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

Morning run with Ally, 800m warmup then a little stretching, then Arctic Circle. Avg. pace, Ally's calves were sore and I stuck with her, we stopped at the turnaround for her to stretch, my knee was mostly fine, but after the first mile it hurt on and off the rest of the run.

Afternoon practice, warmed up 2x on track, did agilities (doing butt kicks and high skips made my knee hurt so I only did them on my right side) and stretched as a team. Then we did a big grass loop warmup for our speed work. We did 2 sets of 5x200m repeats at 800m pace with 100m jog between each rep as recovery. Goal pace was 36 sec. (for a 2:24 800m):

*First set: 34, 35, 36, 35, 34. Didn't really know how fast to run for a 200m, so I didn't do a good job of keeping my times consistent. All were at or below goal pace though.

*Second set: 33, 36, 35, 35, 33. Wore my spikes for this set, so my first one was out of control! I didn't know I was running that fast, then I tried pulling back a bit for the next one and did it a little too much. 4&5 I was happy with keeping them consistent, then coach told us to get our fastest time on our last, so I went all out and tied with my fastest one.

After, I lifted, 3x10 of leg extensions (7), leg curls (10), lat pulldown (3) and in/out/mid calves (90). extensions hurt my knee so I decided not to do them anymore. 2x10 of squats (95), bench (55), back & abs (10). Pretty tiring, then I went out and did a 2 mile cooldown (DI loop), just to get my legs moving after workout and lifting. Iced knee when I got home.

Well I just finished typing this run up and my computer died, so here goes again.

Warmup (.5 like always) agilities and stretches. AT run on Dogpound as usual... except I forgot my watch, so I borrowed coach's and it only tells time, so I approximated the middle 3 miles' time to be around 19:45 (avg. 6:35/mile). Not bad for such a windy day, though the wind was at my back for the first 2 timed miles so they were ultra-fast. The last AT mile was so hard: it was chilly, the wind was against me, it was uphill, my knee was hurting and i was panting the whole way! Overall, I felt like I worked hard and had a good workout today. When I got home, I iced my knee for a while.

Morning, warmup and stretches then Arctic Circle with Allie. Really slow, I felt totally crappy the whole way out. It was really cold and knee...blah blah blah. Finally the last 3/4 mile or so I felt a bit better, so I picked it up a little.

Afternoon, couldn't go to practice because of Region Vocal S&E, so once we performed, Allie and I went out for a run in Hurricane. Pretty cold out still, warmed up on their track, then we ran out 2.5 and back. It sprinkled a titch on our way out, 1.5 in my knee blah blah blah, we got to run through a peach orchard, just for the heck of it. Right when we turned around to go back, it started winding and raining a lot on us. Very cold, the stinging kind. We went through the orchard again and it was fun!! Running in the rain through an orchard! That is so cool. Period. And we ran over a wooden bridge. And saw horses. Yeah. Rained a little more the rest of the way back. We ran really slow, just enjoying our run and letting tired legs rest.

Oh, and I thought that I had a pebble in my shoe in the middle of the heel after about mile two, but when I finished and went to take it out, I discovered that a stick (presumably from the orchard) had stabbed through the entire rubber heel of my shoe and almost punctured my insole. I tried to pull it out from the bottom, but it broke off, so I spent a long time trying to push it out with the end of a hanger. Unsuccessful. I did get the ends shorter, so it won't poke me anymore and decided to give up. (any more ideas on how to get it out?)

Goals for tomorrow:

1600m - STATE QUALIFYING! Give it all I've got!!!

800m - better than freaking 2:31. mid to high 2:20's!!! Ditto to that last part!!!

3x on track warmup for 1600m, wore Allie's spikes for the race since I lost mine after practice on Monday. There was a fall in the first 50m, so we had to re-start and that was no fun since I had gotten a better start on the first one. I planned out my lap splits to be 1:18, 2:40(1:22), 4:04(1:24) and 5:24(1:20). I got all of them right on, except for my last one, which was 5 seconds slower than anticipated. Mostly really frustrated because I was so close on all my times and then I blew it on my last freaking lap.  argh.

Big grass loop warmup for 800m, w/Allie's spikes again.  I was aiming for a 1:11, 1:17 on it, but my last lap was slower and I got 2:29 or 30. At least it wasn't 2:31, but I still think I should be doing better. I feel like all my 800 times this year are sucking and it used to be one of my best events and I'm really frustrated because I feel like I'm putting tons into track this year and not doing as well as last year.

So that's why I decided that I wanted to do the Medley relay too. We got together a team really quickly and ran it and won it, even though my split was 2:32 and I felt like it was slower since my legs were dead.

Then coach suggested I run the 3200m as well and pace Ally. So I did, but I guess I was a sucky pacer since we totally missed the time we were going for (12:40) getting a 13:07 or something. Surprisingly, after that I run I felt much better and wanted to do the 4x400 with Ally, but there wasn't any room in the race for us.  My knee has been acting oddly, only actually hurting occasionally, but just feeling really stiff and weird after about half of my race and after as well. It's kinda odd and I have no idea what the heck it's doing down there. Probably throwing a techno rave with strobe lights and stuff. Man.

Morning run at my house, .25 mile warmup, then ran from Whipple Ct. out to 2450 and back (3), pushed it a little just to get my legs moving, they're sore from yesterday's craziness. On the hill right at the end, I usually pick it up and go hard up the hill, but my legs were so drained that my push was not very effective. Then .25 cooldown back to house.

Aftn at the school by myself again, ran .5 warmup on small grass loop, then ran the bank run (my favorite!) I didn't really feel like taking it easy, every time I'm not satisfied with a race, all I want to do is run really fast on workouts, but because coach said to, I tried to keep it easy and slow. I did sprint past the sign that clocks your speed and got it up to 14 mph, just for fun. Knee was stiff most of the run, the last mile, it started to hurt more and not just under my kneecap, but on the outsides like it was in a vice or something, mostly achy and no fun. Frustration.

Later, I went and bought some spikes from the running store that I'm not quite sure I like but I'll try them out on a track with spikes actually in them and then see if I like them. If not, I'll get some different ones. I was also wondering if a brace of some sort would help my knee feel any better.

Long run at my house, .25 warmup to Whipple Ct. then lots of stretching, then ran out into Bloomington on Brigham Rd. past Man-o-war bridge and back on the trail to Vermillion and back to Whipple ct. (8 miles) then .25 cooldown back home. Still didn't want to run slow, but legs still tired so I gave in. Legs were good until about mile 3, then knee started getting stiff and achy with occasional sharp pains as I went on. Right knee bugged me a bit in miles 4&5, but not bad at all. I did pick up the pace a bit on the 6th mile and ran it in about 7:25 or something. Avg. 8:02 min/mile. Knee was a titch swollen when I finished, so ice and ibuprofen when I got done.