You've got to want it to win it

Its my birthday today :)  Since I'm turning 15, I wanted to see how many miles I could do, but since its a Sunday I guess that cancels that idea.  I ran from my house over to Sunnyside and down to 1300e and came home.  It was really hot because it was in the late afternoon, but I figured it would be better than the last time I did that run.  This time it wasn't sunny, and it was 10 degrees cooler.  Also, my brother gave me some running shorts I wanted for my birthday, so I got to run in them.  And tomorrow, I am going shopping to get some racing flats as another present. 

This morning we met for practice at Sugarhouse Park. We ran to Shriners drinking fountain, a run we do from our stadium sometimes, and back.  I ran with Bre. On the way there we had a few hills and it was tough. Finally when we made it we got water and then went back. Luckily on the way back we got to run down the hills. When we got back to the park, we ate muffins that Bre made. They were good :)

This morning we met at the parking lot at the JCC. We started by running up a hill at the beginning of the trail. Then we all stopped and we each had to get rocks to carry while we ran. We had to carry them to an overlook of the city, where we dropped off the rocks. It was about 1.5 miles to where we dropped off the rocks. After that we had some steep hills, which were hard, but we made it. I ran with Bre most of the way, but when we turned around I went faster on some of the downhills and she caught back up to me not too far from the end of the run. After that we did 3 sets of 25 crunches and 15 pushups as usual. I found the pushups easier than previous times, probably because my cousin made me do sets of 30 last week. I'm glad that I've been able to show improvement.

For the evening workout, we met as Sugarhouse Park.  We started with a lap around the outside, and then we were supposed to do 10 1 minute fartlek.  I only did 5, which ended up being about a lap, because my hips were hurting a lot.  So I stopped and I stretched it out a bit, and massaged it a bit.  Since the pain is pretty high up at my hips, and I don't want to have to fill the tub that high. I just put on my swimming suit and put some ice in it by my hips.  It feels pretty good.  I'll find out if it works by how my hips feel during tomorrows hills. 

This morning we met at Cottonwood Complex. We started with a warmup of going around the baseball fields and then up to 1300e and over to 3900s and down to 1100e and back into the park. After that we did some strides, and then went and did hills. Because the sprinklers were on, we only had to get up to the top of the hill we were running. We did 3 of those hills, and then we did 3 of the same hill, but we kept going after we reached the top. After the hills we did 3 sets of 45 seconds leg lifts, followed by 3 sets of bridges. Then we did lunges, and jumps, and then some balancing knee lifts and putting one foot behind ourselves. After that we still had to do the usual crunches and pushups. Then, after that we had to go do a cooldown. We went over 2 miles of our region course for our cooldown. It was a tough workout and now I'm really tired.

This morning we met out at the Jordan River trail and ran on it.  I pushed my pace a little bit to see how long I could keep it up.  After about 2 miles I caught up with RJ and ran with him for a while.  We went 400 meters farther than the turnaround point, finally turning around when there was a fork, so that added a half mile to the run.  On the way back I still kept a fast pace, and pulled ahead.  When I got back to where we started I forgot about the 2 mile loop which our coach said to do afterwards, and then was reminded by Emily when most of the others were coming back.  I'll just go running some more tonight.

This evening I started my run a little after 8.  The sun had gone down so it was nice and cool.  I ran from my house up along 1500e and then aver to Sunnyside and up to Foothill Boulevard.  Then I ran down that to 1300e and 500s.  From there I stayed on 1300e and ran back to my house.  I felt a little sore at the beginning of the run, but its not that bad. 

This morning we met for practice at Liberty Park.  We took it easy today because we have a race tomorrow.  We did 3 laps around the park, the first we did as a warmup, then we did a workout lap, and then a cooldown lap.  After that we did our usual sets of 25 crunches and 15 pushups.  I felt very strong on the pushups.  After that we did 10 strides, but I don't know how much mileage to those as.  After that we got to enjoy dutch oven breakfast that Bill cooked.  It was really good.  Also, we got to see an article in the paper about our team.  I'm excited for tomorrows race, I'll get to use my flats for the first time :D

I got to use my flats for the first time today :)  I started with a 2 mile warmup, I just ran to the one mile mark and back.  Then I changed shoes and did some strides with Amanda and Ashleigh.  I had a good start, and at mile 1 my time was 6:03.  I slowed down in my second mile, I got a 6:14, so I was at 12:17.  I didn't see my third mile time, but I had a good finish with a new PR.  Afterwards I did a 2 mile cooldown with Amanda and Ashleigh, just the same thing we did for our warmup.  I loved my new shoes.