The Renegade

Great run today :) Started off with a bunch of the guys, including JD and Johnny, (superseniors!). So we ran up through Denzil Stewart and into River Heights, those guys turned around, but Jack and I kept going down south to Death Hill and Von Park. So we went pretty hard up the hill cuz its a strave segment, but we stopped to soon so the clock was still ticking on the segment haha. I'll have to remember that for next time :/ So we ran down the trail in Von Baer and came back throught the dirt road in River Heights. Good run we averaged 7:29 and one of them was a sub-7. Iced with my bro after. My foot was still feeling weird so hopefully that'll fade away before the race on Saturday.  

AM: Slept in a bit and had doctors exam soon so I squeezed in four to Golf Course road and back. Felt really pushed. I just wasn't feeling good. 7:21 avg.

PM: Slogged through three miles on the grass in the heat at willow park. 7:40 avg. Then I tested out the new Saucony spikes I got in the mail today, just did some strides in em. It was hard to go that fast with my ankle so maybe I'll have to try again with those. They felt just like my victories, did (a little big) they're 11.5s so I shoud've gotten 11s (dang review said they run small. I'm sure its not worth returning them thoughm theyll be fine once I break them in. 

Ran to Willow to do 2x1 miles tempo with team. Felt pretty crappy, hit like 6:10-6:20s for em. I barely beat some of the JV kids. (still first though, that shows you how readily available our Varisty is to come to practice)It was mainloy just my ankle. Ran back to school and did a 400 and two 200s. Felt pretty crappy on those too. Talked to coach about the ankle and he just said to keep doing what I'm doing with stair calf raises implemented so sounds like a dandy plan.

Started the run off with Angel but he had to turn around early cuz of chaffing. Poor guy. Now that I think of I should have just told him to take his shirt off. I guess I just used to running with a shirt off tho lol. Ran the canal trail cuz they just repaired it wear it was broken from a land slide a few years ago. Killed three people actually. Anyways now its actually runable right there so the segment times on strava are gonna go way down right there. I actually pushed it going out, but only ran a 6:58 because I was feeling crappy. When I was on the gravel trail tho my ankle was not working the way it should've, but when I got onto the good old pavement it was fine. Finished off with a few close to 7 minute miles. 7:32 average. 

Lightning warning was red so we had to go inside for practice. Jogged half a mile and then they sent us away. I actually told my brother to take my stuff home with him so I could do my own run. Felt okay I geuss. I ran with Paul until I turned around (on the canal) but he was going way too fast for my liking so I LET him drop me lol. 7:27 avg. 

So Jack and I got to the starting line before anyone else and started getting our race kits ready and warming up. It wasn't long before it was ready to start. So we had gotten a mile in and some strides. the race started (no gun) and Jack got out quick. So did these two other kids who ended up finsihing in like the twenties. This course was a point to point, and net downhill. I was set up for a nice three mile PR. Sadly that didn't happen. Started with a 5:48, felt really good. Light and quick. I kept feeling good through the 2 mile mark. Split: 6:03. No wonder I was feeling good. Last mile was a 6:08. I didnt have a bad race it's just that I really didn't push it hard enough, and that's a dissapointment that I've experienced before. The whole thing felt like more of a tempo run. So I geuss not pushing the pace hard enough after the first mile can be disguised as "feeling good". I will definitely take note of that and put it to good use when the season starts. So all in all this was a great learning experience. And I was running alone the whole time so thats also part of it. I finished fourth overall (just missed a cool trophy) But I did get 1st in my age group because top 3 doesn't count for age groups, so I got a first place ribbon. The guy who finished behind me (around 18:10) was Jack's awesome friend from Africa who actually hadn't run in 8 months before a week ago so kudos to him. Apparantly last year he ran 16:10 on this course. Jack won with a 16:10. He got a a 15:38 here last year but he had a hiatus too if I havn't already talked about that. So we jogged back to Jack's car at the start, now desolate, and drove up to this natural spring where we filled up our water bottles, and then  I finished my cooldown (3 more miles) by myself on a the start of would be a really awesome trail run. (I guess Jack wanted to put in his exptra miles later) After that we had breakfast at Golden Corral in Orem (same place we ate at during state track, triggered some feels) so that was great shouout to Jack's mom for paying for it.