Road to Nationals: Week One
Well, I’M BACK! After a two week break with a little bit of running on Saturday and Sunday summer training starts this week. I am super excited to get back on the grind and start to get back into shape in this August type weather. As you can tell from the title this last cross country season I have one specific goal for myself. That would be make it to Oshkosh Wiscsonsin for the NCAA Dvision III Cross Country Championships. Now I am not nearly talented enough to make it on my own. But the four horsemen need a fifth. And the rest of the team will be super competitive to make our squad one of the best in the nation. We need a great five to make it as a team, as well as a couple more guys to push him. We are hungry, I am really hungry, and come November we will be on a bus going to Lake Breeze Golf Club. With all that being said these first couple weeks will probably be pretty boring since it is just base mileage. But I will try to spice it up for you all. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy going on this journey with me.
MONDAY
7:38 A.M. 4 Miles in 29:26
Back at it, an easy four miles on Town loop. It was hot but it was nice to just get back on the roads and actually put miles on the legs. Super pumped for the summer. Got to spend time with Joanna today which was awesome. Not much else to say about today.
TUESDAY
6:56 A.M. Miles in 27:39
I need to find a way to get up earlier. Today was a good run, faster than what I want for this early in the summer. But I had to run at a more track easy run pace because I don’t want to be late for work at all. I love being here in the vern though. It keeps me motivated to run for the team and not myself. And places along the routes here have memories with them so I don’t feel so alone while I am running. I need to get up earlier tomorrow though so that is the goal. I need to run EASY these first few weeks so I don’t burn myself out come November.
WEDNESDAY
6:37 A.M. 5 Miles in 36:56
Today was nice and chill. I like running during the summer because right now I do not have to hammer out the pace. All I have to do is get back into the swing of things and let my muscles get used to running again! That was a thing that I did not do a great job with last off season. I would go out every day and run well below 6:30 mile pace. This year it is going to be different. Take the easy days easy and the workout days will be more impactful and I will be more fresh going into the fall.
THURSDAY
4:32 P.M. 5 Miles in 35:29
Today was hot to be honest, I am okay with running in the heat because it gets me ready for the first couple meets and toughens me up a bit. And today’s run was nice and easy so I did not feel to bad throughout.
FRIDAY
4:26 P.M. 6 Miles at 43:22
Today I grew as a runner. At conference in the middle of May I ran a 10k which is about six miles in 35:10. Now I am proud of that time because of the heat and I got sick a couple of weeks during the outdoor season which took away from my fitness a small bit. Anyway, today I ran six miles and it was HOT. At conference the temperature for the 10k was about 78 degrees, today when I went out for my run it was 91. Now today I felt good and I really could have hammered out the pace if I truly wanted to. But I decided against it so I could continue this trend of running easy so I do not get injured during the off season. One of my goals for this year is to not miss any training do to a body injury. (sickness you can not truly prevent if it is really bad) So this summer I am really trying to work on only running fast on workout days that coach has for us. Tomorrow I am running six miles again then spending the rest of my weekend with my beautiful girlfriend Joanna ;) it should be an awesome time!
SATURDAY & SUNDAY
OFF
Taking time off because foot is hurting. Will try to run some tomorrow and test it out.
Thanks for reading y’all
-Gabe
