You've got to want it to win it

This afternoon we had a workout at Sunnyside.  We warmed up to the park and then I added a little extra with Hilary.  We did our usual strides and drills.  My knee hurt on the first stride but after that it was fine.  We changed shoes and then Kep told us the workout.  It was another no watches day :'(  so I had to part with my garmin again :(  He had marked a loop, didn't know how far it was, that he wanted us to do twice at what we felt threshold pace was.  On the first one I started with Giselle, Amanda, and Andrea, but we all got spread out.  The second one I was supposed to stick with Andrea so we could work together.  On the last part of the second loop I fell back because it was a downhill portion and my knee was hurting again.  After we all finished the threshold we paired up for a 300-150 chase.  I was with Lauren and I started with the 150.  We were supposed to do 4 sets.  There was a flag 15 meters behind where we started and when our partner got to the flag we were supposed to start and they would try to catch us and we would try not to get caught.  It is like the one we did in high school with 200s and 400s, but Kep got the starting part backwards.  What some of the girls ended up doing was sitting until the flag and then kicking hard to try and catch their person.  Kep liked the strategizing that was going on though.  I didn't get caught or catch Lauren any of the times.  After the third 150 I had to stop because the 300s were irritating my knee and now it was starting to hurt further up into the medial side of my quad.  I changed shoes and then Giselle and Alex joined me for part of a cool down loop on the course we had run the threshold.  I rounded that part up to half mile so I could count that whole part as 2.  Then I ran back up Sunnyside and along Foothill to campus so I would have time to talk to Hanah before going to my lab.  She thinks I might have a torn meniscus, but we will see what the doctor says tomorrow.  

This morning at the dr. I scheduled an MRI for tomorrow so I should have results then too.  This afternoon I went running with Hilary, Lauren, Kate, and Andrea.  We ran Foothill for the first time this season I believe.  The others turned around as they needed so about by the time we got to 2300e it was just Hilary and me as usual.  We ran over to 2100s, down to 1500e, and then back to campus.  Then we added a little out and back on the road above the track to get to 8 for the day.  My knee was fine most of the time except for on the part on 2100s.  

I had my MRI today.  They were running behind so I ended up being a few minutes late to practice and ended up having to warm up on my own.  I did my strides and drills on the track and then Kep explained the workout. He knew that the track had given me knee pain last week so he measured out a 408 meter loop down on the bailiff.  Giselle came down there with me so it was nice to have someone to run with :)  We started with two 200s to get a feel for the pace we would be running.  I think the time for the first was 41, we missed the flag at first though because there were some people getting ready to play flag football that moved our flags :P  The second one we hit in 42.  Then we had a 1000 at race pace, but my knee hurt too much to keep up with Giselle and I ended up running a 3:47 but considering my first 400 was 1:28 it was sorta evenish splits.  After that we were supposed to do between 5 and 7 400s.  These felt a little better, Giselle and I both did 5.  My times were 1:22, 1:23, 1:23, 1:23, 1:23 :)  Then we finished with two more 200s and I think I hit 40 for both, but my knee was starting to hurt again.  For cooldown Giselle showed me the grass loop she does when she has to stay on the grass for recovery days.  It was almost a mile, so then I just had to add another smaller loop to get to 8 for the day.  Back at the training room Hanah hadn't heard back about the MRI yet, but while I was waiting for a massage she got the call.  It isnt' meniscus problems, but something patellar.  Hanah said to make sure I got my quads massaged and that we will probably try taping it to see if it helps.  Tim said the medial side of my quad is really tight so he thinks that might be part of the reason my knee hurts so bad.  We'll just have to experiment the next few days and I'm going to have to push through this and finish the season before resting it.  Conference is going to be awesome!  

This afternoon before going running Hanah taped my knee up.  Just walking around after having the tape on I could already tell it would help, but I still had to go through the real test of running.  I started with Hilary, Charlotte, Nikki, and Alyssa.  We ran down Guardsman and 15ooe to Sugarhouse.  They all turned around there because they just needed 6 miles.  I kept going up to 1900e, and then I decided to test how my knee could handle faster stuff with the tape.  I did three sets of 1 minute on 1 minute off, and it didn't hurt!  Just my hamstring a little bit, but my knee held up fine :)  I ran back to Sunnyside, then up to Foothill to go back to campus.  I was thinking about hitting 8, but would have had to add on more than a mile when I got back.  During the last part from crossing Foothill by the VA my knee did start to hurt a little bit though, so I stopped at 7.  But the tape was amazing for how much pain I did not feel today!  Afterwards I made sure to foam roll my quads and IT band because Tim said that might be part of the problem.  Tomorrow we travel to sunny California for the Pac-12 Championships!!!  So excited!!! :)

This afternoon after getting settled at the hotel and choosing our conference gifts (we each got 100 points and had order forms of things we could redeem our points for!), we drove to the course for premeet.  We ran the course, I did all of the loops to make sure I had the right number of loops and to get a feel for the different parts of the course.  Then I did strides on the course with Charlotte.  My knee was taped again which really helped, especially after it was hurting from being stiff on the plane ride!  The first stride hurt but the next few weren't so bad.  I just have to be cautious running the downhill portions of the course.  If I go to my toes on those parts it seems to lessen the pain, so as long as I am not screwing up my form by going to my toes I think I should be fine.  I iced behind my knee and the medial side of my quad afterwards.  

This morning after arriving at the race course I walked a bit of it with Giselle and Charlotte.  With about 50 minutes before race time we started the team warmup.  After about 15 minutes and then our usual strides and drills, we ran back over to the tent to get our shoes changed and get over to the line.  Hanah had me take ibuprofen for my knee around then too.  I only did strides up from the start line because coming down on the way back made the pain flare up.  Finally after announcing everyone's names from every team, it was time to start the race.  We were in box 12, which kinda sucked but then again it's not as big a race as pre-nats was so it wasn't a big deal.  Going out I almost got tripped and had to throw my arms out in weird flapping motions to not fall.  I caught my balance, but it really hurt my knee and slowed down my start.  I decided to just relax though, which was good because I could tell the race had definitely gone out too fast for a lot of people.  I was behind Kate and Nikki for the whole first smaller loop even.  In that loop when I could see whole teams together I knew I would have to catch them (though I wasn't worried too much about it at that point, I knew I needed to wait before moving).  I passed Nikki and Kate coming out of the loop and heading down to the 1k mark at the start of the second bigger loop.  Kep told me Giselle was hurting so I needed to work up to her, and I did catch up to her at about the 2k mark when it was time for both of us to move.  I wasn't able to run right next to her when I caught her because there were people in the way, but she didn't come with me.  2k-4k I felt really nauseous and was hoping I wouldn't puke, but I still managed to keep passing people.  Going into the third and final loop I had made my way into a group with 2 Oregon girls and a Colorado girl, and not too far ahead of us were 2 Washington girls that we were closing the gap on.  We all passed each other back and forth the last k, we were between 25th and 29th place.  Coming to the final downhill and straightaway I was able to outkick one of the girls and secure 28th, meeting my top 30 goal.  And I got another PR by 4 seconds :)  but still haven't broken 21!!!  That will be my goal at regionals!!!  I am happy to have shaved a few seconds off my time at each race, I just need to get rid of these last 6 seconds now!  After I finished I turned around and saw Giselle finish, throwing her shoe down onto the mats to make sure they read her chip (good thing they give us those for both shoes!) because it turns out she had lost her shoe in the first quarter mile of the race!  So ran most of it with one barefoot!  She is a champ!  And had a nasty blister on the bottom of her foot.  Amanda was 6th :)  and our team took 7th :)  Pretty good showing in a conference with half the teams ranked in the top 25 nationally :)  For cooldown I ran some with Hilary and then the team, and then to 2.5 on my own to finish.  I iced above and below my knee afterwards.