Running is a means and never merely an end

Terrible workout today. Supposed to be 7 mile hill-surge run, but my legs were absolutely spent from lifting yesterday (bad choice of timing) and I just felt like I was killing myself to keep from walking. Ended up walking a little at 5 miles in, then just cutting it off at 6 miles. Got 10 or 11 hill surges in but they were pretty crappy excuses for surges if you ask me.

6 miles on the treadmill this morning because my dad didn't think it was safe for me to run around Charleston by myself. Pretty much torture, as dreadmills always are, but it felt fine running-wise. Excited to finish up the last few hours of our trip to the beach today!!

Easy 6 miles on the bike paths here at the beach. Good run. Did lots of treading, aquajogging, and wall kicks in the pool later.

Another easy 6 on the beach this morning. Man I am not used to the humidity here, I'm sweating gallons! But this should help acclimate me for the heat in Spartanburg anyways.

Good workout today! 2 mile warm-up to the beach, then 28 minute fartlek run on the beach, and a cool down back to the condo. Fartlek consisted of 2x30sec/2x60sec/1x2min/1x4min and then back down the ladder, all on equal recovery time. I felt really good during these and was really enjoying the first beautiful morning (not rainy) of the week!

Did a few swimming drills in the pool this afternoon.

Nice and easy long(ish) run on the beach at sunrise! 8:10 pace I'd say. I mixed in six 20/40s (20 sec hard/40 easy) torwards the end to wake up my legs. Anyways, the sunset and just the whole beach this morning was absolutely awe-inspiring. So so beautiful! We are sinful, unworthy, disobedient beings and God did not have to make the world we live in so beautiful, but he did anyways because that's just how much he still loves us in all of our mess. And THAT is awesome.

As usual, mixed in some swimming drills in the pool later.

Woke up and biked 65-70 minutes with my (new!) teammate Ciara, who lives here on the island where I'm vacationing. Pretty good pace, especially for the portion of it that we did on the sand. I guess I'll log that as half of the miles if you translate it to running. I had 6 miles to run today, but I felt I got a decent workout in from the probably 10-12 miles we biked, so I only added a mile and a half jog barefoot.

Did a few swimming drills at the pool later.

Ran around the bike paths today. Had to stop to find a bathroom. What's new. Biked 6 miles afterwards!

Warmed up around Cullowhee Valley, then did a 5 mile tempo at the rec center. There is a .6 mile loop and a .4 mile loop so I just did 5x(the .6 + .4). I've never done more than 4 miles for a tempo, usually around 7:05-10, so I was hoping for around 7:15-20 for these. Splits were 7:16/7:12/7:23/7:18/7:05, so 7:14.8 average, which I was satisfied with. I was really happy with my mindset during this workout, because usually I hate tempos with a passion and grow to temporarily hate this sport by mile 2 or 3 of them, but I somewhat enjoyed myself today. 

Cool down afterwards, followed by some upper body weight lifting and then stretching.

7 miles around Webster, almost in pitch black because it was so late. For this week I have two 6 milers, three 7 milers, one 9 miler, and a hill day, so I was only going to do one of my 6 mile days today. I was feeling pretty good after about 5 miles though, so I decided to go ahead and just make it a 7 day. 7:50ish average pace.

This is off topic but I am so not ready to leave my family. I feel like I miss them already and I haven't even left. I've never loved and cherished the time I get to spend with them as much as I have this summer, having realized that I'm never truly going to live with them again. Just been spending a lot of time during my runs thinking & praying about that.

Not exactly sure of the distance because it was a hill workout. Went over to the big hill on Ashe Loop after my 2 mile warm up. 12x60sec hill sprint with 2 minutes jog in between each, all continuous. So maybe 4 miles or so for the hill part. I did not enjoy this at all....the last 3 reps were straight hell to be honest - it was the heat of the day and I hadn't drank any water all day; I didn't even have saliva left in my mouth, I was definitely dehydrated. Going to work on making sure that doesn't happen again. But I'm happy now with the way I pushed through it and thankful for the strength God provided me with. 1 mile cool down afterwards. 

Easy 6 mile recovery run. Maybe I'm being overly dramatic but I'm honestly unsure if there has ever been a more beautiful day than today! Such a happy run. Plus I finally hit my 1000th mile of the year today!

Core circuit, heavy on the abs, and then stretching afterwards.

7(ish) mile out-and-back negative split run through Cullowhee. Started at the Ramsey Center at WCU, then ran through speedwell road past the Rec Center, about a mile an a half up Tilly Creek, and then turned around and tried to get back faster than I came. Turned around at 28:15, and then it took me 24:37 to get back. So about an 8 minute avg mile pace there, and 7:15 avg on the way back. I feel pretty good about that. 

Morning run around campus with Joseph. 7:50ish pace. The students are moving in this week so campus is pretty alive right now, which is keeping things interesting. Lots of traffic though.

Nice and easy 9 miles throughout Cullowhee, a pretty relaxed 8:10 avg pace or so. But there was a lot of variation in pace depending on hills because I did most of it on the trails near the airport, which was super fun. And of course that means I got a pretty substantial hill workout in the mix as well. But its always nice to get off of the pavement/sidewalks for a while. Threw in six 20/40's (20 sec hard, 40 sec easy) torwards the end to wake my legs up.

Ran downtown and throughout Dillsboro with Shannon this afternoon, which was really fun. It was great getting to catch up with her and hear about how the team this year is looking and talk to her about what to expect as she starts her college searching process. Hearing her talk about their practices this summer was actually really encouraging for me because it reminded me how easy I trained and how little mileage I did last summer, and I was still able to go sub-20...so that makes me excited to see how this season is going to go since I've gotten a solid endurance base in!

10 minute warm up around the Rec, then I headed inside to do my tempo run on the treadmill. I've just gotten pretty sick of running in circles for my tempos...not sure why I thought running in place would be more fun though haha, but it actually was. At least I did know my exact pace and didn't have to fumble around with my watch splits. 5 miles tempo; splits were 7:13/7:13/7:19/7:13/7:10, so 7:13.6 average mile pace. It felt good, better than most tempo days! Skipped my cool down (walked around and got some water and it honestly just slipped my mind) on accident...oops.

Upper body weight lifting circuit afterwards.

Nice little jog in downtown Sylva and through Dillsboro for my last run before I leave for college. I decided there's no where else I'd rather do it than right downtown in the place I grew up. It's funny how all of the memories come flooding back with every single place I pass by now that I know I won't be passing by them again for a long time. As I ran through Mainstreet I started imagining how many parades I've seen march through here; how may different decorations I've seen on the light poles throughout the years; all of the Greening Up the Mountains festivals; every day as a child that I spent running around from store to store with my sisters, then playing in the fountain; etc..... This sentimental mess was me for the entire run. Don't get me wrong, I am so incredibly excited for Wofford! But that excitement will manifest itself tenfold once I am there, so I am just really trying to take this last bit of time at home to appreciate what I have here at home. I am going to miss this place, but I'll miss my family more than anything. I don't think they read my blog....but if any of you are reading this, I hope you know how much I love you!

First day at Wofford! I won't get into the deets of my whole day, but it has been pretty great. At 3 we went for a short jog around the course that we will be running tomorrow for our time trial. Girls are just doing 2 miles and boys are doing 5k. It was really fun to run in a group with my new teammates, I haven't ran in a group in about a year. I'm just so excited about absolutely everything around me!

AM- Lots of sparatic running today... I wasn't cleared to do the time trial this morning (paperwork) but I still warmed up and cooled down with them. Then when we got back on campus I time trialed by myself, guestimating what a 2 mile was. Based on that, although I was unsure of the distance, I would have stacked up very well with all of the other girls this morning. Half a mile warm up and cool down for that.

PM- in the afternoon, we had a quick shakeout jog to the JET building and did a strength and core session with the weights coach. It was actually so fun! I really liked it and it worked my arms and abs sufficiently. I hope we do something else like that again soon. 

AM- 4 mile run with the girls & coach Gracey to Converse College and back.

PM- Lecture on running form/injury prevention, then another 4 miles. Ran with Anya and Chandler for 3 and then Chandler dropped off. It was 98 degrees and absolute torture. Core workout afterwards in the lockerroom, felt pretty productive.

AM- steady state run at the fairly hilly Duncan Park. 7 miles total continuosly of 1 mile warm up, 5 miles at 7:30 goal pace, 1 mile cool down. Ran with Anya, Chandler, Alissa, and Kiersten for the first 4 miles of the tempo, and then they stopped and Anya and I had 1 more mile to do, plus our cooldown. Coach Gracey joined us for that, which was cool. I was dying on the last big hill and probably slowed to about an 8:30 pace for that 50-75 meters. I've never done a tempo with hills though, and never gone straight into one from the warmup either. Considering that, I am pretty happy with my efforts.

PM- Weightlifting and strength/core session. 

AM- long run day! We went up into North Carolina to Bent Creek Forest in the national park for some trail running. We were supposed to do 1 mile longer than our longest run this summer, so I did 10, since my long runs were 9. Ran 9 mostly just with Anya and Chandler, but sometimes Coach Gracey. Finished out the last mile with Coach Gracey. He talked to me a lot about my breathing and how to steady it and use it to gauge my efforts; he is super knowledgeable about all of the science behind running. I love long runs but this was a wee bit more difficult than my usual ones just because the hills went on for so long. There would be like a mile of uphill at a time. That being said, it had some fantastic downhills as well. So I suppose it all evens out.

PM- Ice bath recovery; no run.

AM - mile repeats! 3x1mile at 6:45 pace followed by 4x200m at 40-42 seconds each, with a 2 mile warm up nd 1 mile cool down. I really enjoyed this actually because I have always hated mile repeats more than anything because I am all alone when I do them, but it was so cool to be able to pace in a group today. I love my team. 

PM- weight lifting and core session.

Went to Milliken Park for our workout today. 3 mile warm up, then 7 hill reps of 30 seconds each on 90 seconds recovery, which was pretty chill because the hill was honestly more of an incline. My toes were bleeding though...I need some better socks I think. 2 mile cool down.

Easy pre-meet. 4 miles easy with the girls, then 6 barefoot strides on the practice football fields. 

Our meet tomorrow is at WCU, which I am pretty excited about being that it is like my home course and I will get to see lots of familiar faces cheering me and my teammates on! Coach Gracey is having the top 5 of us go out together for the first mile at about a 6:15-20 pace before spreading out for the 2nd mile. I'm nervous about that second mile, but also super excited for the first because I have never ran in a pack with my teammates before in high school and I've always envied teams that did because it looks like it would be so incredibly helpful mentally. Plus it looks cool and is pretty intimidating. So we will see how that goes soon!

First collegiate meet!! Pretty exciting stuff! So we warmed up about 15 minutes, and eventually made our way to the line. Game plan was for the top 5 to go out with Alissa at a 6:15 pace, then negative split the 2nd mile (it was just a 3k). We went out pretty dang fast though, and came through the 800 at like 2:57. I fell off a little bit after that from Alissa, Chandler, and Anya. At the mile marker I came through at 6:14ish I think. Anya started falling back a little bit from Chandler and Alissa at this point. I was just trying to remember that the whole point of this run was to not death march, so I tried to just keep my pace going if nothing else, and not slow down. Around 200 meters left to go, Alissa and chandler were probably like 100-150m in front of me, and Anya was like 25. There was one last hill right up to the 100m straightaway, and I really tried to kick it up this hill. I have ran this course so many times now that I've definitely learned that kicking up that hill instead of after the hill is so so vital for passing because everyone else just meanders up it and then tries to kick afterwards. So that's what I did, and once I got up the hill I realized I was closing in fast on Anya and I might be able to catch her. I kicked it in and we crossed the line together, like we had no idea who was first. When the results came in, turns out I got her by .3 seconds. That was pretty encouraging for me, to be 3rd on the team in my first race! Especially because I consider Anya a better runner than myself. I will say I did have home court advantage though, so maybe the helped. Regardless, everyone did so well and I was really proud of my team! I'm thankful that I had Alissa and chandler to pace the first bit so I didn't go out too slow to "save it", and also that I had Anya at the end to push my kick. I love my team. 

27 minute run around campus. Meant to do like 5 miles but I was really rushed for time.

6AM- 75 minute easy run, mostly with Anya and Halee. This felt fantastic. Man I love long runs! Ice bath afterwards before church (which I was freezing during because my legs were still thawing out).