The Renegade

I went down to the Avon trail with Strand, Isaac, Paul, and Kalin at 7 am to run. Great to be back there after a good 7 months probably. Went up at a decent pace(7:20ish) which is faster than I've ever gone up before, and it felt fine. Then when we turned around is where I started having problems. My heart was giving me a hard time and so were my bowels, but the run still ended up being 6:55 ap.Wasn't well rested and dehydrated and I had burger king the night before. This is on the Ragnar route so it's good to know I could average under 7 on a bad day, I feel like if I can get under 7 for my legs than I can hold my own well enough (unless it's like a huge uphill) I need to do more runs like this to get ready though. Beautiful morning. About half an hour later I left with a group of the xc kids plus Chazel and John to Bear Lake to have a killer time before a lot of us parted ways, and we went to Minatonka cave and went to the beach for a while on the first day. Fun times, plus Vickie Krull and a couple of her Wasatch freins joined us!

So I was going to get up and run with Vickie and Mallerie but nobody woke me up so I didn't run in the morning. We headed up to Bloomington Lake but there was too much snow so we just got out and hiked around a bit and had an epic snowball fight lol. It was tiring. Got home and had a solid like 2 hour nap, and then when I got up it was dark and I legit made the decision not to go running but then I realized I might want to do a workout tomorrow and it would better to run so I decided to run and moments like this is what defines you motivation I feel like and I won a mental battle lol. So I took the headlamp and had a nice run that felt pretty good out to Willow Park and then Golf Course Road and back by Woodruff. Splits got faster every mile from 7:49 to 7:00, 7:28 average. During the beginning of the run I thought about the Bear Lake trip and how some of those people I might not see for a long time or maybe ever. I think being graduated is only just starting to sink in, since I still felt like a high schooler. I might to a staple 3 mile tempo tomorrow but I'm kinda thinking a fartlek would be good although not as good of a fitness test.

Today I tried to do an aerobic workout in the heat which never turns out okay. Jogged a 1.5 mile warmup to willow and then to Golf course road, and then started from there to do laps on the river trail, golf course, and park avenue. I was going to do 4x 3 min on, 2 min off, 2 min on, 1 min off, 1 min on, 3 min off, but after two rounds in which I got slower each push I decided to call it quits because I was not feeling smooth and the heat got to me. But at least I pushed through two rounds. Hung out by the restroom at the dog park for about ten minutes to cool off my using the spicket used for hoses, and then headed onto the river trail for a shameful 3.5 miles home (I wasn't in the most convenient place to quit). It was slow and sluggish.

Saw some Vomeros at Ross for $54 last night and I needed new trainers anyways so I bought them. They are neutral shoes and alot like the Pegasus so I think they'll be fine, just a little bit more responsive. I woke up at about 8 and tried to convince my mom to let me drive to Smithfield Canyon and run because it's somewhere new, but that's precisely the reason I couldn't. So I settled for the Logan Canyon. By the time I got there it was almost 10 and verry hot. I hit up the highline trail for the first part because it's actually legal to run on now and then just crossed the highway onto the river trail. Again I wasn't super hydrated for this but didn't feel too bad after a couple miles and was running up the trail at ~7:20 pace. Ran into Mark's dad who was biking and chatted with him a bit. When it was singletrack and it branched I took the upper trail and I felt alright goin up. I hit the top of that ascent, went up a little side trail, observed the canyon like a hippy or something and then headed back down. Wasn't feeling super smooth so I didn't push it too much, but still sub 6:30s. It was just so hot today! Took a few minutes to cool off before I could head home, I was trashed. Average pace around 7:22.

Well that wasn't pleasent. Headed out for a threshold at about nine, luckily it was kinda overcast, but still warm enough to go shirtless. ​I just did a mile warmup out and back on the frontage road, and then did my 3 mile threshold run on the dump road out and back. I started out feeling okay and ran a 5:59. The I blew up. I guess I was going by muscle memory of being fitter a couple months ago. Next mile was 6:22, then 6:32. Lost it mentally also. My lungs were exremely labored for most of it buttthe rest of my body felt fine, a strong suggestion that I lost aerobic fitness more than anything, which I guess you can expect. But that fast though? When I was running a 4:36 which was a little over 2 weeks ago, my three mile thresholds probably could have been 6 flat pace or a little bit faster. It's amazing how much a week of no running can do sometimes. Then again, I haven't been making the best eating choices either especially the last few days. I dunno we'll see. Cooled down on the 2 mile loop across 10th, it actually felt relaxing although it was slow.

6.6 miles at dusk, 7:16 average. I felt pretty relaxed but not super energetic if that makes sense. But yeah pretty typical run, I just ran into town and hit the canal trail eventually and came back by the temple and LHS. Tomorrow I think I am going to do a track workout (nothing serious just something to get my legs going again) because I have decided I'll do the CBC if I can get a ride down there, and that's still getting sorted out but yeah.

Today I did a track workout as a tuneup for the CBC although not sure if I can get a ride yet. Jogged to the track at anout 8:30 pm from my house, holding my spikes lol. Did some drills and then one mile at what was supposed to be 5K effort but who knows. It was like 5:37 so not what I would want my 5K pace to to be but whatever. Didn't really keep track of the rest, just jogged 400 and changed into my spikes. Then I did an 800 in 2:42, which actually felt pretty hard, although running in spikes for the first time in a few weeks felt really good, even the shays. Jogged another lap and next was a little bit harder 800. I think it was like 2:37, wasn't easy. Than I changed back in my trainers and ran home.

Slept in and was going to wait till night to run but got impatient and I headed out at around 3 and it was blazin. I tried this thing where you get your shirt wet and put it in the freezer before and after it softened up enough for me to wear it it kept me cool for a good ten minutes. Went past Willow Park and then to Main Street, tried to jaywalk across but too much traffic, so I had to run up to the light, then I made my way to the dirt road in River Heights and then up the hill on the one way road, and took a sketchy side trail that Paul showed me during indoor. I wasn't wearing a shirt and scraped my back on a tree I had to crawl under pretty bad, oops. Then I hit the nature park and headed home on Center Street. Average pace 7:11 but would have been faster if not for the trail which I basically had to walk.

So Strand texted me a couple days before asking if I wanted to "run up over the windcaves" with him if I didn't get a ride to the race. I thought that meant driving TO the windcaves and doing like a 6 mile run. Well when it seemed I wouldn't be able to make it to the CBC I told him I could go, and soon found out he meant the huge loop we had been talking about doing. So I was like sure whatever. It starts at First Dam, goes 6 miles up Logan Canyon, crosses the highway and onto the Windcaves trail, but then turns off of that and switchbacks up on a very thin but well established trail that goes above the windcaves and eventually to the other side of the mountain, probs 2500 foot elevation gain. Then you head down a trail called Preston Valley Trail (really nice trail, reminds me of JJ) for two miles until it joins with Green Canyon about two miles up that, then you run down it and take the shoreline trail back to First Dam. Sorry that was long. :)

We started at like 6:50 am. Paul ran with us for the first 4 miles, that was cool. We actually saw Jack fishing with his sister and talked to him a bit. He actual leaves on his mission to Malaysia in two weeks we'll probably do a sick run with him soon. Avg pace at that point was like 8:10, which is pretty slow for that trail actually. Then we hit the windcaves (it was just me and Strand now) and went up three miles in 11:31, 15:22, and 19:30 with respective elevation gains of 516, 721, and 955. The second two miles was mostly walking, and I was leading and could tell I was going to slow, but it was tough, plus it got pretty overgrown towards the top. Felt like forever but we finally got to the top and it was a pretty cool view. Then we headed down pretty slow but it was relaxing, pace was out the window anyways. A little bit after we hit the dirt road in Green, I started to feel lethargic, weak, and tired, which was not fun. Stopped to poop and I could have fallen asleep right on the toilet. The loop was supposed to be 14 but we could tell it would be more at this point, so we (or I) just grinded it out till the end and it felt really great to be done. That was probably the closest I've felt to running a marathon thus far. I only got 5-6 hours of sleep before so that probably didn't help. Average pace was 9:51, moving time 2:33, total time 2:51, with total elevation gain of 3,083ft, so more than a mile straight up, and the worlds tallest building is about 2,700 feet (fun fact) Great day to be out! We will probably do this again in a month when Paul feels better to do it and I get more rested, and we will try to do it faster, maybe we will do it clockwise instead. On the way home I got a uge slurpee and donut from 7/11 and it was the best thing ever. Then I got home, showered, and had a six hour nap. Found out that Ethan could give me a ride to the CBC but it was too late haha, but shoutout to everyone that did it, I heard it was great.

In addition to my monster nap, I also slept from 2am to 2 pm today. Yes I know what you are thinking, and I am trying to find a job so chill out lol (also I'm open to suggestions from anyone in cv :). It was raining really hard earlier but then it stopped and it was just kind of wet and nice and overcast. So I went for a two mile-ish shakeout to Woodruff where I jogged a lap on the field and then four strides and headed home. Did not feel too great.

Ugggh rough day. Headed out for a three mile tempo on the canal trail, but just ran to the temple as a warmup and started from there. Did a couple of stretches and then I got started. I told myself to be more relaxed the first mile, but it didn't seem to help how I felt. I felt just as bad as last monday and my footing was really uncooridanated and terrible, despite the canal being more of a service road then a trail. Splits were 6:23, 6:32, and 6:19 for a 6:25 average starting slightly uphill. I just haven't had a good workout yet, but at least I've realised that and know that my fitness isn't actually THAT terrible. I just need to do this on a good day. It was also pretty hot, and I feel that after sleeping in, runs never feel as good as they could have felt even with the added sleep. After that was over I took a while to recover and then did two of the hill reps that we did during track to get some uphill running stimulation. They felt quick but I think they were like 34s. Then I did a slow jog all the way home.

Good morning run on the Deer Fence with Spencer and Hayden. Got started at about 8:20 which is early for me, and we started at Prov and headed north for an out back which was backwards to the way I've usually done it. Pretty chill and fun run for the most part, it was great to catch up with the guys. Hayden is training to walk on at USU, (which I guess I sort of am too) and Spencer doesn't leave on his mission to Ghana till the end of the Summer so we'll probably do a lot more running together, and I'm glad to hear that Hayden I have sort of the same goal because we can push eachother a bit. It felt like we hit Dry in no-time compared to doing it the other way, then we extended up the canyon a bit and turned around at three. We stopped a few times so it made it easier. I pushed it a little on some of the last hills but I think the pace was still crappy, not sure because my watch wasn't being kind. So Ragnar in a few days with them and the Freedom Run on the 4th which is great race that will be dominated by #theHJP.

So I got a small job with a surveyor (measuring things for building and maintenance projects) which was yesterday and this morning, so I wasn't able to run then  but for some reason I was exhausted and took a large nap all day. I woke up at about 6 and after awhile decided I did not want to run nearby so I drove up to Logan Canyon for a run that was quite refreshing. I parked by the first gate so I didn't have to run up that big hill and then started and felt pretty good. I tempoed it (relaxed tempo) after a half mile up to the top of switchbacks (just after two miles) with 6:45 mile then chilled out for a mile before turning around and then when I hit left the single track at the bottom of the switchbacks I started cranking it a little more and ran a 6:13 and 5:57 last two. Great run (helps when you just feel good), kind of a pseudo workout but I think something like this is the best way to get an aerobic workout in this time of year and I will prolly try to run this trail a lot fast by the end of the summer. 7:03 avg. and I got five strava segment PRs.

I met Jack at Old Maine today at around 7am to go on a good run with him since he is leaving on his mission in less that a week. It was pretty nice, just the right weather and everything (wish I would run in the mornings more). We kept it pretty easy since he really hasn't run since state, but still ended up with a 7:33 ap. Our course looped up to Lundstrom, then we hit the canal trail by the country club and came down, ran a bit on the xc course for old times sake, then headed up the hill and back to our starting pointing. We saw Johnny driving when were going up the hill haha. I need to run with him soon.

If anyone didnt know I ran on #THEHJP Ragnar team, so that's who I did it with if you were wondering. I road down from Logan with Van 1 (left at 4pm) which was actually pretty fun because I got to hang out with people I wouldn't have. So that took like 5 hours, and then I switched vans in Liberty and then it was my turn to run at about 10pm, and this leg was crazy uphill, from Huntsville to Snow Basin, although it did have one full mile of substantial downhill with was a nice little break. Anyway when I started I thought I could do 7 minute pace but then my first mile was 7:37 and I was like oh crap. The downhill mile was about 6:00 but the average still ended up being way slow (8:00) but it did have 1,700 ft of gain. When I got up to the lodge noone was there and I waited for Connor to come get it from me for like 5 minutes but it's all good, after leg 4 we were locked in 5th place. Napped for about an hour and a half under the stars in Morgan which was nice. That run hurt I'm not gonna lie.

My next leg, Leg 24, was a 2.2 along Echo Dam and into Coalville. It was very cold being around 5am but this was the first leg where it was getting visibly light and you could hear the birds chirping which was cool. So I got the wristband from Denver and tried to go pretty hard and averaged 6:00, so not super fast compared to the 5:00 to 5:15 that most of the team would do for this but I still got 17 kills almost 18. This time it was a much smoother handoff with Baller. So then I walked to the suburban, made myself a delicious PB&J and then knocked out for a couple of hours in the car, shoutout to Talon and Jake for joining me and not being wimps and sleepin in the school. Then at some point I woke up and sun was shining brightly and we our new driver (Denver's mom arrived) and we hurried to the exchange in Park City. It was actually kinda cool to go there again cuz it's been a while, seems like a nice place. So yeah Jake had a good leg and Talon wrecked on Ragnar hill with the fastest time of the race and Brandon B. and Collin M. had crazy downhill legs that looked tough and then Penver Derry killed it. I tried a Gu, it was weird. When I got it was waaay hot (around noon) in Midway which is not the prettiest town, and I opened with like a 6:20 (6:34 on my watch but it didn't connect until a half mile in) and feeling really good I ran like a mile and half in town and then turned towards the hills and as soon as I hit a slight incline my legs SHUT DOWN LIKE SOMEONE FLIPPED A SWITCH and so I crawled along at 8:30 pace up a windy dirt road. At one point it kind of levelled out and I felt better again and could go faster, but then it got steep and I was dying, not gonna lie I had to walk a couple times. Soon I turned onto a red dirt single track which went up to a the top of hill then headed down. I was trying to fly down it and was at a pretty good pace. Then I hit a wider road and my heart palpitation came into play and I started to get stomach problems so now I was crawling DOWN the road. If I was feeling normal I would have been FLYINg believe me. Sped up a bit a fixed my form for the camera then I hit an extremely steep downhill and had to shuffle. At this point the distance was 5.9 and they said it was 6.1 LIARS. This bikepath thingy wound like a snake for another mile with a few surprise hills, then I saw Jake and he told me I had 3 minutes to break 21 and I tried to push it up one lasat hill and then it wound back down and I started to accelerate then the whole team joined me and it was sick. I was goin a bit fast and had a gap on them and felt kind of weird but oh well. It felt so good to be done and celebrate. We won the hs division and got 5th overall.

Gosh dangit another one of my monster posts.

Morning run with the good ol XC team at practice. Jack came too! Ran up to USU and then the cross country course mainly with Jack, Paul and Kalin (the coaches turned around at 3) I felt a sense of freedom knowing I could mess around as much as a wanted and not get in trouble but I figured I would be a good example ;)

Drove to First Dam at about 9:00 and did a run at dusk on the Canal Easement for 3 miles then I finished up on the Shoreline Trail to get a little elevation. It was cool looking at the lights in the valley but it got sketchy when I couldn't see anything. Felt meh. 7:32 ap.

Easy night run out to the River Trail then I looped back by Icon on 10th West. 7:01 ap, felt decent but started to get pretty tired towards the end. Having Kanye in my ears helped a bit though.

Finally had a decent workout today, meaning I didn't feel completley crappy for it. I was meaning to get up early and run but I slept in and then I had a dentist appointment (not a checkup, fillings ugh) and then I worked from noon to 4:30. Waited till about 8:30 and then I drove to the USU XC course. Warmed up a mile on the brand new canal trail that is connected with it. Workout was a marathon workout I got out of the Daniels book. In the book it is 3xMile @ T w/ 1 min jog + 3 X 3 min H w/ 2min jog, but I took out one of the miles to reduce the volume. I kind of followed the way the 5K course goes. First mile was a 5:45, next mile was a 5:58, at this point it was convenient to head onto the canal trail and explore more so I went out on it for the first 3 min push then turned around. The first two didn't feel too good. When I started the last one I was on the far northwest corner of the course, and I decided to see if I could get to the finish line in that three minutes (includes looping around the grass field) but if the three minutes were up I was still gonna finish it. Well 3 minutes came and went and I wasn't super close and I was going to finish through but the sprinklers had switched and my bag was in the line of fire so I just stopped it where the final straight starts and grabbed it. Recovered then did two long strides, one downhill one uphill. Then cooled down and decided to check out the track. It was pretty dark at this point and I took a couple steps on it before I realized it was a BRAND NEW SURFACE which was hasn't even had lanes painted yet. So that's pretty cool. Decided to stay off though.

At around 3 I was debating whether I should go run somewhere or not, but then I ended up going to the pool for about 3 hours. After that, I ate half a pizza and then I was ready to run lol. Just ran from home ugh. Took a new loop that I haven't done just to switch things up so I ran all the way to Maceys which was about 3 miles from my house, and I was havin stomach problems and tried to use the restroom but I couldn't go just yet, then moved on running to Ryan's Place Park (this whole time I had that great sluggish tired feeling) and I still couldn't go there, then I just headed straight home from there, luckily without an accident. :) 7:31 avg.

I met Paul, Kallin, and Collin at Green for a morning long run. We took it really relaxed up (or I took it because I was leading the whole time) so about a 9:15 average going up for 5 miles with 1300 verticle feet, which is low 7s with GAP. Kallin and Collin turned around at 4 so it was just me and Paul now. We turned around and I thought we going at a pretty good pace down but it was only like 6:50 for 4 miles. I feel like I need to work on ankle strength because I don't feel like I can run down hill on trails like I could a year ago. The trail is a bit more groomed further down so our last mile was a 5:56. 8:00 ap.

Joined the XC team for practice on this fine morning. We did river trail. We did warmups and core and all then fun stuff first though. About 2 miles in we had the same group of four that were at the run on Saturday. I'm impressed with Collin he's really stepping it up for his senior season. Paul and I started to drop the other two and then they turned around at 3 and I showed Paul Trapper Park, which is 3.5 miles out from the school. At this point we had gone from a couple of 7:45 miles to a 7:05 to a 6:48 so i just decided to turn it into a good progression run, withouting telling Paul initially lol. So then we went 6:42, 6:32, and finished with a 6:20. I was just glad to be feeling good. Kind of reminded me of the progression I did on the treadmill during indoor. Afterwards we did some strides on the turf and then everyone iced in the canal but I got in for 10 seconds and decided I was a wimp so just hung out there. The run was 6:58 ap because of the slow two miles at first.

I was gonna meet up with Johnny (Perez) to run the Logan Canyon this moring but he cacncelled so I met u pwith paul and ran Logan Canyon instead. Since we had that pretty good paced run yesterday we took it really easy, except for when we hit the switchbacks I wanted to get a CR on them so we sprinted up. Unfortunately, I stopped too soon, which is typical. We headed back down at the slowest paced I have probably ever descended the canyon with a GPS, which was low 7s. Average was 7:37.

Met up with Spencer and Hayden for a Freedom Run prep. We met at Lincoln Elementary and then drove up to left hand fork, a mile below the the start line. Headed down a pretty good pace, around 6:30, which got down to like 6:10-6:20. Spencer was hanging back so we stopped and waited for him a few times. The hill actually felt pretty hard, we ran up it at 6:20 pace. The last two miles we picked it up even more. 6:17 average.

Was gonna run somewhere in the morning (can't remember where) but I slept in. I was curious about how far that new canal trail went (from my workout last week) so I drove to the xc course to run it. I got about a mile in, and then there was a private property sign and a guy by it and he told me he owns the trail and doesn't want people running on it. So that put a downer on things lol. So I headed east and onto the main road that Lundstrum park is on and went north. After I started heading up the hill I had somewhat of an accident and turned around for an extremely uncomfortable mile (with a turd in my pants) until I found a honey bucket. Headed back on the road and after another mile I started getting "movements" again, and luckily found another potty. By then I was almost back at the course so I finished up for a mile there. 7:04 average.