The Renegade

Firsta day of practice for everyone today! It was pretty great, although we had to go through things slower because of the large group and not everyone knows what they are doing. We started with a full team meeting, than we broke off, jogged a couple laps, did warmup drills, than coach had us run to Willow Park and do hip drills. So we did that, jogged a mile on the grass there, than coach told Paul, Ryan, Jack and I that we could run as much as we needed to on the River Trail, so we went there and got to the end, turned around and headed back. Jack has decided that he is pushing it more on easy runs than he has before (before he didn't want to go below 7 minute pace) but now he's going 6:45 or faster. We'll see how that works out for him, but I know that even though I can do that pace, I'll get burnt out if I run that fast on every recovery run. But today wasn't recovery and it's still and easier week so I ran with  him. 6:51 ap. We got back to the school and some MC goons were werking it on our track! I got a bit more mileage and run part of Spencer's 800 with him, than did strides and core with the team.

Today we had no school because juniors had the ACT, so that was great, I got a ton of sleep. Rode my bike to practice. The entire team did a warmup jog and drills together and then we separated. We ran to Willow Park again and did an awesome fartlek workout! I felt pretty great. It was 

4x (3 min hard, 2 min easy, 2 min hard, 1 min easy, 1 min hard) w/ 3 min easy in between sets

We went out pretty hard on the first one, I don't know what the pace was, but then we settled in and I stayed at pretty much the same pace for all the pushes, which was probably and average of 5:40 pace, so my 5K PR pace. Pretty sure I could do a 5K faster now but that's my PR. It was basically all on grass, but I didn't mind too much, I just pretended I was in a cross country race again and it was good. Did it all in my trainers too.  I tried to push it hard in the last 3 min segment, I was probably around 5:20 pace for that one, than I ran the 2 min part slower, oops, and pushed it super hard on the last part. The sun came out halfway through the workout so I dropped my shirt, it was glorious! When we got back we did 4 40 yard flys on the turf barefoot it was great.

 I love outdoor track practice. I just can't wait to get back on that rubber again and feel way fast. We've got a threshold on the road this week, so no track work until later. I got waymore mileage than I actually wanted to today, I'll just take it super easy tomorrow, but I'll still go over 5. 

Easy day today! We had a dumb little meeting for the people that are being slow about registering in the media center and then we got started at about 3:15. Did our warmup jog, drills, and left on an easy run on the river trail. The pace felt relaxed, but it was pretty good, we averaged about 7:05 pace. It was so warm! I'm already falling into the bad habit of losing my shirt as soon as I start to feel uncomfortably hot. Paul and I ran with Jack until the turn around and then he picked it up, which must have been pretty fast because we were sub-7 on the way back. Then we did 4x100m on the track, with 300m jogs. I was probably high 13s low 14s on all of them, didn't time em. Finished with hip drills and core. We did flutter kicks, I hate flutter kicks smh. I've changed my weekly mileage goal from 40 to 45 because I'm already over and still want to run 10 miles on Saturday, and I feel good. 

5 mile threshold today broken up into a 3 and 2 mile run. I have been looking forward to this all week because I wanted to see how fast I could go. Ran a really slow warmup with the girls up to Ryan's Place Park, we did drills and then got started on the same 3 mile loop as always. Didn't feel super great at the beginning, but that's because we were going like sub-5:45 pace. First mile ended up being 6:03, but my watch didn't beep so I didn't know. But I did look at my watch for the average and knew it was a decent day. Mile 2 was 6:08, I felt kind of tired but I definitely didn't feel really bad. Bjorn (a friend of mine who is an assistance athletic trainer) was there and he road his bike while we ran, and he rode next to me for the second half, so that was cool. I just really tried to focus on keeping good form for the rest of it and ran a 6:06. My shoe lace came untied toward the end but I just made sure not to trip.  That was an 18:17 3 mile. So I was pretty beat but I recovered super fast. We had about 8 minutes in between runs, which is a lot, but oh well. I didn't feel too bad for the 2 mile, it honestly wasn't much worse than doing another mile. I ran that in 6:10 and 6:01, with the the first mile being downhill and having to run uphill coming back. I'll admit, it felt like a race at the end, but it was the end of the longest threshold I've ever done. So I was super satisfied. Then on the cooldown Paul lead us on this weird side trail that still had a bunch of ice on it, but it was fun. Did strides when I got back but didn't have time to do anything else. 

I've been hesitant to say this on here until now, but I think I am in the best shape of my life right now aerobically. I wish I could race a 5K right now, I know I would at least run under 17:30 since my PR is 17:39. But I am really looking forward to running the 3200 at Hurricane and getting another big PR from Boise. Did I mention that a year ago I was running 2 mile thresholds at 6:15 pace at the fastest? I've been climbing the ladder ever since but I think I've made a big jump in the last month. Who knows, maybe sub 10 could be possible? (at the end of the season) :D

Half day today so I got to chill out for a few hours before practice. Boy is it warming up quick! Rode my bike again, that was fun. Started with a half mile barefoot on the turf and then the distance group did our warmup drills. Then we ran canal! The canal trail has been treacherously covered in ice and snow until this week so it was great to get on it again. A large stretch of it was completley melted and almost dried. But further east it was pretty wet and muddy, but that was fun to run through. I just ran with Paul for most of the time. I kept my shirt on! I know, you're proud aren't you. Probably because it was my HJP shirt and I really like that shirt. The run was 7:17 AP. When we got back we did strides, I felt pretty dang rusty for those, and then we did a bunch of hip drills and core. Seems like that'll be the routine on recovery days. We have a pretty hard week next week so recovery days are going to have to be just that from now on: Recovery days. After the core Paul and I went into the weight room and lifted like always. It seems like my coach doesn't really care much about lifting any more but I'm going to try and do it twice a week until the end of April. 

Oh yeah last thing, I hit 4,000 miles today (going off Strava).  For the blog I hit it a couple days ago. 

I finally was able to hit the trails again after a long winter. I woke up at noon and met Paul at Dry Canyonat 3:00 to run the Deer Fence trail. The only snowy parts were the little hills facing north, but other than that it was dry and clear. I felt pretty good from Dry to Prov, but then after we crossed that canyon I started to not feel that energetic. Paul already wasn't feeling good and I kept dropping him tho. I was hitting low to mid 8s. It start to get pretty hot on the way back and I got thirsty. When we got back to Dry we were at 7.2 so we just ran back and forth on the flat stretch at the end to get 8. 7:47 average. I haven't run that slow in a while. Paul left and I did some strides and then drove home.

This week was higher mileage than I've done since XC season, and I don't plan to hit again except for maybe spring break. Running 40 mile weeks has really worked for me verses trying to run a ton. But yeah as long as I hit 40s I'll be good and then I'll drop down in May. I was telling Paul that I've changed my official 2-mile goal from 10:20 to 9:59 because it's starting to look more realistic. We'll see. I'm conflicted on what events I want to focus on.