I am one with the levee and the levee with me

Padden Relays. Ran the 2.6 mile loop in 13:25. Felt a little more difficult than last year, makes me worried.

20 mile long run with the guys before camp. Ran S-loop - a ridiculously difficult run in the Chuckanuts. Lots of climbing.

13 easy from camp. Lots of loops and hills on the trails.

Camp Casey workout. 6x2k w/ 2:30 rests. 6:42, 6:37, 6:32, 6:30, 6:26. 

Much more difficult than last year. Hoping it's just the higher mileage in my legs. Felt like I was working pretty hard. 

AM - 11 easy on the camp trails.

PM - 6 easy. Did 6 x strides. 

AM - 10 easy on the camp trails. Last day of camp.

Back in the Tri-cities for a few days. 6 mile tempo along the river with Mr. Armstrong. First 2 at 5:35, 3 in 16:37. Had to take a bathroom break in the middle, so maybe a 3:00 rest. Then came back in 16:12 with a 5:19 final mile to finish in 32:49. Moderate effort, I could feel the fatigue in my legs, but was pleased with how controlled this run felt.

PM - Easy 6 

Skipped my morning run cause my knees are disagreeing with me a little bit. Ran an easy 9 tonight on the river trail.

AM - Richland trail loop this morning. Feeling pretty good, knees seem to be doing better after icing and taking a couple easy days last week.

PM - Added 6 easy. 

AM - 10 easy through the farmlands.

Padden ladder workout today. We run this on our home XC course, reps of 3k, 2k, 3x1k, 2k w/ about 2:00 rest.

Reps went as follows: 9:52, 6:18, 3:09, 3:04, 3:13 (uphill), 6:17.

Compared to last year: 3k - 10:18 / 3:00 rest

2k - 6:17 / 2:00 rest

1k - 3:05 / 2:00 rest

1k - 3:03 / 2:00 rest

1k - 3:10 (uphill) / 2:00 rest

2k - 6:08 

Today I felt incredible, which was nice after last week was so miserably difficult. I'm also pleased to see that my times were very comparable to last year, even with the first rep so much faster. I should do a much better job peaking for nationals this time around. 

Overall average mile pace this year of 5:07 compared to 5:09 last year. I guess this one was the better workout. And I felt so controlled. 

Knees were feeling a little funny, took the day off.

PM 1 - 12 easy. Strides x 8.

AM - Ran a tempo today with the guys who aren't racing Sundodger tomorrow. 7.8 miles total, 3 laps around Lake Padden, starting in roughly 6:00 pace the first loop and dropping to 5:30 second loop and 5:25ish last loop. I felt really smooth and controlled, even over the rolling hills. I can tell I still need some hill work, but my legs are coming around.

16 miles from the apartment. The team was running at 9:30 but I wanted to make it to church. Ended up running this one alone.

12 easy from my place.

Cornwall mile repeats. 6 x 1 mile w/ 2:00 rests. Hilly course.

5:09, 5:04, 4:58, 4:58, 4:59, 4:59.

I felt amazing on the 3rd one, then tired on the rest. I wore my spikes for the first time today, so perhaps that caught up to me on the later ones. Also had to use the restroom from #4 on, and I'm sure that didn't help. As has become the norm, I felt fantastic aerobically while my legs appeared to be the limiting factor. 

AM - 4.5 easy

AM - 4 easy 

PM - Fartlek workout today in the fields out towards Benton City. It was scheduled to be 90 sec on, 60 off, but I couldn't find my watch so I just felt it out for about 6 miles. My legs feel strong, looking forward to racing.

Badger loop from my parents' house.

First race of the season. We raced in Lacey at St. Martin's University on a course that I believe is about .2 miles long, given the times. 

The course is a simple 2k loop that runs around a gravel path around a pond and into the woods, up a small hill and through a parking lot back to the start area. Mostly flat except for the small rise and fall getting to and from the parking lot. The terrain gives good footing, so there's not really any reason for slow times except for a long course.

My race plan was to key off the lead group and see how I felt. My teammate, Dak, took the lead halfway through the first loop and I fell in behind him. I held that position through 4k and then started to fade. The University of Victoria was in the race, and all 5 scorers were in front of me at that point. Heading into the final lap, I focused on reeling in their #5, and he was coming back. With about 1k left, another of their team went flying by me like I was standing still and I had a moment of mental weakness and let him go by. Letting him pull away took some of the wind out of my sails and I stopped making ground on the next group.

Despite the mental lapse, and despite not hanging on to the lead pack like I wanted, I am pleased with the race. I felt pretty good overall, I just felt all the work of the last few weeks in my legs. Breathing was good, legs felt a bit leaden, which I know will go away as the season's end approaches. We race this team again in 2 weeks, and my goal will be to break them up a little better than I did today. 

4 easy at Mt St Helens. Are there wolves in this area? Apparently, because I heard them all around my camp last night. Spooky.

11 easy, Badger Mt loop.

Workout with the team today: 5 sets of 1200m/600m w/ 200m jog after 1200m, 400m jog between reps. Rougly 1:30 from 1200-600, then 2:30 from 600-1200.

I ran this quite a bit faster than last year. After last week's race, I feel like I should be running closer to Chip and Dak, so that was my focus. They pulled me along to some fast times. It was nice to see Dylan and Tanner also running off my shoulder with several other guys also in the mix. I think our top 7 are looking pretty good.

1200m - 3:50 (uphill)

600m - 1:46 (downhill)

1200m - 3:44 (uphill)

600m - 1:47 (up & down)

1200m - 3:32 (down)

600m - 1:47 (up)

1200m  - 3:30 (down)

600m - 1:47 (up)

1200m - 3:27 (down)

600m - 1:49 (up)

Solid workout. My focus was to hang with Chip and Dak on the 12s and cut down, and then try to hang on through the 6s as best I could. Slight positive split on the last 6 is because my legs were pretty toast by that point, and the uphill felt killer. I think I need more hill work, my teammates were pulling away from me pretty easily on the hill.

AM - 7 easy at Cornwall Park.

PM - First day of class--13 easy, double loop around Padden plus a turf mile. I felt pretty trashed on this run. I need to eat better while I'm on campus. 2 tuna sandwiches just didn't do it today.

AM - 5 easy, 1 loop around Cornwall park.

PM - 11 easy, including turf mile and 8xstrides. Felt ok for how much work I've done the last few days. 

AM - 5 easy, Cornwall loop.

PM - 8 mile tempo at the Northwest soccer fields. Pancake flat grass course, exactly one mile per loop thanks to the genius of Bill Roe. A little bit twisty and turny, a bit of uneven footing, but I like running tempos out here.

Started at 5:45 for the first mile, then picked it up to 5:28, then dropped off to 5:40. Then back to 5:32 for reaching halfway in 22:25. I figured sub-44 was out of the question since I didn't think 5:25 pace would feel good for 4 more miles. But that's what we picked it up to. 5:25 for mile 5, then 5:25, 5:23, and we opened it up a little in the last for a 5:11 to finish in 43:51. I was really pleased with how good it felt to pick it up to almost race pace after 7 miles of pretty quick tempoing. And as always, I'm happy to dip under 5:30 pace on the 8-miler. 

This has been a full week of training, and I'm very happy with how my body is handling it. I'm getting lots of sleep, eating a lot better than usual, and it seems to be paying off. 

6.5 easy with Dylan. I lost my wallet this morning and it screwed up our plans of doing a longer run. Then I skipped my second run because I just felt so tired. 90 for the week.

Starting the week out right with a beautiful run to the top of Galbraith. Had to take it pretty easy on the way down--all that downhill was working my knees pretty hard.