Sock tans

Main to the Dikes trail. I felt the elevation/time off. Knee was noticeable but not bad. I pushed the pace a bit, it’s good to be back. 7:24 average

Main Street loop but turned down 300 W. I felt pretty good but I was tired by the end. Effort was good, 7:35 average. Knee was noticeable again but I think it’s probably something I’ll have to run through. Training room was closed when I went today, I’ll try to go in earlier tomorrow.

Side note: I’ve been having weird involuntary twitches anytime I start to fall asleep... I looked it up and it’s a rare side effect of Lamotrigine. Hmm.

Canyon and added up 300 W. 5 miles, 7:50 average. Felt pretty good. 

I’ve sort of lost motivation and I need to find a way to remotivate myself. Usually I’m really driven to work hard and improve, but I feel like right now I’m just not. And I think it’s because I don’t really have anything in mind that I want to work towards, anything that makes me excited to get out and push hard. I feel like right now I’m just trying to prove to myself that I can still run and that I am fast enough. What even is fast enough? I don’t know. But I do know I’m not at my best fitness at the moment.

What matters more? Hitting a solid pace or running more miles? My high school coach taught me miles were more important. But my college coach wants us to go no slower than 7:45 pace, except on rare days when he says go slow. I know right now I’m not really hitting either of those. But anytime I tell myself to go slower I still pressure myself to run faster because I feel like I need to, because what kind of college athlete am I if I don’t?

But I think for right now I need to relax and just run, not caring about pace. I do believe that having a strong base pre-season makes you stronger and faster in the coming season. I think maybe quantity is better for off-seasons and quality is better in season. But what do I know?

I’m going to make it my goal to get up to 60 miles a week by the end of the summer. It doesn’t matter about pace. I’ll probably throw in some fartleks, hills, or tempos in a month or so, but for right now I think getting in the base mileage might be better than pressuring myself to run harder to meet a certain pace and only do a few miles. 

Canyon, 7:45 average. Didn’t feel so great. Super hot and windy

Dikes, 7:40 average. I started slow, like 8:00-8:30, thinking I’d go longer at a slow pace and, well, that didn’t happen. I just get antsy and pick it up because I get stressed about going too slow. Idk why, maybe it’s just because I’ve been trained to always go 50% pace. I felt good today though. Maybe I’ll try to wear my watch face down so I can’t look at it while I’m running, and just focus on running miles. But it’s so hard to not worry about pace

Today I decided to go slower and longer. I still wanted to push and go 50% pace. I found it kind of difficult to force myself to run slow. I had to keep reminding myself that pace didn’t matter and that I should stay relaxed and comfortable so I could go longer. It felt nice, but it was a different kind of hurt by the end. It took more out of me than I expected, I was really tired. The good workout kind of tired, but kinda not since it wasn’t fast? Ha. But I think I need that right now because my endurance isn’t great and I keep wanting to stop after a few miles. 

I have been getting light-headed on my runs and today in my last mile (up Main Street) my vision started to go black. It has happened on my runs a couple times this week. Not sure if it’s because I’m out of shape and am not getting enough oxygen or if I’m just dehydrated. Not enough oxygen sorta makes sense since I’m training at 6000 ft vs Salt Lake’s 4500 ft. But I’m probably not getting enough water either. I’ll try to fix that. 

Dikes to Canyon, 8:00 average. 

This weekend was AWESOME for those on my team who went to NCAA D1 Nationals! Kasey took 6th in the 1500m with 3:42.43 (Wednesday’s prelims he ran 3:46.47) and earned first team All-American status, Frank took 7th in the high jump with 7’3” and also earned first team All-American status, Skyler took 16th in the Javelin with 218’9” and earned second team All-American status,  George took 19th in the 800 with 1:51.14 and earned honorable mention All-American status, and Angie took 18th in the 5k with 16:38.08 (impressive because of the 90+ degree Austin heat) and earned honorable mention All-American status. 

AM: I ran with Morgan today! Parks loop, 8:00 average. I’m happy to run with her again. She and I are both trying to build up and get back in shape. The pace felt faster than it was and my legs were burning at the end. I was pretty tight. I was planning on adding and going 5 or 6 miles, but opted out of it so I’d have time to go to the training room before work. Good thing too because there were a few freshmen from the football team getting physicals and only one trainer, so it took longer than I thought it would. I probably could have run 2 miles instead of waiting so long. I’m glad I erred on the side of caution and had planned for things taking longer in case they did. Nate checked out my knee and says it’s most likely a tight hamstring, IT band or quad, or all of them, since they all run by and connect at the knee. I haven’t been rolling out like I should due to break time without access to a foam roller until this past week (mine was still in Cedar) and even then forgetting to roll out. Whoops I’ll be better. He says to take ibuprofen 2-3 times a day for a week to help lower the inflammation and roll out and ice cup my knee after I run. 

PM: After work I went to the weight room because Coach I said I could come in later during a small window of time after I got off work. I think because that was when he’d be there. So I did the workout the best I could, Coach I corrected me on a few newer exercises because I was doing them wrong. Whoops. They were mostly body weight exercises because this is week 1 of cycle 1. By the end my muscles were very fatigued. I’ve lost a lot of strength. After I finished the workout Coach I looked at my paper, I’d grabbed the wrong one and did workout 2 instead of workout 1 which was on a different piece of paper. Oops. Oh well, I’ll just do day 1 on Thursday. Tomorrow is tissue work. 

AM: Ran with Morgan again, I rolled out yesterday for the first time in forever and it was crazy the difference it made for my legs. My range of motion has improved drastically and I could run so much easier. Welp, now I’ve again learned the importance of rolling out and recovery :) Anyways, I felt like I could go 6 or 7 miles easily. Unfortunately I was short on time because I had to get to work. Morgan went 4 with me then I added as much as I could after. Bonus- no knee pain! But I’m sooo sore from weights yesterday especially my quads, which is sad because it was only body weight haha

PM: Weights was mostly tissue work today to help recover and loosen any knots. Ohhhh flip it hurt so bad. First off, sore muscles. Especially quads. Well, the PVC pipe always hurts so I was prepared for that, as well as the golf ball and lacrosse ball. But then it was these quad and adductor smashes where you get the 45 lb bar from the rack and hook it in this thing so it can be moved around and have one end up a bit off of the ground. Then you put 20 lbs on the other end and put the end of the bar on top of your thigh and roll it up and down. Ohh my gosh I was in so much pain. My quads could hardly handle it, I had to keep lifting the bar up just a bit so it wasn’t quite as painful. I lasted 2 minutes on my right leg before taking 10 lbs off, it still hurt like crazy so after another minute I took off 5 more lbs and finished the 4 minutes. Still hurt terribly but it wasn’t quite as unbearable as before. I kept it at 5 lbs on the bar. The adductor one wasn’t nearly as bad. My quads were so tight and sore. Still sore but not as tight. Ended up having to cut the last 10ish minutes because I had somewhere to be.

I also went in and talked to Paul today just to catch up. I wanted to especially since he’s the one that walked me over to CAPS twice and cared enough to know something was wrong, even though I never admitted to him that I had been suicidal or was depressed. He just knew. Anyways, I asked him how many miles I should shoot for and I was surprised with his answer. He said not to worry about it and just do what I can, not to push it if it feels like too much. Instead of feeling pressured to hit a certain amount of miles a week I should run at what my body feels good doing. And that if I’m dreading the high mile week I feel I should hit, not to worry about it and go a shorter distance.

He also said that I shouldn’t feel pressured to hit a certain time, that he wants me to have fun with running and not dread it so much. He said not to be so fixated on breaking 5:00 in the mile for example and be so discouraged about not being able to hit it. Instead go out and have fun, enjoy running and take the pressure off. He said he doesn’t care if I run 5:20 or even 6:00 in the mile as long as I’m enjoying it. And then if racing still gets me down, he said I could even decide not to compete and just train with the team. I don’t plan on that haha, but I didn’t realize how much pressure I’d been putting on myself until he said that. I haven’t been running for fun, I’ve been running to measure up and prove to Coach that I’m worth the investment he put in me. And that got me down a lot because no matter how I ran I always felt like I never measured up. Anyways, going at it with the mindset that I’m here to enjoy myself and see how much I can improve has helped me to relax and I feel excited for the first time in so long to see what I can do. To run because I want to not because I have to. I haven’t felt like that since high school. 

This morning I was so tired and kept hitting snooze and actually fell back asleep for a sec. The next thing I knew it was 6:57 and I was supposed to meet Morgan at Coach’s office at 7. I started to panic and was about to jump out of bed, but right then Morgan texted me saying sorry it was last minute but she was going to take the day off. Yes! I was so relieved and went back to sleep because for whatever reason I was extremely tired. Definitely not in the mood for running. After work I went running, unfortunately at the hottest part of the day. If it was cooler I would’ve gone longer but it was kinda terrible at the end. Took Dikes to Canyon road and then ended up taking side streets to see if I could get home that way. I certainly can but I overshot it and ended up farther up Main than I meant to go. But hey I found a new way home :) knee was hurting a bit and I was tight again. Still a bit sore. 7:48 average 

AM: I ran with Sam, Josie and Alison today :) the pace felt alright until the long gradual uphill towards cafe rio, but then Alison asked if I wanted to slow down for a bit. I was good with that haha. But then we sped up again and around 4 miles or a bit after is where it got rough. It was the small uphill right before the downhill and I was breathing hard, my legs were burning and I fell off them about 10 meters. I caught back up to them on the downhill. Sam and I went 5 while Alison and Josie added a mile to get to 6. I wasn’t feeling great so I didn’t want to go another mile. But it felt really good to run with people again, I like being pushed. That’ll help me get back into it quicker, and being with people makes it seem not so bad. I started my watch before it got GPS so I’m not sure how accurate it is, but according to it 5 miles at 7:36 average 

PM: Went in for weights, did Day 1’s workout. It felt a lot easier today. I was surprised, must’ve been a lighter workout. Added 200 crunches at the end. I also talked to Coach and asked for running tips for summer training, he said he’ll be emailing the packet out later today. He said to do nothing on the track and I can tweak the workouts if wanted, like make the pickups longer or something. And he said that we’d decided 10 miles was too much for me but 8 miles seems to be a good distance. And then once I get up to 8 for a few weeks see if I can throw in a 10 miler on Saturdays (all at once). Then if I feel good after a couple weeks I could try to go 2 10 milers a week, Wednesday and Saturday. So first I’m going to get up to 8 miles, I’m a lot more motivated now

Later PM: 2 mile shakeout with Maddy, 7:15 average. It felt good, a little faster than I’m used to but I was expecting that because Maddy always goes fast :) We talked about how we both put a lot of pressure on ourselves to hit a certain pace and even 50%s can be rough sometimes. For example, only going 7:45 and being discouraged because you’re working hard but 7:45 is “supposed” to feel relaxed. She said she’s started wearing a heart rate monitor and it’s helped her a lot to ease the pressure. Rather than going for pace you’re running in a zone and giving effort that your body can handle rather than pushing so hard to hit a pace and dying while feeling discouraged. I’m looking into getting one for myself because I think that would help me a lot to not feel so bad about not being able to hit a certain pace. Then gradually as I get into better shape hitting my heart rate zones will be at a faster pace. 

Also, random fact: my freshman incoming class of 12 girls at SUU (it was a lot) is now down to 2: Maddy and I. Everyone else quit and Brighton decided to be done after this last track season because she graduated, didn’t want the extra year. And Maddy graduates next spring. I looked at a picture of those who traveled to a race my freshman year, about 10 of us, and the only person still running for SUU in that picture is me now that Angie and Brighton are gone. In another picture, our top 7 had gone up the mountain to train at 10,000 ft and I’m the only one from that group left. Ironically I’m one of the slowest on our team now- that’s how much faster our team has gotten. Plus I haven’t run well for a while. Kinda sad and weird. I’m gonna be an old nanny because I still have 2.5 years left, it’ll be a completely different team my last year here. I just hope that I can find my old groove and start running well again. 

Main to Dikes then turned at 2.5 to get to 5, 7:58 average. I might’ve just convinced my friend Stephanie to try out for sprints! Tryouts are in August, we talked to Coach and Paul after work so she knew what she needed to do. She’s still on the fence about it but she’s talked about how she’s missed track. It’s a lot of work and she’d just be a walk-on, so she’s still deciding if she will or not. She said after she starts to get back in shape she’ll decide :) I’m not sure about sprints times so idk what’s good or not, but coach said her time was good. She ran 46 in the 300 hurdles. She also qualified for State in 5 events for 3A in 2016, but had to choose which 4 events she’d run of course. I hope she does end up walking on, that would be awesome :) as she gets back in shape Coach suggested she come run 2-3 miles with me sometimes and I could show her how to do pickups and Brent will have a sprints workout schedule for her. 

I just didn’t want to run today. I was kinda dreading it. I kept pushing it off until 8pm came around and decided I’d just take today off. Idk, today just wasn’t my day.

I planned to just go out for 5 miles, but then I got going and decided to take cross hollows. Then it turned into a sort of effort run heading down to the stoplight. It was downhill so that definitely helped, but I was giving a good effort by the end. The first mile felt easy going up Main (7:40), then the next mile I picked it up staying relaxed (downhill started about .5 in). 7:06, 6:45, 6:41 for the next 3 miles. That last mile I pushed because it was closer to flat, still slight downhill though. Then I went slow for the next 4 miles just to finish the loop. 

My heart rate monitor came today! So I tried it out on my run. I’m unfamiliar with the heart rate zones and don’t know which ones correspond to which workouts, or which one should be “recovery,” but I’ll look into it. I think zone 5 would be speed workouts? Then zone 4 tempos? And my guess is zone 3 is 50% or recovery? Or maybe 2 is recovery/long runs? I really don’t know haha.

Anyways, I kept my watch screen on HR so I wouldn’t worry about pace. It was nice. I did Dikes and ended up averaging 7:40. My average HR for the run was 155 (zone 3.7) and max HR was 168 (zone 4.3).  Cadence was 170 spm average. 

My watch says my max HR is 202 and my resting HR is 56. That’s pretty accurate for my resting HR. Counted manually it’s usually right around there, when I’m in better shape it can get lower. That probably means the others are pretty accurate too. Before my run I checked to make sure the personal info was correct, to my surprise the weight was off. I must not have changed it back since gaining my mission weight. To my delight I lowered it 15 lbs :)

Anyways, felt good today but the effort wasn’t exactly easy recovery run effort. Felt like a faster 50% even though my pace says otherwise. I’ve heard HR is a more accurate measurement of effort, but I don’t really know. 

I took the side road today. I thought I’d try out how I felt staying in zone 3 and allowing myself to slow down. My average HR was 148 bpm (zone 3.6) and my max HR was 164 bpm (zone 4.1). It felt like a good recovery pace. Should I do my recoveries based on HR or pace? I feel like when I focus on hitting pace I worry about it a lot more and push harder. But idk if zone 3 is too slow? It felt good though. 8:06 average 

I talked to Maddy who knows more about HR ranges and she said 140-150 is recovery, 150-160 is a power run (60%), and 170-180 is workout pace. So I tried staying in the recovery range (I wasn’t feeling like anything faster today). Averaged 141, 8:16 pace. Felt slow but nice, definitely recovery pace. Still not sure if I’ll base training off of it, I think I’ll stick with the recovery pace on recovery days but if my legs feel good I’ll go 50% pace. Then workout paces I’ll go off of feel.

Didn’t run

No running again

Today I ran to the temple and back. 6 miles, 7:50 average. It was hilly (the temple’s on a big hill, it’s visible when coming from up north and driving on southbound I-15. It’s beautiful!)

I’ve had a lot on my mind lately. Also it’s partly why I didn’t run this weekend. Just needed to take a small break

I accidentally deleted this entry but my watch says it was 4.75 miles at 7:26 average then did .75 of cool down 

Didn’t run today because I was working on other important things and then it was bedtime and I was exhausted 

Ran towards the temple again but turned earlier. 7:35 average

I might transfer to BYU-I. It’s either 2 more years at SUU for a bachelors in Exercise Science, 2.5 years at BYU-I for a bachelors in Exercise Physiology, or 3.5 years at BYU-I for an applied associates in PTA. I’m wanting to become a Physical Therapist Assistant, but my backup is a bachelors if I don’t get accepted into the program (only 30 people selected a year to enter the program). Gotta cover all my bases. 

I just have to decide if I want to stay at SUU or transfer. If I transfer it has to be now because of classes that can only be taken at BYU-I to count towards your degree, and because you’re only allowed to take so many credits to still be eligible for the program. What it comes down to is if I’m up for the rigorous work required for PTA and willing to take out $30,000 of student loans OR get a bachelors with $3,000 in student loans... once I figure all that out I’ll know if I’m staying at SUU and still running collegiately or transferring to BYU-I. If I transfer I’ll still run for fun, but I’ll be leaving behind the competitive environment of the NCAA. 

Nice run in Salt Lake- out and back on Foothill. Good pace. 

VA loop today, 7:53 average. I figured out some more details about BYU-Idaho, I’m feeling really good about it. I’m pretty confident I’ll transfer.