The Renegade

Logan XC was doing a workout in Mantua so after I was done with class I made the off the cuff decision to drive there and meet them. Let me tell you my 2005 Chevy Aveo does not do too well on the big hills haha. I got there and waited about ten minutes then the bus showed up. Did the warm up jog with them and then like always they took forever to do drills and have the workout explained. Paul was doing a 4 mile tempo, followed by a bonus mile. I ran with him for 2.5 miles which was about 6:20 pace, then boom, heart palpatation. I stopped and waited for Dallin to catch up and ran with him till 3, then took a longer rest while some other kids finished theirs. After a while I decided I would do 2xMile hard. I did a half mile at 5:30 pace and I was not feeling good. So I just jogged with people after that. and helped Paul out with part of his mile. It was hot and windy the whole time, not good. Got some cold gatorade talked to people then drove home. Average pace for everything was probably 6:35.

I have four hours between classes on Tuesday so I came home and went for a run on the river trail. I kept it at a nice rolling pace, 6:40 was the average but the first mile was alot slower. I felt fine the whole time and could've kept doing that pace for 6 more miles, even though I didn't feel that good when I started. I had a dope hiphop playlist so maybe that helped. The meet is in four days and my mileage has been lower the last two weeks anyway so I think I'll keep it at that for today. 

I've had a two week hiatus in posting, and that's not even regularly, but I will fill out the entries in brief working back from here, and then hopefully I'll keep posting daily from now on. I'm running a 4 miler to try out for USU XC on Saturday so we'll see how that goes. 

Ran from Merlin Olsen Park in the evening. I headed up the canal trail and came back on Sumac and Center St. for a 4.5 mile loop, then sort of retraced my steps, this time with a head lamp, which was super sketchy when I was on the canal trail again. It was dark but still hot and muggy enough that a shirt was uncomfortable. Tried to keep it relaxed, pace was 7:13.

AM: Met Hayden at the XC course where we ran loops and talked. T minus 2 days. For the last part of the run we checked out the new track. Hopefully I'll be able to train and race on it in the spring, even if xc doesn't work out :) 7:12 ap.

I came home after my morning class and did an easy run consisting of running to willow park and doing grass loops with some barefoot strides. Felt okay, but my form felt weird. I should feel fine tomorrow. 6:50 ap (because of the strides)

Race day! I got there at about 9:50 (race was at 10:45) and kind of hung out with Hayden. Really nice morning, a little cooler than it has been. During the women's race I found my timing chip luckily and tied my chip to my flat, than we headed on a warmup, one mile at like 6:20 pace (we were really nervous). Soon after it was time to line up, and for some reason even though it was college race, with teams like Boise State and Southern Utah, I didn't feel too intimidated and it just felt like a regular race.

Gun went off and I actually had a good start, I was honestly expecting the start to be faster than I could sprint but it felt like a high school race. After the first 200 approaching the turn I found myself right on the tail of the three D1 teams, and I was ahead of all the Westminster guys. About 300 meters later, almost the entire field (except for Westminster) had opened a big gap on me. I was right next to this hippy looking dude for the first mile and a half. There was UVU guy that we passed early on. Then on the first downhill (the course is the same as the 5K until the last part) two Westminster runners took advantage of it and dropped me. From then on throughout the entire race I was in no man's land, but at least I knew I wasn't in last and I had like 7 or 8 guys pretty far behind me. The last 2K is two times around the east loop and then finishing like normal. That was pretty rough because I felt like I should've been finishing. I only got lapped by three runners on that first loop (SUU guy, UVU guy, then Josh Collins from SUU). When they passed me I noticed how quick their cadence was compared to mine, especially Josh's, so I kept that in mind. Last 600 slightly downhill, so that was nice. Made sure to get really good turnover at that point and kicked it in decently hard. 

It was great having a bunch of people there who were cheering for me, blog members which include Eric Nelson and Don Bigger, shoutout to them! So I didn't finish anywhere close to the USU squad, but it was worth a try. Average was 5:36, which is faster than my 5K PR run on the same course. Looking back I think I could have pushed it more in the last mile, especially goin uphill which really hurt my pace. Splits were 5:14, (I never touched that pace in HS 5Ks) 5:39, 5:46, 5:59, and 5:05 pace the last .3.  Afterwards Hayden and I cooled down 2.5 with the USU team. Hayden did pretty well, he almost beat one of them. Coach Gulden wants to meet with us later next week so I'll update you on that.