Running is Fun-The Grind
Whew, last week was tough. Super sick and super not motivated to do anything. Thursday and Friday were probably two of my worst days ever. I have been sick before but holy cow that sucked. Enough complaining from your boy. This week I entitled the blog “The Grind”, I did this for a couple reasons. For one we, as runners, know what I am talking about when I say the grind. It is the phrase for getting up every day and running to the best of your ability. While getting the most out of each day. I will talk about that a little bit each day this week. But the other reason that this week is called the grind is swomething that you all know I want to do very badly. Break 16 minutes in the 5000 meter run. If I stay healthy this week I will get the chance to do that this Friday. Now I have no excuse. My training has been amazing despite the sickness I had along with a little hamstring problem. But I will make this completely clear. When I step on the line Friday night the only thing I will be thinking about is how good it is going to feel to accomplish this goal. I am in shape to do this, I have the mental toughness to do this, and I will have enough competition to do this. So I hope that you enjoy the blog this week and how I look at “The Grind”.
MONDAY
3:47 P.M. 4 Miles in 29:08
Today was good, stomach hurt the whole way through. But I was not letting it stop me from accomplish running today. The Grind sucks and I am glad I got back on it today because I need to run a sucessful 10k soon. Hoping that my hamstring does not hurt that much tomorrow. Tonight my hamstring has been pretty sore. Hoping that I took enough time off so that I can continue to be healthy.
TUESDAY
3:45 P.M. 2 Mile Warm Up
3x Cruise Mile @ 5:50
1 Mile Cool Down
I am not as motivated to write this week because my training is just coming back from me being sick last week. Today was a good day, everything was smooth. Today on the warm up we did our normal warm up loop backwards. When we passed the womens team we all started snapping. And it was really funny, gosh I love my team. The workout was marginal. I am kind of nervous about Friday but think that I will be fine come race day.
WEDNESDAY
3:45 P.M. 6 Miles in 42:08
Today was a good day, stomach is feeling better each day. My hamstring today was not much of a problem at all. Tomorrow we will see how I feel and how fresh I will be to run really well on Friday, still not sure how this is going to go but I am confident that I will be able to race well in front of my family.
Today I also found the heat sheet for the meet this weekend. And there are three sections of the 5000 meter run and I am in the middle one. I have some Division One runners in my heat which is super cool but also scary. I know that there will be plenty of people under 16 minutes. So I am going to tuck behind a group and keep grinding throughout the whole race!
THURSDAY
3:45 P.M. 4 Miles + 4x100 Meter Strides in 31:26
Today was nice and chill, my last two miles of the 4 mile run we did were 7:17 and 7:10 not anything to marvel at. But what was astonishing to me was how slow that they felt. I was breathing super normally and I think I am in position to pr by 12 secons or more tomorrow. Having my parents and brother there will be a big motivational point as well. I need to run 76s for my 400s to run my goal. It is time to kick back and relax and wait the 28 hours I have to get to the start line.
FRIDAY
11:32 A.M. 2 Mile Shakeout in 14:27
7:43 P.M. 2 Mile Warm Up in 14:48
8:40 P.M. 5k Race @ 16:06
9:10 P.M. 1 Mile Cool Down in 9:15
For last week being what it was, I am really pleased with how I ran and competed today. To be completely honest with y’all I do not remember the first mile of the race. I was under pace and covering ground very smoothly. Then with eight laps to go I started to fatigue and everything started to hurt. The second mile I was right at pace to accomplish my goal. I knew I was right there and would need a huge last Mile + 200 meters to break 16. And due to the fact that I have been sick most likely. I could not put together that last mile. And to be honest it was pretty discouraging. But my family was there and that was a huge motivation for me to run really well. Which I did. I know that next week after a solid week of training I will be in an amazing spot to break 16 minutes and will be able to score points in the 10k in two weeks! On to the next one.
SATURDAY
10:27 A.M. 4 Miles in 29:23
Today I thought I would be sore all over, and thankfully that is not the case. The issue however is that my left hamstring feels super tight so about a mile and a half into the run I asked coach if I could turn around at two miles and he said yes. 10 miles to come tomorrow. Rest will do my leg well at this point. The grind continues.
SUNDAY
7:09 P.M. 10 Miles in 1:09:51
Tonight was fun. I freaking love running. Tonight’s run is why I love the sport that I love. Halfway through the run today I thought to myself. I am going to run under 7:00 pace average for this run, which I did, but at that time I was way over 7:00 pace. So throughout the second half of the run I had to push myself to get down to that pace. And I did! This week was good. I ran each day this week which gives me confidence going into the 5k at Loras. Also it gives me the mindset that if I can close a long run in 6:00 I can close a 5k at 5:05 and that is what I will need to break 16 minutes this coming Friday. I love you all for reading and I hope I have a breakthrough next week.
Cheers
-Gabe
