The Renegade

       So the opposite of last week, I came to school with warm clothes packed expecting an outdoor workout, but we ended up being on the treadmills. So I got out of 7th hour early, changed, than ran over to a street to grab my shorts, than back to the school and that was pretty much my warmup.

       Workout was 2 x mile at 2 mile pace (5:20 for me) with 3 minute rests, then full recovery, then 6 x 1 minute at mile pace (4:50) with 2 min rests, full recovery, than 6 x 30 seconds at 800 pace (14.3 mph, gradually up to 15 mph, so date pace to goal pace and my date pace is around 2:05 based on my mile, with goal pace just sub-2). Ran the first mile rep in my trainers just to be safe, felt decent, started hurting a tiny bit, then the 3 min rest switching into the flats, and the next one felt about the same. I believe that whatever pace you can run those at, you can put those together and run it for 2 miles once you spike up and have competition/adrenaline. So I'm confident about Friday, I know I can get well under 11:00. Then the rest of the workout was pretty fun, I just wish we could've done it on a track on a nice warm day. On the 30 seconds reps I really focused on shortening my stride and quickening the cadence, I gotta do that if I wanna have the leg speed to run sub-2. Half mile jog, then I lifted. Started doing bench and it felt kinda easy so I didn't give myself enough recovery before I increased the weight/lowered the reps, and I almost couldn't do the last one, oops. Then another half mile. 

       I was reading my entries from a year ago just barely and this week in 2015 we were wearing short shorts outside, doing barefoot strides on the turf, and trail running up Logan Canyon. But you know, the worse the winter is, the better the spring. 

Easy run with Paul up to USU, down to first dam, and back on the very powdery canal trail.... dunno why we chose that way back. 18 degrees today, colder than it's been in a while, but it was bright and sunny. 7:39 AP.  When we got to the temple we ran right into Spencer, Hayden, and Eric from MC! So that was cool. We got back and hung out, did some core. I'm going to try and do core whenever I'm not lifting and it's not the day before a meet. I've really gotta keep that strong. 

Today we did the regular River Heights-Providence tempo, 3 break then 1. Jogged up there and I didn't want to waist time stretching a ton so Paul and I started before everyone else. Saw Hayden before we started lol. Splits were about 6:29, 6:15, 6:07, but my watch hit a mile slightly before we started so first mile was probably a little faster. The new Sauconys felt decent, nice plush cushioning, and I think they'll good to last me through the end of outdoor. I felt really tired the whole time; I could barely keep my eyes open and my form wasn't solid. Chilled out for a few minutes and then we did a little loop for the extra mile, which we kinda just maintained pace on so 6:14. And we saw Hayden again haha. Ran back and we still beat the other kids who only did 3 miles. We did some strides in the hall at the rec center and then lifted.

Pre-meet today, just a little shakeout, we ran slow because we were with some less experienced kids, it was fun running with them. We did a run that we haven't done in forever, out toward Bridger Elementary north-west of us. We'll probably start running out there maybe once every two weeks.  My watch died so I didn't get the average but it was probably around 8:00 pace. 

Well, today was quite eventful. Kind of slept in for first hour but I needed the sleep. Then I left to get lunch before 4th hour ended and we headed out, but Coach took like half an hour to come with the van. So we finally got on and after about an hour and some backtracing after missing some exits, Coach Strand got distracted and we flew off the road into the median, it was super scary but noone got hurt, although we had to wait about an hour to wait for a tow truck. We got back on the road and got to Boise smoothly, although our sprinters missed the 60m. So it was maybe an hour before I had to warm up, and when I did it was super super foggy outside, bu I didn't want to run inside. Went for a mile. Came back and hurried and changed into my race kit, and I got to the checkin place and my heat (heat 1) was already warming up on the infield! But no worries, I got out there and was able to have enough time for drills and strides. I felt really good doing them. 

I was seeded 13th, which put me on the very outside of the first of two water falls. I was in the faster half of my heat (fastest on the outside). The gun went off and I got out really well, front of my group, then the other guys cut in and I was second. After about 2 or 3 laps I moved into the lead for maybe a lap and a half, and that was cool, but then some guys passed me, and I was in about fifth. I was hitting 40 second laps almost perfectly, shoutout to my coach for letting me know loud and clear. Came through the mile in 5:21. I felt pretty smooth. On one of these laps there was a kid who I tried to pass and then he sped up so i had to wait till after a turn to pass him. Then he passed me again but I got him shortly after. This part of the race is where I started to loose some focus and started hurting. Ran some slower laps. But then I looked up ahead and I saw a kid in neon green, so I decided to maybe try and catch hime. Final 400 came and I didn't have a ton of evergy but I know I kicked it in somewhat. I closed in a 36 second lap, so not too slow, not too fast.  Caught the neon green on the last straightaway, passed him, then he passed me again, and we both did a sprinters lean at the line and he beat me by a fraction of a second. It was nice not having to like line up. 

Ran a 10:44! Which could probably be like a 22 second PR if you compare it to my 3200 PR of 11:03. I'll keep that PR seperate just for organization, but yeah, obviously my 3200 PR isn't 11:03 any more, it would be like 10:40. I made sure to watch the fast heat, shoutout to Garek Bielaczyc for running a 9:00, he lapped like everybody and broke the meet record by nine seconds. Cooled down for 2 miles outside. The fog cleared up so that was nice. There was actually alot of space to run because of the huge parking lot. I'm running just the 800 tomorrow so I can truely see how fit I am in that event. I think I can get pretty close to my PR, so I'm excited. PR is 2:04.7, and at Simplot last year if you ran low 2:04 or lower than you qualified for finals, so hopefully I can prove tomorrow that I can squeeze in there come two weeks from now. 

I woke up at about 7 and showered,  then got breakfast, than we were ready to go. I wasn't feelin to great, so I was scared I would do terrible today. I was just tired from the 2 mile and I could've gotten more sleep. The 800 was at 2:55, which gave me about 5 hours of downtime. So I kinda just chilled, jogged a little here or there, watched races. My legs were still pretty tired. I rolled out and they felt a little better. I made sure to warm up early, and it was smart. Watched Johnny (USU) run a season best so that was good. 

I was in heat two, seeded right in the middle. I felt decent coming off the line, I got right to front of the pack and was ahead of all the kids seeded faster than me when they cut in on the second turn. Came through in about 30.xx, so I was excited to see that. Started to feel it coming onto the homestretch on the next lap. That was like 32. 400 was 63. I saw 62 and I thought I could PR if I pushed it and ran even. I was constantly worrying that someone was going to pass me. I hit the last lap and I was like crap I've gotta go if I wanna stay in front. So I started sprinting the last 200. When I hit 100 to go I could hear someone gaining on me, and I just tried my hardest and I didn't get passed so that was fun. 

I've never crossed the line first in any race before, overall or a heat. I kind of think that I could've run faster in a faster heat, but then again this way I could always stay in lane one and didn't run more than 800m, and still had people pushing me. I know the 2-mile took something out of me, and I potentially could've PRd if I was fresh. After my glutes and quads were completely shot and I had to lay down for a minute. Cooled down a mile with Johnny and then we were off. When we got back I got in the rec center, ran two miles on the treadmill, lifted, then ran another mile. Didn't hit forty, I might jog some tomorrow morning just so I can, but I'll add it to Saturday on FRB since it says Sunday is the start of the week.