Well I didn't think I'd make it this far....

This morning I woke up and felt all those miles I did yesterday. A culmination of this and the fact that it was snowing outside meant that I slept in until noon:) After I managed to get out of bed I went over to the gym and did 3 miles on the treadmill. I swear 1 mile on the treadmill is like 3 normal miles. Since this week is a taper week I did a small run at a fast pace just to loosen up my legs. Later before bed I did my core.

I have now officially puked at a workout. Today was the first day of spring break, and practice was at the track at 9 am. There were two sprinters and the rest of us distance. We began with two miles warm up and one mile speed changes. Then we changed shoes. Our speed workout today was 2 sets of 400, 800, 400, with long standing recovery and one lap recovery in between sets.  I was supposed to hit fast times for all of them. 65 for the 400's and sub 2:20 800's. The first one went how it usually does. I hate being slower than my time, so the first one I always push and try and get a second or two faster than my goal to sort of fall into that rhythm. I hit 62 for the first one. It took my a bit longer to control my breathing than it usually does, but I didn't make anything of it. Next the 800. I ran the first 400 in 68 so I thought I could be right on pace, but clocked in at 2:23, which means I picked up 5 seconds on my second lap. That 800 sucked.  I pushed hard and felt like I would achieve my goal, but was way off. Plus it took me about 3 minutes to get my breathing under control. For some reason, no one could breathe quite right. It must have been something to do with the cold air. I pushed this 800 out of my mind and got on with the workout. I hit a 66 on this 400. Man I had to really fight this one. There was a little wind which didn't help either. After this one I came close to puking. I could tell that on the next set I would definitely lose it. We did one lap recovery and got ready for the second set. On the next 400 I was ready to quit. By the 200 I was completely out of breath and winded, which only meant I had to push the last straight even harder to achieve a still slower time. I came in at 69. Man I was falling off my times bad. Everyone was having trouble hitting their times today, even Bill. He told me at this point to just give what I had on the next two reps. Next was the 800. Again by the 200, I was completely out of breath, only this time I still had 600 to go. I hit a 73 first lap, so at this point I gave up on trying to hit my times and just focused on giving solid effort. I fought really hard that second lap, and still slowed way down. Chris caught and passed me with 200 to go. I came in at 2:36, 16 second off of what my goal was. After this rep, I lost it. I was huffing and puffing and could not get any air whatsoever, and was gagging but I had had almost no breakfast so there was nothing to puke. After about 2 minutes of gagging, I threw up the orange I had along with a Nutrigrain bar. First time EVER I have puked in a workout or race. After a minute or so it was time for the last 400, and I had some what of a hold on my breathing. I needed to have this 400 to be over with, so just fought with what I had. Again, Chris caught and passed me with about 250 meters to go. I ended up with a 71. Afterwards we did 3.25 miles cool down for 8.5.

This was the first workout I have ever fallen off my times. If I fight, I can always pull them off no matter the speed, but today I just couldn't. The only reason I don't feel disappointed in myself is because everyone had just as much trouble. There must have been something in the air to prevent us from breathing properly. My only problem was breathing; my legs felt fine. This is one of those workouts that I am glad I got over with, and I will push completely out of my mind. Time to forget about it and move in. I can't let this one workout hover over me in California this Friday. Which reminds me that I will be in California later this week! Woohoo!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/164237107 

 Bill told us to do a 3-4 mile shakeout later today so in the afternoon I went for a loop around my block and it ended up being 3.5 exactly. I couldn't really tell if I was breathing easier or not, since I didn't have to breath as hard as in speed. Overall felt fine though.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/164300209 

Today practice was at Liberty Park at 8:30, since it was just distance meeting. We did one lap warm up, then did two laps firemen, then did another lap cool down. I felt better today then yesterday, although again like my run yesterday afternoon, I never had to breathe as hard as I did in speed. We got a total of six miles.

Today practice was at the track at 9 am again. We had a much larger group today.  We did our traditional track stuff. Half mile warm up, then our stretching circle. I brought my dog, Duke, to practice today. He's a Great Dane, and at 4 months, is about 70 pounds. Duke's very playful, and he made the stretches, in short, a blast. After that we did a modified version of drills, mostly to get them over with fast. After the drills we did our warm up, which was 1 mile warm up then 1 mile speed changes. Then we were told the workout. We were doing a 400,200 workout that we have done in cross country before. There are pairs of two, and when one partner does a 400, the other does a 200. When the 400 runner passes the 200, where the 200 runner waits, the 200 runner waits until the other passes a marked point, and then runs to try and catch the 400 runner. This way we get some practice with sprinting to catch someone in the last stretch, and it also just helps people push more. I was paired with Chris. I started out running the 400. My times went like this: 66, 29, 65, 29, 63, 28. I feel exponentially better than Monday. I could actually breathe today. Afterwards we did a two mile cool down doing grass laps to be at 6 for the day.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/164788436

Three mile shakeout run before the race tomorrow.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/166589575 

We arrived at the Tiger Meet and I got about 1.5 miles warm up, then I was seeded with my heat and then were put on the field to wait for our race. I was in the first heat of the Varsity Race. I got a lot of good strides in and then we lined up. Again this race is a full mile. We ran a really slow first lap, a 74 if I remember correctly, and really picked it up the second lap. At the half I think we were about 2:25. Then the third lap came around and I felt good. I decided to move up and see if I could hold it. I moved into second, and then first and led the rest of the third lap. The fourth lap came around; and I just told myself that I came all the way out to California to have a good race, not to get passed in the last lap. At the 300 a kid tried to move on my and I just couldn't match him, so he passed me and got about 5 meters on me. Coming off the curb onto the final stretch I kicked with everything I had and passed him, winning the race. The altitude helps a lot, I can usually never kick that hard. I think Bill told me my last lap was a 66. Then we zoomed over to Arcadia and I got another mile or so warming up with Abigail and Kiley for their races. Once they raced, we zoomed back over to the Tiger Meet. We were really late and when we got there, Dakota's two mile was almost done. I barely had enough time to check in, and sneak onto the field, put on my spikes, and line up. At the line they let us do one stride, and that was my entire warm up. My adrenaline was pumping though, because I had to really rush to make my race. Anyway the gun went off and I was in the middle of the pack to start. That race I remember less vividly, because so many things were going through my mind right before it. But I do remember that mile one was a 4:50. That surprised me. I just fought with what I had left and ended up with a 9:54. Of course I didn't have the kick I had in the mile, but oh well. It took me a minute to realized that I had broken 10 and also pr'ed by 40 seconds.After that I did about another mile cool down with Kiley and then we all headed back to the hotels. 

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/166589560 

No running. Had a busy day driving to Arcadia and back for all the races!