You've got to want it to win it

This morning I had an easy workout back up at the U since coach is back.  I did a mile and a half warmup and then a mile of speedchanges at the track before he got there, then did a few drills and stretched before changing shoes.  The workout was really easy after last week, but it was fine since I ran hard Saturday.  I started with three 1000s, hitting 3:53 for all of them and with 1 minute rest.  Then I did four 250s with 150 (2 minutes) recovery.  On those I hit 46, 47, 47, 47.  Then I stayed in lane 9 to the far side of the track and went right into a progressive 2000, starting at 96.  I think I came through that first lap at 1:35, then my other times coming through were 3:10, 4:41, 6:08, and 7:30 (if I remember correctly... the point is that I got faster each lap).  Kep was really happy with the workout and says I did a great job for that especially for a freshman.  I'm basically a sophomore now, and I've done that workout a few times... Anyway, then I grabbed my iPod and cooled down 3 miles before heading to the training room for a 15 minute ice bath.

This morning at Sunnyside I did 1/10th of a mile on the swing set before starting my run... I felt kinda sick after that :P  I did a lap at Sunnyside and then ran down to the track at East for a mile of speedchanges.  Then  I did a bunch of backwards laps (I wasn't counting, I had my Garmin) until I was at about 6 miles.  Then I did a 300 in 51, followed by a 200 in 33 and then another 300 in 49.  Then I ran back up to Sunnyside and ran home on the road that goes to the gully down to 15th and home from there.  Then I went and got my final lift before nationals done!  Now I just have to make it through work today, and my final workout tomorrow, and then I'll be ready to go for a great race on Saturday :)

This morning I was a bit late getting started on my warmup, but Kep saw me as he was walking from the trax station so he knew I was late, but also I knew he'd be on time today.  I did 2 miles warmup and then strides and drills at the track.  Then I changed into my spikes while Kep told me the workout.  Two 200s, six 400s, and two more 200s.  200 recovery for everything.  Also he wanted me to go race pace and then pick it up just a few seconds at the end.  My times were 38, 39, 1:20, 1:18, 1:20, 1:19, 1:21, 1:20, 38, 38.  Then I changed shoes and ran 2.75 cooldown around campus and then around the institute parking lot so I could finish by the car.  Fun fact, it's just over a half mile from the institute parking up to the track parking lot.

After a long day of travel we finally made it to Indiana!  Right after checking into the hotel I went and put on my running clothes to go for a run.  I asked the people at the front desk if there was a high school nearby so I could run to there and if I still had enough miles left maybe use the track.  I followed their directions on the road parallel to the highway, crossing at Ohio Street, and on to the next traffic signal.  I turned right like they told me, and was on the road for a while but then reached one and a half so decided to turn and just throw in speed changes on the way back.  I did these until I reached 2 and a half, and then ran the rest of the way back to the hotel for cooldown.  I stretched out afterwards, looking forward to relaxing the rest of the evening and finally getting sleep!  (I had to wake up at 4:45 to get to the airport).  

This morning after waking up for breakfast and going back to sleep for a few hours and then getting woken up by housekeeping I decided to get up and get my run done.  This ended up being a time crunch since there was about an hour before we were leaving to the meet for Kait to do javelin, but we made it work.  Burke dropped me off at the Martinsville High School parking lot and from there I ran over to the track.  The stadium was closed but I found a spot under the fence that had a large enough gap for me to get through.  Once inside the stadium I had to hop a fence to get onto the actual track.  After I had warmed up a mile, I took off my shoes and did strides in my socks on the field.  I did drills in between the first few, but before I got to 1o I ran out of ideas for more drills so the last few were just strides.  After I finished the strides I put my shoes back on and then hopped one fence and went under another and out to the parking lot back towards the hotel for cooldown.  Burke was already there so he guessed where the distance would be that I would need to get to three.  He was about a quarter mile off with his first guess but really close on the second.  Back at the hotel I had just a minute to run in and out so we could head to the track for Kait's event.  A few hours later after returning to the hotel, I used up all the ice in the ice machine on my floor while filling up for the ice bath.  Did that for 15 minutes and then relaxed the rest of the day.

After a long day of relaxing at the hotel it was finally time to face the heat and prepare to run.  I got to the track in plenty of time to get situated and watch a few events.  After picking up my bib I was told to come back 15 minutes prior to my race.  About 30 minutes prior to that, I started my warmup because as Burke reminded me, I wouldn't need as long to warmup because of the heat.  I went up to the practice track which is currently just a bunch of dirt and did laps there.  After 4 laps I did 4 laps of speedchanges to get my strides in.  When I finished those I went and stretched for a few minutes before taking my Gu and grabbing my spikes to head into the bull pen.  In there I did some drills before changing shoes, and then did a few more while they handed out our stickers.  Finally it was time for our race so they walked us over to the start.  While we were walking they told us that on the other straightaway they would have someone with a hose making a mist for us to swerve into if we were too hot.  Someone said what the rest of us were thinking, they should just spray it on us anyway because we don't have to swerve to get cooled off!  They didn't let us stride on the line but they got us started pretty quick.  For the first lap I was on the outside of lane one with another girl, coming through the 400 at 1:21.  Then, as I suspected might happen knowing that Erin and Allison were in the race, they came up to the front along with a few other girls.  The girl on the inside fell off but I was determined to hold onto the pack and go with them if I could.  The second lap we came in at about 2:40 so still on PR pace for me.  But I didn't want to think about pace, I knew if I did that then I would lose the racing mentality and just watch the clock and be doing math the whole time.  It was getting tough but I still was trying to hold on.  A group of 4 broke away, and then there was a gap followed by a girl in gray, and then another gap before me.  I knew top 5 would medal so I shifted goals towards closing on the girl in gray.  I came through 1200 at around 4 minutes.  I tried to stop looking at the clock after that and to just run.  I kept my eyes up on the gray girl and could tell that I was closing on her, but then on the other side of the track I would notice she had pulled away a little bit so I would refocus and try and get her.  I had no idea how far back the next girls behind me were so that also kept me running in fear.  A few laps later the gray girl dropped out!  By then I was about 200 meters behind 4th place and knew I'd really have to push the rest of the race to keep running it by myself and not falling back to the next group of girls.  With 800 to go the announcer was saying that Allison was coming up on her final lap.  I was determined not to get lapped!  I had 700 to go when I heard the gun for her final lap.  I picked it up and then again with 500 to go I picked it up a little more.  I did not get lapped, and then at 300 I tried to kick.  My kick wasn't very fast, but it was enough to make sure the girls behind me wouldn't catch up.  I felt very sick when I finished, but walked around for a bit before leaving the track.  They had cold towels waiting for us as we finished, it was awesome!  When I took off my spikes (the Nikes, which I have only worn for shorter distances before) I found the tops of my feet rubbed raw and a lovely blood blister under one of my toes.  That was painful, but at least I can plan on getting a pedicure soon now that the season is officially done for me!  I put on my trainers and then went back up to the practice track for cooldown.  I got in a mile and a quarter, then as I was doing another lap my stomach hurt really bad and I had to stop and walk for a bit.  I felt really nauseous but after walking a bit decided to try and run a bit more.  That didn't last long, and then I decided I was done with my cooldown.