You've got to want it to win it

For practice today we took fruit loops through the golf course and onto Wasatch.  We were going really fast, and when we realized that everyone backed off a bit.  Except Jess and Sarah, who were up ahead of us a ways.  I knew everyone was turning earlier than me, so I pushed the pace to try and catch up to Sarah and Jess since they were going longer.  I finally caught them when they stopped at 4.  Jess turned around but I kept going with Sarah.  We went to Thunderbird and then cut down to Foothill to go back to campus.  On the turf up at the track we did some fast strides, and then our cooldown drills before going to lifting. 7:14 average.

This afternoon we had a workout at Sugarhouse.  The workout was a set of ladders that was on 2 loops at different areas in the park, so we warmed up on each of those to get familiar with them.  After our strides and drills, we changed shoes and headed over to the first loop.  My ankle was hurting with inverted steps on the uneven ground so I had Olivia tape it for some extra support.  I can't really remember if I did something to it since I roll my ankles a lot, but I did roll one of them yesterday on some uneven pavement though I don't remember if it was the same one.  The first loop starts in the same field as the state course andg goes up a hill to the top and then loops back down towards the pond, the whole loop being 1030 meters.  Sarah and Hannah were a group, and then the rest of us were a group.  I was towards the front on the line but I think I took us out to slow.  And I was still struggling to warmup I think, because it took until the 1200 before I felt like I was really there.  The workout was a 800, 1000, 1200 ladder on the first loop and then 1200, 1000, 800 on the second loop.  The recovery times were 2:40, 3:20, 4:00.  My times on the first loop were 3:07, 3:46, 4:25.  The second loop was over behind the pavilion near the basketball hoops, just below 1700e.  It goes around the creek and then alongside the paved trail on the south side of the park.  Then past the softball fields it loops back and passes by the playground again and finishes inside the soccer field.  The times on this one were 4:23, 3:35, 2:53.  Way better!  And not only because the loop was more flat.  Afterwards we cooled down picking up the flags for each loop.  

This morning I went running with Shaylen and Becky.  We ran 11th Avenue out and back.  Becky was going shorter so she turned around early, but Shaylen did the full 8 with me.  Afterwards we did cooldown strides and drills on the track.  My ankle was hurting a little bit on the way out, probably because of the way the road is crowned and taking the inverted steps.  On the flat part it was fine.  It wasn't hurting before I started running so I hadn't gone to the training room...  Lifting later.

Today we had another recovery run day. We did the first mile on the track and then the groups that wanted to go separate destinations separated. Meghan was the only one willing to come up to Shoreline Trail with me, but it was definitely nice that she was willing to come! We ran up past the dorms and got on the trail at Red Butte. She turned around just before the JCC area, I kept going and ran up Drycreek to the overlook where we used to carry rocks up to. I ran back down and exited the trail by the JCC and then went down to the track for strides and drills.

This afternoon we had a threshold workout at Liberty Park. We warmed up to the park from the 900e Trax and then the long way around before doing strides and drills. The workout was 15, 10, 5 with 3 minutes, 2, and 1 minute recoveries. I was in a large group, and we were supposed to go about 6:12 pace for the first set, 6:05 for the second, and 6:00 for the third. Our first set was a little fast, and after that it felt like we were just trying to maintain the pace that we had in the first set. While it is nice to have so many people to work with, I feel like it can also be rough when someone gets excited and messes up the pace for everyone else... Anyway, after we finished we did our strides and then ran back ot the Trolley Trax station, barely catching the train. Yay!

This morning was rough. Jesse stayed up late tending our sick baby so I could go to bed early since I had early morning practice, but then I was up at 3:15 with our baby who would not go back to sleep. Until 6am. And my alarm was set for 6:15... At least we got in two episodes of Gilmore Girls, if there is to be a plus side to this story. I thought about texting my coaches and letting them know what was up and asking if I could just get some sleep and run on my own later. But I'm glad that I didn't, because there is no way I would have been able to get a quality run in on my own. We drove up to Park City and started from the Smith's parking lot. I ended up running out with Shaylen, Jess, and one of the recruits. We were basically running into the sun the entire way out and I just wanted to close my eyes and go to sleep. I seriously considered just laying down on the trail and going to sleep. But I just let my teammates pull me along. Jess turned at 5.5 but I kept going on my own, hoping that Sarah would catch up since she had stopped to wait for Hannah to use the bathroom. Just after I turned around at 6, Sarah was coming my way so she turned around with me and I was so happy!! It was nice running back with her. When we finished we did our cooldown strides and drills, and then enjoyed bagels, chocolate milk, and some homemade pumpkin chocolate chip muffins that Shaylen made :)