The Renegade

Nice run to first dam at xc.That's always a good route, but there were some real strong headwinds coming out of the canyon, and they were pretty cold, too. I ran with Keith, and Damon most of the time.  It took me a while to get warmed up, like I was having trouble with my form and stuff, and I didn't feel really good until about halfway back. We surged about then for some odd reason, but it fell back again. It's weird how you just naturally speed up sometimes. Good run overall. When we got back to the field we did close to five minutes of core.

First I did a three mile workout with intervals of 2 minutes hard and 2 minute recovery jogs. I felt pretty awesome for how I was feeling the all day before I ran. I jsut felt like I could go faster than normal without getting tired, and it was thrilling. I started with the hard interval, and I got through about four and a half sets before I finished the three mile loop. I'll have to start doing that workout longer next time. After that I did a two mile cooldown, just to get the mileage.

Easy short run at XC this morning through the river trail and back. Then we did close to six minutes of core. I tried to ice my legs in the canal afterwards but I'm think I'm just a little more sensitive to the cold water. I can't wait until we have a coach, but if they need to take their time to pick the best one than fine by me. I'll probably do a hill/terrain workout at the shoreline trail tomorrow morning. I'm actually kind of looking forward to it. 

So I didn't end up getting out of bed to go do my workout today, but I did do it in the evening.  I rode my bike up to first dam and then warmed up on the switchbacks to where the trail reallly starts.  Then I stretched and started my first 800. The section I did it on started completely flat for 200 meters or so and then had an abruptly steep uphill, with a pretty gradual incline the rest of the way except for another hill that was just as steep as the first one. My initial plan before I started was to do 2 800s, a mile, and then 2 more 800s, all with equal recovery jogs back to the bottom. After the first rep, I decided I wasn't up for the whole thing and was going to take out the mile. 800 #1 was pretty difficult, and I hit 3:03. The next one felt just as bad if not worse and turned out to be 3:21. So that's when I decided to stop at that and just run most of the trailn for the rest of the time I was there. I went pretty slow and sluggish after that , probably 9 or 10 minute miles, but it's okay, I was tired from those 800s. On my way back there was alot more downhill than up, and I had to grit my teeth for some parts. The bike ride back home was gradually downhill pretty much the whole way, and it served as a good relaxing way to loosen my muscles.

Ryan's Place Park run today after our 800 warmup and stretches. I was feeling pretty dead this morning after the run last night. When we got there we played sharks and minnows for about half an hour and then went back. A small group of us did an indian run. After that a 400m cooldown, and around 5 minutes of core. Icing felt good. When I got home I ran an extra mile and than did some accelorators.  I geuss it was because I won't settle for not running more than 3 miles a day. I geuss it's a good thing to put a minimum on the length of my runs everyday. Soon I'll raise it again, but it's the beginning of the summer, and I really don't want a stress fracture or something like that.

I had a fantastic trail run today. It was the deer fence trail, so I had to ride my bike up cliffside to get to it. (Note: never try to ride a bike up cliffside) I'm surprised I had any energy for my run once I got to the trail head. I didn't really know how I was going to feel before I started, but I ended up feeling pretty good the whole run, which surprised me since just eaten a funnel cake about an hour before. It started with a short steep uphill, and them had some pretty big down hills with smaller uphill following them. I ran until the trail ended and then went about a half a mile up Providence Canyon, and turned around at the big shed. The run back felt even better than the first half. I think there's something about trail runs that makes it easier when I would otherwise have a not so good time. Towards the end those downhills at the beginning were uphills, and they were pretty "fun" to go up. I really liked that trail, I think I run it again sometime.