Avoidances

I have being avoiding so many things lately.

I knew that once school started, my fitness would begin to deteriorate! I have less time! So I have been working out like... 5 times a week.. for like 1-1.5 hours. I used to do like 2-2.5 hours about 5 times a week. I do have cross country... but that doesn't make up for much lost time... especially strength training.

But I just slowly moved slowly away from being determined to go to the gym... more assignments piled up and tests popped up. I tried going in the morning before school.. which doesn't work too well unless I only do strength training. I don't sweat as much then, so I can get away with not taking a shower, or just not washing my hair. Drying my hair takes too long...

I mean, sure. I'd have time, but I have to sleep.

So basically... I can't make excuses anymore. I might quit my one job. I've been saying this for 2-3 weeks now. I really don't know when I'll quit. If I do anytime soon.

So I guess I should be setting some more goals...

Well. Running first of all. Update! For cross country, I am a senior girl which means I run 5km. Out of our whole cross country team, it is mostly senior girls. I'm the only grade 12, the others are grade 11s.

Anyways, I went to the first invitational and I got 16th out of 61 senior girls! It was AWESOME! Except for the insane amount of hills, horse shit, sand, twigs, rocks and mud. But otherwise it was so fun! I ran 23:36 or something like that.

So my pace averaged 4:41.

I really REALLY want it down to 4:20. Bay of quinte is... in 19 days? If I run 16 of those days... and run 5km each time + do other things like speed training and I can do things like use the treadmill to keep my pace steady.... I might be able to do that. But it is still going to be a struggle... even if I can't get it down by BOQ... if I can get it down for COSSA I can make it to OFSSA! But honestly... its not like that is an unrealistic goal... but very difficult to make it to OFSSA. You must be in the top 3 from COSSA or in the top 2 teams (our team is dead last). I figure that based on COSSA results from last year, if I run a 4:20 pace I can be 5th. But if I run my 4:41 pace I would've been... 17th. GAHH! 3rd place runner last year ran at 4:11.

I'm so mad at myself for not starting running earlier! But thats okay. Maybe I'll do varsity in Uni.

But on the plus side, I am the fastest female runner at my school. :)

Okay other than the 4:20 goal...

I will work on my upper body strength. My arms are actually so weak. I work them out all the time, but something is just not working. I think I need to get more creative with my arm routine. Like going across monkey bars like a zillion times and weird shit like that.

Well. Now that I've got all of that off my chest...

Run run run

Running 5km. The only thing on my mind.

So last Tuesday I ran 5k in 27:40 something like that.
Then I was timed again on Friday and I did it in like 23:30.

If you are a runner, you understand this is a significant improvement. Even though on Tuesday it was extremely hot and Friday was nice and cool... this is still intensely different.

23:30... is an amazing time for a 16 year old girl to do a 5k. I would likely score in the top 20 at meets.... depending, obviously.

But I still want to make it faster. I want to run it in 20:00. Which would make me in the top 5 (likely would at least). That means I need an average of a 4:00/km pace.

Right now my pace is averaging at 4:42, but I run between 4:10-4:53 usually. But I usually am steady at 4:20-4:45. It basically averages out to 4:42.

I want to slash :42 seconds per km off of my time. That is insane. Insane. No. It is not. If I work hard, I might be able to do this. I just might have to throw up a few times (I mean this in the sense that when you work too hard you throw up, not in an anorexic way), pass out a bit, and maybe fall down a couple of times.

But I will do a LOT of training this week. I only can make practice Tuesday, and maybe Friday. I am going to do Monday and Thursday on the Treadmill at Goodlife. I like training on the treadmill because you can set in your pace, and so you know you are steady. I will do that Monday and Thursday. Sunday and Wednesday I will train by myself outside not at practice. Likely I will do some sprints as well. If I can get my 100m sprint down to 13 seconds, I might join track and field for 100m sprints in the Spring. But thats not what I am focusing on.

Right now (without trying too hard) my sprints are about 16 seconds.

But anyways.

I am planning on making OFSSA. Or I hope to.

HOLY FUCK. People made ofssa with times of 23:30! They got like 160th. But. Yeah. Having a time of 20:00 would be nice. I might get like 20th at Ofssa.

But I am not saying I am going. I just really hope I do.

Oh goodness I am now really pumped.

<3

Where am I going with this?

Hi. I still have not blogged about my HALF MARATHON!

AH! I did it! 2:01:42.7? Something like that. The 2:01 part is right. I came 2nd for my age and sex. Which was UNEXPECTED!

Amazing.

Anyways. After I ran it, my mom said "So where are you taking this?" in reference to my running. Of course, I didn't know. Would I try to improve my time/pace? Would I try to work towards a marathon?

I really didn't know.

Now I do.

I joined cross country at school! I am hoping to get to COSSA. I need to attend 16 practices (which should hopefully work out).

But the coach said something about a pace of 4:00min/km is what she would like us to be at, but 5:00min/km is best. For senior girls this is a 5km race. The half marathon is 21km. So that is not the issue.

The issue is my pace. My pace running the half marathon was 5:46min/km. Which is actually not a bad pace... for a half marathon. But I need to make my pace faster and run less.

I used to go for 10-15km runs to train, a couple of times a week. Now I need to go for faster and shorter runs to train.

I don't see it being an issue. I tried a 5km run with a faster pace the other day, and my pace was around 4:35min/km. But of course, I definitely want to bring it down. Just a lot of training.

Time and persistence give you results.

Thats all it takes.

Lesssgooo.