Running is a means and never merely an end

Tough, tough workout today by myself. It was late and dark too, 8pm or so. Long story! Just glad to get this one over with.

2 mile warm up, then 2 sets of 1000, 800, 800, 600 with 90 seconds between each and 2:30 between sets. Bomar said 6min flat pace for these for the front group, so I figured 6:10 for me. Even then, it was pretty difficult for those longer reps, especially in the second set. But knowing I was almost done helped and I hit the pace or under more in the 2nd than the 1st set. Focused on my form a lot. 2 mile cool down. Lifted afterwards for an hour or so, plus core and stretching.

I thought a recovery run was in order for today after that workout yesterday....but I would be wrong. Haha. 5 mile tempo run at 7 flat target pace. I was pretty tired from yesterday though and ended up averaging 7:08. Still pretty happy with that considering I was once again my myself and sore from a workout and lifting sesh late the night before.

Also, today was my last day at work until February since its finals week next week! So sad! :(

8 mile recovery run (by myself again :/ ). 8:04 average. Went to/around Duncan park and back, my favorite place! Needed this.

2 miles warm up and cool down. Another workout today! 12x200 with a 200m jog between each. Not that it matters, but average pace for whole thing was 7:10 including jog rest. We went right at 40 on most of these, and Anya pushed me to a 37 on the last one. I tried really hard to work on my knee drive and form today during these too! Also, loving my new Vomero's. I think I prefer them over Peg's, the extra cushioning is so nice!

Really wanted to get a quick shake-out in today but I literally had a back-to-back packed schedule from 8am until 8:30pm. Planned on waking up early to do it but I was up till 4am so I figured it would do more harm than good. Thankful next week is finals...almost done with these crazy packed days and late nights!

First meet of the indoor season!! Boone is so awesome this time of year. Everything is so festive and it was the perfect amount of coldness...I wish it had been an outdoor meet! Without exaggeration, probably 1 in every 5 cars had a Christmas tree on top of it. But anyways!

I did a mile and a half with Rebeka for her warm up before the mile around 11:30. That was a nice little shakeout. Then all us 3k-ers warmed up 2 miles around 2:45. I felt great and excited to race and work on my new negative-splitting strategy again. I was ranked 4th but the #3 girl scratched I think so I ended up being ranked 3rd. Gun went off and I tucked in, in 3rd, behind Kat and Kaitlyn from Western. It took me till about the 800 to figure out where the 400 had been (the track is through the hall around the top of a stadium so you can't see where you are in relation to the rest of the track) but I came through at 88, perfect. 800 was 2:54, a little ahead of pace I was shooting for but I felt relaxed. Breck passed me around there and started getting some distance, maybe 20-30 meters, on me. I think my 1600 was 6:04 if I remember correctly. About 7 minutes in I decided to go ahead and start accelerating. I closed back in on breck over the next 2-3 laps and passed her with about a lap and a half to go to move back into 3rd. Closed in 11:35ish, unofficially.

I feel solid about that race. I think I ran my race but also allowed Breck to push me a bit there at the end. Obviously not a PR, but a little bit faster than this same meet this time last year, so I feel good about that! Cooled down 2 miles.