You've got to want it to win it

This afternoon after our mile on the track we ran out on Foothill and then 1900e.  We hit 4 on a random street so we took that up to 2100e and went back to Foothill.  Finished with strides on campus.  It was a really nice day!  And then we had an easy lift.

We had a workout at Liberty Park today.  It was cold!  So we got to take the vans down instead of Trax.  After our usual warmup.  Actually not really usual, we did our drills and strides by the fountain since the first part of the workout was by the pond.  The workout was 3 400s with 90 seconds rest, and then 2 1 mile thresholds between 6:00-6:10, and then another 3 400s.  My times were 1:25, 1:23, 1:23 for the first 400s, then 6:08 and 6:11 for the miles (I erred on the side of too slow since I knew it would feel slow after the 400s), and then 1:23, 1:22, 1:21 on the final 400s.  Cooled down 1 lap in the park and then was happy to be done and go get out of the cold!

Cross training day in the pool.  I warmed up 10 minutes and then did 6 sets of 3 minutes hard 2 minutes easy, followed by another 10 minutes cooldown.  The end.

Premeet today in Albuquerque.  The course seems alright, though some parts are so narrow!  Anyway, I'm excited to race this course tomorrow!!!

This morning at the course we started our warmup about an hour before the race.  We ran just part of the lower part of the course, then came back up and ran the latter half of the course.  We did our strides and drills from the starting line, and  then got our shoes changed and went to the line for a few more strides before it was time to go.  We were in box 19, right between Colorado and New Mexico, and just a few boxes away from BYU and Weber.  This was great since it would allow us to know where they were from the start and the gauge our starting pace and positions off of theirs.  Going out I stuck next to Shaylen, and we were together for at least 1k.  Due to how the course got packed up, I wasn't right next to Shay, but we still passed the same packs at the same time, just on opposite sides of the course.  We were together around the next curve, and the one after that, and then we were with Joc, Dre, and Jess.  It was coming out of the second hairpin turn that I moved up, but sadly my team missed me because they were on the outside of the course and I was on the inside of the course.  A gap was starting to form off of the main pack, and given our mistake at conference I knew that I would have to move up then to prevent it from widening on our team.  So by the 2k mark I was ahead of the girls I was supposed to be with, according to our team race plan.  And I was getting conflicting messages from the coaches, because they were telling me to relax and that the girls were 10 meters behind me, but I was just trying to hang on to the back of the pack.  Finishing the first lap I was in a string of girls not really on a pack, but I kept moving forward and matched any moves that other girls made.  After the 4k mark there was a Colorado girl that was with me, and I ran with her up to the second hairpin turn, and then passed her on the slight decline that was there as soon as I turned.  The course isn't really hilly, just on a grade, so when it feels hard and you feel tired, when you turn the corner you are headed back down and can let it carry you instead.  It was along that stretch that I heard Kep say I was in 28th place.  Just 3 more people and I would have a medal.  I made that my goal and kept pushing forward.  The BYU pack had started to break up and fall back, so I focused on catching them since I knew we would improve our chances of going to nationals if we could beat them.  During the last part of the race I was starting to feel sick to my stomach, so I just pushed as hard as I could to give it what I had without puking, since I knew that would slow me down.  The finish was along an uphill grade, which was kind of awful.  Rounding the corner before that, Coach Mack told me to get 3 girls, which would have placed me just in front of Nat.  She was moving forward, so I focused on passing the girls she was passing.  At one point it seemed like I was gaining ground on her too, but I could tell when she turned on her kick and I knew I didn't have a chance then.  But I still passed a few people in the last stretch, including Sarah from my team.  I finished in 20th place, just one place lower than my junior year at regionals.  We got going on our cooldown as we waited for the results, then were excited to the point of tears when we found out that we placed 3rd!!!!!!!!!  Finished cooldown with 4 total to get 10 for the day. :)

7 miles in the neighborhood this afternoon.  And today it was officially announced that WE MADE IT TO NATIONALS!!!!!!!!! So excited for the team :)  Also BYU and Weber made it too, it will be nice to have some Utah schools represented :)