Cool Runnings

Woke up at 8:11; I freaked out. I got down to liberty in 8 or 9 minutes, and made it before we started. It was nice to be back with the team again. Running again also felt pretty great. The break I had with Powell means my shin splints are almost gone now (finally!) and I felt pretty good, physically, even if my brain didn't quite wake up.

I ran the first mile of the warm up with Amanda, then I clicked and caught up with the front group (I think not having to run the last few days also made me a little fresher than them which helped.) Then we jogged to the north side of the park to do 6 sets of strides.

It was a speed workout today, and, not realizing how long and 800 really is, I tried to keep up with Tommy and Taylor--oops! I made it for a mile and then my muscles started to argue with me. I kept up a pretty fast pace behind them (and D-Teeps) until I started dry heaving again.

I'm really frustrated that I do that. Bill asked me after practice why I slowed so much on the first 800 and I feel like it's such a lame excuse. I don't know.... I ran off to the grass and slowed to a medium run, at about 1:40 and then tried to stay with Natalie for the last minute.  Finished 2:49.

Then we ran around and got to the second start line. I made sure I didn't start like an idiot this time (and it really helped!) I stayed with Dylan for a bit, then either he sped up or I slowed down, because he got farther and farther away. Bill passed me...and then Dakota. I really didn't want to come in behind Dakota, so while he tried to pass Bill on the left, I just booked it; I passed both of them in about last second or two, ending up at I think a 2:41. It's amazing how much just pacing myself better helped.

Then I did cool down (literally--thanks sprinklers) and core. cr- 35 35 50. pushups (not incline this time) 15normal, 15triangle, 15 high hands. Then I did arm swings straight through the three sets and breaks. We did leg lifts, "swimmies" as I learned them (I still kick,) and for the last set Taylor and I did the "boat."  I think that that was some yoga joke that only he and Natalie got.

After we got food YUM. And I told Taylor the stories of my exploits in Powell and Cali.  We also probably walked another mile trying to find his mom.

I ran down to Liberty (1.7mi) and ran around it twice with Taylor. It's truly amazing how many more good stories he has than I do.

It was a pretty slow day overall just trying to get me some miles--which I did, this is the farthest I've ever run.

I wimped out on core today and just maxed out on normal incline pushups to call it good, and then did some calf exercises!

This was a hike. But I don't really know how to record this week, so I'll just try to explain day by day. We hiked to see if we could do this trail for the course... it was about 4 hours of hiking... so 5-8 miles is my guess.

Actually ran today. One of my friends and I got up 2 hours before participants came and we tried to find a better trail than the one that happened yesterday. Unfortunately running at 9000 feet was much easier for me than for my friend (who is in far better shape than me really.) So we ran for 26-31ish minutes out of the 3 or 4 hours... I stopped watching the clock when we stopped running the second time. I'm pretty sure we went at least 6.5 and less than 9. Overall with 2-4 running

This 5 was backpacking. I split my kids into two groups and mine just burned through the trail, we made it to 4.5 in about 1:02, not bad for packing speed. 

This was backpacking back to camp. We went slower because apparently we were supposed to stay together (oops.) I jogged for a bit this time because I just got bored with playing sweeper at the back.  This was way hotter than going down hill in the rain yesterday.

Other than walking around camp I didn't do anything today....  Well core--which I also did other days before this by the way.  Actually this might have been the day I did shoulder tagging with Allen and David (a Krav Maga student and a football player) that's a good aerobic workout. Taylor, Ben, it's on.

Also I did swim today too. Not far, just a couple laps to pass my swim check, but it was in 48 degree water so I think I burned a disproportionate amount of calories. 

Cold day. Mostly because I tipped my kayak twice...and couldn't get back up (that was the lame part.) Between kayaking; swimming my boat to the dock; more kayaking (more swimming); and running, jumping, and squatting to get warm I got a good 3 hours of aerobic workout. Actual running was probably only 15-20 minutes of it. But my calf were really burning by the end of all my jumps.

Also I need to show Taylor my new (least?) favorite situps.

Slurpee run. I ran with Taylor at first, but he passed me before the 2nd 7-11, then I got there downed a Slurpee and beat them out of the store. That pattern--they run faster, but I drink faster--continued the whole run, and I finished like 6th or 7th, beating Taylor Amanda and Natalie :) Then we did two laps around liberty--I couldn't keep up but I still ran them, and then We went back up to Sunnyside. I was the slowest person to run up, but I ran the whole way. Plus I got an 8th Slurpee so I could at least win at something.

This was more than twice my longest run ever before, too bad I can't keep that up, or I'd do an Ultramarathon in a month.

We ran at Wheeler Farm. Soreness from yesterday plagued me, but I feel like I did pretty well, keeping up on the second lap of the warm up (which meant catching up on the second half of the first lap), then running the fartlek with Natalie and Bill (10 off 10 on), and being on the winning relay team.

Daily claims to fame: beating Natalie :P, almost catching Scott, scaring people with the weird Krav sittups, etc.

Thanks for the watermellon!

So I thought it would be a good idea to try and loosen up early and run over to the JCC because I was still really sore from yesterday. I walked/jogged/ran for about 45 minutes through the U of U trying to find my way... an RJ worth situation to be sure.  When I got to the JCC I didn't think it had helped at all, but once we got running I was glad I had.

 Bill told me to go 3 or so and see how I was feeling, but at about 1.75 my left foot expecially the top of the bridge and right ankle were starting to feel funny. So I had Tommy tell me when we got to 2.25 and I turned around.  I felt kind of wimpy doing so, but I really don't want to do something stupid and hurt myself.

 I ran back to the pile of rocks and found about 10 others there, having just got up. I tried to talk them all into running another 2 miles, but only 3 or 4 did. The rest walked down, and I ran away from them saying something about a "hog(?)" or something I'm not really sure.

Bill said that the point of today was a muscular workout, so I think later today I'm going to do some pliles, squats, and maybe wall sits to get the work out with less fear of hurting myself.

Good news, I saw a dog today.

I'm diligently striving to stay under 40 this week... but I don't think I'll make it. Unless  really do sleep through practice tomorrow and don't make it up--unlikely to be sure.

We met at Sugarhouse and I ran an inside lap with the "newbies." By the end my shin splints that started to re-manifest yesterday were really starting to hurt. Then we went to the hill below the segolily pavilion and played 21. We ran 3 400s and 6 200s I think, plus the returning jogs. I raced a couple of times, but  never came close to getting the 21.

After I ran back to the cars and waited while the others did a longer cool down. I tried to make core extra hard today, but I still don't feel like I got a great workout. Another difference I'm noticing between swimming and running is that when swimming it's a lot easier to push hard with a smaller "foundation." Like monday and tuesday were good hard days, but I'm backing off to not hurt myself and now I still feel antsy after a 5 mile run. With swimming every day would be that hard (and I'd be feeling dead, which I guess is less preferable haha.)

I slept through practice today. I felt really bad about it until I realized that it was the perfect solution to my 40-mile-limit quandary. This way I wont have to worry at the 5k tomorrow.

 Instead of running today I did some low-medium intensity cross training and strengthening stuff in the evening. Embarrassingly enough, Taylor (my savior of the day) came over with my race packet about 10 minutes into it. He deserves some chuckles if he hasn't taken them already.

I was going to do 20 minutes of trampoline jumping as part of my work out, but about 13 in my right ankle started hurting like it did on Wednesday and Thursday, so I only did 15 minutes. Hopefully that'll be enough.

I'm still feeling sissy, but I don't know really what else to do but wait and get more miles next week.

Ran the 5k this morning. Taylor and I probably went just over a mile(?) warming up, then somehow were in the VERY front when we all lined up. That was scary.

The race started and I didn't really know how fast to go. I shadowed Bill for about the first .8 miles, but it seemed like he kept slowly excelerating so I let him get ahead, maybe I was just getting tired. I finished the first mile at what I though was 6:12.

The second mile was competitively my worst. I think 12-15 people passed me. But coming out of where they were handing out water I picked it up and passed/held anyone who caught me between there and the 2 mile mark. I went 6:30 I think.

The third mile was great. Hardest one (glad I didn't eat anything!) but my favorite. Of the 12 people who passed my I passed 5 or 6. I think it was all a little uphill with a small hill towards the end. Ben always mocks me for it, but I still like hills. At least in that I race better going up them than flat. I think this mile was around 7:00... but this is the time I'm least sure about.

The kick was also great. There were two people a guy and a girl about 15 and 25 yards ahead of me, they both started racing (the guy trying to catch the girl) just as the man behind me tried to pass me on a corner. I was feeling pretty good so I just started to sprint as hard as I could. I beat all three of them by about 2, 3, and 5 seconds respectively. Fun.

I finished at 20:15 ran another mile and a bit, and went home to nurse my shinsplints. A good day.

We met at sugarhouse and did the cemetery run today. I kept up with Chris, passing the girls, Patrick, and Geo, until we got into the cemetery. Then I didn't know where to go. Luckily Amanda and Susannah soon appeared to crack the whip. Just a couple hundred meters into the loop around, my left knee started hurting again--more payment for being stupid last week--so I dropped back with the infirm Scott and we did a gimp lap together.

Then we left to get back to Sugarhouse, not wanting to get totally left behind, and we were passed by Emily, Tomy, Taylor, Ben, and Bill around the time we almost got lost instead of turning onto Melbourne. We made it back just behind the intermediate group, and just in front of Bill and bloody Ben.

I was starting to feel better around the last mile of the run, so after Scott went home I did a small grass lap around the park, in decent time, I think my average was under 8. Then I did core with Ben and Amanda.

Good news, I saw a dawg today.

Flagpole run from Sunnyside.

I kept with the group until the zoo, so like the first 2 miles.  For some reason with the wind and the hill and my shin splints, I just couldn't get into a pace that worked for me, so once I didn't have the other runners to base pace off of I kept slowing down without really realizing it. 

While running along Wasatch I became pretty sure that I was lost...which disheartened me further. I don't know if I was or not, but I did find the flag pole at long last (about 8:40am) and the freshmen were just getting ready to leave there. I spent almost 10 minutes trying to find the ledgendary drinking fountain by-the-flag-pole to no avail. So I started running back.

After only a short while I finally got into a groove and was really starting to move, but when I got to 17th on Foothill I caught Mac and Travis. I figured my time would be better spent "encouraging" them to run than hustling back myself. So I ran with them, pushing them heartlessly I'm sure they'd say. We caught all of the walkers at some point, but most of them started running rather than admit defeat to me and Travis. Despite this we stayed ahead of some people and finished running, so good for little mr ouimette.

In the words of Ben Pearson, "Some days you have it, some days you don't." Today was much closer to the having it side than Monday and Tuesday, that was nice.

We met at the Region course today. Warm up was hard. Bill took off after the first 45 seconds, and Ben Taylor and I didn't really notice until he and Chris were gone. Abigail and Sarah caught us, and I led for a while. Then I think Ben decided to try and catch up. I decided to try and race Ben. We gained on Bill and almost caught Chris on the last straightaway after leaving the hospital area.  ...Ben is fast.

I felt relatively good right after the warm up, but once everyone got in my shins hurt (the pain was not necessarily more intense than usual, but it was far more unpleasant.) We did 6 strides and I could barely keep up with everybody. We got back and my shins/calves were just shaking like mad. It was kinda scary.

After strides we did fartlek 1,1;2,2;3,2;3,2;2,2;1,1 on the region course. It was really hilly. I decided to go for it and see how I did (wondering a little if I could even make it with my quivering calves.) The first minute on was terrible, but I pushed through, and after the off I was between Voun (spelling??) and Bill. When the next on started I decided that I'd just race Bill until either it was over (or if I died or something else unexpected.) Before today I didn't realize I had such a thing for racing people without telling them.

The general trend was Bill would be ahead; then I would catch him going up a hill, and keep up until I heard "OFF!" Bill would quickly catch up, and I'd keep pace with him knowing that if I lost him on the slow the fast would suck that much more. As we got onto the second half, I started passing Bill and staying ahead on the fast part, and I 'beat' him. Even though I know it wasn't really a race.

What may please me most, though, is that I really didn't notice my shins that much. I still feel like the faster I go the less it hurts (until I stop.) I'm not sure if that makes sense anatomically, but whatever. I did my cool down barefoot because Scott would have told me to, and I may run again tonight. If so, I did 6 this morning.

I ran another 2 miles. One on the track and one barefoot on the grass. I had some weird tension behind my right knee, but it was gone after a half mile and much stretching. Scott's right.

We ran pipeline, the 4 of us came late. We were supposed to run out 2.5 and back, but at about 3 miles I had the pain in my knee from yesterday come back far worse. I was worried that I would hurt myself, so I slowed down to a walk for my first time in xc. I walked for 10 minutes and was feeling a little better, had 1.5 left so I just ran it in. It kinda sucked, but I felt a little better. When I got home my mother/doctor told me I'm getting tendinitis in the tendon that inserts into the back of my knee from my thigh. Solution, run less. So definitely not getting my 45 miles.

Went to liberty. I felt great on the warm up; we went quite fast. It reminded me of Wednesday. It also reminded me of Wednesday because my legs started shaking after a minute or two of not running... less worrisome, but still weird. We then did six strides. Scott is fast. Afterwhich, we did another lap around. Scott, Blake and I were jogging, but they took a detour to visit a tree. I was running when my knee started hurting, so after about .25 of it getting worse, not better, I decided to walk a bit. I found the others on their way out of their detour and we ran in. It was a little unpleasant.  I'll probably rest tomorrow and Sunday from running to see if I can get feeling better so I can run in Sweden.