The Renegade

Jardine trail today. Great run I did it last summer once too. Ran up with Todd (and Keith for a little), saw the tree, did the loop then ran back down. Average was in the 10s on the way up but we were going pretty chill. On the way back down I was in the 6s and even ran a 6 minute mile. I was blazing down the trail I'm surprised I didn't get hurt. After that I added on another mile on the Bonneville switchbacks and the original canal trail. That's 51 for the week.

Ran the canal and then some with Coach Strand and Todd. Felt decent, but not super energetic, you know how it goes....... (I'm writing this entry and entries from the 3rd to to the 15th on the 17th actually so sorry if they lack detail)

Tempo today in Mantua! So same setup as the last two tempos I've done but I felt a little bit worse, but not completely terrible, just not on top of things. Mile warmup and then we got onto the workout right away. The varsity guys up there were Damon, Keith, Davis, Angel, and I, so we had the biggest combo of us so far. Started off with a 6:26, then had to stop and tie my shoe so I think that affected how I felt the rest of the time kind of because I had to sprint to catch up to the group. The rest of the time I was just running with Eric. So after mile 1 I ran 6:31 and 6:22 (which I kind of pushed to get), took a rest, then ran 6:17, which I didn't feel too good for. So good workout overall. 2 mile cooldown. Tehn when we got back to the school I did some more slow jogging and strides (a couiple 200s), and that finished off the day. 

Got up super early to run before I left to scout camp, like at 5 am. Ran from the school so I could check in for the beginning of practice before I left. I did the Death Hill loop, and again poorly judged where the strava segment started and ended, and went hard up the hill and didn't get credit for it. Next time... So yeah pretty good, but just like yesterday, (forgot to mention this) my ankle was being weirder than it usually is, just felt unnatural. we'll see though, because it's never caused me pain. 7:40 avg.

AM: I ran two super slow miles (10:29 avg.) on a rugged trail or no trail at all around a lake at 10.50K ft. elevation. So yeah. That was pretty cool. Felt tired though cuz we had already backbacked up there and I got some uncomfortable sleep that night. 

PM: Back at base camp, close to 9,000 ft. above sea level, did somewhat of a workout. Ran on a slightly inclined road (gained 260 ft) taht was weel developed that turned into an okay trail. Went 3 out, turned around and ran for a mile, then did .1 mile pickups for two miles on the way back, then ran .5 as a cooldown. Averaged 8:16,with the push segment miles being 7:35 and 7:40. That was actually pretty tough, I wish I had a heart monitor to analyze that. It was hot though, I definetley was justified in taking off my shirt. 

AM: This was definetley my favorite run at camp. we went to Mirror Lake (10,000 ft.) at like 11, and it was a pretty cold and overcast morning it had been raining earlier. Teh rest of teh troop fished (or tried to) while I ran. I circled the lake three times on a well developed path, and then ran up the steep paved road to the highway a half mile above the lake. i actually felt pertty dang good. Managed a 7:40 for my last mile of the 5 mile run and (the downhill helped a lot but the first half of the mile was uphill). averaged 8:07 so that was satisfying. 

PM: One junk mile at dusk before I hopped in the river. Buuuurrrrrr. 

Easy ten at night hours after I got back home. Did a loop through the Island and then some more. I made sure to keep it super slow and easy (averaged 7:50) and running into Hayden Nielson who was also out for a long run helped. (hes a bit slower) So I ran with him for a few miles before moving ahead. I had a stomache ache for like half the run and I was chafing in the inner thigh/groin area so that was pleasant. My ankle felt better though. Just an easy run. It was kind of scary running in the dark on the way back since I didn't have a light or anything. 

AM: Ran 5.5 on the river trail with Jack. He felt good and I didn't (wasn't too well prepared with sleep and hydration) Averaged 7:30 tho. Then .3 worth of strides.

PM: Tomorrow is the time trial so I just did an easy run to woodruff and did a set of strides in my spikes there. I guess they didn't have to be as intense as they were but oh well, I  was also just doing a series of tests to make sure they worked and fit right, like certain turns at highspeed, and starts. Theyre great. ran back home and that was it. This was at like 4 so it was hot out, and I didn't even bother bringing a shirt, lol.

Time Trial day! So we got to the course and we did a two mile warmup ( I did it in my spikes to make sure it would work here) , then we did our drills and lined up to go. I got out ahead of the pack right from the start and sperated from them right aaway. (would've been nice if Jack was there) So yeah glad I did that to get prepared for the real races this season. I think that being much more experienced witht the 800 now it will be easier to sprint out with the top guys and avoid getting trapped. My philosophy with that is that even if they will pass you within the first quarter and be gone really soon, its better to make people move around you than get stuck and have to get around other people. So the first half mile went by really fast, I think I was at 5:30 average through it. Obviously that would go down, because mile one was a 5:44. I should have set it for half mile splits, but it's all good. I felt really good and imagined I was in the lead at a big invitational and that made me go faster. Anyways looking at my pace on strava it looks like I was pretty up and down in the third half mile (probably because of the turns), so I better work on that. I felt like I had a pretty good finish. I felt pretty strong and powerful, and cruised it in at a decent speed. Would've had an even split if I had somone towing me through it though. This just gets me excited about what I can do with competition. This didn't feel extremely hard; I never went into the well like I have previously in two mile races, and I'm pretty sure I have felt the way I did before I started my kick at that distance into the race during a 5K. Basically I think that with some guts I can run that pace for another mile. Now I just gotta lower that pace so I can 7 seconds faster than that average on a hilly course cough*state*cough. 5:40s would get you 17:00 on the state course and that's been my goal for like half a year now, so with only less-tha-intense tempo work under my belt and lots of miles that will help me later in the season, I think that after hard workouts all season, staying healthy, and a big taper, that's very obtainable goal. :)

When we got back to the school I ran a couple more miles and did some strides on the track.  

Recovery run with Todd and Paul. I introduced them the water lab loop, which they had never un before, so that was fun. Did some strides after that and that's about it for today. I felt tired but I had a reason to. 

So, today I did my first 4 mile tempo ever, and it didn't gotoo well, but I'm not panicking. Warmed up about a mile to Ryan's Place Park and then started at the same place we've done all our other ones. So the group running the four miler (that was there) was me, Damon, Anna (new German exchange student) Kalin, and Davis. So me and Damon and Davis all ran together the whole time, although we were all in a group for the first mile which was kinda cool. I titled this 4 mile tempo fail for a reason. So I felt decent in the first mile but shortly after my shoelace came untied adn I had to stop and tie it the catch up. So I think that affected imy workout the same way it did at the lake, except worse. About a half mile after, my heart rate spiked and ended my chance at a good average. Then we got lost on the part of the course that we've already run like three times before. So we had to kind of back track and we couldn't really focus on the workout because we were trying to figure out where to go, Although I had my watch so at least we could still go off the right distance. By mile 4, I was hurting and well over my lactic threshold. But I just did my best to stay with the guys, which was tough. We decided to just go all the way to the park, which added on a little, but that's okay. They went all the way to where we started, but I just had to stop at the corner cuz i didn't wanna get TOO fatigued. At least I got a hard effort in. Then Damon and Anna and I went on a slightly longer cooldown, and then got our strides in. After practice the team iced in the canal, so that was fun to finally start up again. 

Easy run with Todd on the canal ((coach) Eric turned around early to do a track workout). Felt decent. Definitley better than yesterday. 7:36 average for that. Than I accompied Eric on his recovery jogs and part of his workout (just a 400 of his 2x2 miles) and did some 200s also. (76, 32,30) 

Ran Logan Canyon with Todd and Eric. Pretty good, we ran a part that I've never been on that was kind of cool. I'm happy to get sufficient mileage this week, because I thought I was going to end up dropping it but I'm feeling good. 7:45 average. 

AM: three miles with my bro riding his bike next to me. I gotta do that more often. 

PM: First heat practice. We did a four mile tempo at the usual place. We got started and I accidentally took the varsity squad through a wrong turn (too early). First mile was 6:21, that felt fine. Next three were 6:36, 6:36, and 6:21. I had to go way farther than where we were supposed to stop because of the early turn and me going off my watch, so I the only one on the team who actually went four. Oops. So that was 6:28 average, 20:12 5K split. Not bad at all seeing that its about 35 degrees hotter than it was for the last tempo. I'd say this was succesful, even if it hurt more, which it did. I think I was the only one who did have a good workout, everyone else had it pretty rough. Cooled down with Jack and then some strides. 

Easy run on canal that we had to cut short because of a scheduled meeting with the trainers. I added on after on the river trail with coach strand. It was pretty dang hot. Averaged 7:18, which felt pretty fast. 

Canal three mile tempo. I averaged 6:27, so I guess I'm happy with that. A few hours after practice I ran 4 miles at night slow, it felt pretty relaxing. 

AM: 2 miles, mostly on grass. Very tired legs.

PM: Ran the Icon trail with 4 of the guys for practice. The smokes getting even thicker, and it's sure not helping with running. 7:45 average, towards the end I felt terrible and weak, and just jogged back with Damon.

Ran 8 miles on Avond pass with the team. I didn't feel super great, but it was still cool. Fourth time I've run there. Coach brought a GoPro to film us running on his bike so that was cool. It was dang hot. Averaged 7:21 because I cruised it back at a decent sub-7 pace. I then ran two more miles around the school when we got back.

Fun run to finish off the biggest mileae week of my career. We met at the finish line of the TOU Half and then ran part of the course (this was around the time the race started up the canyon). We did a cool loop that took us on a road I never knew existed up east of Millville. That was like 7 miles and by the time we got back to the finish, the top runners were already coming in (shoutout to Riley Cook for winning). But most of all shoutout to Coach Strand for taking 9th overall with a 1:11! I actually missed his finish because I did a small looop with Paul. I ran with him on his cooldown, and then Paul and I ran up to Von Baer to get a little extra mileage and vertical. Felt surprising good today. 8:03 average. 

Tempo today at the usual spot. Felt tired from last week. I ran with Davis in front of me for a couple miles and then he died away big time, I kept it pretty much even. Still really hot.  I was 10 seconds slower per mile tahn laste Monday but that's okay. Added on on the River Trail with Strand once we got back to the school. Hoooot.  

Recovery run. I felt terrible. Tomorrow I'm gonna just run four miles in the morning and then not run until the meet on thursday.

AM: 4 miles at 8:06 average. I felt like crap for the first 3 and then after a bathroom break at willow park I felt great for the last mile, so I'm thankful for that.

Pretty good race! I had perfectly positive splits, but I'm working on it. The course had some hills, but nothing horrible. Enough to make it a little rougher though. I ran the same time for my first two miles as I did at the time trial. I moved up and passed 5-6 people throughout the course of the race. Started with a 5:46, and Jack was actually quite far behind me when I came through the mile mark. But then he moved up and ended up taking third overall. Next mile was 5:56, and that was with losing 52 feet of elevation, so I need to work on that. Last mile was 6:07, but that was with 46 ft of gain, and STRAVA GAP registers it as a 5:53, so not bad. I was hanging onfor dear life behind two Highland guys with 400m left, but then they dropped me and finished maybe 50 meters in front of me. This is with no speedwork under my belt so that's fine. As far as the team, we took third behind Highland and Preston, and beat Bear River by quite a bit. I don't know if it's the best thing to say this, but I think we have a Region 11 Championship in the bag. Cooled down about a mile after, then when we got back to the school, did a two mile loop in town. Felt good.

Super slow recovery with a few of the guys. We ran the canal trail up to cliffiside, so we got some good vert too.

11 miles easy up Green Canyon and down from the house of a girl on the team (the entire team ate breakfast there afterwards). Ran with Eric and Todd most of the time, met up with Paul going down. Felt okay, avg pace was 8:17, and overall time was 1:31, so that's definitley a good long run time wise, and I've heard time counts over distance when it comes to the long run, but I don't know for sure. 

Tempo at Mantua Lake today. Went pretty well, it was a beautiful afternoon in Mantua. After a good warmup and stretches, we started. My shins were hurting a bit the whole warmup, but once we started, I didn't feel too bad. First mile was 6:19, felt pretty good, and we had almost the whole varsity crew in one group, with Jack running with Coach up ahead. It was awesome. We slowed up after that one, that was a mistake. Next two miles were 6:40 and 6:37, and I still felt good, and we were still in a pack, then after 3 miles, I started to pull ahead for a half mile by quite a bit, then I totally blew up and I couldn't go any faster. Then Austin passed me up, and I kind of just floated to the finish. Last mile 6:44.  I think if I had just stayed in our pack I would have been fine, learned from that for sure. 6:36 average, so not bad at all. SLOW mile cooldown, and then got bussed back to the school. When we got to the track I (very willingly) humored Strand and "modeled" for an XC vid he is making, so basically it was like a 350 meter stride, than jogged some more with Jack around the track to make it two.