The Renegade

Today I didn't feel as jazzy as I expected to, which was kind of a dissapointment, but what can you do, you know what I'm sayin? I tried to hit as much dirt as possible, so I ran the whole canal trail, went halfway up the cliffside trail and ran down on Sumac Dr., and then I saw another trail that just led up to somome's backyard, so I ran up the hill a bit and ran down Canterbury Dr., and then ran a dirt trail through the nature park and nack on the dirt road in River Heights. It was a really nice day, and smelled exactly how it should after it rains. I wish I was feeling better though. My stomach was kind of bothering me and my lower legs were super tight to the extent where I felt some lactic acid seeping in, or I geuss it was still left from Saturday's workout. 2x200m strides after I got back.

Good workout we did 4x1000m w/ 200m jog in a 2 min rest. My times were 3:47, 3:46, 3:41, 3:37. I felt pretty good the whole time, and I started 100m behind Vickie at the beginning so it was good motivation to see how long it would take me to catch up. I just felt smooth the whole time so that was good. In the last stretch of my final repeat Mark and Coach Strand came up behind me and I just stayed with them for the last 50 meters and that gave me a quick finish. My average was 3:42 I think so that was about ten seconds lower than last time which was a 3:52, so I didn't go over my last average once. I'm glad training's coming along and I expect to keep improving alot based on the severity of my injury and what it did to my fitness, along with the fitness I was at right before it happened. (I forgot to say that my warmup was 3 miles in all). After that we ran 2 miles with a miles worth of strides which consisted of 4x100m w/ 300m jog. I felt better on those the more I did them and it was just fun to go all out. I ran those all around 14, but I was booking it. Some hip drills and lifting afterwards.

Today's run turned out to feel pretty good. Out usual small group drove up to Logan Canyon and ran the Logan River trail. The temps were in the 50s, and although we were in the shade the whole time, it felt just right. We started from 1st Dam and ran 4.5 miles to the 3rd Dam campsite. I felt pretty dang tight starting out, but it got better the further into the run we got. At 3rd Dam I stopped and waited for Mark and Coach Strand while they went out another half mile and came back. Not because I was tired, I just didn't want to run too many miles, since I'm already lopsided this week now. The trail was in pretty good condition, just a little mud here and there, and we took a way different from last time I ran it with Campbell brothers and Johnny and Thomas. We must have taken the steep route that time, because this was pretty easy in the last mile before turnaround. On the way back we were booking it, but I still felt pretty loose. When we got to the big hill we booked it up that too and I felt good. We skipped the strides this time around. Overall satisfying training run.

Great day today. We had an easier workout, but I think it was just to taper a little bit for Simplot. Jogged an 800 while waiting for practice to start, and then we did a 2-mile warmup to the fairgrounds and back. Our workout was

 3200m @ harder pace + 3x(400m @ 5K pace + 2x200m @ chosen pace)

The rest was full recovery after all sets, including the 2 mile tempo, with a 1 min recovery between the 400 and 200s. Harder pace for the 2 mile means still pretty chill. Coach wanted me to do it in 13:16, but I ran it in 13:08, and he wasn't too happy about that. Here are my times for the whole workout. (He said it was kind of a race simulation.) 

3200- 13:08 | 800 splits - 3:18, 3:17, 3:18, 3:11

Set 1- | 400- 1:28 | 200s- 36, 34

Set 2- | 400- 1:21 | 200s- 34, 32

Set 3- | 400- 1:25 | 200s- 33, 29

That workout was pretty dang easy in that I didn't have to dig deep or get motivated at any part, but it wasn't supposed be that way. On the 2 mile Vickie ran right behind me the whole time until I sped up in the last quarter or so, and she hit the right time, so I should have just stayed with her. The 400s were probably the hardest part of workout, and they weren't even bad. The second one hurt, but just because I took it too hard. All the 200s were simply just fun, because they were the only reps where we were aloud to go as hard as we wanted them. I felt super loose by the end, and as you can see I pretty much went H.A.M. on the last one. 2 mile cooldown after. I would've done more plus gone in the weight room but I had to leave at 4:35. (Dang piano) Looks like I have to go super low tomorrow if I wanna go longer on Saturday without going over on mileage this week. 😭 Now there's a struggle a freshman will never understand.

30 min. of running at just under 8 min pace,  tried to run on as much grass as possible (Willow Park and Woodruff). After that just a couple of strides. I felt better than I expected to, but I was dissapointed when I saw how slow I was running. Oh well I haven't had any lower mileage days until today. 

Well, we had a little miscommunication for our run today but it worked pretty much okay. I thought we were running in Green Canyon but we were actually running the Deer Fence. Long story. Anyways Mark and I ran for 2 miles and then we ran into Vickie who ran with us for 5 minutes until Mark had to turn around. So I just kept going until I hit Providence Canyon, and since I was dropped off, I ran home from there. The downhill was'nt kind to my shins though, and I could feel it the whole time in Providence, and I had to stop and stretch them every once in a while. I was alos noticing some stirrings in the metatarsal area of my left foot. Frustrating. The run felt pretty long, but only because I thought it was only going to be around 7, so I was quite pleased when I mapped this and saw how long it actually was. I geuss it woulden't have mattered anyway, as long as I'm within three miles either way of my weekly goal. Good week. I geuss the only thing is that I always feel injury looming over my head now. I just took an ice bath, so hopefully that helps my foot and my shins.