You've got to want it to win it

Today I went to Park City with Giselle and Hilary for our run.  Hilary and I ran the first bit of the trail together and then Giselle joined us once we got off the pavement and onto the dirt.  I've sure missed running in PC.  My calves felt fine at first, but as I got closer to the 4 mile mark I could feel the tightness.  I stopped at 4 to stretch, and then did ten sets of 1 minute on 1 minute off on the way back.  I didn't notice my calves then, though because now I was going slightly downhill that might have been the difference.  Finished with 8 and then had a nice stretch while I waited for Giselle and Hilary.  I had Heather scrape out my calves when I got back.

This afternoon I ran to the track to visit my sister :)  She wasn't ready to run yet, so I went up to Sunnyside and did 2 laps there.  Then I ran back down to the track.  I joined my sister for stretching and then drills.  Then I ran 3 laps on the track with her followed by 3 laps of speedchanges.  Then she was doing hills, so I went home.  Took a 12 minute ice bath when I got home.

Giselle and I did our workout today.  I think we lucked out since we were both still recovering from races, and we are both racing the DMR on Saturday at Drake!  She is doing the 1200, I am doing the 1600 :)  We warmed up around the bailiff and then did our strides and drills at the track.  Our workout was three 500s, three 300s, and three 200s.  We had jogging recovery, and then extra time between reps.  The goal for the 500s was to be faster than 75 for 400 split.  My times were 1:32, 1:33, 1:34 (4oo splits 73, 74, 75).  On the 300s I hit 53, 53, 54.  The 200s were 35, 33, 35.  Afterwards I cooled down a bit on bailiff with Giselle and then ran some in the avenues to bring my cooldown to 3 and my total for the day to 8.  Back at the training room Tim worked on my calves, shins, hamstrings, and hips.  When I got home I did a 12 minute ice bath.  Tomorrow we depart campus at 5 AM for Drake!  Super excited! :)

Today after arriving in Iowa we went to the track and ran from there.  I started with Andrea and Amanda, we ran on Kingman Boulevard because Kep said that was a safe area.  Apparently we are in the 'hood if we run in any other direction from campus...  I did 7 miles total, then had a nice long stretch.  I was sore from yesterday's workout, but felt much better after stretching.

This morning Giselle and I went running on the trail by the river near our hotel.  Giselle did 3 miles with me, then I did another mile before going back and joining her for strides and drills.  Excited for the DMR tomorrow!

An hour before the race I warmed up with Andrea and Giselle.  We did a loop near campus, then I did a second smaller loop.  Did drills in the indoor arena before heading over to the bullpen for final check in.  We had time for strides while waiting for the event before ours to be over, then I had time as I waited while my teammates raced.  Giselle did the first leg, the pack ended up forming 2 packs and she was leading the chase pack.  Lauryn was able to keep us in our spot and move ahead a bit before giving the baton to Andrea.  When I got the baton we were at 6:45, and there was a girl that received the baton right after me who came with me.  The next girl was further ahead so it would take time to close that gap, I decided, and I'm pretty sure the other girl was thinking it too, that catching the other girl would be a lot easier if we worked together.  The first lap was a 70, but I just stuck with this other girl.  By the 600 mark I could tell she was slowing down, so I tried to move and go after the other girl on my own, but then she picked it up and took off.  Now I was by myself, watching the other girl close the gap on the next one.  I knew I just needed to hold on for 1000 meters and I could do it.  Races like this feel so short after racing 5 and 10ks!  It is too easy to lose focus and then realize the race is over.  I think my second lap was a 75, I didn't look at the clock starting my final lap, but looked at my finishing time.  My split was 5:02.  I'm pretty sure that was my split the first time I did the DMR, more than a year ago during indoor track.  After changing shoes, I did about a 12 minute cooldown with Giselle and Andrea, then watched an exciting heat of the 100 meter hurdles :)  They called it the London rematch heat, it was exciting listening to the announcers introduce everyone!  The first 4 in the heat ended up setting the top 4 world leading times at the moment!  It was amazing!  

When I got back to the hotel I ran 4 miles on the trail by the river.