The Renegade

       So the opposite of last week, I came to school with warm clothes packed expecting an outdoor workout, but we ended up being on the treadmills. So I got out of 7th hour early, changed, than ran over to a street to grab my shorts, than back to the school and that was pretty much my warmup.

       Workout was 2 x mile at 2 mile pace (5:20 for me) with 3 minute rests, then full recovery, then 6 x 1 minute at mile pace (4:50) with 2 min rests, full recovery, than 6 x 30 seconds at 800 pace (14.3 mph, gradually up to 15 mph, so date pace to goal pace and my date pace is around 2:05 based on my mile, with goal pace just sub-2). Ran the first mile rep in my trainers just to be safe, felt decent, started hurting a tiny bit, then the 3 min rest switching into the flats, and the next one felt about the same. I believe that whatever pace you can run those at, you can put those together and run it for 2 miles once you spike up and have competition/adrenaline. So I'm confident about Friday, I know I can get well under 11:00. Then the rest of the workout was pretty fun, I just wish we could've done it on a track on a nice warm day. On the 30 seconds reps I really focused on shortening my stride and quickening the cadence, I gotta do that if I wanna have the leg speed to run sub-2. Half mile jog, then I lifted. Started doing bench and it felt kinda easy so I didn't give myself enough recovery before I increased the weight/lowered the reps, and I almost couldn't do the last one, oops. Then another half mile. 

       I was reading my entries from a year ago just barely and this week in 2015 we were wearing short shorts outside, doing barefoot strides on the turf, and trail running up Logan Canyon. But you know, the worse the winter is, the better the spring. 

Easy run with Paul up to USU, down to first dam, and back on the very powdery canal trail.... dunno why we chose that way back. 18 degrees today, colder than it's been in a while, but it was bright and sunny. 7:39 AP.  When we got to the temple we ran right into Spencer, Hayden, and Eric from MC! So that was cool. We got back and hung out, did some core. I'm going to try and do core whenever I'm not lifting and it's not the day before a meet. I've really gotta keep that strong. 

Today we did the regular River Heights-Providence tempo, 3 break then 1. Jogged up there and I didn't want to waist time stretching a ton so Paul and I started before everyone else. Saw Hayden before we started lol. Splits were about 6:29, 6:15, 6:07, but my watch hit a mile slightly before we started so first mile was probably a little faster. The new Sauconys felt decent, nice plush cushioning, and I think they'll good to last me through the end of outdoor. I felt really tired the whole time; I could barely keep my eyes open and my form wasn't solid. Chilled out for a few minutes and then we did a little loop for the extra mile, which we kinda just maintained pace on so 6:14. And we saw Hayden again haha. Ran back and we still beat the other kids who only did 3 miles. We did some strides in the hall at the rec center and then lifted.

Pre-meet today, just a little shakeout, we ran slow because we were with some less experienced kids, it was fun running with them. We did a run that we haven't done in forever, out toward Bridger Elementary north-west of us. We'll probably start running out there maybe once every two weeks.  My watch died so I didn't get the average but it was probably around 8:00 pace. 

Well, today was quite eventful. Kind of slept in for first hour but I needed the sleep. Then I left to get lunch before 4th hour ended and we headed out, but Coach took like half an hour to come with the van. So we finally got on and after about an hour and some backtracing after missing some exits, Coach Strand got distracted and we flew off the road into the median, it was super scary but noone got hurt, although we had to wait about an hour to wait for a tow truck. We got back on the road and got to Boise smoothly, although our sprinters missed the 60m. So it was maybe an hour before I had to warm up, and when I did it was super super foggy outside, bu I didn't want to run inside. Went for a mile. Came back and hurried and changed into my race kit, and I got to the checkin place and my heat (heat 1) was already warming up on the infield! But no worries, I got out there and was able to have enough time for drills and strides. I felt really good doing them. 

I was seeded 13th, which put me on the very outside of the first of two water falls. I was in the faster half of my heat (fastest on the outside). The gun went off and I got out really well, front of my group, then the other guys cut in and I was second. After about 2 or 3 laps I moved into the lead for maybe a lap and a half, and that was cool, but then some guys passed me, and I was in about fifth. I was hitting 40 second laps almost perfectly, shoutout to my coach for letting me know loud and clear. Came through the mile in 5:21. I felt pretty smooth. On one of these laps there was a kid who I tried to pass and then he sped up so i had to wait till after a turn to pass him. Then he passed me again but I got him shortly after. This part of the race is where I started to loose some focus and started hurting. Ran some slower laps. But then I looked up ahead and I saw a kid in neon green, so I decided to maybe try and catch hime. Final 400 came and I didn't have a ton of evergy but I know I kicked it in somewhat. I closed in a 36 second lap, so not too slow, not too fast.  Caught the neon green on the last straightaway, passed him, then he passed me again, and we both did a sprinters lean at the line and he beat me by a fraction of a second. It was nice not having to like line up. 

Ran a 10:44! Which could probably be like a 22 second PR if you compare it to my 3200 PR of 11:03. I'll keep that PR seperate just for organization, but yeah, obviously my 3200 PR isn't 11:03 any more, it would be like 10:40. I made sure to watch the fast heat, shoutout to Garek Bielaczyc for running a 9:00, he lapped like everybody and broke the meet record by nine seconds. Cooled down for 2 miles outside. The fog cleared up so that was nice. There was actually alot of space to run because of the huge parking lot. I'm running just the 800 tomorrow so I can truely see how fit I am in that event. I think I can get pretty close to my PR, so I'm excited. PR is 2:04.7, and at Simplot last year if you ran low 2:04 or lower than you qualified for finals, so hopefully I can prove tomorrow that I can squeeze in there come two weeks from now. 

I woke up at about 7 and showered,  then got breakfast, than we were ready to go. I wasn't feelin to great, so I was scared I would do terrible today. I was just tired from the 2 mile and I could've gotten more sleep. The 800 was at 2:55, which gave me about 5 hours of downtime. So I kinda just chilled, jogged a little here or there, watched races. My legs were still pretty tired. I rolled out and they felt a little better. I made sure to warm up early, and it was smart. Watched Johnny (USU) run a season best so that was good. 

I was in heat two, seeded right in the middle. I felt decent coming off the line, I got right to front of the pack and was ahead of all the kids seeded faster than me when they cut in on the second turn. Came through in about 30.xx, so I was excited to see that. Started to feel it coming onto the homestretch on the next lap. That was like 32. 400 was 63. I saw 62 and I thought I could PR if I pushed it and ran even. I was constantly worrying that someone was going to pass me. I hit the last lap and I was like crap I've gotta go if I wanna stay in front. So I started sprinting the last 200. When I hit 100 to go I could hear someone gaining on me, and I just tried my hardest and I didn't get passed so that was fun. 

I've never crossed the line first in any race before, overall or a heat. I kind of think that I could've run faster in a faster heat, but then again this way I could always stay in lane one and didn't run more than 800m, and still had people pushing me. I know the 2-mile took something out of me, and I potentially could've PRd if I was fresh. After my glutes and quads were completely shot and I had to lay down for a minute. Cooled down a mile with Johnny and then we were off. When we got back I got in the rec center, ran two miles on the treadmill, lifted, then ran another mile. Didn't hit forty, I might jog some tomorrow morning just so I can, but I'll add it to Saturday on FRB since it says Sunday is the start of the week.

Ran with Paul today up to Cliffside, around Gibbons Park, and then back through Providence. It's been a long while since I've run up a hill for a sustained amount of time, even 5 minutes. Given it was a steep hill, but yeah my lower legs killed. Quads felt fine tho, must be the squats I've been doing. But after than hill climb my upper achilles and lower calves were burning for most of the run, until we got back to main street and the light took forever. Go7:t back to the school and did 4 strides on lane one of the freshly plowed track, oh yeah. Beautiful out today, nice and sunny, and relativley warm. After that, you guessed it we lifted. 7:42 avg. on the run. 

8 x Temple hill today. Splits were:

34.2 
34.6 
35.5 
34.3 
33.8 
33.7 
33.8 
32.6

34.06 avg.

(For 200m steep uphill with 2:30 rests)

Felt decent today, I think that's my best average ever. I felt pretty good on most of them then it started hurting at the end of the 6th rep, and Jack and I pushed it as hard as we could on the last one, it hurt, felt like I was being crushed by gravity. We were on the ground. Fun times! Haha I actually did a decent amount of core today, I'm going to make sure to do a solid session of core every other day, with weights on the other other days, except for when a meet interupts it. 

Got to practice, did the half mile warmup upstairs, and then coach had everyone do like quite a bit of core, and I was surprised since I just did a bunch yesterday but I tried not to complain, it'll be good. Then we headed out for a run with the crew. Today was super cold, about ten degrees cooler than I expected and I had brought shorts. It was pretty slow at first because Jack likes to mess around when we're running with everyone, then Jack had to pick up his car from the auto shop, so Paul and I went on at a normalish recovery pace for us, last 5 miles were 7:20 ap. We actually did a loop out north of the school because thats were Jack's car was, it aint a bad place to run it's just pretty lame. Did a few strides on the track after. Pollution was bad I'm sure too, but we didn't wanna use the treadmills because I can't run more than like 3 miles on a treadmill without wanting to crank up the pace. Afterwards we lifted and I moved up to 100 lb for bench and 165 for squats yay :P. Kept cleans the same tho. 

So today we had our hardest workout of the indoor season, although I'm not sure that I took as hard as I should have. The workout was 10 x 400 @ mile pace or faster with 3 mins 400m recovery, so 5 miles on the track. Splits:

74.8,     75.0,     77.1,     73.2,     71.7,     74.0,     69.7,     71.3,     66.7,     63.6      

71.7 AVERAGE

So coach was going to have us do a threshold today but I really wanted to do this workout further out from Simplot, so I got him to change it. The air quality is sooo bad, if you didn't already notice, but running outside is still great. Temps were in the low to mid 30s. The backstretch of the track had a long 50m patch of ice, but there was just enough narrow space to sneak past it easily enough. After a mile indoors, got out there changed shoes and started. I went at what felt like mile pace for me, but it was slower, I was supposed to be at 72.5 (4:50). Took me a while to get into it. By then I was half way through the workout before I started running faster. I still averaged under mile pace due to those outliers at the end, which I'm actually happy about, but I should have stayed even. Felt decent though, I can't wait to do this on a nice warm day during outdoor. Last two were reasonably hard, but not as hard as I could have made them by running the whole workout fast. Still ran a faster last rep than I did last season with much slower overally reps. Cooled down about half a mile inside. No core today. 

Procrastinated my run, also woke up at noon today (no school) so I did a night run up to main street, ran north, than took a street east until I hit temple blvd and head back from there. Felt decent. 7:37 ap with 7:02 last mile. My foot was hurting me a bit but then I stopped and loosened my laces and it felt fine. Pumped for the Olympic Marathon Trials tomorrow! I might not get to watch them :( but can't wait to see what happens especially on the men's side. 

So I slept in, traveled, than we got back too late for me to do the long run on the treadmill I was going to do. Super dissapointed that I couldn't run today but hopefully it just means I'll be more rested for Simplot. It's kind of iffy because maybe mantaining what I was doing would bemore beneficial but we'll see. 

So I actually woke up in the morning today (at like 9) and then I was on the road by 10. Decided I would do my threshold today in order to be fresh for Simplot, and my prelims are on Friday so kind of a long ways away but we'll see. I headed out to do my warmup in tights and a long sleeve shirt and I was like nope screw this it's pretty warm today (it had just rained and snowed so the inversion was gone too) so I after my warmup I changed into shorts and a sniglet, and decided to wear my road racers too. Started and I felt kinda flat, and I felt flat for basically the rest of the time. I was doing a three mile loop out behind my house. I hit the mile in 6:16, and then mile 2 in 6:28, and shortly after I had my heart palpatation again and had to take a rest. That doesn't worry me too much because it only happens once in a while and never in races 2 miles and under. After I got my heart rate back down (bad I know) I finished it off with a 5:49 split. Hung out a little longer than I should have before my cooldown, did that and then some strides on the road. 

Today was an easy run while a couple of my other teammates did a threshold. Finally, the weather is fantastic, I think we actually broke 40 degrees, it was sunny, and no inversion! I ran in  just shorts and a tshirt, and even then the warmth was more than I was used to. Kalin and Paul left during the 800m warmup and so I jogged up to River Heights after the drills and met them towards the end of their tempo. I felt pretty tired actually starting out. Waited for a minute up by the cemetery and then Paul came, ran about a half mile with him at 6:20 pace, turned around to meet Kalin but Kalin never came, he had turned around because his shin was hurting. We went back pretty slow (by now I was feeling better). Got back to the track and Coach had me do 4x200 @ 800 pace w/ 1:30 rest. I ended up doing them faster than date pace but the point was to run them hard. I ran 29.0, 29.5, 29.4 29.4. So that was a 1:57.3 if you add them up... yeah maybe someday. But add seven seconds to that and it's still faster than my PR..... that means it's time to PR! Hung around for a while talking and then we did the full set of lifts. Did I mention the amazing weather!

4 miler to the end of the river walk and back, (no GPS) and then 4x100m all in the 13s. Felt decent. Paul and I sort of left on our run and skipped the team warmup and coach wasn't completley happy about it, oops. It wasn't as warm today, but it was still nice. Then I practiced starts and did hip drills. I'm heading down to Simplot tomorrow to run on the track the day before I race and watch races. It's gonna be sick! Good luck to all.  

Premeet at the Wooden Oval. Jogged half a mile, did strides on the track, jogged some more for two. Not alot of distance, but it was gonna be a low mileage week anyway. My hamstring was sore like the whole time after. It was super fun watching the mile and two mile prelims. Pumped for tomorrow!

Well, I might have learned some lessons today.  No matter what kinds of lessons they were, I've gained experience.

After getting home at 11 after going and watching on thursday, I got everything ready as fast as I could, ate my pasta dinner, and showered. When I got to bed it was already past 12, so not optimal. I think I slept pretty well nonetheless, and I had a good sizeable nap on the bus up then next morning, which left at 7 am. When we got there it was just like Boise all over again, I had around five hours until my race. Considering that, I decided to go on a two mile shakeout, so I left and did a loop around campus on the grass (there was no snow in sight!) and ran around the turf football field a few times. I felt really good and it was nice and sunny and beautiful out. 

Chilled out for four hours, watched races, and when I heard first call for the boys 800, I thought that meant it was time to warmup, so I did a mile outside. I got back in and got everything I needed and headed down there. I got to the check in table and found that they had already checked everyone in! But luckily I found someone who checked me in late so I wasn't scratched. Then it was just a matter of time. I didn't pay too much attention to the other races. I got on the line (I was #2) and they said on your marks but then made us stand up. Then we got started right after that. I almost slipped starting but I got back on my feet fast. I ran super hard the first 50 meters to get to the front, and a kid almost got in front of me but I sped up, and didn't even make contact with him. Came through the 200 in 29, still in front. Came through 400 in 60. I started feeling it about 350m in. Watching my race video, I started to tighten up at 500 meters. I was imagining myself on an outdoor track and where I would be. Guy passed me with 200 to go, and got a gap on me, but it didn't get any bigger, it was just maintained for the rest of the race. Last 400 was 65, split into a 33 and a 32. I made the mistake of looking at the clock on the last stretch and that probably slowed my time down. The clock was off so I thought I ran high 2:04, so I was really hopeful about making finals. When I was walking away my quads and hammys were hurting once again, that only seems to happen after running an 800.

They misplaced our sweats, so me and a bunch of other guys from my heat were looking for them for awhile, but then we were told where they were. I watched the rest of the heats, then went on a half mile to a mile cooldown, then came in and checked results. I looked at the names right below the qualifying line first and I immediatley saw mine, the second one down. Yep, I missed finals by two spots. I instantly felt really terrible, and dissapointed. I ran outside and ran to the other side of the arena at like 5 minute pace. I was mad. Got back to where our stuff was and it was first call for the medley. So I got ready and soon we were waiting for it to start. I geuss I felt okay before it. I was just ready to blow off some steam. Indorr Medley goes 400-200-200-800, so I had to start running earlier because the baton was coming in faster. When I got it we were in second to last place with last way behind. I got it and sprinted to catch up with Davis J-team (J-TEAM!!) and a green uniform. I used alot of energy trying to catch them and ran a 59 or 60 my first 400. Than I started to blow up and they pulled away. I felt sooo tired, I just couldn't go faster. I ran like a 2:11-12 split, it was really bad. Still matched my 800 time from USU haha. Cooled down about 2.5 miles and I was done. 

Well, despite the way I felt mentally and such, I decided to run today. I was just going to do 8 miles but when I left the house I decided to get 10 for a real long run. It was good to do that. Ran from home, up Center, up Canyon Rd, up the Bonneville Trail, and on the Highline Trail before turning around. It was great out today, probably and around 40 degrees and sunny, almost as nice as Tuesday was. I has to stop alot for various reasons, but it was still a good recovery run. Started out running 8 minute miles and then my last few were sub 7. 7:39 ap.

So this week I'm not going to do any real workouts in order to recharge mentally and somewhat physically for outdoor season. That doesn't mean I can't push it a little bit on some of my runs but yeah, It'll basically be like a given week in early summer xc training. Moderate aerobic.

Today Paul was feeling sick and Kalin had a job interview and I don't know where Jack was so I ran on my own, did a loop out to Providence on Spring Creek Road and kept going south a bit, then came back through some neighborhoods. I wasn't feeling too shabby so I went 6:56 average for the run. My left leg was having one of it's weak days tho and the left shoe felt weird. I tried not to let it bother me, cuz stuff like that usually comes and goes. That was 6.3 miles. I got back and did 4x100 on the track with accelerations and decelerations so it wasn't too intense. Then I lifted. 

6 miles on a loop out north today at what turned out to be 7:00 ap with the last four miles sub-7. It didn't even feel that fast, more like 7:10 pace. It was a bit warmer today than yesterday, and the sun was out. Track starts this Monday, Leap Day! My legs were still feeling off balance, but they felt good as in not tired. When I got back I did a couple 200s in just under 30 on the track, I felt tired for those. Then I did a bunch of core workouts while I waited for my ride. Tomorrow I'll have somebody to run with, and somebody better come and run with me or I'm gonna loose my mind. 

Easy 5 miles down Park Avenue and back through the River Trail with Paul. 7:12 pace. We got back to the track and Miranda O'Very was doing a workout there lol. We did 4x100. Didn't feel too bad today. It's been getting warmer all week too. 

So today I decided to do a pseudo workout, which was just a fast run. Turns out I wasn't feeling too hot today. I ran with Paul up to Old Main, then kept going east and down the hill the First Dam, and came back on Sumac and Center St. I decided to where I Cliftons for some reason, haha, those shoes are definitely trashed. So yeah, I just didn't feel too great and neither did Paul but we kept it going, and the only time we stopped without a light was when I had to tie my shoe. It was really tough going up Old Main, and then it was a bit easier to open up once we started going downhill. Finished up with two laps on the track. Non grade adjusted splits were: 6:53, 7:21, 6:51, 6:15, 6:55, 6:36, 6:34 and 6:10 for the last .3 No strength work today, I was too tired.  6:45 average. 

Well, my plans for running changed today when I left my running stuff in seminary and the building was oddly locked after school. So I went home and did homework and procrastinated my run until about 8 oclock so it was dark. To get 40 this week all I had to do was run 4 today and 10 tomorrow so I went on a nice little run out to Willow Park, and then I took a detour on the way back in some neighborhoods by Woodruff. Felt relaxed, it was 7:40 pace. Since I didn't have my normal trainers I decided to whipped out some shoes I havn't worn since Junior XC season, the Brooks Pure Drift. They are zero drop shoes with almost no cushioning. I think they got me injured when I wore them lol. But I thought it wouldn't hurt to wear them for one run, it's not like I'm running in flats everyday (S/O to Joe Howell). I like night runs sometimes. Track starts on Monday!

I was planning on running in the morning, but typically, I slept in and had other obligations during the day. So I was not able to do my long run until it was getting dark but I decided to still do it, BUT I got dropped off all the way out in east Hyde Park, about 10 miles from my house. I saw Ethan out running like right where I got dropped off, lol just missed him tho. Mile one was nice because it was way downhill, then I ran up to the Shoreline trail but it was too snowy so I dropped down to Lundstrom, ran through the neighborhoods a bit to get enough mileage, went sort of around the Logan Cemetery and by the Spectrum, down past Old Maine, and I stopped off at the LHS track before I headed home. Almost all the snow is gone for practice on Monday! Did some strides there and went home. A nice surprise. I started with two shirts but it was too warm so I had to hold one the whole time. 7:23 average. Would have been faster but the trail part was really slow. It was dark basically the entire time, good thing I had a head lamp. Felt pretty realaxed and ran at sub-7 the last few miles. 

Firsta day of practice for everyone today! It was pretty great, although we had to go through things slower because of the large group and not everyone knows what they are doing. We started with a full team meeting, than we broke off, jogged a couple laps, did warmup drills, than coach had us run to Willow Park and do hip drills. So we did that, jogged a mile on the grass there, than coach told Paul, Ryan, Jack and I that we could run as much as we needed to on the River Trail, so we went there and got to the end, turned around and headed back. Jack has decided that he is pushing it more on easy runs than he has before (before he didn't want to go below 7 minute pace) but now he's going 6:45 or faster. We'll see how that works out for him, but I know that even though I can do that pace, I'll get burnt out if I run that fast on every recovery run. But today wasn't recovery and it's still and easier week so I ran with  him. 6:51 ap. We got back to the school and some MC goons were werking it on our track! I got a bit more mileage and run part of Spencer's 800 with him, than did strides and core with the team.