Sock tans

Today we ran over to the bike trail that goes by the water park and did a larger block lap to continue warmup, it ended up being just over 2 miles. Then we did 400s on the trail, alternating directions with each repeat. I was wondering how accurate the distance would be, but each was spot on .25 so that was nice. It was super windy so that affected everyone’s times depending on the direction. Bailey said the 400s would be at 5k pace, so my only goal was below 90 for each. I haven’t done speed in so long so I wasn’t sure what I was capable of. I know 90 is technically a faster pace for a 5k than I know I’m in shape for but they’re only 400s so... naturally they’ll be faster right? Lol

Anyways, my times went:

(Wind to back, against wind)

87, 85

84, 89

88, 94

90, 95

Averages out at 89. After 4 my legs felt like jelly. I was going to stop after 6, but then decided to do 8. Then we cooled down to 6.

Ran with Sawyer to the bike trail that leads to Sugar City, along that for another mile and turned and ran back. 4 miles is about the distance when my legs get heavy. Time to get over the hill haha. We talked about possibly starting to do longer runs together, starting at like 8 or 8.5 miles. I want to be able to do 10+ mile long runs by December. I feel like that's reasonable, and I want 8 miles to be my go-to for regular days. Not sure how long it'll take for that but I'll be building up to it :) then we'll see where I want to go from there. 

Today we ran Saturday's 5k course for practice. It's pretty flat and a good chunk of it is on dirt. The rest is pavement. I actually like the course, I'm excited. I'm also nervous because it's been so long since I've raced a 5k, I have no idea what kind of shape I'm in. I guess I'll shoot for sub-20 minutes? Not even sure if that's a good goal. I'm nervous that I'm not even in shape enough for that, I don't know what's reasonable. We'll just have to see how it goes.

Anyways, we added another 2ish miles at the track once we got back. It was a great temperature and I love running under the stadium lights so it felt nice. We were kinda cruising today but it felt good. 7:10 average

Sawyer and I met up again, we went south on Main to Pioneer and took it to the road just below the one by the temple then added another mile on the track. Took it easy, 8:06 average

My family is up in Island Park (about 1hr from Rexburg) and I drove up today for a few hours to see them. Island Park is so beautiful and my family's cabin is on the Island Park reservoir so the view is amazing. Too cold right now to swim, but still super fun to go up and spend time in the forest.

I left with a good amount of time to spare but with the construction in the canyon we were at a standstill for a while plus the snow and rain. So I just missed making it back in time for practice. It's cool though it was kind of an optional practice. I debated going running but then decided not to because I had a date soon after. Soooo.... sorry no running

Wow what an adventure.. haha. So, I was up late last night and I was worried I'd sleep through my alarm so I set 3 different ones. I woke up to the first one and thought, wow I still have time to sleep I'll wait for the next one! Welp, I fell back asleep and slept right through the others. Then my coach called me like 20 minutes before the start and somehow I woke up to that even though my phone was on vibrate, I panicked and got ready as fast as I could then started driving. I'm still sort of figuring out the neighborhoods of Rexburg and the start was in one I'm not as familiar with, so I drove around trying to find the start (I was there on Wednesday so I thought how hard can it be to find it?) I ended up at a high school and tried calling my coach again for directions, I knew I was close but I'd taken the wrong road and I had like 10 minutes now before the race would start. She didn't answer, I decided to just park in the Albertsons parking lot and run the course until I got to the start, even though it was cutting it close. I got there with less than a minute to spare, though they started the race a couple minutes late so I was fine. But phew a .7 mile sprint in the freezing cold wasn't exactly what I had in mind for warmup haha :) 

Anyways, I was kind of in a funk and I haven't raced in soooo long so I wasn't sure what pace to go out at, I decided to stay more relaxed rather than go out too fast and die after the first mile. I don't think I went out quite fast enough tbh, I wasn't really in race mode. I started out in front right off the bat. First mile was 6:41, I thought meh I guess that's decent and then relaxed far too much. Going on the dirt was rough because of the uneven ground, but it was softer than pavement so that felt kind of nice on the legs. Once I got to the neighborhood stretch a girl behind me caught up and said "let's go" so I was like okay imma try to stay with you. That worked for like a half mile, then I fell off. Tbh I held back because I didn't really wanna hurt. Then two more girls (all three were on the same team) passed me, I gave like a half-hearted effort. By then I think I gave up and just wanted to finish. Then in the last quarter mile one more girl from a separate team passed me. I came across in 21:56, 7:03 average.

I was a bit embarrassed because of how slow my time was, but I wasn't surprised by it. I didn't really race, the last 2 miles I was basically just running it. I didn't really try that hard and I'm kind of mad at myself for it. I need to practice pumping myself up and getting excited about races, then giving it my all. And most importantly mental toughness/positive thinking. As I thought about it though, at least it wasn't the slowest race I've ever run. Haha. I can be happy with that ;) putting it in perspective though, I ran faster at practice on Wednesday... so I know I can do better if I actually go all in. Next time :)