I am one with the levee and the levee with me

12 easy down Boulevard and out on the Urb. 8xstrides. I'm starting to have a little pain in my left shin--I'll have to keep an eye on that.

6x1200m workout at Padden today. This was not the most organized workout we've ever done. We ran the 10k course, but rests varied anywhere from 1:30 to 3:00. 7200m of total work, but I didn't feel like it really worked me all that hard. And on the other hand, I felt sluggish today. It was just really hard to get my legs turning over. But oh well, I'm pretty sure I'm just feeling all the work from last week and Sunday's long run. That stuff adds up.

3:55, 3:44, 3:38 (downhill), 3:43, 3:40, 3:42.

AM - 5 easy, Cornwall loop.

PM - 12 easy on the Urb. I feel pretty tired today. I've been getting plenty of sleep, but I think I need more. 

Fartlek run around Lake Padden. Only 2.6 miles of 75 sec on, 60 sec off to freshen the legs. 

6 easy on the Urb.

I'll fill this in more later. Nice race today, there were highs and lows to this one, but overall, I'm coming along. Not sure why I'm still running slower than last year, but there's time for that to be worked out.

Ok, so I was feeling a lot of pressure today to repeat my performance from last year. I've put in a lot more miles, and I always feel like more miles should equal faster running. For some reason I haven't been able to duplicate the results I had by this point last year, even though I'm averaging about 15 mpw more.

The start of the race was crazy and crowded. I had to really focus on protecting my space and trying to avoid going down on the uneven first 800m. I quickly found Dylan and Tanner and latched on to them. Our plan was to hang together at 5:10 pace for awhile and then see how things went.

We went through the mile in 5:13 and 2 miles in 5:12 for 10:25. The front group was still bunched and congested. Mile 3 started at the bottom of the hilly section, and I was able to find some room and start working my way up. 5:04 third mile for 15:29, reaching 5k in 16:03. Fourth mile was pretty uneventful, other than feeling really good. I reached 4 miles in 20:31, so 5:02 for that one. Miles 3 and 4 felt so good, I thought I was going to be able to hold that pace through the finish, but I rolled my ankle going into mile 5, and I guess I lost a lot of steam going up into the hills. I reached 8k in 25:45 and 5 miles in 25:54, so 5:23 for that one. I was really feeling the race by this point, and I struggled to finish in a 5:10 final mile.

I'm really encouraged by how good the middle miles felt. If I hadn't laid an egg so bad on the 5th mile, I might be really happy with this race. At least it's a step in the right direction. I'm hoping that I'm just peaking later than last year. I'll start to slowly bring my mileage down from here on out, we'll see how that affects things. 

7 easy. I felt surprisingly good for the day after a race.

16 easy with Tanner and Dak up into the Chuckanuts. 6xstrides.

12 easy on the Urb. I kinda tweaked my right knee doing strides yesterday. I'm very relieved it didn't give me any problems today. Keeping my fingers crossed on staying healthy.

5 x mile on the hilly Cornwall loop. Dylan and I had to do this after everyone else because of class, but Bill was nice enough to stay late with the course set up. Workout was as follows (2:30 rests):

5:05

5:01 (came through the uphill half in 2:30 but backed off)

4:56

4:56

4:53

I felt incredible today. I felt strong up the hill, strong on the flat, and strong on the downhill. We took a pulse after #3 (at 2:00 rest) and I was just a little over 110. I definitely felt like I could have done another mile at 4:53. I feel like I'm starting to get into that "zone" where races are just going to click. Can't wait for conference. 

12 easy around Padden and then 1.5 miles of turf running.

Northwest fields tempo today. I wanted to do just 6 and run it at 5:20, but the coaches talked me into doing 8 a little bit slower. 

It was a bit breezy today, but nothing terrible. Despite that, I ran a new PR for 8 miles of 43:31. I love running pr's in practice. We started at 5:41, then 5:30, 5:28, 5:28, 5:26, 5:22, 5:21, 5:09 (I'll have to check later if that adds up--Bill will send out a spreadsheet and I can update it). So I ran my last 4 miles in about 21:18 if I got those splits right. Dak started ratcheting down the pace a little after halfway, but I was really surprised on that 6th mile--the drop to 5:22 wasn't noticeable. I also ran the last 800m hard, trying to simulate a good finish in a race. 2:29 w/ a 72 last 400,  hence the fast last mile.

AM - 3 miles easy

PM - 12 miles easy. 

It's been awhile since I've taken day off. Felt like I could use it. Plus, my little brother just got home from his mission and I spent the day with family at home.

14 easy down Boulevard and out the Urb. Today was the first serious rainstorm I've run through in awhile. I've forgotten what it's like to be soaked to the bone. More of this to look forward to!

7x1000m on the Urb today. 2:00 rests, which I think were about double what they should've been. 

3:06 down

3:07 up

2:59 down

3:04 up

3:01 up&down

3:01 up

2:48 down

I just think shorter rests would have put us more around race pace than murdering these reps at 3:00/k.

Anyway, 4.5 mile warmup (I think longer warmups are working out for me), and 5 mile cool down. I felt really good.

AM - 10 easy w/ Kyle between classes, out to Lake Whatcom and back.

AM - 6 easy from my place to Cornwall. I feel fantastic. Can't wait for Conference this weekend.

PM - 12 miles on the Urb. 10x1:00 fartlek @ rougly race pace. 

10 easy on the conference course in Monmouth. It's going to be fast. But I think the course is long. But flat, hard grass surface, it should be lightning fast.

Today was the GNAC XC championships hosted by Western Oregon University. The morning was perfect for running (overcast, scattered showers, ~50 degrees, little wind), and the course held up pretty well despite getting rained on all night. Only a couple of places were muddy. However, I was correct that the course was long, so I have no faith in any of my mile splits or in the final time. We were told by WOU that it was 20-30 seconds slow for the men, which means to me they don't know exactly how long it is.

Anyway, so I wanted to try starting a little more aggressively today. I don't do that very often, but I figured the field would separate pretty early into a distinct lead pack, and I didn't want to get caught in no-man's land. So I keyed off Chip and Dak and tucked into a lead pack of about 20 guys and coasted through the first 1k in 3:00 and first mile in 4:53. Quick start. I hung on pretty well through 2 in 9:55ish, though I'm not sure the exact split.

From there, the lead group split into about 10 guys with me and a teammate in around 15th. My teammate really stepped up his game today, as he's never been close to me in races before, and today he beat me. It makes our team sooo much stronger.

My coach had me down at 3 miles in 15:04 and 4 in 20:16, and I had heard the 4k split at 12:25. Again, I have no idea if any of these are accurate, but it feels about right. Kyle and I continued to work together, which was really helpful as I slipped a bit mentally in those middle miles. I stuck by his side and we pulled up into 10th and 11th. As we came around the final loop, I saw 2 runners a long ways up. I did not feel like pushing the pace, but I found another gear anyway and worked on closing the gap. Kyle was clearly hurting, but he went with me anyway. He's one of the toughest runners I've ever seen.

We rounded the final turn that took us down the last straightaway (800m long!!!) and I worked on picking up the pace like I've been doing in practice. The NNU runner ahead of me had pulled ahead, but Kangogo, one of the Alaska Anchorage guys, was still coming back. I started trying to figure out the best strategy to beat him. I believe he's a 3:45 1500m runner, and I've found it impossible in previous races to outsprint him. Since I wasn't able to catch him with 400m to go, I thought my best chance would be to sneak up on him and try to blow past him at the line. I was really hurting by this point and didn't think I could maintain a 400m sprint.

At this point, Kyle put in a big surge and went by me, and I folded a bit mentally. I watched for a second as he pulled up on Kangogo, and as expected, Kangogo ran just hard enough to stay ahead of him. Feeling completely exhausted and unwilling to put myself through more pain to try to outsprint my teammate, I coasted in to the finish, as no one else was nearby. He put 6 seconds on me over the final 400m.

Overall, it was a really well run race. Not sprinting all the way to the finish leaves a bad taste in my mouth.... I don't like knowing that I didn't give it everything. But at the same time, I think I was right in feeling that it was pointless.

Also, I feel that I'm still not running as well as I should be able to. I'm going to cut my miles a bit more heading into Regionals to see how I feel. Maybe 80 next week and 70 the week after. I did not feel as strong in the second half of the race as I think I should.

12 easy

Padden ladder today. 1600m, 1200, 1000, 800, 600, 800. 6k of total work.

I simply could not move my legs very fast today. It's been a rough last couple of days. 2 tough midterms yesterday and a couple more to look forward to this week, I didn't feel on top of  my game today.

Roughly 2:30 rest for the first 3 reps, 2:00 rest after that.

5:04

2:41

3:10

2:29

1:47

2:27 

14 miles up in the Chuckanuts. Ran my favorite route up there, out to Lost Lake and back. It was absolutely gorgeous. Had to run by myself today because of lab. Pushed the hills just a little bit, trying to work on form.

14 miles, down Boulevard and out on the Urb. Added a turf mile and a bit of Morning Loop at the end.

10k tempo on the Urb. Started in about 5:33, finished in 33:41, 5:13 final mile. I stopped for about 45 seconds after the 5th mile for a quick pit stop, but I don't feel like it affected the workout at all. I felt really great today, which surprised me after pulling an all-nighter last night prepping for a midterm. I managed a 3 hr nap after the exam, but I feel pretty flat.

8x600m at Broadway park. The park was muddy and it was raining and I loved it. This is a one-loop course, but the turns are a little sharp, and in the mud it was tough to keep momentum around them. 1:00 rests, started at 1:57 and cut down to 1:46. Felt controlled and smooth the whole way. 

12 easy down Boulevard and out the Urb.