Running is a means and never merely an end

Only got 3 hours of sleep last night and didn't get back to Sylva until 2. Then I went to the lake with my friends and paddle boarded for a few hours. That was actually a really good core and arm workout. My soreness is getting a little bit better after taking yesterday off. I really wanted to get a workout in after I got home around 6 but I just didn't have it in me after all that in addition to getting no sleep. I layed down to check my messages and ended up just passing out for an hour. I am beyond tired. I am hating myself so badly for not running for 2 days in a row...hopefully I can get a hard workout in tomorrow.

Today's workout was awesome!! I went to Western and warmed up 2.25 miles. The workout was 12x400m at 2-3 seconds faster than 3200m race pace with 1 minute between each. My race pace is 91-92 per lap avg, so I was shooting for 89ish. My splits were 88/88/89/89/88/88/88/88/87/89/87/84. I was very pleased with those, and they felt really good too (they better have seeing as I took two days off). The last 3 became pretty challenging but I think I handled them pretty well mentally. After that I did 3 kick finishes (180m, 190m, 200m), working mainly on pumping my arms. 1.75 mile cool down and stretching afterwards. I feel really good about today, and I'm getting so pumped for regionals Saturday! I definitely see a PR in my near future.

Another solid speed sesh today! 1.5 mile warmup, then I did a ladder of 200m, 400m, 800m, 1600m and then back down. I hoped to do the 2's and 4's at 2-3 seconds faster than mile pace, and the 8's and mile at 2-3 seconds faster than 3200 race pace. I hit 39, then 88 (a little slow), then 2:59. The mile was hard, but I came out with a 6:03, which I was happy with seeing as 6:05 is 2-3 seconds faster than race pace. On the way back down, I hit 3:03, 88 again, and 38. The ladder back down was really hard for me, my legs were so tired. So my splits weren't all perfect today but they were solid and I was honestly just proud of myself for finishing through strong with the workout because I had a few different ladders in mind for today that were easier that I could have done instead. I'm glad now that I picked this one though.

2.25 mile cool down and stretching afterwards.

5ish miles. I think I was going at a decent pace, maybe 7:30 or so. Felt pretty easy though.

Core work later on at night.

33 minutes easy around the school, then 8x100m strides. Definitely tapering at this point, and it feels really nice! My legs are feeling good and I am in a great state mentally; my competitive drive is pretty high right now and I am determined to kill it on Saturday!

Pre-meet. I'm feeling so good about tomorrow! This is it. My last regional meet. It's pretty crazy...and I'm ready to make it count. I'm ranked 3rd in the 3200 and 4th in the 1600, and the top 4 move onto state. I'm definitely feeling some good times coming on, but it will be interesting to see how the placing pans out amongst the competition. I've raced all of these girls before and I know some of them are solid, but 2 of them are very inconsistent. They're either really amazing or not good at all, depending on the meet. I expect a good race from everyone tomorrow though, and they best be expecting the same from me! Mind over matter, Jesus over all.

I had a really good mentality going into my mile today. I'm really growing to love the mile, which is strange because I only ran it once or twice last year since I hated it so much. I really thought the 3200 was my race, but I have been dropping time in the 16 like nobody's business and still haven't met my PR from indoor season this outdoor season. So I went out in the mile with a ton of adrenaline. This race is all I had been thinking about all week, so I was so nervous. We got out and I was pretty quickly right at the front with Ladeja and some other girl who just got out too fast. Eliza doesn't like to get out fast so she hung back for the first 2 or 3 hundred meters. We came through the first lap at about 1:18-19. Me, Ladeja, and Eliza started to seperate as the lead pack but still stuck together for the next lap. I can't even remember the rest of our splits because I was just pushing so hard. Lap 4, the 3 of us seperated out a little and we placed as predicted. I had no clue what my time was but I knew it had to be fast because that was the most painful 1600 I'd ever endured. I killed myself on the last lap. I later found out it was 5:31, a 7 second PR, and I was so happy about that! I am dying to break 5:30 but this was a huge step towards that goal! Plus that qulifies me for state, which I never would have thought I would be going to for the mile!

After my mile I felt absolutely terrible. I threw up a few times and couldn't down anything except a few Ritz crackers and water. I had put absolutely every ounce of me into that mile and I had no idea how I was going to be able to run the 2. I warmed up though, which already was hurting really bad, a little bit, but not much because it was extremely hot. The heat was definitely promoting my fatigue. We got on the line and Ladeja basically told me she wasn't going to work hard for this and was just gonna take 4th (she already qualified in 3 other events that she is better at and didn't want to run it at state), which didn't help my motivation at all, but it did help my stress level a little bit because I knew I had 3rd in the bag. We got out well for the first 800 and then definitely started slowin. Mile split was 6:08. Me and Ladeja were going back and forth the first mile but I remembered what she said and I wasn't really worried about her taking a real lead. The last mile was AWFUL and I was just dying inside wanting it to be over. I slowed down to like 1:38 laps when I knew Ladeja had fallen back and I had 3rd easily. Can't remember the last race I wanted to be over this badly. I finished and I didnt care at all about my time. I just was excited about qualifying for states in both of my events and super excited for Eliza because she beat the East Lincoln girl by 20-something seconds who was predicted to win by like 20 seconds. I didn't really cool down, which I am regretting now. Definitely gonna do a good shakeout run tomorrow.