Started from the bottom now I'm…slowly improving

walked about a quarter of the way. very tired after...

.5 for warm up, 1 mile for run and .5 during kids club. felt decent. i enjoyed the route (maverick) walked about a fourth of the way back

ran mostly, walked most way back...felt real cruddy

grass run. Prolly my best run so far. Even though i was at the back of the pack i ran the farthest i have so far. Only walking twice for max of 10 sec. Also was the quickest recovery so far! Felt really good :)

Up north on vacation and decided to go on a run in the park across the street..did grass warm up just like at home and then ran one whole mile WITHOUT WALKING!! goal accomplished one week in advance!!! Felt so great when i finished even though i wanted to die. So yes..you can praise me. 

So basically running by myself sucks. Friday i dragged my sister with me and was able to run the whole time. Today i went by myself and ended up walking a lot more then i would have liked. I noticed my hip starting to hurt so that was part of the reason for walking..im sure as soon as i get it adjusted and stretch better it will be back to norm. Headed up to efy today with TayBoy so hopefully they will let us run while we are there!!

Oh my goodness I feel like I almost died! First time back running in a week cause they wouldn't let me up at efy. We did .5 grass warm up then ANOTHER mile warm up and THEN the workout (how far and fast in 6min {785}). Heck last time I ran, the one mile was the workout!! To round up the day they wanted us to go yet another mile for "cool down" HA. I ended up just running .5 on the track...cause I didn't feel like dying today. But on the bright side I am starting to see why my friends love running so much. So far no matter how cruddy the run or workout is..I feel fantastic after. Sure beats eating potato chips while watching Modern Family like every other fat american.

Ran the dirt mile trail but i didn't actually run any laps on the dirt...cause im in lowest level :) This is the farthest i have ran thus far! I thought I was gunna die! My legs kill cause i didn't roll them out as well as I usually do after practice yesterday. So I should prolly do that... :) Kids club was a blast..and super tiring..haha. My group is so grand! But all I can think about during kids club is "oh..poor krenshaw" as he is mobbed by little demon boys. (distance from kids club not included)

Its amazing what you can accomplish when you set your mind to it!! Unfortunately..today was not one of those days. I was in pain the whole time. Every step hurt..all the muscles ache so bad :/ and on top of that, i was at the very back running with myself. In these situations its rather hard to keep a positive attitude especially as the kids going twice or three times the distance as you pass and say "good job!" when you know you suck. haha but as weird as it may seem today motivates me to keep coming so hopefully eventually i don't round up the pack(: and to stretch more..haha (grass run..and skipped striders cause i body wouldn't allow my legs to move anymore.)

While all you supah fast kids are out running your 6+ miles i'm already at home, showered and about time for my nap :) But i find it true that the most cruddy days make for the best runs. I almost didn't come this morning cause of how awful yesterday was for me, but my carpool (amber) was back in town and encouraged me to come :) Amber ran with me today and we ran the whole time!! Last time i did that i was up north running with my sister. Its a lot easier to push myself when i run with someone else verses myself!!

For some reason..injuries love me. They always find me! Warm up was fine. My shins don't hurt too bad when I run...most the time. Every now and again there is a shot of pain and then when i stop running they hurt..really bad. Because of this i didn't go the full distance today. i  only went one and skipped striders again cause it was hurting too bad. That being said i decided im going to keep a positive attitude towards my injury and not use it as an excuse to slack off in practice or even skip as i do with my shoulder for swim. Im going to actually do the stuff to make it better! haha who knows maybe it will work :) So besides Icing, rolling, stretching, and ankle circles..anything else i can be doing to speed up recovery process of shin splints?

ran with shaylee at the rec. felt good first time with new shoes

Usually I enjoy grass runs but lately they have not been my thing! I can tell from missing most of last week im out of it. My legs felt super heavy while running. I finally did striders for the first time! I actually kinda liked them :) what i did not enjoy was the immediate feeling of barfing once i stopped. Thats prolly like my number one fear in life. haha anyway on the bright side my legs are feeling tons better! they still hurt a little but not nearly as bad as they did in these past two weeks!

ran at wccc. only went one. couldnt get off the floor for 10 mins after run cause my shins hurt so bad. limped to car. still doing exercises. 

AMBER STEPPED IN POOP!! HAHAHA :D Good thing i went to practice today huh? Today was actually pretty fun. I ran with amber for lap and a half then i slowed down cause i was dying and she kept running. Soon after Roberts and the girls passed me so i ran with tayboy. Was neat to see how it felt to be up with the fast girls for one side length of a lap till i finished ;) My shins hurt but not to the point where i couldnt walk. I did striders with Amber after and i did 5. more then last time but still not all of them...but improving so thats good!! knee is starting to hurt a little more guess all i can keep doing is icing and all that crud. hoping this shiz heals faster cause its not making me happy! (kinda grumpy actually..Abel knows how that feels. right bud? ;) 

30/30 workout-I was worried about the work out today cause I haven't done it before. It wasn't too bad cept my distance is really short so to go the right amount of distance I go purdy slow. If it wasnt for my hip giving me troubles, I would have been able to go many more laps. Props to all the fast kids..it was neat to see my friends really pushing themselves..makes me wanna do better!! Mile cool down..hip killed but ran through it. And now i can't walk..hopefully i can just stretch it out and it will be good! 

Three cheers for positive update today!!! wahoo! Today was actually the best run i have had in a while!! So I was planning on running 2 or 3 if my legs were holding up..Prolly about half a mile in i figured i could do 2 miles total..boy was i wrong! As i was running i kept looking for the dang mile markers telling me to turn around but i never saw it so i just kept running once people started running back i asked how far they are running most said three so  i thought well the marker cant be far! then when shaylee started coming back i joined her and on the way back we pasted the 1 1/2 marker...which meant i went 4 miles total! granted i walked quite a bit but hey! double the amount of distance i have  EVER gone WITH injured shins and hip? not too shabby:)

camping with fam at pine valley. wanted to go two but was super hilly and hard. plus the altitude wasnt helping

Went to the physical therapist and got some orthotics and he told me to just go on a little run to see if they will work. They help out lots! no pain during or after my run cept the blister that was created from part of my foot being pinched between the shoe and insert. we trimed it and stuff so hopefully that helps.

2 miles up at xc camp

i ran most of the way there.. almost two full miles! def the longest i ran without stoping. that was also the hardest i have ever pushed myself!! walked a lot back tho my feet started hurting bad..and when i got back to camp i figured out why..a blister the size of a 50 cent piece right smack in the middle of my arch. due to this i could hardly walk and wasnt able to run the rest of the time at camp. 

ran at girls camp

first time running in heat. super hard and almost pretty much died. first mile felt great and then i had to stop for water and i felt super dizzy and everything was blurring. i ran about halfway back then i had to walk before i pasted out.

ran to arctic circle with amber did really well on the way there but walked like the whole way back.

mile warm up then did a workout kinda like 30/30s but at one minute so whatever that workout is called. it was really hot and i think i only did like 4 of them

  I was so terrified for this race. Being my first race ever in running I was so super scared! up to this point the farthest I had ever run without stopping or walking was about a mile and a half. Some of my goals for my first xc race were to not walk and to not come in last. I wasn't being positive at all even once i was behind the starting line. I did not think I could actually achieve my goals. It wasn't until the very first turn of the race when my mind started to think good things. That is when I knew I could run this darn race without walking. I started thinking that if I could just make it to the grass to where some of the girls and coach would be there cheering and encourage me that I could make it to the track where Ali, Taylor, Mia, Liz and other teammates would be to give me that push to make it back to the grass. The hardest part of the race was my last lap..when I made it to the grass coach and all the girls weren't there. I thought thats it..I can't do it! Right after my dear troubled brain thought that a girl from cedar ran over to cheer on the only girl behind me. She said "Ashley, you are doing so great! Just get that girl ahead of you. You can do it." When she said that it pretty much just pissed me off and made me push even harder so I could stay ahead. As soon as my feet hit the track Liz was there cheering me on and telling me to pick it up cause the girl was behind me. And I did..when I turned that last corner I gave everything I had left in me and sprinted to the end! And then I felt like busting out in tears cause I was rather joyed in my preformance. I didn't walk and I didn't come in last! And I know I wouldn't have been able to do that without my team cheering me on :) So...Thanks!!! (long entry but I really wanna remember my first race:))

mile and a half warm up with 3 - 1000 repeats. Felt super tired and didn't want to do any but got myself to do one..then another then figured i couldn't skip out on the last so what the hey. 1-7:30 2-7:43 3-8:30

WELL...that was fun. So basically because my time trial all together sucked last week I was determinded to make this race count. I was super nervous again it only being my second race but so pumped. Taelor Bithell is letting me borrow her racing spikes for the season so today was the first time i got to use them:) It just added to my excitment :) (they are like super legit with cheetah print and stuff so obviously it makes me super speedy.)

I was doing super great and stayed super positive..up until i reached the starting line. for some odd reason that thing always starts to wack me out. So there we are about to start..bam start and boom boom boom... the gun goes off and we have to restart. i was actually happy cause my start felt rushed. so back to place.. bam...and boom boom boom. ONCE AGAIN we have to restart. But i didnt let it get me and i shook it off and when we actually got to start for real i did good :) My first lap was so SOOO SOOO good :) I ran the whole thing! (isnt that what you are supposed to do? well yes...but last time i wogged the whole race...so eat it) about then is when anna caught up with me and together we pushed each other for the remainder of the race. It helped me out a ton to say out loud nice positive thoughts and to not only think them but hear it. We did end up walking just a little bit the last lap a few times but we kept it a fast pace walk which was actually faster and less energy consuming than a wog..so it was good to help gain back that strength and power through. Hills were fun to push through and the slight inclines sucked. but overall i am very happy about my preformance. 3rd (or 4th) to last.. so place improvment and i wasn't last on the team. so im thrilled. :)

FINALLY. I really enjoy racing i decided! Im pretty good at staying positive and given a few minutes after a nice little cool down i feel pretty grand:) . Warm up was a nice steady pace and felt really good during it! I was a little concerned about my leg while waiting to start cause it wasn't feeling all that great. The race itself was fun in a hard sorta way. I started out strong and generally kept up my pace the whole time. I really worked hard on the hills and inclines to push hard and pass girls..which i did! On the super big hill i was able to pass prolly round 5 girls then kept my pace going strong! So goal one accomplished! I also used the downhills to my advantage instead of slowing down on them like i have in the past. That last lap was pretty difficult and i had a few girls catching up to me. By the time i reached Coach Holt on the grass right before the track there was a snow canyon and cedar girl not far ahead of me..i passed the snow girl on the grass then we were side by side most of the time on the track and while im yelling cause my legs did not appreaciate what i was making them do, she kept encouraging me to keep going so that was nice. Sadly she did end up sprinting faster than me but i was booking it with all i had to the end. All in all with a 6:00min drop im pretty stoked about my race!! Oh..and my ankle didn't bug me at all :) felt awesome!!

Went for lil run with tayboy..ive actually missed it lots(: 

little 2 mile around my hill... i was running past my park and for some reason i thought striders would be fun..so i did 4 of those across the frosted grass..so that was fun(:

Who would have thought that id be going from hating the thought of running to going out on my own on christmas day! haha nice little 2 mile loop around my hill (: felt good..lovin my new running outfit.

3 mile loop around my hill...i like this one less cause its rather difficult..up and down one way then all uphill on way back up..but its good cause before xc i hardly ran and walked the whole loop and now im running the whole thing. Felt good to go 3 today even if it was pretty cold. my face is still numb so thats fun.

welp..i was planning on going 3 today so stared that loop backwards but tummy was feelin yucky so i cut into the 2 mile loop but somehow ended not where i thought i was so ended up doing 2.5.. but thats alright cause i still meet my miles for this week(:

kinda slow getting out today. Called tayboy to see if she wanted to come out with me..unfortunatly she just showered and didnt feel like getting all stinky again..odd. legs felt heavy today..getting little tired of the loop around my hill so i went a slightly different route and ended up finding another trail so ill have to try that out sometime this week. But im getting excited about track season! My runs are spent thinking about either what track will be like or what im going to blog :) Its nice to actually be motivated about something again. Im pretty sure I haven't been this motivated to do good at something since the end of sophomore swim season. Now if only mom could see that.. haha (:

Tried out the new trail i found today..super duper purdy. tayboy would have loved it. maybe one day she will love me enough to come run with me. Im trying to work on lengthening my stride so ive been concentrating on that for main part of my run along with getting a nice push from the ball of my foot. Exciting moment of the run- I stepped in some semi wet cement so maybe my footprint will be there forever!!