hbfs

Yesterday, I did that CrossFit workout where you keep a running time and do one pull-up the first minute, two the second, three the third, and so forth until you can't do it anymore. I did ten the tenth minute (sets of 2-2-2-2-1-1, a marked decline from my 3-3-3 ninth minute) and only finished with 3 seconds there, so I didn't attempt the eleventh minute. I should have. I'm kind of a pansy that way. But the 55 pull-ups I did were hard and I'm still totally baller :)  Needless to say, my WHOLE BODY hurts (arms, shoulders, back, abs, chest, and legs. Legs? Yeah, legs. I did 200 squats on Friday, as I found myself doing a CrossFit WOD as prescribed on its intended day). Ow :(

I've been trying to be a better cycling fan. I always thought I'd appreciate the Tour de France more if I was more knowledgeable about the sport, but I'm not so sure. Having a track background certainly allows me to appreciate a tactical finish, as in today's stage. I related perfectly to the commentator's statements as to how the four breakaway riders had to be comfortable riding from any position within their pack - leading or sitting in last - and to anticipate for attempts to breakaway from the breakaway (or to use a track term I'm much more comfortable with, surging). It reminded me a lot of a tactical finish to a longer track race, like a 10,000. Cool stuff :)

I got into my HS livejournal today. I had wanted to see what I had written about the dissolution of a toxic friendship. Apparently, nothing - I was too busy justifying to the whole world that I didn't treat my boyfriend badly. Which was totally a lie because I hated dating him! I also discovered how miserable the first six months of my 17th year were, more than one hilariously bad prediction... and that in a couple of ways, I fulfilled Little Jess's hopes. At one point, I said that I want to memorize the Eleanor Roosevelt quote on my binder from running camp. Rest assured, Little Jess, I did:

Ugh. Okay. Apologies for the lack of LJ cut. It is NOT cooperating with me. Ugly things keep happening in HTML mode :(

Monday, I launched my official return to running. After battling an array of maladies over the last six weeks, strengthening exercises and a clever orthotics adjustment have set the stage for a triumphant return to training. To symbolize this brand new start, I drove out to the place where I ran my very first miles as a shy sixth grader who had reached the ceiling of her potential in gymnastics.

Sometimes Jess talks about these things at great length.

I eat steak, and I eat ice cream, and I eat a ton of bread, and I eat peanut butter, and I eat cereal (often with my peanut butter, because I enjoy how the thickness of the peanut butter contrasts with the smooth coldness of the milk), and I eat spinach (but I can't stand it cooked- it's slimy), and I eat pears, and I eat tofu, and I eat cheeseburgers (cooked medium-rare with American cheese, ketchup, mustard, a thick slice of onion, and pickles - but please hold the tomato). ( I do not eat... )

I run. ( I run because it was the sport I picked up and fell in love with when I was eleven. )

So… that’s it. That’s what I’ve got. Over two pages in word, single spaced, Times New Roman size 10. TL;DR: I like the way I look. I wish more people felt that way about their bodies.

I have a teammate, T.
I was a freshman with T. We're from the same state, and honestly, I think she's a sweetheart. But she has an incredible number of issues.

Freshman year, T had the most visible eating disorder on the team. And that was the year of the eating disorders. She ate raw fruits and vegetables, soy milk, and tea. Before coming to school, she had never visited. She went to a boarding school, and she figured she could be happy anywhere (and we had given her the best aid). She was miserable. She quit in the middle of indoor track.

She rejoined sophomore year. We had thought she was going to transfer, but she opted not to because her major wasn't offered at the other school. She still didn't eat. She also was overcommitted and kept terrible hours. When you don't eat AND don't sleep, you break down really fast. She wasn't as fast sophomore year. In fact, I beat her at every race we ran, except for the one where I had food poisoning and barfed, literally, at the starting line. Incidentally, she quit after that meet. Coach didn't tell the team that she had quit until after a week had passed.
I felt really betrayed by that. I did a lot of training with T, and she disappeared, and she let me down. I communicated that with my coach at the time, but all he said was, "Maybe I should ask her to make a statement to the team."

She spent all of junior year abroad. From the sound of things, she enjoyed her time studying away. From the look of things, the issues did not resolve.

I think she is an INCREDIBLY sweet girl, but I haven't been able to shake how I felt let  down by her (twice). And I really, really don't have the mental or emotional energy left to deal with her food issues again. It is SUCH a terrible situation. And it's like as young women, we're programmed to compare our dinner plates' to our peers and place value on who is eating less food than us! And being PC and liberal and whatnot, NOBODY stopped and said, "Wait, this behavior is abnormal and it concerns me." No one had ever acknowledged T's problems to me until THIS SPRING. THIS SPRING, we were sitting at dinner - one of my former co-captains (K1), my new co-captain (A), and two of our newer runners, freshman A and sophomore L. And K1 acknowledged to me that there WAS in fact something profoundly wrong with the way that T ate. I told K1, "Someone just told me she had severe dietary restrictions, and I never even questioned it."
For this reason, body dissatisfaction and food issues are SO contagious on women's teams. T's eating disorder spurned on one of my other teammate's (I think because K2 viewed it as competition) - but because my other teammate's eating disorder was more established, T's slipped by the wayside, despite being 100% more visible than K2's. At least Katie MADE a plate and pushed it around with her fork, even if all she did it was cooked cabbage, maybe the steamed vegetables. T infected some of my perfectly healthy teammates. One of the other girls in my class, M, is naturally very thin. She ate french fries, drank regular soda, and never ate salads. And I'm not just blaming T here, I also blame a few of M's other friends from her floor, but through those influences, M lost some of that. She eats salads with balsamic vinegar, and she hasn't had a "regular" soda since preseason of our freshman year. I don't think it was out of jealousy or a desire to emulate her peers - I think she felt badly about being effortlessly thin.

This is just awful. I feel like I'm reacting emotionally and not logically. Logically, T would be a good addition to the team. T is fast and will almost certainly score points for us. T is sweet - though we actually started off on some rocky notes, we get along fine now. But I can't help but feel like my personal judgment is preventing me from reacitng to this situation rationally. But on the other hand, I feel like my concerns ARE valid. T starves herself, and she's quit twice. What will make this time different?

I feel like as a captain, it's my job to PROTECT my team. We have eight freshmen right now. They're babies!  They are just as susceptible to the same old shit that infected the team when I was a freshman and sophomore. I don't want them to feel betrayed by a teammate. I don't want them to compare their dinner to T's and cast off their dessert in favor of lettuce, grapes, balsamic vinegar, and green tea. Last year was a building year. The foundation is in place. Now we want to GO somewhere with it. I don't want us to go taking steps backward this year. I was MISERABLE freshman and sophomore years on the cross-country team.

I voiced my concern to my coach, and I'm sure we're about to be in a fight over it. I emailed T and directed her to the team's summer website. I emailed A to tell her to expect me and Coach to be in a fight.

God. I don't have the energy for this.
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I hate being home and I hate being injured.
If I had realized I was going to be injured, unemployed, and lonely, I'd have found a job in Philly.

Because you should celebrate a season well done and a year well done by drinking alone in your room! At least, if the girl you were going to celebrate with is passed the heck out in her room because she hasn't slept in, like, three days.

So! A lot of stuff has gone down.

I ran a 43:01 at conferences in the 10k in more or less crappy conditions. The only girls who beat me were girls who really deserved it... chicks with PRs way better than mine :) And I ran well. I lapped girls earlier in this race. It was a good time.

I ran a 3k PR (by 4 seconds!) the week before conferences. It was a lonely race... ran straight from the back and moved up on DI girls the whole time. It was kind of fun to race, though. I don't get to run that distance outdoors very often. I really like it.

I ran a 1500m PR by 3 seconds. Pretty sweet for a girl who hasn't done any workout at a pace faster than 3k race pace since February.

I tried to pace L. to qualify in the 800 and failed....twice. It took a 62-second 400m runner to get the job done. No wonder I couldn't do it :P

I ran a 5k PR by 5 seconds (down to 20:25). Someday I'm going to get my sub-20. It was a hot day, I was off pace from the gun, but I ran well tactically and it paid off in a sweet 5 second PR. I'm in much better shape, but my 5ks never reflect it.

I'm excited to captain again this year with the wonderful A., who I don't think KNOWS she's a captain yet... but Coach slipped up to me :D Our freshman class should be fast...

This summer, I just want to run a lot and stay healthy. I think if I back off on intensity a bit compared to previous summers and emphasize distance more, it'll be great. It appears that my easy pace is now about 8:10... I do my long runs at that pace... so my fitness is great. I just need miles and my health!

Another thing that I could LJ about... but won't... is the complete upheaval of my life and how I can't hardly believe what has come of me since, like, March and the whole 10k adventure. COMPLETE UPHEAVAL, GUYS.

*\o/*

Somebody's 2000m row case study is finished*!
*provided somebody's professor doesn't email her back and say, "No, you cannot reinterpret this question, write something else."

I've been off running since my 2:39.8 4x800m split on Saturday. I ran a 43:01 10k on Friday... so close, but so far. I'll probably write about the race at some point, but right now I'm a little far removed from it. It was hot, the pace was really uneven, and it was weird. I ran well- better than most. The only girls who beat me are girls who are legitimately a lot faster than me, and I ran really close to girls who have run a minute faster than me for 5k. So I was pleased :)

I think I'm going to run on Saturday. It compromises my wishes and my coaches, and I like compromise. I really wanted to run today. This afternoon was so perfect: the humidity was gone, the temperature was perfect, the ground was squishy with wet debris from the storms.

Life is good :)

Recap of recent runnings:
-5x800 at quasi-3k race pace (3:12 - I ran 3:10, 3:11, 3:10, 3:09) last Tuesday in the rain
-3k race in 11:38, a four second PR on Friday
-6 in ~47:40 on Saturday
-9.3 in 1:16 on Sunday (8:10 average- seems to be my tendency to throw down 8:10s on the long run when I'm not running with slower company)
-5x1000 in the heat yesterday. Originally the plan was to run very easy - 4:45 (7:38 pace!) but by 5pm the heat wasn't so bad. The goal was then adjusted to be anywhere between 4:45 and 4:18. I ran 4:36, 4:24, 4:20, 4:19, and 4:12. I couldn't help it.

And this is all since my off day last Sunday, so no wonder my legs have caught up to me and I feel like balls now.

Also, dear future self: lactose and heat exhaustion is something to majorly be avoided.

My sleep schedule is so screwed. I slept, like, fourteen hours last night and it's kind of messed me up for tonight.

Today I met some of the future! It is accepted students weekend, and we had an athletics thingy at the fitness center to meet with prospectives in our sports. I like this class, they're fun :) They asked great questions, they seem like a great group of kids, and the ones I spoke to seem like they'd be great fits in our program. I'm going running with our best prospective (as in fastest AND most likely to come) tomorrow morning, which should be a lot of fun.

I'm trying to decide what to do about housing next year. Two of my friends, a third girl, and I are living on a part of a hall. We have four rooms between the four of us, and we're dividing them among ourselves. Noelle has room 3 for sure, and Christine wanted room 1, so Leah and I are deciding between 2 and 4.  And I have to decide by Tuesday night, and I have NO idea what I'm going to choose.

Room 2 is the largest of the four rooms. It has a western view of the pond behind the president's house. I'm a slob, so the more space I have, the less densely things are packed on my floor. It has TWO closets! I've never lived in a big room. The room could be good for entertaining/hosting track and cross-country parties.
However, room 2 is in the middle. It shares walls with room 3 and room 1. I don't know Noelle (room 3) at all, and I wouldn't want to irritate her when she is the one who let me, a total stranger, in on the arrangement. I don't own enough shit to fill two closets, and if I ran into any storage issues, Leah would let me store stuff in her room. Leah has never lived in a big room, either.

Room 4 is is the most secluded. It does not share a wall with anyone. It has a south-facing view of a tree that is really, really beautiful right now.
It is the smallest of the four rooms. The current owner complains of dumpster-noise in the morning, but it is not clear how early she hears dumpster noises (and I keep earlier hours than Leah) or whether there will be dumpster noises next year... the dorm currently houses a dining hall, but the dining hall will be closed down next year due to budget cuts.

And writing it out like that didn't help me out at all. Okay.

Really, I just wanted to make a post with my new icon :)

So a surprise coughing fit woke me out of a dead sleep, and now I cannot QUIT coughing. So I got up to refill my water bottle... legs feel pretty okay, despite the damage I did on them yesterday. My only soreness complaint is my right shoulder blade - it kind of feels like someone took their keys and stabbed them straight down into my supraspinatus.

So yesterday I ripped a new 1500m PR. After three years of hard work and a total change in emphasis as we developed my 10k this year, I finally ran something other than 5:29 for 1500m! Splits were 86, 2:56 (90), 4:25 (89), leaving a 61 (82-83 pace) for the last 300 - so I had a real nice kick at the end. I snuck into a slightly faster heat as the 13th seed. I was kind of worried because I knew the leaders in my heat were going to run in the 5:00-5:05 range and I thought that the whole race might go out really fast and that I might lose contact with the pack. The 12th seed was a 5:25 (I was seeded 5:28, so I actually came in ahead of my seed time). When the gun went off and I saw the #12 positioning herself in the middle of the pack, I stopped being so worried. She was going to come back to me. So I hung on, and I made contact with the pack although I was a good 6-8m back through 400 and 800, but around 1000 I started to gain and by 1200 I had passed that girl. I was gaining on the rest of the field at that point, so I pushed like crazy and got a huge boost on the straight away as I got my sights on a Hopkins girl. I needed another 100m to have gotten her, but it gave me enough of a boost to eke in a new PR.

I also did the 800 and I ran a really tough race there, too. I was supposed to go out fast my first 400, but I screwed it up and got out pretty slow, coming through 400 in ~80. I really held it together and ran a great second 400, and I ran a 2:40. The last 400 felt terrible, I was pushing SO hard, but I came up just short. I finished third in my heat - God, if I had realized how close to the leaders I was going to be, I REALLY would have been more aggressive at the start. I didn't even think I'd have to worry about leading... the number on my leg was a "7." Anyway, after the race my coach told me he was disappointed I didn't get out, and he really sent the message home by sending me an EMAIL about it! I was like, "Geez, I know I messed that one up, but really? You're being an asshole about it!"  He can be a dick to people after races. That's why I do NOT hang around when I think I ran poorly, because I know that in about 24 hours, he'll regret saying it. I think he's just mad because he wanted me to rabbit for L. and drag her to a conference qualifier, and I fell about 1.3 seconds short - because I needed to get out and I didn't.
So I emailed him and offered to rabbit for L. as she tries to qualify on Wednesday. I don't really want to run another 1500m anyway - an open 800 would be fine ;)

I stopped coughing... back to bed for me.

Just when you find a piece of the faith you'd lost in mankind...

Dinner today:
A: I notice that H. doesn't eat a lot
Me: Bwah?
A: I've noticed it a couple of times now. I saw her eating half a salad and, like, an egg. And I thought, oh, maybe she's just not hungry. But then I saw it again. And right now.
Me: Oh. Thanks. Um. I guess I'll think on that for a while.

:'((((

Things I will inevitably write journal entries about, when I'm not dodging, for example, a deadly blood vessels exam.
1. 5k PR
2. 4 x 800 @ 3:12 (3:10, 3:11, 3:10, 3:09)
3. Various ways in which my coach brings the LOLs
4. Why I love my team

So I'm really going to try to PR in the 5k tomorrow. I'm going to go out conservatively, make sure that to hit 100 or 200 too fast (24.5, 49) and run 1:38s the entire time.

Conditions are good. It might be raining. Do I care if it's raining? Competitively, no - the worse the conditions are, the better I'm going to place. Period. Because I'm just a lot tougher than the other girls out there. I want to run really fast, so I guess ideally, it wouldn't be raining. But it's spring - it could change.

The race conditions are even better. I got to practice today and my coach was relishing in his mysteriousness. "I left the performance list open on the computer in the fitness center. Check it!"

A. and I rushed up there... to find similarly interesting seeding situations. I'm the 5th seed of 12 5k runners. I'm not overseeded. There are two girls in front of me in 20:00-low, and a bunch of girls behind me in the 20:50 range. So I can go out conservatively and pick them off as a pack, if they run as a pack, or just one by one.

I am SO EXCITED!!

Race recap begun Friday night... finished Sunday morning.
(Friday night's report)
I have no idea how successful I'm going to be in recapping this race. I have a belly full of really good food (balsamic glazed chicken with buttered green beans and mashed potatoes from Bertucci's) and conversations (with A. and my coach). Also, I hurt... everywhere. Walking? Not so much. Stairs? Definitely out. Sitting? Surprisingly difficult.

So... here's my best go. Because my Friday night 3k a month ago was so successful, I decided to eat all the same foods I ate that day. I was pretty nervous about my cranky hip, but I was pretty sure the endorphins/extra strength Tylenol would get me through.  We watched the women's discus... and then the throwers bailed with a, "Have fun, run far, run consistently."  Thanks guys.

So we realized during the first heat of the men's 5k that the meet was running about 8 minutes ahead of schedule. Er. Whoops. So we went to the bathroom, checked in and got our hip numbers, and warmed up... 12 minutes. No need to get too warm. My cranky hip felt the best it's felt in days. I credited the extra strength Tylenol. We pee again, change into singlets, and realize that they're almost 10 minutes into the last heat of the men's 5k. Oh dear. Our teammates, who had graciously volunteered to count laps for us, and our assistant coach S, hadn't even made it yet. But there's nothing you can do about it, you gotta roll with the punches, so we lined up. It was really funny. The event was mixed men and women, and they had no idea what to do with all 31 of us. They lined the men up and then took the first 5 women. The six other women and I gathered ourselves behind the men. No one tried to stick us in order or anything, so I lined up next to A.

The gun went off, and for the first time ever in a track race, I started my watch. I never, ever look at my watch during a race. I know that if it's available, I'll just look at it ALL THE FREAKING TIME. But it was really important to not start too quickly. I didn't want to come through 100m faster than 23 and ideally I would hit 200m at 52. So I settled right into the back of the pack, ahead of A. but behind everyone else, and go through 100m in 23. I adjust and come through 200 in 52 and 400 in 1:45. 1:45 was my goal pace per 400. 7:00. The plan was to go out easy, run even, and trust that a few of the girls seeded ahead of me WERE going to go out too fast and die.  My watch ran the rest of the race, but I never looked at it. It wasn't until 49:30, I realized that my watch was still running but I had finished six minutes ago.

From 400-1200, I gained on two girls right in front of me. I didn't want to run too fast and pass, but after two consecutive 1:47s, I went around them. From there, I picked off a girl in blue. From there, my coach told me that when I was ready, I could make my move on one of my bigger rivals, H. H. was seeded to run 43:00 (she wound up running 45:2x). I took my time, got up on H, and decided to wait and see how she'd respond. H. is competitive, she's a racer. At the conference meet 5k (you remember - the one I didn't qualify for!) she lead her chase pack for a while... it didn't serve her well, but she was gutsy and broke open a slow race.  H. increased her pace, so I ran off of her shoulder 2.5 laps. And then it came to be time for me to pass her.

From there, it was a cycle of "lap girls - get lapped by boys - get lapped by the lead pack girls."  I remember lapping A. and telling her what a great job she was doing. I got a second lap on the last place girl. The lead girl got a second lap on me. I was behind goal pace for the first two miles (7:04, something slightly over 14) but  almost on pace at mile 3 (21:03).  I came through 4 in 27:5x and 5 in 34:50-low.  30 seconds better than my fastest 4 miler, a minute better than my fastest 5 mile.  I had my coach in front of the finish line, my lap counters downstream, two teammates at the 200,

supermanz in the stands, and an assistant coach who found her way to turn 4 EXACTLY when I needed her to be there.  Everyone was AWESOME.  Somewhere in lap 17-18 (I was pretty foggy from 16-20, except at one point I started to choke on my own saliva and nearly threw up. I did manage to drool all over myself), Mark yelled for me to "break its face" which brought a smile to mine :)  At this point I was running alone, running 1:45s with an occasional 1:43. I was hurting pretty bad in the last 5 laps, but I just counted them down and battled.

Splits were something like 7:04, 6:59, 7:02 (pretty sure about these three), 6:5x, 6:5x, 6:59, and I think 1:34 or 1:37 for the last 400.

RIGHT. The last 400! I was within striking distance of taking a lap H., the girl who was seeded faster than me, so with 400 to go, my coach tells me to get up on my toes and go for it. I get on my toes at about 375 to go... realize that it is not yet time to be on my toes. Bad advice! But with 200 to go, despite my major fatigue, I got up on my toes, drove my arms, and caught her on the straightaway.

So I ran 43:28 for a clean 6:59 pace per mile. We thought that maaaybe I could run 7:00, so that was really exciting. The second 5k was faster than the first, a little, so that was good. But I'm most excited about the way I raced. I trust my instincts. Every move I made was GOOD. I didn't get caught up in the excitement and the adrenaline and make any stupid mistakes. I didn't consciously speed up anywhere - it was a consistent effort, and for that consistent effort, I was rewarded with very even splits. So my fitness right now? It rocks.

And A., my teammate in the 10k with me, ALSO rocks. She set a 5k PR (23:00) in the first half of the race... and broke that with an awesome negative split of 22:56 for the second 5k! She is already planning for her next 10k... she wants to run another one in two weeks. I don't. I'm ready to wait for conferences, where I'll get to kick some major butt on girls who go out way too fast! If I race next weekend, I'll just do a 1500, and then maybe run a few 5ks and see how close I can get to the qualifier (19:59, yikes!).

I really LIKED this distance. I was afraid I wouldn't, because I have such strong feelings about the indoor 5k, a 25 lap race that is just about impossible to manage. I was also worried about my cranky hip, but the adrenaline/Tylenol worked PERFECTLY. I didn't have any hip pain during the race.

(Sunday morning version)
I woke up Saturday prettyyyy sore. Walking? Not so good, man. Not so good. Eventually I went for a 25 minute run with the 800m runners (it was their cool down). I felt okay... hip wasn't tight but it was super sore.  I woke up this morning feeling, in some ways, slightly worse. Hamstrings are cranky, right psoas is unhappy, but it'll be alright. I can go up to 70 minutes today, but I might take it easier than that. Since the hip is getting better, I'd like to heal it up.

 

After much speculation, 10k race pace was revealed today. Earlier this morning, while I was working my shift at the gym, I nagged Coach into guessing my 10k pace. He hadn't looked yet because he didn't want to tell me! So he told me 7:10.

I got to practice this afternoon and found myself confronted with a slightly different time on my workout  sheet. I had 2 x 1000m with a minute rest @ 10k race pace... 4:22.  It took A. and I eight minutes of our warm-up run to convert our 1000m times to mile times, and then we flipped out.  10k race pace just dropped 10 seconds per mile... to 7:00.  The 4 x 1600 I did @ 6:55 seemed so... hard... on Saturday.

Turns out, it wasn't.  I ran the first 1000 in 4:21.94 (I'm AWESOME! You can't get much closer to perfect!). I came through 100m fast but had corrected by 200 and was perfectly on pace through 400.  I ran the second 1000 in 4:18, coming through 100 and 200 perfect but under goal pace for the remaining 800. I was covering my stride, shoulders relaxed... and it was just easy.

Didn't I do 1000s on the grass in 4:22? Wasn't that a hard workout this fall?
I just checked my log... I did lactate threshold 1000s at 4:35 in September. Yikes. Old LT is 22 seconds per mile slower than 10k race pace, or 27 seconds faster per mile than I did lactate threshold MILES at on Saturday. The track adds some speed, but the improvement is evident.

Okay, so, moving on. After the 2 x 1000, A. and I got to take as much rest as we wanted. We jogged an 800. And then we got into the second half of our workout, 3 x 800 @ 5k race pace ... 3:24. I was like, Oh, that's the pace of my crappy indoor track 5ks, this won't last long.  It's hard to shift gears when the gears you're shifting are so close together. I ran the first 800 in 3:25. The second two were 3:22. They were paced perfectly. In fact, they felt slow.

I found 5k race pace slow. SLOW! Hello, fitness, I missed you, baby. Why don't you stay here a while, I promise I'll treat you right...

I seriously feel great. I have a little bit of tendonitis in my toes on my left foot, but it only hurts when I walk barefoot - my orthotics correct it in my shoes (I gave myself tendonitis walking around barefoot over spring break, hah) - so the athletic trainer wisely advised me, "Just always wear shoes."  It's been working.  My right hip flexor hates me, but that's nothing new.  Ever since my steeplechase experiment, my hip flexors have occasionally been grumpy. They didn't like Thursday's hard lift coupled with Saturday's workout and Sunday's long run in the woods, where I tried to hurdle a few fallen trees. The left one has come around but my right one is still cranky. I have been giving it lots of attention with the foam roller, though! It felt great through the workout, but after the workout, as I was giving my last two 800 splits to Coach and discussing the workout, it got super tight. It loosened up after about ten shaky steps, but it was a bit of a scare.  I foam rolled it into oblivion in the training room, and it has been behaving ever since.

So that's where things are right now. I'm starting to get pumped. I keep getting reminded of how fast I've been running lately. I did run a 4 mile tempo on the roads averaging 7:05.5, which I think I could've sustained for two more miles. The track is faster than the road. And I'm gonna run smart, ease into the first mile, then pick up the effort and try to run a nice, clean negative split. Eeee I'm excited.

Woke up to a beautiful morning. Warm and sunny and clear. I headed over to the track at 1:30, strategically engineered so that when I was finishing up, a few of the middle distance runners would be arriving to run 200m cutdowns.
I had an uneventful run over to the track. Still sore from the leg routine we did on Thursday, but running felt fine. It's the stairs that have been killer. Despite the beautiful Saturday afternoon, the track was relatively empty of pedestrians. There was a student working on hurdles in lane 5, two triathletes finishing up a brick, and some walkers. Not bad at all!
I did some strides, stretched out my hip flexors on a steeple, promised my poor hip flexors that I would never ask them to steeplechase again, did a few more strides, stretched some more to try to coax a little more love from my wretched hip flexors... And then I started running.
We estimated that LT pace was 6:55. I go out at the effort level I "felt" was appropriate... whoops. Ran a :46 for my first 200. But I reigned it in and ran 6:51.
A minute is not much recovery. The issue isn't the aerobic recovery, it's the mental aspect. Within the span of sixty seconds, you have to erase the previous hard effort and focus on the new task at hand. There is no time to bask in the afterglow of achieving one's time... just time to go again.
I ran 6:55 for the second effort, which was perfect. I ran 6:53 for the third, but I came through 1200 at 5:11 (aka perfect) so the acceleration was all in the last 400. And I ran 6:49 for the fourth, still coming through 1200 at 5:11. I am nothing if not consistent.
The MDRs were late, so I had actually begun my run home when I saw them on the other side of the parking lot. I turned back with them. They were doing 8 x 200m cut downs with 200m jog, so I jogged the rest with them, which actually helped me loosen up a lot. There was nothing I'd rather do on a sunny Saturday afternoon than hang out at the track watching people run. Period. There's no palce I'd rather me.
When they finished, we ran back to the gym, stretched, foam rolled, composed a group email to our coach, and enjoyed lunch together. Track <3

Also... since I'm incapable of waiting, I looked up Mark's marathon finish time. Congratulations, supermanz ! Your splits looked great, I can't wait to read the report.

It's been a while.

Lots of running this week. It started off with a bang - 9 miles total on Monday, 8 on Tuesday (the workout was 6 by 3 minute pick-ups with 2 min recovery). Instead of taking either Wednesday or Friday off, I'm running light both days and taking next Monday off. By the end of the week, I should have over 50 miles in the books.

Saturday morning is a lactate threshold workout - 4 by 1600 with 1:00 walking recovery at 6:55. Exciting stuff! I love LT pace....

Yesterday I saw my teammate K in the hospital. She has had a really terrible string of luck lately. She tore her MCL at conferences in the long jump. Over spring break, she got really sick - really high fever that wouldn't go down. She went to the hospital and they diagnosed her with pneumonia and drained her lungs with a tube. She had a complicated from her IVs and got a blood clot in her arm. Now she's on blood thinners and can't have her knee surgery for two more months. And on top of it all, they think it might not be pneumonia. It might be tuberculosis, no shit. She's in quarantine, you have to wear a mask and gown to see her.

Her parents are overseas, and she's really lonely. I took a card to athletics association and got the athletes to sign it... I'm going to bring her magazines and the card tomorrow.

Next Friday I debut the 10k.

And when I finish this last physics question, I AM DONE WITH WORK FOR THIS WEEK AND AM GOING TO BED! Goodbye, midterms!

Today I got up and ran two miles.  First double complete.  The first isn't the toughest, though - at least not when I'm on a completely open schedule and have the luxury of doing my first run at 9 or 10am!

So after my completely standard first run, I went to my HS's track practice. I felt feisty (I must be completely recovered from my bug), so I hopped in the timed mile with the kids.  Only two of them beat me... our Footlocker All American and another 5:30 miler.  Not bad.  I ran from the back (they all go out too fast! I don't like to run like that...), never looked at my watch or thought about splits, and ran completely comfortably the entire time.  And it was indoors and I ran in trainers, and I only ran eight miles total last week!  It was fun.

I then ran easy outside with my HS coach's daughter and Angela, telling them stories about my college running.  It was nice. We finally got a reprieve from the rain :)  We are VERY soggy here in SE Michigan. The river is higher than I've ever seen it.

It is, of course, going to rain more tomorrow.

My baby brother (okay, he's 17) just finished in the top 10 of the MI state meet! For bowling... :)

Our day started early - at 4:30! - and ended 11 hours later, when I finally crashed for a nap. I had wanted to run when we got home, but I was too hungry and too sleepy.  I am feeling much recovered from my bout of gastroenteritis, except for the indigestion.  I weighed myself when I got home... I was about 3lbs below my usual arrival weight. Honestly, I thought it was going to be worse, given the way my clothes were fitting. So now I can eat anything I want, but it's going to sit in my stomach like a brick for hours. Makes the running a bit complicated. We got 3" of rain today, it was dark, and having been warned by my coach to really ease back into running, I just did an easy two.

Apparently I'm super fit right now, because my "easy two" took 16:38.  And okay, my course is short - the one mile loop is .97, so converted it would've taken 17:10, but that's not the point! The point is, it was 10pm, raining balls, and I had indigestion, and my easy two mile jog was at 8:35 pace.

Sweet! It's going to be a good training week! I always seem to do well at home over fall and spring break.

So long as my indigestion gets better... and it needs to, I've got to gain my 3lbs back!