The Renegade

I don't usually run on sundays, but today I was feeling alot better and was mad at myself for taking a day off, so I decided to do my long run today. It didn't feel like the first run of the week, but I geuss it technically is. I felt kind of trashed for the first 3 miles, which got me exactly to the start of the canal trail by canyon road. After a little rest (and dropping my shirt, something I'm not proud of), I started feeling better. Before my head was pounding, but that stopped. Then I took the trail up to Cliffside, which was kind of taxing for an easy run, but it's a nice route. I pretty much went directly home after that, with a little detour in the ds nature park.

TOTAL TIME: 1:08 (RUN WAS ACTUALLY 8.85, I JUST ROUNDED IT UP)

We were in salt Lake today so I got the chance to do a test run of the state course. When I started running I didn't feel very good and I felt dehydrated (proably from walking all day), but then I got a little warmed up. The first time around I needed the map alot, but it seemed pretty simple. I had alot of stops and starts, too. When I got to the track I turned around and jogged back to the starting line. This time I was running it all without stopping at an easy pace and seeing what time I ran it in. I just wasn't feeling good today I geuss, because my head started pounding and my legs got heavy, when it was supposed to be nice and easy. I didn't run the whole thing, I stopped with maybe 300 left, so my estimate would be 22:30 for my Epace time on the course. One thing I learned just from jogging it is to run the first mile conservatively to save energy for the two hills in the 2nd half of the race. It usually gets described as pretty hilly, but there are actually only 3 hills, and none of them are a combination of steep and long, the first one is moderate and short, the second one is steep and short, and the third hill is shallow and long, which could still kill you if you didn't pace right. Well, now I'm more ready for it if we qualify this year then I would've been. 1000m repeats tomorrow, I hope I haven't used to much energy today and yesterday. Also, I just figured out that tommorow I will run my 1000th official mile this year. In 2013 I ran 402 miles.

At XC this afternoon we took a bus up to Lundstrom and did 5x1K repeats w/ 2 min rest at 10K pace, although I found out later they were more like 1.1. After our warmup, Todd put us into groups, and I was in a group with Damon and Keith, and I think Xavier (A pretty fast freshman, and I think that's how you spell it). Then right before he started Mark, JD and Ethan's group, he changed his mind and put me with them. On the first 1000, I tailed the three of them, but then we all finsihed right next to eachother. Our time was 4:00. I don't remember much about the rest, other than that the heat was getting to me and they hurt more each time, also I fell further back behind the other three. I think I really started to get exhausted and break form on the second to last one. That was probably where I suffered most mentally. At least I finished the last one, Ethan quit once we got to like the 500m mark. That is definetley rated as the toughest workout so far this season. I felt worse than I ever felt racing last Wednesday. But that's good, the more it hurts, the more I am increasing my fitness.

Splits:

4:00

3:52

3:54

4:00

3:51

In XC today we did a 40:00 run, which is actually longer than I've gone in afternoon practice in the whole two weeks. We went to Providence and I ran with Mark and JD on the way out until we got to three miles, and then we turned and they dropped the pace to one that was pretty uncomfortable, around 6:05. So they dropped me and I ran pretty slow the rest of the way back. When we got back we did 4x100m strides.

Easy 25-30 minute shakeout on the rivertrail. The pace started feeling kind of hard on the way back, but I geuss it was my fault since I was leading half the time. Big meet tommorow at our course. There is expected to be 25+ schools there, although we won't have two of our top 4. That makes me #3, so I geuss we won't really be able to gauge where we are, although this would be a perfect time to do it.

     (Sorry for the long entry, I know it's not state, but I got carried away)

     Well I PR'd by 9 seconds which is good, but I also killed myself doing it. That race hurt way more than last week's race. The course was also .04 longer, (although it was on the same sight), so I would have been under 18:10 probably. I bet I could have done better if I had gotten more sleep, too or done something different during the day. Anynways, here's the break down.

     Our second and third runner weren't racing, so I was #3, but at least I got to start in the front. The course was on the same site (our home course), but it was changed just a little bit, and instead of just Ogden being there there was around 20 other schools. So a much different scenerio from our first meet, except for the course. I just realized that our course lacks a big component to XC: hills. So you kind of use a track mentality on it. I hope we will be prepared for Bob Firmin and State.

Mile 1- 5:40 

When the gun went off, I sprinted out pretty hard, and so did everyone else. I geuss that's how all varsity races are, I'll just have to get used to that. Damon got out in front of me and Davis with some runners in between us. I reminded him not to go out too hard since we talked about that earlier before the race. We eventually got into a pack of three and Davis headed it. I knew we we were going pretty quick from the start, and that was confirmed when Coach (Todd) told us we were at a 5:40 mile. 

Mile 2- 6:18 (That's the average for my next 2 miles which was 12:36, last mile longer. Mile 1 is the only split I heard)

     This was when I felt like slowing down, and obviously I, but I almost let Damon and Davis drop me. Luckily they noticed this and and let me know. I hit the wall somewhere is this mile, and and a hard wall it was. I spent the rest of the race battling it.

Mile 3- probably between 6:00 and 6:10 with the .09 taken off

     The fire in my legs just worsened and worsened due to the lactic acid filling them up, and my face showed it. I think I had Davis with me for most of this mile, but Damon dropped back about 20-30 meters. It got so bad with 800 to go. Like I said this race hurt way more than last week. It probably made it worse when somone said there was 400 meters left when I knew it wasn't true, but I wished it was. I remember looking at my watch when it was at 15 and thinking "the leader (Conner) has already finished, I really wish I was done". Some encouagement from teammates helped me keep going when I hit the quarter-to-go mark. At this point I was just telling myself,  "I will finish soon, and it's gonna feel good when that happens", and then I was in sight of the bend that led to the last straightaway, and the white tents that we had decided we going to start our kick at.

Last stretch: 10-20 seconds

     This is where the mental burden laid off and I kicked it into high gear, which brought on so much pain. I looked over and saw a Bear River runner, and I went faster and beat him by a hair. That felt pretty good since I was in his exact postion last week. The line to give them our Bib#'s was pretty long and I wanted to collapse or at least lean on something, and I was gasping for air. It took me about 5 minutes to catch my breath. 

All in all, I was pretty satisfied. My teamate did pretty good. Mark and JD (our seniors) finished right with eachother in 17:12 and 17:14, and four of my other teamates (Damon, Xavier, Davis, and Keith in both varsity and JV) proved to be in a good pack with me (we all finished within 16 seconds of eachother) And I realized that even though we still have a whole XC and track season ahead of us, next year if we all improve together we are going to be a dang good top 5 group. Our team took 19'th, but we beat Box Elder and Roy without some of our fastest runners. Now we just need to really race Bonneville hard next week to see if we can beat them with our complete varsity, and if we can do that, we can qualify for state at region in October.

Good morning run with the team. We met at somone's house (which is nearby mine) and ran 30 minutes out west and then turned back. I was with the fast goup on the way out and felt good for the first two miles, and then my condition declined from there. On our way back I really felt the effects of the race yesterday and when we caught up with a slower group I let my previous group drop me and ran with them. It felt pretty good but at the same time I was dissapointed in myself for not staying with the rest of the varsity. I did pick it up again in the last 1/2 mile and felt pretty good so there's that. Then we had a nice filling breakfast after which I went home and napped for 5 hours on the couch.