Running is a means and never merely an end

Set a new mile PR by 3 seconds today at Polk with a 5:42!! This meet was my first "polar bear" meet, but luckily it was absolutely perfect running weather (55ish and cloudy). Honestly I do not even remember much about this race, it all went by very quickly. I've been doing so much more mileage these past few months that a 1600 finally is starting to feel like such an incredibly short race. I did slightly over a mile for warm up and then an easy lap for a cool down before my 3200.

I still haven't figured out how to make two race entries for 1 day, so I'll just write about my 3200 here! I really, really did not want to run this. I'd already qualified for states for it, and my mom had told me in the car we could decide after my mile whether I wanted to or not. Which I really didn't. But my dad sort of ending up making me anyways. I was not mentally "right," if you will, at all for this race because I felt like I was being forced to run it and therefore didn't even care if I did my best, but God totally gave me strength and motivation once the gun went off. He pulled me through to a race and time I ended up pretty satisfied with, actually! I finished 3rd with a 12:23.80. It didn't beat my PR (12:17) from JDL last weekend, but it was still faster than every 3200 I ran last spring, so it is my 2nd-best time. And to be honest, I know I could have done a solid 10 seconds better physically if I was right mentally going into it, which makes me excited tosee what I can do in the 3200 at state next weekend!

Easy 3 mile jog afterwards, about a mile of which was with Lily Anderson (who won the 1 and 2 mile today!).

2.2 mile warmup, speed workout, 1.5 mile cool down. My workout was 4x400m at 6 minute mile pace (slightly faster than my 2-mile race pace) with 60 seconds rest between reps, 5x200m at 85-90% sprint speed with 45 seconds rest, then another set of 5x200m at the same pace but with 40 seconds rest. 3 minutes between each of the 3 sets. My first 400 split was 7 seconds too fast because I think I was subconsciously showing off a little bit for Coach Williamson (WCU's coach) who was finishing up a workout with some of the sprinters during that first rep. Other than that, my splits were consistent and I felt strong! 

4.3 mile fartlek workout with a .7 mile cool down. The workout was a ladder of 5-4-3-2-1-1-2-3-4-5 minutes, alternating easy and hard paces (i.e. 5 minutes easy, 4 hard, 3 easy, 2 hard, etc), totaling 30 minutes. My calves were ridiculously tight during this run, I was very happy when it was over and I could stretch them. I probably should have done that before I started.

Somewhere around a 7 mile jog today with some strides afterwards. Indoor states are on Saturday so I am starting my taper for the rest of the week. I have been so incredibly stressed and bogged down with homework this week...I think the most sleep I've gotten was about 5 and a half hours. I really hope I will be able to get more sleep before Saturday but honestly the outlook is bad with this huge paper I have due Friday. Oh the struggles of being a student-athlete....

30 minutes semi-easy and some good stretching today as I wind down towards state on Saturday! My calves were still extremely tight during my run, if I can find some time away from my homework tonight I will try to ice them.

Really, really easy pre-meet practice before state tomorrow. 6 or 7 minute jog and 10x100 strides, plus lots of stretching. I am ranked 5th in the 2 mile and 8th in the mile, but I think we are planning to scratch me in the mile. Senior night is tonight so we won't be heading down to Winston Salem until way later tonight...not ideal but I guess that's just how it goes sometimes!

Well, there went my first and last indoor state meet! I did end up scratching from the mile, mostly because we didn't get to the hotel until about 2am last night, and so I only got a few hours of sleep and knew I wouldn't have much energy for more than 1 race. I knew that my best bet was to work up a quick burst of energy and use it all up in 1 race. We went out and I was right there with the pack for the first 4 laps or so (200m track, so the first 800), and then we started to spread out a little bit. The lead girls started picking up the pace and by my splits it looks like I just kept a consistent pace. I came through my first mile at 5:55 or so. During the second mile I started feeling really burnt out, not so much physically as mentally. I was just really ready for it to be over honestly. But I tried to just grin & bear it and kept a consistent pace, and kicked on the last lap as best I could. I placed 6th, which I was a little upset about because it was above my ranking for one, and I also really wanted to get top 4 (all-state). But I did set a PR of 12:13 over my previous 12:17 PR, which was also set at JDL. I'm happy about my PR, but I can't help but feel very sad that I lost my chance to get all-state. 

My higher-ups are wanting me to take a week off before I start training for outdoor, which I think will be really good for me mentally, even though they are thinking about it from a physical standpoint. I hate taking time off usually because I feel like other people are getting better while I am not, but this time I think I really need to just be patient with my training and make sure I don't let myself get burnt out. So this will be my last entry for a little while!

Actually took this week off but I am adding in 4 per day because I realize now (in June) that I have been doing more tempos on the track that my pace has always been faster than I gave myself credit for. When calculating my mileage I always assumed I was around an 8 minute mile on my training runs, but now that I do it on the track and can gauge it exactly, I realize that is so slow and there is no way I was ever running 8 minute paced miles, more like 7:30. So I am adding in some mileage for all of the miles I didn't really give myself credit for.

Today was my first day back, and our first day of track practice! It was really weird, but fun, to actually be back out there practicing with other people since I've been training solo all winter. It was super obvious to me, by comparison and just by how I felt, that I was in far better shape than anyone else there. That makes me feel really excited to see what kind of times I will be able to pull out this season since this is the first time I will ever have entered into track season moderately in shape having trained over the winter!

Anyways, we did (what I believed to be) a really easy, basic conditioning workout today. Half mile warm up, 8 stadiums, and 4x150m. Evan and I went on a 2 mile cool down afterwards.

Half mile warm up, then coach D had me go with the distance guys and take them on a 5-miler around the school. My muscles feel so incredibly fresh since I took that week off, I can't remember the last time they felt this way. I never really took a break between XC and indoor track, so I haven't had time off since the beginning of last summer. We kept a solid pace (7:20/mile-ish I would guess) the whole time, and were still able to talk and laugh. Short cool down around the baseball field afterards.

Mile warm up, ladder workout (1200-800-400-400-800-1200), easy 22 minute jog with the guys. Our track is not regulation length, it's a little too short - the 400's are more like 375m - so timing is irrelevant. I felt a little more tired today, I would definitely say the super-fresh feeling is starting to wear off.

Strange workout today. .8 mile warmup. Pendy had the distance crew do one 1200, a few minutes rest, then an 800 on the grass, a few more minutes, then 10x100m. I felt like it ws pretty pointless honestly, it was really easy and really short. I decided to go on a 17 minute jog afterwards just to get a little more mileage in. I guess I got a little spoiled this winter being able to always manage my workouts by myself and not have to worry about the rest of a team and where they are at fitness-wise...but I really feel like I need to be doing more than this. At least more mileage, if nothing else.

Easy 8 miler around Cullowhee today with Evan + a half mile warmup. I felt good muscularly and cardiovascularly, but my joints were absolutely killing me. My knees, ankles, and the balls of my feet hurt so badly, probably because our track at the high school (where we've been practicing all week) is asphalt and my legs aren't used to doing speed work on such a hard surface. I guess it'll just take some getting used to!

Since my joints had been hurting so much from all of the asphalt lately, I decided to do more of a joint-friendly workout today. 1.4 mile warm up on dirt/grass, 5.4 miles of biking on the eliptical (I usually cut eliptical mileage in half to convert it to running miles, so for the purpose of mileage counting that is 2.7), a little upper body weight training, abs, and then another 1.4 mile cool down to finish it off. I felt strong today! I timed it just right to where I got to watch an entire Jefferson Bethke youtube sermon in my time on the eliptical, so I really enjoyed that too!

1.4 mile warm up, 5.6 (ish) mile run with Evan and Tyler. Isabel also ran with us for a little bit. Our run was so much fun today because Tyler has started bringing his phone and little Beats speaker with him on our distance runs so we can all run with his music. He literally has a Justin Bieber playlist (yes, seriously) so needless to say we were jamming out to some oldschool JB. It went by really fast because we were laughing and attempting to sing the whole time, which is honestly another workout in and of itself when you are running! My legs felt good today. 

Rough workout for me today. 1.5 mile warm up, 6x1000m at 2 mile race pace (I'd estimate), 1.5 mile cool down. I got slightly slower down reps 1-4, but then finished faster than all but the first rep on reps 5 and 6. It was as challenging mentally for me as it was physically. I hate doing speedwork on our 4-lane, asphalt, slightly slanted track....I can't wait to be at a college with a regulation track.

1.3 mile warm up, 41 minute run (probably a little over 5 miles) with Evan, and a short cool down. We got bored doing our normal loops and decided to explore a little bit up this slightly overgrown trailhead that we have ran by a few times....I am sworn to secrecy, but I will say we definitely found an awesome new loop to throw in on our long runs!! So awesome we decided we had to keep it to ourselves. Given our little adventuring, today was a really fun practice!

Went with the distance guys to the rec today for a sort of tempo workout. There are 3 loops at the rec: .4, .6, and .8. Our workout was 3 of each at tempo, longest to shortest, with a recovery in between each set. My first set, the 3x.8 (2.4 miles), was at 6:29 pace. 3x.6 (1.8 miles) at about 6:20ish pace.  3x.4 (1.2 miles) at 6:20ish pace again. I felt pretty good today, no complaints! Also threw in half a mile for warmup and 1 mile for cool down.

Just under a mile warm up. Practice handoffs and what not for the first time with the 4x8 teams. We did a full 4x800, then a full 4x400 (both at almost-race-pace). 20 minute jog afterwards.