The Renegade

Tough workout for me today, and not the for the usual reason. We did a five minute warmup and then started with a minute tempo and equal rest (it was all equal rest). The first minute was with Mark and JD, so for Me, Keith and Damon it was pretty dang quick. The whole workout was supposed to be 1 minute tempo w/ equal rest, then 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3,2 1, tuening around at the five. After Mark and JD dropped us we went at our own tempo pace, and I stayed with them until the beginning of the 4 minute tempo, where by now we were over halfway through the canal trail. On the 4 minute one lactic acid filled my legs up quick and my heart beat super fast. They pulled far ahedad and I eneded up stopping after 3 minutes (because I thought 4 minutes was up). Then I just decided that it would be hard enogh to keep running and when I got to the top of the small hill by First Dam, Todd came back and told me that I could jsut turn back. So I ran with him for about 10 minutes, pretty slow but I was hurting none the less. After that Todd had to back to the school so he sped up and left me alone. Then I took a rest and kept going pretty slow for the remaining time. I was kind of disapointed in myself for gimping out, but Todd said that it was okay and that I'm probably sick or something. This makes me fear that I'll even stay on varsity for this year.

Well, I kind of wish I felt like I did today yesterday, because my shakeout run with Keith was effortless. We did the rivertrail, like we usually do on shakeouts, and I was able to talk the entire time, my breathing was low, it was great. Hopeful for tomorrow.

     Pretty good race today. Bonneville's course is super good. It's in a big park that's covered with trees, and it's pancake flat. We got there at about 2:30 (race started at 3:30), so we had plenty of time to walk the course and then get in a good warmup and stretches. Last year (almost a year ago to the day actually) we had a meet here and I sort of got lost, but it was that I was going the right way, turned around because I thought I was going the wrong way, then it turned out I was going the right way in the first place. I ended up running a 20:00, and it probably would have been a 19:30 if I hadn't had that confusion anyways. So I kind of wamted to redeem myself, and I geuss I did. 

     Before the race started, I talked to everyone about not going out too fast, but we ran a 5:50 first mile (I wanted to go 6). At least it was better than the 5:40 last week. I came through the mile mark feeling pretty good anyhow, and with me was Johnny, Keith, Isaac, and I think Damon, Davis, and Jake, but if they were than we lost them soon after. I could alerady tell that the odds werent in our team's favor with the pack that Bonneville had up front, but I let that leave my mind and focused on my own race. Pretty soon Keith and Johnny pulled away and it was just me and Isaac running together for the rest of the race. I was scared that he would just pull away all together, but I stayed with him the whole time. I was actually surprised to see him running with us, but I just figured out that it was his first race of the season, so I didn't really know where he was at. I started to feel it at teh start of mile 3, where the lactic started filling up. I figured out the other day that if you shake you arms when that happens it will drain out, but I coulden't do anything about the legs, just take the pain, because that's what distance running is all about. We hit the sharp turn before the final stretch and I ducked away from some branches and almost tripped on Isaac's heels, then he outkicked me. Good race overall, I just need to make sure to stay with Keith next time and stay ahead of Isaac. whe we got of the bus back at the school, Todd told me that maybe I was experiencing some burnout and that he might have me take it a little easier for the next week before Cache-Box on wednesday. So I think I'll trust his word. I know we have milers on Friday so it will be interesting to see what he has me do then.

Good run with Mark and JD. I felt pretty great, and I was able to keep up a conversation with no problem. We ran up to the university and then back on the canal trail. Afterwards we did four strides.

     At practice today we had a small set of mile repeats at Willow Park West. I got some xc spikes a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to try them out. The only down side of that was that I had to run to the park in them on the road, so they kind of got scuffed. 

     When we got there we ran a little part of the course and then got started. The first onE felt fine the entire time. I was on Keith's heels all the way, with Isaac right behind me. We ran it in 5:58, right on the goal pace. On the next one it was pretty much just me and Keith, and he picked it up quite a bit at the end. I pulled up next to him and he took it as a challenged and took off, but I said forget it, I'm trying to hit a certain time here, it's not a race. I still ended up running a 5:38. On the last one a pack of quite a bit of us stayed together until the end, and that made it easier mentally. Again there was a big kick and I came in getting nipped by Keith and Isaac with a 5:58 again.  Then we did core and ran back. The workout I think was actually not that hard, and I would've liked to see more repeats in there. They were at R-pace, except for the second one, so I think we could've done 5 in 6 minutes, it just would've been hard. I've heard a great workout is 6x1 mile @Tempo, so I would like to see that sometime in our workout schedule. 
 

    When we got back to the field I did 4 strides by myself. The spikes worked great on the grass, I just need to see how they are with the gravel on our home course. If I do use them I wont be screwing in any actual spikes unless the course is completley grass. The shoes do al have a shark-skin type rubber tread that already is an advantage in the grass. 

     This morning we took a bus up to the Campbell's (our coaches) parennt's house in Weston, Idaho to do a "long run", which I guess is long compared to what we've usually been doing for our easy days at practice. It was pretty cold for the first couple of miles, but I warmed up after that. Keith and I were running in the front group for the first mile and then Johnny and JD came and picked us up basically and we dropped the rest of the group. It's funny how that happpens. There were some long and gradual hills, but they actually weren't too bad. In the last mile of the run though it felt like the end of a hard tempo. Probably because of the lack of sleep I got last night, plus we didn't do any warmup drills before running. When we arrived back at the house we had a nice big breakfast and then took the bus back home.