C Mantz Run

So, I was really nervous for this race, even though it was only with the team, because it was my first race on a xc course and it decided whether you were on varsity or not.  Conner told me I should use my new flats, so I did. I warmed up with Carly because I had no clue on what to do.  When we started we went around the track and as we were almost to the gate to get off the track Coach Wright began running to open the gate which wasn't open.  That first part was mainly a sprint which was different.  I passed a couple of people and I could see the lead pack the entire time, but I wasn't up in it.  After the first time passing the canal, Carly began to slow down and I caught up with her.  I felt bad for her because she hadn't ran at all this past week. I passed her and just kept going.  It was really hard to catch up to the leaders, which I never did, but I just kept running.  This was my first time actually doing the course, so I was glad I wasn't in the front or I'd get lost.  The last time passing the canal, I couldn't hear Carly and I had heard her the entire time since I'd passed her and the first thing I though was 'Carly died' sadly because I wanted somebody who could help me sprint at the end.   When I got to the final sprint I got a little closer to Megan who was in the lead pack, but it wasn't very close.  I finished with a time of 21:31 which I was happy about.  I got fifth on varsity and afterwards all the girls were hugging each other which was new to me, so I just hugged along.

After yesterday, I decided to do a nice and easy four mile run.  I simply kept it under 8:30 minute miles.  It felt pretty good and I had a nice fun run.

So, today at practice was a speed work day.  We did a warm up to understand where we were supposed to go.  We were supposed to do a 1000 at a certain pace which I wasn't sure what it was because I just stuck with the fast girls.  After the 1000, we were supposed to slowly jog back to where we started for a 3 minute recovery.  The girls had to do that atleast six times.  The first two times were a little fast, so Coach told us to try to get that time that we were now getting.  The next two times were a little difficult and the fifth time was really tough.  I was still kind of feeling good enough to do one more, just not as fast, so we did one more, but I stayed behind. I felt really tired afterwards, but it was a nice workout.

So in the morning I went on a easy five mile run with a couple of the girls on the xc team up the canyon.  I stayed kind of further back with another girl and we just had fun talking.  When we got to the top, Amber's mom drove up with all our bikes (and helmets) and we rode down.  It was a lot of fun and felt really good.

That afternoon I really felt like doing another run, so when it got really hot I went on an easy three mile run.  The first mile was almost all downhill, so it was faster than what I expected, but I had fun.

So, we did a half mile warm up at practice.  After that we were told to do a tempo run to go 3, 2, then 1 mile.  We started out on our first three mile tempo going for about a seven minute mile pace. I stayed with Katelyn and Rilee and we were going a little bit faster.  At the very end I felt like sprinting, so I did.  Afterwards, we were super tired and we took a little longer break which was only supposed to be three minutes.  We weren't feeling much for another two miles, so we just did a one.  I felt pretty good until the end and I couldn't keep up and it was a little slow.  We took another break, then went one more mile which was right on.  After that, we went on a cool down back to the school.  It was fun, and hard at the same time.

After yesterday, I was feeling kind of tired, so I did an easy run.  I was going to do a four mile, but instead I turned around a little early.  I didn't really go for any specific time, just easy.