Sadie Engelhardt has been a standout youth athlete from California for the last several years. This past June she broke the 14-year-old age group world record in the mile, clocking a time of 4:40.16 at the RunningLane Track Championships and surpassing a mark that was last set by Mary Decker in 1973. During the indoor season, she finished seventh at the adidas Indoor Nationals in the mile with a 4:51.94 personal best. As Engelhardt begins her first high school season, she's already one of the country's most well-known athletes. This is the third of four blogs in the series of training journals Engelhardt will write for MileSplit this fall.
Sunday, August 22: Off day
I took off today. I slept in, then went to the beach and enjoyed the down time. Later in the day, my dad, myself and my mom went down to Pasadena to check out the course for the Cool Breeze Invitational. We finished off the day by eating dinner at a restaurant called True Foods and then headed back to Ventura.
Monday, August 23: 8 miles
To start off the week of training, me and my team headed to Harmon Canyon to do a hill workout. We ran a couple miles into the hills, then did 3x45 seconds at 3,200m pace, 3x30 seconds at mile pace, and 3x15 seconds at 800 pace up the big hill in the back of the trail. Going up and down the big hill adds about two miles to the run. The final mileage was eight miles and the elevation gain was 1,060ft. Overall, it was a solid workout and felt pretty good.
Tuesday, August 24: 4 miles
We went down to the Ventura Promenade and ran along the beach. We did some core and hip openers and then started our recovery run. I ran out to a place called Surfers Point and then back to where we started. The run ended up being four miles. After the run, we all enjoyed our last day of summer at the beach. Later in the day I went back to school shopping and got everything I needed to go to school the next day.
Wednesday, August 25: 5 miles, fartlek
First day of school at Ventura High School! We went through a regular school day and then did a fartlek. First, we did 4x100m at 5K-mile pace, 1x300 at mile pace, and 2x150 at 800 pace. Then we got four minutes recovery and got into the workout. The interval was 10x1 minute at 3,200m pace. In the beginning I was only supposed to do 8x1 minute, but my legs felt really good so I kept going. The mileage for the day was around 5 miles. Right after the workout a couple of my teammates and I went down to the beach to help with a 5K race called Boogie Nights. We helped set up and then after the race we helped take everything down. Once we were done we all went to Beach House Tacos on the pier for dinner.
Thursday, August 26: 6.5 miles
We did an easy recovery with two laps of track strides. Track strides are when you jog the curves of the track and then build up to your fastest speed on the straights. I went 6.5 miles (including the strides). This was longer than most of my recovery runs, but I made sure to get extra rest in after the run. Once we were done, I walked from school with a friend to get fries at a place called Santa Cruz Market. For the rest of the day, I laid low and got my recovery in.
Friday, August 27: 5 miles
We had a time trial. For this time trial, the people that went to Mammoth were pacing the people who did not go to Mammoth. So, I paced my teammate Caroline. The time trial was an out-and-back two mile loop at Foster Park. The people running predicted their time before the race and then us pacers would try and get them to it. The person who was closest to their predicted time would win a prize. Overall, it was super fun and we all had a great time. After everyone had run, we had a big barbecue. The total mileage for Friday was 5 miles.
Saturday, August 28: 7 miles
Saturday is supposed to be long run day, but since I was already high on mileage for the week I went 7 miles. I ran along the Ventura Promenade and my friend biked next to me. I negative splitted each mile and did some core after the run. For dinner, my family and I went out to celebrate my mom's birthday in Santa Monica.
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Total Mileage: 35.5
