Sock tans

Biked 50 minutes

7:23 average for 2 miles. Was feeling it today. I’m dehydrated and probably feeling the time off.

Planned on biking afterwards, that fell through.

Drew said I could move up to 40%! So 4 miles. 7:34 average. Paul says I can do part of two of the workouts this week idk which ones yet

When I’m stressed I have a hard time staying motivated. That’s where I’m at right now. I’m going back on my decision about being a mathematics education major because I don’t know what I want to do with my life. I was feeling so stoked about it a couple weeks ago but now I’m stressed and idk teaching doesn’t suit me as well as I thought it would. I’m taking an education class that gives you a great perspective on how teaching really is, the requirements for it etc and I kinda just don’t want to teach.  If I’m this stressed about pretend teaching then I can’t teach for reals lol. This’ll be the 8th change to one or both of my majors. I need to decide by like next semester or I could run into eligibility issues.

Maybe I’ll get a masters in sports conditioning and performance. That sounds nice. 

My real goal in life is to be a stay at home mom but you know. Knowledge is great. If I don’t get married I need a job anyways and if I do I’ll still need something to fall back on if my husband were to lose his job or something else happens. Maybe I could work from home. Idk. Kids are more important

Drew let me go up a mile! I didn’t expect that so I was happy. 5 miles on main, 7:24 average. If it feels good tomorrow I might get to go up to 6!

Decided to go back to one major, Exercise Science, and then work on a Master’s in Sports conditioning and performance. I’m on track to graduate 3 semesters after this one, so it’ll be the normal 4 years then my 5th will be graduate school. Then about another year to finish. I still really like math but idk if I want to major in it after all haha. I’m so indecisive but that’s nothing new. 

Got to go up a mile AND do the workout!

Today was 2x 50/80, the miles at 50% were 4 laps on the turf and add a little to make it the full mile, and the 80% miles were on the track. It’s continuous, no stopping. My times went 7:26, 5:58, 7:42, 6:21. I died a little, Danielle caught me right at the end of the last 80. But I’m still happy with how it went, I put in a good effort. I just need to work on my strength.

Mile cool down to get to 6

Holy Hannah. It was a thousand degrees today. 5.25 miles at 50%, Paul said we didn’t have to do the strides at the end because he didn’t want us to have a heat stroke lol. 7:43 average

Dikes > Canyon > Main Street. 6 miles, 7:32 average

Workout was 4x800s at 2:50-3:10 pace with a minute recovery between each. Paul said to start at 3:10 and work our way down. I would rather start fast because I feel like I can’t get my body to go faster after it gets used to a pace. Need to work on that I guess. 

Felt alright on the first one, started not feeling so great the second and the third was a struggle bus. 15 seconds before we were supposed to go, Paul asked if I’d be doing the fourth and I got ready to. He told me not to put my body through hell, that if I wasn’t feeling good I shouldn’t do the last one. In that split second I thought okay nope I’m not doing it, I knew it was just going to be painful and slow. It wouldn’t really benefit me. Instead I’d get down about being so slow and be frustrated with myself. 

Times were 3:00, 3:02, 3:21. Yikes. 

It was hot, as it always is at 4:00. Maybe that contributed to it. Plus my spirits weren’t so high today.

Anyways, feel bad about not finishing, but it was gonna be bad no matter what. I’d rather take a breather and come back and have a good workout when I’m feeling better. 

50% today on Main, 8:09 average

Mile warmup then started. Workout was originally going to be 8x400s on the track, Coach switched it over to the grass cause it was measured out and lowered it to 6 reps. I had a bad mentality going into it, I recognized that and tried to stay positive but man I was moody today. I never get angry but wow I was genuinely upset that we were doing it on the grass and not the track, and it was so windy and hot and I don’t know what was wrong with me today usually I don’t get that frustrated. Hormones probably. Just have to remind myself it was a bad day and move on and try to be more positive in the future.

First 3 were good, then started to drop, and then dropped real bad. This is becoming a pattern. Coach wanted us to hit 90 then get faster. Didn’t read out our times so that was strange but I had it on my watch. Times went 89, 88, 86, 91, 94, 99. It’s because I get stressed about being off and then just stress and stress and die. 

Cooled down a mile. Talked to Paul afterwards for a long time because I felt like I needed to. Paul is amazing, he’s such a great coach. There were a lot of takeaways from it. 

He told me that I seem like I’m always super stressed. He’s noticed in workouts that I physically start to show signs of stress, I hunch over, put my hands on my knees after reps, I have a look of distress on my face when I’m starting to fall off and then it’s exponentially worse because I keep stressing about it. And yeah, I do. I’ve realized that I take things almost too far. Like today, hit that 91 and thought well great, now I’m sucking and it hurts and this is hard and I wish we were on the track and I just couldn’t get out of my negative mentality. I told Paul he’s right, I need to just be reminded that it’s okay, that one bad workout or rep or anything isn't going to make or break anything. 

Honestly, I think that’s the difference from high school to now. In high school I wasn’t stressed about running. I did it for fun, out of enjoyment. Now I’m expected to run fast and stress out about it when I don’t. Paul said that I need to be more in the moment, stop stressing about the future and do what I can with what I’ve got right now. He reminded me that I am fast, that both he and Coach believe that I can break 5:00 in the mile. I think I’d given up hope of that. Paul said that I have shown, in some workouts, that I have that potential and that’s why I still have a scholarship. They believe that I can improve, they’re just trying to figure out what it is that’s holding me back. It might actually be just me stressing out about everything. Paul said, too, that I took a year off, that I dipped down and now I’m trying to climb. I gained weight on my mission, now I’m back to a healthy race weight. It’s been a process. 

I think for the first time, I’m starting to actually believe in myself again. I really had given up that hope, I became so stressed about being fast and being with the top girls that I’d forgotten it takes time. Even though I knew Coach had split us up into two groups to allow those of us at the back to have more attention, to get the coaching we needed as well, I never actually believed that. Part of me thought that coach just wanted to keep us separate because we weren’t fast enough or didn’t meet his expectations, and Paul’s insight about his side of coaching and everything was really valuable. He’d said that now that we’re in two groups, he’s able to be more positive and pay more attention to us in workouts, where before he was more stressed about taking down times, directing the 3 different groups at track practice and there were just too many people to coach at once that he couldn’t pay attention to those who needed help. And being in a smaller group allows for that. It’s more individualized, Paul is able to monitor us and help us in the best way he can. 

So now I feel a lot better. We talked about nutrition, getting enough sleep, and all that Jazz. And this time around, it’s not stressful. Paul said I need to just relax. So I need to stop looking at things as expectations and more as ways to improve. I’d kind of forgotten the whole “what you do today affects how you do tomorrow” sort of idea. I need to take each workout as more of an opportunity to practice working hard, to practice pushing through the pain and gritting it out, so that when the opportunity to race does arise I’m ready for it. It’s been hard for me to remember that practices are practice, they’re not races. Yes coach is evaluating us, but it’s to help us not to keep some standard. I really do need to just relax, have some fun, focus on working hard when I need to and not stress about position on the team or how coach views me or any of that. I just need to find joy in what I’m doing, work hard each day and whatever happens, happens. If I work hard now to fix the small things I can, I can start improving. 

STOP STRESSING SARAH

Later went out for an easy 3.25. It felt so much better than earlier.

Another point Paul made was that this is a fun time of life. He said I’ll look back on it with mostly fond memories, sure some bad but mostly good. He said that life is always going to be stressful, that I should take it one day at a time. That you carry with you extra weight when you worry and stress. I just need to let it go, relax, breathe, and I’ll be fine. I’m getting my school paid for, I’m getting a degree, I shouldn’t stress so much. I really do think I just overthink things, take the worst case scenario and worry and worry about that, then eventually wind up there because I keep stressing out about it. 

Running has taught me so much. Paul and Coach have taught me so much. I love my sport

6 miles on Dikes. Now I’m stressed out about being stressed all the time haha. Might start doing some yoga to relax 

Dikes + Canyon, 7:56 average

HR 48

50% on Canyon, 7:40 average. Paul biked with us! It was a good time. I was laughing so hard a couple times it was hard to run hahaha but man I love my team

Found out that I’m traveling to Idaho State this weekend!! I’m really excited but also nervous because I haven’t raced since March and someone told me the course is really hilly... but hey! Opportunity! It’s gonna be great. 

Oh also weights today were hard. They always are, but yeah Coach I told Paul he was going to work us extra this week so yay! Then after practice Drew had me do the glute challenge again and I was dying after the rotated leg raises. The burn is so real, if you want to do it it’s 30 seconds of everything: clams, raised clams, reversed clams, leg raises (don’t let feet touch when you bring it back down), toe/leg rotated inside leg raises, toe/leg rotated outside leg raises, front circles with foot (keep leg straight), back circles with foot, hold leg raised up about a foot. Repeat with other leg. So yeah! 9 minutes targeting hips. I just laughed through the pain cause it was either that or yell hahaha

Workout was 4x1000 with 3 minutes recovery. Our range was 3:55-4:10. It was on the grass again. I started out feeling good, ended feeling real crappy and dry heaved once after the second, puked after both the third and fourth so that was fun. It was so hot. But hey I finished, after the third I wanted to just call it quits, stuck out the last one though. It was so slow but I finished. 

Times went 3:55, 4:01, 4:19, 4:31.

50%

Wasn’t expecting a workout today, idk why but I thought it’d be a 50%. Was stressed about a calculus exam, and my mythology professor told me yesterday that I can’t make up a quiz even though I’m traveling... I’ve never had a professor not work with me. I emailed Angie and she said he has to because I’m an athlete so I’m going to have to talk with him again on Monday. Anyways I’m glad I didn’t know it was a workout until practice cause I was so stressed out

Workout was 1 mile and 4x400s. It was on the grass, made it hard. Everyone sucked it up on the mile, guys included, so that makes me feel better. Mile was a 6:21, 400s were 85, 86, 91, 98. Mmm. Effort was good. Maybe one of these days I’ll be able to hold a pace

Cool down to 5

Travelled to Pocatello today! Ran the course and did 1x1000 and starts. Time was 3:26 but it was all downhill. This course is pretty much all hill. Reminds me of Footlocker.  Definitely going to be an effort race not a time one. I’m excited though, honestly I’m just so happy to race

Race day! Mile shakeout at 6am then another mile warmup at the course

Felt pretty good going into it, my hips were sore from yesterday. Also Drew realigned my SI joints before heading to the course, they were really far out today. I’ve been having issues with them all week but it’s something I’m used to. Not a big deal just a pain. Drew’s going to check to see if it’s caused by a muscle imbalance or if one leg is longer than the other or something next week. I’ve also been feeling some pain in my left plantar fascia but that’s something I’ve had before too and is something I can easily manage. 

This was the absolute hilliest course I’ve ever run. Including Foot locker and Roy Griak. It was all hill excepting maybe a quarter mile. But the surrounding area was pretty :)

Paul said to not even worry about time, but to stay competitive and race hard. I’m glad he said that. It was a really hard course. 

There were three loops, one 1k loop and a 2k loop that we did twice. The 1k loop is where all the flat is. And it’s the first 200 or so meters haha. Then it’s a steep hill, then steep downhill, then another 100ish of flat to the 2k loop. Then steep uphill for a k, levels out for like 100 meters total then steep downhill for a little less than a k and do the loop again. It was fun! I was just glad to race. Averaged 7:19 lol. Mile splits were 7:37, 6:53, 8:06, and 6:34 pace for .88. I stayed focused and worked hard so that’s all that matters. My last 800 was a 2:50 with the downhill, Paul just wanted us to run a fast last 800 so mission accomplished haha. It was tough cause at that point my legs were shot and I was just trying not to let my legs collapse out from under me and go tumbling down the mountain. Downhill is hard but I was able to use it well. 

Cooled down to 7.75 with Danielle

Practice on our own today because Paul had recruiting stuff to do. I decided to go slow, not worry about pace, and run as far as I wanted. Was originally going for 8, ended up doing 10 because I felt good. That’s the first 10 miler I’ve done since being injured, since March. 7:55 average. Started to get a little fatigued at mile 7, but it was the good tired that comes after long runs. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt that.

Warmups and a mile warmup

Hip was feeling off, got it checked and it was slightly out again. Got that fixed but it still didn’t feel quite right. Eh. 

Workout was 1000s on the grass with 90 seconds recovery. I need to be better at making sure I’m eating lunch and not cramming in a granola bar 30 minutes before practice.

Times were 3:52, 4:07, 4:34. I think there are things I can still tweak to help me hold a pace better. But today I felt drained of energy, so Paul said not to do the last one and to just do a mile of cool down and be done for the day.

Felt mediocre, not great but not terrible either. It was hot and windy. 7:40 average

5 with Danielle, 8:06 average

9 miles easy, 8:11 average

Cross Hollows