Running Blog

Trying to keep track of my getting-back-into-shapeness so I can remember stuff.

It's weird because I don't even think PVHS uses this thing anymore, and I'm 99.9% sure USU doesn't.  My random comments will fall on deaf ears. Scratch that. They'll fall on no ears. Except my own.

Anyhow, today was my first day officially back into running. Coach Spence asked me exactly how out of shape I am and I told him I am extremely out of shape. But don't worry, he's super chill and didn't even yell at me or kick me off the team. He told me we'd start getting my body back into running 6 days a week and hopefully have me in shape in time for indoor, so basically I'm gonna be doing 30 minute runs for the next little bit, and then whatever other various activities the rest of the team is doing. So. Today's workout:

Full set of drills, 6 strides, 30 minute easy run, lifting (just arms). Felt fine except for the arms because as it turns out I have no arm muscle whatsoever. I have never played a sport or done any activity really that required arm muscle. I need new trainers (and flats. And running clothes. And a watch) so I'll be getting those this weekend.

Light drills and 30 minutes easy with the girls. Super quiet. I think they know I'm awkward.

Definitely need to stretch after.

Light drills and 25 minutes easy with Maggie while the other girls did core. Also met two girls both named Megan and ran with them a little bit. The names on this team are ridiculous. On Monday I met Kelsie and Karlie and Kenzie. I have no idea who is who, but I definitely met them.

Talked with Coach Spence about my training plan for the next little bit. We're basically building a foundation for now. He told me he's excited about my potential, because he has girls on the varsity team right now who had slower high school 800 times than mine. So.. that's cool.

Today was seriously the most hectic day of my life. On T/TH I have class from 10:30 to 2:45, practice from 3-4:30ish, then work from 5-11. On top of that, I have a paper due this weekend that I haven't even chosen a topic for. Needless to say, I was quite overwhelmed. After a call to my mom that didn't help at all and some resultant rash decision-making, I ended up skipping some classes I probably shouldn't have skipped in order to finish the homework due this weekend. SO. All that seemingly unnecessary information is relevant because it leads up to the fact that I was super stressed before I went on my run today. The girls had 20 minutes plus strides this afternoon so I went on my own run at like 2:15ish. And let me just tell you. It was exactly what I needed. It was 30 minutes that I got to spend by myself just thinking and prioritizing my life. Also, the weather was beyond perfect. The leaves are turning and the sky was the prettiest blue ever and it was like 65 degrees. I just let myself get lost in my thoughts and before I knew it I was back at my apartment. And then reality came crashing back down. But still. I feel a million times better.

So basically: 30 minutes easy. Static stretching afterward.

I only went 20 minutes today for various reasons. It felt good. My ankles/calves were kinda feeling weird yesterday so I stretched them while I was at work last night and today they felt fine. I focused on my form more- trying to get my knees up and land farther up on my feet. The weather was great. Tomorrow I'll probably go early in the morning so I can drive down to Bountiful and spend the day with my mom.

30 minutes at 7:00 this morning. I did a few light drills in an attempt to warm up before I went outside & did static stretches after. It was chilly so I wore my soccer pants and some gloves without fear of getting yelled at by Coach Holt. It felt good.. My calves were feeling sorta weird again- it's sort of just a soreness near my ankles but almost feels strained sometimes. I stretched them really well after and occasionally I steal some of Janz's deep blue rub stuff (don't tell her. It's her own fault for leaving it out) to put on them. It's not really a big deal; I'm just sort of hoping to figure it out before it gets to be a big deal. 

Today I went down to Bountiful and met up with my mom. She bought me some new Kinvaras (meaning I can finally retire the old ones)  and running pants. Also she brought me a bike from home so I can finally cross-train when I feel like it. Also my aunt Judy gave me a watch. Also I used the opportunity to do all my laundry at my aunt's house and get some yum food to take back. It's always good to see the family.

So obviously I realize that I'm running farther than 3 miles in 30 minutes but I don't have a distance watch (actually I have no watch because I still have to go get batteries for the one I have) so I'm just kinda making things up. Anyway. I did 30 minutes this morning in my new Kinvaras and it felt good. I did some good static stretching after.

Then at practice we did a full set of drills plus 6 strides in groups and a full set of core. Core was killer. But it was a seriously beautiful day, so Coach dropped the med. ball exercises and we got to do all our core outside, which was way nice. I'm 99% certain I got bitten by a fly though. Logan is weird. Tomorrow morning (at 6-freaking-30 AM) is equipment pick-up so I'll have another pair of trainers to switch off with, plus flats and spikes and a whole lot of other shiz that I'm stoked about.

I was super tired today because I make poor decisions regarding when to go to bed because I'm generally having too much fun at night to think about sleep (yesterday, for example, we had FHE where I schooled everyone in air hockey and foosball, then we came back and watched Pitch Perfect and did handstands in the hallway til midnight. Now do you understand that I have better things to do at night than get a healthy amount of sleep?). In all seriousness though, I really do need to be getting to bed earlier. I was exhausted today. We woke up at 6:30 for equipment pick-up. Then there were some serious issues with mine and Janzen's bags (aka they didn't even have ours in the equpiment room) and it took us an hour and a half to get it all straightened out. In the end, though, we got (almost) everything we needed (although we'll definitely be present on exchange day) and got back to the apartment by 8. They give us so much stuff it's unreal. Just for being on the team. Janz and I don't even have enough room in our dresser for all this stuff.

ANYWAY. I think I was supposed to do my run after getting our equipment, but, like I said, I was really tired and since Coach is super focused on the girls going to conference right now and since I'm just building a base for track, I'm pretty much the boss of myself when it comes to getting my runs in. So I went after Career & Life and it was beautiful outside. I went sorta slow today just cause I was so tired. I wore the Nikes the team gave me though and let me tell you. They are the cushioniest shoes in existence. They felt weird and I didn't like them. I don't think they gave me the right trainers anyway because they're a different color & design than everyone else on the team's. I'm gonna take them to exchange day and see what the heck is going on with my equipment. Other than my shoes though, it was a good run. Static stretching after.

Went up a trail in Green Canyon- super pretty. Ended up only being 20 minutes though because the way back down took less time than anticipated. 

Core later. Felt better than last time, although during the first set of sit ups I almost died because I was so sore. But I think this time was more of an ab workout than a neck workout, so that at least means I'm figuring out how to do all the exercises. Also the girls started calling me JP.. I think that name is going to follow me the rest of my life.

Went up Green Canyon again, except today I didn't have anywhere to be so I got the whole 30 in. My legs definitely felt the hills on the way out today. The way back was much easier. I wore my old Kinvaras because I do not want to wear my Nikes.

Pretty short run today (like 20 minutes maybe) cause I've been all over the place and we're about to leave for SLC. My guess is that I won't get a run in tomorrow cause of this trip and work but we'll see. Felt good today.

Ended up finding time to run today after work. I hadn't actually eaten anything all day though except like 8 ounces of smoothie at 9:30 and an apple at noon. My manager let me go a bit early today though so I had time before we lost daylight (& warmth) so I got out there and did 30 minutes while I still could. I just ran down around the cross country course, which is pretty much this gravel loop that twists and turns around some Ag fields. I got chased by some horses, which was new for me. I've been chased by dogs while running before, but never horses. They were on the other side of a piece of wire that I assume is supposed to serve as some kind of fence, but it was still kind of scary because the wire wasn't very high up and horses seem to be fairly agile creatures (have you seen Tangled? Maximus jumps off a freaking roof and survives). So I was a bit nervous they'd jump over it or something. Good news, though: they didn't. 

Easy 30 minutes up Green Canyon today on my own. My legs and lungs were feeling it today so I turned around at the 25ish mark and then ran down a different trail that I hadn't done yet for a bit. At practice Heather, Megan and I did 10 minutes warm-up then 6 floats. They felt fine but I was struggling to figure them out. Coach Spence helped me fix my arms during the max-out portion. I think once I get doing them some more I'll be more confident and be able to do them better. Then we did core. Heather and I had a good talk, and Jackie asked me about my DogTown shorts.. those are always good for starting conversation. Tomorrow I have a hill workout with Megan.. sorta nervous, sorta excited.

Today was.. an experience. First workout since senior year. I was sorta sore from yesterday.. I don't think it was the floats, even though Coach said they might make us sore. I think it was from my futsal game last night. Don't tell my coach though. I don't know how happy it would make him to know I'm playing in soccer games every week.

Anyway, today Sydney, Megan, and I had 4xgradual hills and 6xsteep hills up Old Main in our spikes. I liked wearing my spikes.. I've never had any like these before. They're super light and thin.

We had 20 min warm up on this neato trail that I never knew about before and that felt fantastic. Had some good get-to-know-you conversation with Sydney. Then the gradual hills were fine.. they're mostly a form drill. The steep hills were.. something. I only did four- not necessarily because I was tired (my breathing was fine) but because my muscles tightened up so badly on the fourth that I was barely moving by the end. I'm sure it looked pretty pathetic to anyone walking by. I'm not super bummed out about it though.. I'm very aware that I'm out of shape and it's gonna take a while to get back to where I was. But man, it's crazy to think that there was a time when six of those hills would have barely fazed me (they're honestly not that fast or long, just super super steep. Overall, easier than Sunrise). After I finished my legs were shaking like none other. I physically couldn't stand still- I looked like I was having some kind of seizure, I'm sure. So that was embarrassing.10 minute cool down after and then a chocolate milk. 

Not much running today except what I got in with Spencer while we were cheering at state. The girls did well. I'm proud of them and what they've accomplished this year. 

AM: 35 minutes on my own down the trail from Tuesday. Felt good and the weather was nice. It's getting easier and easier to run up the stupid hill to my apartment.

PM: Well, all the 800 girls thought we were supposed to run this morning so we all did 35-40 minutes. Turns out Coach wanted us to get our mileage in this afternoon. So instead of a long warm-up/cool-down, we just warmed up to the XC course and then had no cool down. Anyway, we had 2x2 laps strides on the 500 m loop. On the first set, we just did 100 m on, 100 m off. It felt good to get a little speed in there without going all out. The next set we threw a 200 in there. I started to get a bit tired here but not terrible at all. Afterward, Coach talked to us a bit about the plan for the indoor season, then the other girls started setting up for the fun run tomorrow while I ran (literally) all the way back to my apartment (with my backpack on) so as to avoid being late for work. So I guess I got some sort of cool down.

AM: 35 minutes on my own. Had a close call where I rolled my ankle and nearly biffed it but managed to catch myself just in time. My right arch/shin area kinda ached today.. might ice it at some point but I don't have time right now- I have a math quiz in half an hour (wish me all the luck you possibly can), then at that point I'll be lucky if I make it back home to shower before 10.

PM: Megan, Sydney, Heather and I had weights with the sprinters this afternoon. It was fine except that I am apparently not mentally competent enough to figure out snatches and power cleans. Physically I think I can do it, but I can't wrap my brain around the concept and so eventually the coach gave up trying to help me and told me to practice my form this weekend. I had to leave before core though so I could get up to my advisor's office for my spring registration appointment. Then I had to book it down to Jazmin's office to turn in my paper, then back home to grab food and change, then down to the XC course to help with the 5k. Lately my entire life has been one long power walk to my next destination. I feel like I'm never anywhere, I'm just always everywhere. I kinda like the busy-ness, except for the lack of nap time. Tomorrow is just a longish run with maybe some strides at the end, so I can get a nap in after that. Then I might hang out with the team. Also I need to clean. And meet with the registrar. Oy.

Well. This morning I couldn't make myself want to run so I figured I'd get some cross training in. I got my bike from the basement, stuck it in my car, ran (figuratively. I actually drove) to Wal Mart to buy a stopwatch & helmet, then headed up to Green Canyon. Now I'm not exactly the world's best biker, so you might wonder "why would she want to bike up a rocky canyon trail when she's not even good at riding a bike?" The answer to this is that because I am not very skilled on two wheels, I wanted as few people as possible to witness this endeavor. It's not that I don't know how to ride a bike or that I've forgotten how (supposedly that's hard to do). It's just that biking was never my favorite method of transportation/exercise, so I never did it much and my biking muscles/skills are probably pretty underdeveloped. Also the bike I have is weird and I have a hard time controlling it. It has those plastic foot holder thingys and sometimes my feet get stuck when I stop and then I panic and fall over. Anyway, I made it probably 20 minutes (that's an estimate. I accidentally stopped my watch after 5 minutes.) and decided that was the end of my biking adventure for the day. Except probably I should only count 15 of those minutes because the way back to the car consisted of the bike rocketing down the hill while I sat as still as possible and compulsively slammed on the brakes every ten seconds. So.. that's the end of that. I might practice biking more just to get better at it.. but probably not.

Today all the 800 girls had 35 minutes easy so we were all going to go together but Sydney had to leave early so Heather went with her and Megan and I went together. We had a full set of drills before. Then we just ran down 8th. It was very quiet because Megan and I are kinda the same type of person (we'll talk to you if you talk to us first). It felt way good though and I got into that zone where I was so wrapped up in my thoughts (does it surprise anyone that they were about uses of grammar in different circumstances?) that I forgot I was even running. It felt way good. Then strides were good except the grass was freezing cold. Core was just 7/8 with push ups and dips as supplementals. I think we were supposed to do med. ball too but we didn't. 

20 minute warm up then hills with Megan and Sydney. Coach came and watched us this time. We did 4x35m warm-up hills, 4x70m progression hills, and 4x60m acceleration hills. They felt good- much better than last week. The one thing I really need to work on is my arms. I've never paid attention to my arms before, but Coach says I really need to focus on driving them from hip to chin. He also said my turnover is sorta slow, so I'll be working on that too. It's good to get feedback on form, because I've never had any real instruction on form before- I was always getting yelled at for my breathing (okay, not really yelled at, but still). So now I'm super conscious about my breathing (especially around this team because they've never heard how out-of-whack it can get), but I hardly ever think about my form. So I thought it was a pretty productive practice; even though it wasn't particularly hard, it was really technical and I got a lot out of it. We cooled down 12 minutes back to the track and then did legs. I did a 15 minute ice bath in the training room with Janz after.

35 minutes easy on my own, since Coach and the girls on the conference roster left today. I have no idea if the 800 girls met today or not.. I just decided to head out down 8th by myself. Then a set of 7 min core. Probably should have done an 8 minute set too but I didn't. Felt good today.

Did not feel well at all today- I got a sore throat at some point during the night and then started feeling nauseous and sorta dizzy partway through the day. Also I fell off my bed (approximately 5 feet off the ground) while trying to close the window last night and smashed into my desk- pencils went flying. So to say I felt a bit off today is an understatement. I considered skipping the run and taking a fabulously long nap in hopes of feeling better, but decided against it.

I decided to meet at the track at a little bit after regular practice time in case the 800 girls decided to meet up today (they're always late). However, because of my irritating inability to be late for anything (although, I admit, it's not nearly as irritating as my mother's incredible ability to be late to EVERYTHING), I showed up at 3:03 (practice is at 3:10). After about four minutes, I got sick of waiting, so I left before finding out if anyone was meeting up.

I went down to the Island Trail and was having a grand old run until I hit a slight snag: I passed a nice old man standing on one of the bridges over the canal. He said "hi" and I said "hi" and then he said "have a nice run" and I said "thanks" and I kept running. But then I looked at my watch and realized I was 3 minutes away from the turnaround point, meaning I'd probably have to pass him again on the way back. And then my social anxiety started to set in. I hate passing someone twice on a run- mostly when I'm by myself. Not for any sensible reason, it just makes me feel super awkward and anxious. Generally I'd just turn down another road on the way back and avoid the situation altogether. But I was on the Island Trail, meaning I was stuck between a canal and a cliff with a friendly old man standing between me and the only way out. So the only feasible solution was to take extra long before turning around. So I ran an extra 2.5 minutes to make it an even 20, then stopped and stretched for a ridiculously long time. Then I got up and started running back- slowly. Then I hit my second snag: I passed two of the USU guys running the opposite direction. This didn't seem like a problem at first (except for the fact that they said "well, look who it is," thus implying that they know me, and I didn't recognize them at all) until I realized that at some point they would be turning around as well and with me going as slow as I was, they'd probably pass me again. This caused me even more anxiety than the old man, so I picked up the pace and tried to get off of that stupid trail as quickly as possible (good news: the old man had left and the guys never passed me again). I had a pretty good pace going the entire way back, so the run ended up being like 37ish minutes (my watch didn't restart after a stoplight at 34 minutes, so that's an estimate). Then I had 8xstrides on the practice field and a full set of legs. I didn't actually remember all the leg exercises though, so I just kinda did what I knew, plus some that I probably made up in my mind. I felt not so sick afterward though, so that's way good.

And that's the personal account of my 40 minute run by myself. My ability to turn a relatively uneventful run into a story as long as the run itself astounds me. It's a fairly useless skill, but hey. I'll take what I can get.

Didn't run yesterday- I'm still feeling like crap. Haven't gotten much sleep the past few nights because I can't breathe when I lie down. But I couldn't skip two in a row, especially the long run, so 50 minutes today. We were supposed to run on a trail but I only know two trails and neither sounded fun for a long run so I ran out to Green Canyon Trail and back, which ended up being exactly 50 minutes. I did have to run up a forever long hill to get there though and my calves and arches definitely felt it. Sort of did legs after but I'm just not feeling it this week.  After work today I will be nonstop resting til Monday.

Full drills with Megan (Coach told us we did them perfectly, which was a relief because when we finished and walked over, he was in the middle of lecturing the conference group on how we need to focus on doing drills correctly) then 30 minute easy run down 8th. We talked a little bit more than the last time, so that was a good sign that we're getting more comfortable with each other. Sydney, Heather, and Brooke are all kinda hit-or-miss when it comes to practice due to injuries and class conflicts, so Megan and I are going to be doing a lot of running with just the two of us.

After the run we had 6xstrides and Coach said my form was looking a lot better- he only had to tell me to focus on my arms once. Then he said he had "something special in store for us." My thoughts went immediately to hot fudge sundaes, because I can't think of anything more special than that, but alas. He meant anaerobic circuits. I hated them. Well.. actually, for the most part, they weren't that bad. We had to do 20 seconds of burpees, 20 seconds of high knees, 20 seconds of something that I forgot what they're called, 20 seconds of grasshoppers. Then we did 5 single-leg squats on each leg, 5 pike planks, 5 other kind of planks, and 5 other other kind of planks. All the planks were done on these giant exercise balls that seemed a little unsafe to me (mostly because I kept crashing to the floor). Then we had to do the 20 second things all over again. THEN. This is where I hated it. We did 5 more pike planks, then 5 pendulums. Turns out, I am completely incapable of performing this exercise. It took me years to get 5 because I fell off the stupid ball every half-pendulum. It took me so long that Megan moved on to the next exercise and once Coach got sick of watching me fall, he told me to just go get a drink because Megan was done with the set. Then we had a burnout set where we did normal planks (except not THAT normal because we still had to do them on the dumb ball) for a long time, then switched to a push up plank thing for a shorter time, then did 45 seconds of high knees progression. Then we had to do an 8 minute set of core, and Coach told me to make sure I did a plank set during it because I suck at everything. Those weren't his exact words, but I could see it in his eyes.

So yes. Also on Wednesday I have to meet with the sprint coach so she can help me with my technique on lifting because I also suck at that.

38 minutes on my own- was originally going to be 35 but I got to 17:30 and could see the end of the trail, so I kept going. Which means I was going quite a bit faster than I usually do, because I've never seen the end of the trail before. I actually felt great. It was a really really good run. Legs after, and I think I actually remembered most of the exercises. Hooray.

40 minutes on my own today. It was a weird run. I didn't really want to be running. It felt good though. Got hardly any core in after cause I ran to go meet Janz to do an ice bath. 15 minutes of that. Now to crank out an eight page paper before 10:30 tomorrow morning and then study my rear off for the Praxis.

It was supposed to be hills today but I had the Praxis (good news, I think I passed. Except maybe social studies because they were all APUSH type questions and I burned my reading guides at the end of junior year) so Coach told me to just do 35 minutes. Squeezed it in between the Praxis and my math review. Sorta just pounded it out without thinking too much. It was chilly but felt good. 

I wasn't for sure on what I was supposed to do today cause the workout schedule only had the conference roster girls listed for today. So I just went 35 minutes again, then headed to the track to see if there was actual practice. I didn't see anyone, so it looks like 35 minutes will be it for today. Good news of the day is that we finally got our friend Nate to go on runs every once in a while so maybe he won't pass out every time we play futsal.

50 minutes up Green Canyon with my friend Spencer. We took it nice and slow. My calf kinda tightened up at some points but it was fine otherwise. 

Full drills (in the snow. It was snowing. That is the least okay thing to happen this semester). Then a 40 minute run with Megan down 12th east. today was the most we've ever talked- I even told her The Story of the Egg in Our Microwave, which is even more interesting and mysterious than it sounds. It felt way good and went by way fast too. Near the end, we realized we weren't going to have a full 40 by the time we got back to the track, so we ran around the practice field a bit. As we approached the gate, Megan started picking up the pace- like, almost freshman race style. I was alarmed because I have never enjoyed the tradition of the freshman race, so I sort of just coasted in and she slowed down to run with me. Then we had 6xstrides and core (7, 8 with pull ups, push ups and dips in between). Today was grand.

It was colder today than any place should ever be unless that place is a freezer full of ice cream. Because it was so cold, Coach had to adjust our workout so we wouldn't pull all our muscles and die. So after a 20 minute "warm up" (read: 20 minute shuffle down 8th East, during which our main goal was to keep our fingers from falling off), Sydney, Megan, and I ended up heading down to the XC course for some fartlek/interval sort of things. When we got to the course, we did 7 light strides in an attempt to loosen up as much as possible (ha). Then we did our intervals around the 500 loop. We were supposed to have the same pace throughout (:19 per 100m) We did 3 laps of 200 on, 100 off, which was fine. Then we bumped it up to 300 on, 200 off, and at that point, my breathing went out of control. I blame it partially on the fact that my lungs had turned into small glaciers and partially on the fact that I still haven't done a whole lot of speed work this season. So Coach Spence had me stop at 200m on those loops. Then they kicked it up to 2x500 and for the first one, Coach had me wait at the 300 m mark and do the last 200 m with them. When we finished that one, he told me I could totally do 300 m with them, so I ran out to the 200 m mark and finished the last 300 with them. It felt good, although it was slightly discouraging that I couldn't do the whole thing. Afterward, Coach told us we needed to get out of the cold, so we ran up to the training room and did our cool down on the bikes. Legs afterward. 

My hamstring sorta hurt today, although it may have been because my muscles were tight. Other than that and the bitterly insufferable cold, it was a good workout.

I know I said yeseterday was cold. It was. But today was so much worse. So cold, in fact, that I refused to leave the apartment until it was time to run. I skipped all my classes (I got an 89% on my math test yesterday though so I feel like it was justified). It was windy and horrible- to the extent that when I lifted my foot, I could feel the wind go through my shoe under my arch. My face couldn't even move. Other than that, I felt okay. My calves were tight but that isn't surprising what with the temperature. At one point, I passed hordes of small children and thought "oh, elementary school just got out." Then I got to the school and realized it was a middle school and my mind was blown. I was NOT that small in middle school, I swear. Kids are shrinking. 

7 min set of core after, then 15 minute ice bath with Janz. 

I actually did 40 minutes on the stationary bike (resistance: 3, ramp: 1. I don't know if that means anything to anyone, but that's what the bike told me so I went with it) up in the mezzanine because it was snowing quite a lot outside. I ended up going just over eight miles bike-wise, so I count that as 4.5 running-wise. 

Today was too cold and slippery to do hills so our workout was on the the bikes. 

Bike Fartlek:

15 minute warm-up, 10x30 sec fartleks (resistance 6) w/ 90 sec recovery (resistance 4), 15 minute cool-down (50 minutes)

Anaerobic workout (2 sets):

20 sec squat thrust, 20 sec high knees, 20 sec split jumps, 20 sec grasshoppers

Single leg squats (x6 each leg)

60 sec plank, 60 sec superman

I don't actually like putting 0 mileage up there so since I made it 7 miles on the bike today, that shall be equivalent to four running miles. Also I cheated on the planks because we were supposed to use the exercise balls but the entire tennis team was up in the mezzanine with me and I didn't really feel like making a complete fool of myself so I just did normal planks. But whatever. I'm actually quite impressed with my own dedication, because what with conference and regionals and all, Coach Spence is hardly here so we have to do a lot of workouts and runs on our own and I haven't missed any. Anyone who knew me in high school would know that is quite the accomplishment. Shoutout to myself for being an inspiration to all. 

Just kidding. Don't look up to me. I'm on a track team in Logan, Utah and I don't even own a running jacket (or any warm clothes, for that matter) so I obviously can't be trusted to make important life decisions.

Speaking of which, I have a long run tomorrow morning, so if you don't hear from me, assume I died of hypothermia and tell the authorities to look for my body up Green Canyon.

Crap. I forgot I'm the only one reading this. My body will never be found.

So we didn't actually run up Green Canyon today because it snowed a whole awful lot last night and neither Spencer nor I felt like running in 4 inches of snow (apparently they don't plow trails. Who knew?). So we ran up 12th east and went on a bit of an adventure run instead. We passed 11 deer and my shoes got very wet and soggy. It was a good run though.

Today we have to move stuff from the track to the Laub so we had a run on our own, then we'll do core together later. I went down 8th because I couldn't think of anywhere else to go- Broken Canal will be snowed in and I just ran down 12th on Saturday. But 8th wasn't exactly a fantastic idea either. Everything was covered in ice and snow. At some points, it was covered by ice, snow, and leaves, which is probably the most treacherous situation anyone could dream up. The run itself felt good, actually, but it was pretty slow because I was more worried about keeping myself upright than focusing on speed. Also on the part that goes past the stadium to my apartment, my form was pretty scary. The ice made leaning forward to any extent out of the question, and I couldn't get any traction if I tried to drive my knees. So for that part I ran standing straight up and down and my feet barely left the ground. It was an.. interesting run in that aspect, but it felt really really good. 

35 minute warm up. Conditions are still icy and precarious. 

Anaerobic workout: 25 sec each of burpees, high knees, split jumps, grasshoppers. 8x single leg squats each leg. 6x pike planks, knee bends. 4x single leg bridge lifts each leg. 6x pull ups with the band.

Another set, except with 6x single leg squats, 6x pendulum (instead of knee bends), 6x double leg bridge lifts (instead of single leg), 7x pull ups.

Finished with 45 sec high knee progression.

Talked about blue & white meet, how training over the break will work, and how we're going to handle indoor. I'm quite nervous.

40 minutes on my own. It got up to 39 degrees today so that felt good. There was an awkward moment at the four-way stop where I almost went but so did a car, then we both stopped, then the car went, then all the other cars were waiting for me to go, but I didn't know so I just stood there for a few seconds while everyone stared at me. Then I realized what was happening, so I hurried and ran across the street and, upon reaching the other side, promptly proceeded to get run over by a guy on a bike.

I was supposed to have full core after but after the 8 & 7 minute sets, I somehow ended up laying on my bedroom floor laughing my head off at some lady I found on instagram. Ah well. 

PS I'm slowly starving to death because all the food I own is a few pieces of bread, some peanut butter, and honey. Therefore I have eaten nothing but a sandwich today. Send help.

No run yesterday. Honestly, I don't know why either. I just couldn't make myself. After writing an 8 page paper and stressing about my math quiz, I just wanted to sleep and then go play futsal. So that's what I did. And I feel much better- today was a good day. It was sunny & my math quiz went okay & I found out today that by some odd miracle I was one of five people in my psych class to get 100% on a six page research paper I forgot about and consequently wrote in two hours one night. So hallelujah for making it through the week. 

Today was hills. Buuuut... Sydney had class at 3 and Megan was late so I did them by myself. Which was fine except they were at a different place that I'd never done before (Coach just called them 1500 North hills, so I ran until I found 1500 North and assumed I was in the right place) so I didn't know where to start on the hill or how far up to go or anything.. I didn't even know what the real objective was, so I didn't know about pace either. All I knew was that I had 4 full hills at 1:15 and 4 steep hills at :32. The hill turned out to be a dead end street that ends in a steep dirt hill. So I started at the very bottom of the pavement for the first full one and ran sort of quickly until I got to a black thingy that was sort of where the hill leveled off.. at that point on the first one I was at 1:09, so I went a bit farther than that every time. Then on the steep ones, I first started a bit before it changed from pavement to dirt and ran up to a bush at the top, but I was very under 32 seconds on that one (:24), so I started a bit farther back after that. My third and fourth steep hills were much faster than the other two. 

All in all, it was fine except for not knowing what I was doing, and also on the dirt portion it was extremely slippery because of all the melting snow, so it was hard to get any traction going up that part. 20 minutes warm up, 15 cool down, legs after.

When I woke up this morning, it was raining, which I was way excited about. Janz said it wasn't even cold outside, so I got dressed in a short sleeve shirt and some compression capris and went to go pick Spencer up.. Joke's on me, the rain was actually slushy grossness falling from the sky. So I had to borrow a shirt/jacket thing from Spencer (luckily I'd had the foresight to keep my gloves in my purse just in case) and we went down to the Island to sort of make a run up. We parked my car, ran about  mile, and realized we were completely lost and would never be able to find the car again. We were already going though, so we just kept at it. It was actually a super good run, even though we were soaked and my face was numb. We went through a nature park and found this cool garage thing that looked like it might have aliens or a time machine hidden inside (as far as we could tell, it didn't, but we didn't go inside so it still has sci-fi potential) and discovered that Spencer can run 18 mph (courtesy of one of those annoying flashy signs they put up for cars to discourage speeding). By some miracle, we found my car at the 46 minute mark, at which point we went and got hot chocolate and then I dropped Spencer off at his apartment and I drove home to finish off the run. The last 14 minutes were exceptionally freezing though because I didn't have the jacket anymore so I was just in my t shirt and capris. So, all in all, 60 minutes. It felt really good, despite the freezing wetness that is Logan today.

40 minutes with Maggie, Abbie, and Kenzie. 6x20 sec stride, 70 sec rest throughout the last mile. 

Going home. Hallelujah.

Easy scavenger hunt run w/ PV's team. Probably not a full four miles, but it was fun. I found a dollar, which Alli promptly sold to Coach in exchange for two points. We lost by a mile anyway because half our stuff came from Josie's car. 

Later, I tricked a couple suckers into doing core with me. They were very whiny about it. But now I have to at least be friendly toward Andrew because he did all the minutes and that was the agreement.

Alli and I stayed up quite late last night, and my dog has been breaking into my room every morning (at some point in the few months since I left in August, she has learned to open doors, apparently) and waking me up, so I was a bit tired today. Also I spent a few hours helping my mom get ready for everyone to come over this morning (I made 110 pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. That is a lot of cookies). Anyway, at about one-ish, I decided to go out and get my workout in. It was GORGEOUS weather, because this is St. George and St. George knows how to do Thanksgiving.

Today I had a fartlek workout: 15 min warm-up, 10x60 sec hard w/ 2 min recovery, 10 min cool down. I drove out to the high school because I know all the routes & mileage from there. I decided to do Target/hospital run, without really thinking much about it.. mistake. I forgot that it gets trafficky here. Luckily, I made it through without dying or even having to modify my fartleks at intersections.

My warm-up got me to Sunrise Tires, then I started my fartleks. The first four got me down to the volleyball courts by the hospital (I didn't want to cross the street by Harmons & Zions. It was too busy, so I turned left and ran toward Foremaster. As a side note, Harmons has been redone and looks kind of scary now), then I turned around and did the next six on the way back. I finished exactly at the intersection by Arctic Circle. Somehow, big intersections always came either right before a fartlek or right after, so I never had to stop in the middle of a fartlek to wait for the light. The rest of the way back to the high school took a bit longer than 10 minutes (13, actually) because I was quite tired and also my arches/calves were killing me. I had to stop by the mall to try and stretch. I think I ran a bit farther than 6 miles today (maybe 6.5ish, since we always said 6 was the doctor's office sign) but I don't have a distance watch, so I'm just going with 6.

I saw Ali Jo running up by Green Springs, so maybe Alli and I will run with her tomorrow. I mean, if she wants to. Maybe she hates us. Also maybe Alli will whine enough that I'll kill her and then she can't run. That's been the pattern of our relationship today, so it wouldn't be a surprise. 

I was originally only going to go 40 minutes, but Alli and I met up with Kaylee and she was going 8 miles so I extended my run with her. We went out to the storage units on Telegraph, then back to PV, then out to Arctic Circle and back. My poor calves have been aching since I finished my run yesterday. They still hurt after the run today, plus my quads are starting to ache too. I'll roll and put on some muscle balm stuff today.

Tomorrow will be a real recovery run. My legs can't handle anything more intense than that. 

Easy recovery run with Josie, Ellie, and Alli. Thirty minutes down Sullivan Park Trail. Felt good. 

Hills(8x75 seconds). We were supposed to find a hill like our road hill (gradual until the last 30ish seconds, where it steepens pretty quickly), but all the hills I remembered from high school were pretty steep all the way, except for Old Mans, which aren't steep enough. So, in all my wisdom & common sense, I decided to go out to Icehouse and just run up for 75 seconds, then head back down. I went out with Alli, my mom, my aunt Judy, and Gabbie. Judy wouldn't let us head out on the revegetation path (yeah, yeah, so it's illegal. The entire world runs/rides bikes on it. Maybe not that great of an excuse, but the legal way out there is annoyingly long and steep). So my mom and I did a 20 minute warm up on that trail (Alli threw a small fit at the 11 minute mark, at which point she and my aunt cut across the desert and took a shortcut to Icehouse). When we got to the steep part of the trail, I decided to just start my hills on the way to Icehouse. We did 2 hills on the way there, then met Alli and Judy at the bottom of Icehouse (they'd already done a 3 hill progression thing and decided they were done). I did the six remaining hills up Icehouse, which actually wasn't as steep as I expected.. just really rocky. The second, third, and fourth times up were really good for me- I made it quite far. The fifth one was probably my worst. The last one I got back in the game a little bit. Gabbie was getting quite tired but she refused to stop chasing us up the hill, so my mom skipped one of the hills to keep Gabbie from running up it again. 15 minute cool down & light core. 

We had our first track workout today. 20 minute warm up with Megan, Heather, and Brooke (much more chatty than usual). Then a continuous warm-up thing (four laps on the track of 100 stride, 100 easy). Then a quick drink of water and we began the actual workout. 2x500 @ 1:38-1:40 pace to begin. These felt fine. The pace isn't hard; it's just enough to get you tired for what's coming. Then we had 4x200 of 17 seconds for the first 100, then all-out for the second 100. Let me tell you, the days when I could stick with the sprinters for a 10x200 workout are long gone. These were HARD. Megan destroyed me. It feels good to get some speed in, but it sucks realizing how far away I am from where I was. I talked to Coach Spence, and he told me about when he took a break from running in college because of an injury, and he said the training coming back into it was the hardest training he's ever done. Which makes me feel better about my out-of-shapeness, but also forces me to realize what the road ahead looks like. I'm just gonna have to tough it out for this season. 12 minute cool down around the practice field afterward, because it was already dark.

Easy run with Janz down Broken Canal. It was cold, so I wore a long sleeve with a short sleeve on top, but then I was kinda hot so I had to roll up my sleeves.. It was still cold enough to make it hard to breathe, though. The cold air kills my lungs. It's like I can't get used to it. Also my calves are still somewhat sore and my knee randomly hurt today for no apparent reason. I think I'm dying. Chalk it up to the fact that it's the end of the semester, which has been known to cause spontaneous aches, injuries, and death.

Easy run on my own.. it was quite slow. I wasn't in the mood to run, but I had to because we have the Blue & White meet later that I have to go help at. By some miracle, it's been warmish lately with no snow since two weeks ago. Hallelujah.

55 minutes with Garrett. Tried to do the hill but a dumptruck came and parked right in the way.

4x long hill at 1:20-1:24, 4x short hill at :35. Times were 1:19, 1:26, 1:26, 1:24, :33, :28, :28, :29.

40 minutes easy at like 10 AM. Two finals today. Bleh.

Gah. So this past week has been insane, but after three finals and two papers in two days, I am officially done with the semester. Hallelujah. Now I just wait for my math final score to get put in the computer. Pray for me.

Anyway, despite the craziness, for the most part, I got all my runs in. Also I found out last week that I've been doing the wrong 1500 N. hill the whole time (you'd think that would be hard to mess up, considering we refer to it by the name of the street it's on). But today I went and did it on the real one. I did 4xlong hill at 1:15-1:18 and 4x short hill at :35-38. I don't remember my long hill times but my short hills went :38, :36, :34, :31. Light core after. 

Home! Finally all the craziness is done. Got an 86 on my math final, which definitely qualifies as some sort of miracle.. Thank heavens for it though because I get to keep my scholarship. Anyhow, I went out to Chuckawalla today. It was fun to run out there.. lots of memories on the old Trail Thursday trails. At some point I'll call up Mia and we'll go run together. Light core after.

60 minutes. I did my long run today because I don't know what our speed workout is for the week. Started at mi casa, ran down GS Drive, up Telegraph, past the cemetery, under the overpass, past the fire station and through Quail Ridge back to home. It's the same loop I usually do for long runs in St. George. I always start out fine, but feel trashed by the time I get to Quail Ridge. I'm glad to be done with it. I'll probably do the track workout tomorrow, but Coach Spence won't text me back so.. guess we'll see.

Coach finally texted me back last night so I knew what the workout was today. 10x60 sec fartlek, 2 min recovery. I decided to do it on the track today even though it's an easy one to do on the roads, just so I could get more track time before meets start. Also it's easier to measure distance that way (although hopefully come Christmastime I'll have a watch to do that for me. Fingers crossed). I warmed up 15 minutes to Harts and back, then changed into my flats and started on the workout. It's not an incredibly hard one because of the double recovery, but it does get you tired and by the second half of the workout I was soccer jogging pretty hardcore during the recoveries (Coach Spence calls it a shuffle jog, but we all know it's the exact same thing). I cooled down 10 minutes on the track in my trainers. Super nice to have my workout done so early in the day. Kaylee will be in town next week so we can run together.

Starbucks in the dark with Kaylee. She always goes at a quick pace. Then when I got home I did an 8 set and a 5 set of core, plus legs. I even powered my way through the wall-sit and it didn't even feel bad. Tomorrow I may do a workout, but I also might do another easy run and do the workout on Wednesday.

Easy run with Mia. Talked about anything and everything. It was grand. 8 & 5 minute sets of core after. 

2 mile warm up. 2x(6x20 sec up, 10 sec down), 1x1:15 up on Sunrise. 1 mile cool down. Legs and light core after.

Easy 40 minutes with Mia from Nisson Park out to the Maverick on Parkway and back. Light core after. 

Super good day today. The weather was fantastic. I did my long run today and am saving the fartlek workout for tomorrow. I started at the high school and did Foremaster loop. Doing the entire Sunrise hill, even just once, nearly killed me. But Riverside Drive and whatever it's called when it goes up past Jumpin Jacks wasn't nearly as bad as I remember it (although that could be because I remember sophomore year when we were forced to do tempos with the boys up that road). I got back to the high school and wasn't to 60 minutes yet so I went up past the Costco light a little bit, then turned around and when I got back from that I still wasn't at 60 so I went over to Sandstone and back and finally hit the hour mark at my car. Light core and legs after. 

Workout. Not so great. 2 mile warm up on DI loop. 1 mile continuous warm up on the track. 1x(500,400) @ 20 sec/100 with long recovery jogs in between. 1x200 all out. Should have done more 200s, but just wasn't feeling up to it. It is hard to get back in this mentally, because I think I'm just so afraid I won't be able to do it. I actually got nervous before my 500 & 400. Like, race day nervous. I wanted to throw up. And I was alone in the whole freaking stadium-- I could have run 8:00 pace on the repeats and no one would have known. Also, the pace wasn't even hard. But I was terrified. Splits ended up being 1:40 (right on) and 1:17 (a bit fast). Still didn't feel great about it. Bleh.

Started at Sullivan Park around 11 AM. Went down the river trail and followed it out to where it connects to the half marathon course. Lots of memories there. I connected out to the Dam Road and finished the loop down Washington Fields Drive. Felt super good, except for a small sideache. The weather was beautiful. Only 4 minutes of core after.

Went at like 10 PM with Kaylee. Started at Walmart and headed down Telegraph (the side with a sidewalk, in case you were wondering. I have a feeling that Kaylee makes safer decisions when I make them for her. I don't know this for sure, but the fact that she wore a dark gray shirt to go on a night time run gives me a pretty good idea.). We hit two miles at almost exactly the Washington Parkway turn. It was a super good run- felt way good. We talked the whole time. It's so good to run with Kaylee again.

15 minute warm up with the PVXC team as they did their run. 6x Ice House at 1:15. It was tough. 15 min cool down.

Opened presents, programmed Alli's and my mom's new phones, then threw on all my new running stuff (Garmin included) and dragged Alli on a run with me. Also we took the dog, which is my Christmas present to her because it's a downright pain in the butt. She got a new leash though, which lets her run like 20 feet ahead of me before she yanks me off my feet, so that was nice. We did a small 3 mile loop (it took years because the dog kept stopping and Alli wanted to go "really really slow"), then I dropped Alli and the dog off at the house and finished to 40 minutes. I set all kinds of new records on my watch, which is always nice, even when the original record is 0. And I really did go exactly 4.5 miles, which is good to know, because that's what I've been putting for all my 40 minute runs up to this point. Now I get to eat waffles and enjoy Christmas. 

15 min warm up, 10x(60 sec fartlek, 2 min recovery), 10 minute cool down. I did my Telegraph/fire station loop and it ended up being the perfect length. It was a decent workout, but I am exhausted. Thankful I only have a long run left this week. 

I was going to run from my house to Sullivan Park and back for 8 miles, my longest run of the season so far, but I wore some of the new running tights I got for Christmas (they're an ugly maroon, but all the others were in the wash) and they were a nightmare. They're just a weird fit, and the fabric sucks, so they fit fine until I actually started running, then all of a sudden they were far too short. Short pants are the worst thing in the whole world (and I know a lot about that, because I was a rather short person until sophomore year, when I suddenly grew 8 inches and thus had no dress-code appropriate clothing to wear, because they do not make pants to fit giraffe legs). Anyway, the tights kept bunching all weird around my knees and I had to stop every mile or so to fix them and I got so fed up with them that I turned around at 30 minutes rather than 4 miles. Ended up being a good thing, because as they bunched around my knees they also rubbed them weird so by mile 6 the sides of my knees were chafing. Odd. It was an okay run though. 7 miles in 61 minutes for an overall pace of 8:45. Not fantastic, but decent. I think I will do core now, seeing as I haven't all week.

40 minutes with Mia. I was pretty proud of her for making it 5 miles in 40 minutes, because she didn't feel too great & hasn't been running regularly. It was fun to talk with her and stuff though. I felt fantastic, actually. We did Target run, and my watch actually matched the mileage we ran for that run in high school (1.5 at Arctic Circle, 2 at Starbucks, etc). I'm always surprised when that happens, ever since Sierra revealed to me the lie that is single double church run. So congrats, Coach. You didn't lie about this one.

Today was a relax-at-home-and-watch-movies day for my family, and Mia's and my run kinda followed that pattern. We went out to Chuckawalla and ran 10-ish average pace for 40 minutes with my dog. It felt good, mostly. My stomach kinda hurt, and Gabbie nearly killed me while I tried to restrain her from eating a small dog, but it was good overall. Now my dad is listening to "Mandy" by Barry Manilow or whatever and the memories are just flooding back-- freakin boys team.

Last run of the year- it was fantastic. 9x60 sec fartlek workout (we're supposed to have lower mileage this week). I warmed up 18 minutes to the desert-- it's all bulldozed! A trail that I ran on as recently as Thanksgiving break now just ends halfway to the reserve. It's all been flattened. It makes me so so sad. Anyway, I warmed up to the top of the baby hill on Middleton Powerline trail, then started my fartleks. I realized pretty quickly that the trail I was on was going to end (at the water tower) before I got enough fartleks in, so I turned on another trail that heads out in the direction of Middleton. As I was going, I was thinking: "this looks so familiar!" THEN I REALIZED. It was the same trail we ran on a few summers back on a Friday straight from the depths of heck. We started at Middleton Park and headed out into the desert and nearly died of heat exhaustion + boredom-- I had NO IDEA the Middleton Hell Trail connected to my desert. It was much more pleasant today than it was that day in the summer so long ago. I was originally only going to do 8 fartleks but I felt so good and my final one was pretty much all downhill, so I decided to do an extra for good measure. Cooled down 10 minutes to mi casa.

Also Mia and I went to Dutchman's and Mia is 120% sure we saw Coach Roberts' wife there because we watched her get into a minivan with a flower air freshener hanging from the mirror and evidently "that's totally them." Whatever.