Running is a means and never merely an end

Honestly I was just lazy today and slept all day because I was up so late for NYE... I didn't go for a run, but I did a full-body general strength circuit.

Nice, easy 8 miler today with a 600m accelerating kick at the end. My legs felt really good, ready to go fast. I can feel my body whipping into much better aerobic shape from my upped weekly mileage this past month or two. I'm still very thankful that is hasn't really gotten cold out yet!

1 mile warm up, 3 miles tempo (about 6:56 per mile), and then a messy 5 mile cool down?... I parked on campus at WCU about a mile away so that I could jog a mile to the rec, do my workout, and cool down back and around Western. I locked my car and put my key in my key pocket in my gloves, but took off my gloves at the rec because I got hot. I only remebered my gloves and key after my 2.5 mile cool down when I couldn't get into my car at WCU...so I had to run all the way back to the rec for my gloves/keys and then all the way back to my car again. I was so upset with myself - my 2.5 mile cool down turned into about 5 miles just because I was stupid. I won't make that mistake again.

7AM - 3 miles with Nancy: 1.5 up tempo on the treadmill and 1.5 on the eliptical (.75 fowards, .75 backwards). Very easy, relaxed morning workout!

3PM - 1.5 mile warm up, 3 miles of track work, somwhere around 2 mile cool down. Track work was 2x800, 1x1600, 2x800 at 3200m(ish) pace. Splits were 3:06/3:01/6:15/3:08/3:05. I felt pretty great for all of these except for the 800 immediately after the mile, when my legs felt very heavy. I am also finding that my laps go by a lot faster if I keep my eyes up instead of in front of me on the ground. 

Did a night run on a loop of my neighborhood I've never ran on before...saying it now it sounds obvious but at the time I honestly didn't even think about any danger involved there until I passed a man in a bath robe with hair as long as mine in his face standing in the road when I ran by. Better believe I got some sprint work in today. Other than that though, it was a really good, hilly run. I felt really strong on the uphills and had so much energy I kicked the last half mile. Overall, 7:30ish pace.

5 miler, 8x100m strides afterwards to shake my legs out. It was like 15 degrees out today! I didn't mind it too much though except for the wind. My first indoor (well, polar bear) meet is in 2 days! There has been a lot of talk that it may be cancelled soon though because of the weather...I really hope that is not the case because I organized my whole week of training around wednesday and I really want to see where I am right now.

Single digits outside today so I ran on the treadmill. 3 miles at 7:10, 6:45, 6:30. My meet got cancelled for tomorrow which I'm not very happy about, but I'm trusting God's plan on this one.

Since my meet got cancelled, I decided to time trial today instead. 2 mile warm up, 1 mile time trial, 2 mile cool down. I hit 5:53.8, which I felt pretty good about. That is only a few seconds off of my PR, and without any competition or adrenaline. I hope to be consistently in the 5:40's and dip into the 5:30's in outdoor!

Hilly 5.1 miles today. I felt absolutely euphoric. No muscle pain, and I never ever felt like slowing down. I got faster as I went, with the first mile around 7:45, progressively speeding up until the last mile around 6:25 pace. I am especially satisfied with that considering all of the hills! I also think it is worth mentioning that I doubt it's any coincidence that my best runs (like today) occur when I spend a mile or two of the run praying! God is so good. 

Nice and easy 10 miler today, about an 8 min average pace. My legs started off feeling really heavy and tight but once they loosened up 3 miles or so in, the rest of the run was solid. Long run days are my favorite!

2.2 mile warm up, 8x400 at mile pace (1:26-1:28), 2.2 cool down. 400 splits were 1:28/1:27/1:27/1:27/1:28/1:26/1:28/1:25. The weather today was so amazing! I really didn't even need a shirt, that's how nice it felt out! I can't wait for spring. Anyways, I felt solid during my quarters. My form felt strong today. 

I have 2 meets this coming week so I took today off from running to let my legs get nice and rested. 2 mile walk and a little bit of stretching!

.5 mile warm up, 4 mile workout, .5 mile cool down. My workout was a continuous ladder of 5-4-3-2-1-1-2-3-4-5 minutes, each set alternating between easy and hard (ex. 5 minutes easy, 4 hard, 3 easy, 2 hard...etc). I felt good, but like I was getting a good workout in. I am a little frustrated that I had to stop and go to the bathroom on the second 3-minute rep, but I guess you can't do much about that. Tomorrow will be nice and easy, then meets Wednesday and Saturday.

I was supposed to just have an easy 20 minute jog and strides today to rest for my meet tomorrow, but my meet got cancelled yet again. So...2.2 mile warm up around campus, speed workout, 2.2 mile cool down. Speed workout was 2x(5x200m) fast, with 30 seconds between reps and 3 minutes between the two sets. I'm disappointed that the meet was cancelled but I'm trusting God's plan on this. Hopefully this just means I will just have a few more days to get ready for Saturday's indoor meet in Winston Salem.

4 mile tempo run on the treadmill starting at 7:13 mile pace and gradually speeding up to finish at 6:33 pace. I am not a fan of treadmills but it is always nice for tempo runs to know exactly what pace I am going and exactly how far I have gone. Half mile cool down and some abs afterwards.

6 miler with a few striders afterwards to begin my taper into Saturday for my first indoor meet!! I am very, very nervous, but excited!

I took it easy today with a 20 minute jog, strides, and some good stretching. I'll be racing in the 1600 and 3200 of the JDL Mini-Meet (#3) tomorrow night! My main goal is just to qualify for state, which calls for a 5:50 and 12:50. Theoretically, though, I really want to PR! And I really think I could, I don't know how my speed is right now but I am positive I have more endurance than I've ever had before, so I hope that base will help me on the 2nd half of those events. We'll see!

I am so excited to write about today!!! So, today was my first indoor meet ever (I've always played basketball in the winter up till this year). It was at the JDL Fast Track in Winston Salem, which is where indoor states are for NC. My main goal going into the meet was honestly just to qualify for states in the mile and 2 mile, which means I needed to run at or below 5:50 and 12:50. My previous PR's were 5:48 and 12:26...and I say previous, beause I am so happy to finally say that I PR'd in both with a 5:45 and a 12:17!! This was the most competitive meet I've ever been to, probably just because no one really does indoor track "for fun," its really only comprised of serious runners. Given that, I was 7th out of 26 in the 1600 and 5th out of the only 5 in the 3200. Today is the first day I have ever in my life been last, but honestly I don't even care about the placing because I am so ecstatic about my PR and qualification for state! The track is 200m, so it was obviously many more laps than I am used to. But I actually really enjoyed it, I felt like it went by faster. I couldn't get in a very long warm up because they closed the track when the 4x8 began, so I only warmed up half a mile, then cooled down half a mile after the mile and before the 3200, and then cooled down another half mile after the 3200. Overall,  consider today a success for sure. It is so awesome to see all of this winter training paying off.

60 minute recovery run with Harrison. My legs are beyond sore today, which makes me feel even more accomplished about yesterday. Soreness is never too bad of a thing to me because I like to think it just shows improvement. I think I may take tomorrow off to really recover though.

Started pouring the snow when I got home from school and my mom wouldn't let me drive to the Rec to treadmill or bike, so I didn't get any mileage in today which I am upset about. But I did what I could in my house. Full body circuit with lots of core, especially. There is already several inches of snow but hopefully it will clear up enough tomorrow for a run!

Made it out for a snowy run today! I did somewhere around 6 miles, then 6 100m strides. I felt good and warm after about a mile and a half. I'm thankful I didn't slip on the snow-covered ground!

Ran on the treadmill today. I did a mile warm up, 3.5 mile tempo (7:13/7:03/6:53/[6:43 pace last half mile]), a short walk break, and then another .5 at 6 minute mile pace. Mile cool down. I felt strong today except for the side stitches I got from not hydrating well beforehand. That is easily fixable though! I would like to get in a lot more mileage over the weekend to help make up for my lack of any miles Monday and Tuesday. 

AM - 2 miles 

PM - 9 miles around my school. It was very cold but I felt pretty strong! I love long runs.

1 mile warmup, 4.2 mile fartlek with Katie, .6 mile cool down. Our fartlek consisted of 3 continuous sets of of .8 miles 5k race pace, then .6 miles easy. It went by pretty quickly. I am going to a recruiting trip at WCU today and spending the night there with Michelle! I can't wait!

1.4 mile warm up, 3 miles of track work, .6 cool down. My track work was 4x800m at 2 mile race pace, then 4x400 at mile race pace with 90 seconds between reps and 3 minutes between the two sets. Splits: 3:01/3:03/3:06/3:03 - 1:26/1:26/1:26/1:23. I was up pretty late last night on my recruiting visit at Western and didn't get to sleep in very much either, so I was really tired going into this workout and during my warm up. But as soon as I started my intervals, I felt like I found a new flash of energy and ended up really enjoying the workout. Weather permitting, I have a meet Wednesday, so I will taper down these next two days.

Terrible "workout" today. Planned on going 6 miles but I had to cut it super short to make it back to my school for this thing where they honored winter athletes. Poor planning on my part. I'm really upset I didn't get in any mileage today.

Full-body general strength ciruit at home before I went to bed.

Yet another unsuccessful workout. I planned on 1 mile-2 miles-1 mile at 10k at tempo pace with a mile warm up & cool down. We got let out of school at 10 because of snow, but it had just started to come down. So I hurried over to the Rec center to do the workout on the treadmill and then get home before the snow got too bad, but it started coming down so heavily that I only got in a mile warm-up and then had to cut to the 2 miler and then call it a day. I did up the speed from about 6:55 tempo pace to 6:25, so I still got decently tired, but I think mileage is more important than speed right now in preparation for outdoor (not in-season outdoor) so I am still disappointed about all of the mileage I've cut out the past 2 days.

We had another snow day today but I wasn't about to let that make this the 3rd day with a cruddy workout! I did a little distance/speed mix today on the treadmill. 5 miles at 7:50 pace, full recovery, 2x1600 at 6:35, 800 at 3:07. The 5 miles felt suprisingly good, I wasn't as bored as I thought I would be because I decided to listen to a Louie Giglio sermon for the distance half of the workout, so I ended up enjoying it! Half mile cool down afterwards. I will say I feel completely exhausted mentally and physically after that workout. But I feel like I got better today, which is always a great feeling.

45-50 minute run (ended up around 48:30) and 10x100m striders. I felt so good today! I felt like I never really got tired. Perhaps my body needed the few easy days I had earlier this week. Saturday is race day so tomorrow will be nice and easy!

Race day is tomorrow!! 30 minute jog and some striders for the day, just before loads of stretching of course. Haven't decided whether I'll run just the 1600 or both the 1 & 2 tomorrow, we decided I'd play it by ear. Regardless, a PR would be magnificent!! All in God's hands though!

Set a new mile PR by 3 seconds today at Polk with a 5:42!! This meet was my first "polar bear" meet, but luckily it was absolutely perfect running weather (55ish and cloudy). Honestly I do not even remember much about this race, it all went by very quickly. I've been doing so much more mileage these past few months that a 1600 finally is starting to feel like such an incredibly short race. I did slightly over a mile for warm up and then an easy lap for a cool down before my 3200.

I still haven't figured out how to make two race entries for 1 day, so I'll just write about my 3200 here! I really, really did not want to run this. I'd already qualified for states for it, and my mom had told me in the car we could decide after my mile whether I wanted to or not. Which I really didn't. But my dad sort of ending up making me anyways. I was not mentally "right," if you will, at all for this race because I felt like I was being forced to run it and therefore didn't even care if I did my best, but God totally gave me strength and motivation once the gun went off. He pulled me through to a race and time I ended up pretty satisfied with, actually! I finished 3rd with a 12:23.80. It didn't beat my PR (12:17) from JDL last weekend, but it was still faster than every 3200 I ran last spring, so it is my 2nd-best time. And to be honest, I know I could have done a solid 10 seconds better physically if I was right mentally going into it, which makes me excited tosee what I can do in the 3200 at state next weekend!

Easy 3 mile jog afterwards, about a mile of which was with Lily Anderson (who won the 1 and 2 mile today!).

2.2 mile warmup, speed workout, 1.5 mile cool down. My workout was 4x400m at 6 minute mile pace (slightly faster than my 2-mile race pace) with 60 seconds rest between reps, 5x200m at 85-90% sprint speed with 45 seconds rest, then another set of 5x200m at the same pace but with 40 seconds rest. 3 minutes between each of the 3 sets. My first 400 split was 7 seconds too fast because I think I was subconsciously showing off a little bit for Coach Williamson (WCU's coach) who was finishing up a workout with some of the sprinters during that first rep. Other than that, my splits were consistent and I felt strong! 

4.3 mile fartlek workout with a .7 mile cool down. The workout was a ladder of 5-4-3-2-1-1-2-3-4-5 minutes, alternating easy and hard paces (i.e. 5 minutes easy, 4 hard, 3 easy, 2 hard, etc), totaling 30 minutes. My calves were ridiculously tight during this run, I was very happy when it was over and I could stretch them. I probably should have done that before I started.

Somewhere around a 7 mile jog today with some strides afterwards. Indoor states are on Saturday so I am starting my taper for the rest of the week. I have been so incredibly stressed and bogged down with homework this week...I think the most sleep I've gotten was about 5 and a half hours. I really hope I will be able to get more sleep before Saturday but honestly the outlook is bad with this huge paper I have due Friday. Oh the struggles of being a student-athlete....

30 minutes semi-easy and some good stretching today as I wind down towards state on Saturday! My calves were still extremely tight during my run, if I can find some time away from my homework tonight I will try to ice them.

Really, really easy pre-meet practice before state tomorrow. 6 or 7 minute jog and 10x100 strides, plus lots of stretching. I am ranked 5th in the 2 mile and 8th in the mile, but I think we are planning to scratch me in the mile. Senior night is tonight so we won't be heading down to Winston Salem until way later tonight...not ideal but I guess that's just how it goes sometimes!

Well, there went my first and last indoor state meet! I did end up scratching from the mile, mostly because we didn't get to the hotel until about 2am last night, and so I only got a few hours of sleep and knew I wouldn't have much energy for more than 1 race. I knew that my best bet was to work up a quick burst of energy and use it all up in 1 race. We went out and I was right there with the pack for the first 4 laps or so (200m track, so the first 800), and then we started to spread out a little bit. The lead girls started picking up the pace and by my splits it looks like I just kept a consistent pace. I came through my first mile at 5:55 or so. During the second mile I started feeling really burnt out, not so much physically as mentally. I was just really ready for it to be over honestly. But I tried to just grin & bear it and kept a consistent pace, and kicked on the last lap as best I could. I placed 6th, which I was a little upset about because it was above my ranking for one, and I also really wanted to get top 4 (all-state). But I did set a PR of 12:13 over my previous 12:17 PR, which was also set at JDL. I'm happy about my PR, but I can't help but feel very sad that I lost my chance to get all-state. 

My higher-ups are wanting me to take a week off before I start training for outdoor, which I think will be really good for me mentally, even though they are thinking about it from a physical standpoint. I hate taking time off usually because I feel like other people are getting better while I am not, but this time I think I really need to just be patient with my training and make sure I don't let myself get burnt out. So this will be my last entry for a little while!

Actually took this week off but I am adding in 4 per day because I realize now (in June) that I have been doing more tempos on the track that my pace has always been faster than I gave myself credit for. When calculating my mileage I always assumed I was around an 8 minute mile on my training runs, but now that I do it on the track and can gauge it exactly, I realize that is so slow and there is no way I was ever running 8 minute paced miles, more like 7:30. So I am adding in some mileage for all of the miles I didn't really give myself credit for.

Today was my first day back, and our first day of track practice! It was really weird, but fun, to actually be back out there practicing with other people since I've been training solo all winter. It was super obvious to me, by comparison and just by how I felt, that I was in far better shape than anyone else there. That makes me feel really excited to see what kind of times I will be able to pull out this season since this is the first time I will ever have entered into track season moderately in shape having trained over the winter!

Anyways, we did (what I believed to be) a really easy, basic conditioning workout today. Half mile warm up, 8 stadiums, and 4x150m. Evan and I went on a 2 mile cool down afterwards.

Half mile warm up, then coach D had me go with the distance guys and take them on a 5-miler around the school. My muscles feel so incredibly fresh since I took that week off, I can't remember the last time they felt this way. I never really took a break between XC and indoor track, so I haven't had time off since the beginning of last summer. We kept a solid pace (7:20/mile-ish I would guess) the whole time, and were still able to talk and laugh. Short cool down around the baseball field afterards.

Mile warm up, ladder workout (1200-800-400-400-800-1200), easy 22 minute jog with the guys. Our track is not regulation length, it's a little too short - the 400's are more like 375m - so timing is irrelevant. I felt a little more tired today, I would definitely say the super-fresh feeling is starting to wear off.

Strange workout today. .8 mile warmup. Pendy had the distance crew do one 1200, a few minutes rest, then an 800 on the grass, a few more minutes, then 10x100m. I felt like it ws pretty pointless honestly, it was really easy and really short. I decided to go on a 17 minute jog afterwards just to get a little more mileage in. I guess I got a little spoiled this winter being able to always manage my workouts by myself and not have to worry about the rest of a team and where they are at fitness-wise...but I really feel like I need to be doing more than this. At least more mileage, if nothing else.

Easy 8 miler around Cullowhee today with Evan + a half mile warmup. I felt good muscularly and cardiovascularly, but my joints were absolutely killing me. My knees, ankles, and the balls of my feet hurt so badly, probably because our track at the high school (where we've been practicing all week) is asphalt and my legs aren't used to doing speed work on such a hard surface. I guess it'll just take some getting used to!

Since my joints had been hurting so much from all of the asphalt lately, I decided to do more of a joint-friendly workout today. 1.4 mile warm up on dirt/grass, 5.4 miles of biking on the eliptical (I usually cut eliptical mileage in half to convert it to running miles, so for the purpose of mileage counting that is 2.7), a little upper body weight training, abs, and then another 1.4 mile cool down to finish it off. I felt strong today! I timed it just right to where I got to watch an entire Jefferson Bethke youtube sermon in my time on the eliptical, so I really enjoyed that too!

1.4 mile warm up, 5.6 (ish) mile run with Evan and Tyler. Isabel also ran with us for a little bit. Our run was so much fun today because Tyler has started bringing his phone and little Beats speaker with him on our distance runs so we can all run with his music. He literally has a Justin Bieber playlist (yes, seriously) so needless to say we were jamming out to some oldschool JB. It went by really fast because we were laughing and attempting to sing the whole time, which is honestly another workout in and of itself when you are running! My legs felt good today. 

Rough workout for me today. 1.5 mile warm up, 6x1000m at 2 mile race pace (I'd estimate), 1.5 mile cool down. I got slightly slower down reps 1-4, but then finished faster than all but the first rep on reps 5 and 6. It was as challenging mentally for me as it was physically. I hate doing speedwork on our 4-lane, asphalt, slightly slanted track....I can't wait to be at a college with a regulation track.

1.3 mile warm up, 41 minute run (probably a little over 5 miles) with Evan, and a short cool down. We got bored doing our normal loops and decided to explore a little bit up this slightly overgrown trailhead that we have ran by a few times....I am sworn to secrecy, but I will say we definitely found an awesome new loop to throw in on our long runs!! So awesome we decided we had to keep it to ourselves. Given our little adventuring, today was a really fun practice!

Went with the distance guys to the rec today for a sort of tempo workout. There are 3 loops at the rec: .4, .6, and .8. Our workout was 3 of each at tempo, longest to shortest, with a recovery in between each set. My first set, the 3x.8 (2.4 miles), was at 6:29 pace. 3x.6 (1.8 miles) at about 6:20ish pace.  3x.4 (1.2 miles) at 6:20ish pace again. I felt pretty good today, no complaints! Also threw in half a mile for warmup and 1 mile for cool down.

Just under a mile warm up. Practice handoffs and what not for the first time with the 4x8 teams. We did a full 4x800, then a full 4x400 (both at almost-race-pace). 20 minute jog afterwards. 

Jonathan came home from Rabun Gap for his spring break! So we went to Western and did a nice long run - 9 miles easy. I thought my legs were going to be really worn out for some reason but I actually felt really, really good. First meet is coming up, next Thursday (weather permitting)!

1 mile warm up, just over 6 miles, gradually speeding up from about 8 minute pace during the first mile to about 6:50 pace by the last mile. It was a very hilly 6 miles. I took on every hill I saw within a 3 mile radius of campus, so my calves are really tight and tired. Other than that, I felt good!

Today was our 1st mile repeats day of the season (yay...?)! To be honest, I despise mile repeats more than any other workout. But we only did 3 today, and they weren't all that fast now that I think about it, so I didn't mind them so much today. My goal was to be sub-7 and get faster on each one. I hit 7:02, 6:42, 6:37, with 2 and half minutes of walking between each one. 1.3 mile warm up and 1.8ish mile cool down. Lifted afterwards, then stretched.

.8 mile warm up, 3 miles moderately paced, 8x100m strides, .5 mile cool down. Muscles were a little tight today. They really only started to feel loose during my cool down. Thank goodness I am missing my meet tomorrow, I am not at all mentally prepared for it!

Went to Greensboro to watch the 4th round of state playoffs today so I didn't get a run in, but I did a full body circuit before school. My arms are a little sore from that!

30 minute run + warm up and cool down. My mind is just totally not focused on running this week...all I can think about is basketball playoffs and how excited I am for the 5th round this weekend! If we win this we go to the state championship!! Hopefully I'll be a little more focused next week.

It was absolutely beautiful outside today!! Felt like summer! I did 2.2 mile warm up, strides and dynamics, then 6x400m at mile race pace, 1200m of sprint 200/jog 200, full body strength circuit, 1.5 mile cool down, & finished it off with an ice bath. I still wasn't quite all-in mentally...but it ended up alright. I got SO sunburnt though! Next time I spend like 3 hours on the track, suncreen it is.

.75 mile warm up, 30 minute easy pre-meet jog, and lots of stretching. First meet tomorrow, but its really more like a competitive practice because it is in GA and isn't sactioned. I think I am going to run the 800 and 3200.

My 2 mile was terrible. I ran a 12:13 at indoor states, and a 12:42 today. It wasn't even that it hurt so badly physically as mentally. I was just readyto stop by the end of the 3rd lap...I kept making mental excuses like the heat and the fact that its only the first meet. I just didn't have any motivation or love for the sport. My 800 was a lot better. I prayed a lot about it after the 2 mile and so that is totally thanks to God. I was shooting for sub-2:45 and ran a 2:42 and won pretty easily. There was barely any competition though so the win didn't mean much. Something needs to change...I'm not happy with today.

.9 mile warm up. We were supposed to fo 6x800 but I thought that was ridiculous the day after a meet and 2 days before another meet...so I had us do 5, and they were more like 775's because our track is too short. It was a stupid workout and I was really unhappy about having to do speedwork in a situation like this. The wind was blowing SO hard too and it was raining at times. 1 mile cool down. 

Easy pre-meet jog by myself, with 5x80m strides afterwards. I am running the mile and 800 tomorrow. I'm really just happy to have a little break from the 2 mile, which I have done in every single meet since the first meet my junior year. I'm trying to take tomorrow as more of a speed workout day and not get to mentally wrapped up in these early-season meets. I may even get a few extra miles in afterwards seeing as we haven't done crap for mileage this week. I've gotta start doing more on my own...

Second meet of the season (and week) today! I feel so, so good about today. I had the worst mentality after Tuesday's meet about my track career and running in general. I think part of what made today so much more successful was that this is the first time since the beginning of my junior year that I haven't ran the 2 mile in a meet. It felt really fun and gave me a break mentally to be able to enjoy some quicker races. So I won the 1600 in 5:44.7 (recorded at 5:45) and also the 800 in 2:37.8 (recorded at 2:38). Both of those met regional qualifying time. And to top off a fun meet, I was named female runner MVP of the meet. I feel super thankful that God just totally turned my mind around and helped restore my love for the sport. 

2.5 mile cool down jog around Franklin's campus after the meet. Probably about 2 miles total for warm up for my events.

Today sucked. I planned a long run, 8 miles or so, but I literally could barely walk 30 minutes in because my calves tightened up so badly. I don't know what happened. They felt like steel. I slowly made my way back to the track and rested and massaged them for a little while. After they started feeling a little better, I did 1 mile of sprint the straights/easy jog the curves (averaged out and finished at 7:31) just to get some sort of a workout in. 1.1 mile easy cool down and lots of stretching afterwards.

Easy pre-meet with the boys. Uneventful practice, which I guess is a good thing the day before a meet!

Ran the 2 mile and the 800 together for the first time ever today. They are only 1 event apart, the 200m nevertheless, so barely any rest time (with the 2 mile being the lattter). I figured it would make me tougher though, and the 2 mile may seem easier in the future when I am fresh! I won both of them but competition was easy. 2:41 and 12:36. I was tired but I felt really strong in my 2 mile (my 2nd mile was faster than my 1st?), and I know I could have done much better with competition. 

Long warm up and cool down because it was so cold.

.75 mile warm up, 30 minute fartlek run (1 minute hard/1 minute easy x 15), .8 mile cool down. I can feel myself falling back into love with running after the bad week I had last week. I love this feeling.

Coach had a long-speed workout for us today (3x2 miles) but my legs were just not feeling it after 3 meets in 7 days, so I went to Western and did a long, slow run. 72 minutes so I'm guessing a little over 9 miles, plus a .55 mile warm up. I felt wonderful today! I didn't have a very good day but long runs always make my day, and today was no exception. I'm so thankful to be able to run!!

.75 mile warm up, then we headed over to the cemetery for some hill sprints. 10 sprints, each progressively longer and steeper, starting at about 80 meters and ending around 120. These were really, really easy for me, and for most of the cross country runners. Everyone else thought it was awful (haha). 20 minute run afterwards. 

Big meet Tuesday...but I didn't really want to get another 5 or 6 miler in because I felt like I wanted to get a little bit of a speed workout in. 2.2 mile warm up, 3x1200m at 3200 race pace. I hit 4:41/4:41/4:45, which is a little slower than race pace, but I'm not too concerned because I know I could have done better, but I didn't want to kill myself with the meet in 2 days. I worked mainly on getting progressively faster with each lap during each rep, which worked out well. 2.2 mile cool down.

Fairly easy pre-meet today. 1 mile up-tempo (but not quite tempo pace) on the track - 7:15. Then 2(ish) miles on the grass down below. They were supposed to be easy...but for several reasons I won't really go into, they didn't actually feel very easy. Had to ice my tight calves afterwards.

Meet got cancelled today because it was pouring the snow. So I went to Western and did a little 6-miler. My watch actually stopped working (not sure if it basically froze or if the battery just died because it was still relatively new?) a few minutes in so I have no idea what pace I was at but I would guess maybe 8 flat on average, 7:50 average tops. Afterwards, 4x200m sprints on the track to loosen my legs back up, then short cool down and stretching. The snow didn't really bother me, it was actually really pretty at times because the sun would come out while it snowed and it looked like heaven! I'm kind of thankful to get to see God's handiwork like that today, there's no way I would hve noticed any of that if we had a meet.

Pisgah meet tomorrow, so practice was relatively easy today. We did an 800 and a 1600 on the track, supposedly "up-tempo," but honestly I knew I was taking it fairly easy (about 3:20 and 7:25). 20 minute jog afterwards, which felt really good. No tightness in my calves today!

I'm not sure what I want to run tomorrow...I have never ran the 3200, 1600, and 800 altogether, so I thought this might be a good time (before we get to our conference/regional/state meets) to try it and toughen up a little bit. If you can do it when you're tired, you can do it when you're fresh, right? I'll have to look into it a little more though. In any case, I'll be doing at least two of the three. 

Today I ran, for the first time, all 3 (800, 1600, 3200). I feel like a wimp saying this because I know some runners do that every meet...but it was so hard for me. I don't know... I was just absolutely exhausted - maybe mentally even more than physically - by the 2 mile. My 800 went fine, I placed 3rd with a 2:39 which is 2 seconds off of my PR. 1600 went fine also, I placed 2nd with a 5:49 which is 6 or 7 seconds off my PR. My 3200 was absolutely terrible though. I had an awful mindset going into it ("ehh, maybe I'll just tempo it?") and it showed. I ran a 12:48 or something, which is the second worst time I've ever ran the 2 mile in. I'd like to think that was just because I had never done it after already having ran the mile and 800...but honestly I think I just sucked and that's all there is to say. I'm so glad this meet is over. I'm a little pissed and ready to go get better tomorrow.

I had such a great recovery run today! I planned on doing a solid 5 miles at my usual 7:50-8 recovery pace, but it was sprinkling rain and just felt so good out that I ended up doing 6 miles before I even realized it, and at a 7:20-7:40 pace (depending on the hills in that mile). It didn't phase me at all, I felt so strong and capable the whole time. Best run I've had in a few weeks!

Lots of core work and a little bit of upper body afterwards. 

AM - 3 miles easy. It is really windy today but it was a beautiful little run! God is so good.

PM - Got some mile repeats in at the track at FHS after 4-wheeling for the afternoon with Harrison! He timed my splits for 4x1600. I wanted them between 6:15-6:30 but the wind was so bad that I wasn't gonna be too upset if I wasn't right on, but they went well enough. I hit 6:18/6:22/6:34/6:??...for that last one, I did continuous 200's (jog 200/fast 200) within the mile so Harrison was getting my 200 splits (39/39/39/38) which is why we didn't get a full time. 1.25 mile warm up and .55 mile cooldown.

Easy 7(ish) mile recovery run + 6x100m strides and an ice bath. Felt alright except my left leg/foot was hurting me really bad for the first few miles. I have no clue why. It is like a pain in the middle of my foot with every left stride that stretches up through my fibula - not my calf or achilles but it sort of feels like it hurts from the inside. I think I am gonna do a tempo run tomorrow so hopefully it will feel better after a night's rest.

Well after school today someone backed into my car so I had to stand around at the high school with the state trooper and all that until 4:10, and by the time I got to the rec and changed, I had less than an hour to get in my workout before 5:30 when I had to babysit. I stuck with my workout but had to shorten my warm up and cool down a lot. So .6 mile warm up, 3 mile tempo run, 1.3 mile cool down. My mile splits were 6:56, 7:03, 7:08 for a 21:07 3 miler (approx. 21:45 5k pace?). I felt like I was going really slow. That may have had something to do with the weather finally being so warm, I'm not sure. This was my first continuous tempo since indoor season though, and I remember now why I hated these so much. I would take a 10 mile run or any speed work over tempo runs, I don't know what it is!

Pre-meet today. 13 minutes in the grass with the girls, then I went off and did another 10 with Evan. Stretched and iced afterwards. I am really nervous about tomorrow because it is every team in our conference except West Henderson (not really worried about anyone there though). This is the first time I will see most of our conference teams.

Today was probably the easiest meet I've had so far, not because of the lack of competition (it was probably the biggest meet we have been at) but because of my events. All I did today was the 4x800 and the mile. I was anchor leg on the 4x8 and we were losing so bad at that point that Coach D just told me to take it easy so I could put up a solid time in the mile. I basically up-tempo jogged it with a 2:55ish split. My mile went pretty well. I won, but this was the first win that I felt that I actually earned (haven't had much competition in any of my other wins). Colbie Williamson was right behind me really forcing me to push my pace for the first 3 laps. She faded off a little bit the last lap, but I never really struggle with the last lap anyways. I was really thankful to have her pushing me because I was worried I wouldn't put up a good time with the heat and humidity being so high. I ran a 5:45.7 and I think Colbie ran around a 5:51 or so. I was pretty satisfied with that under the conditions, but I really need to start PRing again (sub-5:42). We have a huge meet on Saturday so I didn't want to jump in the 2 mile too, but I went ahead and did a 2 mile cool down.

Practice got cancelled so I went and did a pre-meet 3 miles easy and 6x100m strides. I'm feeling so ready for tomorrow. This is by far the biggest meet we will have gone to this season (like 20+ teams) so there should be lots of competition. I'm feeling really good mentally, I am determined to go ahead and start setting some PR's here in these next few weeks.

Opened today up around 10:15am with the 4x800! We were ranked 8th out of 9 I believe, but only 6 teams showed and we ended up 4th. So I was proud of them for that. I have no clue what my split was but I felt really strong!! It was a good warm up if nothing else.

My 2 mile wasn't untill about 4:50, so needless to say I had lots of down time today. Luckily I brought my Eno so I spent most of the day hammocking underneath the bleachers in the shade so the sun wouldn't wear me out. Warmed up a mile with Shawnda Martin. My gameplan for today was to run a fast 1st mile to bank some time for when I get tired on laps 5 and 6. It worked out pretty well I think - I usually run like a 6:10ish mile split and today I hit 6:03. I think I slowed a lot on the 5th but I know I had a really good last lap. I didn't have anyone anywhere near me the entire race, but competing for the clock gave me some solid motivation. Came out in 3rd, after this little prodigee from East Lincoln and Shawnda, with a 12:23. That wasn't a PR but it was an SB, which I was happy enough with considering the heat. Mile cool down afterwards. 

Later we went through Wofford because we were so close anyways and I wanted to stop and look at the track again. We got there and I realized today was the Terrier Relays!! Super lucky coincidence! It was so fun to end the day catching up with all my college friends from WCU and Wofford. Coach Bomar is going to send me my National Letter of Intent soon so I can go ahead and sign. I can't wait!!

Went with Nancy (she's finally home for spring break! Yay!) to Wayensville and got in a 30 minute recovery run, then hopped in the pool for a swim workout. I suck incredibly badly at swimming! But between laps, kicks, and aqua jogging, we probably swam about 1000 meters or so total but I'm not really sure. As far as recovery days go, I'm pretty exhausted!

Got in 51 minutes fairly easy on my feet today. It was raining, which felt amazing! I didn't even want to stop, but I gotta taper down a little bit for conference on Wednesday. I'm so excited for spring break training when I have time to do 2-a-days and make up my own workouts (which of course will be a lot harder than our school ones). I'm pumped to start gearing up towards my peak!!

Easy pre-meet with the boys today. Conference is tomorrow! I'm going to be running the 16 and 32. The weather looks pretty sketchy but I really hope it doesn't get cancelled, I'm feeling ready. I don't really know what I am expecting out of myself or even what my goals for tomorrow are...I am just wanting to run my absolute hardest and race smart, especially in the 1st half of my events. I don't have a very good idea about my competition so I don't know about placing, but I am ready to pop out some solid times.

Well, there went my last high school conference meet! I ran the mile and the 2 mile as planned, and I stayed true to both of my rankings (3rd and 2nd, respectively). I don't have the official results yet but I think it was either high 5:42 or low 5:43 in the mile, so possibly a PR, and a 12:30 in the mile. I wasn't very happy with my 3200 time but I didn't let it get me down because it is my last conference meet and I really just wanted to have fun with it. It was such a fun meet. For some reason I can't help but feel like I could have ran faster in both races...I didn't feel like I was about to pass out or throw up or something after either one like I should if it was my hardest. But I actually find that encouraging because those weren't bad times, and yet I know I still have lots of time I could drop. 

Recovery run day! .4 mile warm up, easy 35 minute run, upper body circuit, and stretching. 

8AM - 3.1 miles easy

Afternoon - 6ish miles. Maybe a little more. I started out easy but by the time I finished I was pushing tempo pace for the last mile or so. Honestly this was one of the best runs I have ever had in my whole life!! It was such a beautiful day and I went exploring a new place out in Cullowhee I've never ran or driven, and I couldn't stop smiling the entire time because of how in awe I was of God's handiwork! I ran through all these big open fields framed by the mountains on all sides with the sun in the back...it was so gorgeous. It is such an incredible blessing how God uses running, something I love, to show me more about his glory and just how great he is!

I had to do my workout on the 800m dirt path at western because they had their home meet today. So I did a 1.1 mile warm up, then 2x(800, 1600, 800), so 2 mile repeats and 4 800 repeats all together, with a 90 second rest between repeats and a 5 minute recovery between the two sets. My splits were pretty consistent, around tempo pace (6:35ish) except for my first 800, which was 3:02. It was like 80 degrees and blaring the sun, and the dirt track has an incline, so I felt pretty good about my performance all things considered! I cooled down a mile over to the track to watch the meet and hang out with the Wofford team afterwards. I am so sunburnt.

2 miles easy a few hours later after I left the wcu meet. Didn't feel easy. I'm excited about having dinner with the Wofford team in a little while!

Sunday long run! I couldn't find anyone to run with me today, so I put down a solo 10 miler. Felt good mentally, I was enjoying myself - I didn't even think to check my watch until I was already 53 minutes in! Physically, I felt fine except I had to stop like twice for a few seconds because of a bad side stitch (didn't drink any water all day). It is finally nice and warm out, it feels so good to be running in the heat again. Ice bathed in the river for 20 minutes afterwards. 

Went to the rec and did a 3.5ish mile tempo run sandwiched between a 2.1 mile warm up and a 2 mile cool down. For once in my life (literally) I enjoyed this tempo run! My splits were awesome, way faster than my usual 6:55-7 tempo pace. I hit 6:50 in the first mile, and then my 2nd and 3rd miles together were 13:10 or so, (6:35/mile) so I even negative split today! Hit the 5k just under 21, which made me really happy because I didn't even do that going all out in a few of my first races during XC season. Granted the rec terrain is very flat. But anyways, I finished it out at 23:10. I felt really strong the whole time and I had a good mentality about it today. I am hanging out with Tori and Taylor for the day but if I can find some time I hope I can get a little more mileage in later today!

AM- full body general strength circuit. Especially lots of abs.

PM- late night run around campus. 6.1 miler with 5x100-150m strides thrown in the middle just to keep me from getting too comfortable. Did a quick speed sesh afterwards. It was already pitch black out so I didn't want to be out there much longer. I did 2 sets of 4x200m sprints with 45 seconds between each rep and 3 minutes between sets. I was hoping for 38's and I hit 37's for every single one except the first (36) and last (35). Short cool down afterwards. I feel good about today!!

Easy pre-meet with Harrison and Caleb. I am feeling so good about tomorrow! Been training so hard this past week and I'm ready to do my thing!

Today I ran the mile and 2 mile. I was seeded 4th in the mile and 2nd in the 2 mile and I stayed true to both of those rankings, so that was fine, but I was particularly happy about my times. I set a PR in the mile with a 5:38 (& change) and a SB in the 2 mile with a 12:17 (& change). It was also pretty hot out, so considering my PR's were both previously set in indoor with perfect conditions, I was pretty excited about that. I feel like I needed a PR really badly from a mental standpoint, because I hadn't PR'd this whole outdoor season yet. And I've never broken 5:40 in the mile, so that was definitely a big milestone for me. After the mile I cooled down with Brooke Turner and waited for my 2 mile. My mindset was solid in both races, I wasn't really dreading them or wanting them to be over. I enjoyed them. It's always fun to see hard work pay off!

1.4 mile cool down afterwards.

6.5 miles on the treadmill (dreadmill), working on getting faster as I go. First 2 miles at 8:00 pace, next 2 at 7:50, 5th at 7:30 and last one around 7:25. Easy .5 mile cooldown. Lifted weights afterwards.

Easy 10 miles on this sunday funday, or a little over. Ice bath afterwards. Felt good except I had to stop to use the bathroom at one point, which made me mad because then its like I got a break in the middle of my run, which defeats the whole purpose of a continuous long run. But oh well! It was an absolutely beautiful day; completely fitting weather for the day Jesus rose from the grave!! It's so cool to be able to worship and know God more fully through my running. Happy Easter!

Crappy workout for me today. Mile warm up, then I was hoping for some speedwork. But no one else on my team had ran like the entire break so my coach wasn't about to kick off our first day back with speed work. So she just told us to go do 2 Ashe Loops (1.5 miles of rolling hills), which I thought was weak, so I planned to do 3 of those and then some 150m kick repeats. But I only got halfway done with the second loop when I had to stop and walk because I had to go to the bathroom so badly...this happened yesterday too. I was mad. I was slow and bad on the 2 and a half miles that I did do anyways. So I basically walked the last half mile back to the school and was so angry at myself and a few other things that I just left.

I went home and did 4 hard miles around Buchanan loop (2 miles of rolling hills) on my own. Being so angry from practice really fueled me and I worked hard at these. Finished at a 7:16 avg pace, which was pretty solid considering it is somewhat of a hill workout. I'm glad I got some sort of a workout in today...Lord knows I didn't get it at practice.

Awesome workout today!! I hit or went under on all my splits. Started with a 1.5 mile warm up, strides, drills.

2x200m fast but not all out w/ 200m reco jog between: I hit 35, 37. 

800m @ 2-3 seconds slower than mile race pace (2:51-52): I hit 2:49, which is my mile race pace.

800m @ mile race pace: 2:49 again. 

3x300m @ mile race pace (64-65) with a 100m reco jog between: 62, 61, 61

3x200m @ 800m race pace (38-39) with a 100m reco jog between: 38, 38, 35

1.75 mile cool down and stretching afterwards. I had such a good time with this. I kept expecting myself to get really tired and not be able to hit the next split honestly, but then I kept surprising myself. I felt like the rest time between sets (3-5 minutes) was very forgiving, so that may have helped with me hitting or going under on all my splits. If I do this workout again sometime I might modify that to a little less. The weather was also wonderful today! Pretty windy but other than that, I was running right at sunset and I just couldn't stop thinking about how blessed I am to be able to do what I do. 

I'm excited and relieved to finally be able to say I will be running D1 track and cross country at Wofford College! Livin my dream! I officially sent in my National Letter of Intent today, it's a done deal. Such an incredible blessing!

So after I signed I headed to the rec and did a 30 minute fartlek run of 5x6min intervals (3 min hard/3 min easy). The harder pace was probably somewhere near 3200m race pace. Some of the intervals were harder than others depending on the hills but it was a pretty challenging workout through and through. Afterwards I popped over to Western for some speedwork. I did 2 sets of 5x200m fast, like 800m race pace, with 40 seconds rest between each rep and 5 minutes between sets. I was aiming for 39's and hit mostly 37's, and a couple 38's. 1 was a 40, but that was because this group of guys was completely oblivious taking up lanes 1-3 so I had to veer out to lane 4 on that one. Felt pretty strong on these though and I was happy with my splits! Did some hurdle drills for my hip flexors and a 1 mile cool down afterwards. I can feel myself getting better. If I can get my mind under me too, I think I am gradually putting myself in a position to set a solid PR at regionals!

Half mile warm up, and then yet another day of speedwork. Coach D just had us do 4x800 at race pace (3200 pace, around 3:04) for the first 700, then all out sprint for the last 100m. I kind of threw the race pace thing out the window and hoped to just make them progressive and get faster with each rep. I hit 3:07, 2:59, 2:59, 2:53.

4 miles "easy" afterwards...didn't feel very easy. My legs are so tired. I guess that is to be expected though. It's a good kind of tired though, I feel like this has been a much needed productive week of practice without having to take easy days for a meet.

Core work, arms, and stretching to finish off the day.

Just over 5 miles easy, but it didn't feel easy at all. My legs are absolutely spent. The only thing that probably would have felt worse than running on them would have been not running on them though, because I could just feel all the tightness and lactic acid in them all day. They loosened up a little bit a few miles in. 6x100m strides afterwords. Then lots of stretching and an ice bath, both of which I think helped a lot. I just could not wait for this run to be over...I probably checked my watch 25 times in the 41 minutes I ran. I may take tomorrow off or just do 2 or 3 miles and then get one more hard speed workout in on Sunday.

So dang sore today. I haven't been this sore in months...maybe years. I am taking the day off but going to the Spring Formal at GWU tonight, so maybe dancing some will loosen my legs up a little.

Only got 3 hours of sleep last night and didn't get back to Sylva until 2. Then I went to the lake with my friends and paddle boarded for a few hours. That was actually a really good core and arm workout. My soreness is getting a little bit better after taking yesterday off. I really wanted to get a workout in after I got home around 6 but I just didn't have it in me after all that in addition to getting no sleep. I layed down to check my messages and ended up just passing out for an hour. I am beyond tired. I am hating myself so badly for not running for 2 days in a row...hopefully I can get a hard workout in tomorrow.

Today's workout was awesome!! I went to Western and warmed up 2.25 miles. The workout was 12x400m at 2-3 seconds faster than 3200m race pace with 1 minute between each. My race pace is 91-92 per lap avg, so I was shooting for 89ish. My splits were 88/88/89/89/88/88/88/88/87/89/87/84. I was very pleased with those, and they felt really good too (they better have seeing as I took two days off). The last 3 became pretty challenging but I think I handled them pretty well mentally. After that I did 3 kick finishes (180m, 190m, 200m), working mainly on pumping my arms. 1.75 mile cool down and stretching afterwards. I feel really good about today, and I'm getting so pumped for regionals Saturday! I definitely see a PR in my near future.

Another solid speed sesh today! 1.5 mile warmup, then I did a ladder of 200m, 400m, 800m, 1600m and then back down. I hoped to do the 2's and 4's at 2-3 seconds faster than mile pace, and the 8's and mile at 2-3 seconds faster than 3200 race pace. I hit 39, then 88 (a little slow), then 2:59. The mile was hard, but I came out with a 6:03, which I was happy with seeing as 6:05 is 2-3 seconds faster than race pace. On the way back down, I hit 3:03, 88 again, and 38. The ladder back down was really hard for me, my legs were so tired. So my splits weren't all perfect today but they were solid and I was honestly just proud of myself for finishing through strong with the workout because I had a few different ladders in mind for today that were easier that I could have done instead. I'm glad now that I picked this one though.

2.25 mile cool down and stretching afterwards.

5ish miles. I think I was going at a decent pace, maybe 7:30 or so. Felt pretty easy though.

Core work later on at night.

33 minutes easy around the school, then 8x100m strides. Definitely tapering at this point, and it feels really nice! My legs are feeling good and I am in a great state mentally; my competitive drive is pretty high right now and I am determined to kill it on Saturday!

Pre-meet. I'm feeling so good about tomorrow! This is it. My last regional meet. It's pretty crazy...and I'm ready to make it count. I'm ranked 3rd in the 3200 and 4th in the 1600, and the top 4 move onto state. I'm definitely feeling some good times coming on, but it will be interesting to see how the placing pans out amongst the competition. I've raced all of these girls before and I know some of them are solid, but 2 of them are very inconsistent. They're either really amazing or not good at all, depending on the meet. I expect a good race from everyone tomorrow though, and they best be expecting the same from me! Mind over matter, Jesus over all.

I had a really good mentality going into my mile today. I'm really growing to love the mile, which is strange because I only ran it once or twice last year since I hated it so much. I really thought the 3200 was my race, but I have been dropping time in the 16 like nobody's business and still haven't met my PR from indoor season this outdoor season. So I went out in the mile with a ton of adrenaline. This race is all I had been thinking about all week, so I was so nervous. We got out and I was pretty quickly right at the front with Ladeja and some other girl who just got out too fast. Eliza doesn't like to get out fast so she hung back for the first 2 or 3 hundred meters. We came through the first lap at about 1:18-19. Me, Ladeja, and Eliza started to seperate as the lead pack but still stuck together for the next lap. I can't even remember the rest of our splits because I was just pushing so hard. Lap 4, the 3 of us seperated out a little and we placed as predicted. I had no clue what my time was but I knew it had to be fast because that was the most painful 1600 I'd ever endured. I killed myself on the last lap. I later found out it was 5:31, a 7 second PR, and I was so happy about that! I am dying to break 5:30 but this was a huge step towards that goal! Plus that qulifies me for state, which I never would have thought I would be going to for the mile!

After my mile I felt absolutely terrible. I threw up a few times and couldn't down anything except a few Ritz crackers and water. I had put absolutely every ounce of me into that mile and I had no idea how I was going to be able to run the 2. I warmed up though, which already was hurting really bad, a little bit, but not much because it was extremely hot. The heat was definitely promoting my fatigue. We got on the line and Ladeja basically told me she wasn't going to work hard for this and was just gonna take 4th (she already qualified in 3 other events that she is better at and didn't want to run it at state), which didn't help my motivation at all, but it did help my stress level a little bit because I knew I had 3rd in the bag. We got out well for the first 800 and then definitely started slowin. Mile split was 6:08. Me and Ladeja were going back and forth the first mile but I remembered what she said and I wasn't really worried about her taking a real lead. The last mile was AWFUL and I was just dying inside wanting it to be over. I slowed down to like 1:38 laps when I knew Ladeja had fallen back and I had 3rd easily. Can't remember the last race I wanted to be over this badly. I finished and I didnt care at all about my time. I just was excited about qualifying for states in both of my events and super excited for Eliza because she beat the East Lincoln girl by 20-something seconds who was predicted to win by like 20 seconds. I didn't really cool down, which I am regretting now. Definitely gonna do a good shakeout run tomorrow.

Easy 5ish mile recovery run. My legs were killing me this morning thanks to my lack of a cool down yesterday, so this run really did me some good. I stretched and did a ice bath in the creek afterwards, and they feel amazing now! Freshly worked but well recovered.

.8 mile warm up, then my workout was a 3 mile tempo run on the track. I scheduled this workout more than anything as a mental workout to help me see 8 laps as short if I could do 12. That backfired and I ended up going out way too fast and, as a result, having to stop with 800 to go. I was shooting for 6:45-6:50's or so, and I went out with a 6:34, then a 6:48. With the 2 800m's of the last mile combined, minus the little break I took, the last mile was like 6:58. I don't know if the heat (85 and sunny) had anything to do with all that...but I was so disappointed in myself today for stopping. I've been dwelling on it all night. I couldn't even stick it out for 3 miles??

Anyways...10 minute cool down afterwards.

Very strange workout today....so after a 15 hour work day (got a code 6 from school!), mentally exhausted was an understatement. I finally got to the track around 9:30 and it was already really dark. After I warmed up, a man started walking on the track with his hands behind his back carrying something that the only light on the track would shine off of. Not trying to be dramatic at all but I am like 90% sure it was a blade. So I called Will and asked him to come down (he was in the dorm right across the street) and hang around while I did my workout just to be safe. So anyways I did 4x200 with a 200m jog in between, 3x800, 2x400m. First set was supposed to be 44's, I hit 42, 43, 42, 42. 2nd set was supposed to be mile race pace, or 2:45, but I had a really had time with that, and hit all 3 2:54's. 400's were supposed to be 78-80, and I hit 77, 79. Obviously I am disappointed in my 800's....but I really feel like I worked very hard on them. But then I was pleasantly surprised with the 400's. So then I was supposed to do a 10-15 minute cool down but mine ended up being like 4 and a half because the man freaked me out so bad by standing there on the bleachers - no one else around - watching me. Will had left right before my cool down aynyways so needless to say I wanted out of there. 

30 minute easy run. Didn't feel very easy though. I am definitely not adjusted to this summer weather yet. 6x80 meter strides and some icing on my legs afterwards. Definitely tapering down for state at this point. I think I have done my best to gear up physically these past few weeks, but I just hope I can get things under control mentally. I'm having a really hard time mentally preparing because I am still not sure if I am going to scratch the mile or not. See, the problem is I have a better shot to place well in the 3200 (which is after the 16), but I hate to make it all the way to state for the last meet of my high school career, and then scratch the 1600.

Well, there went the last practice of my high school career. Easy, short run + 6x100m strides. I tried to really just soak in every step and breath and enjoy it. Spent most of the run praying and just thanking God for the past 4 years of running that he has blessed me so greatly with. It's really incredible how it just flew by. I'm ready to go out there and just give it all I've got for Him and use up every ounce of this gift.

Well, my last state meet is tomorrow. It's really hard not to be nostalgic right now. But anyways, we went to Olive Garden and I carb-loaded, then we went back to the hotel and hung out for a while. Later on I did some barefoot strides in the hallways (raining outside) and all of my pre-run dynamic stretching, then static stretched for a little while. I took an ice bath too. I'm feeling good about tomorrow. Doing both the 16 and 32, and I'm gonna try and go all-out in both as long as it doesn't ge too hot. Here goes nothing!

So we got to the track around lunchtime. I watched a few prelims and then went and hammocked with Tori under the bleachers to get out of the sun for a while so I wouldn't be drained. At 2nd call, I checked in for the 1600, warmed up, then hung out under the check-in tent with most of the other milers. My adrenaline was pumping like crazy just talking to all of these girls that I have researched like crazy on MileSplit.

So anyways we finally made our way to the line. There were cameras absolutely everywhere - at least 6 or 7 professional photographers taking pictures and then 1 or 2 guys with those big video cameras that hooked up to the Jumbotron so everyone could see us up close. The mile is definitely a crowd favorite. That was all really overwhelming for me and definitely messed up my focus a little bit. So the gun goes off and we went out pretty fast. The lead girls left immediately and I hung back in my middle pack. First lap was 1:17, and everything stayed the same, then 800m split was 2:42 I think. At this point my legs were feeling so heavy and my mindset started to go downhill. I started thinking about how I still had to do the 2 mile after this, and wondering if I would ever forgive myself if I just gave up and didn't even run it. Needless to say, my 3rd lap was terrible with a 1:28 split. Last lap was a little bit better just because I wanted to be done so bad. I came through at a 5:39, 8 seconds slower than my 5:31 PR from last Saturday, in 9th place (granted, 1 ahead of my 10th place ranking) with no one really near me to challenge me at the end. That isn't an awful time, but seeing as I was dying so bad all season to break into the 5:20's...it was a little (aka, very) disheartening for me that this was my last chance and not only did I not get it, I backtracked.

I changed back into my trainers, took my recovery shake, and went on a short cool down to get some of my lactic acid out. This was my first year doing indoor track, so it was the first year that I ever literally ran all year long...my legs were on the brink of exhaustion and my mind was even worse off, I was driving myself crazy pushing so hard for so long. I started thinking about the 3200m coming up and I broke down. I pulled off during my cool down into a dugout in the softball field behind the stadium and just prayed. I asked God to just take this race from me and do with it what He would. I realized that God is not impressed with my times and his love for me is not reliant on whether I PR or not.

Hung out with my family, Tori, and Joseph for a little while and watched some hurdles and sprints. Then I went and warmed back up for the 2 mile and checked in. I felt really strange when the gun went off. Usually I have a gameplan, a strategy, a list of splits that I am trying to hit. But this time I felt totally unprepared, I didn't have anything. I was just running. First lap was 1:20. For the whole first mile, I was in 9th just drafting off of these two girls right in front of me who were battling back and forth. I felt like I was cruising, but somehow I was hitting my fastest splits all season. First mile was 5:59-6 flat. Right after the mile, I went ahead and pretty easily passed the two girls in front of me and moved into 7th. I thought a good bit about my prayer during the next two laps and that gave me a lot of strength. I was hurting but I knew it would pass eventually. My last lap was really strong, and really sentimental. Every hundred meters, I kept thinking, "This is my last ___ hundred meters of my high school career..." I couldn't breathe anymore at that point, but my legs were feeling so much better than in my mile, and I tried my best to just bust it till the end and finish on empty. My parents said my last 200m was the best kick they ever saw me have. I saw the clock as I came through the line and knew I had PR'd by at least a second, which would be a season best by at least 5 seconds. As I slowed, I smiled, then stumbled into the grass and collapsed. Right as I hit the ground, the rain came down and they announced that we needed to evacuate the stadium, but I was still just trying to breathe well again. Well apparently it was hail and thunder, but I was so gone I don't even remember that. Pretty cool though that that storm held off until right after I finished.

Officially I ran a 12:12.31 and placed 7th, one ahead of my ranking. It's incredibly bittersweet. I don't really know what to think about the race or the meet itself, but I am so thankful for how God worked through me and how he used this meet to teach me to trust in him and not myself. I also just can't believe that I am done with high school running forever. That was it. That being said, I am beyond excited to be a Terrier and I know I will soon break 5:30 and 12 flat with ease once I am training collegiately. I'm so pumped for all that is in store for me at Wofford, because as I look back on my 4 years running here at Smoky, I never would have imagined how blessed I would be. And yet....the best is yet to come.

Kicked off my first day back at it with a little bit of crossfit for general fitness, but no run so to speak. 20 pushups, 20 pullups, and 30 sit ups for a warm up, and then a 12 minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) of 8 pullups/6 dead lifts/4 pushups/400m run. I think I didn't count how many rounds I got in but I think it was 3 or 4.

Just as an update since state, I layed low and rested my body for the last week and a half and loved every minute of it honestly! This is my first real break in a long time, and I needed it mentally even more than I did physically. It was fun to go after school and hang out with my friends or take a nap or just do whatever I want for once. This was the perfect time for my break too because everything is happening all at once this time of year. Last week alone I had my 18th birthday, my official signing (I am now officially running for Wofford! Go Terriers!), academic banquet, NHS banquet, prom, and the Jackson County Hall of Fame ceremony (I have been chosen as the Smoky Mountain HS athlete of the year), and my AP Statistics test. Thank goodness all of that didn't have to happen in conjuntion with my training for state...I would have been overwhelmed.

So anyways, this next week or 2 I am going to take it slow as I get back into things. The last thing I want is to get injured right before I start my collegiate training. Speaking of which, I should get my workout packet for the summer within these next few weeks. 

Went on an easy morning run around Buchanan Loop (2 hilly miles). I felt really weird. Do you ever almost feel like you forgot how to run when you haven't ran in a while? My gait felt funny. But I must have been fine because I finished in just over 14 minutes. I am really sore from crossfit though! Those were definitely muscles I am not used to using.

The rest of the day I spent at the lake wakeboarding and tubing! I'd like to count that as an upperbody workout as well, no joke, because my arms are more sore now than they have been in years from the combination of crossfit friday and this today.

Hiked about a mile up deep creek with a tube today and tubed down the river (total ab workout, I swear)! Went on a late night run around 10 around the neighborhood. I wanted to do 3 miles today but my mom didn't want me gone longer than like 15 minutes in the dark...so I could only get in just over 2. They felt great though! I can't wait to get back into it and start throwing down high mileage this sumer.

Crossfit workout today! We did a warm up of 30 situps, 20 pushups, and 10 pullups. Then a pre-workout of 5x3 push presses. The WOD was a 10 minute AMRAP of 20 double-unders (jump roping where it goes under twie before you hit the ground), 10 box jumps, and 5 wall-walks. The wall-walks were the absolute death of me, I know I am going to be feeling that in my shoulders tomorrow. I'd equate the cardio here to about a mile's worth. 

3 miler around Webster. To be honest I feel absolutely terrible. First of all I am sick, sick, sick. I can't breathe through my nose and my head feels like its gonna explode with every step. Second of all, I can tell I've gotten a little out of shape, which is really frustrating. I mean I am not going any slower really but I feel like I am having to work a lot harder to keep my same semi-easy pace. Can't wait to get outta this phase.

AM - Currently on a little 4-day-weekend vacation with the fam! So my sister and I went on a quick run around the golf course and finished upat the fitness center where I did a leg-day workout. My upper body is still pretty tired from crossfit. 

Afternoon - pool workout!

Went on a 30 minute run around the golf course, then did a core circuit. Felt better than yesterday, but still not great.

Finally got my summer workout packet! Phase 1 is from now until the beginning of July, and it is all general mileage, nothing too bad. Mostly 30-35 miles a week (keep from burning out later). I was supposed to do 4 today but Joseph was coming into town to see me from Virginia and so I didn't have enough time after school - wasn't about to make him wait after he drove like 5 hours. So I only got in like 2 and a half before I knew I was pushing it to be late. No biggie though I guess, they were good and up tempo at least!

4 miles, then crossfit. The workout today was a 12 minute AMPRAP of 100m sprint, 14 V-ups, 7 burpees with a warm up of 10 pull ups, 20 V-ups, and 5 toes-to-bars. 

4 miles all on the track. That is the most I have ever ran continuously on the track, and honestly it was kind of awful. Not physically of course, but mentally. But I wanted to do it because coach Bomar said he will be putting me in the 5k mostly (talking about track) and maybe even the 10k...which both sound absolutely terrible on a track, but maybe if I can just get used to it it will seem manageable. So I might start doing like one of my runs a week on the track, as much as I'll hate it. Anyways, splits were 7:08, 7:09, 7:23, 7:04. Pretty happy with those!

Afterwards, I went to crossfit and did the WOD. Still a 10 pullup, 20 V-up warm up, then the workout was 50 pushups, 50 tricep dips, 50 box jumps, 50 squat thrusts with the 35lbs bar. Almost started crying during my pushups, no joke. Everyone was around me yelling and encouraging me to finish them. Don't really wanna talk about it, but the bottom line is my upper body is so weak and I hate being weak. I just wanna stick to running...which is exactly why I need to do crossfit. Make your weaknesses your strengths.

4 miles fairly easy at the Rec at a 7:44 average pace. Ran into one of my teammates about a mile and a half into it and so I actually had someone to run with for about 2 miles which was really helpful mentally. I haven't been this sore since XC states...crossfit is killing me. Lots of using muscles I never use. I loosened up during the run but now that I'm done it might just hurt worse than before. Can't even sit down in a chair without cringing. Oh well, this too shall pass & I'll be even stronger soon!

4 miles at the high school. Soreness is getting better! It was kind of funny because even though I am done with high school & already took my exams, there are still people (mostly underclassmen) in school. Every time I ran near a window or something I just wanted to be like "SUCKS TO SUCK" hahaha. It's such a great life being done.

5 miles at western at a 7:45ish pace. I felt pretty good for the most part! Hills are still a little rough for me, coming out of training on flat surfaces for track. Did a little bible study under the pavillion afterwards. It's cool to see how God uses running to draw me closer to him by making his strength so apparent in my weakness. Good way to start my morning!

Ran throughout downtown and around dillsboro. My workout plan said 4 miles for today, and I did 4 straight pretty easily and then stopped at the library to go to the bathroom. I easy jogged the maybe 1/3rd of a mile back to my car and then realized I left my keys in the bathroom at the library...so I had to run back and get them, then run back to my car again. All together it was probably 5 miles, even though the last mile was broken up. That was kind of annoying but luckily I felt good!

Well, I graduated high school today. That is really, really weird. My speech went well and I didn't trip, so today is a win in my book! I'm not sure how to feel honestly. Maybe I'll have my thoughts gathered by tomorrow.

We had practice for graduation at 8:30 this morning, so I got my run in at like 7am. Ran from my house down to the high school and back, and then around webster a little bit to accumulate my 4 miles for today. I haven't really ran in the early morning in a few months. I forgot how pretty it is! I want to start waking up earlier to run more often.

Ran 2 times around buchanan loop (2 miles of rolling hills) today! Averaged 7:11 per mile, although I know I wasn't consistent because the 2 splits I did check - first and last miles - were 7:43 and 6:36 respectively. That isn't a bad thing though, because that means I was getting faster as I went, which is always my goal! I really needed this run. I needed to have a few miles that were challenging that I actually enjoyed anyways instead of just wishing they were over. I'm really, really happy with my splits considering all the hills on the loop.

Did my track run for the week today! It actually went incredibly well. I'm sure I'm getting better physically as well, but I can tell my mind is getting stronger. 4 miles of circles can make a person go crazy..still not sure how I am gonna be able to do 10ks on the track. But it went well today! Splits were awesome - 7:15, 7:05, 6:58, 6:44. I am so happy with the habit I am finally developing to get faster as I go. I also threw in a little 100m sprint at some point during each mile just to work on not getting too comfortable.  Stretched and did a little devotional on the track afterwards. Man this was a good way to start my day!

AM - 4 miles pretty relaxed around Webster. Pretty uneventful, which isn't a bad thing I guess.

PM - crossfit workout! June warm-up is still 10 V-ups, 10 pull-ups, and 10 toes-to-bars. The pre-workout was 3x8 medicine ball cleans (used 14lbs). Then the workout was 6 sets of [5 thrusters with the 25lbs bar + 7 box jumps] alternating with 6 sets of [12 lunges with 25 lbs dumbell]. Leg day to say the least. I'm not really tired, persay, but my quads feel like jello.

5 downtown. Felt really good, even though it was in the heat of the day.

Finally heading to myrtle today for our senior trip!!! Me and my girls, nothing better. I'm so excited! Got a quick 5 miles in before we left in the morning. Here's to senior week!! See ya later North Carolina

Woke up early and ran from our hotel to the beach, down the beach a little, and back. A little over 5 I'd say. The beach was so beautiful just after sunrise! Physically I kind of hate running on the beach (Sand definitely works the calves) but it was so pretty I didn't mind. I love little reminders like the beach of how small I am and how big God is.

Did the same route as yesterday on the beach and what not. It was blazing hot today! Other than that everything was great.

We were up till like 3 last night so.....my alarm went off and I just knew it wasn't happening for me this morning. Not that big of a deal though I guess. It's senior week, what can I say.

Up until about 4 last night but I felt bad about not running yesterday so I just buckled down and took to the treadmill and did 4.5 miles increasing speed. Started out at 8 minute pace and finished at 6:31. Probably about 7:20 average though. Then I did a little bit of arms and lots of core, stretched, showered, and went back to sleep!

I was supposed to do this run yesterday buy we got home a lot later than I expected from Myrtle and needless to say I was pooped, so I pretty much just passed out. But anyways, I slept in and ran mid-day in the heat,  which was suprisingly fine with my body. I guess I got a little bit acclimated to the heat at the beach! I did 1 buchanan loop, then down to South River road, all the way down that and back, then back to the loop. It was a solid run except for that killer hill on the way back up from river road. I started side-stitching and could definitely tell as the ran progressed how little water I drank this week. Funny thing though - I actually lost weight over the course of that trip? Who the heck goes essentially on vacation and looses weight?? Not surprised though because I ran, danced, biked, and swam so much, in combination with the fact that we are broke teenagers and really barely ate except for dinner because decent food is expensive these days. SUCH a fun week though, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Oh & also, I didn't mention my pace because my watch somehow died or broke or something in the saltwater so I had to run this naked. It was actually really awesome and freeing because I am definitely one of those people who is constantly worrying about my splits. Maybe I'll do more naked runs in places like this where I know my exact mileage anyways from now on.

30 minutes easy today around the rec center. I really need to start hydrating again...

On the upside I bought a new watch and it is so sick! By far nicest one I've ever had!

4 miles at western in the rain! First mile was 7:08, after that I left the track and went off on campus so I'm not sure about the splits.

AM - 30 minute run at the high school. Felt pretty strong. I probably averaged about a 7:20 pace or so. Lots on my mind lately... I'm realy thankful for the outlet that running is. If nothing else, at least I got to think and stress about nothing for that 30 minutes today.

PM - Crossfit workout. 12 minute AMRAP of 400m run/40 air squats/30 sit-ups/20 plank raises/10 pistols (one legged squats). Each round took a long time to do so I only got 2 rounds in, and then the first 400m of the 3rd round. So total: 1200m, 80 air squats, 60 sit-ups, 40 plank raises, and 10 one-legged squats on each leg. 

30 minute run in webster. Probably about a 7:20 average pace.

Late night run! 4 miles training jog on my training schedule somehow almost turned into a 4 mile tempo tonight on Buchanan Loop, which is basically 2 miles of hillwork. Up down up down up down. But do you ever have those runs when you just feel invincible? No hill or pace can phase you? That was me for a while tonight. It wasn't even that I pushed that hard, I just didn't even realize I was going that fast until the last mile. Averaged 7:07, which isn't that fast in and of itself but it is for all of the hills! So I was really happy with that. I am supposed to take this weekend off, which I am surprisingly bummed about after this encouraging run. I was excited about running tomorrow morning, but nope. I totally trust my coach though and I know that he knows best and I shouldn't do any more (or less) than he says.

Core workout and 20 minutes of stretching in the AM just to loosen up and stay healthy today.

Pretty terrible run today. Didn't drink any water today and it was also midday in the humidity, or maybe its just a monday thing. Side-stitched a lot and felt really heavy like I was going at a 9 minute pace... about a 7:55 average pace, but I know my first two miles were more like 7:30, so I definitely slowed a lot as I went on.

Ran downtown today. Katie ran with me for the first 3 miles, then she went to the pool. I went on for 2 more and then met her back at the pool for a pool workout.

Did 200m of freestyle and then aquajogged (full body weight, no flotation helper) for 5 minutes. Then I did a set of 50 kicks each leg holding the side, focusing on pushing up to work my quads, and 50 pulling down to work my hammy's. Then I did 3x1min treading water using only my arms, which was actually really difficult for me. I am still feeling it in my triceps! 5 minutes normal treading as a sort of cool down. I feel good about today! Felt a lot better running than yesterday, that's for sure!

Good run down north river road and back up to my house! Best run in a long time actually. There was no point in the run that I was just wanting it to be over, I genuiniely enjoyed it and just paid a lot of attention to the feeling of my breathing and of the wind and how blessed I am to experience these things. And for maybe only the second time ever, the hill back up to webster didn't even phase me. I felt so strong and confident up it, and that doesn't happen often because that is one of the worst hills in sylva that I run anywhere due to its combo of steepness and length. Just super thankful this morning for all of God's blessings on me, especially running.

Also, I just changed my goal type from "Highschool Champ" to "NCAA champ"....how symbollic. Finally moving on up! It's so real. I also just got phase II of my summer training last night. It's definitely stepping it up a notch starting next week. I am excited though!

5 on campus at Western. Did the first mile and a half with Duncan and Evan, but they had already gotten like 4 in beforehand so they stopped. I felt really great the whole run. I am seeing such a difference lately in how I feel on hills. I thought yesterday might have just been one of those random super good days but honestly I felt the same on the hills today! Hardly phased me. Anyways, probably held up about a 7:35 avg pace.

Easy run through Webster.

6 miles of exploring new parts of campus I've never been to for some reason! I really, really enjoyed this run. 7:50ish pace.

I am leaving for camp today! I am going to use my day off for one of the days I'm there but that means I'll still have to run for 2. Yay for waking up at 6am before all the other campers.

Estimating on the distance. Woke up at 5:30am to go run before breakfast at camp! Chelsea Treadway, one of the counselors who runs at Samford, has to run in the mornings too, so I went with her to campus. She did a bike workout actually (coming back from injury) while I ran. It was surprisingly cold for this time of year, but I warmed up eventually. I'm glad I got that out of the way though so I don't have to dread waking up so early tomorrow.

38 minute run throughout Webster. I am so completely worn out from camp, in the best way possible though. I had a hard time keeping my eyes open at times during my run. That's when you know it's bad! Still, I am just so thankful for the awesome past few days the Lord has blessed me with. It was really cool to see other people there who I know don't really know Jesus just begin to blossom and to watch the way God was drawing them nearer. As a believer though, it really reinvigorated me and overwhelmed me at times with just how good and faithful He is. I needed that!

Ran from my house, down to the high school, then did about 2 and a half miles there, then back.  Pace varied a lot depending on hills but I'd say maybe 7:45 average. The first half of my run was really good, but then I really began to start feeling lots of fatigue in my arms all throughout the second half, especially on hills. They are still really sore from tubing off the jet-ski's at camp Sunday. Thank goodness I wasn't having to do speedwork or something instead today! One plus though is that the weather was absolutely fantastic this morning. I'm having lunch on the parkway with our local journalist for the sports section of the paper, so it is shaping up to be a beautiful day to be up in the Smokies!

Core workout later on in the night.

Fairly easy run throughout downtown. Threw some solid hills in there, but they felt alright. All I know is I've gotta start waking up earlier and getting my run in at like 8 instead of 11. I'd probably feel a lot better if I wasn't burning up!

7 miles easy around Cullowhee, then finished up at the track with 6x(20 seconds hard, 40 seconds easy) barefoot in the grass, and threw in an extra 20 seconds hard at the end. Felt nice to do a little bit of speed, even if it was only for 20 seconds at a time.

5 miles around campus with Joseph! Probably about a 7:30-40 pace. He is staying with me for the weekend so it was really nice that I had someone to run with for once!

Did my run right in the heat of the day, which was a big mistake of course. Had to stop a few times because my lower calves were so tight. It hurt to even stretch them, and then when I tried to massage them they were so tight they felt like metal.

Crossfit workout afterwards really kicked my butt! Warmup of 10 pullups, 10 situps, 10 airsquats. Workout was 3 rounds of 100 jump-rope jumps + 15 hang cleans....5 minute rest...3 rounds of 30 sit-ups + 10 pushups...5 minute rest....3 rounds of 20 backsquats + 20 handstand pushups. The handstand pushups killed me having already done all the other arm stuff. Upper body is just not my forte. Typical distance runner probs I guess!

Worked from 5:30am-8pm today, so when my 5 mile run afterwards felt so good that I threw in another mile just because, you can imagine I was incredibly pleasantly surprised at how not tired I was haha! Plus, it was at a really solid pace. Probably about 7:20-30 avg for the 6 miles. 2 things I love are early morning runs and late night runs, and this is why! I don't think I've ever ran really early in the morning or really late at night and not had a good run. Praising God for this awesome ability/sport tonight.

2 mile warm up, 10x30 second hill sprints with 90 sec jog in between, mile cool down. I made that 11x30sec repeats actually. This was our first structured workout of the summer! I feel pretty good about it. I'm going camping tonight so I probably won't get my long run in tomorrow until nighttime unless we leave really early!

7 miles easy throughout Cullowhee. I'd guess about a 7:45 pace average. I felt great, felt like I ran really smoothly. 6 20/40's afterwards (20 sec hard, 40 easy) barefoot on the infield at the track.

Orientation is tomorrow!! I'm hoping to get my run in on campus sometime in the evening, maybe even with one of my older teammates who is down there already. I can't wait!

5 miles easy on campus at Wofford with one of my new teammates, Stacey, after orientation! Really easy conversation pace, kind of exploring around campus. Man I can't wait to move in!!

After the run I had to go get my physical, so I just ran back to our hotel after that.

Ran after I got home today...pretty sad to leave Wofford.

2 mile warm up, fartlek run, and a little over a mile cool down. The fartlek was 30 sec easy, 30 hard, 60 easy, 60 hard, 2 min easy, 2 hard, 5 easy, and then back down the ladder. 19 minutes total. Didn't feel great, I haven't really ran a workout of drastic pace-changing since outdoor track! Still getting back into things I guess!

I wanted this to be a recovery run between my fartlek and possibly hills tomorrow, but it ended up feeling like one of the hardest workouts of the summer. Just felt like I was going 2 miles an hour and it felt like it lasted hours when it was really only like 47 minutes...ever have those days? It was just bad bad bad. Not sure what went wrong.

2 mile warm up, 10x60sec hill repeats with 2 minutes jog recovery, 1 mile cool down. These got me, I was definitely feeling the burn. I did them on the big hill of buchanan loop. But I never stopped or noticeably slowed so I am pretty happy with my efforts!

Did a little out and back through Western and down into Cullowhee a little bit! I actually purposefully waited until mid-day when it was hottest because I am worried about not being acclimated to Spartanburg when I move down for training on the 20th. But it ended up feeling fantastic, so I guess I'm not so worried. About a 7:50 pace I'd say.

Funny side note - at one point a post office car drove past me and the guy shouted out "oh hey, girl who runs everywhere!" I got a kick out of that haha.

Tempo workout today, once again in the heat of the day. I warmed up a loop on Western's XC course (1 loop is about a mile), then did my dynamics and tempo on the track. 4 miles, splits were 7:03/7:06/7:15/7:07, which I was pretty happy with. Doing tempos on the track is always SO challenging for me mentally. Definitely a lot of circles. But because of that, it's always so encouraging and motivating when I finally make it through the workout and can look back and know I didn't give in. 

Full-body strength circuit (bodyweight) afterwards, then another XC loop for a cool down. Ice bath in the river after that!

Supposed to be a 6 mile run....ended up being a little less, and with 2 breaks. Not happy about that. Not because I was tired, but because what I ate at this restaraunt last night just made me feel so sick and my stomach felt really upset during most of the run. Had to stop twice to go to the bathroom. As far as the running goes, I actually felt really good! Legs felt great.

Doing a little hiking and swimming later, maybe that will compensate (at least mentally, if nothing else).

7 miles easy, with 6 20/40's (20 sec hard, 40 easy) thrown in torwards the end to wake up the legs. Ran smoothly at an easy 8:00ish pace, maybe 7:50 for a few miles.

I am leaving for camp this afternoon till Wednesday, so I will have to get my runs in each day at like 5am.......not sure how I feel about that. I'm excited right now but I feel like I may be taking that statement back tomorrow morning :) just gotta do my best though!

Side note - I weighed myself at the rec 2 days ago for the first time in a few weeks, and I was like 133.5lbs, 8 pounds heavier than I've ever weighed myself at. I know weight can vary from day to day and there's a lot of variables there, but say that varied even a generous 3 lbs, that's still 5 lbs I've gained at least. I haven't been doing heavy lifting or anything that would put on muscle bulk, so I'm pretty sure it has to be fat weight. Feeling pretty crappy about that. I made this account on the livestrong.com website to log my meals and workouts and track my caloric intake. So far its been holding me a lot more accountable. My problem is not that I eat so badly...it's that I eat waaaay too much. I may have multi-grain cheerios for breakfast, but I'll have like 3 servings. So hopefully if I can adjust my serving sizes and skip a few desserts per week, I can hover back around 125 (or less, with any luck) by the time I head over to Wofford for training in a few weeks.

7 mile negative split run. Did an out and back through Cullowhee and turned around at 28 minutes (guessing that's about 3.5 miles, halfway, if I was going 8min pace or so) and made it back the same distance in 24:34, so I was pretty satisfied in that. Had to stop and go to the bathroom in the woods about 2 miles in...this is becoming somewhat of a regular habit now for my body and I'm kind of frustrated about that. It feels like I'm cheating when I have to stop.

6 miles around WCU around 6:45am before a jam packed camp day. Felt good, refreshing, and fun!

Back from camp! I was pretty tired but I buckled down and headed out for a long run. About an 8 minute pace with 6 20/40's (20 sec hard, 40 sec easy) mixed in torwards the end. It ended up feeling absolutely fantastic, not just running-wise but also just environmentally. It was like fall today! I was just so happy the whole time, a) because I felt so good out there and b) to just be able to soak in how awesome it is that God gave me this ability and this beautiful place to use it in. This is why I love me some long run days!

Good, easy run around the rec center & speedwell. 8 minute pace or so, maybe 7:50. Did some lifting afterwards, all legs, and then stretched. Made a nice little protein recovery shake when I got home!

My calorie ratio has been good since I got home from camp. I really let go of it for 2 days at camp though...one of the days, I consumed like 3,600 calories?! But I've been in the negatives (intake verses exercise) for the past 2 days so I feel good about that.

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).

6AM - 3.25 mile warm up throughout Spatanburg, then 9x1min hill repeats with a 2 min jog back recovery. These felt hard, but in a good way. Except for the last one, which was just hard. 1.75 mile cool down.

5:30PM - weight lifting and core/strength with Coach Medler's intern. He was pretty cool, and I liked our workout. He teases us about using so little weights but uh hello....cross country runners here? 

I feel like we wasted miles today. Not quality miles at all honestly. Supposed to be a 7 mile recovery run, but we were dumb and waited till midday to do it (like 95 degrees, no shade) and were dying in the heat. So we did 20 minutes on the treadmill, then ran straight outside and did another 34. Ended up being like 6 and a half or so but it felt like I accomplished nothing but sweating a lot. 

Ice bath afterwards. Been thinking all day about how apprehensive I am about our 6AM tempo run tomorrow. I need to start being more positive about it...right now I'm terrified. 6 mile tempo (never ran one that far) with a mile WU & CD incoorporated (I never incoorporate them, I always stop first) at a pace faster than I was doing my 4 mile tempos all summer... Here goes nothing.

6AM - 1 mile warm up, 6 miles tempo at 7:10 pace, 1 mile cool down. Like I said yesterday, I was pretty apprehensive about this workout but I ended up absolutely loving it! My form felt great, my breathing was good (the whole 45 count 2-step breathing thing coach Gracey taught me is practically life-changing), and I never felt out of control, like I needed to slow down or couldn't go much further. Ran the first 5 with Anya, Chandler, Alissa, Kiersten, and coach Gracey, then only Anya and I had to go for 6, and coach Gracey stayed with us. I really like when he runs with us. Most of our splits were pretty solid, except the 1st mile, which was way too slow (7:32 I think?) and the 5th mile, which was like 6:50. Very happy with this workout.

5:30PM - weight lifting and core/strength circuit before a fun team dinner at Mellow Mushroom! Still love my team :)

6AM - 6 mile recovery run with Anya. Went pretty well except we paused breifly for a bathroom stop! We explored a little and found a track at this middle school that reminded me of our crappy track at my HS....which reminded me how happy I am to be at Wofford.

2 mile warm up, then a fartlek workout of 3-1-4-1-5-1 minutes on and 2 minutes recovery after each. 1-min's were supposed to be at 2 mile race pace, 3-4-5's were supposed to be closer to 6:45 pace. This workout was kind of a disaster, but in an unconventional twist - it was way too easy. The hard sections were not hard at all because we were going way too slow if you ask me. I respect the upperclassmen and so I listen to them when they tell me to slow down...but you know there is a problem when the ENTIRE girls team ran it together. Coach Gracey said it best - we "are not interchangeable." We should not have all been able to be together. And I don't mean this in a snooty way at all, but the fact of the matter is that faster people should have faster workouts than slower people, and the fact that I (and all of the top girls) were with the slower girls is clearly not a good sign. But I stayed back because they told me to. Coach Gracey wasn't pleased with that pacing. Anya was especially pissed. She hates when that happens. Mile cooldown afterwards.

Off/recovery day. We'd been out all night but somehow Breck and I managed to drag our butts out of bed and get in a super easy 4. I'm talking like 9:15-pace-easy. We are heading to the Weenie Roast in Charlotte today!! Foster the People, Weezer, Fitz & the Tantrums, etc. I'm so pumped! Probably gonna be yet another night of minimal sleep though. It's starting to catch up with me honestly. I need 2 or 3 solid nights of rest soon.

Sunday long run! We woke up around 6 and headed to Greenville to Swamp Rabbit trail. About an 8:10 paced out and back with Anya, and Coach Gracey joined on the way back. The run took forever I felt like, but it felt alright. Except 1 thing - my plantar tendon thing is killing me in the mornings. I really, really hope that isn't a developing injury. It started feeling mostly better after like 3 miles. Anya says to roll it out every day with a tennis ball. I did that when we got back and I thought I was going to cry it hurt so badly (in a good way, I guess). 

You know it's bad when you nap as long as you sleep. Coach Gracey can see how little sleep we are getting. I gotta work on that this week. College, man.

Recovery run, then weights. Coach Gracey just dropped the news on us that he is leaving for a better coaching job (didn't phrase it like that, but you know what I mean). I'm honestly taking it pretty hard...I understand though, and I'm happy for him & his career. I guess I just forgot that's how the game is played. Sucks that the only coach I've ever had that I truly trusted and respected their coaching abilities is gone just like that. I seriously would have done absolutely anything Coach Gracey told me to do. I'm feeling pretty dismal about these next few weeks of running without him. Hopefully Bomar can get someone else who knows running the way Coach Gracey did.

Did this one by myself, which was actually really nice. I don't think I've ran alone since I got here. 8x10sec hill repeats after.

Ice bath later.

6AM - Last workout with Coach Gracey. We warmed up for 2 miles, then jumped into it. 20 minute threshold run at 6:45 pace, which ended up being more like 6:35-40 pace. Meanwhile, Coach Gracey had us switch off pace leading. After leading half a mile, the pacer moved to the back to let the next person pace. I think this was mainly to work on our terrible pacing job from the fartlek workout last week.

5:30PM - weight lifting and core circuit.

6 miles recovery run super easy. Spent most of the run laughing...its always something with these crazy girls. 

3 mile warm up, 6x2min hill repeats (30 minutes or so total), 2 mile cool down. These did not go well at all. I can hang with the best of them during our interval workouts and long runs and everything else...but when it comes to hills I swear its just so much harder for me than almost everyone else. I almost feel like its because I weigh a good bit more than most of the other girls; I'm not like the typical skinny runner like the majority of them. Gravity is not good to me on hill days. Definitely something I need to work on. Also, I need to start eating less and proportioning my food better. Maybe I can lose some weight too.

Awesome run to turn around an otherwise rough day. Started out pretty easy, maybe 8:35 pace, and then me and Anya and Halee ended up negative splitting like almost every single mile, all the way down to a 7:04 last mile. I was really happy with that.

Recovery run. Maybe not quite recovery pace. Oopsies

Weight lifting and core afterwards.

6AM- Mile warm up, then went to the lower fields and did a workout of 5x800m, 1x1000m all with 90 sec walking rest. The 800's were supposed to be 3-3:05, so like 6 minute mile or just over pace, and the 1000 was supposed to be the same pace. Can't exactly remember all of the splits but they were somewhere along the lines of 3:14 (had to get a feel for the initial pacing...400m isn't marked), 3:01, 3:02, 3:07, 3:12, then 4:01 for my 1000. Don't know how I feel about those. All I know is that I am TIRED. These killed me, I was absolutely exhausted. My body was fatigued and my mind was still back in my bed in my room. I feel like I had to work super, super hard for these sub-par-on-average splits. Cool down and stretching afterwards.

2:30PM- much needed ice bath.

3PM-7 mile recovery run + 5x10sec hill repeats. Did this one on my own, which was weird...made me feel like I was back home again.

5:30PM- weights and band stretching.

Kind of a weird workout today but I think it was just made to get our blood flowing, not to really be a workout (meet in 2 days). Mile warm up into a 15 minute up-tempo run with a 30 second surge every 5 minutes, into a 2 mile cool down. When I say up-tempo though, I don't mean tempo. It was still pretty easy but a little faster than warm up/cool down. Maybe 7:30 pace or so. So you can imagine it wasn't a hard workout at all. I think my legs needed that though, I've been pretty sore from Tuesday's 800's.

Easy pre-meet this morning with Anya and Kiersten! I'm hoping for an ice bath later today. Plus my PE tennis class got cancelled...yay for super recovery day!

First things first, a little play-by-play... So we warmed up like 15 minutes and then cheered on the boys, did our dynamics, and then relaxed a little while I talked to my parents (Yay! So good to see them!). When we got to the line, coach Bomar told us our mile splits that he wanted us to go out in. Chandler, Anya, and Alissa were 6:15-6:20 I think, I was 6:25, and the other girls were 6:30-6:35. That seemed good to me, because on the way over, I was calculating and decided that I'd like to average around 6:35 splits. I ran a 21:40 on this course last year in the high school division, so I was hoping for sub-20:30 this year. I hit 6:15 I believe at mile 1, but Chandler Anya and Alissa were still properly 5-10 seconds ahead of me, so we were all a tad fast, but just going with the race instead of the pace, which is a good thing as long as you can handle it. I don't even remember a marker for mile 2, but after the race I was told that my 2-split was 13:11, so 6:56 second mile. Then finished 1.1 in 20:27, so about a 6:40 3rd mile, plus the tenth. I feel like I worked really hard in the last quarter of a mile to gain some ground on Chandler, who was only like 20 meters in front of me. We ended up finishing right together, just like Anya and I at our last meet at Western. This time though, I got out-stepped and Chandler got me. Luckily we have the same name on our chests so it was a W either way! Most of the girls on my team were not happy at all with their times, even though I thought they almost all did great. I was pretty happy that I reached my short-term goal, even though I know in the back of my mind that I should be comfortably in the 19's right now, even with some hills like on this course. Last year, my first 5k of the season was a 21:32, so I will say I am happy to be starting back where I was towards the end of the season last year. I expect exciting things towards the end of this season then! Just gotta take it week by week.

Easy long run on some new trails behind Spartanburg High. It got dark real fast so we took the last 3 miles pretty fast, maybe 7 flat pace or so. Fun run though!

7AM- Nice and relaxed 7 miler with Alexandra for recovery from this weekend. We went straight from campus out to rail trail, about 2 miles down, and back. My calves feel infinitely better, they were so tight after the race Saturday and during the long run yesterday!! I feel pretty good in general. That is only the first or second recovery run since I've been here that I feel like was actually a true recovery pace, no pushing it at any point.

5:30PM- weight lifting and core session. Foam rolling afterwards.

It feels like fall today!! Mile warm up to the lower fields, then 6x1000m, 4x200m, 2 mile cool down. The thousands were supposed to be at 6:40 pace, or 4:10, but splits were 4:09/4:08/4:05/4:08/4:04. 1 minute between each. 200's were at 40sec each. I feel good about this workout! It didn't kill me like those 800's the other day did, but I feel like I got a solid workout in. That'll probably be our last workout this week since our next meet is Friday!

Ice bath later.

6:30AM- Easy recovery run, mostly off campus. It was so cold this morning! But it felt good as we got into it.

5:30PM- weight lifting and core.

6:30AM- Pre-race practice! 

I'm super stressed right now about my first testS tomorrow...yes tests! My very first ones and they fall on the same day. Bio and Spanish. I hope I can get a decent amount of sleep tonight...I'll be up studying for a while I know.

Well, cut a few seconds off of last weekend's race. I'm not very happy about it though. I ran a 19:42 on this course at state my senior year, and while I know that was my peak, I was really hoping that I was fast enough now to hit near that and be in the low 19's at my peak. My legs felt like deadweight though. Just feeling a little discouraged.

6AM- 6x1000m workout today. T'was definitely a rough one, not necessarily by nature but just because of how my body felt. Splits were supposed to be like 3:50-3:55. Ended up being more in the neighborhood of 4:04-4:09. It was just a really rough weekend for me to say the least and I was throwing up for like 18 hours yesterday.... Luckily it can only get better from here though!

5:30PM- weights.

Recovery run on our own time today. I had a test to study for while everyone else wanted to run so I ended up on my own today. Out and back through Spartanburg, onto rail trail. Pretty good, easy run. 6x10sec hill sprints afterwards.

6AM- 6 mile progression run: 1 mile warm up, 4 miles, cutting it down 15 seconds a mile ending at threshold pace, then mile cool down. Mile splits for the 4 miles were 7:58/7:49/7:23/7:19. So we didn't quite end up fast enough, but that's okay. It felt good, comfotably hard, and my legs needed something like this. I'm so sore from weights Monday!

5:30PM- weights and core.

Warmed up a little to the lower fields, then jumped into some mile repeats on grass. We did 4. My pace was supposed to be 6:45, but with it being 88 degrees, no shade, and a race in 2 days, coach wasn't very worried about our times honestly. Splits ended up being 6:42/6:52/6:55/7:00. I don't like getting progressively slower. Anya, Breck, and Haley had a rough workout and all kinda dropped out halfway through the 2nd one, leaving me no one to run with. 3x100m sprints and a cool down mostly by myself afterwards.

Ice bath later. 

Went over to Milliken Park and ran tomorrow's course before classes this morning. Strides afterwards. I am actually feeling so good about tomorrow! I'm super excited for my parents to come watch me race (parents weekend!), and I'm excited about running on the course we've practiced on so much. I did a lot of envisioning myself during the race on the run this morning, and it was all good vibes. I know the first mile is going to be super fast, it is mostly downhill. That's a little intimidating because I am not big on "getting out." But I think I would liike to try something new tomorrow and not be so consumed with having an awesome kick so much and just...get out. Who knows. Better to test these things now, prior to conference!

Good race!! Not all of our team raced today, we were missing like 2 of our top 5 and then some others. With that being said, of those who did race, I finished first on our team today! That was a amazing feeling, even though I knew that Anya was not feeling up to par and ran a minute slower than usual, and that 2 others were missing...it still felt really nice to come through that line first. Time-wise, I was about the same (3 seconds slower) than last weekend, which was on a much flatter course and faster surface. I feel like I ran faster today though, and more consistently. I didn't feel like there was a time when I consciously decided to back it off a little bit like in a lot of races, although I know that will happen somewhat naturally. 

Anyways, so the race started super fast for the first half mile or so basically downhill, as expected. I lost my teammates for a minute there but then I found them and we packed up again. We came through together at the mile around 6:10, then sort of ended up switching off back and forth taking the lead and trying to pull away. At the 2 mile we all came through within a few seconds of eachother still, me being like 12:55 I think. Or was it :45? Not sure. Then I pulled ahead a little and we all stretched out over the last mile. Right before the finish there is this big hill, 2-300 meters I'd say, coming out straight into the chute. I tried my best to kick up that hill and I passed a few girls, then got 1 or 2 more in the chute. When I got close and saw my time on the race clock, I was a little disappointed because I thought I was going a lot faster than that, like maybe just over 20 or even high 19's. All of the upperclassmen told me it is a decieving course but I didn't really know what that meant at the time. That helped my kick though because I didn't want any more seconds to go by than what already had. Mell finished right behind me, which I was really proud of her for, because she has been injured for like 2 years and this is only her 2nd race back! She killed it.

Overall I am happy with my efforts but still disappointed that I am not yet back into the 19's. I still think I need to work more on the little things like my diet, stretching habitually after practice, and also my sleeping habits, especially on the weekends when I am not really being kept up by anything neccessary like schoolwork. I feel like those things could go a long way.

Easy peasy long trail run (mostly) on the trails behind Milliken Park today, and it felt fantastic. It was perfect running weather and I just felt like I could go on for another half an hour. Coach Harris (new assistant coach) ran with us for a little while. 

Off day mileage-wise. Weights and band stretching in the evening.

Warmed up to the lower fields. My left inner thigh or groin or whatever has been killing me for the past day or 2. It took about the whole warm up to loosen up at all...I don't know what I did. The workout was 8x800m at goal race pace, so for the top group we had 3:09-3:10. Got 60sec active rest between reps. These felt pretty good, you know "good" as far as intervals go anyways. I sort of had to ease into pace though because of my groin muscle. I definitely felt better than I did on those mile repeats the other day! My splits were consistent and on. 3:09/3:10/3:06/3:10/3:09/3:10/3:11/3:06 if I remember correctly, not 100% positive about 1 or 2 of those. In any event, I was no more than a second over and 3 seconds under assigned pace, so that was good! 

3x100m sprint afterwards, then cooled down back to the locker room for abs and stretching. Hopefully I'll be able to get in to see the trainer about my pains when we have our ice bath later.

Recovery run throughout Spartanburg with Anya and Haley. Weight lifting and core afterwards.

Went to Milliken park during lunchtime between classes with the team. 2 mile warm up, then we went into a fartlek. It was 3/1/4/1/5/1 minute surges with 2 minutes easy between each. 25 minutes total, which ended up being 3.4 miles. The 1's were supposed to be at 2 mile pace, 3min at 5k, 4min at 8k, and 5min at 10k. Buuuut....that's definitely not what happened. Ended up more like 800m pace, mile pace, 2 mile pace, and 5k pace, respectively. But that's alright because we don't have a meet this weekend, so we didn't have to worry about pushing too hard and being worn out. We were just ready to work. Cool down afterwards.

Core session and ice bath later!

Easy 4 with the girls & Coach Harris's girlfriend. We never do this little mileage unless its pre-meet...that makes me nervous about practice tomorrow.

Pissed about this workout. It was such a load of crap. Its kind of a long story and I don't really want to get into it again, but basically we were supposed to have 2 mile warm up, 8k tempo, 2-3 mile cool down. But through a series of annoying events, we ended up having to stop halfway through the tempo, and then took a break, then did a 6k at tempo pace again. So it was like 2 sets of short tempos, not long enough to get any endurance in, but not short enough to get any speed in. It was so pointless and it just hurt really badly for some reason, but I didn't even feel like it was a beneficial type of hurt. Just sucked.

Decided to change it up and run on the treadmills today! Not sure why, but it wasn't too bad. 5 recovery miles. I had to stop halfway through to go to the bathroom though. About 7:55 avg pace. Core and stretching afterwards.

Warmed up to the lower fields for our workout today. The boys soccer team was out there practicing and I honestly think that helped us hit good splits hahaha. Anyways, the workout was 1000/1000/800/800/600/600/400/400/1000m. The first of each distance was race pace or slightly slower, and then the second was "fast," on effort. We got 3 minutes in between so that was long enough to where the "fast" was definitely fast and we could make it hurt. The random thousand at the end was a surprise actually - after we all but sprinted that last 400, Coach Harris threw in an extra thousand for the sake of mental toughness just to see what we could do. I ended up running 3 seconds faster than that first thousand (the one at race pace), so that was alright considering we went all out for that last 400. I feel good about this workout. 2 mile cool down and abs after that.

7 miles at about a 7:50 avg pace to rail trail and back with Breck, Anya, and Chandler. 6x10sec hill sprints and abs afterwards. Felt surprisingly good today! I thought I would be kind of sore but I felt fine. Hopefully I'll be good and recovered before our 6am tomorrow.

Did a reduced tempo run today - 20 minutes at 30sec faster than race pace, which should have been like 6:50ish for me but it ended up being more like 7:05-7:10 for some reason. 5x30sec sprints, then 20 minute easy cool down and abs.

Ran an easy 5k + a few strides, pre-race. We leave at 11 tomorrow to race in my hometown!!! Then its fall break for me!

Not sure about my time, I know it was somewhere between 21:20 & 21:40. But more importantly, all I know is it sucked. Worst time of the season, and by far the worst race of the season mentally (and obviously physically). My legs, namely my calves, were absolutely killing me. They were so tight and wound up, I felt like they were about to snap with every step. I'm not sure why...maybe they're just tired because we had a really hard 2 weeks of workouts. We haven't tapered for a race all season, just working on peaking for conference. I will say this makes me excited for conference - to see what I can do given adequate rest and a solid taper. Theres no way I could feel worse than during this race, thats for sure.