Life of a College Runner: Passion

Hello friends! I’m going to get right into it. It’s just a normal week of training, and it’s our down week mileage-wise. Hope you enjoy!

Monday

Morning: 2.4 miles, 20:00 (8:20/mile)

We have officially switched over to afternoon practice! I’m kind of glad for the extra sleep, but it is nice to have your big run for the day done in the morning. It finally feels like normal cross country season, though. For some reason, afternoon practices make it feel normal. Anyway, it was really cool this morning. It was nice and quiet, and it almost felt like old times.

Afternoon: 5.1 miles, 40:00 (7:54/mile)

I felt great this afternoon. It was a little warm out, but it felt nice. I may have let my temper get the better of me at the beginning and took us out at a pretty quick pace, but we held that pace the whole time and it felt fine. No one was trying to slow us down, so I kept going. Sometimes my emotions get the better of me. Anyway, it was a lovely day. We did the Lisbon school route and finished up with some strides.

Tuesday

7 miles

Oh boy. Today was not a good day at all. We had a workout on the Ramlands in the afternoon. It was kind of toasty, and it was our first workout in the heat in a while, which I don’t think helped very much. We were supposed to do 1200 meter reps. My group was supposed to do 5 at 5:16, 5:03, 4:52, 5:03, and 5:03. The goal was to build up to a fast rep and then hold a steady pace for the last two. The first two were good. We ran 5:11 and 5:03. Then my group fell apart, all of them dropping for various reasons. I tried my best to hold us all together. Erin ran the third one with me at 5:03 and then took a break. I was on my own. It was pretty much a complete disaster. Marissa started the last two reps with me, wanting to finish the workout, but she looked so pale. She dropped out at the beginning of each one. With each rep, with less and less people starting with me, it got harder to keep going. It was just kind of awful, knowing my teammates were suffering and having to keep going. I tried to console them, tried to make them feel better, but I don’t think it did much good. I finished my last two reps in 5:07 and 5:06. I averaged 5:06 for all of them. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t terrible, for me anyway. But I didn’t feel good about it at all. That workout took a lot out of me.

Wednesday

Morning: 2.38 miles, 20:00 (8:22/mile)

It was just Erin and I this morning. The weather was cool and the pace was slow. We talked a bit about yesterday, but I just wanted to move past it. I did not want to remember that workout very long.

Afternoon: 3.68 miles, 30:00 (8:10/mile)

Marissa, Erin, Emily, and I went out and back on Ink. It was a lovely afternoon. We talked a lot about current events and our opinions of things. We got stopped by a train on our way back in. I think that’s the first time that’s happened to me this year. But it was a good run. My legs felt much better than they did this morning. We had a 30 minute RAM afterward.

Thursday

6.5 miles

Surprise! The tempo run got moved to today! There’s a chance of storms all day tomorrow, so Coach Jerry switched the schedule around. It was also really cool out, so I wasn’t complaining. The only bad thing was I ate like it would be an easy run, meaning a lot more than usual. There were just so many good things to eat at lunch and I wanted to try them all! Anyway, my stomach felt heavy the whole time, but other than that, it was good. We ran out and back on Ink for the tempo. Marissa, Erin, and I were supposed to go 15–25 minutes total. It was awesome because Billie and Becca stayed with us for half of their workout. We started off at around 7:30 pace and worked our way down to 7-flat the rest of the way. After we turned around, I fell back in the next mile or so. I was trailing behind them by a few meters. But when we reached the top of the hill with less than half a mile to go, I surged to catch up to Mar and Erin. They stopped at 20 minutes but I kept going until I hit 3 miles, which was only a minute longer. We averaged 7:02 I think. We ran 7:03, 7:04, and 6:58. It was a really good day. We needed that workout a lot.

Friday

5 miles, 40:02 (8:01/mile)

Today was an on-your-own day. I chose to run at normal time and I ended up going by myself. It was really humid out because of all the storms that went through in the morning, but it was cool. I ran the Springville to Ink route (because I just can’t get enough of Ink Road this week I guess). I was going to do 6, but my legs were so sore I knew by mile 2 I wasn’t going to make it. I am in dire need of a break. I don’t know how I’m going to make it through the long run tomorrow. I finished the run and voluntarily rolled out. Yes, you read that right. Voluntarily. Then I got to talk to Jerry for a while, which was nice. He was watching the women’s steeplechase at the worlds track meet in Doha from earlier today. We talked about steeple a bit (I still think it’s so cool that he did steeple) and I don’t know how but we got to talking about books. I ended up confessing that I have no self-control and checked out four more books from the library today. I check out books when I’m stressed. It happens. Anyway, today was a good day.

Saturday

10 miles, 1:20:08 (8:01/mile)

Two words. Roller coaster. Yes!!! We did roller coaster today!!! Oh my gosh, I was so excited. Jerry said it felt like a rite of passage, running roller coaster, and he is absolutely right. We definitely treat it like that. Usually we don’t get to run it until track season, but it’s beautiful this time of year, so I’m glad we got to do it sooner. I started out at the back of the line running down Mt. Vernon Road. We tend to go kind of speedy because it’s so flat, but I was trying to save some energy for the hills. Also I wanted to see the freshmen’s reactions once we turned on Abbe Hills. It did not disappoint. Some turned before we got there because they were cross training, but I stayed with Miranda and Emily for the first part. Emily actually said, “Holy shit!” when we turned the corner and she saw the hill. I’m not going to lie, I thought it was hilarious. I felt really bad because we made it to the top of the first hill and I started to coast down the hill, but I wanted to hang back with them to show them which way to go. Then I saw the van behind them with Coach Steggall and Bailey in it, so I felt a little better. It was like a string had been cut. I flew down the hill and caught up to the other group of girls. Coach Jerry caught up to us and ran up a hill with us, and then he took off trying to catch the guys. Then, once we reached the top of a particularly steep hill, I actually flew down it. I ended up being way ahead of everyone else and slowed down at the bottom to wait for them.

Erin and I ran together for the next two or three miles. We took the hills on Bertram Road in stride, finding it much much easier than the last time we ran this route (Coach had cancelled practice and instead we ran 10 miles together. We spent the first half wondering why he cancelled practice because it was so nice, and then we turned and hit a wall of wind and freezing rain and regretted ever setting foot on Abbe Hills. Somehow, we made it back alive.) Marissa and Billie caught up to us at the top of the 6 mile hill. I’m so proud of Billie. She rode the roller coaster and she did awesome!! Then she stopped at 7 and Mar and Erin stopped at 8. And then it was just me. I was worried originally because I knew I’d be running 2 miles on Mt. Vernon Road by myself, which is the epitome of poltergeist hallway roads. Usually, it seems to go on forever. Not so today! I powered through it and the run was over before I knew it. I even kept a really good pace for the whole thing! It was only after stopping that it began to hurt. During stretching and form drills, I felt terrible. But I was already on a high from the run. I cackled crazily after I found a gigantic apple in the bag we picked from the orchard to snack on while I stretched. It was a really amazing run today. I am so grateful for that.

So, passion. I chose passion as the week’s topic because of my favorite quote from Running with the Buffaloes, which I read this summer. It goes something like this: “The passion of the runner is to force forgetfulness on that pain and embrace the benefits that will without fail make you a better person.” The first half of that quote is my favorite. To force forgetfulness on that pain. That’s what we do every day. Every workout. A lot of us had a bad race on Saturday. We also had a not so great workout on Tuesday. But no matter how much it hurts, we still get out here every day and do it all again. Yesterday, I felt awful. My legs felt dead. I didn’t know how I was going to make it through the long run today. Yet I did 10 miles on roller coaster and felt amazing! There’s something magical that happens when you get out and run. In order to do well in a race, you have to forget how much pain you’re going to be in or embrace it. It’s a lot harder to do the latter, but I think if you forget how much it hurts or you acknowledge how much it’s going to hurt and you get out and do it anyway, you will succeed. That’s been my motto lately anyway. Okay, that’s my bit of wisdom for the week. The quote has just been stuck in my head. I think that’s what we did today on this long run, though. We forgot the pain of yesterday, the pain of the last week, and just went out and wailed on. (Okay that was another running book reference. I think I’m done.)

Thanks for reading! See you next week.

— Morgan