The Renegade

I was a little scared about doing a speed workout today for frear that I might hurt myself, but I actually felt pretty good. The workout had two parts. After running our warmup to Merlin Oslen, we went up Canyon Rd. for 20 minutes easy. That got us exactly 2.34 miles, or to the water treatment center, where we took a brief rest stop. The next step was to get back in fifteen minutes. We started kind of slow, and then once we picked it up, it was just me and Keith. (Damon and Jake fell behind). We ended up getting back in 15:30, so close enough. I felt super great, in the way where the running is still hard and it raises your breathing and heart rate, but you have the energy to not back down or break form at all. For the next part, we did  3 800's around the park. A good prep for wednesday, since it had the same surfaces as our home course. The first one was a 3:05 with a 2 min rest, the next one was a 3:04 with a little bit longer rest (coach said it was okay), and the last one was a 2:51. On the first set I was running with Ethan and Keith. On the next one it was just me and Keith but he fell back a bit. On the last one I was in the front until Ethan came up next to me and raced me to the line. I'm glad I had somone to push me. Then we did some core, and jogged back and iced.

Today we did an easy run on the river trail. I felt pretty sluggish and heavy, but it was probably because everyon eincluding me just forgot to warmup and stretch. It was pretty hot and humid out too. On the way back we did about 4 20 second pushes with a minute between. Then back at our spot I did some strides in my flats on the field.

     Great race today. I think I did pretty well hydrating throughout the day. I left school with a few others after lunch to go help set up the course. That took about an hour and a half. Then the team showed up at maybe 2:40. I got a mile warmup in at 3, and I felt okay. This was right after a nice roller massage, so I did feel nice and loose. I did some strides at 3:20, and was doing pretty welll as far as pre-race jitters go. the race started at 3:35. (Ogdens team is one of the best in the state, so we weren't planning on beating them, I'm gonna say that off the bat) 

     When the gun went off, we went out moderatley hard (this was the same pack as in our time trial) I felt okay still, but I think we could all tell that we were going out a little too fast. I could also tell that Ogden was already set up to beat us, with all of their varsity and more in front of me, the fourth scorer. So I focused on staying with at least an Ogden runner near us, who I remember beating in track. Mile 1- 5:50.

     That was where I realized we went out too hard, faster than the first mile of our 2 miler last week. But I kept running and tried to keep up the pace. This mile was pretty uneventful. I think we stayed in our positions, but Keith was having a hard time keeping up. At the end of the mile we dropped the Ogden runner and he was replaced with another one, a mile 3 kicker. Davis stayed right on my tail. I think he's got alot of potential. Mile 2- 6:10

     At 2.5 I started sensing alot of lactic filling up in my legs, but Davis came by my side and remided me to trya dn step it up some more. Once we had about 200 left, it got way easier mentally, and I pulled away from Davis and gained on the slowing Ogden runner ahead. When he saw me next to him in the final straightaway, he kicked and I kicked, and he beat by I think .37 seconds, so super close. After I cooled down a bit while watching the girls race.

I was way satsified with today, (wich was a PR). The fact that I PR'd makes me want to work even harder and see how much I improve throughout the season. Next meet is a week from saturday, on the same course, just more schools. Hopefully the course stays the same so I can compare times like in track. It'll be great to see what teams we beat and know sort of where we are, and know that I helped in that effort (Assuming I race my best)

Very unsatisfied practice today. That two miles includes the warmup. I've been trying to suggest that getting in more volume during the season is a good thing, but noone will listen. For now on I think I'm going to run with Mark. Johnny, and JD on the easy days, since I did notice that they went a little bit longer.

Good practice. First we ran to Merlin-Olsen and Todd had us do the same core circuit that we did last wednesday, and then Mark and JD and I put in a couple more miles, which felt pretty good.

I wasn't feeling too well so I took today off. Next week I'm definetley going to try and get more milage in. For sure above thirty and maybe above 40.