The Renegade

First I had a half-mile warmup and then 6 easy miles out towards Providence with Todd, Mark, and JD. We averaged a 7:30 pace and it felt pretty good, I've just gotta get Damon and Keith and whoever else to run with us, because the older guys are a good influence for solid training. This morning it was super foggy, and I wished I coud've been running then, but the sun came out for the second half of the day and pretty much stayed out. It was still a pretty cool temperature , though, a good break after last week's blistering heat. Afterawards we did 4x200m. I hit 34, 36, 34, 33. They felt super quick, probably a combo of having run six miles and waiting half an hour to do these, and not being used to running on a track, but that should be my 800m pace if not slower. Tomorrow morning we have 1000's in Logan Canyon. This is going to be a busy week (it's Homecoming and Bob Firman), but luckily we have a day off from school tomorrow.

       Very hard, very humbling morning workout today.   

     I got up this morning to catch the bus to First Dam that the team was taking and had a pain in my leg, like shinsplints. I had had it before, but this was worse than it's been before. I went to practice and when we got to first dam we started running towards trail head of the river trail in Logan Canyon adn I noticed that I kind of had a hitch in my step whenever I took a stride with my left leg. Luckily that pretty much went away when we started the workout, which  was 6x1000m all out with a 500m jog. The way the course was set up was we ran up the trail 1000m adn jogged back 500 until we got to the last cone, where would then just do straight 1000 and 500s with out turning around at all. The first one felt so fast it seemed impossible to maintain mechanical stability and efficiency due to the velocity at which we were going, (maybe because I wasn't completely warmed up), although we were actually only doing 3:45s on average the whole workout which translates into a 6:00 mile. So on teh next one I told Keith to slow it down a bit but after 500m Todd came from behind and told us we were going to slow. That's when the realization came that this was going to be a hell of a run.

     Most of the repeats were run with Keith, and the further up the trail we got, the steeper the incline was. The end of the last one before turning around was on a single track trail where the switchbacks started, and earlier in it was a significant incline on kind of a long hill, so Keith kind of pulled away from me on that one because he'll kick a hill up the but before he let's it get him, which is good but I can see that being a problem if he surges up spectator hill on saturday the first time we go up it, because that's not even halfway through the race and the course takes you up it twice. We had a 1000m jog after that one so the next set felt alright, I actually beat Keith on it and he started ahead of me, too. That was the second to last one. On the last repeat, I died and didn't feel like I had teh energy to keep going. Also my shoelace was untied so that did no good mentally.

     The season is reaching it's climax, the point in time that occurs in every cross-country season. The time where we hurt, and see eachother hurt, and open up by letting others see your pain, with that comes a special, strong bond between teammates that appears only in endurance training. That's the miracle of running, because when your'e hurting, you can have the comfort of knowing that the people beside you are hurting just as much, and alos that pain you have inside you can be so deep, so so real, and deep down you know how good it actually feels, because you know how much good will come out of it in the long run.

All the people going to Bob Firman did 1.75 mile warmup to the nature park, where we ddi some hill/tempo work. It was 2x5min @ tempo with recovery jog. ( It was prettty much a full recovery. The workout could have been alot tougher had there been more reps, but coach went easy on us today. The hill in all of this was about 400m into the course, a pretty long maybe 100-200m hill that we were told to race up, at a significantly faster pace than tempo, and then go back into tempo once we got ot the top, keep going till 5 min is up (we crested the hill at about 2:30 both times), and then finish the loop and do it again. I knew that hill would be a challenge to keep up with Keith on, because he always takes hills at an uncomfortable speed, but I stayed with him on both. It actualy wasn't that bad once I got to the top, and it was pretty easy to keep going at tempo. On the second rep Damon beat both of us up the hill, but then I stayed ahead of him and Keith for the rest of the 5 min, which got us further on that one than the first, a little past the edge of the Providence Cemetary. After that Mark and I got in about 3.5 extra miles in a loop that went around on the canal trail and then Temple Blvd. They felt pretty good just nice and relaxed. I was a little worried about my tendonitis, but I didn't feel it at all doing the workout or other running. The only time I can feel it is when I am on my feet but not running (so walking) I think the little bit of icing I did helped. That workout was good, I would definetley do it again, probably while training for Foot Locker in November. After icing I went to the homecoming parade and then the poweder-puff game, so busy day, but it's homecoming week and I've only got one more year of this so I might as well make it worth-while.

Good run with Mark to First Dam and back. I felt pretty bad at first up until the canal trail and then I felt better It was hot enough for me to drop my shirt. My leg felt okay.

We arrived in Boise an ran the course. My shin was hurting and I felt like crap. (maybe from all the muddy buddies I ate). This doesn't make me very confident for tomorrow, but we'll see.

     Friday: My shin was hurting all day, I was worried about the the race. I also only got 7 hours of sleep, which is okay, but not ideal. I took about 2 or 3 Ibuprofen, so I think that's been helping a little.

     Saturday: I woke up feeling better than yesterday, so my enthusiasm was raised. Before we left Tood taped my leg, so I think that kind of helped. We got to the course a little later than I would have wanted to, but at least I got in a warmup running past all the lined up cars to the bathroom. After about half an hour, we lined up.

    I was told to go out super hard, so that's what I did, but not har enough because I got seperated from Keith and Damon. I weaved my way through to Damon but Keith had already gone ahead. I think if I had stayed with him from the start then I would have gotten a better time at least. So I wasn't feeling amzing at any point in the race, but I didn't feel any leg pain, so that was good(I think the tape and the Ibuprofen helped). I still think that I wasn't in top condition for racing. I came through mile 1 in 5:38, and I already knew that I had gone out too fast before that point, but at least it wasn't terrible, although I do think it was my fast mile 1 ever.The hill wasn't that bad, and I actually passed people on it both times. ( It was the downhill that really sucked)

     My spikes were great fro my first time racing in them because they didn't feel stiff like my old track spikes. The beach had to be one of the worst parts. You just get no traction and both times it felt super long. The sharp turn towards the beginning was pretty sketchy the first time around, but it wasn't too bad the second time. My finish was weaker than I would have liked. I think that after the hill the second time I just quit mentally and gave up. At the kick I tried yelling like my old coach taught us and it warked, gave me a big adrenaline rush. I should have waited to stop my watch though cause a kid beat me by less than .1 seconds because I did that (Literally, both our times were 18:30.5, here's a pic)

The rest of the meet I enjoyed, although my leg pain was back agin, but faint. I did a 2 mile cooldown with Mark and JD before we left.