The Renegade

Good run out to Providence and back in a loop. I managed an average of 7:25, which shows great improvement in the last month. Of course, it did feel a little quick but in a week or too I'll be running that pace in all my easy runs. Tomorrow is a workout and I'm assuming it will be another 2 mile Tempo. I did some strides afterwards.

Solid training day as always, although I did have a tough time in the workout. We ran a little over a mile and a half for the warmup, and then 4x800 just like a few weeks ago. Aside from the usual people, we had Mark and Jake with us. I ran the workout alone since Keith got there late. My splits were 2:56, 2:57, 2:59, and 3:10. 😁 I started the first one a little too quick, with a 1:25 at the 400. So I purposely slowed myself down to about a 1:31 for the next 400. The first rest already seemed fast, and before I knew it I was back on the track. This one didn't feel too bad either, and I was pleased to see that I was consistent from the first one. The next one, as always, is where it started to get bad. After it I had to retie my shoe, which got in the way of me stretching out my diaphragm and getting lots of oxygen, so when I started #4, I was already feeling crappy. My main focus was just to get through this last one because I was hurting so bad, so I just had to think about enduring it to the end. So all I was doing was counting down the meters basically. When I finished that one I couldent stand for a couple of minutes, but when I did get up, I could actually jog pretty comfortably, unlike after some other workouts I've done. The main thing I learned today is to start my workouts slower, and that's what I'll do for this next time. I think that other than the last repeat this is showing an increase in my fitness levels from 3 weeks ago. After that we did a little over a two mile cool down, with some hip drills and 40m flys. Then we went in the weight room and did some satisfying lifting.

Recovery day. Keith, Vickie, and I jogged 800 on the track, did some warmup stretching, and then we ran 4.25 miles on the Park Avenue/River Trail loop. Pace was 7:17, and it felt quite delightful. It wasn't as good for Vickie and Keith because they lifted this morning, so I geuss I should have slowed the pace a little bit more, and it would have been beneficial to me, too, since I'll probably be more tired for the threshold tomorrow than I would be. But it is just training, but a race. After we got I did a 200m stride, jogged 100 and then did a 100m stride. Then I did some core.

I started my 800m jog on the track while we were waiting for more people to show up, and I was stiff like no other, and I thought today would be terrible. Mark, Zair, and I started our run out to my road for the Tempo run and I felt a little better. We then did our warmup drills and stretches and about 5 min later started the run, and I actually felt pretty dang good. It was the best tempo I've had yet out of the four. It was also the slowest (13:01) but I felt a lot better and ran just a little bit slower, so I think it was a matter of pushing myself more on it. It was just really fun running that and going fast. My 800 splits were 3:13, 3:15, 3:19, and 3:14 if I'm correct. Mark was doing a 4 mile tempo, so Zair and I ran back at not a bad pace. Then I broke out my new spikes with some 100m strides with a 300m jog, 1700m in all. (5 strides, 4 jogs) Strand told me to do them faster next time, so I'll remember that. My slowest one was maybe 18 so that's pretty intense for next time but it'll be good for me. The spikes felt great! They just felt weird when I was jogging but they're not exactly my Pegasus! After that we did some hip drills and a tiny bit of core, and then I had to leave for a piano lesson and had to skip lifting which made me pretty mad but oh well.

Good pre-meet run today that capitalized on the fact that I'm not going to take a small race as an excuse to slack off on training. It was way colder than I expected! But I was somewhat okay. I left the school with Mark and we ran to Merlin-Olsen to meet up with Louis Vidal (who graduated in 2013) Then we ran to first dam and back. The pace didnt feel super easy, but it wasn't that much harder than what I'm used to either. I think it was 7:20. It was kind of cool getting to know a past Logan runner for the first time. After that we ran back to the school and did some yoga with strand, which I'm not seeing any ways that it's helping, but maybe it could be good over the long term. When I got I found the shoes I orderedm waiting for me and I did some strides in those just because I wanted to try them out really bad.

Kind of a dissapointing day, but when I think about the fact that I'm still gaining my fitness post-injury, it's early in the season, we havent done alot of speed work, and I just finished my highest mileage week since cross-country including the longer and teh somewhat tiring run yesterday, I'm not that pooped. My goal is still to break five at Simplot. We got there and I jogged around a bit on the track in my trainers, and I wasnt feeling too good. I felt sluggish and my shins were trashed. Then I got them stretched out by coach and they actually felt alot better. We then did a two-mile warmup outside, where it was perttty cold and super foggy. I spent alot of time watiing around by the start line for all the heats. 

1600m 5:34

This race went by alot faster than I expected, probably because of the two mile tempos that we've been doing. I started in the front, but I got passed by alot of guys pretty quickly. I pretty much just held on for the whole race with fairly even splits, not feeling to bad. My first 7 200s alternated between two times in the low 40s, and then my last 200 was a 37. The kick felt great and I passed a guy. I was super bummed when I found out my time though. 800 cooldown outside after. 

800m 2:27   splits: 36, 37, 39, 34

After about 2 and half hours of waiting around I finally stepped up to the start line for the 800. I was pretty pumped because I had just watched Johnny pass about 6 guys in the last 150 meters in the fast heat to win the overall race. I was in the third and slowest heat and I started in the front. When the gun went off the same thing happened that happened in mile earlier, except I eventually passed all of those guys except one to place second in my heat. This time I tried even harder in the kick, and it felt AMAZING. My best geuss is that the lifting I've been doing helped alot for that. It also probably helped me to be able to make a move and pass people pretty dang easily, even on the turns, which is hard to do in indoor. That was such a fun race, and it didn't even hurt that much, at least not in the way that I'm used to doing 2 mile tempos and coming out of the cross season. I think the 800m will be my main event this season, and I'm probably going to drop my time down around twenty seconds or more. And that did'nt even feel as hard as I remember the 800 being, so when I really puch myself, it'll be great.

After that I did a half mile cooldown. As I'm writing this my legs are super, super sore and trashed, and I could barely even run if I tried, but we'll see on Monday how I'm doing.