P.V.H.S.X.C.S.T.S.

Running while on vacation. In Arizona. At noon. This all better pay off. I ran around a park that I estimated was a little more than a quarter mile 12 times, and I ran to the park and home, and around a bit more. so estimated about 4 miles. about halfway through I felt dehydrated, but I survived. It was actually a pretty nice run, a bit of shade, mostly flat, with sprinklers at the last lap. I wasn't feeling too hot (or I was feeling too hot) at the beginning, but by the end it felt just as easy as any three miler I did last year.

yay, first time back in over a week! It was rough. really rough. But that's okay, if it were easy it wouldn't be called cross country. I only went three miles on the legitimate run, and then striders at the end. I just felt so very tired, and I tried pushing myself but it was really hard just as it was. I felt so tired at the end of my run I didn't think I could do striders, but then this thing called guilt kicked in and I just got my striders over with. I felt surprisingly full of energy and able to run as soon as I took of my shoes, so that was cool.

I'm feeling frustrated. I've been trying so hard all summer to improve and I still don't get anything. I only got one of my two dirt miles timed today because I can't really make Chancie and Breann wait two minutes both times after there done to tell me my time. My first mile was 11:56. so far my very worst. I'm not wanting to be on varsity, I just want to improve and reach my time goal, but it's starting to seem less and less likely.

FALSE. Guess who gets all bragging rights for running nine miles today? I do! four and a half this morning with warm ups, and four and a half this afternoon having to run to and from the high school. I feel way too awesome to feel all of my pain and exhaustion, but I bet I'll feel it tomorrow! I never said I ran quickly though, I was ridiculously slow, especially on my way back home from afternoon practice.

yikes today was rough! I went about the speed of your average snail this morning, and still felt exhausted! My heart feels like it's being stretched or something, should I be worried? Striders at the end are tough, but they don't feel like they take very long. I still feel sore all over from yesterday. I do not intend on running nine miles again any time soon. But I guess all this pain and stuff is worth getting to say I did it.

my feet were killing me! I don't know what I did to make them hurt so bad, but if I move them very much they start hurting, and now it's both my feet! I'm hoping it's just because of the river yesterday though. 3 on the grass, I still seem to be tired from Tuesday so the grass was slower than I would like. Today I just seemed to not have energy for running or for kids club, possibly it could have been from the stresses of yesterday, but I don't know.

Once upon a time there was a girl named Susan who went for a run out at vernon worthen park. She ran pretty hard today and tried her best to stay close behind Liz, Kailee, and Makayla. Unfortunately, every time Susan would take a step with her left foot for the past two days she's felt a stabbing pain in her foot. But overall, she felt pretty strong today and therefore quite enjoyed the run. The End.

I took the afternoon run pretty easy-ish, but it was still hard-ish. I just didn't want to push myself for half the way and be totally exhausted the second half the run. yet again I ran to practice, therefore making my total to 8 miles today, but I don't feel near as tired as I did on Tuesday. I've been trying to focus on my form today, hoping that it'll help make a difference, right now it still feels kind of funny, but I'm getting used to it. running alone is . . . well, lonely. But I guess the way to run with others it to eventually get to their speed, so I get to keep on trying.

yikes! this whole thing is just getting really rough! even though the uphills today weren't so steep, I was still dying. I could feel my form slowly deteriorating into nothing more than a clumsy walk/jog. My foot also was hurting me, not so much during my run, but when I was doing striders I seriously feared that if I took one wrong step, I would twist my ankle. My foot is hurting me all the time now, and I seriously wish I could go talk to Mark or something. . . which reminds me I need to keep trying to get Mariah out here, I'm lonely, and she may possibly be out of shape enough to run with me.

I just went three. I felt super exhausted today, and my foot is really hurting me. On the run up the hill I had to stop three times. for some reason I was just out of it today. but I did get to run with Mariah (who is still better than me, even though she hasn't been in forever.) It's just kind of discouraging when new people or people who haven't ran in forever come and totally waste me, even though I've been trying so hard all summer.

afternoon run in a few words: sweaty, hard, painful. my foot is hurting me like none other, just walking on it sometimes makes me want to scream. I very much so do not like the pain, and I don't know how much longer I want to try to deal with it. but funny enough, my foot probably hurts least in the middle of  a good run. but on the up side swimming was a ball! I really enjoy team things like that, I basically only come to cross country for the people.

todays run was. . . something else. My foot was hurting a ton on the way to hell's whole so I stopped for a short bit to tighten my shoe, which helped some. I didn't hurt so much going down the whole, but when I got to the bottom I tightened my shoe some more. I didn't stop on the way back up the hill even though it hurt, not so much my foot, more of just my legs. but I ran back to the elementary school at a snails pace, without my foot hurting too much.

fabulous! I feel bad that all I do on here is complain, so just assume my foot is killing me and I feel like I'm running so slow. I've discovered my speed ratio though compared to other groups on the team, I can run 2 laps in the time it takes the varsity boys to run 3 and I can run 3 laps in the time it takes the varsity girls to run 4. I loved kids club today, I think I know all the girls who semi-regularly show up by name, which is super helpful, and probably means more to them than "yo green shirt! you're it!"

I actually have no idea how far we went. first we ran around the mountain to the Delta sign by the freeway, but then turned back not seeing where to go, so we went back to the beginning of the trail around the mountain, and turned up into the gated neighborhood. I don't think that's where we were supposed to go, but believe you me, it was easily among the more difficult and beastly runs of my life. there was this huge steep and long hill in the neighborhood, we followed that and then we saw a dirt trail leading up a mountain, so we "ran" up that (with a handful of breathers, never walked, but stopped to catch my breath.) we got up to about the height of the towers, but it was kind of on a different hill, so then we turned around and went back the same way we came. um so yeah, super lost, and terribly difficult. on the plus side, my foot hasn't been hurting me too much yesterday and today, it's just mostly my ankle now, which is better than before!

My blog posts are turning into novels, I'll have to work on that. afternoon was really good. I don't think I was super fast, but I didn't feel slow today, even this morning (besides on the mountain). I think when I feel slow is when I get discouraged the most, but today was really good. I got chocolate milk with Devin and friends afterwords and then went swimming at Megan's, I love doing things with people on the team, they're the best!

easy three today with striders. I felt like I had a hard time breathing, but it wasn't too bad. I ran with Zak today, even though he was going really slow for him, he set a good pace that I tried to follow. I unfortunately don't think I'll be running at girls camp, my parents have been wanting me to take time off ever since my foot started hurting, and so I told them that this would be my break. Speaking of my foot, it's hurting more than on Friday, but less than it was most of last week, which is good I guess.