it’s nice to be home. everything’s so green and warm (well, it’d been cold for the last few days so it’s all relative).

i kinda slacked over finals week(s) so time to kick in back in gear before work starts and i shift to evening runs

monday: 5 miles on the whole foods loop

tuesday: 3 miles around the neighborhoods ending up at a shopping center to pick up some needed supplies

wednesday:1.75 miles in pe class on the indoor track (we had to run for 15 minutes and i wasn’t going to shower then have to shower again if running on my own)

thursday: 3.5 miles out and back + 4x350m hills for a total of just under 4.5 miles

friday: 5 miles all over campus (centennial, grocery store, bookstore)

saturday: 4 miles to and from whole foods after the game

sunday: 2 miles

week total: 25.5 miles

year to date: 49.75 miles

things are settling in here at school, and i got in a short run this morning. there’s a guy here in my section of campus who is looking for morning running buddies (6:30 am), so i went along today.

not to fast, not too far, but it was something. neither of us had our watches….ooops

i suppose i’ll go again tomorrow- last day until classes start. wow. time flies.

i need a run to clear my mind. too bad it’s midnight (not that that’s stopped me before, but i’m in uncharted waters)

umm.. so i’m kind of embarrassed to admit it, but it had been just about a week since i last ran. definitely not typical for me, but without the requirement of meeting people to run, and having been waking up before 7 for most of the summer, i got kinda lazy and started sleeping in. now i’m trying to take advantage of all these familiar running trails in the last few days before i leave for school.

yesterday i ran the three mile xc course at the lake in about 25ish minutes, so not too shabby. it was really hot but there was also a breeze (: afterward i did “9 minutes of fun” (ab routine) in the amphitheater, and one woman walked by and commented on my captive audience. hahaha. i can already feel the difference one day of getting back on track makes!

today i was going to do the same thing, but i ended up doing a 4.6 mile lake loop and another 9 minutes. i pushed it hard at the beginning because i was only planning on doing the 3 miles but changed my mind and settled down a little. another school was practicing at the same time, so i had some company (and a few familiar faces) out on the trail.

luckiliy, it wasn’t nearly as hot out as i thought it would be.but seeing that it was already late, i wasn’t going to head out and run the lake.

so i settled for 2 moderate, hilly miles in the neighborhood, and the core. 15 pushups + 1 minute each of 3 ab exercises. repeat 3 times. i can’t remember the last time i did a full set of core. so i’ll exchange the miles for some form of an ab workout.

i ended up doing the core in my garage. free from the scorning glances of my family hahaha.

(7.30.12)

i survived my 6:30 am run with macey, luckilly she didn’t run me into the ground. whew! we about 5 miles on a random trail- it was nice to switch it up a bit

it was fun, and she can just talk and talk and talk, and it was nice catching up (:

now i need to clean up and head off to babysit until mid afternoon. there’s a heat advisory today, but running this morning was pretty comfortable.

(7.26.12)

ran the 4.6 miles around the lake in the evening. cooler, but oh so humid.
did 4x150ish meter strides after just for the heck of it.
i’m not exactly sure how long they were because they cut down the tree at the end of the xc course where we used to start/end at, so i made them longer.

saw a guy wearing a technical “STOP PRE” shirt and chuckled to myself.

oh, runners (:

survived my 5:30 pm run. still hot out. and sunny.

i could have picked a better route, it was the sun that made it unusually difficult. i ran a shadier way to a lake and then ran the mile around it, but then decided there was a shorter way back. turns out it really wasn’t any shorter and it was mostly all sun. but another 5 miles down, i’ll take it!

speaking of being alive, there are a few more running stories from this week that i’ve neglected to share, but those are still to come.

the second and third days of running after getting back from germany and i’m glad the weather chilled out for a moment there. rain is a good thing, but not necessarily for the reasons the song lists haha.

anyways, yesterday i ran the lake with ariana, all the way around, but in like, 42 minutes. not too shabby- i think i ran a 37 before i left though. as if that wasn’t enough, i went to pay a visit to the xc team’s summer conditioning and got to see a bunch of people, including jessica!! she was visiting after her move from georgia to new york so it was nice to see her (: i ran another 4 miles or so with them, for a total of just over 8 miles. i can’t remember the last time i ran that far in a day, even though it was done in 2 runs 45 minutes apart or so. then off to chesapeake bagel.

and then today. today was a trip up to lake fairfax. some people might say that driving 35 minutes or so each way to run for 45 minutes isn’t worth it, but it definitely is (: lake fairfax trails > flat trails > road running. it’s just fun running there, and if it weren’t for the housing development going in along one border, or the fact one trail ultimately leads to rtc, you wouldn’t know you were in the suburbs. we saw some deer too (: after we finished, ariana said “these are the kinds of runs where you want to keep going because it’s so pretty and fun, but then don’t want to because you’re tired”

after getting home, i found i was locked out, so back to bagel. and i leave for orientation tomorrow!! so much happening. i should get back to cleaning my room though…

yesterday was the start of the faster, harder intervals that are more race simulating with longer breaks, designed to make us throw up. yay! it consisted of:

1.5 mile warm up
4x100 strides

2x200 moderate (42) with 200 meter jogging recovery

1x600 moderate (207) with 5 minutes recovery

then the times dropped:

1x500 (1:34-1:35) with 5 minutes recovery

1x400 (76) with 4 minutes recovery

1x300 (57) to round it off

10 minutes easy jogging cool down.

it was strange for me because of the shorter intervals with standing/walking recovery because i’m so used to 800+ repeats with jogging recovery. but this really made we work hard, and the times were spot on because i hit each of them on the dot, and felt like i was working for them.

i won’t be doing these every day, just the notable ones, haha. it was track workout day!

easing in to track stuff before coach gives out the so called “vomit inducing” workouts. so today was:

warmup (1.2 miles)
4x100 meter strides

800 m at easy tempo pace (3:23)
60 second recovery
2x200 meter strong (38-41), 200 meter recov jog between each
repeat for 2 sets.

10 minute cooldown, easy.

so, not too bad, but i’m glad he’s easing us back in. me and lauren were buddies for the day because we are currently the only girls in vet group 1, and are luckily similar pace. gotta stick together (:
but in other news, i need to hydrate more for sure….

Warm Up and Drills
4x100 meter strides

3 sets of:
1000m tempo (4:12-4:15 pace)
1 minute standing/jogging/walking rest
400m 800 race pace (75-80)
400m jogging recovery

10 Minute Cool Down

hard? yes. satisfying? also yes. the wind today killed, but at least it was another day of shorts weather. in january! no complaints there (:

Warm Ups & Drills
4x150 Striders

4x200 with 200 meter jogging recovery between each
4x400 with 400 meter jogging recovery between each
4x200 with 200 meter jogging recovery between each

15 Minute Cool Down

Funny thing is, we were running the same times as the sprinters, and we have jogging recovery and they had standing 4 minutes between each 400. What gives?
Either way, distance rocks. It wasn’t a terribly hard workout, but definitely got some turnover in and the heart rate up.

Getting pumped for the 4x800 and 1600 at the Southeastern Meet this weekend (: