Running is a means and never merely an end

AM- warmed up to Rail Trail, then did a 4 mile tempo at 6:45 average. I had to pull off real quick at mile 3 to use the portapotty, which was annoying because that makes my average feel less valid, as though it was aided because I took a little break in there. But yeah I was definitely not about to be able to finish that sucker without stopping somewhere first, I hardly made it to the portapotty. Anyways! Cooled down back to campus.

PM - 3 mile shake out + weights.

2 mile warm up on Cottonwood trails, then onto the track! First Track Tuesday since the end of indoor a few weeks ago. Felt good! We did 2 sets of 1000/1000/600/400 with 60sec rest in between and 2:30 between sets. We were supposed to do these at 10k pace (~6:45), although we definitely didn't stay true to pace and ended up doing like 5k pace (~6:20). But it felt fine so whatevs! Beautiful, sunny day!

8 miles recovery. 8:36 average. I'm having a hard time running that slow, but that's the pace the other gals like to do their recovery runs and since pace doesn't really matter on recovery I don't feel like I should go off on my own. But I'm really just comfortable right around 8 flat for recovery 8:15 tops if I was sore. I don't know what to do about that :/

6 easy + 4x100m strides. 8:31 average... [see yesterday's post]

Easy pre-race. Did 3 with the girls, but that didn't quite feel like enough for my legs so I tacked on another mile. Abs afterwards.

Awesome meet!!! So fun!

The distance girls drove ourselves up so we could sleep in and not sit in the sun all day. Got there around 2, race was at 3:40. We warmed up a little less than 2 miles. We were ALL racing the 3k which I could not have been more excited about! It's like cross country again, but on a track! There were 2 heats, and Anya was int he 1st (and killed it), but the rest of us were all together in the second. We planned to try and pack up a bit, and we totally did! Got a little lost from eachother in the first 100 or so, but then found eachother again and settled in. Allie went out pretty fast, so we just let her go. Me, breck, and rebekah each led at one point or another and stayed together as we steadily moved up throughout the race. We picked off people together, one by one. With maybe a 600 to go I started hearing Shannon come up behind me. At that point, we were all together + Allie out front, and all had moved up and passed everyone else. Breck made a move and started going up with Allie. I wanted to go with her but I just didn't quite have it. Shannon passed me and I was in the back of our pack. We rounded the curve onto the final 100 stretch and I kicked like crazy, but we all did. I passed Shannon, but not quite rebekah.

We swept the heat!!! We went 1,2,3,4,5 in the second heat, I was #4. I ran an 11:25, which isn't a PR but I was pretty happy with considering that I'd ran an 11:38 in December and had a hamstring injury that put me out for a month in January/February! I'd call that a comeback. :)

Afterwards, we walked over to change our shoes and coach Bomar told us to hurry up and that we weren't done yet. He said to go run a 3 mile tempo at 7:00 pace. Some of the girls were not super thrilled but I was sooo excited. Pro's do that all the time! It felt cool to be treated like a serious runner, not like a delicate little thing that needs all this babying after a race or hard workout. We were still kind of catching our breath when we went into it, so that first mile definitely hurt. I settled in after about a mile and a half though and the rest felt suprisingly good. Finished with a 6:58 average. Then cooled down 10 minutes. I got my money's worth today!