Running is a means and never merely an end

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)!