Running Blog

Well.. Didn't go to morning practice or school cause I wasn't feeling very good. But I did show up for afternoon practice. We had a 4 miler on the Dog Pound run.. We were supposed to go a little faster on the road from Telegraph to the dog pound. Felt good until we did the 4x200s on the track.. Then I felt sick again. Super excited for this weekend though. Gonna be fun! (:

Easy 4 with 3 fartleks in Pleasant Grove. Felt nice. Went through a haunted house thing in someone's yard.

Well.. pretty disappointing. Not what I wanted to do. I was puking up my breakfast the entire warm up. When we started the race, I stopped throwing up but the feeling didn't go away. It was icky. And I just focused on it too much, and didn't think about just running. This was the race last year where things started going downhill.. and they haven't really gotten better since then. Frustrating.

3 mile 2450 loop, then we dropped Janzen off and ran to Target to get our 5 in. Felt loooong. Talked to Mia about anything and everything. Fun fun.

AM: Easy 3 with the ladies.. fun fun.

PM: Workout! 2x(1200, 1000, 800, 600). For the first set, Stoner ran with us and we stuck together for the most part, except I think when her knee started hurting a bit at the end. I don't remember the first 1200 time, but my others went 3:24 for the 1000, 2:52 for the 800, and 2:00 for the 600. Then Stoner was done, and I was kind of nervous for how I'd do on the second part without her to push me. I was hoping Coach would come jump in with us cause he said he would, but he lied. The 1200 wasn't so good. It was a 4:51, and I don't have anything to compare it with, but it felt slow. Then Coach told me to focus on my breathing, so that's what I did for the 1000. I ended up running that one in 3:26, so pretty close to my first 1000 time. Before the 800 I told the girls to really try and stick with the person in front of them, because this was the last hard part and the 600 would fly by. They listened.. Maquel and Taylor Boyer flew! I was super proud of them. I ran the 800 in 2:52 again, so that was good. The 600 was okay.. I ran it in 2:02, so pretty close to my first time, but I was hoping for faster. Anyway, I felt pretty good throughout the workout, except for that darn second 1200. I was pretty proud of the girls for sticking it out through it because it was a tough workout. Harts warm/cool.

AM: Easy 3 with Mia, Liz, and Maquel. Yay.

PM: Easy 4.. return of the grassheads. Except this time.. it was the whole team! (Except TB, who couldn't quite understand the physics behind putting a weed in your ponytail, and Mia, whose weed was ripped of her head by some lady in the bathroom.) Ice bathed after.. and the Wimp Of PVXC Award goes to... Coach Holt! Stoner and Mia left Krenshaw, Michael and I to clean up the stuff after.. it was an eventful time. Krenshaw and Michael scared some poor girl to death while I laughed hysterically in a corner. The end.

AM: Easy 3 to Arctic Circle.. we had a little fun scaring Sarah.. Hope she'll still come run with us. (:

PM: Time Trial. Well, this was my first of the year, since I've always had cooler things to do. I ran the first 1200 with Stoner.. then as we entered the gate on the second one, I could feel myself kinda starting to slip.. and she cut right in front of me, and then my mind just said there was no way I was getting that ground back. Which was dumb, I know. On the 800, I started to pick it up and make up some of the time I'd lost. I felt okay about how I did though, and I felt fine during it.. much, much better than Saturday. Afterward, we had 3 mile cooldown and 4x200. The cool down felt super good, but my 200s were garbage. I was just way too tired.

Color Me Rad.. Super fun!!

Workout! So.. basically, we knew we were doing 1000's  but that's all we knew. Coach wouldn't tell us how many, because he wanted us to just keep them under control. He told us before to not go breaking any records, just keep them consistent and around the times we usually get. And then during the workout, he wouldn't even tell us our times, which I found kind of irritating, until we finished anyway.

I felt like the first one was kind of slow, but afterward Coach asked us "how fast do you usually run those?" and Stoner said "3:25" and he acted like we were close to that, so I wasn't too worried. The second one felt about the same. The third one, I had some troubles after the hill, but Coach told me to come catch up with him and Stoner and I did and we all finished together. Then the fourth one.. Coach told us it was the last one, and to keep it solid. I was still tired from the last one, and I was mentally struggling because of when I fell behind on the last one. I did not WANT to go fast on this one, nor did I PLAN to go fast, but I could tell Stoner was struggling too, and Coach just kept yelling at us to keep the pace up. So I went.. then fell behind a little on the hill, then caught back up. When we hit the grass, Coach asked "what's your record? 3:11?" and I thought "holy cow, if I'm close to that, I gotta go now!" So I went, and finished hard. We later found out that all four of our 1000's were 3:17 or under, with the fastest being our first one and my last one at 3:14. So.. Stoner and I now share the new 1000's record. You know you've gotta be pretty cool when you can beat the record by accident, right? (: Or maybe the record just wasn't that fast.. whatever. It's gotta be the first one. (: Anyway, pretty tired from this one, which wasn't supposed to happen. But I feel good, and I'll recover just fine. Harts warm/cool.

AM: Easy, freezing 3

PM: Easy, less freezing 4 with striders

AM: Easy 3.

PM: Easy four with the whole team in ARIZONA! Felt good and was fun.

AM: Easy three out to a sketchy forest neighborhood thing.

PM: Ran the course and did striders after. Felt good. Getting excited.

Warmed up on the course with the girls.. some of us had to go to the bathroom the whole time.. by the time we finally got over to them, it was almost race time.  Kinda scary.

Race: Well, we got to the line and I was feeling pretty confident.  Still nervous, but confident.  We closed our eyes to pray, and when we opened them, everyone was gone.  I thought the race had started.  Turns out the guy said everyone could do a stride out, but we missed the memo cause we were praying.  About then, I got really nervous.  We started, and it wasn't a fabulous start for me, but I was in an okay position.  Mia got out in front of me, and I decided to stay with her.  But then I was feeling good, so I started moving up.  The entire first mile, I felt great.  A little before the mile mark, I looked up ahead for Stoner, but I couldn't see her.  Then I realized she was running right with me, on the opposite side of the path.  That was cool.  Our first mile was 5:45.. crazy stuff.  A little after the mile, I started to fall back a bit.. But I was still pretty positive mentally.  That first mile really helped my mind out, I guess.  When we got a little before the pond, Coach told me to get back in it, so I went and passed a few girls, and then we got to the 2 mile mark: 12:20.  Second mile was quite a bit slower.  When we got to where there was 1000 meters left, Coach told me to start accelerating.  I did.. but the dumb stretch just kept GOING.  I lost it a little bit right there.  When we got to the flags and some guy said to someone around me "push if you wanna break 20!" I was like "well shoot. I've at least gotta break 20." So I started pushing, although not as great as some of my other finishes, and I passed 5 or 6 girls.  I felt pretty good about this race.  Much MUCH better than last year.  I cooled down with Michael and Casey and Byron as they warmed up, and ran around cheering during their race, and then I did some more with Michael after his race, cause someone needed to run with him or he'd have fallen in a ditch or something.

Oh what a joyous run. We did roller coaster hills, which I'd never done before, and those were a blast. We played with some holes that went deep into the earth and ended in a lake.. Samara is down there, we've decided. We also played in a leaf pile, whipped a few of the girls, and talked like tonghongisong the whole time. (: my toe was killing me for most of the run, and I considered going back at the five mile mark, but I stuck it out and survived. I was running weird on my foot though to keep it from hurting, so I had to focus on running right and ignoring the pain. My knee hurt for a while too, cause Michael and krenshaw thought it would be hilarious to leave me in the dark in Coach's room, and I ran into a desk.

Holy altitude. Alli and I ran out here in Bountiful from our grandparent's house to the temple and back. It's pretty much entirely uphill on the way out there. And it's super windy and cold up here. But it was an all right run.. except Alli complained the entire time. Anyway. Got our first run in. Yippee.

Good gravy. Running with my sister is a pain in the neck. She refuses to run four miles, and she can't turn around early cause my parents don't want us running alone. So we went 3.5 today, just to please her. We waited til like 10:30 but it was still only 32 degrees out there. We went on a trail By our condo. The first mile was covered in snow and ice but we had a pretty good pace.. then alli started to get a sideache and have trouble breathing and it just went downhill from there. Everytime I'd try to help her and tell her to relax her breathing, she'd get worked up and start crying so she really couldn't breathe, then I'd get mad

and tell her to stop crying and let me help her.. funny how no one in my family can go anywhere without it being some big dramatic ordeal. Anyway, then I did my 200s by myself and it was crazy hard to breathe with this altitude.

I didn't get off work til later today because of frost on the greens (but I did see baby G and Liz doing their run while I was mowing.. that was fun). So it was 3 when I finally got out to run. But it was nice weather and it was one of those runs when I got into a rhythm and I was enjoying it. I was planning on running down to the intersection by Costco and back to my house, which in my head worked out to be about 5 miles (and later I plugged it into Google.. I was right), but the traffic down there was unreal. I knew I was never going to be able to cross by In N Out and the bank, so I turned onto Telegraph and was planning on running a little ways down that road and back.. but the intersections over there were a mess too, and crossing them was really scary, and after doing it once, I didn't want to do it again. So, after much contemplation, I decided keeping myself alive was worth running a little extra distance and turned my run into a loop. I ran up Telegraph, then turned onto Main St. and ran past the fire station into Quail Ridge. I had a pretty good pace going the whole time, but when it came time for the tempo, the pace change wasn't really very big. It took me 45 minutes to do the run, and thanks to Google, I found out my loop is exactly 6 miles, so my average pace for the whole run was 7:30 min/mi. Which is all right.. but my tempo wasn't as fast as it should have been.

Timed mile today! I was actually kinda excited for it.. then we did the warm up and I wasn't excited anymore. But once we actually started racing or trialing or whatever you want to call it, I felt really good. I ran pretty much the entire thing with Danny. I struggled just a tad on the third lap, but I came back on the last one. Ended up running a 5:26, which is 3 seconds slower than my PR. It felt really good to have a good race on the track. Coach told me later that this year I'm gonna focus on the 800. I'll still run the 400 and the 1600 sometimes, but mostly the 8, for which I am so glad.

AM: Easy 3 to Arctic Circle. Chilly!!

PM: Easy 4! We mostly rode a bus around instead of running.. but then the bus turned into a train, and at the very end, motorcycles! That's right. We had our own motorcycle gang. Fun fun. Striders after.. I was kinda hungry during them.. I should probably eat more for lunch, but I'm never hungry then.

AM: easy three in and around the school.. I had fun.. But apparently Mia didn't.

PM: Ice cream run! Went four to Starbucks, then stopped at arctic circle for ice cream cones! 4x200 after.. Felt fine, even after the treats.

AM: Easy 3. Ran up the bank to the fence, as is now tradition on the last day of morning practice, apparently. Matt scared the spit out of us on the way back.

PM: Easy 3.. in CALIFORNIA! Super humid. And foggy. Felt good though.

Ran on the course(ish) at Mt. SAC. Super muddy out there, so we couldn't go on all of it cause they were laying hay and sawdust. Excited for the race tomorrow!