Seasonsopener

2 weeks ago, I told you about my summer adventures. In the meantime, a lot has happened: school started (boohh), racing started (yeah!), family visited (more yeah!!) and I logged another 160 or so miles with some good workouts & long runs in there. First off; school. I am following 4 psychology classes this semester, so that I will graduate not only with a sociology, but also with a psychology major. I was lucky that some of the sociology classes also count towards my psychology degree, which makes it possible to finish it within a year. I thought being in 4 upper division psychology classes would be quite a bit of work, but this turns out not to be the case! Easiest semester ever…? Okay, let’s not get to excited quite yet, but it does for sure look like I won’t be stressing out too much this semester and will have lots of time for naps, stretching, and all that other fun stuff.

Second; racing & family visiting! A little over a week ago, my uncle and aunt drove into Portland. They had just visited Olympic National Park, were on their way to Yellowstone, but found time to visit me in between. I had a really fun time showing them around in Portland: we got burrito’s at Boulevard, ran in Forest Park, went downtown to go to Powell’s and to some really cool breweries that I had never been to (no beer for me unfortunately!), had Thai at 23rd, and they even cooked Dutch food for me and my friends! This was the same weekend in which I had my first race. We raced at OSU, and my teammates and I were able to get first (Parkes), second (me), and third (Taryn), within a second of each other. The plan was to stay together for the first 2 (of 3) miles. By that time, we had already gotten rid of all but 1 competitor, and in the final 400 meters or so, we were able to outsprint her as well. It was really fun and helpful to race alongside my teammates, and we might use similar tactics in Minnesota in 2 weeks. It was a fine race, although I definitely noticed that I wasn’t used to racing yet and that we hadn’t done many specific workouts.

This week our team put together a great training week: we did longer (steep!!) hill reps on Tuesday, which I didn’t particularly enjoy (for everyone who knows me, this is of course an understatement), but then on Friday we came back for 6x1200m, which was my first serious race-pace workout of the season. It went well and our varsity looked really good. Today (Sunday) we came back for a long run. We went to Scappoose, which is a trail about 30 minutes away. The trail goes up gradually on the way out, so that it is almost all downhill on the way back. We ran here exactly 2 weeks ago when I had suffered a lot. We had gone a little too fast after the turn-around point, and the last few miles I couldn’t wait to be done. Not a good experience… This time though, Anna and I were able to run slightly faster, averaging about 6:35/mile, while feeling much better. Instead of waiting for it to be over, I was really enjoying the run. It is funny how ‘‘getting in shape’’ works and it is exciting to see that we are making progress!

Next time, I will let you know how we did in Minnesota, at the Roy Griak Invitational. The course will be hilly, the weather hot, and there will be several ranked teams on the starting line. Let’s hope we beat some of them!