Sock tans

Well, i thought that today was gonna be a good day. Well, It wasn't too bad, but not nearly as good as I thought it would. Maybe because it was speed. ?????.... Haha anyway, We did a 1000, 2 800s, and 4 400s. By the 2nd 800 or the 1st 400 I started feeling crappy. I had a really bad cramp. I think I should drink more water. I don't know why I struggle so much with that. I have to force myself to drink it. Is that weird? I did really bad on the 400s. But i'm just glad its over. I did a 2 mile cool down with Sarah. I was supposed to do 4 with the faster group, but man, my cramp was bad. So i did 2. 8 miles

Wow, I have never done a run over 10 miles before. This is a first. Well, saturday I went to 17, but that was different. It was all split up. Today it was all together. I was not feeling good during the warmup. I thought today was gonna be a bad day. We did track stuff before, and some circuits, which were HORRIBLE!!!! I don't like circuits. I know they're supposed to help you, but before a long run is a little much. My hopes were not up for this run. I was considering doing less. I was considering lots of stuff. I could've done 40 minutes out and 40 minutes back like Bill was expecting. I was also considering going with the front group until I fell far back an then just turn around. But then I surprised myself. I actually kept up with them until just before the cottonwood complex. I then realized that now that we were here, I couldn't just turn around. We were now around the halfway point. So, It would be counterproductive if I turned around. perfect. So I ended up pushing the whole way. Joy. Well, turns out they had sped up a bit, and it was when I was waaay tired, so I hung back. I had mixed feelings when they stopped and waited for me. Now that I'm looking back on it, I'm grateful. But at the time, I wasn't fond of it. But, at about the 2nd or 3rd time they stopped for me, they all made me go to the front. That way, I "wasn't going anywhere" as Tomy put it. Hehe. People were behind me, so I couldn't slow down. Tomy would push/pull me along when I started to fall back. :) Thanks Tomy. I had yet another cramp, so we stopped at store after store looking for a bathroom. Man, the stores need to step it up on bathrooms. "sorry, its getting cleaned" and "its out of order man" and "we don't have one" are very annoying. But we found a nifty little place. You don't even have to go in the store to get to it. :) I wasn't too happy when we had to run up the hill though. I didn't like it. But I'm glad I got it over with!!! Maybe I won't be so backed up on miles on Saturday.....:) 

At the beginning of the run, I was feeling great!!! Another long run. We didn't do the usual track drills, and I liked that and getting out of there somewhat on time. We ran along 13th and I was really happy for some odd reason!!! :) it was amazing!!! I ran with Bill, Tomy, Natalie, Chris, Abigail, and Kiley. There was an amazing smell at one of the restaurants!!! It made me super hungry!!! But then we went on some route I can't remember well. We went all the way to South temple and turned down until State St. and turned right and went to some road (this is where I wasn't paying as much attention to where we were going, so I can't remember lots of the street names after this point. Sorry) It was the street that the General Conference was on. We went down there some ways, and then I started to fall back. I got a really bad pain like right under my ribs that killed! I have never had a pain like that before. I really need to start drinking water and am trying to get into that habit now. Ug. By like the 6 mile mark it was hurting really bad. I slowed down a lot I could tell. Darn pain!!!! I wish pain never existed!!! Life would be so much better. Anyway, I got lost and hoped they would come back. there was a fork. Turned out they took the path I thought they would've gone down, and were waiting for me at the bottom. Well, they came back, and we all decided to go along a road (I think it was 400 West) to 900 South. That didn't happen. We zig-zagged up because we kept hitting all the "don't walk" signals. Then we zig-zagged back down, and I fell from the group. Bill stayed back with me. (Thanks Bill!!! It helped!!) I guess Tomy's pushing me along didn't work. It did for a bit :) Being in the front worked For a bit as well. But it eventually failed. I got another cramp when it was just me and Bill. ug. Bill made me do some speed changes to  prove that the speed didn't affect the cramp much. Not surprising, he was right. But it felt like when we stopped, it felt good, but then when we started again, it hurt worse. weird. anyway, when we got to 900 S. we ran up until 11th. I stopped there. I ran a bit after the hill. 10 miles.

Speed today. I felt really good for some reason!!! I don't really know why. We did 2 vertical laps, and did some new drills! They were really weird and confusing. We started in a different place and did mini high knees then high knees then jogged and on the way back did other stuff like walking quad stretch, step overs, and so on. Then distance ran up to the track. We did a warm-up outside of the track. It was up Sunnyside to Foothill and along foothill to guardsman I think and back to the track. I was up with the front group during all of this (or at least most) Then we did a mile speed changes. I was a little further back on these. We did 2 sets of 4 300s with 2 laps recovery in between the sets. I was feeling really good :) It was weird because I was in the mode for a lot longer distance when we did them. I think I was still in the 800 mood. So when we started really fast I thought I might crash at any minute, and that we were going too fast. But then on the last 100 meters I realized that we were going at just the right pace. we ran 100 meters to the starting line and started again once everyone was there. I always hit around 60-62 each time, except the last 2 on the 2nd set were 63 and 64. I felt like I did a pretty good job keeping consistent. Every time though I felt like we were going too fast when in reality we weren't. And in all of them it was the last 100 meters that I really had to push. I was normally just behind Abigail, but still a bit in front of Sarah. Abigail would go slow on the small recovery time, and not make it in time to start with the group. I can tell you, it really helped to have Abigail there with the group, because then I didn't feel too far behind from the group. I could also push with her and I had a little more competition. But when she wasn't there, I felt like I was too slow, and I had a harder time pushing myself. I did okay though. I went up Sunnyside with Bill, Natalie, Tomy and Chris to guardsman I think it was and followed that to the next street and came back to the track, and did a grass lap around when I fell from the group. I did a lap on the track, and then just went back to the school to make it 10 miles. The others did a bit more though. 

Oh man I loved the workout today!!!! It felt really nice after all of the 10 milers and 12 miler earlier this week. It was just super tiring for me because, well, there has only been 1 10 miler i have completed before this week, and that was a few weeks ago. 6 miles felt AWESOME!!!!! Anyway, we did our penny run! we flipped a penny every time we had to stop, and heads was one way tails the other, i can't remember which one was which. The only hard part of the run was really on the way back, and going up the STEEP hill. It was really warm outside!!! It has been a while since I have sweat that much!!! ;)

Today was the 10k out at Saltaire. on our way there, we saw what looked like a race at sugarhouse park, and why do we do most of our races so far away when there are a lot here? just a thought. Anyway, I did 3 miles warmup. I actually went over my miles for this week. I was thinking about only doing 1 mile, but I wanted to make sure I was warmed up. So we did some drills at the starting line, and then started. Guess what?!!! I actually started on time!!! :) (on the 5k 2 weeks ago I was in the parking lot when they started) So, I was feeling great the first and 2nd mile, but I didn't want to go too fast because I didn't want to crash. I just stayed at the same pace as Abigail, and just tried to keep up with her. At like the 3rd mile, I was getting tired. But that didn't stop me! I just worked to stay with Abigail, and pushed through it. By the 4th mile, I was starting to get a side ache, and I told myself, DON'T YOU DARE GET A SIDE ACHE and I did a technique thing bill taught me a while ago, and it worked and I didn't get one! :) But can I just tell you that drinking water while running is super difficult? Well, it is! Excuse me, drinking Gatorade. I think I splashed some people. :O I got gatorade on my leg the first time. second time I nearly choked. Ug. It is really hard. maybe I should just practice that and become a professional!!! ha! Anyway, fifth mile mark Abigail told me we were gonna do a speed change, and I was like NO! But I didn't want to fall behind, so I pushed really hard to keep up with her. At the very end, Either she sped up even more or I slowed down or both, but I still ended up right behind her!!! I am really glad she was there, or else my time would have been a lot worse. Thank you Abigail!!! I did a 1 1/4 mile cool down with Abigail. :)