Running is a means and never merely an end

4 miles before I left to go back to Wofford for the semester. It's been great to be home this weekend. 7:55 average, about 15 minutes of which was on soft surface. Threw a lot of hills in there too just for kicks.

8 miles at 8:08 average. We ran down this random backroad off Conneticut Avenue just to see where it went and it ended up connecting to the high school where our track is! Who knew. So we got in about a mile and a half of the 8 on soft surface on the trails behind the high school. Kind of had to rush back for my lab.

Weights before dinner.

Loved our workout today! Well, now that it's done anyways. Actually no I really did like it for the majority of it. Anyways! 2 mile warm up on the trails, then we got back to the track and got right into it. Basically it was 4 miles continuously, but broken up into 600m 5k race pace (2:19) followed by 1000m "steady", aka like tempo pace (4:30). Which would be 6:49 average mile pace. We hit 2:18 for all of the 600's if I remember right, and actually ended up averaging like 6:30 something (my watch said 6:24 but that can't be quite accurate because we started and stopped at the same line, after 16 laps, and it said 4.2 miles instead of 4 so it must be a tad fast). 6:30 something for 4 miles, I'm pretty siked about that. Did 4 hundred-ish meter strides afterwards, and then a 15 minute cool down.

Coach Harris said Breck and I are in the 5k at ETSU on Friday! I think good things are in store - I am feeling a lot more mentally tough and probably physically faster too than 3 weekends ago when we ran there. Hopefully another sub-20 coming up???

8 miles at an 8:20 average pace. Did the same random-road-that-connects-to-the-highschool-trails route across from Converse as a few days ago!

Weights and core around dinner time.

Pre-meet!

AM- 5 miles on my own before class. 7:56 avg.

PM- 5 miles at Milliken Park with Breck + a few strides. 8:08 avg.

Breck and I will be running the 5k tomorrow night at ETSU! I'm actually so excited, I feel like both Breck and I have gotten so much better these past few weeks. I think we will both run well.

Time is unofficial (just based off my watch) and place was irrelevant, but I don't know anyways. Really just disappointed and confused. I don't want to keep thinking about it much longer because I haven't stopped since the race. But basically, my legs were so tired and I still wasn't strong enough mentally to make up for it, and I am just sick and tired of practicing harder and harder and not getting any better. I don't know what else to do.

Positives: Breck aboslutely killed it. Like she was only hoping to break 20, and she shattered it - 19:36! I wish I could have been there with her of course, but nevertheless I am so so so happy for her! She 100% deserved that, the way she's been practicing. Also, my family came to watch so I got to see them and have dinner afterwards. My mom gave me a really good talk after the race when I was so upset and she reminded me how little this is in the scheme of things and how much bigger God is, as well as how much I have to be thankful for. She said it's all I can do just to thank Him for the opportunities He gives me and blessings I have and just ask Him to make me better because I can't do it on my own. I needed that so desperately.

Solo today! 1 mile warm up into a little 4 mile progression run. Coach Harris said start at 8:30 and work down to 6:45, and that's pretty much how it went. Then 1 mile cool down. 7:49 avg, including warm up and cool down.