Sock tans

Today was a busy day for me, so I had to run in the heat. Yay. I ran up to 19th then to 21st and down to sugarhouse, then did the cemetery run, but didn't do a lap in the cemetery because I decided it was too hot. I got a drink and started again, then cut across sugarhouse and went back along 15th to my house. Right when I got back my dad came home and gave me my new shoes :) So tomorrow I will finally run in a new pair.

Just guessing how far we ran since I don't really know. I'm hoping my garmin will come soon so that I will actually know how far we run. We went to sugarhouse via 15th and did the white tree loops 10 continuous times, then went around sugarhouse and back. Today was not a good day for me, everything about it just seemed wrong. I had a huge sideache going there and when we stopped I tried to blow it out like Bill taught me forever ago, I think it worked. On the hills I was doing good the first few but then crashed, and then felt like I couldn't breathe, I was breathing really fast. On the cool down I just took it a little easier because of it.

Today Pre-Region was canceled, so we went on the bus to murray to review the course. We did the course as a warmup, and then we did strides. After that we did 20 minutes of fartlek, 1 on 1 off 10 times. Then we ran to the bus.

Mile warmup, mile speed changes, mile cool down for the race tomorrow

Today was the Murray invitational. I didn't do as well as I wanted to. I had a hard time getting myself to push. I never have done very well with Cross Country, last year being injured and all, and I wasn't good my Freshman year, but I still have high hopes for this season. I was just disappointed with how I raced and my time and pretty much everything about it.

i ran with the rookie girls for about a half mile to the bathrooms, then talked to some of the U girls after they finished their races, or at least the ones I knew :) they're nice

So we restarted, which was good because the second time I got out better. I feel like I treated the start of this race like the start of a 1600, I felt like I was going fast then when the group naturally slowed down it felt slower than it should've been but then I reminded myself this was a 5k not a 1600m run. I did well the first mile, didn't catch my time because my watch didn't start (I got a new garmin and am still figuring things out about it) but it felt fast. Then going up snake it came faster than I expected and it was hard for me to work up, then I was tired for the soccer field and had a hard time getting myself to race after that. The people started passing and everything went downhill. I tried to match people but it was hard. With 800 left I knew I needed to pick it up but couldn't get myself to. It was a crappy race, but I guess I'll just have to learn from it and move on. I find I've been beating myself up lately, I haven't felt the joy running has given me in the past for a while now. I think having a good race and doing well in workouts might help, but that means I'll have to start working harder. It's been a rough start to my season.

AM:

On the way to laird to meet up with the girls for a run I tripped on a rock somehow and now my knees and hands are stinging. Only Eleanor and the Randalls showed up, so we did a 3 mile loop then I added with Eleanor back to 9th and she had to go home, so I ran a little longer then went home to get a drink, then decided to do my longer run later tonight because it was getting hot.

PM:

Well, running later was both good and bad. First off, it was a lot cooler and almost the perfect temperature. However, it was raining. Oh well. I ran up to foothill over to thunderbird and then went along wasatch over by the zoo. By now the wind had picked up. Then I turned right on foothill and took it to guardsman where I started the Shriners run. I stopped at the drinking fountain and got a quick drink, then went down the street that goes right by Shriners hospital down. It turned into some University street right above 13th and I took it all the way to the tracks by the U where it ended on 5th south so I went up to guardsman and took Military home. Added to 12.25, l averaged 8:27 with my fastest mile being 7:12 which seems alright to me because of the wind, rain and hills. 

AM:

5.5 miles. Late start mornings are awesome!

PM:

Mile warmup mile speed changes then changed into flats an ran up to Sunnyside. We did 6x800s with jogging recovery to the white tree. My splits were 2:41, 2:41, 2:48, 2:47, 2:40, 2:43. The first and second felt great, third I lost focus because I was trying not to laugh at something that I'm pretty sure no one else found funny, the fourth one was just hard, fifth Bill told me to hold off the boys that were closing in on me so I tried, they caught me at the end but hey I worked hard, and sixth did the same thing. Then did arm swings and finished the lap and went back down to the track for a cool down. Felt like a good workout.

AM:

morning practice! We went to the cemetery and did 3.5 laps then came out the top and went back to the track, where we did 3 progressive 300s. Legs felt heavy

PM:

We did 2 grass laps, then went to the asphalt hill and did 8 of those, then VA loop to the cemetery and did 5 hills, then did a lap and went back to the hill and did 5 more, and finished the lap. Then went back along 13th and added a lap on the track to get to 8.5. Eleanor and I pushed each other and did pretty well, averaged 7:24 for everything. Legs were still heavy and tired.

Mile warmup, mile speed changes. Then we did a lap and started the workout. We did 2 sets of 5x400s with a lap recovery between sets. Between each 400 we did a 200 recovery. I was supposed to hit 80-85, no slower than 85, but I hit 76, 80, 78, 77.5, 78, and for the second I hit 77, 78, 78, 79, 78. It got hard towards the end, the last 3 were the hardest. But 400s honestly don't feel as hard as I remember them being last year, so that's a plus. :) I did 4 grass laps cool down.

 AM:

We did Shriner's run. Turned around at where we thought the 3 was because no one else had garmins and mine was off, I think I just forgot to start it at the second light. 

PM:

My legs are seriously so tired. It wasn't that today was hard, they just hurt. We went down to Liberty and went long way around to the drinking fountain, then we went over to the one hill in the park and did hill relay things, then did step ups and strides, and finally did a lap and went back up to the track. Once again forgot to start my garmin, I gotta get better at that, so now I'm just guessing how far it was.

Mile warmup mile speed changes mile cool down in the rain :)

Today was the BYU Autumn Classic! I did a half mile warmup showing the freshmen girls where the course goes. Later when it was actually time for me to warmup, I warmed up with the varsity girls.

So I tried to turn off GPS in my garmin like we're supposed to, but I guess I'm still not a master of working it because it didn't turn off... Oh well. Before the race I honestly didn't feel ready, I didn't feel like I normally do before good races.

I had 2 goals for today, top 30 and break 19:50. First mile felt great, I didn't even feel like I was pushing that hard. I was up in the front pack. The only thing i didn't like about it was i got boxed in a ton and literally came to a stop at least twice going around the turns. The girl next to me made me crazy because she kept cutting in front of me on those curves, i almost tripped once when she spiked me. First mile was 5:48, which surprised me. The second mile got harder. I saw Megan from bountiful and tried to stick with her. Then at one point I let her go, and I crashed pretty bad. I should've stayed with her, it would have been easier if I could've just gotten over that barrier. Second mile was 6:28, third 6:56. So I crashed pretty bad. On the third mile people were passing me and I tried to match but had a hard time. Candas passed me towards the end and I worked with her for a while, then tried to pass her back when we were close to the finish. I worked hard at the finish, but 3 people passed me in the last 100 meters. There are a lot of things I wish I had done differently, but at least I'm coming back and heading in the right direction. I did get in the top 30, I may have broken 19:50 3 mile split was about a 19:14, so maybe. The course was long.

oh yeah, I forgot to mention that it was super muddy and humid, so that sucked.

i did 3.25 cool down, some with varsity girls, some with varsity boys, some by myself. 

Mile warmup mile speed changes.  The workout was 1600, 800, 400, 400, 800, 1600. My pace was supposed to be 5:50-5:55. This was the kind of workout where Bill doesn't tell us what the whole workout is, just what the next one is. You ask how many we're doing and all he'll say is till we're done. In some ways I like it this way, in some ways I don't.

Anyway, first 1600 didn't feel too hard, but I knew what kind of workout this was going to end up being, and knew it was gonna get harder, so I didn't push it. Just focused on hitting the pace. Got 5:53, right on pace. 800 was 2:54. 400 was an 85. Then on the second 400 the team decided to work harder, which is good I guess, but it threw me off. Hit 81. I went with them, but soon backed off a little because it felt too fast, and I was right. Then we started going back up, and once again, not knowing ahead what it was, it became mentally tough right here because I now knew what the rest of the workout was. Stupid brain. Haha just kidding. Here is where I started to slip, hit 2:57. Mentally it got really tough right here, I wasn't feeling very good (that would be the cheetos from pre-calc) and felt sluggish. This one wasn't nearly as easy as the first. Each lap just got slower, ended up with a 6:22? Something like that. Dang I really wish it would've been faster. Then we did 4x200s, just to open up stride. On the last one I sorta dogged it and got 43, Bill made me do another one because he wanted me to actually finish the workout. :/

2 grass laps cool down. Now my legs are feeling it. I wish I would've been able to get myself up this morning to go for a run, maybe I would've done better, but the thought of another hour of sleep won. I'm so glad they decided to do late starts every Monday. 

AM:

We ran to sugarhouse and did the state hill 5 times then ran back. Felt a bit lethargic and was really tired.

PM:

Mile warmup, mile speed changes, mile cool down. It was really windy. My shin started to hurt so massaged it and iced it.

Today we had a tri meet at Liberty. It was against Judge and Bountiful. We ran there, then girls did about .75 warmup.

The course was kind of crazy, Megan had to keep Eleanor and I going the right way. I had no idea where we were supposed to go, but luckily Megan had memorized it :) We kind of just ran it, Bill said to only go as fast as Megan goes. So we did. I didn't know where the 800 was, which was where we were supposed to start racing, so the finish came before I thought. I got third. :/

Then we did about a mile cool down, and ran back up to the track.

AM:

4.5 mile run up legacy bridge way to the fountain and came back.

PM:

We ran to the park on 13th and did 8 strides up the little hill and accelerating past it. Then we went up to the cemetery in the aves and ran up death hill, then took shriners way back. I felt better about this run. 

Mile warmup, mile speed changes, mile cool down.

I warmed up about 2 miles.

Today was Wahsatch Rendesvous, I was number 2 which I was disappointed about. So I had to run with the number 2s from everyones teams. I already had the negative attitude that I wasn't fast enough to run with the fast people, so I was placed in a lower competition race, and really just wasn't in the best racing mode.

I started fast and led for the first mile because I had thought that I could win the race since this was the number 2 people. Yeah, big mistake. I should start being more even with everything, I usually feel better when I do it that way. I hit the first mile in right around 6, I think it might've been a little under. Which seemed good to me because of the course. Then I started to crash, and then a girl passed me and I tried to go with her but couldn't. Then right around the 2 mile mark the next person passed me, I fought her for a while, she gapped me on Miranda and I worked to close the gap up until the Apple tree hill, where she extended the gap and then I couldn't catch her. On Bessie Bill said 4th and 5th were close and I needed to start kicking, and so I did, I was able to hold them off. I actually don't know how far behind they were, but oh well. It was way hot by the time my race started, and literally right before it started it got way windy. Cooled down about .75

My time was really slow and I'm disappointed about it. And 3rd of the 2nd fastest people doesn't make me happy either. Lately running just doesn't have the spark it used to, now that I feel like I'm getting worse instead of better. Really I'm just disappointed that for the second year in a row I worked really hard during the summer and can't do well during the season. Maybe I just suck at cross country races and am better at track ones. I don't know but I'm really struggling to find the joy it used to bring me.

Today was a speed workout, but it was slightly different. We did 2 grass laps warmup, then did 5 strides. Then we did these hill things on the soccer field hill that actually were kinda hard, I didn't think they would be but they were. We zig-zagged along it. Then we did a 200, 300, 400. I didn't catch my 200 or 300 times, I didn't want to restart my garmin today, cause I wasn't really sure what we were doing. My 400 was an 81. By then I was tired and felt sluggish as I usually do on Mondays. Then we ran up to the white tree at sunnyside and did 4x800s. They went 2:45, 2:48, 2:51, 2:47. Then went back down to the track and did a 400, 300, 200. 400 was a 78, 300 was 52, and didn't catch 200 but this one felt way faster than the first one. Then did 4 asphalt hills and 2 grass laps cool down, then I finished to 9.

AM:

For morning practice we did the running of the leapards 5k backwards into this is the place, where we got back onto sunnyside and went straight back to the track. We picked it up on the way back to a 6:27. Then we did 2 progressive 300s, which got us to 5.75. Felt like a good run.

PM:

We did a mile warmup, then 6 laps of Js, I think just because it was so windy. I have never done Js before, and they were kind of wierd. I kept starting to speed up at the 100 mark out of habit, then remembered that I wasn't supposed to. Wierd. Then did 2 grass laps cool down.

Did a little over a mile warmup because when we got there it was really close to our race

The race honestly didn't even feel hard and it was such a breeze. The start of the race sucked, lost like 3 seconds at least because they blew a whistle instead of a gun and created lots of confusion, and I also got spiked BEFORE the race doing the cheer so that was fun (haha). I felt great! I had decided that I was going to try for even splits, I didn't want to go out too hard. First mile was around a 6:07. I was relaxed and didn't feel like I was working super hard. I decided just to keep even and not push super hard. at the 2 mile I still felt really good, which was a huge change from recent races. I lead for almost the whole race. In the last little bit Eleanor unfortunately outkicked me, but I was still happy with my time. I honestly still don't believe it, I haven't PR'd once this season. And there wasn't even much competition, I mean I'm sure other teams weren't actually racing it like we were, but even so it felt good to be up there. It gave me more confidence and now I'm excited to race again!

AM:

We ran along 13th to sugarhouse, then did a lap, and went back along 15th. I felt really tired.

PM:

Mile warmup, mile speed changes, mile cool down.

Today was the Nebo invite. It was so cold! By the time varsity races started it had warmed up a little, but it was still cold enough for me to freeze. I did about 1.5 warmup.

I went out too fast again. I didn't relax like I should've. It was a crappy race, but at least my time is coming down. This race felt like I was working the whole time, but it was slow. Granted this race was the full 3 and it was super muddy and cold, but I still wanted to break 19.

did 2 miles cool down.

Yay for Utah weather. It's warming up again :) Today I went for my own run. I went up to Foothill, then over to thunderbird, up to wasatch and along there past the zoo. Then turned down sunnyside to Foothill, then along Foothill to guardsman and went through sunnyside park to get a drink, but found the drinking fountain tipped on its side and water spraying out of the bottom...so I found another drinking fountain. Then went back up to Foothill and along there until 13th and went back home and added to 10.25. Averaged 8:10. I remember when it was hard for me to do that, and now it's me relaxing :)

AM: 

Finally woke myself up early enough to do a run. 3.25

PM:

Speed today. 2 grass laps warmup, then 5 hills on the K hill (up, across, down) then two 200s to open up stride. Then we did a 400 (my split 76-77), 1600 (6:15, man I slowed down a lot), then up to Sunnyside where we did four 800s (2:51, 2:52, 2:57?, 3:10. The last one I obviously didn't do well. I struggled mentally through this part.) then ran back down to the track. The wind had now picked up a lot. Literally right before we did the next 1600, I got a bloody nose. Bill made me do the 1600 anyway, so I just ran with my bloody tissue in hand. 6:30ish. Then i did a 400 alone because I missed when they started because my nose still hadnt stopped bleeding. It was a 92, then two 200s alone because I was now off of everyone else (both 39). Then ran to the asphalt hill and did 5 of those. Hills honestly don't feel as bad to me anymore, I kinda like them 🙊 I was dehydrated today, I forgot a water bottle. So yeah, that sucked.