Running is a means and never merely an end

5ish miles easy with KJ - a sort of jogging tour of Pelion! Lot's of cool trails, but the ground is made of like sand, not dirt, which was weird (Pelion isn't on the coast). Fun stuff though.

After what turned into quite an extensive weekend roadtrip, I figured I might as well make one more pitstop on the way home to get a run in at Lake Junaleska in Waynesville. Beautiful 8 miler, plus 8x15sec hill sprints afterwards. Gotta love Junaleska!

Mile warm up, 8.2 mile tempo, .8 mile cool down. This was such a great tempo!! Best of the summer! Still don't have my gps watch, but I did it at the rec so I could know my distance on the loops and divide that with my time to get my pace, which worked out to be about 7:14 per mile assuming the distance they say the loops are is accurate. Anyways, I just felt really strong and fast and never too tired or too ready for it to be over. Workouts like these remind me why I love running.

AM- 8 miles. Started in Webster and ran down to and around the high school, threw in an Ashe Loop, then back up and around Webster for another mile or two. Feels nice out!

PM- well shoot, ended up in Cashiers all evening so didn't get a second run in.

Started out running loops at the rec, but I only got about 3 and a half miles in before I ended up running inside to the treadmill (twas quite toasty out) to finish to 10. Did abs and lifted afterwards, mostly legs today.

8 easy miles with a good bit of hills thrown in.

13 around Cullowhee, mostly Western though, at an easy 8:21 pace. Felt great, enjoyed every bit of it! Well, till about mile 11 and my feet started hurting pretty bad. Turns out I also had a bad blood blister. Can't wait to go ahead and get my new shoes and socks on our way to the beach tomorrow!

Left for the beach at like 5am this morning so didn't have any time to run of course. Did a bit of a pool workout in the evening when we finally got to our condo! But more importantly, finally got my new shoes! Had intentions of getting the Pegasus 32's but ended up walking out with the 31's, kind of a long story. Still super excited to try them out tomorrow morning!

First run in my Pegasus'! Loved them! Workout wasn't great, mostly just because I had to stop and go to the bathroom right in the middle of it, which always annoys me because it's like I might just as well have takena random break to stop and walk or something. Anyways, fartlek workout of 20 minutes warm up + 3x10min hard/5min easy. Went about 7:05-7:10 on the 10 minute hard sections, and just recovered nice and easy on the easy ones. Felt like I got a pretty good workout in. I'll probably mess around a little and do some pool exercises later too when we get back from the beach. 

10 miles on the beach at 8:00 average. Felt great for the first 7 miles or so and then I started to get pretty toasty...but finished it out. I think before today, 8 miles was the furthest I've ever ran on the beach (not a big fan of beach running). Gains, woohoooo!

6 + pool workout and body circuit. Feeling really strong & fit today. I feel like all of my pool workouts and circuits this summer have strengthened a lot of supporting muscles that will help prevent injury in these coming weeks when my mileage climbs up to 70 from here on out. Can't wait to get back to Wofford with my team and really kick off the season!

15 mile bike ride in the sand on the beach with my dad! Isn't the conversion for bike-to-run effort type thing like 1 mile ran for every 2 miles biked? Not sure, but I'm just gonna log 7.5 for today.

10 miles at 8:05 average. Last mile was solid, 7:47. I felt great and wished I could have gone a few miles further, but ran out of time and had to get back to leave for our kayaking trip. Kayaked 3ish miles today through the wetlands. 

Ran 7 miles easy, then biked 3.5 with Daddy & Katie. 

Day off

2.1 mile warm up + 6x90sec hills at tempo (jog back down) + 1.5 mile cool down. Definitely felt the hills in my quads but after not having anything but sand & flat sidewalks all summer, I am pretty overjoyed to be running some hills again.

Started at the rec for 1.3, then ran to Western and then up to the trails below the airport above Western. 3.5 miles of brutal straight-up-straight-down hills on those, barely moving at some points honestly. Shook out another few miles on the xc course and gravel path's when I got back down to campus. I was gonna go 13 but my legs were so tired after those trails when I got back to the rec at 12 that I just listened to them and finished there. 

 Core work + some upper body lifting for an hour or so at the rec afterwards. 

8 easy around the high school / Fairview / Ashe Loop. Legs are pretty sore from all the hills on that trail, definitely not something I am used to yet given my summer at the beach. I feel like I worked out some soreness though.

10 mile loop from the rec up to Western, around NCCAT, around Western, and back. Felt great! Still a little sore but much better. 

Side note....I have GOT to get my dessert habits under control. Ate over a dozen cookies tonight (lol). Writing this for the sake of keeping myself accountable now that its out there. There're more work that goes into training than just the running. Time to get some discipline going in my diet too.

AM- 7.1 mile fartlek! 2 miles warm up/cool down with a 3.1 middle section of 6 x 2min on / 2min off, on being race pace and off being however slow I felt like jogging to recover. My off got progressively slower I'd say, but I'd rather it be that way as long as my on's stayed hard and consistent.

7 miles easy + 6x100m form strides. Core work & stretching afterwards!

I run the Maggie Valley Moonlight 8k tomorrow night. My first 8k, and under the lights! I'm excited. It's 1.2 miles up, 2.4 miles back down, and then the last 1.2 back up to the finish. Hoping to really use those 2.4 miles and gain some speed. Probably won't go all-all out because we usually have a time trial the day after we get back (Tuesday) so I don't want to be sore for that, but still probably a harder effort than tempo. Shooting for 90-95% effort. Really just super excited for the whole night though, I haven't done a road race in a year or so and I love love love the fun, light-hearted, encouraging atmosphere of road races! Can't wait!

Welp. No race :( I went to Knoxville for Tori's birthday for the day - we jumped at a giant indoor trampoline park! So I did get a little exercise in. But on our way home around 3:30, Amanda's car got a flat. It really turned into quite the adventure, and we met lots of people with great hearts, but long story short I didn't get home till 8:30-9. So I missed the race, which I was sad about. I know my dad was really looking foward to seeing me run it as well. 

Fantastic last run at home before I move in tomorrow! Ran my 3ish mile loop downtown, but threw in every detour I could and turned it into 8, then added on at the end till 10ish. Felt great, and explored a few new roads! Super excited to be back at Wofford though.

Move-in day. Lots of stairs, but couldn't find time for a run. So excited to be back with my team!!

Weird run today because Coach Bomar wasn't there, so he had the tennis coach come babysit us. We ran 5 miles, then the coach suggested we do mile repeats basically, and we didn't want to be disobedient...but Bomar didn't tell him to tell us that, and we had a time trial the next day. So we did one, but only one. Kind of just at tempo. Random. Strides, stretching, and abs afterwards.

AM- time trial day! Mile warm up, strides, 2 mile time trial, mile cool down. I ran a 13:10 and placed 4th on our team. I know 13:10 is a sucky 2-mile but Anya, our #1, only ran a 12:43, so it's really just a slow 2 grass miles of rolling hills. I know we put in work this summer. But I am excited to get into a little more speed stuff, running fast felt really strange. Fast being...sub-7 pace. Lol. Muscles got used to nice long slow miles this summer. I know I have a good base in though, so now we can effectively get into more workouts. Special shoutout to Jamie who showed up and showed out today!

PM- 20 minute tempo run on the lower fields. Averaged about 7 flat. It was really hot, but Jamie ran right with me and that helped a lot, because I usually find myself in no-mans-land during workouts on the lower fields. Warmed up and cooled down around campus. Abs afterwards.

7 miles recovery at Milliken. First 5 with Jamie, Halee, and Mell, then went on to 7 with Mell. 8:13 average. Weights afterwards (in the narp gym, wuuut).

AM- 1.75 mile warmup, then a fartlek on the lower fields. 2 continuous sets of 8x(30sec hard + 90 sec easy) with a 2 and a half minute easy in between the 2 sets. Averaged about 7:41, totaling out to 4.45 miles. Felt fine. I need to learn to open my stride more. Just under a mile cool down.

PM- 4 mile shake out to/on rail trail and back with the biddies. I love my team.

Long run in Greenville with the team, minus the freshies! 7:52 average. Felt great.

Easy/off day. Did this in Richardson while Shannon biked. Twas fun. Abs afterwards.

AM- Mile and a half warm up, 4x1mile repeats, mile cool down. They were pretty easy, Bomar just wanted 7min pace. We hit 6:46, 6:47, 6:48, 6:48. 60 sec jog in between. Core afterwards. 

PM- 4 mile shakeout run.