The Renegade

Workout in the late a.m. today. We warmed up 1.5 and then did our stretches and everything before the workout. On the track we did 8x400m w/ 400m jog in a 3 min rest. Felt pretty good, but it wasn't that hard of a workout. My times:

80,   79,   80,   78,   77,   75,   77,   70       Avg.- 77

Coach told us to run them around mile pace, and I geuss I'm okay with what I was running. Of course the last one was 4:40 pace, but the that doesn't count (last one fast one, right?). This definitley wasn't as hard as the last set of 400s we did, which had 2 min rests. I ran most of them with Keith and Vickie somewhere close behind me on all of them, and it was definitley nice to have that extra support. 3 mile cooldown, and then 4x100m strides in 13.89, 14.37, 13.53, and 14.12. They didn't feel too good. 400 more to round it off, with hip drills and lifts. 

Oh boy, I'd have to rate this in my top fives worst feeling runs ever. Mark and Vickie really wanted to go out toward Mendon, so I went with and we went out about 5 miles and turned around. In the first half we were going at a faster pace than I'm usually comfortable with, but luckily Mark took off when we turned so he wasn't dictating the pace. So we took the fastest possible way back which was 4 miles instead of five. It was slower, but still totally grueling the whole way. My form was broken so bad I'm sure, and my legs felt incredibly heavy and fatigued. I would much rather race a fast 5K and feel good than do that again. I geuss it was dehydration and soreness from our workout yesterday, plus I needed a restroom the entire time back. When we were finnally done we did some 100m strides on the turf barefooted, and they didn't feel too bad at all. Then some hurdle mobility which I missed most of in the bathroom, and some hip drills and core. Good day. I don't feel to bad as I'm writing this and my shin splints aren't really there, so hopefully it stays that way tomorrow. I'm planning on just an easy slow run tomorrow, around five miles. 

2 mile warmup and then a 400m race pace stride in 73, so like 4:42 pace. I geuss you could say that was quick seeing that my PR is 5:15 but I'm hoping to break that tomorrow, just probably not by that much. then 2x200 in 32 and 35. The first one I ran with Mark and that's why it was so quick. So both pretty fast but I was practicing going out aggressive on all of those. I literally pretended I was racing. Then I did another 2 miles and when I got back coach had me do some barefoot strides on the field and hip drills and core, along with practicing a couple starts, maybe 30-40 meters with Mark and Johnny. Those were good for getting used to aggressiveness because they were with someome significantly faster than I am. Well, I'm excited for tomorrow, and I like to see that I was naturally going out so quick, because I don't usually start races too fast. I think I'm ready for a PR!

 We left the school at 1 and got to Pocatello at around 3. Mile warmup and then we did some fast strides on the track, which was a really weird feeling. After that we do some stretches and a half mile cooldown. My shins sort of hurt. My race was at around 8:15, so it was 5 hours away. It seemed to go by pretty fast though. On my warmup I felt really good, and I was energised as heck by the time we lined up. 

The gun went off and I got boxed in on the first lap, which frustrated me because I fully expected to have a better start than anyone (who doesn't), but I worked my way out of it, it just took a little more energy. Quarter one was a 73, which made me glad because that's exactly what I ran for my stride yesterday, so I was ready to go out fast. The whole race felt like a frenzy, and I was pushing it pretty hard the whole time, and I had to, because I started feeling lactic acid in my legs after lap 1. Coming through the 800 I was going at a 5:04 pace, so that got me kind of excited, but of course the race slowed down. I never got passed though, and I'm still on a streak of not getting passed on a race once since indoor started. I feel like my kick could have been better since I was distracted trying to see what the clock said, which stops after the first person crosses the finish line (pretty irritating). 

Well, that was a PR which will definetley get dropped by a lot in the next few months. It's kind of funny to think that with all the countless miles that I've ran since I PR'd last April, I've never ran one of those as fast as I did today. 

I didn't get chance to cooldown before we left  to eat, but after we got to where we were staying we ran a couple of miles in the dark at some soccer fields nearby. 

7 miles on a dirt road outside of Pocatello. It was uphill for the first half, and I was feeling really tight in the shins, and dehydrated. So Mark and Coach dropped me and I pounded it out for the next half hour, shins hurting the whole way. It was easier in the breath in the way back but not on the legs. I was just not having a good time. I was tired and by then my whole body was tired. We stopped at the ISU outdoor track before we got back to the arena. Did some 100s with 300 jogs. Gosh those sucked. 

Didn't run today because my shins hurt to much and I was feeling groggy from sleeping in, plus the weather was really nasty. First snow since December. Really it was for my own good because I know that if I keep running through my shin pain, my season will be over before it's even started. I probably won't run on Monday either, just for extra measure.