LE-7, LC-10, LP-3, BP-55, SQ-80, Abs-5. Not so bad as last time. Ran a cooldown around the school barefooted - about .25 mile.

Today's workout was a good start to a awful day! Ugh. I spent 13.5 hours driving all around the community to deliver "singing valentines" to people for our choir fundraiser. My feet are killing me from wearing 4" heels all day. And the food I managed to get during the day was rather questionable and definitely bad for me. Good thing I NEVER have to do that again!!!!! And, yeah... happy Valentine's Day.

Foremaster 6-miler, mostly ran it with JFree. Best run I've had all week. Ran up "the hill" - east ridge - like a hill workout and it killed me. Excited to run up it lots in the future? Not a chance. But the inevitable will come. Last mile up the long hill I picked it up a little. Left my watch at home accidentally, but Jeff's was 47:35 and I finished a bit before him, so I'm guessing about the same avg. pace as yesterday. Afterwards 4x100m barefooted striders on the turf. (DS2 285.4)

Made a deal with myself again that I wouldn't run until my laundry was done, so I got going at 3pm. Started off doing the AP 10, and stopped by at AP's house for the potty (and found Annie and Heidi sitting on the roof of all things), then was feeling good and adventurous, so I went off exploring new roads in Little Valley and came back through S Bloomington Hills, so it turned out longer by a ways. Felt pretty good, though my lower back is sore from duct-taping and freezer-papering our entire boat last night (which worked quite perfectly this morning, I must say) and my left ankle is still being bothersome, but the weather was perfect and the run was nice and relaxing. Also, I finally think I'm starting to kind of get the hang of running downhill better. Hopefully! Avg. 7:39/mi pace. (DS2 296.5)