Running Blog

AM: Arctic Circle

PM: Green Springs loop. Felt really good. All the girls stuck together, including our little threesies. Kaylee and I planned where she's gonna move by me, Stoner, Liz and Taylor discussed future plans, and Mia and Frida talked about.. being foreign, I guess. My left shin is really hurting. I rolled it this morning, so I'll ice it tonight and see how things go.

AM: Arctic Circle with all the girls.. ten of us! Felt really good and it was fun to have all them out.

PM: Speed workout. 6x800 w/ 2 minute recovery and DI warmup/Harts cool down. Stoner, Frida and I were supposed to be hitting a 3:09ish pace, but we were speedier than that. Our first one was a 3:03 and the next was a 3:05.. and it was faster every time after that. Coach ran with us, which I really liked, cause it felt like he was pushing us and I worked harder to keep up with him. The workout felt fine. It never felt like I was about to die, which is generally how I feel about speed workouts. It just felt controlled and calm, kinda. I had to wear the gigundo watch the last two sets, and I'm pretty sure that added a couple seconds, cause that thing is huge. Anywho. My shin felt better than yesterday, but it still kinda hurt.

Vernon Worthen/All over the place. Mia and I ran together today, and we started at Vernon Worthen. I turned on the Garmin and we started running.. and promptly succeeded in getting ourselves hopelessly lost. We ran up Main Street, down Telegraph, on the Boulevard, all the way down to Denny's and McDonalds, past a couple yard sales, back up the street, through a parking lot, around the temple and finished with a mile and a half barefoot on the grass at the park. And after all that- the ten mile mark ended up being right at the door of my truck. We did our tempo from like mile 4 to mile 6.8ish. It felt really good.. no complaints here.

AM: Arctic Circle. My shin was NOT feeling good today. Stoner and I were kinda ahead of the group, but when we stopped at the turnaround, I wanted to cry. It hurt SO bad. So.. for this reason, I'm not running tomorrow.. and I'm really hoping this helps make it better. I'll ice tonight and stretch and whatnot and roll tomorrow morning.. I just want this to go away asap. Cause I'm actually excited for the meet on Friday.

On the track.. bleh.

Also on the track.. bleh (again.)

Ran in the morning.. no meet for me today. :P Kinda bummed.

To the clubhouse and back.. my shins hurt.. but it was hard to tell because the rest of my legs were exploding. Knees, quads, calves, you name it.. it killed. Kinda sorta wanted to die.

Speed workout (4x800- I Pace). Ugh. My shins were okay today.. nothing to really complain about. I could feel them, but I could push through it. It was really hard for me to breathe though. By the last 2 sets, I was really struggling. I don't know really what it is.. but I'm gonna get over it. Cause I'm sick of having really crappy workouts.

Green Springs Loop. First long distance in a while. Wasn't terrible at all. 20 minute tempo.. kinda stuck in with Mia. Shins felt pretty much the same as yesterday. I consider hiking Angels Landing to be my double for the day.. but while coming down the mountain, I kinda fell off a large step and landed hard on my left leg.. my shin didn't feel too hot after that. But I guess I'll see how it goes tomorrow.. it'll prolly be fine.

Remind me never to move to Coral Canyon. Yuck. And.. shin was terrible today. Along with my calves and knees.

Due to inclement weather, Stoner, Mia and I opted to run at the rec center. Terrible idea. I mean, I'm glad we didn't have to run outside because it was freezing and windy and yuck.. but inside was NOT friendly to my shin. We stopped at 5 because I was advised that if my shins have still been hurting, not to run 10, but we were bored out of our minds by that time anyway.

AM: Do I even have to say it?

PM: Workout. 1200, 2x1000, 3x800. DI warmup, Harts cool down. Really, really, crappy workout. Getting super tired of whatever is causing this breathing thing. It makes my chest tighten up and my stomach KILLS. But it wasn't just that, and I know it. I'm ridiculously stressed about the meet this week and kind of scared to death. And so my attitude was kind of terrible. I don't even know what else to say.

AM: Arctic Circle. Super cold this morning. My chest felt kind of tight and I had to take deep breaths.. but not a big deal.

PM: Random church by the hospital run. Very warm this afternoon.. it was just Stoner and me on the way back.. we were pretty quiet. Striders after.

AM: Arctic Circle. My hip wasn't feeling great this morning for some reason. Stopped and stretched it at the turnaround.

PM: Workout. 2x(2x1000, 4x200). Sooo frustrated right now. After the 1000's, I felt okay. But with each 200, it was getting harder and harder to breathe. And I was trying to relax it. But it just wasn't working. And then Coach Shaw and Esplin and them started talking about it. And I know they weren't being rude or anything, but it was just so embarrassing to me for them to notice how crappy I was doing. And I really tried to stick it in with the group on the next 1000. But I just couldn't get enough air in. And when they told me to stop, I felt like I was cheating. Everyone else finished the workout, but I didn't cause I couldn't suck it up and run. I just.. I'm glad the farthest I'm running at the invite is the 800.. hopefully that's short enough that my breathing won't have time to get bad. I told my parents to make a doctors appointment.. I guess we'll find out what's up. :P

AM: Arctic Circle..

PM: Didn't run.. twas at the doctors. Ended up with an inhaler. Not sure how I feel about it yet.

AM: Arctic Circle.

PM: Invite!! I prolly didn't get in as much today as I was supposed to.. but I did run back and forth cheering a bit so.. I'll count that. Just ran in the open 4 today. I used my inhaler before the race and it seems to have worked.. no wheezing or anything. But it was a short race, so who knows. That was definitely a hard race, and my time was not very great at all.. but it was way fun. I like middle distances sooo much better than long distance. I know that's probably a criminal offense coming from an xc runner.. but it's true. I was super tight afterwards, but it went away. The only thing that really bugged was a super dry throat. I guess it was caused by the inhaler.. I drank an entire bottle of water, some chocolate milk, and two Capri Suns before it finally went away.

So.. I ran two races today, but I don't know my split for the 4x4, so I went with the 800. So. I was much more nervous for this race than the one yesterday. I warmed up a lot better too. And used my inhaler. There were 5 stinking heats of it, and I was in the third, so I had to wait for a little while. But Liz and Abby were in it with me, so that made me feel better. They did the alley start for it, which makes me nervous beyond belief, and my start was rather terrible. I got trapped behind pretty much everyone. And I tripped when everyone finally cut in. So it took me quite a while to get back in it mentally, and my first lap was crap. When we got to where there was only 300 meters left, I started trying to make a move. Unfortunately.. so did the girl right next to me, and she shoved me out into the third lane. And I do mean that she shoved me. Quite hard. And I said "what the crap?!". Out loud. And I felt stupid after, but then I just passed her and forgot about it. It was around this point that I decided I needed to move or it was just gonna be like another bad workout. So I started my kick.. and passed everyone but the girl in the very front. And I found out later that she only beat me by .12 of a second. So.. I was pretty happy about this race. No dry throat afterward either. And later, Coach said that it was really a step in the right direction and stuff and at the time, I was kind of like "yeah, whatever." But then I started thinking about all the races and stuff I've run since State XC (American Fork, Nike, Footlocker, 5k for Taleah, half marathon, etc) and how crappy I felt after them. And today was pretty much the first race since then that I haven't felt terrible after. So.. I really am happy with the race today. (even if my 4x4 sucked). The End.

AM: Arctic Circle..

PM: Twas in Vegas. Didn't get it in. 

AM: Yup.

PM: Green Pole. With a few laps around at the school to get the extra mile in. It felt okay. No complaints. Just kinda felt long. 

AM: Same old stuff.

PM: Workout.. 10x400! DI warmup, Harts cool down. So. Today was the first day I've used my inhaler before a workout. And I was kinda nervous that it might not work. I was supposed to be hitting around 1:25 for each 400. And for the first 6, I hit right about there or lower. Then it got a little harder to breathe and I think I let it freak me out. I kinda lost it there for 2 or 3 laps, hitting as slow as a 1:28. But I really tried to keep positive and on the last one, I really tried to push it and I hit a 1:21. But really, it wasn't so bad. My breathing was relatively controlled and I stuck in there with Stoner and Frida for the first half. And I actually finished the workout, which is always a plus. To tell you the truth, I'm way excited for the meet this weekend (mainly because I'm not running the 3200.. but don't tell Coach).

AM: Yeah, yeah.

PM: 4 miles?! Could this be true? Out to Sandburgs and semi-waded out into the pond. We saw some cows- poor Frida! (:

AM: To Target with Stoner and Frida! Twas lovely.

PM: A few miles around Desert Hills with some striders. Bleh. Not great.

Definitely NOT my best race. It wasn't really my breathing, or my calves.. I just felt like I couldn't go. I tried. I felt like I was pushing myself.. but I just wasn't moving. I also ran the 800 in the medley.. ran the same time as last week, a 2:33. We took third though, so that was good.. I felt like I was going to pass out after though. It was SO hot. On the upside, I got a nice tan.