Running is a means and never merely an end

6AM- 6x1000m workout today. T'was definitely a rough one, not necessarily by nature but just because of how my body felt. Splits were supposed to be like 3:50-3:55. Ended up being more in the neighborhood of 4:04-4:09. It was just a really rough weekend for me to say the least and I was throwing up for like 18 hours yesterday.... Luckily it can only get better from here though!

5:30PM- weights.

Recovery run on our own time today. I had a test to study for while everyone else wanted to run so I ended up on my own today. Out and back through Spartanburg, onto rail trail. Pretty good, easy run. 6x10sec hill sprints afterwards.

6AM- 6 mile progression run: 1 mile warm up, 4 miles, cutting it down 15 seconds a mile ending at threshold pace, then mile cool down. Mile splits for the 4 miles were 7:58/7:49/7:23/7:19. So we didn't quite end up fast enough, but that's okay. It felt good, comfotably hard, and my legs needed something like this. I'm so sore from weights Monday!

5:30PM- weights and core.

Warmed up a little to the lower fields, then jumped into some mile repeats on grass. We did 4. My pace was supposed to be 6:45, but with it being 88 degrees, no shade, and a race in 2 days, coach wasn't very worried about our times honestly. Splits ended up being 6:42/6:52/6:55/7:00. I don't like getting progressively slower. Anya, Breck, and Haley had a rough workout and all kinda dropped out halfway through the 2nd one, leaving me no one to run with. 3x100m sprints and a cool down mostly by myself afterwards.

Ice bath later. 

Went over to Milliken Park and ran tomorrow's course before classes this morning. Strides afterwards. I am actually feeling so good about tomorrow! I'm super excited for my parents to come watch me race (parents weekend!), and I'm excited about running on the course we've practiced on so much. I did a lot of envisioning myself during the race on the run this morning, and it was all good vibes. I know the first mile is going to be super fast, it is mostly downhill. That's a little intimidating because I am not big on "getting out." But I think I would liike to try something new tomorrow and not be so consumed with having an awesome kick so much and just...get out. Who knows. Better to test these things now, prior to conference!

Good race!! Not all of our team raced today, we were missing like 2 of our top 5 and then some others. With that being said, of those who did race, I finished first on our team today! That was a amazing feeling, even though I knew that Anya was not feeling up to par and ran a minute slower than usual, and that 2 others were missing...it still felt really nice to come through that line first. Time-wise, I was about the same (3 seconds slower) than last weekend, which was on a much flatter course and faster surface. I feel like I ran faster today though, and more consistently. I didn't feel like there was a time when I consciously decided to back it off a little bit like in a lot of races, although I know that will happen somewhat naturally. 

Anyways, so the race started super fast for the first half mile or so basically downhill, as expected. I lost my teammates for a minute there but then I found them and we packed up again. We came through together at the mile around 6:10, then sort of ended up switching off back and forth taking the lead and trying to pull away. At the 2 mile we all came through within a few seconds of eachother still, me being like 12:55 I think. Or was it :45? Not sure. Then I pulled ahead a little and we all stretched out over the last mile. Right before the finish there is this big hill, 2-300 meters I'd say, coming out straight into the chute. I tried my best to kick up that hill and I passed a few girls, then got 1 or 2 more in the chute. When I got close and saw my time on the race clock, I was a little disappointed because I thought I was going a lot faster than that, like maybe just over 20 or even high 19's. All of the upperclassmen told me it is a decieving course but I didn't really know what that meant at the time. That helped my kick though because I didn't want any more seconds to go by than what already had. Mell finished right behind me, which I was really proud of her for, because she has been injured for like 2 years and this is only her 2nd race back! She killed it.

Overall I am happy with my efforts but still disappointed that I am not yet back into the 19's. I still think I need to work more on the little things like my diet, stretching habitually after practice, and also my sleeping habits, especially on the weekends when I am not really being kept up by anything neccessary like schoolwork. I feel like those things could go a long way.