Running is a means and never merely an end

I don't feel so good. Being on this short break, I've really just let go to a lot of the good habits I have to have while I am running. I haven't been drinking water like I should, sleeping like I should, and especially not eating like I should. Dessert galore was acceptable for 2 or 3 days maybe... but I have eaten so much junk for the past 5 days that I literally am just losing my apetite.

First day back from my little break. I took 6 or 7 days off I think. It felt really nice mentally to take a few days off, but physically I actually didn't like it too much (see previous posts). I did about a 30 minute jog (a little less than 4 miles) around my school. I ran the last few minutes of the jog pretty hard, and I'll admit I was lazy & didn't warm up properly, considering I just jogged a lap and did about half of my dynamics. My cool down was lazy too - 1 or 2 laps. Anyways, after my jog, I went up to the track and did 6x200 sprints with a 50 meter walk inbetween, thinking it would be good to help shake out my legs. Looking back...I think that was a very bad idea. I should not have done any sort of sprint work, or even those fast last few minutes of my jog, on my first day back.  I should have taken it easier today, and warmed up and cooled down better. Now my calves are so tight and my right achillies hurts. Lesson learned. I am feeling some ice tonight and a nice long, slow jog tomorrow.

Today I was still sort of getting back into it. My body wanted to do a real workout but at the same time I knew in my mind that that is how injuries happen, and I needed to build up a little more before I jumped into any fast workouts. I just did a nice 40 minute jog (roughly 5 miles) and some stretching. It was fine except I was very cold. Winter sucks! But at least I am able to run.

Today sucked. It was just one of those days... It took me from after school until about 4:30 to even muster up the motivation to walk out of the door to head out for my run, and then once I got to the rec center I sat there in my car for another 15 minutes just trying to wrap my mind around my workout and prematurely establish the fact that I WOULD do it. Didn't go so well. I did a .6 mile warm up, and then had planned to do 6 reps of the .4 mile loop at a fast pace (somewhere between 800 and mile race pace) and a 2 mile cool down. Instead, I was just feeling so sick of running that I did a super short fartlek run of 1 minute fast, 1 minute slow for 8 minutes (a little over a mile) to get a little warmer and then went inside to the spin bike. I biked a little over 5 miles. Biking does nothing for me cardiovascularly, honestly, but it did set my quads on fire. Afterwards I did a pushup circuit and stretched. I hate when I don't follow through with the planned workout.

Half-mile warm up, 8 mile jog, dynamic drills and lots of stretching for a cool down. My favorite day of the week (running-wise)..aerobic run day! I love my long runs because I get to think a lot. A lot of the time in sprint workouts and tempo runs I am only thinking about my time and how much further till I am done. During my high-mileage runs, which are generally at a reasonably slow (8-minute-mile-ish), recovery-type pace, I am not really hurting for most of my run. I have the capacity to daydream and explore. These long runs are when I fall in love with running the most! A lot of times I just like to pray as I jog. I am thankful to God for this awesome sport and ability He has given me. Today I was especially thankful for the mountains and beautiful scenery He has placed me in...I feel like it would suck to have to run in a city or flat road for 8 miles. On one mile-long stretch of a back road I took out of campus, the sun was setting perfectly over the mountains on my right side and it just looked like heaven!! God is so good.

Today was my main speed workout of the week. I started with a 1.25 mile warm-up, dynamics, and some acceleraters. My workout was 12x400m at 5k race-pace (for me, 1:30-1:35 per 400) with 70 seconds rest in between. I've been doing this workout periodically on Saturdays since August, and each time I do it I shorten the rest 10 or 15 seconds, but keep the pace the same. I started out at about 2 minutes rest, so it has been pretty fulfilling to be able to feel how my body is improving and recovering faster over the course of the season. I hope to be able to hit the same splits with only 30 seconds rest one day! Its also a really good workout for me because even though it isn't really my hardest workout physically, it is such a hard workout mentally since it is pretty repetitive. I like to think it helps my 3200 mindset a lot (8 laps can get monotonous). Anyways, I hit my split on all but 2 reps today, 1 being 1:36 and the last rep being 1:28 (not complaining about that one). Most reps were 1:33. Afterwards I did an easy 2.25 mile cool down. I feel good about today.