Running is a means and never merely an end

Long run Sunday. Took this one super duper easy because Breck wasn't feeling very well. But we did a lot of exploring around Duncan Park, which was fun. We maybe did a little too much pavement in there, my feet hurt. Other than that, felt great.

8 miles with Breck (and the first 3 with Morgan) at 7:57 avg during lunchtime. It was pretty warm out but it felt nice. Weights and core before dinner.

Suchhhh a good workout today! Probably because it is way too beautiful a day to not enjoy it. 2 mile warm up, then we did a 2 mile tempo at 10k pace. We were a little fast, but not quite 5k pace or anything. 1st mile was 6:35, 2nd was 6:33. Then we did a ladder of 1000m, 800m, 600m, 400m, with the 1000 & 800 at 5k pace, the 600 at 3k, and the 400 at mile pace. I don't remember my 1000, but it was on target, and my other splits were 3:08, 2:15, and 81, respectively. After that, Coach Harris decided to surprise us with an extra 800 at the end just for kicks. 2:56 for me. I feel good about today! It was a productive workout and somehow a really enjoyable, fun one. 

AM- easy 5 miles before lunch with Breck, Morgan, & Mell on rail trail! I felt fairly tight from the workout yesterday, but it got a little better as the run progressed.

PM- another easy 5 with Breck, Anya, Ciara and Chandler at Milliken park. Weights afterwards.

Easy 5 for pre-meet with the girls. We explored a little bit, didn't see much though. 8:15 avg. Anyways, I am super excited for the meet tomorrow! Me, Breck, and Mell are all running the 5k, which is going to be late on Friday night, like 9pm or so. Always love running under the lights, so that should be fun. I really think a PR is reasonable if I run my best tomorrow. 6:16/mile is 19:30. I ran an 8 mile tempo 2 weeks ago at 7 flat...surely I can run 3 at 6:16. We've strung together 4 or 5 really good workouts these past 2 weeks, hopefully they'll translate well!

Start to finish - what a great day! Killed my spanish quiz and biology test this morning, so it was just good vibes already. Anyways, when we got there, the weather was very cold and rainy, so we drove over to Winthrop's student center and hung out for a while until it was time to warm up. Warmed up 15 minutes, and then as I was doing my agilities, Katie surprised me! Always a good meet when she's there :)

So we went out well, first lap at 91 (93.6 was 19:30 pace), 800 at 3:03, mile at 6:08. After the first mile, I think I fell asleep a little bit and got a little lost in my pace, which I thought was good, but was apparently too slow, which I realized when I came through the 2 mile at 12:36 (12:32 is 19:30 pace). I felt like I had a strong last mile because of that though, and I picked up a good bit of slack and passed a few girls. I still wasn't sure where I was though, and I had this weird problem where I couldn't figure out how tired I was. I could have been about to die or about to kick for the entire last 3 laps? It was weird. So I just picked it up, and when the last 200m came around, I switched gears and realized I definitely had some left in me. I kicked really hard and passed 5 or 6 girls, which made Coach Harris really happy. For better or worse, I think I'm way more competitive with the clock than I am with other girls, but sometimes those things are basically one in the same. Oh also, shouts out to Breck who PR'd by like 19 seconds tonight!! Talk about motivational!

I was happy to PR by a few seconds, but I'm still really hungry. It was a good confidence booster to finally get a PRin my first 5k of the outdoor season. But I am definitely ready to hit the ground running (literally. ha) next week and get some more good workouts in and get closer to 19 flat soon. I think this meet was reassuring, but also motivating, which was cool. Regardless, it's all about using the gifts that God gave me and lifting them back up to Him. I'd call this fun day a W!

Went to Greenville today for our run! I researched for forever this morning until I found a place that I thought would be good to run at in Greenville, and it definitely did not disappoint. Awesome trail system with lots of variety and fairly even footing. Couldn't stop coughing afterwards for like 3 or 4 minutes straight...my cold or whatever this is is definitely getting worse before it gets better. I also only slept a few hours last night, despite the fact that I was in my bed for 9, because I just layed there curled over and had those awful coughing fits once or twice a minute. Ugh.