The Renegade

     Today I had a pretty good workout.  I'm going to count the warmup as being 3.9 miles (our regular warmup loop and then the run to First Dam Park). What we were supposed to do was go out 25 min and try to come back in 20, but I started my watch later so I woulden't be interupted by traffic during the tempo. I ran with the faster varsity, so the jog out was a little faster than I wanted it to be anyway, and when we got to first dam my watch was at 20, so I just turned around there. Last time we did this it was twenty out, but I covered a little over a half mile less distance that time, and it only took me 15 minutes to get back. I don't know how far that was, maybe a litttle over 2, but my tempo distance was 2.66 and I made it back in 17, that's about right. I don't do tempo runs really at all, but I really should because their super good in my opinion because they keep your mind in sort of a race mentality because it's just continuous running, contrary to a fartlek for example. I felt medium good the whole time. Mark went out at 4:30 pace, so that's why it looked like he was just flying away from me when we started (he didn't keep it). I just calculated my pace and it was anywhere from a 6:23 to a 6:30, so pretty much right on the dot. Going down the path to get off the canal trail onto Canyon Rd. was pretty scary because I thought I was going to snap my ankle on a rock, especially with the shoes I was wearing. The end of the tempo was a pretty big hill, and it ended literally right at the top, so I don't know how good that was for my mentality about hills. I'll probably put a hill in the middle or just not have a hill at all next time so that I won't be used to stopping at the top of hills. After that I ran 2.5 more miles just for the volume and to get in a long cool down, since that's usually done for tempo runs I believe. Tomorrow we have an easy day and then we have the Cache-Box Invitational at our home course, and I hear it won't be a cool day, so I hope I'll be prepared for it. 

Good shakeout, it was a little quicker than I geuss I would have done, but I was running with the other varsity guys, so what can I expect. We did a pretty nice loop that incorporated willow park and the river trail. It was super hot out and I heard it's going to be worse tomorrow, so I'm kind of scared. 

     So I am satisfied with my race, just not the time. Although I geuss it's pretty good that I only missed my PR by 6 seconds considering the 80-90 degree heat with no shade. I woke up not feeling super great, and I was kind of still feeling the soreness from our tempo run on monday, but as the day progressed, the soreness faded, and I felt okay. I did a good job hydrating, too. 

     When we got to the course it was about 2:30, so I had some time to kill, and most of it was spent relaxing in the shade under our team canopy, with the occasional port-a-potty run. I did watch the races, and they were great. Keith placed second in the JV race, and my other teammate Vickie Krull placed 2nd in the girls varsity race to Miranda O'very. 

     I started warming up at 4:40 (the race was scheduled to start at 5). I felt about the same as the warmup at the Aggie Invite. After some stretches we went to the starting line, did some strides, and the race soon started. the sprint-out felt fast again, and Damon reminded me to chill out, so I took it a little slower in the first mile. I came through the 800 at 2:40, so a little quick, but that was just because of the sprint off the gun. (2:40 800's were actually my mile pace in track last year, so that gets me excited to see what my mile is once the season's over) At this time I was running with Zair and Damon, and I came through mile 1 at 5:48, so I did a better job pacing wise than at the Aggie Invite. This was where I sort of pulled away from Damon and Zair, and cruised through mile 2, which felt pretty easy and quick. At the end of mile 2 (which I don't know the splits for), I passed Johnny, which really surprised me because he ran a 1:56 800 in track last season, but he also hasn't been running as much due to illness and injury. He apparently dropped out right after I passed him, which is fine, it only counts at region, and it also is nice to know that our score (5th place) could have been better with him. A while after I passed Johnny I looked at my watch and it said 12:30, so I thought if I just held my pace I would PR, so either I was wrong or I didn't hold the pace. Anyways the last mile was great because I passed maybe 5 or 6 people, and I've really never done any major passing in a race, so that was awesome, plus I know that that helped us beat West Side and Preston, because there were guys on those teams in the group that I was passing. But it was more likek I was passing kids 1 at a time, just picking them off. I was pretty fun actually. Towards the end I was on this Sky View runner's heels, I passed him right before the turn onto the straightaway, and tehn he let out a ferocious yell and took off. That made me so mad, so I screamed, too. And I can actually see why he did it. It triggers some adrenaline. I think I'll try it full on at Bob Firman next week. In fact I'm pretty sure I remember Brian McKenna (our old coach) say that last year. So teh Sky View dude and a Preston runner just took off, and I sprinted as hard as I could, but to my dissapointment I didn't PR. I'm going to blame it on the heat. 

    Like I said, this gets my hopes up for region because of the fact that we could beat Mt. Crest if we all work hard for the rest of the season and race to our full potential on that fateful day. We do have Bob Firman to try adn beat them, too. And then we have one more race, the Bear River Invite, and then region and I'm really hoping state. 

Entering the final 400m in hot pursuit of a Sky View runner, with Vickie and Keith cheering me on. 

Entering the final straightaway with Jake to my left yelling encouragingly.

Letting out a roar in response to the Sky View and Preston runners' kicks.

Home free to the finish:

Today was supposed to be easy, but I kind of ignored that for reasons and decided to make it a longer endurance run. The people I ran with, Keith , Damon, Jake, and a couple girls on the team were going super slow, and I decided to just take it at what felt normal, so I dropped them. Where we were running was a road in Providence that we like to call "Death Hill", near Von Baer Park. I was feeling pretty good, and then I hit the hill, and after coming back down in a loop that goes through a trail at Von Baer, I was not feeling good at all, and I was 4 miles away from the school. The weather was scorching just like yesterday, too. So teh rest of the run was hell, and it felt great to be back at the school. 4 x Strides and icing and that was practice. I think today was a rough day for everyone, I know it was for Vickie and Mark also, who ran up to Lundstrom Park. 

At practice today we were supposed to run to Merlin Olsen and get further instructions from Todd. Turns out we were playing ultimate frisbee. I was expecting 800 repeats, not games. I like our coaches, but I think these games when we should be running our butts off is one of the reasons why we don't have alot of hard workers on the team. Luckily Mark agreed, so he took about 8 of us up to the canal trail by Lundstrom Park to do a workout: 8x800m repeats, just what I was gearing up for today.  After a short warmup, we started on the first one, and finished it in 2:45, a little bit faster than I expected, but I think it was because the course was a little shorter than 800. 

Here's the times to best of my memory (It's #7 that I'm not sure about). 

1- 2:45

2- 2:36

3- 2:41

4- 2:40

5- 2:46

6- 2:55

7- 2:36

8- 2:26 (all out)

I ran most of them with Kieth next to me, and the only ones that I didn't I finished in front of him, especially on the last one. We took a 1:30 to 2:00 break each time. I felt pretty good today, thankfully. I think the hardest one was #7, even though it was the slowest. The easiest repeat physically was obviously the first one, and the easiest one mentally was the last. That one was actually kind of fun to just go all out and know I didn't have to save any energy. The sprint on the final straightaway was great. After running the half mile back to Lundstrom I cooled down for 2 miles with Mark. Our pae was actually pretty good, we got back in exactly 15:00, so 7:30 pace. After that we got slurpees and did some icing. Overall that was one of the best workouts I've had all season.  

Great run this morning on the Deer Fence, probably my favorite trail run of them all, and plenty of people would agree. I ran with Mark, Keith , and Vickie at a slow pace for about 30 min, which got us three and a half miles out, so 8:34 average mile. I felt good. On the way back, which has a couple more tough climbs than going out, we picked up the pace to a 7:08, so alot faster, but it didn't feel hard. On the last big hill before the trailhead, Mark and Keith went super fast up it, but I coulden't keep up. I don't think I'm very good hills, and I don't want that to become my weakness at Bob Firman. I just looked at the workout schedule for next week and we only have one workout, which I think is weird considering that we have 5 days of running before the race, enough for 2 hard days, so I hope I can get coach to have us do some hills, since we have Bob Firman and JV is at Box-Elder next week, a very hilly course. 

The group after the run and at breakfast