The Renegade

I lnow monday isn't the typical day for along run, but I jsut felt like getting past it this week, plus I want to PR in mileage yet again, probably low 50's. I slept in for cross-country (I've gotta stop doing that), so I ran at 4:15 maybe, and it was cool out, actually raining a little bit.. I got in a mile warmup, and then I did a half marathon time trial, wich made me pretty confident for Top of Utah. I finished what was pretty close to thirteen miles in 1:33, not counting rests. I'm gonna say it was about 1:40 if you add those in. This was on a very hilly course, which basically made a giant loop around the island area and cliffside, and TOU is downhill almost the whole way, plus I didn't have the maximum rest, hydration. and nutrition that I would have preparing for an actual racde event, so I'm gonna geuss I could go 1:30 on race day, which I will be ery, very pleased with for my first half.

As for how the run felt, I took it pretty conservativley for the first five miles. The hardest part of that was probably Old Maine Hill. The only hill that was bigger was the trail that leads up to Cliffside and then goes up  a little more to Gibbons Park. I think I kind of picked up the pace when I got to the bottom of the hill by first dam, and I defininetley increased the pace in the last mile. That was really the only hard part of the run. I am very excited for the 23'rd now.

Today I thought I would feel pretty tired but actually, I felt good enough to do some intervals. It was overcast and maybe about to rain, so perfect weather for a run. I ran for about a mile and half, and then started 16 minutes worth of 2 minutes hard, 2 minutes easy. That took me around the west side of the golf course and then through the river trail, ending at Willow Park. I took the hard parts pretty quick, about mile pace I would say. But I still felt pretty light on my feet and all, so that was good. then at the Park I did 800 meters worth of strides and took an indirect route home. I even felt good then, and I was going at a comfortable but not too slow pace wich picked up a  little involuntarily.

TIME: 3 min (WU), 30 min (RUN)

I was a little bummed today when coach had us run basically the same route I did during my workout yesterday, but it's all good. I ran with Damon and Ethan the whole time, and Ethan set a pretty quick pace that stuck, probably somewhere around 6:50. We had to do 8 x 20 sec @ 2 mile pace w/ 1 minute recoveries. I geuss that's when the regular running slowed down, because the intervals got us almost all the way back to the school. Ethan sort of led the pace the whole time, and on the fast parts I'm pretty sure we were all going faster than 2 mile pace. I'm almost certain that we were going faster than my 800 pace, so almost a full sprint. When we got back to the track Damon and I did some strides.

This evening I decided to run up to Old Maine hill and do some repeats, and I actually got in a pretty satisfying workout session. It took me 22 minutes to get there, so a nice little warmup. the course I planned is about 690 meters and It goes up the path on the side with the more subtle incline (270m), then I get a recovery jog (but I still have to go fast) down the path on the north side of the stairs (300m), and the finally, I kill myself on the stairs (150m) and end at the flag pole. Then I jog back down to the start. I did 5 sets of those with times of 3:09, 3:20, 3:10, and 2:58. I had about a     2 1/2 minute recovery after the first one, and after the second I ran into a freind and chatted, so that was a 5 minute recovery, then the next one was about 2:00, and finally I gave my self a full recovery because I was only planning on doing 4 to begin with and I was going to run it as fast as possible. I felt pretty good. I was good about using my upper body on the hills and lifting my knees to propel myself upward, and the lactic acid didn't fill up as fast as normal.. After that I did 500m of strides on the field, then took a nice route home right before it was completley dark.

One thing I can definetley say right now is that I am very exhausted. we didn't have a hard day or anything, I've just put myself through a tough week. I ran to practice because my bike tire blew out again, and I actually like when I can do that since it just adds on a couple more miles, besides, I,m pretty sure I would be jsut as tired if I had my bike available. After our warmup we ran to the quad at Old Maine and did some core. Than Vickie, JD, and I ran some extra miloes through campus and some trails below the highway. Whe we got back we played ultimated frisbee, but I was to exhausted to really do anything. I felt okay on the run back, but I almost fell asleep standing up in the shower afterwards I was so pooped.

6 miles easy in the area around my grandparent's house in Tetonia, Idaho. This topped off my first 50 mile week, so the legs felt moderatley tired. It started with a hilly dirt road that had this long hill that kept looking like it was over but then there was more, followed by a pretty steep decline for that area of the state. Then I ran down the highway through main street until I got back to the house. With about 2 miles left I stopped and retied my shoes and discovered it is easier to run when your shoes are tight. I have no idea why I am figuring that out now. I did a couple strides in the yard when I got back and then ate more food than I could say.