Running Again

So much has happened this month! But not with running... However, I am back and feeling healthy as ever! September consisted of biking, swimming, stem, and icing. No running whatsoever. It was also a ton of junk food eating because I had zero motivation to eat right. I thought, "If I can't run, what's the point?" Well, today was the first day back of speed. Yesterday I ran 3 miles with the girls at 50% which was easy for me because, well, it was 50%. But today I did about half the workout and man it was KILLER. I don't think I've ever had to come back from something like this before and I cannot believe how hard today felt! First of all, practice is at 2 pm everyday. That means the heat destroys. Secondly, I haven't run speed for over a month. My coach told me, "Run with the girls until you see Zions Bank... if you're still alive..." I thought he was probably joking but boy he wasn't! It really was HARD. Now I can see why it's so difficult for people who slack off on working out to come back. It's painful, period. Today was encouraging though! I ran about four miles and my back felt great until the end. I could feel it a teeny bit at the end, but otherwise everything else was great. I really need to get my cardio up. I can tell I haven't been running and I feel so out of shape. I know everything will work out though. The workout today was an 80% run. It went like this: two lap warmup on the track, then 80% (which is about 6:10 mile pace) mile on the track, then 2 more miles at the same pace on the road. Then we stopped and coach recorded our times. This is where I stopped, but the girls continued. They all lined up and then they ran 2 more miles up a canyon at 80%! I felt like I was going to die after the 3 miles and cannot imagine going 2 more up a freaking canyon. This makes me want to work harder though because I want to be up there with the other freshman. I am so grateful my back doesn't really hurt anymore. It was definitely a learning experience and now I know exactly what to do if I get injured again. I am so excited to be back! I didn't blog much when I was injured because I didn't have anything to write about... But now I am going to train hard for track and I hope to do well!