Running is a means and never merely an end

Easy recovery run before church. Felt solid! Still no GPS watch so I don't know my pace, but it's recovery so who cares. :)

6AM- 1 mile warm up, then 6x800m + 1x1000m at 5k pace on the lower grass fields, all with about a minute rest inbetween. Fastest 8 was #2 at 3:06, slowest was #5 at 3:17, so a pretty big gap there I know. 4:04 for the 1k. I felt relatively tired but okay physically, but mentally I was pretty tired and having a hard time motivating myself. Probably because I spent like 12 hours doing homework yesterday and didn't even get half of that of sleep. Neverthless! I'm excited about practice this week, gearing up for our 6k this weekend. Also this week starts my first week of work at Gotta Run Spartanburg! So psyched!

6PM- work was so fun! Love it. After I got back, abs & hips circuit (led by the new assistant track coach, Coach Wilson, woohoo!) before our 4.3 mile shakeout run. Then dinner, then I came back to my room and did a full-body body-weight strength circuit. Don't know why, just wanted to feel something.

Hill day. 9x1minute hills with jog down as a recovery. Hills are so discouraging to me, I feel like its just so much harder for me to do them than any of the other girls (even the girls I have better times than) for some reason.

Abs afterwards.

8 mile recovery run with Breck down rail trail and back. Felt great! Not at first, but 2 miles in I started feeling much more loose and recovered. Abs afterwards.

Core/hip workout with the team later.

Treadmilled 6 miles today. 2 miles warm up at 8:15, 2 miles progressive tempo averaging 7:15, then 2 miles cool down at 8:15 again. Felt easy and smooth. Full-body circuit afterwards.

4.2 miles easy pre-race + strides. I felt great this morning, I wanted to go on for another 8 or 9 miles like that but I figured I should just trust the schedule and rest up for tomorrow morning. My first 6k!! I really don't know what to expect having never ran one, but I figured if each of my 1k's is a little over 4 minutes, I could shoot pretty reasonably for sub-25? It's also hard to gauge because I don't even know where I am 5k-wise right now. I'm just going to go out and try to keep an even pace and not fall off, and run a smart race.

First 6k went alright! I was pretty comfortable at the pace we went out at for a while. My first mile was 6:30, which wasn't far off what I expected it to be. I was at 20:18 at the 3 mile, then just under 21 for the 5k. Slowed down a bit on the 3rd time up the hill on the 3rd loop, probably 10 seconds worth over the course of 300 meters. But then I kicked hard and had a good finish, not letting anyone pass me. Closed in 25 flat.

I don't really know where I should be, but I don't think that was awful. I wish I had come through the 5k 15 or so seconds faster, and then pushed it a few seconds faster up that hill the 2nd and 3rd times around, but other than that I felt good about the way I ran and especially about how I used the downhill to my advantage to really be intentional about striding out and breathing well to pass people. I'm glad to have a benchmark now for future 6k's I'll run. Also good to see a lot of runners from other schools that I haven't seen in a while!