Life of a College Runner: Preseason

Hello all! This week is special because it is our only week of preseason this year. An interesting new schedule, for sure, but I intend to make the most of my time without school work, in both training and fun! I hope you enjoy!

Monday

Today was our first long run. It wasn’t a true long run because it was a bit shorter, but we went out to a trail in Marion and ran. My group ran 7 miles and I added on one at the end to make it 8. It was nice and rainy the whole time, which was absolutely wonderful. The only bad thing was I developed a cold overnight and so I felt stuffy and it was hard to breathe at times. We stayed around 8:00 pace for the majority of the run. I also splashed in a lot of big puddles afterwards and got soaking wet! I love adding a bit of fun to my runs. In the afternoon I cross-trained for half an hour.

Tuesday

We ran the country-Lisbon route this morning doing the Lisbon portion first. This is my favorite route. It’s so beautiful, especially early in the morning. I felt really good today. We had some fast miles in the middle at around 7:30 pace going down those hills, but it felt fine. Afterwards, we did 3 hill sprints and 5 strides. I like the hill sprints a lot more than strides because it feels like I can stretch out my legs better and use better form. Our time today was 48:06, 8:01 for 6 miles.

This afternoon I got to do another double. I felt great. We were 23:36, 7:46 per mile. It was kind of hot out but not too bad.

Wednesday

Today was a steady run with segments of hard running. We did the Ink to Springville route, which is five miles, and then Marissa and I added on one mile afterward to make it six. Hills were a little difficult with my cold but it’s getting better each day. I did pretty well overall. We were supposed to run around 7:00 pace, which is hard to tell with only segments of the run. But our pace was good. I was 47:26, 7:54 pace for all of the run. Our steady miles were 7:20, 7:30, and 7:26. We did hurdles afterward. Overall a really productive day. I also cross-trained in the afternoon.

Thursday

Today was really light. We ran 4 miles out on Gillette and back. It felt super easy. I had to add on a mile at the end and then do three hill sprints. Then I did two regular strides and core. My time was 40:49, 8:12 per mile.

Also, I got the “Teammate of the Week Award” from Coach, which is super cool. I’m really proud of myself. It’s the base from the 1930 Midwest Conference Championships trophy. So that put a smile on my face, especially considering I wasn’t feeling too great about this season at first because of this summer. Now I know I’m in a great spot.

This afternoon, just before cross-training, I had my meeting with Coach about my goals for the year. We talked about the time trial, which is tomorrow, and some time goals and overall goals for the year. I want to break 25 minutes, first of all. Another big goal of mine is to keep developing my confidence. My other big goal for the year is to be a good team leader. As a junior now, I want to be welcoming to the freshmen, and someone who my other teammates can turn to for help or advice. That is probably my biggest goal for the season: to be a teammate whom others can turn to and talk with about anything.

Coach thinks I can run in the low 12’s for the time trial. I’m not so sure about that. I’m not in speed shape right now, especially because of my anemia slowing me down over the summer. I’m in endurance shape just fine, but it’s the speed stuff I’m worried about. He also thinks I can get all-conference this year, which is the top 20 runners. I, at first, thought that was insane and completely unfeasible. But he convinced me that I may have a shot, as long as I work hard and race well. I still think it’s really crazy, but I am willing to work my hardest to do it.

Friday

Today was the time trial. It did not go well for me. I was leading the first lap, which I thought was nuts, and then I fell back to fifth place and stayed there. I felt awful the whole time, like I just couldn’t get my legs to move any faster. Part of me wonders if I was just tired, but we also had to wait for a lightning delay due to a passing storm. I don’t want to fill my head with excuses; I ran a bad race and I am not proud of it at all. My time was 13:18. It’s one second faster than last year, but nowhere near where I was supposed to be. I can only hope that my race next Friday will be a hell of a lot better. My team is counting on me to be good this year. And I made a decision last year (actually I was sitting in Skillet with my teammates for the breakfast for all the people who made it to all the extra morning workouts) that I didn’t want to be good. I wanted to be great. And I still believe that I can be great. This is a minor speed bump in my season and I’m determined to overlook it. One thing that did make me feel better was seeing all my other teammates finish and run well, especially the men’s team, since I got to watch their entire race. I loved seeing the freshmen go out and do their best, I loved seeing people improve from last year, and I loved the encouragement everyone was giving out, whether they were running or not. That is the best part about this sport: the team.

This afternoon I did a double on my own. I was planning on going with the guys, but they were running at 4:00 and that was when a special someone picked me up for our date. It was misting/sprinkling while I ran. By the time I was done, the front half of my shirt was wet but the back side was dry. It was really nice and cool out, too. I ran 23:18, 7:46 pace.

Saturday

We went to Solon for our first real long run of the season!! It was so beautiful and eerie this morning. There was heavy fog all around the lake, making it hard to tell the difference between land and sky. We started off as a group going pretty slow, but we worked our way down to 8:00 and even sub-8:00 pace for the remainder of the run. My group was going 8 miles and I added 2 at the end. It was kind of lonely running around the park by myself, especially since that loop is only a mile long, but I felt good. My overall time was 1:21:24, a solid 8:08 per mile. It was a really good long run, and I was thankful we got it done early because it was really hot afterwards. Though it was really humid, it wasn’t too hot.

Sunday

We had the day off but we had to cross-train on our own. I went for 45 minutes, which seemed like an eternity on the bike. At least I had my tunes to help keep me motivated.

Overall, this has been a really great week. I kind of wish we had more time before school started to just run a lot and focus on training, but the work we put in during this time has been great, and I’m excited to see where the season goes from here.

Thanks for reading!

— Morgan