It's a RUNderful life

wu and then low mileage recovery run. Went up and ran a bit in the dirt pit and then out to 1200 E and then looped back by the jr. high. felt decent but not amazing. Also I'm super glad our leader is back with us (@mario).

Had to cut back on mileage a little today bc my knee was giving me issues and I want it to be feeling good for camp. 

Soooo camp day 1 was awesome... except for one minor incident (but I'll get to that later). We went up to Memory Grove in SLC which has an awesome trail up a lil canyon. I did get a little nervous tho bc that may or may not be the place where Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped. I don't quite remember... Anyhow we just did an out-and-back up the trail. And I do literally mean UP the trail because the whole way out was basically uphill. My group killed it tho so shout out to them. I was feeling good too and was glad that my knee was doin good. The way down was even better hah. However... the minor incident I mentioned occured at about the last mile when I somehow got lost. Don't ask me how cuz i'm not quite up to reliving my mental process at the moment. Suffice to say that it added like a mile and a half to my run, which is not a big deal just super annoying. I also apologize to any people reading this who may have been looking for me. My b. But other than that the day was stellar. Shoutout to my awesome country Jamaica for killing it in the xc olympics. We definitely pulled out the win. 

Camp day 2 todayyyy. It was all around super fun and really a classic especially cuz this was my third year doing this run. We went out to Deer Creek and ran along the trail there. I was feelin a little tired starting out but after the first mile it went by really fast. The first 6 miles were supposed to be recovery pace (they ended up being a little faster than that but s'all good) and then the last three miles were supposed to be at "easy pace". I ran with Guppy and Gan for the whole thing and if i do say so myself we killed it. Average pace for our whole run including warm up was an 8:04 which is pretty good for us. Plus i didnt even get lost which is a real win. After the whole team had a pretty fun time playing in the lake. Oh, and we did actually do abs too. Also when we got back to the highschool some of us went to the SOLW to ice bath. I thought it was a good idea at the time but after I wasn't so sure. #thanxmichael 

Last day of camp todayyy. After a small fire issue in Corner Canyon plans changed and we went up to Park City to run on the "real deal rail trail". Overall I was not a fan of this trail (talk about boring) but it wasn't too bad. Ran out 5 miles with ma group to the aid station but I didn't even loosen up until like the fourth mile. After we turned around we did the last 4.5 miles of our run as a progression run. Honestly this was a killer workout for me mostly bc I'm kind of a baby when it comes to the mental side of things, but I'm happy to say I put in what I felt like was a really good work effort and it turned out alright. I was especially happy with the last mile or so bc it was more on pace. And shoutout to my group for being so tough and wrecking the workout. After I had quite a good time racing Mario and Gan in a "rolling down a hill and then running to a bench" race. Gan says she won but she's just jealous sooo ;) 

Early run this morning with my mileage go-to's Gan and Guppy. Thank goodness it was low recovery cuz my legs are pretty much done from camp. Started at mi casa and then ran what I am going to call "the pumpkin loop" in honor of Mario's grandfather's thousand-pound pumpkin we get the pleasure of running by on this route. Towards the end my legs loosened up a bit and I felt better but it was super nice to go recovery pace today when it wasn't like 100 degrees. :)

low mileage at easy pace on the MCT with Gan. Felt a little tired the first like three miles but the last couple felt pretty good. Avg. pace was 7:35. Also saw Zack so that was cool. Check out his blog. 

Lonely easy low mileage run this morning cuz I have work later during practice :( looped down by trafalga into old lehi then back up over the over pass and up airport hill. Little behind pace today mostly because of the hills on the way back. partly because i hate running by myself. avg pace was about 8:00. 

Premeet today which included a mile wu, three strides, and 800m at race pace (or in this case much faster than race pace... whoops) and then I ran the course for our team race tomorrow. I like the course for the most part. The end is a little rough but I think Jamie is going to change it. That's all for today. I'm pretty boring rn.

Today was our Team Race to kick off xc season for this year. I was a team captain for the grey team and I was quite doubtful of our team yesterday cuz only two girls showed up (including me...) and also I just had that "we are gonna struggle so hard" vibe... but we actually pulled out the win on both the girls and the boys side and I'm so proud of us! Anyway I started my day with a mile wu and then drills and a few strides as a team. I was a little nervous just cuz it's hard to know what to expect at the beginning of the season. Like my body forgot or something haha. Right from the beginning I ran right beside Gan and it stayed that way for most of the race. We had a solid but slightly slow first mile and it felt relatively easy. Second mile was a little bit faster and still felt pretty good. Had a couple of good surges during this mile as well. At the start of the third mile I was startin to feel a little drained but Gan and I still kept a decent pace. However we slowed down quite a bit when we hit the swampy grass which is not quite the best for running. I felt pretty good about my kick once I hit the track for the last 400m or so. Ended up with a 19:47 which is not quite what I wanted. I was hoping for more around a 19:30 but I think it will come. Looking back I could have picked it up a little more at the beginning of the third mile and also could have taken a few seconds off of both the first and second mile. Oh well, it wasn't a complete fail and I'm looking forward to the season. Shoutout to Gan for pushing me. I am definitely not a good solo racer so I super appreciate her. 

Cross trained today. I hate swimming but did it anyway bc it was like a million degrees by the time I got around to doing anything. My workout was basically like 45 minutes of me swimming the shallow end of the pool and Aqua-jogging the deep end. It wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be. Probably bc I'm not the best swimmer and I go really slow hah. Oh well. Back at it tomorrow. 

Met up with Gan real early this morning at the freedom park on the MCT. I was super sleepy still for like the first mile or so, but it ended up being a really good "medium plus two" miles BUT WAIT come to find out later today it was just supposed to be medium. Oh well I felt good so no problems. We just went out 4.5 and then turned around, passing Watson Manor in the process. The run went by super quick today and I really enjoyed myself. Our average pace was like 8:04 or something like that. 

Pre-meet

Well this was not a good race for me, mentally or physically. Had a good start but in the first mile I lost Gan and that was not a smart move for me. A little less than half a mile out I started feeling pretty bad for some unknown reason and I like half way threw up right before the last turn which made the last little bit pretty rough. So overall, not the funnest race.

Today's run was definitely a recovery run. Warmed up a mile, then Jamie had us do a couple miles on the grass, and then Guppy, Gan, and I headed out to finish our mileage. It'll suffice to say that it was a VERY toasty run. We went down towards Fox Hollow and then back, stopping at the splash pad so we didn't melt. Legs felt tired but not too bad. 

I'm very sad to say that today's run was the last run of summer 2016... However, it was a good one to end on. Woke up EARLY and met up with Gan who is honestly the BEST EVER for always running with me... before the sun even comes out. We started out pretty slow cuz both of our legs were tired and we were half asleep. Started at my house and ran out to 1200 and then over to the road by Sami's. Went all the way down that road and then went left, making a big loop back to the Freedom Park and then by Mario's Grandpa's giant pumpkin (it's crazy huge btw) and then back to 1200. It was a good loop, although I think Gan and I both felt like we'd run everywhere. First half was pretty slow and second half was slightly faster at about 8:00 min pace. Avg pace was 8:16 apr. The weather was perfect tho and I was a super nice long run to finish off the summer :) 

Happy first day of school! (haha nawt really) anyhow, today's workout was "the kicker". My mental game was pretty strong going into it cuz I really didn't want to feel like I did after last week's race and I knew that I could do better. warmed up down to the start, then got it done. Going up the (largest) hill I gapped Gan and Kaylee a little and it stayed that way for the rest of the race. Finished with a solid 10:04. Really wish I woulda gone a little harder at the end cuz I really really wanna break 10:00 this season, but I guess I'll get it next time! Surprisingly, the kicker wasn't even the hardest part of today's workout... We had high mileage so after I still had six more miles and it honestly felt like it was 100 degrees outside. The SOTD (squad of the day) and I went one the MCT and ran through the gulley and back. Seriously thought my legs were gonna fall off and my body was gonna melt into a puddle. Thankfully neither of those things occurred. Shoutout to Smith's for having free water bottles. They are the real MVPs. After did abs and hips and ice bathed. 

Tri-meet today with Lehi and Westlake (the mom and the bro). Warmed up a mile. Course was only two miles and I was thankful that it wasnt just grass loops. We went out on a trail right by Utah Lake that was uneven and a little rough to run on, but still cool. We were supposed to treat this race more like a fastish tempo run. First mile was apr. 6:34 and second mile was apr. 6:28. I felt good for most the race. My stomach started hurting just a bit at the end but nothing too crazy. Afterward I did a few more miles to cool down. I was supposed to do 9 miles today but by the end of my cooldown I was not feeling good and just decided to listen to my body and call it quits for the day. 

High mileage recovery today. After a long debte/argument about where to run, we set off on the MCT towards Smith's. Warmed up almost 2 miles, stretched, and kept on goin. Legs felt pretty rough for the first half. We stopped at the "Freedom Park" and did a mile on the grass, and then ran back. My legs actually felt a lot better towards the end. When we got back to the school we did one more mile on the grass and I got a stupid sticker stuck in my toe... smh. Average pace apr. 8:21. Afterward did abs and hips. Unshoutout to Michael for hiding my shoes -_-

Pre-meet today for grass relays. wu and then 800m at race pace (or so) on the grass. Varsity all did their 800s alone bc that is the nature of the grass relays I suppose. I'm not sure exactly what my time was cuz I forgot to stop my watch due to human "hay bales", but it was about 3:05 I believe, so a little fast. Next I did some "relay starts" with the relay team for tomorrow and a couple strides. After finished up mileage and then did some good abs and hips. Headed to the SOLW next for a fun but VERY chilly ice bath. Shoutout to myself for jumping in. 

Also had a quality team dinner tonight. Team captains were announced and some great words were said. #inspired

So this was a pretty big race. 25 teams were there I think. I can honestly say I didn't get nervous at all until I got to the race and even then I wasn't very nervous, so that was good. Warmed up about 1.5ish miles then did drills and waited around for quite awhile bc they were behind schedule. I was doing the second leg (of a 5 person relay) so I went right after Guppy who did the first leg and got me a solid 5th place start. I started out kind of fast but I was feeling good. First lap was pretty smooth and felt really fast, second lap I started dragging a bit, but it still turned out okay and I passed a girl so we were now in fourth. The "gauntlet" the second time around got me, and looking back I should have tried a bit harder on that, but I didn't slow too much the second mile and I felt like I had a good enough race, especially cuz i didn't even trip over any hay bales... #win. Also the rest of our relay team all pulled out some great times and we ended up 5th overall and got a trophy! Shoutout to them for killing it.

*as a side-note I'm not sure of the exact length of the course because some people were say it was like 2.1 or something, but i don't really know so I'm just gonna go with 2. 

Today started off with a wu down to the bottom of that one hill... (don't know what to call it lol) and then we had 2 sets of 3, 90 sec pickups up the hill with a half mile inbetween sets. Legs were feelin a little tired to start off and it felt like it was about 236 degrees outside (give or take) BUT I still felt like it was a good workout. Last pickup was killer. After we finished up to medium mileage including a mile on the grass. 

My. Legs. Are. DONE. haha today we had a recovery run but it felt more like a marathon after yesterday's workout and with how hot is was. Went on a loop down "kill hill" and then back up "the kicker". Probably not a good loop right after a hill workout and before a sort-of-race. oh well

Pre-region today! First, it's so so weird being in a new region with all different schools, but also kinda cool. Race was at Valley Regional Park (I think) which I decided was a fantastic course. Got to the course (after the hottest bus ride of life) and chilled for a bit, watched the rookie race, and then warmed up a mile. Oh, and just FYI, we were mostly doing this as a tempo workout minus like the last mile or so I suppose. First mile felt real easy and quick, came in at a 6:30, second mile we slowed but still on pace at a 6:44, and last mile picked it up with a 6:19. Ended with a 19:51 which I consider to be good considering we weren't going very hard the first and second mile. After cooled down 3 more miles in that sketchy town. #TGFG (thank goodness for gan). When we got back to SHS some of us went and did a really super scary ice bath at the SOLW. Unshoutout to Teapot and Austin for obvious reasons. 

*but also big shoutout to all the boys and especially Parker for asking us girls to #xchoco. Can't wait :)