End of the first phase....

  Well, it looks as if I won't be racing the Eagle Island race next weekend.  My coach and I have chatted and decided that it would be more beneficial for me to run a 6k race effort on my own Saturday morning instead of competing in the Nike Cross Country 5k.  He said with as much as I have accomplished this season (running faster and competing stronger than he predicted), the 5k next weekend wouldn't be beneficial in my training at this point.  It would be smarter to run a 6k race test effort on my own.  SO, that is what I will be doing.

  I had a workout with my coach on Wednesday evening and he shared with me some encouraging news.  The times that I was running for my intervals were close to the times that one of his female athletes, Cynthia (she retired this spring), had been running last year at this time.  This is encouraging because she ran in the Olympic trials. :O)  He said my workouts were right there where hers had been at this time last year and she had been his athlete for a number of years at that point...WHICH bodes well for me as I have only been his athlete for about 9 weeks.  His training is all about time and compounding, so it usually takes a year or two before seeing significant increases in successes. 

  After next weekend, we will start a de-training phase for a couple of weeks, and then begin a new one.  The de-training phase is just a time to give our bodies a chance to repair more completely and give it a rest after all the hard interval training and racing we have been doing.  I will only be running 5 or 6 miles a day and take a day or two off.  I haven't taken a day off in the 9 weeks I have been with him...I think my first day off will be after I have been under his training for 11 weeks.  After this phase (beginning of December) we will start a strength and endurance phase.  We will begin doing drills (to improve speed and form), running more hilly runs(to develop more power), and longer minutes work-outs instead of intervals (to develop endurance).  I have always liked the strength and endurance phases of training, so I am excited :o).  It is tough, but very rewarding.  I have always been able to see a huge difference in my training when we complete this phase.  This phase will probably go until the beginning of March...when we will start running more races again.  

  The weather has been warmer again...70's and sunny. :o)  I think we may have some snow next week so it will get significantly cooler again!  I officially start my job at the YMCA on Monday, so that will be good for me.  Looking to find another part time job...keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that something comes up soon.

  Hope you are all doing well! :o) 

Corvallis 5k.....

Just got back this evening from Oregon.  I went to Corvallis to run the Corvallis 5k Sunday morning.  It was a good race. I ran a 25 second PR and placed 21st out of 231 overall and second female overall with a time of 17:19.  My last race for a little while will be in two weeks at the Nike Cross Country Championships here at Eagle Island (Eagle, ID).  It is a 5k on November 13th.  It's a pretty tough course, but it will be fun.  I ran on it twice when I was at NNU.

I finally was able to land a job at the YMCA here.  I am working at an elementary school leading an after school sports enrichment program.  Basically I teach soccer on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then basketball on Mondays and Wednesdays.  It is less than 10 hours a week, but at least it is a start!  I have an interview tomorrow morning for a fitness trainer position at the Nampa Rec center.

That's about it for now!  I am off to bed!  I have a busy day tomorrow :o).

Here is the link to all the Corvallis 5k info like results, pictures, and live video I think:
              http://www.corvallis5k.com/
  My bib# was 130 if you need it for the pictures. :O)

Hope you are all doing well!

Some pictures....

This is 8th St. right now, going up to my house :o)

Spot by the greenbelt :O)  I love the river.

This sign made me laugh :O) hehe

Barber to Boise....

I raced the Barber to Boise 10k yesterday morning here in Boise.  The race went very well...I ran a 36:26 (6.2 miles).  That is a minute and 16 seconds faster than my track PR that I ran about 2 years ago.  My coach was very pleased with my race, as well as the rest of my teammates.  I placed 2nd for females overall and 12th out of close to 2000 people I believe. 

 If you want to look at the race results, pictures, or live video of the finish, go to this link:

http://www.barbertoboise.com/home.html

 On the live video feed I am around 24:50 (if you click on the line and drag it to around that time you can see my finish).

 Overall, I am very satisfied with how the race went :o)  My team did really well too.  After the race we went to breakfast together as a team to Big City Cafe downtown (goooood muffins and coffee :O)). 

 Friday night we had a team dinner at Paul's house.  A few of the people used to run for Greater Boise but just recently moved to Oregon and one is in Washington.  The two guys are now running for Strands (Corvallis and Seattle) and the girl that used to run here is running for a club in Eugene.

Starting from the left: Kevin Sheehy, Paul Davis, Kevin Peters (holding the mug), Jordyn Smith, Jordan Zwick (holding the other mug), Eddie Ernest-Jones, Sylvia Veal, Coley Fitzgerald (in the white sweater), me, and Mike Sayenko.  ....and Moses, Coley's dog, in the front :o). 

 Jordyn Smith used to run for GBRC but is not in Eugene, Eddie used to run for GBRC but is now running for Strands in Corvallis, and Sayenko is running for Strands in Seattle.

 It was a fun weekend...good people to be around :O).

My next race is the Strands 5k in Corvallis, OR on Halloween.  I will be coming home that Friday morning and leaving Monday afternoon. :O)  Excited to be home and to race! :o)  Hope you are all doing well!

Club website...

The club website was just updated by Paul (a teammate) so I thought I would pass along the link to it.  I don't know how updated it will stay, but you can look at it from time to time :O).

http://www.greaterboiserunningclub.com/index.htm

Tuesday...

Well, today is Tuesday...which means I had another hard workout tonight. :O)  It went very well.  It consisted of running 4 x 800m repeats on a dirt trail at a park here in Boise.  We were supposed to run them all at 5k perceived effort for today (what we think our 5k pace would be for today), and then run a 400m recovery loop (slower than the 800m's).  I ran them all right at my PR (from high school :o)) which was 2 minutes and 30 seconds.  The goal is to run them all at the same pace...definitely no slower.  And then we do a 10 minute recovery run over to one of the high school tracks and ran 4 x 300m on the track.  They were cut-downs so each one was supposed to get 2 or 3 seconds faster.  I ran them in 62, 60, 57, 55.  And after each one we go right into a 200m jog and then start the next one.  Anyway, it was a good workout...faster than I have ever done them. :o)

 I am running in the Barber to Boise 10k this Saturday morning.  I a excited for it.  All of my 10k's have been frustrating...none of them have been ran well, so I am hoping that changes this weekend.  It is hard to run a solid time here because of the elevation, but I am hoping it goes well.

I am still looking for a job...with no luck.  I feel that someone has to call me with all these applications and resme's I have sent out...hopefully something happens soon. :o\

The weather is definitely starting to change.  Very cold in the mornings and evenings but still pretty decent during the days.  It is harder to get warm now after my ice baths in the river...but I will do them until it gets too unberable!  Or until we can find a place inside to do them! :o) 

Well, I am off to bed...my workout made me sleepy :O)  Hope you are all doing well!!

Good trip....

  Sylvia and I ventured back home this last weekend, and we both had a good trip. :O)  It was nice to see my family and my nieces :oD  I do miss them!  I'm glad I was able to be home for Hannah's birthday :O)

  Today was another workout day.  We did 2 x 1 mile, 1 x 1000m, and 2 x 400m.  FINALLY got to do some mile repeats!  While I love doing them, the shorter distances are what I need to work on...I need to get some of my speed back so that I can get my race times down.  That is my goal for this fall....to run some solid 5k's and 10k's and get my PRs down so that when the time comes to race a half-marathon and a full marathon I will run a good time (hopefully a qualifying time in the marathon :O)). SO, while I am disappointed that I won't be able to run the Big Sur half-marathon in November, this will be best for me in the long run especially because I don't have much time to qualify for the trials. 

  Well, I am sleepy, so it is off to bed for me :o)  Hope you are all doing well!