Sock tans

Woke up at 4:50 to go to Payson to run a 10k. But it was worth it! We're counting it as tempo because it was mostly flat.

I only got in .5 warmup because we had to register and got there later than we hoped. It was cool out so that was nice.

I stuck with Eleanor and 3 other women for the first mile. It was a 6:02 ish. That surprised me because it didn't feel too fast, but it was right cause all of our garmins beeped at about the same time and right by the mile mark. I've noticed my first mile on my garmin is always about .02 off of everyone else's but after that measures correctly. On every single run - Weird. Anyway, I started to fall off about 1.5? in, but still worked. I let about 3 guys go when they came up on me until about 3 miles (which was 19:33, surprised me a bit) I decided I was going to match the next one. He was going fast but it refocused me and it helpe to get back into a rhythm. I matched him for a half mile but then came that small hill (haha) and he gapped me about 10 meters, then I slowly fell back. Then another guy came and I matched him for about a quarter mile then he gapped me a tiny bit and I fell off again. When we were heading to the bridge I could hear a girl breathing hard behind me and knew she was looking to pass but I wasn't gonna let her go without a fight. Every time she got close I surged. I did one particularly long one and almost caught up with a guy that passed me earlier but settled as we went under the bridge. She caught back up and I was tired and just let her go that time on the second to last turn. She gapped me along that street and as we turned to finish I decided I actually wanted to beat her but it was too late. If I had a little farther to go I would've. I was 3 seconds behind her though.

Overall I was happy with it, I pushed myself and matched people and threw in surges, something I have struggled to do. I foun that when I just focused on what was happening right then and not think about how much farther I had to go it was a lot easier to push. I think I'm more confident and so when people came up I trusted that I was strong enough to go with. I also won my age group (17-19), so did Eleanor in hers and Bill and Chris in theirs, and Toph was second in his. Chris and Bill were first and second overall, Eleanor was 3rd girl, I was 7th girl and Toph 7th guy. Worth the money, got in our workout and we got silver dollars as prizes and 2 T-shirts and I won $10 to Arby's in the raffle :)

New shoes feel amazing. I ran to the track from my house (I have a hole last period B days). We did VA loop to the cemetery then 5 hills a lap and 5 more hills. Then I went back to the track along 13th. The others went to the Westminister flagpole. I had stopped at the 7/11 for water but found they only had ice... So after wasting a good 5 minutes in there I decided I'd rather add doing grass laps instead of having to come back up 13th. Did that with Jakob, he peeled off when he hit 8 and I did 2 more grass laps to get to 10. Maybe I should've just gone to Westminister too but I was dehydrated and really wanted some water, which helped me a lot actually.

Tri meet at Bountiful. Not even counting it as a race cause I didn't really race it. Bill wanted to have the first mile at 6:10 then back off. Yeah that plan failed when the course wasn't marked well enough and even though we knew the general idea of where to go, there was literally nothing to guide us after about 20 seconds in. Eleanor and I literally stopped and turned around to ask where to go cause we weren't sure if we were supposed to go up the hill or turn. A girl said to go up the hill so we started to, then others yelled to turn so we ran back down the hill then almost missed the next turn, didn't even know we were supposed to turn until someone said "between the red flags" and I looked around trying to find them, yeah they were up the hill. Then there were more flags once up the hill and we didn't know which way to go cause there were two sets, we went the wrong way again. After that it was okay for a while, but I really didn't like the slants on the hills. I twisted my ankle on one of the slants and it could have ended badly. But glad it didn't! My mile was a 6:42. Freak. I guess including all the confusion of the course and the hills it was alright. Backed off to 8:00 pace (ha) for the next mile, somehow I was still in second. There was one part where the course was marked to go two different directions with different arrows, what the heck? I followed Eleanor and luckily that time was the right way. Then Bill said there was a Highland girl that was about 40 meters behind me with 800 left and so I picked it up a bit. Got confused about the course and ended up cutting down too soon but whatever. Then when I got to the bottom of the hill once again no marks so I started to go the same way we came but Bill yelled to go straight to the cone. I didn't know what he was talking about. I saw two cones the little soccer players were using but knew that wasn't what he meant. Went too far to the right and he yelled again but I found the cone. Veered back to the left this time going towards the cone. Started to pick it up again but not a lot. On the final straight I was running slightly faster than before but not really sprinting, then a lot of shouts from the crowd and I looked back and the highland girl was right there. Sprinting. Took me too long to start sprinting and I wasn't going fast enough, she out kicked me by less than a second. 

In a way I feel kind of cheated, while I was confused about the course and lost about 10 seconds at the end all the girl had to do was follow where I went. And at the beginning I'm pretty sure she was the girl that said to go up the hill. Obviously she didn't know where the course went either but still... I bet on that part and right after Eleanor and I lost at least 15 seconds. Maybe more. But whatever I wasn't even racing it so I shouldn't be upset. At first I wasn't cause I know I can beat all Highland girls at region but everyone was so negative after that it sort of rubbed off. 

Cooled down a teensy bit with Eleanor while cheering guys on then more with the team. Felt super lethargic and I think Eleanor was mad cause I didn't wanna do much cool down. Sorry, today just was not my day.  Oh yeah, my time: 19:54 for 2.7 miles, 7:22 average pace. Boo ya. 

Ran up to 19th then over to 13th. Down to 17th and back to Sunnyside. Strides the 2x800s. 2:47 on both. Then finished the lap around Sunnyside and back to the track.

USU Aggie Invite. Apparently it was the same course as the Collegiate one a week ago, but I wouldn't know. It was fairly flat slight ups and slight downs, mostly on gravel. Some grass in it but not much. It was a full 5k too, measured on my garmin and it was almost spot on! First mile was 5:52, it was awesome I was with the Davis girls and everything. Not too far behind Eleanor for a lot of it. If only I could maintain that pace. One day. I'm honestly sort of mad at myself cause I didn't work as hard as I should have. After about a mile and a half it started to hurt and I didn't want it to. I worked through until about 2.25 then thought negative thoughts and died. I couldn't kick. I did with like 100 left when it was slightly downhill but by then 3 had passed me. And top 20 got medals. Grrrrrrr. It was my fastest pace for a race, but still mad I didn't work hard. I also wasn't in the right mindset, I was in a bad mood and had cramps all day. Cooled down with Eleanor. Oh and 2 miles warmup, forgot to mention that.

AM:

Rail trail. I did much better than last time. Stayed with the group for the full 15. Last time we added to 16.5 but this time we stuck with 15. I'm not complaining. I felt a lot better afterward though. 7:23 average pace, rail trail is slightly downhill so that obviously helped. Once I got into a rhythm it was nice, and it was cooler out and overcast. Good run. My right shin started to hurt at about 13 miles, it hurt yesterday after the race but I didn't think much of it. It should be fine, it's kinda nice to have another pain somewhere else in my body cause it means my knee is getting better :)

PM:

5 with Bill and Jesse, then Bill and I added to 6.75. Felt fine after a little warmup.