High Speeds

It was windy today. Hence the time. I drafted behind Nate Hornock for the first 5 miles. I went 16:50, 18:18. When we turned around, it was like running into a wind tunnel. With about a mile to go, Nate cut to the other side of the road and started running 5:20 pace. Inexperienced as I am with racing tactics, I was caught off-guard and left in the dust. I learned a lesson, but tactics aside, I do not think I could have stayed with him even without the swerve to the side of the road. Nate gapped me by 31 seconds in the last mile. I did about 5:50 in the last mile, kicking as hard as I could. Ended up with 35:08, 7th place overall, and, ironically, set my official 5K PR of 16:50 on the way out :-). Of course, my PR from two weeks ago was weak, but a PR is still a PR.

  Studied for Linear Algebra (BYU Math 313) when I got home. I am challenging (testing out of) the class next week. I did some problems from previous BYU Math 313 midterms and a final, but most of my time was spent doing problems from an MIT final. The MIT final was longer, a little more in depth, and had problems that used the same concepts but required more actual problem solving skills. The MIT final also gave certian concepts different weight than the BYU finals and misterms did.

Did a canyon workout today. The goal was to run the first two miles of our usual three mile tempo course in 10:40, then run the last mile under 5:00. I'd tried this workout multiple times before and had never managed to hit the last mile under 5. Today was different. I opened in 5:12, then did 5:20. With a mile to go I stepped on the gas. To avoid psyching myself out. I didn't look at my split with three quarters to go. I started hurting the minute I stepped up the pace. With a half mile to go, I was 13:00 -- i'd run 2:28 from 2 to 2.5. I feared a major crash at that point, but knew that a sub-5:00 was in the cards, so I pressed onwards. I ran the last half in 2:25, 4:53 last mile, 15:25 total time. The last mile hurt like nobody's business, but I'm happy to finally have reached my goal in this workout.   

Thirteen total today. Did a canyon workout with My Dad and Chad. First we did 3 hard up our favorite tempo course. I got 17:40. After jogging for a bit, we turned around and ran 3 hard down the course. I felt like stopping after the first quarter mile. There was a headwind going down the canyon, but the headwind was by no means the only cause of my pain I had already run 7.5 miles with three hard. Currently, mIleage hurts me more than speed. This is related to the fact that my cardio is lagging behind my leg power and that I have a glycogen (however you spell that) storage problem. And all of those things are part of being 14.

  In any case, I ran the first mile in 5:14, then did the next half in 2:41. With 2000 to go, I delovped a sideache -- a symptom of low glycogen according to my Dad. The sideache forced me to stop for a few seconds which made me reach 2 miles in 10:40. Then I tied to push in the last mile, was having some mental issues, and did the first half in 2:59. The mental issues made me lose it over the next quarter. To top it off, the sideache came back, costing me another few seconds. With 400 to go I mentally regrouped and kicked. Managed to get 16:01 for the 3 downhill, 5:21 last mile.

Easy.
 

easy

Woke up earlier today to get my run done before going to my math class that I teach at a homeschooling/commonwealth academy. The accademy is small and offers classes on only Wednesday and Thursday. It is more of a collection of extra-curricular classes than a primary source of education. I teach an ACT Prep math class there. I find that a lot of people have negative additudes about and fears towards math. I am trying to correct those fears and attitudes in the class I am teaching.

Paced my Dad untill 2K to go or so then kicked. Ended up with 53:04. Did not race all out becasue of the Phoenix Half Marathon in a week.