The Renegade

Little workout today, didn't go the way I wanted it to but that happens. I warmed up 1.3 to LHS and did drills on the track, then started. Workout was 3-2-2-1-1-3 (Hard, Recovery, so on) (in minutes) and I was going to do it 4 or 5 times. My intent was also to stay on the track the entire time. Got started and I really just didn't feel that good. I was running sub 5:50 pace for the first hard segment but it felt super fast (have barely done any running at that pace). It really only got slower from then on. After the first set I left the track and just headed out to the river trail. I was just really not feeling smooth. I hit the end of set #3 and my heart told me it was time to stop. Headed back to the track and did a couple fast 200s just for the heck of it, not that it would help me with any race I'm focusing on. Hit those in 28, felt really good. Then jogged home. Strava gave me an Extreme Sufferfest for that workout, I don't even know if it can go any higher than that haha.

Super windy run today. Did the standard 10th West, Icon Trail, River Trail route, which I thought was 8 miles but came up short. Was super windy, like REALLY windy with a headwind when I was running south. Last half mile I was flying with the wind. Tried to keep an easy effort the entire time. 7:08 ap.  

Awesome afternoon run with Jacob Malone and Hayden. Hopefully I can run with those guys at least once a week. We met by the bull statue on 10th East then ran up to Lundstrom Park, got on the canal and connected to the Highline Trail through the golf course, then ran down Stokes and got back on the Highline. With about 2 miles left we got attacked by a viscious stinging hail storm. That was nine miles, 7:06 pace. After that I jogged a mile in the ARC and did some lifting and calisthenics.

AM: Great morning run with Sylvan Needham, a dude who was on the CC team when I joined way back. He got home from his mission in September. We were supposed to meet up at the same spot as before, I showed up a little late and waited around for a few minutes, the ran by his house and figured he wasn't coming so headed to the river trail, and we ran into each other there. He had some good mission stories to tell. Glad to get so much distance too. 7:30 AP.

PM: 2 relaxed miles on the normal road route after work.

Weather was nasty today so I hit up the ARC and did a standard 8 miles alternating between track and treadmill every two miles. Nothing special here.Did some fun hills in the last mile on the tready. 7:20ish AP.

This was a pretty unique run, 13 miles in the cold at 10:30 pm. My bad for not getting early enough haha. After I got home from work I was dreading having to do such a long run but I knew I just needed to get out the door. The run was a strict out and back from my house to Green Canyon, which was exactly 6.5 miles. Didn't pay attention to pace at all going up cuz I knew it would be slow.Was pretty cold at first but that didn't really bother me after a mile. Just tried to relax and enjoy it somehow.There was some pretty nasty headwinds out of the canyon which were cold and strong, but luckily I hit 6.5 right as it got really bad, then I flew down the hill. On 1600 east I started cruising at what I thought was 6:15ish paw but sadly it was more like 6:40. Oh well, it was pretty cold out. Either way I felt good. Continued that until I hit center Street than kinda relaxed the rest of the way home.The last half mile or so was done after midnight haha. 7:26 AP.

P.S. I know I haven't posted in almost two months but I want to try and post consistently from now on, and also work my way back and fill in the void (my little bit of OCD does not permit me to leave those entries blank)

Ran up to Cliffside to try and get the CR, I was pumped about it but sadly did not run the 1.2 mile segment fast enough, actually had to stop about a mile in. Took a little break then headed back down at a blistering pace (had a little headwind though which was cold) and got a few crowns for that. Then jogged home at a relaxed pace. I need to do a 7:55 pace up that hill to get the CR, I'll get it if I keep trying. I figure it's a goal to work towards.

Easy pre race run on the river trail, felt kinda sluggish. Great weather though, and I got to wear my new hat that got delivered right before I left haha.  7:33ap.

Pretty fun stuff this morning at the Shamrock Shuffle, nothing special, but fun! Woke an hour later than I wanted to and hustled to get the Smithfield, got there half an hour before the race, which was enough time to sign up and get a 1.5 jog in, no time to do drills unfortunately. The start was stupid, definitely a local fun run, because we were just standing there and all of the sudden someone said GO! and we went. 4 of us (all sporting HJP jerseys!) immediatley went to the front and and then Hayden and Eric separated from me and Austin Hunt (fun fact he's my second cousin). I dropped Austin after 30 more seconds. First half mile was uphill so I kind of tried to power through that, so the effort was hard right from the start. The course was just through farm fields so it was pretty boring, and I ran alone about 50m back from Eric the entire race. Had 1.5 of downhill then the last mile was uphill and into a headwind. Splits were 5:45, 5:30, 6:03. In the last mile I was not feeling it and just tried to maintain an okay pace. Not a strong race for me haha but I've done nothing at 5K pace in months (only 2 miles under 6 before this race, counting the ISU meet). That was probably my last 5K in loooong time, and I'm okay with that, those are way more fun when you're trained for it. Cooled down after awards first with the Ridgeline guys then with Austin. Beautiful, beautiful sunny day for a race!

Okay run today, I ran from my car in the Spectrum parking lot after class, took 6th east and got on the canal trail THE CANAL TRAIL for the first time in ages, and it was flawless no snow, mud anything. Wasn't feeling that great though. Took a bathroom break at the water plant (felt awkward walking all the way to the end of a hall past people working in offices) then headed down Sumac till I hit the bottom of Cliffside, then (I had planned this) took a shot at getting the CR, and looking at it now I was on pace for it but I had a palpatation about halfway up so I threw in the towel and headed down toward the water lab trail, ran halfway down and busted my butt sprinting up it (I had forgotten the segment included the flat part of the trail too) then jogged up to the BST switchbacks and sprinted the quarter mile up those, but apparently I stopped either in the beginning or end of the segment, third time that's happened there! Next time I'll really get it. Then cut across the country club, sprinting because there might have been people golfing, luckily I didn't see anyone. Took the Lundstrom canal and headed back to the car. Didn't feel too great today, my hip imbalance felt extremely un-balanced, but glad to get the miles in and a little bit of hill work, maybe it won't feel as bad next time. 7:23 ap.

Good run on a beautiful morning with Sylvan. It's funny, the same thing happened as last time pretty much, I showed up to our meeting spot 15 minutes and assumed he was long gone, so just kept going and hit the river trail, but then we just happened to intersect when I crossed the road to the Icon trail. So that was lucky, again. So then I had some nice relaxed miles with Sylvan as we had good conversation. I had brought a headlamp but I stashed it under some leaves after a half mile. Sky was clear blue and the sun peaked up at the end of the run, just a great morning. And I got more distance than planned, which is great! Always easier with a friend. 7:25 ap.

AM: Wow, alot happened in this run. Parked at BSFC side of the Deer Fence. Beautiful, warm morning, even with then shade of the mountains. There was a sign that said the trail was closed from December to the second Saturday of April, but I pretty much ignored it, I know, dumb (it is located in a wildlife management area). So I was running for maybe 3 minutes, and going up a hill staring at the trail in front of me and then I came this injured but alive deer laying in the middle of the trail, and it flinched and stared at me. I just kept going. Saw multiple dead deer on the trail. 3 miles in I heard a loud howling that sounding like a thousand demons emerging from hell, so scary. Apparantly there's a coyote farm below the fence, but I didn't know that. Then I got to the highlight of the run. I had been planning to go for the CR on Millville hill (a nasty .8 mile climb), I went for and I got it, crushed the the person haha (I once held it but got moved down to fourth, but justice has been served) Crossed Prov canyon and then I was actually in a nonrestricted trail. Just took it easy going out there. Saw Dillon Maggard and some other Aggies so that was cool. Hit Dry 7.5 miles out and found the water bottle I stashed yesterday, glad I did that. Headed back and tried to keep a decent pace. Started to get a nasty blister on the right pinky toe after I crossed Prov, it only got worse and worse especially running back down that climb. Hit Millville canyon and the DNR was waiting for me (basically law enforcement) so they talked to me a bit, and would have let me off with a warning, but they were nice enough to give me a ride back to my car, and THEN he asked for my ID and gave me a citation, so that blows. My bad though for ignoring the sign. (saw a few other people on that trail though too).  Jogged one more mile for 13. We'll see if I'll have to return those shoes or not, I liked them other than the blister problem. 7:37 ap, so not bad especially for having less downhill then uphill.

PM: Well, after my longest work day ever (9.5 hours) I hit the road for  2 or 3 miles, maybe four if I was feeling good, to make up for the shortened run this morning.This was just before midnight. Ran out towards the river trail then back through Willow Park. Felt pretty relaxed!Ended up going 4.5 then I did some strides which added to 5, so and 18 mile day and 64 mile week. Pretty happy with myself, just hope my body can recover for another good week of training next week. 

Just did an easy 5 miler before work to the river trail. 7:28 ap.

Opened my mission call last night and I am pleased to announce I've been called to serve in the Washington Tacoma Mission! I report to the Provo MTC on July 5th, so it's coming up pretty quick.

Went for a really nice 11 miler around town today. Was kind of just all over the place doing a loop in each park/nature location I hit. Was just fun and I felt relaxed. Perfect weather out. Man I love running! 7:07 ap.

AM: 2 Miles easy in the morning on the normal 2 mile loop. 6:57 ap. Happy Marathon Monday!

PM: 6 miles easyish from Old Maine down to Merlin Olsen, the up Canyon Road to First Dam and back on the Canal. Air was very humid and I could feel the effect. Did some strides on the grass at the Dam. 7:01 ap. 

Pretty decent workout as a tuneup for the half on Saturday. When I was walking from class to class the weather was pretty rainy and miserable but it got really nice when it was time to run. Warmed up two miles around Lundstrom and on the canal trail then did some drills and changed shoes then strides. The workout was 3 x 2 mile w/ 3 minute rests on a flat two mile road loop (I've done a couple long tempos on this same loop before). I had some music or motivation. Times were 12:10, 12:13 and 12:02. Didn't feel too bad on any of them until I had a heart palpataion on the last one but honestly I think it made fight against and go faster so that's why #3 was quicker. Got warm enough that I even took my shirt off for the last one. This whole time there were some students filming some kind of video and I'm sure they were laughing at me haha. Didn't really feel smooth today but got the work in and I should hopefully be ready for Saturday.

Ran up Green Canyon after class today. Usually I feel good running up there but I just wasn[t really feelin it. Still went a mile further than I was planning because of the excellent quality of the trail. (First time I've been able to go more than a mile up) 7:14 ap.

Got up way early (before 6:30) for a pleasant morning run with Sylvan. I've been trying to run early (around race start time) all week but this was the first day I managed to do it, helps when you've got a buddy. I ran by his house and picked him up there then we went canal trail and came back through campus. Was a really nice morning for a run. Only thing that wasn't good about this run was that I fell on the pavement and got a scrape, and I had had a stream of blook down my shin by the end of the run (looked like Galen Rupp in like ever track race he's ever done). Wasn't bad though once it got cleaned up. 6:59 ap.

AM: 4 mile shakeout to the gold course and back through Willow Park. Made sure to keep it super easy and didn't look at the watch once. 7:20 ap.

PM: Went for another shakeout from my grandparent's house in Bountiful after I hit up the expo for packet pickup. Was goingt to be two miles but ended up being 3. (Jogged to an elementary school, ran one lap around the field, got board so I jogged to the high school and did a few strides on the track. The strides felt really nice and I felt better after them. 7:00 ap.

Hey Everyone! I know I haven't posted on here in forever but I wanted to write an entry about this race while it was still fresh in my mind. I'll probably go back and do short entries to make up for all the months I missed when I have time after finals. Here's the entry:

AM: Woke up at 4:30 thanks to my Grandma, because I guess I had forgotten to set my alarm clock, close one! Got up got ready, and had an assorted breakfast of a banana, an egg on whole wheat toast and some pineapples. Left with my dad for the race. Took us a bit longer to get to the start because of road closures but eventually I just got dropped off up the hill from it and walked/jogged down. Great atmosphere there already, and the very first signs of light were showing. Went to the restroom which was like a 30 second wait (very impressed) then headed to the track to warm up. Jogged three laps, did stretches and drills then stripped the warmups and did some strides, dropped off my gear then headed to the start. I got to be in the fastest corral so that was really nice. Talked to fellow Loganite Jesse Dunn who was running the marathon with a goal time of 2:30. Perfect, perfect weather for a race. Pretty soon, we were on our way. 

I really made sure to just feel it out in the first few miles, and stayed super relaxed, putting out very little effort but was still doing low 6s high 5s because of the downhill. There were a couple uphills I wasn't expecting but they werent bad at all. As we made our way downtown a lot of the people I was running with had dropped me but I stayed calm. There was this guy in tights that I ran with all the way down City Creek Canyon then we turned onto South Temple which was gradual uphill for about a mile and he pulled away a bit. This was also where I turned up the effort level and was running 6:10-6:20 pace. Sun was blinding me for this whole stretch which wasn't very nice. I passed the same guy right before we turned south. It was downhill again at this point and I was back to 6 flat pace and tried to relax. Ran for about a mile in this direction and the I sort of felt a heart palpatation I guess? But I'm sure if it was full fledged. Here I decided to take a gel which was ironically right before I came to an aid station with a ton of it, but good to be prepared. Turned up a pretty steep hill and I suffered for two blocks climbing it, and I could feel it in my legs from there until the finish. Didn't have much of a pop that you would hope to have at the end of a race but I just pushed myself and kept the pace under 6:30 and no faster than 6:15. Was really starting to suffer right before mile 13 but just hung in there. By now the bikers were on the course with us which was fetching annoying having cyclists fly by you when you are trying to focus on the race. The guy in the tights had passed me again and I caught him with a half mile to go but then faded again and he pulled away from me. Held that position to the finish and just kept my eyes on the arch. I looked at the elapsed time for the first time in the entire race and it said 1:18 so that was really a mood boost knowing that I would finish in the low 1:20s. Pretty great race relative to other long races I've had. Love that feeling after you finish, it's what running is all about. 

Stuck around for a few hours waiting for my age group award and watching the marathon finish. Turns out they never gave them out and they'll ship it to me. Haha my age group is proably the easiest to win anyways because all the high school runners are doing track this time of year. The next guy in my age group was like 8 minutes back. Cooled down a mile eventually. I was having doubts in my mind that I could break 3 hours at Ogden but they have been completley blown away after this race. Ogden has the same ratio of elevation loss as this race had, and the common formula is half marathon time x 2 + 10 minutes. That comes out as 2:52. Of course I'm going to take a more conservative and approach though and will probably just shoot for 1:30 through the half.

PM: 2 miles really easy back at home to shake out the legs, but really to hit 60 for the week and almost 18 for the day. Could really tell that I had raced a half marathon that morning haha.

(Warning: This is one of those novel-size entries (probably my largest ever and that's saying something), but I figured it was worth the extra time/effort to type so I could look back on a detailed account of this milestone in my running career. That's one upper hand FRB has on Strava. It's more about the experience vs. the stats)

Wow. What a day. My first marathon is behind me now. Didn't get to bed at 8 like I wanted to, was asleep by 9:30. I woke up at 1 am and tossed and turned for a while then got up drank some water and took another melatonin and slept soundly till my 4 am alarm. Ate breakfast and was out the door at 4:30. Made it onto the right bus and on time! Half hour ride to the start line where it was extremely cold and stood by a fire barrel for like half an hour until it was time to warm up. Weather was beautiful, not a cloud in the sky! The warmup was just joggin around the small area we were confined to and back and forth on a short dirt road. I didn't really feel nervous at all, not like in most of my races in high school and just shorter races in general. Maybe it's just the atmosphere. Or maybe it was because I knew I needed to be calm. Pretty soon it was time start and I barely got my drop bag in the truck! Saw my buddy Michael Scott Peters (next year's USUSA President) so that was a nice surprise. Before I knew it I was off and running in my first marathon!

I was really surprised at how fast some people went out. It made sense for elite guys like Riley Cook and Ben Van Beekum but even Michael was out of sight in no time and he told me his goal was a 3:15. I was on about sub-2:50 pace the first few miles! All I could think the first mile or so was how this was it, I was really in a marathon and was about to go farther then I had ever gone before. Crazy. Luckily I had drilled into my mind in the prior week that I was going to go out super relaxed and not mess it up because of jitters. I think I did a really good job with that. I just felt super relaxed and not really putting out any added effort then just to run smooth and calm. At the same time, I was panicking a bit; my knee pain was back after a few days of pain-free running. The first 5 miles had a lot of downhill and seemed to go by quickly. My splits were 6:36, 6:45, 6:38, 6:36, 6:46. The next three were still ~50 ft/mi of drop but my pace evened out to 6:51, 6;52, and 6:51 for these miles (goal pace). This was where I noticed a lot of people passing me but I just kept a cool head and had faith that I didn't need to go with them. I took the gu I had with me at mile 8. I think I took water at all of the aid stations except one where I took gatorade and the first one where I didn't take anything at all.

Miles 9-15 were slower, obviously because this was all the rolling "hills" going around Pineview Reservoir. The knee pain was basically gone by the end of this stretch. I also started to feel the first signs of fatigue right around there (mile 9). Not terrible, but I could sense it. Again, just made sure to keep a cool head. I really freaked out for a split second when I had the feeling I get when I have one of my dreaded heart palpatations that slow me way down, but then I felt like normal again. Very odd. This happened twice. My theory is that they actually did happen but the effort level was so low that they kind of slid under the radar. The support at the half way point from all the volunteers was awesome. I came through in just over 1:30 (1:29 on my watch but pretty sure they had it right). I'm glad I only saw my time though because it was encouraging to see that I was just under but not too far. It would have been diffent mentally if I had seen a 1:30 split. Pretty much was just going back and forth with a few people at this point. Two miles later I hit the big hill which luckily had been brought to my knowledge the night before my my aunt and uncle. It was no biggie and I actually caught a group of three and ran with them or a few minutes. To my surprise I could see that I closing hard on none other than Michael Scott who was way ahead early in the race. It was nice to talk to him for a sec about how we were feeling. My splits for these miles (9-15) were 6:55, 6:53, 6:59, 7:00, 6:57, 6:51, and 6:57 on a mostly flat but net uphill section. Had my watch on a setting where I could only see the distance, time and pace the mile that I was in. Really helped in take it mile by mile. 

At this point I couldn't help but think about the wall that everyone talks about, usually between miles 18-22. Just bracing myself I guess. For two slightly downhill miles next to the reservoir I kept thinking the canyon was right around the corner, but it didn't come as soon as I thought. Well I was speculating about when I would hit the wall, and it seemed like other people were finding it themselves. I started to pass some of the people that had passed me around miles 5 earlier in the race. Finally hit the canyon and the abrupt downhill was a shock to the legs. Mile 18 dropped 128 feet and was my fastest split of the race, a 6:29. Started to feel really tired, but kept on picking people off here and there. One woman in a Utahrunning.com singlet blew by me but other than that no else passed me for the rest of the race. I had been looking for gels at aid stations for the past few miles and missed it at both that had them, silly me. The canyon is 5 miles long and the downhill was starting to give my quads a real pounding. Also as it got later and I dropped in elevation it was getting hotter. But I was passed the the typical "wall" miles and figured it was completely fine to be hurting, which I was. But not slowing, not a piano carrier. Miles 16-23 splits (big hill to bottom of canyon) were 6:43, 6:51, 6:29, 6:45, 6:53, 6:50, 6:32, and 6:31. 

Exiting the canyon I was surprised that the course traveled under the highway instead of crossing it. It was nice and cool in the tunnel though. By now I was passing alot of half marathoners in the back of the pack. They were never in the way though and most of them offered encouraging words which I appreciated. I was hurting but not in a bad way. Effort level was balls to the wall but I was doing maybe 6:40 pace haha. But it was pretty flat. Running through the Dinosaur Park was awesome because I had a cross country meet there my senior year. Super nostalgic and I almost felt like I was just running another 5K for a minute. But the real focus was keeping the momentum going and getting to the line in one piece. My shoes had been feeling really thin for a while and my feet were taking a beating. It was awesome getting within a mile of the finish, right around the Ogden arch thing and thinking "I've got one more mile left, I've done 25 of these today". Also I knew enough to know that as long as I maintained my pace then I would break three hours, which was my ultimate goal. Although I was a little bit closer than I thought so I'm glad I kept pushing and didn't relax. My breathing consisted up short high pitched gasps, just like in the half marathon. Honestly it didn't feel too much different from that. When I hit Grant Avenue and had a straight shot of seven blocks to the finish, I was so happy. I just focused on using good form and driving my arms in a forward motion with good turnover of the legs, which surprising still had some bounce in them. Final mile splits (24-26) were 6:40, 6:51, and 6:52 with 6:52 pace for the last .2. Probably the most painful part of the race from a purely physical standpoint was running by the temple with 3 blocks to go. Right after that was when I could make out the finish line and before I knew it I was there. Took a big leap over the line and pumped my fist, all with a big smile on my face. Finishing was the greatest feeling ever. So exhilirating to be done running after almost 3 hours nonstop, and knowing that I had achieved my goal.

So I guess I never did hit the wall. If I did then the pace would have dropped off rapidly. For me obviously it was hard the last 6 miles but it only got harder in a linear fashion. I attribute my ability to stay strong in the last few miles to my training, and the thought of achieving my goal in front of family. It was also nice to have the checkpoints where I knew my mom was getting notifcations of my progress on her phone. I also finished 1st in my 16-18 age group which was a secondary goal I guess. Afterwards the stiffness in my quads began rapidly to set in and before I knew it I could barely walk! Even sitting down on the grass was challenge. Waited a while for a massage but it took to so long so I just got my award (which also took a long time) and left about 3 hours after I had finished. What a great day! I could not have asked for a better experience at my first time marathon.