Week of: September 13th - 19th
Monday: practice at UMA: course jog, 16 minute speed workout, 8 minute speed workout, hills, strides, cool down, etc.
Tuesday: 6 miles LSD
Wednesday: mile repeats on track and/or course
Thursday: 30 minute speed workout
Friday: 3 miles easy with the team
Saturday: KVAC's @ UMA
Sunday: Blueberry Fest. 10K route by myself =(
I enjoyed training this week for the most part. It was just a build up to KVAC's. Monday we had a great practice at UMA. To be honest I felt completely dead during and after it, but it was really good for our team to hang tough through it which everyone did. Our girls were looking incredibly strong, and aside from me not knowing where I was going at all during the speed workouts it was a pretty nice practice. Luckily I had Shelby near me to yell: “Melody, this way!”. We did the big hill near the end a bunch of times, and wrapped it up by doing the 400m finish loop once to get a feel for a strong finish. On the way home we stopped at Panera Bread and I had the best coffee, it was absolutely amazing.This article confused me, but just to clear it up for anyone as oblivious as myself:
“On the Lam”: moving from place to place to avoid being found or caught.
KVAC
Going into this race I knew statistically that I should win the Class A race. The given: Abby Mace would win overall. I wanted to win so badly. I tried not to think about it all week but I couldn't help it. I kept thinking of a million different scenarios: I could win, I could lose, I could fall down those cliffs and not be able to finish, or I could have an amazing race and go sub 20. Well actually one of those happened and one of those almost happened. I won, but I almost did fall down one of those hills.
I'm getting used to the starts of most of my races. Abby took the lead from a low-box number, but we were in box 25 all the way at the end, so I was a little scared that I might get shoved in the back trying to cross over to get near her, I didn't though. I made sure I sprinted right over towards the middle, where Abby was ahead, and Morgan Beede was right behind her. I've been working on trying to keep Abby in sight for more of the race, each race. I got ahead of Morgan, 
and stuck right behind Abby for a little bit. She gradually pulled ahead and made her way to the finish long before I did. I could see her on some of the long stretches which was reassuring, but somewhere in this mental race I had the choice to try and kill myself and stick as close to her as possible, or just run my class A race and try to take the title. I think it's clear which one I chose.. haha. I didn't think it would be as slow as it was (for me) but I'm please with my time since I ran 21:22 last year and got 4th. I was a little iffy going into this race because we played apples to apples on the bus ride there and some of us felt really bus-sick. On the up-side of things we all got war-paint which made me feel rugged! During the race I had no idea where the other runners were. It was the thing that always happens with people cheering for runners behind me and I wasn't sure where they were exactly. I heard people cheering for “Katie” and I thought they meant Katie McMahon the freshman from Brunswick, but I realized after that they were cheering for Katie Spies from MTA. She did amazing by the way. I was lonely in the woods and just kept praying that I wouldn't/didn't take a wrong turn. When I'm running a race I can't focus on the arrows drawn on the ground. When I was running the long grass hill the Monmouth coach was cheering for me but he called me Silver, and I was like “woah”... If I wasn't so dead I would have been like, “I am NOT Silver Hunt.” It gave me something to think about though. I didn't have the best finish, the hill near the end, and the gradual uphill in the last 400 kinda got me there. I just wanted to get it over with! When I was walking through the chute I kept holding onto the wooden pole things and there was a woman standing there directing it or whatever and she was like “come on, I know this is the last thing you want to do, but just keep walking through the chute!”- I kinda let out a weak laugh and an eye roll and said “hah, yeah.” She was funny though. At least she wasn't one of those mean guys that keeps tapping your back when you finish and says annoying things like: “Come on, that way, let's go, KEEP walking.” when there's no way in hell you're going to walk faster than that, so “leave me alone!” That's the guy I just want to kick in the shin with my spikes and tell to go run a 5k himself. Anyway KVAC's went very well! Our girls got 2nd by SIX POINTS, just six. I would have been more upset about it but knowing that it was only 6 points, I'm somewhat content and still feel that our team can and will fight for it. I was excited to be on the top of the podium, but the mixture of nerves and temperature made me feel like I was going to pee myself. I was just glad that I couldn't get pushed in the back like I did last year! I have a picture and you can basically only see my little head popping through on the 4th place stand.
and stuck right behind Abby for a little bit. She gradually pulled ahead and made her way to the finish long before I did. I could see her on some of the long stretches which was reassuring, but somewhere in this mental race I had the choice to try and kill myself and stick as close to her as possible, or just run my class A race and try to take the title. I think it's clear which one I chose.. haha. I didn't think it would be as slow as it was (for me) but I'm please with my time since I ran 21:22 last year and got 4th. I was a little iffy going into this race because we played apples to apples on the bus ride there and some of us felt really bus-sick. On the up-side of things we all got war-paint which made me feel rugged! During the race I had no idea where the other runners were. It was the thing that always happens with people cheering for runners behind me and I wasn't sure where they were exactly. I heard people cheering for “Katie” and I thought they meant Katie McMahon the freshman from Brunswick, but I realized after that they were cheering for Katie Spies from MTA. She did amazing by the way. I was lonely in the woods and just kept praying that I wouldn't/didn't take a wrong turn. When I'm running a race I can't focus on the arrows drawn on the ground. When I was running the long grass hill the Monmouth coach was cheering for me but he called me Silver, and I was like “woah”... If I wasn't so dead I would have been like, “I am NOT Silver Hunt.” It gave me something to think about though. I didn't have the best finish, the hill near the end, and the gradual uphill in the last 400 kinda got me there. I just wanted to get it over with! When I was walking through the chute I kept holding onto the wooden pole things and there was a woman standing there directing it or whatever and she was like “come on, I know this is the last thing you want to do, but just keep walking through the chute!”- I kinda let out a weak laugh and an eye roll and said “hah, yeah.” She was funny though. At least she wasn't one of those mean guys that keeps tapping your back when you finish and says annoying things like: “Come on, that way, let's go, KEEP walking.” when there's no way in hell you're going to walk faster than that, so “leave me alone!” That's the guy I just want to kick in the shin with my spikes and tell to go run a 5k himself. Anyway KVAC's went very well! Our girls got 2nd by SIX POINTS, just six. I would have been more upset about it but knowing that it was only 6 points, I'm somewhat content and still feel that our team can and will fight for it. I was excited to be on the top of the podium, but the mixture of nerves and temperature made me feel like I was going to pee myself. I was just glad that I couldn't get pushed in the back like I did last year! I have a picture and you can basically only see my little head popping through on the 4th place stand. I'm really pumped for regionals, it's my favorite. My goals are to win individually, and qualify for states as a team (possibly even win regionals as a team). Congrats to everyone that ran yesterday, and to Abby for the CR!