Hey DyeStatFL! My name is Krissy Gear and I’ll be a junior at Fort Myers High School this year. I hope everyone’s summer and summer training has been nothing short of fantastic. Shout out to my dawg Robert Brown for giving me the opportunity to blog and share the highlights of my summer.

This summer has probably been one of the busiest summers of my life, considering it’s the first entire summer I’ve spent training. Last year I decided to run cross country towards the end of the summer, and I have to say I’m impressed that most of you runners have been doing this for years. That’s dedication. Like every year, my family went to the Keys for a week and a half for fishing and fun. This year I brought my friend and teammate, Sidney Oakes-Lottridge with me. I was grateful to have her around because it gave me someone to run with. We ran early in the morning because, as you can imagine, it was extremely hot. As much as I dreaded running in the humid Keys, it helped mentally prepare me for this upcoming cross country season.

After we returned from the Keys, my partner in crime (Sidney) and I were off again, on our way up to Tallahassee for the FSU Seminole Trails Camp. In Fort Myers, there isn’t much to see besides palm trees and sidewalks, which don’t offer much shade, so running on the trails was a refreshing change of scenery. The cooler temperature was another bonus as well. While I was up at FSU, I met many different runners from all over Florida. After each run, we went on a trip to a spring or some other neat place. My favorite destination we traveled to was Blue Springs.  The water was a magnificent crystal clear but appeared bluish. There was a diving board and a slide into the water in the swimming area. For the majority of the time there, our friend group rented a kayak, peddle boat, and a canoe. We stopped to swim, played Frisbee, jumped off a cliff, and other fun activities. My friend Ivan and I even swam through a mini cave under the cliff we were jumping off at. Everything about the experience was breathtaking.

When we returned from Seminole Trails Running Camp, Sidney when back to running with the team and I ran by myself for the next week until I resumed training with the girls a week before we were off. Again. This time twenty-two of our girls travelled up to Tennessee, where we lodged in our teammates, Audry and Grace Paul‘s cabin in the Smoky Mountains for our team camp. Our weeklong camp consisted of team bonding, sundae topping fights, hikes on trails to waterfalls, tubing down the river, cave exploring, a visit to Ober Gatlinburg, a “talent” show, and more.  (Well, running, obviously.) The scenery was beautiful but the hills were a nightmare (especially during runs). I’m pleased with the way camp went. It was exciting to watch how many girls started working harder and how much closer it brought the team together.

Last Saturday our girls’ and guys’ teams had a pre-season two mile time trial; four laps around a half mile loop in Lakes Park. The guys started before the girls, but I was permitted to run with the guys to give me people to push me. I went out hoping to run as close to twelve minutes as I could and was pleased when I finished in 11:31. Everyone else did fantastic and it got me pumped for this season to see what they’re going to achieve as the year progresses.

From the end of the 2015 school year (6/6/15) to the beginning of the 2016 school year (8/23/15), I’ve ran a total of 481.25 miles. Starting the summer I was ranging between 25 and 35 miles a week, still coming back from my break after track season, but towards the end I’m closer to 50 miles a week. It’s usually right over or under 50. During the early summer weeks, my runs were typically road runs, but as our team has progressed, we’ve started incorporating fartleks, tempos, workouts, and bridge workouts (since there aren’t any hills around here). Our team ran an 800 workout up at camp in Tennessee, which I considered as our first legitimate workout. Our team has about 2-3 workouts a week now, with our varsity running two double days a week as well. Last year I typically ran with Mallory Towe and Abbey Fisher, but my dear pal Mal is off to college and Abbey is working on returning from an injury, so I’m out of running buddies, which means I have to run alone. Sometimes I’ll goad Coach Strong into hanging with me on the runs, but only once every so often. I’ve never been one of those people that enjoy running solitary, so it’s been a little tough having to push myself this summer but it’s definitely helped improve my ability to stay mentally tough. Along with running all those miles, I’ve also been incorporating strength training about two times a week when I’m not out of town, which others and myself have noticed has helped improve my running.

I hope everyone is training hard and achieving the results that they want. If not, don’t fret, give it time. It will come eventually. Stay focus and trust in not only your Coach and leaders, but yourself as well. Good luck to everyone this year!