Collegiate Running D3

 Shortly after is when I noticed the blood on my hand and the cut that had appeared (to this day the cut is still noticeable, I may have a scar from this). Anyways, there was a problem, as I had to go back the way I came. I enjoyed the way back up until I approached the dog's house again. This time the dog noticed me instantly and started to come over, that was until the neighbors wife told it off. I had a conversation to the neighbors wife about the dog, ad thanked the neighbors for seeing if I was alright. She told me that the usually wasn't like that and that she thinks that it was the fact that I was running that made the dog charge. While I was talking to the neighbor's wife, I waited for the dog to wander off. The dog did end up wandering off to go and bark at the neighbor's cat; this was my opportunity. I quickly, but quietly ran past the house, that was until the dog noticed me and started to come my way. Once I heard the dog barking I started sprinting as fast ...

 The final race of the day was the 4x400m and I was the anchor leg. There was about 2 hours from the 800m to the 400m giving me a fair amount of time to rest. I didn't really expect our team to do as well as we did. We held 1st throughout the whole race, and then I received the baton putting the pressure on myself to keep that 1st position. I knew that I was going to have to keep going quick throughout the race if I wanted to secure us the victory, so that is what I did. As I came about the final 200m I remember hearing the other team cheer on their runner who according to them "was right behind me". However, this turned out to be false as I would come to figure out after our race. I ran a 54 a tie to my old PR, or new PR (can't remember), this was an acceptable time for me considering all that I had done prior to this race. I had run 3 PRs/tied PRs, which made me fell pretty good, even though I felt as if I could've done a little bit better in some aspects of my ...

 I have many goals for my sophomore season, and even though my freshman season hasn't even finished yet I still have somewhat of an idea of what I want to accomplish in the near future a.k.a next year. For Cross Country I will be experiencing a new race as I haven't had a XC season yet do to covid uncertainty during this past fall. However, for cross country I want to get around the 25:00 mark for the 8k which may seem quick, but with my progress this year and plan for summer mileage I really do think that I can accomplish this. I honestly feel as if I could accomplish this because I have already ran a 5 mile tempo run at 26:50, which had it been race pace I could have gone way lower. That is my goal for XC next year, hopefully it's good enough for placing well at regionals, but we will have to wait and see. As for track I have many ideas of where I will be at because of we did get a track season this year. For the 5k I plan on running around low 15:00s as I currently have ...

 This summer will be different than any previous one as I will be running more than I ever have in my whole entire life. I will be extending my standard mileage from 8 miles to 9 miles, which may not sound like much more, but it adds up. My long run days will go from at least 12 miles to at least 16 miles. This means I will be running 70 miles a week, every week. Just a couple years ago I was running a bit below 50 miles a week, which is kind of hard to believe because it seems like such a long time ago as I have been going between 60-65 during this track season. I plan on running on my long runs on the towpath back at where I live; the towpath is a long flat gravel path that extends on forever. I look forward to summer running, as I really do enjoy just running mileage a whole bunch. This increase in mileage will help me explore new routes and make scenic runs last a bit longer. As for the pace, I intend on keeping it around 6:50 pace, but I won't hesitate to raise it to 7:00-7:10...

 The workout that I ran yesterday was very draining due to the very hot and muggy weather that was present during it. The air was thick and there were no clouds. I began with a 2 mile warm up that really allowed me to experience the heat. Of course I was partially dehydrated, with a dry mouth throughout the whole workout. The workout it self was 4x600 at 5k pace, 3x300 at mile pace, then 3x200 at a very intense pace with 2:30 rest between each. For the 600s I was given the time at which I wanted to be around which stuck in my mind until I started. I ran below that time each and every 600 even when I had the wind going against me. My mouth was super dry throughout these 600s and the water that I had at the line was pretty hot even though I purposefully hid it from the sun. Once I was done with the 600s a huge mental barrier was torn down as I was very confident in myself regardless of the conditions of the workout itself. The 300s were quick, but the rest I received made them not as...

 So far in my early collegiate career, training has been consistent, but inconsistent at the same time. We have a general schedule and structure of the program, but the days of which we will do certain things is pretty inconsistent, which isn't a bad thing due to all the weird dates and time effected by covid. For the most part we have been running a long run every other week, which for me is around 12-16 miles. Then we will have at least 1-2 workouts a week depending on the date of our meet, or whether or not we are competing. Between these days we have just mileage days that are meant to be recovery days, but also work days. I tend to go 8-10 on my mileage days, which I plan on extending this summer, along with my long runs. Before each race we have a very low mileage day to recover, but still keep things moving (usually 4 miles). On days that I feel sore I will go on the bike, which isn't the most fun (especially with the most uncomfortable seat ever). On workout days we hav...

 This past weekend, we had a meet at Heidelberg, which had pretty good competition throughout the meet. I was going to run the 1500m, 800m, and 4x400m because I had run the 5k the previous weekend. It all started with me waking up a bit earlier than the last weekend, which was very noticeable that morning. I then prepared for the meet and walked down to the bus to help load. We left around 8:30, and the bus ride itself took about two and a half hours. While on the bus, I tried to fall asleep to get more rest, but was unable to for whatever reason. This just made me feel pretty tired when we arrived. I went for my typical pre-meet shakeout, but it didn't feel as good as it should've. After that, I went back to camp, waited, and prepped for my race that was to come. On the meet schedule my race was suppose to start at 12:50, so as usual I headed over to the start line and started to stretch and go through drills. After do a few drills I decided to put my spikes on 10 minutes befo...

 It was a beautiful spring day about a month ago, and I wanted to explore a new area on my long run day. After we met at practice and talked about the normal stuff, I was thinking of what specific route I wanted to explore. I thought about many different options, as long runs have many possibilities in this area (many long routes with roads that branch out). I decided I would go to a route that I knew of and liked a bit first, then from there go out more until I would approach a random side street to explore. A reminder that the area around our campus is very hilly wide open and there aren't many side streets, or side roads, so finding a new is definitely a nice feeling. Also, keep in mind that this area is out in the middle of nowhere pretty much, so people don't feel the need to leash up their dogs, which as you can guess has something to do with this story. Anyways, I had run the route that I was familiar with and now it was time to run out more and explore a new route. I co...

 About a week ago, I was at Track practice and it was a mileage day. So after gathering around our coach and having him update us on the training I went off. I decided that I wanted to go to a route that I hadn't been to in a while, so I did. This route was a 8 mile out and back that had a fair amount of hills in it. I hadn't done it in a while, but I did remember all the elements and potential obstacles of it. This included several dogs that were usually not leashed. As I ran out, I took a mental note of this and remembered the potential interference that might have occurred. As I approached the portion with the dogs (about 3 miles in) I didn't see the first one that would be there and all was good, until I saw the a dog by a down hill in the corner of my eye. I knew this dog and knew he would chase me if I went down the hill, so I did a slight sprint down the hill. When I got to the bottom of the hill there was another place with a bunch of dogs up ahead. However, most of...

 About a week ago I competed at the OAC Elite Meet, which I was very excited for the morning of. I remember waking up and convincing myself that today was going to be a great day with a perfect race.  However, the meet was about an hour and a half away, which lowered my pre-race hype a fair bit, but this wasn't all that occurred as I arrived at the meet early in the morning and didn't race or even warm up until around 7-8 o-clock. For most of the time at the meet, I just relaxed and didn't worry about school or anything of that type. By the time the race was about to start I had lost most of the hype for this race and it seemed that I wouldn't be able to get it back, that was until I started to prep for the race. I saw the previous races and how intense they were and then I thought about the competition field and why I should be hyped going into the race. Turned out this was good as I ran very well, on pace for a 15:20 5k, but ended with a 15:46 from fatigue that began ...