Sadly I fell asleep during the car ride and forgot to blog till we got to our site so I'm getting it I'm kind of late, but I'm still glad I at least get some time to do it. Today's run was so much fun. We did 97 minutes which was insane. When we got to practice the sky was really red and blue and we saw a couple rainbows that almost looked orange. It was very scenic and cool to see with the clouds. We ran tortoise to sand hill. Then we pretty much did a time trail sort of workout for sand hill. I started right behind coach when we began the hill. The very first part of the hill seems to be the hardest. The sand is so deep it goes up to your ankles and it feels like you make almost no progress at first. Eventually we got about 2/3 of the way up. This time I was doing a better job of moving quick even though my legs were burning pretty bad and I kept my breath under control which was good. By the time we hit the first peak I wasn't very far off the front guys. Unfortunately they really took off from there and I wasn't able to maintain pace with them. Eventually I got to the very top just behind Dylan. I'd been focused on trying to catch him a long ways up the hill, but the group he was with was a good ways a ahead. I got to the top in 12 minutes. From there I booked it down the hill. I really enjoy the downhill portion of sand hill. It's a lot of fun and you can move quick although it's a little tough considering how much you slide. About halfway down, I really picked up the pace and caught up to Dylan who was a little bit ahead of me. I was excited cause I was really focused on catching the group ahead of me. I think focusing on that helped me pick up the pace a bit. Next time I'd like to finish right with coach. I always struggle on sand, but I think I'm starting to get better after having done it a few eeeks In a row. I was Also excited I didn't stop at all. I saw a lot of improvement from last time. I think taking lighter steps up the hill helped as well as letting myself take advantage of the down hill really helped. My time on sand hill was 20 minutes. It was exciting doing something that was for time. I'm hoping it'll get me in the right mindset for the time trial. The rest of the run was fairly easy from there. We ran grapevine to Washington drive and looped around Washington a bit. It was a really good run. I felt like I pushed myself quite a bit.
I read the 4th chapter of my book today! It was interesting. The author talked about how he became a runner and how it changed him. When he first started he wanted to test how it changed his perspective. He noticed that at first he was focused on running itself and worried about how long he was out and how difficult it was. He soon realized over time that he stopped focusing on that and began to wonder while his body went into autopilot. He also reported that the more he ran the more it became a part of him and the happier it made him. When he first started he felt that becoming a runner was like receiving a diplom. You do a lot of work and eventually you receive the title, but he soon decided he was wrong and that it was more like a skill set. The more you practiced it, the more joy that came from it, and the easier he found it. I remember experiencing this coming back from both of my injuries. It was very difficult coming back from them because I could barely last 15 minutes at my normal pace and was exhausted by the end of the run. It made it hard to focus on just enjoying the process and to be in the moment with my team. As time went on though, I found myself getting quicker and quicker and eventually after a few weeks I was able to last through long runs and really let myself enjoy it. Although I still enjoyed runs when i was just starting, I get a lot more from them now than I was getting in the beginning. This just goes to show the more you run the better the process becomes and the more rewarding the experience becomes. I've definitely seen it become even more enjoyable to me over time, even just over this summer, and I hope this will continue to happen for me throughout my life so I can continue to set and reach for new goals as a runner and never give up the sport.
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