The Renegade

Good workout, ran out to the dump road and did a three mile tempo, I felt suuuper loose with smooth form and good turnover. Why can't I ever feel like that for a race??? Anyways I flat out ran three 6:26s in a row not kidding, and they were super controlled. Never had that even pace. Of course coming back is slightly up hill so it just means I pushed it a little harder but that was really cool. Then I tacked on one more mile on the frontage road in 6 flat, that felt good too. I felt like a Kenyan marathoner it was cool. I had Coach Strand with his car at every half mile too so it was good to have the support. Got back to the track and did 2x200, 30 mid and 29 high, they felt really good and smooth. Doing those gets me more and more pumped for track! Did some lifting after, the full set that we did during indoor last year.

Easy run with two loops in west Logan and then around the temple. Felt good just like yesterday. Fun run even with the cold and the wind! 

10 x 3 minute pushes with 1 minute active recoveries, out and back up Logan Canyon, wasn't too bad until I got to the steep part (my fault for going that way) and it sucked, while I was hitting ~6:45 pace on the pushes before I was now at 9 minute pace and digging a well. After I turned around I felt good again though, went at 5:45-6 minute pace on the pushes. Got on the highline trail on the way back, did some strides at the dam. This was after a Cardiologists' appointment where he told me that my heart is completely healthy from a medical standpoint, so I might end ukp seeing Dr. Lyons up at USU.

5.5 mile run on the river trail though the fall colors at their peak! Felt good eassily averaged 7:20 pace. Got back to the track and broke in my new speedy shoes a bit, the streak lts. A couple 200s, then simulated the finish at Mt. Sac FL West (250m, clockwise, starting on a straighaway). Felt good, I like em, just wish they were a bit smaller.

On the treadmill today, watching the football quarter finals from the faculty room with coach. I'd say it's the next best thing to being out there in the student section, but I needed to get a run in!

Great long run in Bountiful (north on salt lake). Ran from Orchard Dr. to Bountiful Boulevard, which is QUITE the climb, then I ran up to Mueller Park, and turned around pretty soon, that was sweet. Then I ran on bountiful to Holbrook Canyon, but quickly realized a half mile up that this was not for runners. So I kept going north to the temple and turned around a little after that, went straight back. 8:00 average. I felt okay. I'll be running in Bountiful a few weekends here and there all winter so I look forward to doing more exploring!

2 mile warmup to Ryan's, and then 3 miles tempo (sorta) a break and one mile a little harder. Ran the first two miles in 6:32 and 6:19 (pretty even because I had a headwind on one and a tailwind on the the other). Then at the beginning of mile three my heart palp happened so I just stopped and waited or Kallin to catch up for about a minute and I ran with him the rest of the way and pushed him, but I pulled away from him in the last .1. Waited a few minutes and ran an out and back mile in 6 flat (starts downhill, ends up hill). Cooled down and did a 2x200 and 2x100 on the track, felt good.

Easy run up to the dam and then up and over cliffside back to the school. I felt weird and uneven, like my right glute was clenching more than my left that all I have to say

2 x 2400 (1.5 miles) today. Felt pretty decent after a mile warmup started at kinda slow at 6:30 pace for the first lap, but then I ran sub 6 for the rest of the time, controlled. Jogged three laps and got started on the next one, which I ran sub 6 pace for all of the laps. After that I jogged an 800 and then did an extra 800 at basically the same pace, with a little bit of a kick at the end. (ran like high 2:40). Godd workout! 4x100m strides after with 30m excel, top speed for 40m, and then we decelerated for another 30m. Then we did hip drills, and I did a bit of lifting.

Easy run up campus and then to the XC course and back to school. Started with like an 8 minute mile but it ended up being like a 7:15 average, I felt better than expected. When I was on the course I ran into Johnny and some other track guys tothat was fun. Got back to the track and did a couple 100m strides. 

Little shakeout run, (3 miles) at a force slow pace, then some strides, I did a 200 (28.1), a 400 (84), and a 200 (28.9) in my spikes.

Awesome race put on by Mountain Crest Cross Country. It wasn't as cold as I thought it would be, so that was good. I got there and we waited for the SV kids to show up, then we went on a 2 mile warmup, followed by stretching and strides. We then proceeded to start after waiting for someone to poop. Went out at 5 minute pace and I was scared that I was gonna get dropped by the guys I was running with, and they started to pull away inthe second lap, so I basically spent the entire race focusing on catching them. They separated into two of their own packs, I caught up to one guy, thought I would draft on him for a while but he was going too slow, the same happened with the next kid, so then I tried to catch the two kids about 40m in front of me, and I did all before the last lap. Then I just held on and I ran like a 68, so a decent kick. Happy with it! That's actually a 30 second PR in this event. It honestly didn't feel too hard, it was really only tough starting in the last 600-400 meters. If I could get to like 10:15 by the end of the season then that's good enough to get me sort of in the mid-pack at state. We ran a  mile cool-down on the track, and then I drove over to hollow road and did some more cooling down there, good week, 41 miles, so lower than last week but it's all good.

800 warmup, then then Ks. It was SUPER cold and windy and miserable. Wind was blowing south, so we started where we usually do so we had more tailwind. It was 400m jog in a 3 min recovery. Tbh I only jogged 400 twice, the rest of the times I only did 200. Times were:

3:37, 3:32, 3:29, 3:29, 3:29, 3:22 
3:29.6 avg. ------ 5:37 /mile

So pretty good workout, that's the best I've averaged for Ks like ever, my record used to be 3:37 avg. It's not often that I get faster or neutral every rep. On the last one I kinda took it at the same effort and coming through 200 left coach told me I was slow so I kicked it in pretty hard, and I flew down the home stretch, and I was amazed and then I remembered I had 20mph winds on my back haha. 2x200, probably the same effort (28.0 with tailwind, 34 with headwind) Cooled down a mile on a treadmill, and got in a good lift, more than usual. Also I really like the shoes.

Nice run with Coach Strand, did a loop through the nature park, cliffside and then back onthe canal trail and by the temple. Felt basically effortless, even the big hills felt good. Did a tiny bit of exploring under cliffside. We got back and did 4x100m. I've decided I'm going to raise my mileage period until after footlocker, and even after that I'll try and make sure I dont go over 50 until June, just to make sure I don't get injured. There, no pressure on me to get it up to a certain point fast at all. 

Trail run/workout today on the deer fence. Coach Strand dropped me and  two of the girls off at the dead bottom of the trail in Hyrum, and had us run to Providence, which takes some climbing. It was super windy in my face, and there where dead weeds on both sides that were scraping my legs. I got to the super steep climb from Millville to Prov, and Coach wanted me to take it hard up this part, so I did, and on this hill hard for me meant 9:30 average pace, so yeah I did go pretty hard, and I got a Strava CR for it! Continued the hard running until two miles was up (of hard running) and it took me a little over a half mile up Providence Canyon, which was really good training. Turned around and took it super hard back down since it's a dirt road not concrete and I need to practice running hard downhill too. Did a couple more hard runs and I was done. Good day, the sun was finaly out!

Cold, rainy run after school in Providence and River Heights. Felt decent, ended up averaging like 7:23 pace. Did a couple of strides after. 

Haha I slept in till 2:00 today, and didn't run until around 5 when the sun was just going down, so it was pretty cold. Ran three easy miles near home and then a few strides on the road in my flats, I still wish they were a bit smaller.

Great race! My only goal really was that I would be happy as long as I got a sub-40, and I didn't think I would get that after those sloooow 2nd and 3rd miles, but I ended up using the down hill to my advantage. It was pretty cold, but warm enough that I could wear my XC singlet with arm warmers, and tights of course. I was running with Trey Briggs from MC for the first little then he pulled away from me, and I spent the entire last 2 miles which were downhill trying to catch him, and I made up a lot of ground, but not enough because he beat me by a couple seconds. That's fine though, he beat me by a lot more than that last week at the 2-mile. Beat Ethan on the Strava segments for the downhill miles from his race last year, guess it's nice having somebody to chase! Great race for my first 10K. I wish I had not put the uphill on such a pedestal, because it didn't go for as long as I thought it would and I feel like I could've pushed it harder there. Oh well, I know I'll be back at the this race wether it's next year or a few years down the line. Great job to everyone that ran today! And talk about NCAA Nationals! Freaking Syracuse upsetting the Buffs! Crazy! I didn't get to watch it live tho because it was at the same time as the race :/. Lemme go check those results more, still don't know if Chez won or not. Here's my splits with elevation:

1- 6:13  (-43 ft)

2- 7:04  (144 ft)

3- 6:56  (155 ft)

4- 6:32   (30 ft)

5- 5:38  (-175 ft)

6- 5:42  (-110 ft)

.2-5:23   (17 ft)

7x800 w/ 3 min active rec. + 400 tag
Pretty good, I can't say I've had a bad workout or even a bad run for the entire last month. Warmed up half a mile, then did drills. Started pretty soon after. MUCH better weather than last Monday for the Ks. (50 deg). Cut my time down on nearly every one:

2:53.3, 2:51.2, 2:46.8, 2:43.3, 2:43.9, 2:39.2, 2:32.6

2:44.3 avg. //// (5:30 /mi)

I made sure to keep em pretty conservative in the first half, and they didn't really start to hurt until the fifth one, and by then it was nearly over! It was a 400 jog in the 3 minute recovery. It was nice to do it at my 2 mile pace according to a week ago (although I couldv't gone harder). I decided to do a 400m tag for a little mental toughness, and since Jack was doing an extra 800, I jumped in it with him and helped him out, I expected him to go with me but I think he was confused so I pulled way ahead of him and ran 65.8, so not blazing for being on a track, but the first 200 was pretty slow. Cooled down three lap, hip drills, lifting :)

Ran up to Providence Elementary to meet up with Spencer and Hayden for a run. It was a four mile loop that they loke to do because of all the hills that there are. It went upl Center St. until it naturally went off to the right and started going downhill, than back down to the valley and up Death (Eck) Hill, then we looped back down and halfway up Death Hill then to the right and headed back to he start. Good run, it was nice to run with someone on an easy day. Luckily I got a ride home so I didn't have to run nine miles. Mile reps tomorrow on yet another hilly course.

4xMile @ Denzil Stewart. Good workout with Jack, it was pretty tough but good for Mt. SAC. We had 7 minutes of rest in between so quite a bit. Here's the times (actual splits -> GAP -> elevation change)

1) 6:32 -> 5:46 -> +89ft

2) 5:48 -> 5:48 -> -90ft

3) 6:19 -> 5:34 -> +91ft

4) 5:36 -> 5:38 -> -98ft

 Reps 1 and 3 were super uphill and vice versa as you can see It was a point to point course. We started by doing the quarter mile flat loop on the sidewalk in the park, then goin up the huge 200m hill on the side trail, came out in a residential area, it was flat for about 200m, then took a right turn down hill, then a sharp 180 degree left at the bottom, then about 300-400m of flat on the road, then up a pretty big hill, then it finished flat for about 100m. For the alterating reps we did that backwards, and even though they were a net downhill, they were hard too because we still had to run up one big hill. Glad to be getting stronger and stronger on the hills. Now I'm off to North-Eastern Idaho, so yeah, that'll be freezing for my runs. But the rest of the week shouldn't be too intense, I'll just do a 3-4 mile threshold on Friday. 

Easy run in ID. Found some new roads, saw a moose, almost got lost, it was fun!

I wasn't really feeling running today, but I decided I should do my workout. I was planning on doing a longer fartlek, but the weather was too unpredictable, couldn't decided what to wear to be comfortable, so I just did a three mile tempo after my warmup, average 6:28. First mile was 6:24 cuz it was ever so slightly downhill and with tailwind, miles two and three were both 6:30s, they were rough, the pace for the last mile was only as fast as it was because I pushed it in the last half mile I know I'm fitter than that, seeing I ran 6:19 for 6 miles less than a week ago, its just a combination of a bad nights sleep, not feeling good, and bad conditions up here in Tetonia, Idaho.

If I said I wasn't feeling running yesterday, I reaaallly meant it today, so I took the day off. I honestly think it'll be better to have two days to recharge the week before the big dance (race) so I don't get burnt out or anything. I've had a not to easy day on tuesday sandwiched by two really tough workouts in the beginning of the week, followed by a semi-easy day, and then a day that I just felt dead.

10x400. 2:50-3:00 active recovery (400 jog). As you can see, the track was snowed over as was every other track probably (shoutout to Coach Strand for shoveling lane 1 during lunch, you the real g). I got off to a rough start, partly because we only had a narrow pathway and there were ice patches to dodge, but I think it was a good workout knowing that I probably would've averaged 2 seconds faster if the track was clear and it wasn't so cold. Splits:

74.6, 82.5, 78.3, 73.3, 76.8, 76.0, 73.7, 72.5, 73.7, 64.2.

74.56 avg. 4:59 /mi

Pretty good, the last one I really pushed it, but I'm kind of disappointed that I didn't get to push it as hard as I could've because of the ice, but it's all good, this pretty much confirms that I'm going to PR in the mile come the first indoor meet, I could probably PR right now.