The Renegade

Tried to do a fartlek up Logan Canyon which involved picking it up every quarter mile on and off. It was cold and rainy. I did fine and felt good up until I hit the single track then it all went to crap because it was muddy and the surface just wasn't consistent enough, so by the time I got to the turn around just past Spring Hollow I took it easy. It was freaking snowing up there! I did pick it up the last two miles and those were about 5:50 to 6:00 pace and they didn't actually feel too bad. By the end I was soaked and very cold. 7:04 ap.

8 easy at 5:45 am :'0 I met Strand a mile in and ran with him for two miles by his house, then I went on my own and ran the River Trail and back home through Willow Park. It was very foggy, kinda cool to be honest. 7:16 ap.

Track workout today, 10x800. 400 jog in 3 minutes rest on all of them, except for #6 (my watch fell off which startled me and messed up my heart rate so I took an extra minute after that one). Times:

2:42, 2:41, 2:38, 2:45, 2:38, 2:36, 2:41, 2:40, 2:36, 2:34 / 2:39 Avg.

I'm glad I hit those times because I was worried when I did it on the treadmill that I wouldn't be able to do the same thing on a track. Stayed in the Zantes the whole time even though I brought my flats haha, I think I'll keep using them as sort of more cushioned flats because they are really light. After #3 I chilled out on purpose but ended up going harder again right after, and it didn't feel too bad. The average probably would have been a second or two faster if I didn't have the watch problem, or it's good to think that. Talked to Strand and Maddie during the beginning so that was cool. I'm running the Turkey Trot 5k on the 19th so I'm gonna do 5k specific training until then, which will be fun. Beautiful beautiful day to be out running!

Easy run with Ben up Logan Canyon in the morning. I was pretty sore and tired from all the 800s yesterday so it's a good thing he bared with me, and we took it slow, even though it didn't feel craz slow. 7:13 ap.

Well, I wanted to run with somebody today but noone could make it, but I still went to Avon Pass like I planned. Got started kinda late, around noon, but it was still just under 60 degrees and sunny. I got about a quarter mile in when I came to this black, medium sized cow on the side of the road, and it got sooo scared. There were fences on either side and it ran back and forth across the road looking for an escape about 3 times, until it finally took a desperate hurdle across the fence on the right and cleared it luckily. Must have been fairly young cuz the old ones jsut stare at you haha. Just a fun story. So I kept going and didn't feel that good but went up 6 miles at about a 7:22 average. (First mile was 99ft and gradually increased till the last mile gained 200ft, but for some reason it it appeared to level off, hmm) Had some very annoying dirt bikers zoom past me but luckily heard no gun shots (wore a bright orange shirt just in case). Turned around and I immediately felt better and faster (duh). During miles 8-11 I did the same kind of fartlek I attempted on Tuesday, pushing it every quarter mile. Got a side stitch the last half mile. I think I didn't feel too good today because of dehydration, and I had work yesterday but I don't think that affected me too much. Really great effort! 6:46 ap.

8 miles easy in the am. Started in the dark and ended in daylight haha. For some reaso I decided to run 2 miles of it on main street, to change things up I guess? Well that wasn't very fun so when I got to 1400N I went East and then headed south again on a street that goes near the middle school. Shoutout to the crossing guards for helping me cross 400N. Ran back on center. I pushed it a little more than I should have in the last few miles (a few sub-6:30s) but that's fine. 6:50 ap. Stay tuned for tomorrow, I'm doing The Michigan.

Manage a solid Michingan workout today, straight out of the book "sub-4:00" by Chris Lear. If you don't know what this workout is here is exactly what I did. (Showing all rest because I wasn't timing myself on it, just walked to the starting place and went)

1600- 5:17

(2:20 Rest)

Road Mile- 6:13

(:57 Rest)

1200- 4:05

(1:57 Rest)

Road Mile- 6:11

(1:11 Rest)

800- 2:36

(1:57 Rest)

Road Mile- 6:10

(1:29 Rest)

400- 1:04

That first mile did not feel good, but I tried to push it pretty hard. All the tempo road segments felt pretty relaxed and good compared to the track stuff. 1200 was tough too, but it was actually at a slower pace than the 1600 dissapointingly. The 800 wasn't bad at all mentally kind of just held on to a decent pace for two laps. The 400 could have been sub-60 if I dug deep, I'm just not used to to being that aggressive anymore. Pretty fun workout, didn't seem too hard. The only part I was faster on today vs. April was the mile, but I had 3 full minutes of rest in between each then, so I'd say this was a more impressive performance than that. I'll probably do this again in few months, and we'll see if the bump in mileage slowed me down or not.

8 miles easy on the Hyde Park canal trail. I hit a gate two miles in so had to drop down to the road, then ran into Smithfield, up the hill back onto the trail then turned around at 4 and made it an out and back. Beautiful weather we've been having. 7:13 ap.

Jogged easy from home up to River Heights (2.6) then did a 4 mile tempo at 6:10 pace around the old Logan XC loop. Not quite as fast as I wanted but whatev, it's kinda hilly. I think I'll do another 4 miler next week around Lundstrom. Then did a prolonged cooldown of 3.5 miles home.

My run today consisted of watching the NCAA D1 Mountain Region Championships, right here in Logan! I parked at the stadium and ran down there, got to the course towards the end of the women's race. Then I ran up to Ben's house to meet him but he wasn't around for some reason so I just ran back down the hill for the start of the men's race. During it I just did the same loop 3 or 4 times to the different points to watch. It was sick! Top three ranked teams in the nation, NAU, Colorado, and BYU. Shoutout to Dillon Maggard of USU for taking 8th and Jerrell Mock former Logan runner taking 9th. Another cool thing, I actually saw Mark Wetmore, which was really cool after reading and hearing so much about him. Then I was running on the south grass loop and the Lumberjack men ran right my me on their cooldown and we exchanged greetings. After that I did a big (shirtless!) loop in the Lundstrom area and came back to see the awards ceremony. 6:57 ap.

Ran Jardine Juniper early in the morning with Strand, Paul, Sylvan Needham, Carson (Campbell) and a couple Preston kids. Fun stuff! Probably the last change before winter to run this, we are already on borrowed time! We were going pretty slow going up, then we ran the top loop super hard, and in this "race" I took second to Carson. Then we jogged back up a little bit to meet the stragglers and then ran back down. Carson and I cruised down and hit some some 6 minute miles. got to the trail head and we turned around to meet the others but my quads were so shot that I had to walk up some stretches. Camden had rolled his ankle shortly after we headed down so we  ran pretty far up to meet him and Sylvan. Awesome run. 7:49 ap.

Was going to run with Strand at 5:50 am under the supermoon but I completely slept through my alarm clock, my bad for staying up too late. So I skipped my morning class (I have work tonight) and ran 8 miles in the area around the golf course, including Black Hawk park. I felt okay. I pushed it on Park Avenue the two times I ran on it to get a CR, but when I really pushed I didn't run the whole thing. Haha oh well it was just like half a mile at 5:30 pace. The left leg was pretty stiff. 7:01 ap.

Parked at Lundstrom after the morning class for a 4 mile threshold, same 2 mile loop that I did the 6 milers on. Warmed up in tights but it was already surprisingly pretty warm! I snagged some Kinvara 7s last night on sale so today was the first time running in them. They were more cushioned than I expected when I tried them on which I liked so that was why I chose them over another pair of Zealots. Warmed up two miles and started. I did not feel very good at all the entire time but just sucked it up and averaged 6:02 pace. The shoes held up nicely, I just was not feeling very springy today. Relatively even splits. Cooled down two miles which included some short hill sprints and strides. Beautiful day again, I know this weather can't last much longer but it's nice while it's here.

Met Ben in Smithfield and we ran both Turkey Trot courses, 5K and 10K. It was a bit cold but not terrible. I didn't feel too great. There is a giant hill on the 5K course which I didn't expect so glad I came here earlier in the week. 7:00 ap.

AM: Fresh snow on the ground! It's great while it's a novelty. Headed out at about 9 and ran 2.5 miles to the dugway and did 6 hills, close to 400m with a jog back around after, whicb was actually quite a bit of rest but whatev, this is a pretty chill workout. The shoes are breaking in nicely.

PM: 3 miles easy in the dark, around the back roads west of my house. Got chased by a couple dogs haha. 7:04 ap.

8 miles easy in North Logan an Hyde Park, with like 2 or 3 little pushes to get ready for tomorrow. Didn't feel too great. 6:55 ap.

AM: Turkey Trot race! I'll go right from the start. The races started and it was me and Eric Nelson. We talked a little bit and kinda just chilled while we passed the back of the back 10Kers. Then we turned off and hit the first mile, 5:45, surprisingly slow. We hit the huge hill and I still felt decent and we stayed right next to each other. We finally turned off after a half mile of climbing (which sucked) and it went slightly downhill. I stayed with Eric until right about where we turned west with a mile left and it was wayy downhill, then I got a heart palpatation and got dropped hard. I tried to push it but couldn't get my body to respond. Then with about 300m left James came up behind me and I immediatley turned on the jets and stayed in front of him. I was already sprinting my hardest which felt pretty crazy. Then a sharp turn into the parking lot an I sprinted insanely hard, not knowing that he was actually a bandit and had just kept going. Well that just tells me that I still could have gone harder in the last mile if I really tried and didn't give up mentally. Cooled down about a half mile with James and Eric then I had to leave.

PM: After work I drove to Merlin Olsen and ran 5 miles in the dark (no headlamp) in a loop up Center then I hit the Canal trail and headed back by the temple. 7:38 ap.

Slept in again for my morning run with Strand so after math I hit up Dry Canyon and the Deer Fence. I went for a mile and a half up dry which was like 20 minutes (it's 500+ gain). Then I ran down and ran about 5 miles on the Deer Fence. 8:19 ap.

Pretty good run up Green Canyon. Started on the King's Nature Trail and was planning on going up 4. It started to get muddy on the single track so I decided I wouldn't mess with that anymore and I hit the road for the last couple miles up. Then I just decided to make it 9 because I felt okay. I'll always love Green and this is probably my last (real, meaning no snow) run here until springtime.7:20 ap.

Awesome run today! I picked up Kalin and Paul and drove to Smithfield to run Birch Canyon. I ran with them for 2ish miles which included Paul biffing it (classic Paul lol). They didn't feel too hot and were slipping off my tail so they just gave me permission to go ahead, so I thought I might try and get a CR or somethin. So I went till 4.5. Stayed on the single track the entire time which had literally no slippery mud. Averaged about 8:30s with 300 ft/mi. then turned around and sort of switched between road and trail every time they crossed, averaged like 5:45s at less effort than the 8:30s going up. I was sort of trying to catch them but turns out they turned at 3.5 so I they were probably waiting for while. This is one of the coolest trails in Cache Valley, I should run it more. 7:13 ap. Wasn't extremely cold either.

Sort of made the decision yesterday to do this, but I did a mid-week long run in Tetonia, Idaho from my grandparent's house. Got going at about 11 and it was 31 degrees. The loop I did started on the highway for 2 miles than hit a dirt road (snow covered) and it was dirt for about 5 miles in which part of it was between these hills which was pretty cool, but I wasn't able go that fast (slightly up hill in snow). Then I turned onto a paved road which had a lot of slush that had some rolling hills. with a pretty strong headwind, which felt really nice because I was really sweating in my warm jacket. From there on it was all sub 7s. Did a few 1 minute pushed every third minute toward the end of the run. Didn't feel crazy tired at all. 7:09 ap

Another pretty good run, headed out dressed for sub freezing but immediately turned back after a quarter mile to change in to short shorts, a t-shirt and arm sleeves just in case. Was a good pick. Started going south with some gnarly headwind which I needed the sleeves for then when I hit the part in my loop with tail wind I just rolled them down to my wrists. Beautiful sunny day! I got rolling with tailwind so I averaged 6:45 /mi. 

AM: 8 miles easy, and I did some exploring. Didn't feel all that great but I got up in the hills found and old sand pit I used to go to when I was little so that was cool. Heard some gunshots and that pint but it turns out it was just my uncles all the way back at the house doing target practice. 7:11 ap.

PM: Went just shy of 5 miles after the drive home. It was an out and back to the river trail, and it was sketchy as always. 7:04 ap. And 60 miles woo!

AM: 6 miles in a freakin snow storm at about 7 am. I was supposed to meet Sylvan but he didn't show up, but I'll give him a pass given the conditions, plus I've failed to show up to morning meetups haha. There was a good two inches of snow everywhere though, so that was fun. I ran up the temple area, did a loop there and turned around. It didn't feel very fast but 7:16 ap. 25 weeks till Ogden!

PM: Headed to the ARC after classes and did 4 miles. I tried watching youtube and netflix and stuff but my earbud cord was going everywear and I had to look down at my ipod, it just wasn't that great haha. 7:15 ap.

Workout in the am. Parked at Lundstrom, did a one mile warmup lap, then did 3xmile on that same warmup loop with a minute rest. Those were all around 6:10, so not that great but whatev, I dind't go super hard they were just supposed to be T-pace and it was cold. Then jogged out to Aggie Ice Cream to use the restroom, then jogged a little and started 4x3min hard with 2 min rests on 1200 E, (averaged like 5:50 pace on the pusheds, didn't feel very good) then jogged up the hill back to Lundstrom. The whole thing was 6:44 ap but it definitely wasn't continuous.

Did a run in Providence from Zollinger. Did NOT feel good so I kept it super slow, like high 7:00. I headed into Millville then went east, and unexpectedly ended up on the Deer Fence (which was kinda muddy), so I headed north on that then remembered the massive climb. Took advantage of the situation to try and get a CR. Started my first attempt, got about half way and realized my watch was paused and reluctantly headed back down the hill to start again haha. It was a good effort but I only bettered my 2nd place ranking. I'll get it back don't worry. Then headed down from Prov and still went really slow down hill and finally got back to my car, and I realized I was NOT going to make it to my next class, uh oh. Luckily I found out later there was nothing important going on. Also this whole time I was very uncomfortable due to overdressing haha, it was pretty warm out, hence the muddy not snowy trail. 7:50 ap.