The Renegade

That definetley was'nt as enjoyable as my run yesterday. I started with Sergio, Layne, Hayden, Bjorn and Jaxton. Sergio tripped and maybe sprained his ankle at less than half a mile. A lady luckily picked him up and took him back to the school. Our plan was to run up cliffside, adn I added on to the route a bit and widened the loop into river heights. Everybody kept stopping to wait for Hayden, and eventually I just left them in teh hills of river heights. So I went all the way up to the Dry Canyon trailhead, took some rest (those hills are tough) and maybe went a little too fast on the way down because I strated to get a sideache. (It's hard to control yourself) I took another small rest at the bottom, then went back a little slower than normal, and I cut through Merlin Olsen park, but I was dissapointed when the drinking fountain was'nt turned on.

Short workout today. It felt tough becuase of the speed, but there were'nt alot of reps so it was'nt as bad as it seemed. We had an 800m warmup, then did four 400's at F with full recoveries, followed by and 800m cooldown. Coach said we were tapering for region. When I got home I ran another easy mile.

I'm trying to decide if that run was even worth it. It was'nt even that far, but it was actually pretty tough for me today. I was going at what would normally be my easy pace, yet I was breathing really hard and my legs felt heavy. I geuss the donuts I ate a couple hours before did'nt help much. (oops) I need to be more careful with Region coming up on wednesday and thursday, especially if I want to bring my 12:26 down by much. I'm pretty confident I can do it. I hope today's extra mileage did'nt affect the taper.

So I got really lucky today. Becouse me and a few other people are fast enough to go to region but too slow to go to state we got a super easy workout. Here it is:

800m warmup + 2x (400m F-pace w/ full recoveries + 800m cooldown

So now I have at  ton of energy, and with another easy day tomorrow, this tapering that we're doing is really going to give us non-state qualifiers a potential to get a hopefully nice PR . I know I'm ready too on thursday.

This is nice, it's just getting easier as we continue to taper. Basically teh same as yeseterday, but a little slower:

800m warmup + 2x (400m R-pace w/ full recoveries) + 800m cool down

I actuall quite enjoyed those 400s . I was supposed to hit about 1:18, I just found out. I ran them in 1:20 and 1:18. So it was actually the first one that I was off on. I did'nt even look at my watch on either, so that's pretty good. 

I've got even more energy now that I want to get out of my system, but I'll save it for region and be smart. Just one 400 tomorrow, but I might practice a couple starts for the 2 mile because we've only done mile starts before.

Region got postponed for today because of the weather, and they're moving it all to tommorrow. That's fine because my race wasn't today anyways, but then again tomorrow the 32 will be one of the last races, so I'll probably miss my orchestra concert.  I'll go anyways, but that's kind of frustrating.  

I ran three laps in seventh to help Hayden with his workout, (he hit his times later every time), then at practice coach had us do an 800m warmup, then just 400m at F-pace, and Keith and I just did a 400m cool down. It was slightly rainy and overcast, but it wasn't that bad, I think they still could have pulled off a meet today.

So the title of this entry says that it was just the 3200, but that wasn't even the highlight of my day.

In the 4x800 relay, my team placed 1st, which we were actually really excited about. The order went Luke, Damon, Me, then Keith. At the end of Luke's leg, we were in second. Them Damon put us into first by quite a bit. When I was waiting for him to pass it off, the Sky View guys who were in second were telling their 3rd leg runner that he had to go fast to beat me. I received the baton pretty well and then as soon as I started, I knew that I felt good. At around the 200m mark, the Sky View runner caught up to me and passed me. I expected that he was just really fast at the 800 and he was going to keep that speed but I stayed on his shoulder and passed him shortly after. Then I passed it off to Keith, he raced really well, and we won! Too bad there's no 4x800 at state!

The 3200 didn't go as well as I wanted it to. I finished in dead last place, but it was technically my first varsity track race, so I don't feel too bad about it. As soon as the race started, the main pack started to separate from me and a Mountain Crest runner. I tried to hang on too him, and I did for the entire first mile. Then he eventually broke away, although my memory of him doing so is clouded. In I think lap 6, it got pretty tough mentally because I was getting lapped by the faster people. I tried to stay strong though, and kind of focused on keeping my form solid. In the last 200, my legs were really burning, but I made sure that I sped up quite a bit. I PR'd, but I was't completely satisfied with my time. The 4x800 was over two hours before then, but maybe I would've gotten a better time if I had'nt done that. Oh well, there's another chance at JV region.

First I ran a mile in seventh hour just because I felt like it. Then I found out that there was no practice, but a couple of people still showed up, so we went and did a short hill workout. (2x400m hills R-pace w/ down hill cooldowns) I was going to do more sets, but the rest of our group was'nt very motivated. The weather was actually really nice outside when we started our run, but before we went back it started to rain and thunder. By the time we got to thwe school it was pouring buckets. I'm glad we brought our stuff in in time.

Today I had a really good run. I just felt great the whole time and did'nt get tired, which is pretty much teh opposite from last Saturday's run, which was actually less than half the distance. I listened to the radio, maybe that helped me somewhat. The only bad thing that happened was after about half a mile, I got a nose bleed, which I could luckily get to stop. I ended up going all the all the way to the tip of the island area up Sumac Dr. past Riverside Elementary( which I had never heard of before) In the last half mileI got a small side ache, but that's just 1/16 of an otherwise really enjoyable, easy run. I'm glad I got the mileage too, I just hope it was'nt too much for Tuesday, on which I've decided I'm running the two mile again because I'm frustrated with not PRing as much as I wanted too.

Easy pre-meet today. We did basically the same thing that we've been doing for the last week and a half or so. People racing tomorrow, that is. The state qualifiers had a longer workout. I sure am wishing the best for them. We just did two 400's at R-pace with an 800m cool down and warmup, but mine was more like a mile warmup cause I ran 800 in seventh hour. I didn't feel too good today, I could tell when we started our warmup. The 400's felt harder thatn usual, and I know that I was going at the right pace. I think I'm starting to get a cold, too. I just hope I feel good enough tomorrow to PR one last time.

3200m - 12:26

I really, really regret running that race. I wouldn't have regretted it if I had beat my time, though. This morning I could tell as soon as I got up that I was super tired, and my cold was worse. Probably beacuse I didn't get enough sleep last night. I should have taken that as a hint right from the start. I started to feel a little bit better throughout the day, but I just didn't feel the same energy that I'm supposed to feel on race day. We got to Sky View way late, so Keith and I had amost no time to get a warmup run in, or stretch, or prepare in any way. At 400m, I could tell this wasn't going to be my race. I went out fast, also. I think I was at like a 1:25 at lap 1.  I raced alone the entire time (although that's not uncommon with this event). By the last 800m, I think I just remember trying to reassure myself that I would finish and be able to rid myself of pain someday. So that kind of helped me. In last lap the 100s felt more like 400s. It was terrible. After I finished I felt very lightheaded.

1600m - 5:25

I think I would've PR'd in this event if I hadn't run the two mile. It just bugs me so much. But hey, I did'nt finish as slow as I thought I would, it just hurt more than usual. It wasn't my slowest race this season, either. One reason I think I ran it in that time was because of Bryson & Davis. Whenever one of them came up next to me, I just thought, "I can't let them beat me, Bryson's been sprinting all season and Davis hasn't beat me in track yet". Bryson actually started in front of me, probably because he's used to reacting fast to the gun. That initially is what made me want to run harder. Anyways, I think my slightly selfish competetive attidude helped me out alot. When I finished my light headedness was gone. (thank goodness)

800m - 2:25

So it happened again today, I literally almost missed the race. I was distracted and I looked  up and I saw that they were ready to go. 5 seconds after I ran to the line they fired the gun. So I wasn't really mentally prepared for it, although luckily I had gotten my stretches in. I think I went out too fast. I moved into 4th place at 200m and stayed there the rest of the race. That's about the only thing that I remember happening. At my 700m, my legs felt like they were on fire and all I could was make a tortured face and bare the pain. I laughed when I saw pictures later because I looked constipated.

I decided I do a little warmup today if I'm running a 5K tomorrow. I didn't feel that good, though. It was just a mile, but I was glad to be done afterwards. I geuss that's the sign that it is past the end of a tough track season. Still really excited for XC to start!

I had my mom drop me off a half mile away from the school so I could warm up to the starting line. I got there and did some stretches with Hayden, and about 10 minutes later, the race started. I felt alot better than I did warming up. This obviously wasn't a competetive race because I ran the first mile alone and started overlapping people at the beginning of mile two. (It was all on a mile loop) I felt great pretty much the whole time.(that's why my time was so slow.) There was just a small hill, but other than that the course was pancake flat. At the end, I did sort of relaxed sprint. It felt really good. I kind of feel bad about running 19:30 on a 2.9 mile course, but I wasn't going as hard as I could have, and I have a whole summer to work to drop my time before the season. 

Yeah........I geuss you could say that that wasn't the best run that I've ever had. 6 "easy" miles up to the tip of the Island and back, just like I did last Saturday, except from the school instead of my house. I felt moderatley fine up until about the end of Center Street (mile 1.5) Then the rest of the run I just had no energy, and it wasn't that cool out either. Probably a mix of unhealthy eating, dehydration, and sleep deprivation. I'll try to do better in those areas. 

Glad I got the mileage, though. I'll count that as the first run of my Cross-Country training season.

Had a pretty good but tough workout session today. Warmed up to Merlin Olsen Park (just under a mile), did some dynamic stretches, then I did six 800s at R-pace in a loop that circled about half the park. I treated the first 3 like the beginning of a race hitting around 3:10 for all of them, then the last three like the end, with a kick in the last stretch hitting 3 flat for all of them. I tried to do that relaxed sprint like I did in my 5K on saturday, but my body was pretty tight and it didn't work out as well. I was planning on doing eight repeats, but I knew it woulden't be in my best interest after the sixth rep. When I was done with that, I did three and a half minutes of core, four twenty second bare foot strides on the grass, and then some extra cooling down (800m) before I started back to the high school. I'll probably focus more on mileage volume for now on, but with a few of my own workouts peppered in here and there.

Not a particularly good run today. If I don't have a good run soon then that means that I did'nt take a big enough break. I did a loop down Park Avenue and then throughn the river trail back to the school. I just wasn't enjoying it. I had to stop a few times to rest and do extra stretching. Maybe because I didn't stretch before I started is the reason it sucked. I don't know. I just need XC to start soon, I hate training alone.

Felt pretty good today (glad I took yesterday off), so I decided to make up sort of my own workout. That was'nt my intention when I started, but then I just kind of went with it. I ran from the school to the bottom of River Heights Blvd., that was E-Pace, then I went harder than normal up the hill, (about 800m). When I got to the top, I was breathing pretty hard, so I had a recovery down through the nature park ( this was all a big loop) I ended up back at the bottom of the hills, and I went at tempo on the dirt road till I hit 200 south. Pretty short for a tempo run, but I also had the hills, too. I liked that workout, it had some variety and helped with recovery after a big set of hills, like in a race. The run was only about 30 min. long, I'll start increasing my time and distance next week. 

Today I probably had the weirdest and most interesting run ever. I'm up at my grandma's in Idaho, and I decided to take a dirt road that ran on last time I was here. I felt OK, I think the only reason I didn't feel great was because of the elevation change. There were some moderate hills, but nothing to trecherous. The first half was uneventful, then I got to a gate, and I hopped it and continued down the road. I turned around this ridge, and there were to dogs about 100 yards away by some sheds, and they were barking at me. That had me pretty scared. So I cautiously went passed and I hit the end of the road right after. There was another gate the led down to a house, with a black lab right behind it. By now I felt cornered and I thought I was going to get attacked, and the dog came up to me and started to jump on me. He was actually just being friendly, but I thought I was going to be disebowled. Very scary situation. Anyways I started running and he was following me. He ended up running next to me the whole two miles back. I wish I had a dog to run with.

AM- 1 mile easy (9:10) with my little bro at his school's mile run.

PM- 7.5 miles easy, took just under an hour. Good run, but boy was it hot! I think it's hotter today than it's been all year. I didn't keep myself hydrated throughout the day, and that prabably made it worse, but lmy breathing was good, and I had quite a bit of energy. Although I had to take alot of rests and I slowed down in that second half. All to keep from getting heat exhaustion. I took a route that I've never taken before, up center street, up through the nature park, through river heights and all lthe wayh to some houses in Providence that were sort of on a hill. Than I took the dirt road in Rvier Heights back. Good path, but there was only one working drinkiing fountain along the way. 

When I got home, I stretched and then did 3 1/2 minutes of core. I need to do that more often.

I went to the second bridge at the river trail and back today. I wasn't feeling great, my stomach was bothering me and the heat didn't help. I had to stop at the same restroom twice. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel better, I might do a workout.

Today I did a 3 mile, 24 minute interval workout. My body didn't completely feel up for it, by I made myself do it. So I had about a 400m warmup, than. I started with a jog ( I don't know why, since the jogs are for recovery) probably to get some extra warming up. Anyways, what I did was intervals of 3 minutes hard and 3 minutes easy. I got through three full sets, and the last hard part was cut to two minutes because I got home before it was over. They were pretty tough, each one getting harder every time. But that's how it works. Wow, if I don't run tomorrow than I'll only have like 15 miles for the week, that's kind of a bummer. Oh well, I'll double it next week, it'll all be good.