The Renegade

AM: Met Hayden at the XC course where we ran loops and talked. T minus 2 days. For the last part of the run we checked out the new track. Hopefully I'll be able to train and race on it in the spring, even if xc doesn't work out :) 7:12 ap.

I came home after my morning class and did an easy run consisting of running to willow park and doing grass loops with some barefoot strides. Felt okay, but my form felt weird. I should feel fine tomorrow. 6:50 ap (because of the strides)

Race day! I got there at about 9:50 (race was at 10:45) and kind of hung out with Hayden. Really nice morning, a little cooler than it has been. During the women's race I found my timing chip luckily and tied my chip to my flat, than we headed on a warmup, one mile at like 6:20 pace (we were really nervous). Soon after it was time to line up, and for some reason even though it was college race, with teams like Boise State and Southern Utah, I didn't feel too intimidated and it just felt like a regular race.

Gun went off and I actually had a good start, I was honestly expecting the start to be faster than I could sprint but it felt like a high school race. After the first 200 approaching the turn I found myself right on the tail of the three D1 teams, and I was ahead of all the Westminster guys. About 300 meters later, almost the entire field (except for Westminster) had opened a big gap on me. I was right next to this hippy looking dude for the first mile and a half. There was UVU guy that we passed early on. Then on the first downhill (the course is the same as the 5K until the last part) two Westminster runners took advantage of it and dropped me. From then on throughout the entire race I was in no man's land, but at least I knew I wasn't in last and I had like 7 or 8 guys pretty far behind me. The last 2K is two times around the east loop and then finishing like normal. That was pretty rough because I felt like I should've been finishing. I only got lapped by three runners on that first loop (SUU guy, UVU guy, then Josh Collins from SUU). When they passed me I noticed how quick their cadence was compared to mine, especially Josh's, so I kept that in mind. Last 600 slightly downhill, so that was nice. Made sure to get really good turnover at that point and kicked it in decently hard. 

It was great having a bunch of people there who were cheering for me, blog members which include Eric Nelson and Don Bigger, shoutout to them! So I didn't finish anywhere close to the USU squad, but it was worth a try. Average was 5:36, which is faster than my 5K PR run on the same course. Looking back I think I could have pushed it more in the last mile, especially goin uphill which really hurt my pace. Splits were 5:14, (I never touched that pace in HS 5Ks) 5:39, 5:46, 5:59, and 5:05 pace the last .3.  Afterwards Hayden and I cooled down 2.5 with the USU team. Hayden did pretty well, he almost beat one of them. Coach Gulden wants to meet with us later next week so I'll update you on that. 

AM: Logan was doing a run at Logan Canyon in the morning so I joined them. It was cold as fetch. Marked my first run all summer with a long sleeved shirt, fall is definitely coming, which I'm okay with for now. I assumed it was a longer trail run, but it was actually a threshold on the upper canal trail. So I just ran with Paul and Kalin and paced them, but the last half mile I tried to drop Paul hard for fun, but it was annoying cuz he was doing a better job at "covering my moves" than I expected haha. So the splits for that were probably like 6:20, 6:05, 5:50, but I didn't even consider it a workout. Added to get 5.5. 6:34 ap.

PM: My family and I were in Farmington forever shopping so I headed out for a 3.5 mile run at 11:05 pm. It was so dark, and there werent alot of cars because of how late it was. That was actually pretty cool, it was super calm. Kinda chilly but perfect running temp.Felt good! I ran to Willow Park, did a mile loop around it, and did a lap around Woodruff's field. Either my headlamp needs new batteries or it's just super hard to see when running on grass, so I had to go slow at those parts. 7:16 ap.

Great run today! I wore my running shorts under my pants and just ran from my car after my morning class (I think I'll do that every Tuesday and Friday unless other circumstances require me to run at other times ;). Started by Old Main and headed to the XC course, ran a 1.5 around there, then up the hill on 1200 E, followed the Hwy 89 down to First Dam, and looped back on the Canal Trail. Average pace was 6:38. Felt much like my run last Tuesday, I wasn't struggling at all to run the pace, just pushing it a little more and cruising. I did notice that my cadence was naturally quicker for some reason, which I'm not complaining about. Temps were in the 60s and it was bright and sunny, basically a perfect morning. Toward the ending I was thinking about how easy it is all of a sudden to run that pace and came to the conclusion that  7 minute pace is my 7:30 pace of like a year ago. I've come far but there's still a long way to go.

Slacked off today and did not run. Well, sort of. I came home from a full day of school really tired and decided I would take a nap at 6 and get up at 7 to run. I ended up sleeping till like 10:00 am the next day. That's the end of my Monday-Saturday streack I've been keepin up, but oh well, it's an off week anyways.

Well, I met with the coach and they didn't have a spot for me on either rosters. A little bit dissapointing but I was pretty dang sure I wouldn't get on the xc squad and I was preparing myself in case track didn't take me. He told me he hopes I keep running and I can try out for a spot at the Blue and White indoor meet in December. That's three months from now, so I can get a good block of training in before then, with more emphasis on speed, probably 1500m specific. 

I went for a run after class up Logan Canyon. I wasn't feeling too good, but just went at the effort I usually do which you can't completley call easy. I felt a tiny bit of Achilles pain going up, and after I turned around it starting getting worse and worse and I had to stop and rub it a few times. I noticed it was worse when I hit a steepers section of downhill. For the last two miles it faded off and I just forgot about it and didn't make any effort to go easy like I should have. I wasn't even pushing it really, pace felt like 6:50 pace but my splits were 5:50 and 5:59. That was bizarre. When I got home, the pain was back and it was pretty bad, and I couldn't put any pressure on it. I decided not to run any more this week especially if I'm going to start a new training pursuit next week. Hopefully It'll be good on Monday. I think part of it is the fact that my runs the past few weeks have been faster just because I've gotten fitter, but my musculo-skeletal system wasn't used to it so something cracked under the pressure. It's just odd it happened in one day. Maybe it was some kind of mental-physical reaction to not making the team. I'ts prolly good I'm taking a few days off.

20 minutes of various core excersices. This was something to replace running today but I better start doing core consistently from now on because I'm missing that strength from lack of core and it shows in my form. Also I'm gonna need it for track. The foot feels a little better today.

I did more core today, this time 30 minutes. I guess 20-30 minutes isn't a lot if it's the only thing you're doing, but it was still beneficial relative to how untrained my core is.

First run back from my brief resting period. I ran the canal trail after school today from Old Main, kept it easy, funny because I was running 6:40s pretty effortlessly, I wasn't trying to push it at all and it came naturally. That's a good sign because I was a little worried (maybe too worried) that I would lose some aerobic fitness, but obviously not. No pain whatsoever in the foot or achilles. Ended with a little bit of hills on Old Main and tested out the sharp turns at the bottom that are part of the HoCo course. They were not fun. I did a ton of core when I got home :)

AM: Drove to Ryan's Place after class for a straight three mile tempo. Didn't go down so well. I wasn't feelin the pace (started with a 5:45) and I just didn't feel strong at all. Started to get a side ache on top of that at like 1.5 so I decided to stop at two (that mile was a 6:00). Rested for like five minutes then completed the loop in 5:45. If I felt good I coud've done that all together and not felt too bad. I won't take this too hard, it is my first actual workout in two weeks (not counting the race). I'll go back like the week after next and try it again. 

PM: 3 mile run in the dark while it was raining, just an out and back to Willow Park. Loved it! More the rain then the dark though. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt and I got pretty hot. You never know what to wear here. 

Another after class run, this time at about 2:30. Started from the beginning of the Canal Trail and went out 3.5 miles, which got me almost exactly to the end of the Highline Trail. I could already spot some red leaved trees in the canyon. I love fall. I love Logan. Anyways I'm glad I ran earlier because I went to watch Cache-Box, and it rained insanely hard and delayed the boys varsity race, which sucked cuz I had to leave before it. Shoutout to Eric Nelson for getting that W. The run was 6:52 ap. Felt pretty relaxed.

AM: Slept in but my first and only class of the day was at 1:30. Did an easy but somewhat tired 5 miles on the river trail loop. 6:57 ap. 

PM: Did an easy 2 from the parking lot after class. I explored some indian trails and hit up the Canal Trail a bit. 7:37 ap.

AM: After class I made the short drive to Lundstrom Park and did an easy 3 on the Lundstrom Canal Trail and finished up on the grass. Not a good idea at 9:30 am, my shoes got soaked. 6:46 ap. I have to say it was a beautiful morning, I described it as "pristine" on strava. 

PM: My third track workout in four months! I did a 2 mile warmup to the track. Today was 6x400, full recovery, 4x200. After each rep was a 200 jog in a 1:30 rest, so half of what I usually did in high school, but it just made it more aerobic. 400 times were 76, 74, 73, 73, 73, 72. Those got somewhat tough, but only because I'm not accustomed to running that fast anymore, hard to believe I ran four 69s in a row, but this was less rest. Rested for about six minutes and then 200s in 29, 30, 31, 30. Those felt hecka fast. Tried to imagine myself as Galen Rupp coming around the last curve in a race. I found a tennis ball on the field and bounced it all the way home, it was fun.

Met up with Hayden at Z-park at 9:00, which was perfect timing because that's right when the leaders of the TOU Marathon were running by there. It's like the 22  or 23 mile mark. Since the course doesn't go straight at all after that we were able to catch alot the action. Could've seen more but we were trying to catch Strand and maybe run with him. We were at the mile 24 aid station and he wasn't coming so backtracked along the course bu then turned off of it, probably missed him. But we eventually found him with exactly a mile to go, along with half the xc team (they were volunteering at mile 25). He was struggling, kept getting cramps in his quad and had to stop at one point. But he finished in 3:04 which isn't bad for the race going downhill (figuratively, and literally I guess, but he really struggled). Hayden and I still had like 4 miles to run to get ten so we looped around the temple and headed back along the course to cheer on all the people still running. Fun run. Didn't feel as fresh as usual but the race made it a blast.

Today was an odd day. I was planning on doing a track workout and showed up at Logan's track expecting it to be vacant but there was little kid football and cheerleader practice so too many people. Then I drove to Ridgline's track and there was a soccor game going on. Checked MC and it looked like something was starting there. So I just did an easy run on Hollow Road, which was really nice and shady. Running on it reminded me of doing my first and only half at TOU in 2014, and I realized I missed it alot. I also thought about how much of a hassle it would be schedule track workouts not know if I could use the facilities. Then I thought about how cool it would be to run a marathon in the near future. Thought more and made the decision that I wouldn't pursue the track team at USU. I think I'll have a lot more fun running high mileage and doing long aerobic workouts, and testing my strength on the roads, from 5K up. So yeah, I think the best choice would be the Ogden Marathon on May 20th. I'll keep you updated if I change my my  mind or whatever. Felt pretty good on the run, just got kind of tired the last mile. 6:49 ap. 

AM: After my morning class I did a mile warmup outside that ended at the Aggie Rec Center. Once there, I did a three miles on the dreadmill at 6 minute pace. Usually I don't prefer the treadmill, but I wanted to run a specific pace. Felt a little worse than I would have liked, but no horrendous suffering and really no lactic acid. My level of discomfort kind of plateaued at less than a mile in and stayed there, which is what you want in a tempo I guess. I would still describe it as comfortably hard. Then I hit the weights, which is something I haven't done in 4 1/2 months. I quickly discovered that I have lost alot of strength since track lol. I tried squatting 135, and it didn't seem that hard, but after 8 reps my groin immediatley felt tight and ready to cramp, and I couldn't even do a body squat. So I didn cleans. I picked it up, felt how heavy it was, and changed the weights three times before I was comfortable with it. That was starting at what I was doing during track. Well now I am extremely sore from that minimum level of lifting. 1.5 mile cooldown outdoors, which felt really not good.

PM: 3 miles suuuuper easy and relaxed just after dark. I ran to Willow Park, did a mile loop and came back. I forced myself to relax, and ended up with a 7:45 average. Overall a very calming run. I signed up for the Homecoming 5K, which should be lots of fun.

Sick run up Green Canyon to unwind after a full day of classes. I parked in the lower lot just cuz. Took it really easy and relaxed for the four miles up, which was still a decent pace (8:30 average). The fall colors were at their peak and it was absolutely gorgeous. Overall pace was a 7:41. My body has been insanely sore all day just from trying to lift yesterday, but luckily I didn't feel it much while I was running. 

Today's run kind of felt like a grind. I did a loop I've never done before out west of home that eventually connected with the river trail through trapper park. After two miles of running I did 5 x 1 minute pickups with 2 minute recoveries, just something to get a little bit of an edge for Saturday (I'm doing the Running of the Bulls Homecoming 5K) The pickups were around 5:10 to 5:50 pace, and my form felt better on each one. Started with a nasty headwind so that sucked. That will feel alot easier regardless on race day, let alone on a flat course but this has a lot of downhill. For the rest of the run I felt really flat and had no energy. Did some strides at the stake center by my house, and practiced rounding some sharp turns. The last half mile after that I had more of a pop in my stride. 7:03 ap.

Easy run in the rain up Logan Canyon this morning! Great stuff, I love rainy trail runs. Felt alt better than yesterday. I started at first dam, took the lower trail up and the highline trail on the way back for the last 1.5 miles. 7:01 average.

AM: Pretty fun race today! It was a little on the chilly side but great temps for running. I almost didn't find the start line! But I got there about 10 minutes before, and I had already done some running looking for it. The race started and we headed east and this one guy went out crazy quick, like faster than I was comfortable with, so I just sat on his shoulder. I couldn't really tell if he was legit or not but then he slowed down about a half mile in and I took the lead, with Big Blue leading on a little motorbike. The turns weren't as bad as I thought they would be up on campus. Really rolled down Old Main and then I had to slow down a ton at the bottom to go through the tunnel but then I picked things back up and had a little more down hill. Then I hit Temple Blvd which is completely flat and it got hard right there, but I just pushed knowing I would have another downhill. I looked back on a curve and saw that there were some guys closer than I thought so I pushed it a little more. Entered Merlin Olsen Park and looked back again but they were lagging. I had a little confusion crossing 100W which slowed me down a little but not by much. Came out on Mainstreet and I made the mistake of staying on the sidewalk (they had said to stay on the sidewalk the whole time but I guess not for the finish) Stepped onto the road half a block later and sprinted for about a block to the finish and there was a tape and an announcer saying my name which was pretty cool. Average was 5:15 which doesn't sound that fast for a downhill course but whatevs. I think I got my goal of under 16:30 if it was a 5K. Shoutout to fellow Logan grads Sylvan Needham and the Olsen brothers for killing it as well. Cooled down, watched the parade, then awards where I got a nice glass trophy for being the first student in (even though I was first overall lol).

PM: Was going to run 5 miles but didn't get the chance to. It's okay, just means I'm building one week slower, which will prevent injury even more. 3 weeks of 50 after this week then I'll bump it up 5.

Got home from school today and ran the mile from home to Willow Park, and jogged about another mile around there. I was meeting Logan XC to join them for a workout. It was 7 x 1K with 3:00-3:15 active rest. I didn't feel smooth at all, and didn't feel a ton of enrgy either.  Splits were 3:35, 3:38, 3:36, 3:38, 3:38, 3:36, 3:30. (Take into account that I was just running with Kalin and wasn't pushing myself to go as fast as possible) I was going to do 8 but decided not to because I just didn't feel good. I think it's good that I did that workout though because as long as the Red Ribbon Run is a full 5K (fingers crossed) I want to finally PR in the 5K. Even a simple sub-17 would be great. That race starts and ends in the same place and isn't completely flat so it is record worthy. Talked to people a bit and made sure that I had enough mileage than ran home. It was hotter than I expected this afternoon!

Semi-easy run after math, started on the canal trail going east then up the hill on the highway, then 14th East and looped back to the xc course on a private canal trail, I then followed that canal trail further south and came out on 10th North, than made my way up the hill, which was a bit hard because I was kinda tired. Then stopped off at the ARC and did some lifting, the standard squats, cleans, and bench, three sets of whatever I could handle. After I got out of there I started running and I was going pretty fast and I wasn't even trying to, probably because of the resistance I was getting just before that was taken off when I ran. Never really noticed that before. Anyways that was just a half mile down Old Main. The run was 6:49 average.

Was going to go for a morning run before school but... didn't wake up for it. Someday it'll happen! Logan had a meet at Ridgeline so I just ran there. I drove up earlier than I would have and did a four mile run out and back up Millville Canyon. Kinda sucked, the road is crazy rocky and steep, so it was bad going up and coming down. Also it was hot today, kind of a shock after the cooler temps last week. Got back down there while the girls were finishing and right before the boys started. I found the coaches and we ran about 3/4 of a mile into the course. (it's one giant road loop with huge hills and no shade, glad I wasn't running lol). After we watched that I hurried back past the starting line and to the highest point on the upper east road. That sucked just running up. Cheered people on and then on the way down I screamed at brother the whole time, making sure it didn't look like I was pacing him. Shoutout to Eric for running a good race. Shoutout to the Logan guys (even though theyre not on the blog) for racing well too. Hung out and talked to people then ran a half mile cooldown with Paul and left. The whole run was like 7:30/mi because of the 11 minute mile up the canyon. I didn't eat anything all day until right before I left to go to the meet, so I just didn't feel good haha.

Parked at Lundstrom after class for an easy 6 miles in loop I planned earlier. Well, it turned out to be an 8 mile out and back, 3 miles of which was on a canal trail I found that I didn't have to trespass to run on! Wasn't the first time I'd been there though, when I was a rookie sophomore and Brian McKenna was the coach we did like 8x1K there, pretty much exactly three years ago actually! The memories man. And I was feeling decent. I ended up cruising the whole run for 6:39 ap with a 6:07 last mile. So we'll see if I still do a tempo tomorrow because the last part of this was tempo-ish. Better weather than yesterday (cooler temps) so that probably helped. Before I left I did four strides at Lundstrom Park.

5.5 miles easy after my morning class, down the hill on 1400 E, running on the XC course a bit, then trespassed again on that canal trail, onto 600 E, where I discovered this really nice building (dorms I guess?) that had a good sounding resturaunt. Then back on the island canal trail, from which I hiked up some switch backs to get back to my car. I felt sluggish the entire time, and I also started to realize my shoes don't have much left in them. 7:00 ap.