Running is a means and never merely an end

Kinda ended up foregoing my run today in favor of a New Years hike with the fam bam. Close enough right? Spent the day hiking 7 very strenuous miles of steeeeep incline to the Pinnacle! Always a good one. Thankful for that time with my family.

AM- Supposed to be a 60 minute progression run today but I had to stop at about 50 minutes to go to the bathroom, so it ended up being about 50 + a fast leting-my-frustration-out mile afterwards. Splits were 8:34/8:09/7:50/7:30/7:21/7:30, and then the last mile was 6:29. Felt fine, minus the bathroom break thing. Then I joined Nancy inside and lifted and did some core! Good to catch up with her.

PM- Twice around Buchanan loop for 4 miles easy. Legs a little tired from squatting earlier.

Recovery day. 8:18 avg pace. Did my core too!

Good to finally be back at Wofford!! I didn't want to leave home but now that I am here I am super glad to be back. Long run with my girls. They did like an hour, and then I added on till I got to 90 minutes, with the last 15 fast. 8:08 avg pace, with the last 2 miles at 7:21 and 7:15.

I went to Dick's to try and buy some new trainers for before I got back to Wofford, but the smallest size they had was a 6.5 and I wear a 5.5-6. I know that's not a big difference at all but I figured if I'm paying tons of money for a pair of shoes, they better fit perfectly. Plus who knows, maybe half a size is enough to give blisters or something. In any event, they'll be here in 3-6 business days. This is my first go-round at Nike's (and first time not getting Brooks in years) which I never really took seriously as distance running shoes. But the Zoom Structure 18's were fire, and have had really good reviews in the running world, so I'm giving them a shot. Hopefully the stability features will help with the way my arches make me want to cry every day after I run...

2.5 out and back nice and easy with the girls. Weights afterwards, which kinda killed me honestly. I can feel that I am going to be super sore tomorrow.

Did the Oregon 10 Miler today, except modified to be 8 miles haha. 2mi, 1600, 2mi, 1200, 2mi, 800 (and there is usually another 2 miles here on the end, but thats what we took off to modify it for right now) with 30-60 seconds in between each. 2 mile sections were at 7:35ish pace, and we completed those on the trails next to the track. 1600 was at 10k race pace. I haven't competed a 10k yet but I guestimated about 7 minute pace? Hit 6:47. Then the 1200 was just supposed to be faster than 10k but not 5k, so I said maybe 6:40 pace? I can't remember my split but it was on target. The 800 was 5k race pace, which I guestimated to average out to 6:20-630, so I was shooting for 3:10-15. Hit 3:11. 

I could definitely feel the soreness from the jillion squat variations we did in weights yesterday. Coach Harris said that's the one thing he asked our strength coaches not to have us do, for that reason. My hammy's were about to give on that 800, even though it wasn't that fast. 

Short cool down (too short, admittedly) afterwards followed by a core session.

60 minute recovery run. 8:14 avg pace. Weights afterwards, which were much better today than Monday. It was absolutely freezing! I think it said 20 degrees with the windchill...I don't know what I'm gonna do when its like -5 with the windchill tomorrow morning at practice.

Oh! And my new shoes finally came in ahhh!!! I love them SO much. Cushion for days. Plus my arches weren't absolutely killing me afterwards - progress! I'm gonna add the shoe mileage thing on here now too. Yay!

AM- 45 minutes reccovery/maintainance. 8:28 pace. 12 degrees outside...that was something, alright.

PM- 30 minutes easy. 8:23 pace. "Warmed up" to the 20's, yay. Getting nice and loose in preparation for our tempo tomorrow.

Amaaaazing workout today!!! Honestly probably the best, meaning most well executed and simultaneously enjoyable, tempo of my running career.

2 mile warm up & cool down with a 10k tempo between. Core later. Target pace was 7:15. Mile splits: 7:04/7:11/7:16/7:09/7:06/7:02, averaging out to 7:07 per mile. Ran with Mell, she was also target pace 7:15 but for 5 miles instead of 6. We worked really well together and pushed and eachother at all the right places. I felt like I was working hard but at no point did I feel like I was suffering or unable to hold the pace I was going. It was fantastic.

It's cool because I was actually dreading this workout all last night and during class and the day today. I just thought it would be awful for some reason. Right before I left, I prayed that God would bless me with a better attitude and a capable body to be able to have a good workout and at least be encouraging to my teammates. I asked for this workout to not suck as much as I feel like it will (haha). But he went above and beyond and gave all of us an amazing workout with fantastic splits and a fun time with eachother. Awesome to see that goodness and continuous faithfulness play out right before my eyes.

Recovery. 8:18 avg.

Long run Sunday! Did our run at Croft State Park. Honestly I kind of hated the trails there (bad footing, super windy, wide enough for one person) but hey its good to get off the sidewalks and its always a cool thing to change it up.

Workout today at Milliken Park. 2 mile warm up to the start line. We did a really interesting workout of like continuous rolling repeats...we would do a 2000m interval (mine at target 6:50 mile pace), then the rest would be a 100ish meter jog over to the big hill (200 meters or so), and then 4 hill sprints with a jog back down, then jogged back to the start for the 2k repeats, and rolled into the next interval. All together 1 set of the hills and 2k was like 2.10 miles. We did 3. The 2nd and 3rd 2k repeats were actually really difficult after the hills. I felt like I was having to put a lotttt of effort in just to keep consistent splits. But I pretty consistently stayed at 6:45-50 mile pace, so that was good. I'm really pleased with the way our workouts have been going lately. They have been challenging, but I feel like we have handled them really well. Just feels like I am getting better every day. 2 mile cool down back to the cars afterwards.

Weights session later that evening. Once again, too many dang squats.

50 minute recovery run. Did my core.

Workout at Milliken again today. 2 mile warm up, then 40 minutes of 10 hard, 5 easy, 10 hard, 5 easy, 10 hard. That amounted to 5.26 miles. Our hard was just supposed to be a steady solid effort but nothing too bad, and each 10 minute sesh should be harder than the last. I paced those 3 at about 7:26, 7:14, 7:08 pace. Easy pace was a nice conversational jog, around 8:45 pace. We averaged out sub-8 though. 1.2 mile cool down + a few strides.

Weights sesh around dinner time. 

Speaking of dinner time, I have GOT to start eating better. I guarentee I could drop like at least 15 seconds off my 5k time if I just had better portion control and also ate less dessert. I say this to myself around this time every night, but now that it's in writing....I really gotta work on it haha.

Easy recovery run. Had fun exploring around Converse's campus. Nice place!

Left WoCo at about 1:30 today for our ETSU meet this weekend. We went on a little shakeout run when we got there, 30 minutes easy around campus + some strides. I'm running my first indoor 5k tomorrow! Need to gather my thoughts

My race was the first race of the day - first thing in the morning at 8am. We left the hotel by about 6:45 and got there at like 7:10, so I was a little rushed to warm up but it was alright. I was really happy to have the first race of the day, first off so that I wouldn't just sit there and think too much about it all day like I probably would have, and second of all so that I could really enjoy the rest of the day without worry. 

Well it was 18 laps. So that was pretty crazy because I've never ran that far on a track before. I guess I didn't take that into account like at all because I have ran a jillion 5k's....just never on a track. I was hoping for sub-19 today, which I didn't even think was a very ambitious goal. I was on pace for the first mile, ahead of pace actually, and came through at 6:06 I think. After that, with like 11 laps to go, I realized how long this race was. I think that really started to get to me mentally which is probably why my splits showed that I slowed down so much at that point. My last 800 was pretty good, but basically everything between that last 8 and that first mile was just a lost cause. I don't really know what happened, but I know it was definitely mental. I feel like I prepared as well as I could have mentally beforehand, but I guess I just didn't really know what I was preparing for. So now that I have this one under my belt, hopefully I'll be able to mentally prepare better for the next one.

20 minute cool down with my dad afterwards. I was really happy that he showed up to cheer me on - he woke up at like 5am just to drive over for that 20 minute race. :)

Fun little trail run with Mell and Breck on the trails behind Milliken park. Today was BEAUTIFUL. 

60 minute out and back on rail trail. Last 15 minutes fast. My calves were killing me for the first 3 miles, but then all the sudden they loosened up and I felt amazing for the rest of the run. Another beautiful day!

Weights afterwards.

Workout day! Kind of a rough one but it was 70 and sunny so hey still a W in my book. 2 mile warm up to the lower fields. We did 3 sets of 1600/1200/800 with 45-60 seconds between each. The miles were at like 7 minute pace, the 1200's at 6:30 pace, and the 800 at 6 pace. Our second set was pretty rough, which is probably why coach Harris took the 1600 off of our 3rd set, so we just did 1200 & 800 for that one. I don't really know why the second set was so slow. My knee bugged me a bit but I don't think that slowed me down at all, I guess I was just tired. 

Cooled down for a while afterwards & then did core with Ciara in the locker room.

Recovery run - took it super easy, and needed that because my legs were killing me the whole time. Did a little exploring with Mell and ran through a really nice neighborhood she said she used to run in as a freshman. I'd like to come back on my own and explore all it's ins and outs. 8:33 avg pace.

Weights afterwards, and then core. Our Wednesday weight sessions are so much better than our Monday ones. I feel like I'm sore every week from the Monday sessions from the million squat variations we do.

AM - 45 minutes solo. Had a hard time getting comfortable but I enjoyed being by myself actually. 7:56 avg.

PM- 30 minutes easy shake-out. Legs felt much better than this morning, but then again it was slower and easier.

Today was freeeezing cold rainy. But our workout was pretty good! We were going to do it at Milliken but it would have been a mud hole so we just did lotsss of circles around the track instead. Warmed up, then did 6/3/5/2/4/1 minutes hard (like 5k race pace or a little above) with a 2 minute jog between each, and a 40 second surge at some point during each one (we just did surge pace for the whole last minute since we were almost done anyways). Even with 20 minutes jogging rest essentially, we still ended up 7:20 avg pace per mile. It felt too easy honestly, maybe I should have gone faster. I was never super tired at any point. Did a cool down and some core work afterwards.

My best friends from back home came and visited me this weekend! They didn't leave till about 8 though and I didn't to waste the time they were here by going off and running, so I just ran after they left. Henceforth...late night pre-meet run on the treadmill, cause how else is a runner gonna spend Saturday night? 

We race at JDL tomorrow, a track very familiar to me of course from my senior year in high school. I'm running the 3k, which I am really excited about. I like that distance. I'm not sure what my goals should be at this point in the year, so I'm just shooting to get better and beat my first (and only) 3k time from the App meet in December.

Well, I did better today than my last 3k, so technically a PR (but eh..). I'm not super happy with it though. I was hoping to drop to 11:25 or so today. I guess I don't understand why I'm not really getting much faster when I am doing more mileage than I've ever done and harder workouts. And I'm only a little better than I was in high school, doing like 20 miles less a week and my own made-up workouts. I was hng to drop to 11:25 or so today. Perhaps I need to work on the little things more. My workouts may be harder and I may be doing more mileage, but I think I was much more disciplined about the little things in high school - stretching after practice, eating healthy, proper post-race recovery, etc. Gotta get back to that.

Anyways, Breck and I ran the 3k, solely along with High Point's 4 long distance girls. So they went out in a pack pretty immediately, needless to say. 1 of them straggled a bit and I was able to stay within 20 or so meters of her the whole time. Breck pushed me well in the first mile, hanging on my shoulder. Came through at like 6:04 I think. After that she dropped off and I was sort of in no-mans-land for the next 1000 meters. I started catching up to that last High Point girl over the course of the last 400, and I caught her with 60 to go on the homestretch, but I don't think she realized I was that close because as soon as she noticed me she took off. I think that helped me run a little harder that last 400 though. Those girls were really sweet after the race.

Cooled down 15 minutes afterwards. My calves felt so much better today! A lot of times they hurt pretty badly after meets because I think my spikes are more mid-distance and encourage toe running. But I wore the spikes that Wofford gave me for the first time and I loved them! They were much more supportive and cushioned. Legs were still a little junky so I spent a little time on the elliptical whenever we got back home on campus, then stretched a good bit. That helped a lot. We have a workout tomorrow.

We drove up to Pauline for our little backroad workout today. 2 miles warm up. The workout is kind of hard to describe. We went out and back 2 miles, which contained several solid hills, and during those 4 miles we would surge up the hills and recover on the downhills. Then we rolled directly into a 2 mile "tempo" on the way back of the 2 miles we warmed up to. That was almost completely uphill, so tempo is a relative term...it was more like tempo effort, because it couldn't end up tempo pace. The hills were pretty tough on the out and back portion. Coach Harris said he thought I was probably struggling with those so much because I don't pick up my feet then I run - I have a very miniscule knee drive. So they definitly were killing my hamstrings and butt. Not muscles I'm used to using. In hindsight, I wish I would have gone a little bit faster on the "tempo" portion of it. I wasn't as tired as I should have been (like as I was during the hill surges) when I finished. 15 minute cool down and stretching afterwards.

Weights & core later. At dinner before weights, I talked to Hunter about my frustration on why I am not getting much better yet. He said it's a process and they're training me to be my best by junior/senior year, not really the end of each season. But he also said that "the girls" need to learn to be more mentally tough. Part of me wanted to be offended but then the bigger part of me realized that if I took any offense to that, it's probably true. Maybe its my mental game that's lacking most.

Recovery run. 7:53 avg pace.

AM- 30 minutes easy before class. 8:23 avg pace.

PM- 45 minutes moderate at 7:48 avg pace, then weights and core. Still working on this mental toughness thing, and I am feeling better about it. Excited to work hard.

Awesome workout today!! We went to Spartan High and actually did some track work for more or less the first time this season. 2 mile warm up, then we got into a 3 mile tempo. Since it was only 3 miles, and on the track, it was a pretty quick pace. Target 6:45, which I was intimidated by at first, but we ended up going 6:38 avg. I'm super happy with that. That's honestly not even that much slower than my actual race pace from that ETSU meet the other day. But I'm most happy with my attitude during it. Definitely working well with this whole gaining mental toughness deal. After a few minutes, we did 2 sets of 3x400 at 93sec target, but actually 88-90 in reality, with 30sec between each. Those were just fun. 2 mile cool down afterwards. Surprising my family and heading home this weekend!!! Might be good for me to get a few days of work in by myself anyways!

Recovery run at 7:56 average pace. I honestly don't know how it ended up being sub-8 pace...there were like 30mph winds (and of course when you're running loops, wind seems to defy the laws of nature and be againt you 90% of the time) that made me feel like I was barely breaking 9 almost the entire time. Really felt the tiredness in my legs. I probably could have taken it a little bit easier than I did, being that my legs are so worked from this week. Oh well, no meet this weekend!

100 minutes today all around Cullowhee! Averaged 8:11 pace. I probably got like 60 or so minutes of it on soft surface, so that was good. I felt really good. Passed Taylor on campus and Tori too, playing soccer with her friends, so that was cool. I'll see them later tonight though! I love being home. Abs and stretching afterwards.