Sock tans

Today I ran along Foothill all the way to the drinking fountain. I didn’t feel great, I was really lightheaded and my vision started going black a couple times. I stopped and walked for a little on the way back because I was a bit worried I’d pass out. I think it was probably the heat, I might’ve been dehydrated.

I had a crazy dream last night- a mix of still running with my team and needing to perform well in a race except I was pretty sick (Coach wanted me to do a stress test as a workout the night before), flying on a plane about to go through a war zone, evaluating an injury like an athletic trainer (it was a broken leg) then having my supervisor come and yank on his leg, then getting to BYUI and almost getting kicked out of a class because I got a C in Calculus at SUU- one point too low, but they let me in after I told them I was a transfer student (say what?) It was kinda stressful and random. I think maybe I’m a little anxious about school starting again? Lol. Classes start in exactly 2 weeks from today

Cemetery run

I went over to my parents house this morning after my job to mow the lawn and start going through my stuff to see what I should get rid of, what I should leave at my parents house and what I should take to Rexburg. While I was there Millie came up to me and asked all excitedly if I could take her and Tessa running. It was cute, I’m surprised haha. I expected them both to not like it because that’s how most people are about running. Haha, anyways turns out Tessa didn’t want to go but Millie was really excited. She wanted to go farther than last time so we ran to Bonneville Elementary and back. She wanted to play on the playground for a minute once we got there so I let her. Haha, the first thing she said as we started running again is “don’t tell Tessa we went to Bonneville. Then she’ll get upset and want to go.”

Just as we were getting close to home Millie asked me when I first started running. I told her I started when I was 14, so two years older than Hattie is right now. Then she told me Tessa was going to do a running competition. Not going to lie, I was surprised. I got excited because I’ve always sort of expected all of my sisters to stick with soccer. Tessa is very athletic too. Like she’s crazy good at a lot of things- dance, soccer, gymnastics and more. Anyways, I was like whoa that’s awesome! It made me really happy to think that she might choose to run. I asked my Dad about it later and he said it was just the school fun run, they can walk if they want. I was a bit disappointed it wasnt something else, but they’re both 7. They have a lot of time to figure what they’re most interested in and I want them to do what they want to. But it’d be really cool if one of them chose to run. Anyways, Millie proceeded to tell me she wouldn’t be doing this “running competition” because she wouldn’t win. She wouldn’t get any trophy’s. I thought of the trophy’s in my parents basement I’d won from local road races and given to Millie and Tessa to play with, that was most likely what she was referring to. I then told her that running isn’t always about winning, it’s about having fun. You do it because you like it!

I’ve been nannying and babysitting a lot this past month. I applied to a nanny job in Rexburg today. I’m surprised at how excited I got when I saw it worked with my schedule and how much I want it. I’ve been thinking a lot about family this week for some reason, like yeah I’m good with kids and I’ve always wanted to have a family of my own someday, but I re-analyzed if I still wanted it or if I just thought I wanted it because that’s always been my plan. This conversation with Millie confirmed it. Yeah, kids can be frustrating at times, but I love my sisters so stinking much. I’m old enough to have watched them grow up from infants and I remember it all. And I love all the kids I watch. Jake does this cute thing where he’ll exclaim “HI!” And then I’ll say hi! and then he’ll say it again and it keeps going back and forth. And he always blows kisses and this morning wanted to give me a real kiss as I left. Oh my heart. And then Tommy I nannied when he was 4 months old, now he’s 2 almost 3 and has a little brother Jack who is 4 months old. Tommy’s a ball of energy and Jack is the cutest chubster. I also nannied Sam when he was 1 and Liam when he was 4, now Sam is 4 and Liam is 7. I’ve watched them a lot lately and they’re just the cutest kids. Anyways, sorry rant over :) I’m pretty far from having a family at the moment and I won’t be getting married anytime soon, but I’m getting family hungry :) psht I gotta focus on reality- school :)

VA loop today :) didn’t run yesterday or the day before, I wanted to but I pushed them both off until the evening and then got busy with other stuff :/ I should start waking up earlier and run in the mornings. 

Cemetery

Cemetery run, 7:39 average. It was quite windy. It felt harder than I thought it would, I pushed it a bit. 8:00 pace feels much better lol

Today it was 55 and rainy, it felt sooo nice compared to the 90+ degree heat. I decided I’d go for a longer run today, didn’t exactly plan on 10.5 miles but that’s what it turned into haha. I took Imperial to 3300 S then up to Wasatch and along there for a little over a mile. Then turned and went back the same way. I turned because of a rather large lightning strike, that’s when I was like ooookay maybe I should head back now so I don’t get struck by lightning. Good news- I didn’t :)

When I first started I was like uhhhh my legs. They were pretty heavy today. Most definitely from yesterday’s long run. But to be honest it’s kind of satisfying. They haven’t been heavy or sore in a while, it makes me kind of want to work harder and run farther

Anyways, I went slow today because I don’t want to overdo anything. I’ve gotta give my legs time to recover. Thought about going longer too but decided against it for the same reason. Although yesterday’s run was just over 10 miles and I used to do that every week (or back in high school every day), I need to build up more strength before it can become a regular thing.

Moving day, no running. Didn’t have time! Also I went to “Get Connected,” basically BYU-Idaho’s orientation, and I walked all over campus trying to memorize it. By the end of the day I knew my way home from the Hart building without looking at a map #progress

Also, I’m so happy I came to BYU-I. It’s amazing. I know classes haven’t even started yet, but I love everything about it. SUU was fun, but it really doesn’t compare. There’s just something different about BYU-I. Maybe it’s that I’m now in a culture where we all share the same values and are centered on the gospel. Maybe it’s that BYU-I is bigger than SUU. Maybe it’s that I finally feel at home at a college. I love the atmosphere, it feels like I’m back on my mission almost. Everyone’s got your back, we uphold the honor code voluntarily, we all chose to be here, and quite honestly it’s amazing to be at a church school. President Nelson posted on social media that he’ll be at BYU Provo and will talk directly to the youth on Tuesday, that he felt prompted to. I saw that and I was a bit bummed because I have a class during that time, but I thought I’d just watch it later on churchofjesuschrist.org. Then president Eyring (Henry J Eyring, president of BYUI not Henry B Eyring lol) announced to the faculty and all the new students at Get Connected that an email would be sent out later that instead of the regularly scheduled Tuesday devotional (happens weekly) we’d start earlier and tune in to President Nelson’s message at 11:05. Any 10:30 classes will be held before then. It was a huge surprise to me, that never would’ve happened anywhere else, definitely not at SUU. It’s like everything I’ve wanted, I already love it here :)

First run in Rexburg! I ran along the road with the roundabout until the street past the one that obviously went up to the temple, then turned and this road actually curved up to meet that other road (maybe I should start paying more attention to street signs). Then went up the hill towards the temple until I realized across the street was BYUI campus, I was like whaaaat I didn't know it went up this far! Yep, it's definitely bigger than SUU :) anyways, then I turned just before I got to the temple and took it back to the roundabout road. Gotta avoid campus when I'm in running gear :/ at least when not BYUI issued exercise gear. 7:34 average

Also it's strange to be close to Island Park. I'm used to being really far away. A lot of people have mentioned Yellowstone being close by or having a cabin Island Park, and I'm like hey! I have a cabin up there too :) Maybe I'll have to take a weekend trip sometime, I wasn't able to go up this summer with my fam. Weird to be closer to it than the rest of my family

First day of classes, lots of homework already. I had a job interview as well, it went well. I just have to work out a time to come in for orientation.

I also got two blisters on the back of my heel yesterday from wearing some heels I haven't worn much, I guess I need to break them in ha. They were quite painful today. I fit in a quick run in the evening, my stomach was not agreeing with me

Today President Nelson went to BYU to speak to all the Young Adults, it was broadcast in the BYUI center and also on churchofjesuschrist.org. We got out of class early for it :) it was really cool, I especially liked when he started talking about the human heart and discovering that you can basically “turn off” the heart to repair it then turn it back on again. Especially because I had Anatomy and Physiology right before, the body is fascinating. Someone had asked him a while back while he was practicing medicine “what if it doesn’t work?” His response: “It always does!” He went on to explain that truth is truth, like how the law of gravity is always constant, the law of motion, etc. They’re simply always true. So too are the eternal truths he spoke about. Anyways, great meeting!

Today I went towards SH 33 and found a paved trail that followed the railroad tracks so I ran on that for a while. After a half mile I then decided to pick up the pace a little. I settled on a quickie mile. Up to that point I averaged 7:21.

Whooowee I’m out of shape. My body isn’t used to going faster anymore. I’ve also gained a few pounds over the last 6 months, whoops. Anyways, I hit 6:21. It definitely wasn’t an all-out mile and I kept it relaxed, but it was quicker than my normal runs. Then I turned and started heading back, whooo no wonder I was surprised about hitting 6:21 at that effort, the wind had been to my back! I’d say without the wind it would’ve been closer to 6:45-6:50. At least that’s what it felt like. The wind was pretty strong so on the way back I decided to do 10x1 minute pickups to distract me. The average pace (including both fast and slow) for that was 7:39.

Off day today, I accidentally slept in. I’ve been having a lot of weird dreams as of late, and they’re vivid too. It’s not until I wake up that I go, huh, and realize I was just dreaming. Anyways, lots of homework and studying today, I took two quizzes on canvas, then I squoze in 3 miles before country dancing. That was a blast. 7:13 average

I took Main towards the road you’d take to go towards Walmart then decided to check out where the paved trail by the river went, it goes to the railroad tracks. Cool! There was a bridge to the left one across the river and I took it, it didn’t go much farther but it went behind a water park. Then I went back to the main road and followed it to Highway 33 where I was earlier this week. Then turned and went back home, though on the way back there was a parade happening on Main Street, that was crazy to navigate through. 7:48 average 

Great day today! First day of work, orientation and paid training. It was actually kinda fun, I can get kind of competitive and it makes time pass by quick:)

I took the one road (ehhh I forgot the name) past University and kept going. Then turned and came back. I saw two rainbows and several horses, plus it was the perfect temperature with a slight rain/sun out. 'Twas a good time! 7:35 average

I’ve caught my roommate’s cold and I don’t feel too great today. But it’s alright. So, tryouts for the intramural cross country team are tonight and tomorrow night, but I’m not sure if I’m going to do it. Part of me wants to because it’ll help me stay motivated to run throughout the semester and I can make some new friends, but part of me doesn’t want to because I like this go-at-your-own-pace kind of running. I’ve done intense, competitive running for 7 years and I like not having that pressure anymore. But sometimes I do miss it.

Okay, so I changed my mind. I missed tryouts because of a class on Tuesday and work on Wednesday so I thought there went that. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it anyways so I decided I didn’t want to, that I was good with just running alone. Which I am, but it’s also fun to run with others. So, as I thought more about it I decided to at least see if it would be possible to still participate despite me missing tryouts. I went to Student Activities and relieved the contact number for the person in charge of cross country and I asked if I still could participate and explained my circumstance. And guess what? I’ve now been assigned to a team! The coach has my contact info and will get ahold of me to explain things further. I don’t know anything about the team, or how many teams there are, but I’m actually kind of excited when I think about racing again. I’m nervous because I’ve lost a lot of fitness since March, but I like not being pressured to run well. If I suck it up, no worries! And if I rock it and PR, sweeeet!!!!

Anyways, today was rough when it came to running. I’d planned to go longer but my cold is close to its peak I think. My cough hurt and breathing too deeply and too frequently also hurt my chest. So I called it early. I hope that by Monday I’m feeling much better so that my first day of running with my new team actually feels good.

Side note: they were live-streaming the women’s Olympic Marathon in the I-center while I grabbed some food so I caught the tail end of it. I’m so impressed and inspired. It looked tough and they were still holding a quick pace even 26 miles later.

Got word from my team coach that practices will be every MWF in the evening, starting on Monday. I don’t really know what to expect, I’m guessing it’ll be sort of like high school running. But who knows! I hope there will be some girls that can push me in workouts. Or that they combined guys and girls so I can try to keep up with a few guys like the good old days :) lol

Tonight I pushed the run a bit, it felt good. I’m still congested and felt like I had a light weight on my chest, but considering that I think it was a good run. 7:23 average

Today was our first "practice," I wasn't sure what to expect! It's really chill. More of a running group than a team, but we do technically have races. Our first is Thursday evening but I have work so I can't participate :( anyways, we're team Hawks! Thursday is a mile relay. I'm not sure if every race is like that, but it'll be fun to mix things up this semester.

So the team is bigger than I originally thought, a group text went out last night and there were only 5 numbers including mine and our coach's so I thought there were just going to be 4 of us per team. We met at the track. There was another team meeting at the same time as us but we still stayed in teams. There ended up being about 8-10 of us that showed up on team hawks, I think there might've been more that just didn't show. Before we started we took a poll to see who has been running over the summer, most have been at least off and on. Today was just an easy run, we started out pretty slow. Slower than I've gone in a while, but it was team bonding time so you know I just tried not to get antsy. After about a half mile I failed that plan and moved up to the front with the guys, though still going pretty slow. First mile was 8:22. Then we started to pick it up, we'd dropped our coach and two girls that haven't been running. They were only going 20 minutes. Then as we picked it up we slowly dropped the others. By 2 miles, we were down to me and two guys named Sawyer and John. All three of us ran track in high school. Fun fact- Sawyer and I both in the past got a stress fracture in our right femur that ended up being a season ender. Say what? Anyways, John just got home from his mission 3 weeks ago so I was impressed that he went with us the whole way. Sawyer said he runs 50-80 mile weeks. We talked about running and pro runners and it was a good time. We went out 3ish then back, I did a lap when I got back then ran back home. 7:52 average