Running is a means and never merely an end

AM- long run day! We went up into North Carolina to Bent Creek Forest in the national park for some trail running. We were supposed to do 1 mile longer than our longest run this summer, so I did 10, since my long runs were 9. Ran 9 mostly just with Anya and Chandler, but sometimes Coach Gracey. Finished out the last mile with Coach Gracey. He talked to me a lot about my breathing and how to steady it and use it to gauge my efforts; he is super knowledgeable about all of the science behind running. I love long runs but this was a wee bit more difficult than my usual ones just because the hills went on for so long. There would be like a mile of uphill at a time. That being said, it had some fantastic downhills as well. So I suppose it all evens out.

PM- Ice bath recovery; no run.

AM - mile repeats! 3x1mile at 6:45 pace followed by 4x200m at 40-42 seconds each, with a 2 mile warm up nd 1 mile cool down. I really enjoyed this actually because I have always hated mile repeats more than anything because I am all alone when I do them, but it was so cool to be able to pace in a group today. I love my team. 

PM- weight lifting and core session.

Went to Milliken Park for our workout today. 3 mile warm up, then 7 hill reps of 30 seconds each on 90 seconds recovery, which was pretty chill because the hill was honestly more of an incline. My toes were bleeding though...I need some better socks I think. 2 mile cool down.

Easy pre-meet. 4 miles easy with the girls, then 6 barefoot strides on the practice football fields. 

Our meet tomorrow is at WCU, which I am pretty excited about being that it is like my home course and I will get to see lots of familiar faces cheering me and my teammates on! Coach Gracey is having the top 5 of us go out together for the first mile at about a 6:15-20 pace before spreading out for the 2nd mile. I'm nervous about that second mile, but also super excited for the first because I have never ran in a pack with my teammates before in high school and I've always envied teams that did because it looks like it would be so incredibly helpful mentally. Plus it looks cool and is pretty intimidating. So we will see how that goes soon!

First collegiate meet!! Pretty exciting stuff! So we warmed up about 15 minutes, and eventually made our way to the line. Game plan was for the top 5 to go out with Alissa at a 6:15 pace, then negative split the 2nd mile (it was just a 3k). We went out pretty dang fast though, and came through the 800 at like 2:57. I fell off a little bit after that from Alissa, Chandler, and Anya. At the mile marker I came through at 6:14ish I think. Anya started falling back a little bit from Chandler and Alissa at this point. I was just trying to remember that the whole point of this run was to not death march, so I tried to just keep my pace going if nothing else, and not slow down. Around 200 meters left to go, Alissa and chandler were probably like 100-150m in front of me, and Anya was like 25. There was one last hill right up to the 100m straightaway, and I really tried to kick it up this hill. I have ran this course so many times now that I've definitely learned that kicking up that hill instead of after the hill is so so vital for passing because everyone else just meanders up it and then tries to kick afterwards. So that's what I did, and once I got up the hill I realized I was closing in fast on Anya and I might be able to catch her. I kicked it in and we crossed the line together, like we had no idea who was first. When the results came in, turns out I got her by .3 seconds. That was pretty encouraging for me, to be 3rd on the team in my first race! Especially because I consider Anya a better runner than myself. I will say I did have home court advantage though, so maybe the helped. Regardless, everyone did so well and I was really proud of my team! I'm thankful that I had Alissa and chandler to pace the first bit so I didn't go out too slow to "save it", and also that I had Anya at the end to push my kick. I love my team. 

27 minute run around campus. Meant to do like 5 miles but I was really rushed for time.