Running is a means and never merely an end

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!