The Renegade

We were in salt Lake today so I got the chance to do a test run of the state course. When I started running I didn't feel very good and I felt dehydrated (proably from walking all day), but then I got a little warmed up. The first time around I needed the map alot, but it seemed pretty simple. I had alot of stops and starts, too. When I got to the track I turned around and jogged back to the starting line. This time I was running it all without stopping at an easy pace and seeing what time I ran it in. I just wasn't feeling good today I geuss, because my head started pounding and my legs got heavy, when it was supposed to be nice and easy. I didn't run the whole thing, I stopped with maybe 300 left, so my estimate would be 22:30 for my Epace time on the course. One thing I learned just from jogging it is to run the first mile conservatively to save energy for the two hills in the 2nd half of the race. It usually gets described as pretty hilly, but there are actually only 3 hills, and none of them are a combination of steep and long, the first one is moderate and short, the second one is steep and short, and the third hill is shallow and long, which could still kill you if you didn't pace right. Well, now I'm more ready for it if we qualify this year then I would've been. 1000m repeats tomorrow, I hope I haven't used to much energy today and yesterday. Also, I just figured out that tommorow I will run my 1000th official mile this year. In 2013 I ran 402 miles.

At XC this afternoon we took a bus up to Lundstrom and did 5x1K repeats w/ 2 min rest at 10K pace, although I found out later they were more like 1.1. After our warmup, Todd put us into groups, and I was in a group with Damon and Keith, and I think Xavier (A pretty fast freshman, and I think that's how you spell it). Then right before he started Mark, JD and Ethan's group, he changed his mind and put me with them. On the first 1000, I tailed the three of them, but then we all finsihed right next to eachother. Our time was 4:00. I don't remember much about the rest, other than that the heat was getting to me and they hurt more each time, also I fell further back behind the other three. I think I really started to get exhausted and break form on the second to last one. That was probably where I suffered most mentally. At least I finished the last one, Ethan quit once we got to like the 500m mark. That is definetley rated as the toughest workout so far this season. I felt worse than I ever felt racing last Wednesday. But that's good, the more it hurts, the more I am increasing my fitness.

Splits:

4:00

3:52

3:54

4:00

3:51

In XC today we did a 40:00 run, which is actually longer than I've gone in afternoon practice in the whole two weeks. We went to Providence and I ran with Mark and JD on the way out until we got to three miles, and then we turned and they dropped the pace to one that was pretty uncomfortable, around 6:05. So they dropped me and I ran pretty slow the rest of the way back. When we got back we did 4x100m strides.

Easy 25-30 minute shakeout on the rivertrail. The pace started feeling kind of hard on the way back, but I geuss it was my fault since I was leading half the time. Big meet tommorow at our course. There is expected to be 25+ schools there, although we won't have two of our top 4. That makes me #3, so I geuss we won't really be able to gauge where we are, although this would be a perfect time to do it.

     (Sorry for the long entry, I know it's not state, but I got carried away)

     Well I PR'd by 9 seconds which is good, but I also killed myself doing it. That race hurt way more than last week's race. The course was also .04 longer, (although it was on the same sight), so I would have been under 18:10 probably. I bet I could have done better if I had gotten more sleep, too or done something different during the day. Anynways, here's the break down.

     Our second and third runner weren't racing, so I was #3, but at least I got to start in the front. The course was on the same site (our home course), but it was changed just a little bit, and instead of just Ogden being there there was around 20 other schools. So a much different scenerio from our first meet, except for the course. I just realized that our course lacks a big component to XC: hills. So you kind of use a track mentality on it. I hope we will be prepared for Bob Firmin and State.

Mile 1- 5:40 

When the gun went off, I sprinted out pretty hard, and so did everyone else. I geuss that's how all varsity races are, I'll just have to get used to that. Damon got out in front of me and Davis with some runners in between us. I reminded him not to go out too hard since we talked about that earlier before the race. We eventually got into a pack of three and Davis headed it. I knew we we were going pretty quick from the start, and that was confirmed when Coach (Todd) told us we were at a 5:40 mile. 

Mile 2- 6:18 (That's the average for my next 2 miles which was 12:36, last mile longer. Mile 1 is the only split I heard)

     This was when I felt like slowing down, and obviously I, but I almost let Damon and Davis drop me. Luckily they noticed this and and let me know. I hit the wall somewhere is this mile, and and a hard wall it was. I spent the rest of the race battling it.

Mile 3- probably between 6:00 and 6:10 with the .09 taken off

     The fire in my legs just worsened and worsened due to the lactic acid filling them up, and my face showed it. I think I had Davis with me for most of this mile, but Damon dropped back about 20-30 meters. It got so bad with 800 to go. Like I said this race hurt way more than last week. It probably made it worse when somone said there was 400 meters left when I knew it wasn't true, but I wished it was. I remember looking at my watch when it was at 15 and thinking "the leader (Conner) has already finished, I really wish I was done". Some encouagement from teammates helped me keep going when I hit the quarter-to-go mark. At this point I was just telling myself,  "I will finish soon, and it's gonna feel good when that happens", and then I was in sight of the bend that led to the last straightaway, and the white tents that we had decided we going to start our kick at.

Last stretch: 10-20 seconds

     This is where the mental burden laid off and I kicked it into high gear, which brought on so much pain. I looked over and saw a Bear River runner, and I went faster and beat him by a hair. That felt pretty good since I was in his exact postion last week. The line to give them our Bib#'s was pretty long and I wanted to collapse or at least lean on something, and I was gasping for air. It took me about 5 minutes to catch my breath. 

All in all, I was pretty satisfied. My teamate did pretty good. Mark and JD (our seniors) finished right with eachother in 17:12 and 17:14, and four of my other teamates (Damon, Xavier, Davis, and Keith in both varsity and JV) proved to be in a good pack with me (we all finished within 16 seconds of eachother) And I realized that even though we still have a whole XC and track season ahead of us, next year if we all improve together we are going to be a dang good top 5 group. Our team took 19'th, but we beat Box Elder and Roy without some of our fastest runners. Now we just need to really race Bonneville hard next week to see if we can beat them with our complete varsity, and if we can do that, we can qualify for state at region in October.

Good morning run with the team. We met at somone's house (which is nearby mine) and ran 30 minutes out west and then turned back. I was with the fast goup on the way out and felt good for the first two miles, and then my condition declined from there. On our way back I really felt the effects of the race yesterday and when we caught up with a slower group I let my previous group drop me and ran with them. It felt pretty good but at the same time I was dissapointed in myself for not staying with the rest of the varsity. I did pick it up again in the last 1/2 mile and felt pretty good so there's that. Then we had a nice filling breakfast after which I went home and napped for 5 hours on the couch.

Tough workout for me today, and not the for the usual reason. We did a five minute warmup and then started with a minute tempo and equal rest (it was all equal rest). The first minute was with Mark and JD, so for Me, Keith and Damon it was pretty dang quick. The whole workout was supposed to be 1 minute tempo w/ equal rest, then 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3,2 1, tuening around at the five. After Mark and JD dropped us we went at our own tempo pace, and I stayed with them until the beginning of the 4 minute tempo, where by now we were over halfway through the canal trail. On the 4 minute one lactic acid filled my legs up quick and my heart beat super fast. They pulled far ahedad and I eneded up stopping after 3 minutes (because I thought 4 minutes was up). Then I just decided that it would be hard enogh to keep running and when I got to the top of the small hill by First Dam, Todd came back and told me that I could jsut turn back. So I ran with him for about 10 minutes, pretty slow but I was hurting none the less. After that Todd had to back to the school so he sped up and left me alone. Then I took a rest and kept going pretty slow for the remaining time. I was kind of disapointed in myself for gimping out, but Todd said that it was okay and that I'm probably sick or something. This makes me fear that I'll even stay on varsity for this year.

Well, I kind of wish I felt like I did today yesterday, because my shakeout run with Keith was effortless. We did the rivertrail, like we usually do on shakeouts, and I was able to talk the entire time, my breathing was low, it was great. Hopeful for tomorrow.

     Pretty good race today. Bonneville's course is super good. It's in a big park that's covered with trees, and it's pancake flat. We got there at about 2:30 (race started at 3:30), so we had plenty of time to walk the course and then get in a good warmup and stretches. Last year (almost a year ago to the day actually) we had a meet here and I sort of got lost, but it was that I was going the right way, turned around because I thought I was going the wrong way, then it turned out I was going the right way in the first place. I ended up running a 20:00, and it probably would have been a 19:30 if I hadn't had that confusion anyways. So I kind of wamted to redeem myself, and I geuss I did. 

     Before the race started, I talked to everyone about not going out too fast, but we ran a 5:50 first mile (I wanted to go 6). At least it was better than the 5:40 last week. I came through the mile mark feeling pretty good anyhow, and with me was Johnny, Keith, Isaac, and I think Damon, Davis, and Jake, but if they were than we lost them soon after. I could alerady tell that the odds werent in our team's favor with the pack that Bonneville had up front, but I let that leave my mind and focused on my own race. Pretty soon Keith and Johnny pulled away and it was just me and Isaac running together for the rest of the race. I was scared that he would just pull away all together, but I stayed with him the whole time. I was actually surprised to see him running with us, but I just figured out that it was his first race of the season, so I didn't really know where he was at. I started to feel it at teh start of mile 3, where the lactic started filling up. I figured out the other day that if you shake you arms when that happens it will drain out, but I coulden't do anything about the legs, just take the pain, because that's what distance running is all about. We hit the sharp turn before the final stretch and I ducked away from some branches and almost tripped on Isaac's heels, then he outkicked me. Good race overall, I just need to make sure to stay with Keith next time and stay ahead of Isaac. whe we got of the bus back at the school, Todd told me that maybe I was experiencing some burnout and that he might have me take it a little easier for the next week before Cache-Box on wednesday. So I think I'll trust his word. I know we have milers on Friday so it will be interesting to see what he has me do then.

Good run with Mark and JD. I felt pretty great, and I was able to keep up a conversation with no problem. We ran up to the university and then back on the canal trail. Afterwards we did four strides.

     At practice today we had a small set of mile repeats at Willow Park West. I got some xc spikes a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to try them out. The only down side of that was that I had to run to the park in them on the road, so they kind of got scuffed. 

     When we got there we ran a little part of the course and then got started. The first onE felt fine the entire time. I was on Keith's heels all the way, with Isaac right behind me. We ran it in 5:58, right on the goal pace. On the next one it was pretty much just me and Keith, and he picked it up quite a bit at the end. I pulled up next to him and he took it as a challenged and took off, but I said forget it, I'm trying to hit a certain time here, it's not a race. I still ended up running a 5:38. On the last one a pack of quite a bit of us stayed together until the end, and that made it easier mentally. Again there was a big kick and I came in getting nipped by Keith and Isaac with a 5:58 again.  Then we did core and ran back. The workout I think was actually not that hard, and I would've liked to see more repeats in there. They were at R-pace, except for the second one, so I think we could've done 5 in 6 minutes, it just would've been hard. I've heard a great workout is 6x1 mile @Tempo, so I would like to see that sometime in our workout schedule. 
 

    When we got back to the field I did 4 strides by myself. The spikes worked great on the grass, I just need to see how they are with the gravel on our home course. If I do use them I wont be screwing in any actual spikes unless the course is completley grass. The shoes do al have a shark-skin type rubber tread that already is an advantage in the grass. 

     This morning we took a bus up to the Campbell's (our coaches) parennt's house in Weston, Idaho to do a "long run", which I guess is long compared to what we've usually been doing for our easy days at practice. It was pretty cold for the first couple of miles, but I warmed up after that. Keith and I were running in the front group for the first mile and then Johnny and JD came and picked us up basically and we dropped the rest of the group. It's funny how that happpens. There were some long and gradual hills, but they actually weren't too bad. In the last mile of the run though it felt like the end of a hard tempo. Probably because of the lack of sleep I got last night, plus we didn't do any warmup drills before running. When we arrived back at the house we had a nice big breakfast and then took the bus back home. 

     Today I had a pretty good workout.  I'm going to count the warmup as being 3.9 miles (our regular warmup loop and then the run to First Dam Park). What we were supposed to do was go out 25 min and try to come back in 20, but I started my watch later so I woulden't be interupted by traffic during the tempo. I ran with the faster varsity, so the jog out was a little faster than I wanted it to be anyway, and when we got to first dam my watch was at 20, so I just turned around there. Last time we did this it was twenty out, but I covered a little over a half mile less distance that time, and it only took me 15 minutes to get back. I don't know how far that was, maybe a litttle over 2, but my tempo distance was 2.66 and I made it back in 17, that's about right. I don't do tempo runs really at all, but I really should because their super good in my opinion because they keep your mind in sort of a race mentality because it's just continuous running, contrary to a fartlek for example. I felt medium good the whole time. Mark went out at 4:30 pace, so that's why it looked like he was just flying away from me when we started (he didn't keep it). I just calculated my pace and it was anywhere from a 6:23 to a 6:30, so pretty much right on the dot. Going down the path to get off the canal trail onto Canyon Rd. was pretty scary because I thought I was going to snap my ankle on a rock, especially with the shoes I was wearing. The end of the tempo was a pretty big hill, and it ended literally right at the top, so I don't know how good that was for my mentality about hills. I'll probably put a hill in the middle or just not have a hill at all next time so that I won't be used to stopping at the top of hills. After that I ran 2.5 more miles just for the volume and to get in a long cool down, since that's usually done for tempo runs I believe. Tomorrow we have an easy day and then we have the Cache-Box Invitational at our home course, and I hear it won't be a cool day, so I hope I'll be prepared for it. 

Good shakeout, it was a little quicker than I geuss I would have done, but I was running with the other varsity guys, so what can I expect. We did a pretty nice loop that incorporated willow park and the river trail. It was super hot out and I heard it's going to be worse tomorrow, so I'm kind of scared. 

     So I am satisfied with my race, just not the time. Although I geuss it's pretty good that I only missed my PR by 6 seconds considering the 80-90 degree heat with no shade. I woke up not feeling super great, and I was kind of still feeling the soreness from our tempo run on monday, but as the day progressed, the soreness faded, and I felt okay. I did a good job hydrating, too. 

     When we got to the course it was about 2:30, so I had some time to kill, and most of it was spent relaxing in the shade under our team canopy, with the occasional port-a-potty run. I did watch the races, and they were great. Keith placed second in the JV race, and my other teammate Vickie Krull placed 2nd in the girls varsity race to Miranda O'very. 

     I started warming up at 4:40 (the race was scheduled to start at 5). I felt about the same as the warmup at the Aggie Invite. After some stretches we went to the starting line, did some strides, and the race soon started. the sprint-out felt fast again, and Damon reminded me to chill out, so I took it a little slower in the first mile. I came through the 800 at 2:40, so a little quick, but that was just because of the sprint off the gun. (2:40 800's were actually my mile pace in track last year, so that gets me excited to see what my mile is once the season's over) At this time I was running with Zair and Damon, and I came through mile 1 at 5:48, so I did a better job pacing wise than at the Aggie Invite. This was where I sort of pulled away from Damon and Zair, and cruised through mile 2, which felt pretty easy and quick. At the end of mile 2 (which I don't know the splits for), I passed Johnny, which really surprised me because he ran a 1:56 800 in track last season, but he also hasn't been running as much due to illness and injury. He apparently dropped out right after I passed him, which is fine, it only counts at region, and it also is nice to know that our score (5th place) could have been better with him. A while after I passed Johnny I looked at my watch and it said 12:30, so I thought if I just held my pace I would PR, so either I was wrong or I didn't hold the pace. Anyways the last mile was great because I passed maybe 5 or 6 people, and I've really never done any major passing in a race, so that was awesome, plus I know that that helped us beat West Side and Preston, because there were guys on those teams in the group that I was passing. But it was more likek I was passing kids 1 at a time, just picking them off. I was pretty fun actually. Towards the end I was on this Sky View runner's heels, I passed him right before the turn onto the straightaway, and tehn he let out a ferocious yell and took off. That made me so mad, so I screamed, too. And I can actually see why he did it. It triggers some adrenaline. I think I'll try it full on at Bob Firman next week. In fact I'm pretty sure I remember Brian McKenna (our old coach) say that last year. So teh Sky View dude and a Preston runner just took off, and I sprinted as hard as I could, but to my dissapointment I didn't PR. I'm going to blame it on the heat. 

    Like I said, this gets my hopes up for region because of the fact that we could beat Mt. Crest if we all work hard for the rest of the season and race to our full potential on that fateful day. We do have Bob Firman to try adn beat them, too. And then we have one more race, the Bear River Invite, and then region and I'm really hoping state. 

Entering the final 400m in hot pursuit of a Sky View runner, with Vickie and Keith cheering me on. 

Entering the final straightaway with Jake to my left yelling encouragingly.

Letting out a roar in response to the Sky View and Preston runners' kicks.

Home free to the finish:

Today was supposed to be easy, but I kind of ignored that for reasons and decided to make it a longer endurance run. The people I ran with, Keith , Damon, Jake, and a couple girls on the team were going super slow, and I decided to just take it at what felt normal, so I dropped them. Where we were running was a road in Providence that we like to call "Death Hill", near Von Baer Park. I was feeling pretty good, and then I hit the hill, and after coming back down in a loop that goes through a trail at Von Baer, I was not feeling good at all, and I was 4 miles away from the school. The weather was scorching just like yesterday, too. So teh rest of the run was hell, and it felt great to be back at the school. 4 x Strides and icing and that was practice. I think today was a rough day for everyone, I know it was for Vickie and Mark also, who ran up to Lundstrom Park. 

At practice today we were supposed to run to Merlin Olsen and get further instructions from Todd. Turns out we were playing ultimate frisbee. I was expecting 800 repeats, not games. I like our coaches, but I think these games when we should be running our butts off is one of the reasons why we don't have alot of hard workers on the team. Luckily Mark agreed, so he took about 8 of us up to the canal trail by Lundstrom Park to do a workout: 8x800m repeats, just what I was gearing up for today.  After a short warmup, we started on the first one, and finished it in 2:45, a little bit faster than I expected, but I think it was because the course was a little shorter than 800. 

Here's the times to best of my memory (It's #7 that I'm not sure about). 

1- 2:45

2- 2:36

3- 2:41

4- 2:40

5- 2:46

6- 2:55

7- 2:36

8- 2:26 (all out)

I ran most of them with Kieth next to me, and the only ones that I didn't I finished in front of him, especially on the last one. We took a 1:30 to 2:00 break each time. I felt pretty good today, thankfully. I think the hardest one was #7, even though it was the slowest. The easiest repeat physically was obviously the first one, and the easiest one mentally was the last. That one was actually kind of fun to just go all out and know I didn't have to save any energy. The sprint on the final straightaway was great. After running the half mile back to Lundstrom I cooled down for 2 miles with Mark. Our pae was actually pretty good, we got back in exactly 15:00, so 7:30 pace. After that we got slurpees and did some icing. Overall that was one of the best workouts I've had all season.  

Great run this morning on the Deer Fence, probably my favorite trail run of them all, and plenty of people would agree. I ran with Mark, Keith , and Vickie at a slow pace for about 30 min, which got us three and a half miles out, so 8:34 average mile. I felt good. On the way back, which has a couple more tough climbs than going out, we picked up the pace to a 7:08, so alot faster, but it didn't feel hard. On the last big hill before the trailhead, Mark and Keith went super fast up it, but I coulden't keep up. I don't think I'm very good hills, and I don't want that to become my weakness at Bob Firman. I just looked at the workout schedule for next week and we only have one workout, which I think is weird considering that we have 5 days of running before the race, enough for 2 hard days, so I hope I can get coach to have us do some hills, since we have Bob Firman and JV is at Box-Elder next week, a very hilly course. 

The group after the run and at breakfast

First I had a half-mile warmup and then 6 easy miles out towards Providence with Todd, Mark, and JD. We averaged a 7:30 pace and it felt pretty good, I've just gotta get Damon and Keith and whoever else to run with us, because the older guys are a good influence for solid training. This morning it was super foggy, and I wished I coud've been running then, but the sun came out for the second half of the day and pretty much stayed out. It was still a pretty cool temperature , though, a good break after last week's blistering heat. Afterawards we did 4x200m. I hit 34, 36, 34, 33. They felt super quick, probably a combo of having run six miles and waiting half an hour to do these, and not being used to running on a track, but that should be my 800m pace if not slower. Tomorrow morning we have 1000's in Logan Canyon. This is going to be a busy week (it's Homecoming and Bob Firman), but luckily we have a day off from school tomorrow.

       Very hard, very humbling morning workout today.   

     I got up this morning to catch the bus to First Dam that the team was taking and had a pain in my leg, like shinsplints. I had had it before, but this was worse than it's been before. I went to practice and when we got to first dam we started running towards trail head of the river trail in Logan Canyon adn I noticed that I kind of had a hitch in my step whenever I took a stride with my left leg. Luckily that pretty much went away when we started the workout, which  was 6x1000m all out with a 500m jog. The way the course was set up was we ran up the trail 1000m adn jogged back 500 until we got to the last cone, where would then just do straight 1000 and 500s with out turning around at all. The first one felt so fast it seemed impossible to maintain mechanical stability and efficiency due to the velocity at which we were going, (maybe because I wasn't completely warmed up), although we were actually only doing 3:45s on average the whole workout which translates into a 6:00 mile. So on teh next one I told Keith to slow it down a bit but after 500m Todd came from behind and told us we were going to slow. That's when the realization came that this was going to be a hell of a run.

     Most of the repeats were run with Keith, and the further up the trail we got, the steeper the incline was. The end of the last one before turning around was on a single track trail where the switchbacks started, and earlier in it was a significant incline on kind of a long hill, so Keith kind of pulled away from me on that one because he'll kick a hill up the but before he let's it get him, which is good but I can see that being a problem if he surges up spectator hill on saturday the first time we go up it, because that's not even halfway through the race and the course takes you up it twice. We had a 1000m jog after that one so the next set felt alright, I actually beat Keith on it and he started ahead of me, too. That was the second to last one. On the last repeat, I died and didn't feel like I had teh energy to keep going. Also my shoelace was untied so that did no good mentally.

     The season is reaching it's climax, the point in time that occurs in every cross-country season. The time where we hurt, and see eachother hurt, and open up by letting others see your pain, with that comes a special, strong bond between teammates that appears only in endurance training. That's the miracle of running, because when your'e hurting, you can have the comfort of knowing that the people beside you are hurting just as much, and alos that pain you have inside you can be so deep, so so real, and deep down you know how good it actually feels, because you know how much good will come out of it in the long run.

All the people going to Bob Firman did 1.75 mile warmup to the nature park, where we ddi some hill/tempo work. It was 2x5min @ tempo with recovery jog. ( It was prettty much a full recovery. The workout could have been alot tougher had there been more reps, but coach went easy on us today. The hill in all of this was about 400m into the course, a pretty long maybe 100-200m hill that we were told to race up, at a significantly faster pace than tempo, and then go back into tempo once we got ot the top, keep going till 5 min is up (we crested the hill at about 2:30 both times), and then finish the loop and do it again. I knew that hill would be a challenge to keep up with Keith on, because he always takes hills at an uncomfortable speed, but I stayed with him on both. It actualy wasn't that bad once I got to the top, and it was pretty easy to keep going at tempo. On the second rep Damon beat both of us up the hill, but then I stayed ahead of him and Keith for the rest of the 5 min, which got us further on that one than the first, a little past the edge of the Providence Cemetary. After that Mark and I got in about 3.5 extra miles in a loop that went around on the canal trail and then Temple Blvd. They felt pretty good just nice and relaxed. I was a little worried about my tendonitis, but I didn't feel it at all doing the workout or other running. The only time I can feel it is when I am on my feet but not running (so walking) I think the little bit of icing I did helped. That workout was good, I would definetley do it again, probably while training for Foot Locker in November. After icing I went to the homecoming parade and then the poweder-puff game, so busy day, but it's homecoming week and I've only got one more year of this so I might as well make it worth-while.

Good run with Mark to First Dam and back. I felt pretty bad at first up until the canal trail and then I felt better It was hot enough for me to drop my shirt. My leg felt okay.

We arrived in Boise an ran the course. My shin was hurting and I felt like crap. (maybe from all the muddy buddies I ate). This doesn't make me very confident for tomorrow, but we'll see.

     Friday: My shin was hurting all day, I was worried about the the race. I also only got 7 hours of sleep, which is okay, but not ideal. I took about 2 or 3 Ibuprofen, so I think that's been helping a little.

     Saturday: I woke up feeling better than yesterday, so my enthusiasm was raised. Before we left Tood taped my leg, so I think that kind of helped. We got to the course a little later than I would have wanted to, but at least I got in a warmup running past all the lined up cars to the bathroom. After about half an hour, we lined up.

    I was told to go out super hard, so that's what I did, but not har enough because I got seperated from Keith and Damon. I weaved my way through to Damon but Keith had already gone ahead. I think if I had stayed with him from the start then I would have gotten a better time at least. So I wasn't feeling amzing at any point in the race, but I didn't feel any leg pain, so that was good(I think the tape and the Ibuprofen helped). I still think that I wasn't in top condition for racing. I came through mile 1 in 5:38, and I already knew that I had gone out too fast before that point, but at least it wasn't terrible, although I do think it was my fast mile 1 ever.The hill wasn't that bad, and I actually passed people on it both times. ( It was the downhill that really sucked)

     My spikes were great fro my first time racing in them because they didn't feel stiff like my old track spikes. The beach had to be one of the worst parts. You just get no traction and both times it felt super long. The sharp turn towards the beginning was pretty sketchy the first time around, but it wasn't too bad the second time. My finish was weaker than I would have liked. I think that after the hill the second time I just quit mentally and gave up. At the kick I tried yelling like my old coach taught us and it warked, gave me a big adrenaline rush. I should have waited to stop my watch though cause a kid beat me by less than .1 seconds because I did that (Literally, both our times were 18:30.5, here's a pic)

The rest of the meet I enjoyed, although my leg pain was back agin, but faint. I did a 2 mile cooldown with Mark and JD before we left.

Not a good day today. I said last Tuesday's workout was bad, this was terrible for me. It wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't feeling so crappy. The workout was running to Willow Park (where we did the milers before), and then 2x1 mile @ 2 mile pace, followed by 3x800m @ 2 mile pace w/ push in last 200m. As soon as we started the first repeat, I knew that I was going to have a rough time. My legs felt heavy and I couldn't go fast without feeling super uncomfortable and tight. I was on the ground at the end of the first rep, and I would be on the ground after everyone. I don't remember splits since I'm writing this kind of late. At the end of mile 2 I felt kind of loose actually. 800 #1 was hard, but I still kept up with Damon till the line. On the next one I fell behind and I was the last one in our group to finish, even Zair, the freshman beat me. On the last rep I felt so sluggish and tired, and form was terrible the whole time. I had a good push at the end, even though it hurt. it was my slowest repeat, a 3 flat. I was definetley on the ground after that one. I was lying on my back, by eyes closed, and I was hyperventilating, coughing, and wheezing. (no asthma problem, I was just really having a tough time). This is a more extreme version of what I was doing each time, and I think what made the workout about twice as hard was when I finally stood up, everyone else had left me on the ground and started walking back to the start, without even looking the other way. That's what made it super tough mentally, although I did get support from a couple people. I'd have to say that that's the worst workout I've ever had. After the last rep the calf pain came back and I was limping. I tried to start running again, but it just wouldn't happen. So ended up having to walk the mile back to the school. That was tougher then running ever would've been. I felt so naked in a way just walking in my workout clothes.  Every time a car passed I would think they were judging me because I was walking. But I'm sure nobody even paid attention. I felt super distant from the team today. I hope I don't feel like that ever again. It looks like I'm not running this week, so tomorrow I'll cross train.

30 min. on the eliptical. The lightning warning came on, so the rest of the team was in there, too. On the treadmills and on the bikes. It was nice to not have to do it alone.