C Mantz Running

    Easy with many people from the XC team.  Mostly Alex, because he was finally starting to get back into running, and Calvin, because he has an injury that kept him at a slower pace for him.

      After a long night of watching Kansas and fireworks, I didn't know how ready I'd be for this race.  I woke up at 5, so I didn't get much sleep and went to the race with my dad and sister.  We picked up my sister's and my race packet and got ready. I stretched out, and did a warm up by myself, til I saw Scott, and then did some with him and my sister came along too.  When we got to the starting line I looked around to see Jerrell. I knew he was running it, but I didn't see him anywhere. 

    The gun went off.  I went at an alright pace for the first bit, til I finally got into my regular race pace.  I heard steps behind me the first mile, and saw Jerrell and another more experienced looking runner (whose name escapes me right now when I am writing this) running right behind me.  Great, two guys that are going to give me a race for my money.  First mile split.  5:02.  Where I regularly run it, so not too bad.  The next mile Jerrell and the other guy passed me until the mile marker, there was a downhill there, and I passed them right before it. 5:11.  A bit slower then my half split, but still there.  Same thing happened the third mile.  They were ahead til about the mile 3 marker.  This mile was a bit surprising, and I hit it at 5:11 also.  By this time Jerrell started slowing down.  (I later found out it was because at the start he couldn't find his inhaler, and ended up running without using it before, which came back to bite him.  That was also the reason he came to the start late)  Mile 4, the other guy and me just went back and forth.  I passed him on the downhill, and on the flat or uphill he would pass me. My calf was hurting and I didn't think I could hold on too long 5:16. 

      About this time I yelled halfway.   Mile 5, A bit faster of a mile, but same thing as the last one.   5:08.  Mile 6, I was thinking if I could only get a PR for my 10k time, and just finish in 2nd I'll be pretty happy.  I told him I couldn't keep this pace up for very long.  As soon as he started putting an area between me and him, I saw Shawn O'very on his bike telling me to keep going, and then a half mile later saw coach Write on his bike yelling the same thing.  5:13.  Mile 7/hill in mile 6.  When we got to the hill, I felt great and he slowed a bit, so I passed him and pushed it with all I could because I knew he wasn't going to let me just have the win.  I gained a bit of ways on him here.  5:17.  Mile 8  Slowest mile, probably because I was worn from the hill.  I looked back a bunch to make sure he wasn't gaining too much on me.  5:30.  Mile 9/everything else.  I had the time on my ipod as a 6:43, but I think I ran a 6:55 or somewhere around there.  I sprinted a bunch for it.  I kept looking back, until I hit mile nine, where I didn't think he was going to pass me, and I went hard for this part.  My watch said 48:36, which I must have accidentally hit stop somewhere or started it late,  becaus the clock had me 9 seconds slower.  I'm still great with the time though. 

     As soon as I crossed the finish, or atleast a minute after I could feel my calves hurting. Again. I stretched them out, and they felt better.  I might not run the smithfield half due to how they feel. This might be my last run before XC starts.  maybe.  Later saw so many people I knew.  Ran a cool down with Jerrell, who still took 3rd and beat the time he ran last year by 2 and a half minutes.  Two minutes faster than I did last year.  My calves still hurt, but they felt better when I was running that cool down then any other time after the race.  Hopefully they'll be okay.  Tomorrow I may take the day off, and see what they feel like for the next few days.  If anyone has any recommendations on the calf, please tell. 

      Calves hurt to walk on yesterday, so I didn't run then.  Today they felt alright, a bit sore to walk on, but I wondered how they felt to run on.  I went to XC and ran slow.   I went with Jayden, Alex, and Glen.  We went at an alright speed for the first 2 miles or so, then we really slowed down.  Glen even started speed walking, which would get me mad becuase he was keeping up or going faster than us.  My calves felt alright to run on, but I'm not going to try any speedwork for a while. 

     AM-Easy slow run.  I felt good during it.  My calf doesn't hurt, but i can feel something there.  I felt like I needed to go faster.  

     PM- Did the same as the ealier run.  I went slow, but felt good.  Around the second mile I did a stride.  My calf didn't hurt.  I could feel a bit of soreness, but it felt alright. 

     Cross country camp for four days.

AM- Hard hill workout to start off camp

PM-Ran with the Carbon XC team.  Easy workout

     AM- Seven miles at alright pace. slower, but not easy.

  In between we went to the pool, and hiked, and did lots of stuff. 

       PM- four miles at night.  Coaches told a scary story before and that freaked me out a tiny bit.  Easy

     AM- Hot outside run.  Easier.  Felt pretty good.

    PM- Easy easy.  my quads hurt from Monday during all these runs, but my calf seemed alright.

       AM- XC race.  My legs were a little sore so I didn't push it and just did an easy run.  Warmed up with Tyson Compton, and thought my competition would be Dylan, but then two kids from Carbon showed up.  Garrett and Austin.  Garrett was running with me for the first two miles.  I put a gap in there, and then we hit some rollers, and he caught up.  So I sped up and just had an alright finish.  17:32.  Not great, but not bad.  Everyone was around a minute and a half from their PR.

     PM- Trail run.... kinda. We were going to go to some hot springs with the team, and just a nice hike.  We didn't run up, but we ran down it.  When we got close to the top, I heard the coaches talking about how people would be naked in the springs when they had been up before.  I wasn't in the front and thank goodness.  About a quarter mile or so from the springs, they saw a naked lady butt when she was running out of the springs.  The coaches went to tell the people at the springs to put some clothes on and that some kids were coming up.  Apparently the people wouldn't so we ended up having to turn back.  We ran back, and I felt like crap.  Never eat chips and stuff before a run.  

We just got home tonight.

     I wasn't 100% planning to do this race until yesterday, but I've had it on my mind for the whole summer.  I did a small warm up, stretched, and looked for competition, but I didn't see anyone I knew that would be pushing me.  Maybe Jerrell, but he said he wasn't going to kill it, so I thought, my goal should just be to beat my time from the half I did 2 weeks ago. 

     As soon as we started I took off feeling pretty confident on the win, but not feeling that good with the running.  My legs didn't have a spring much like they usually do.  At the first mile(5:57, way slower than what I wanted) I looked back and saw someone running with Jerrell.  I didn't recognize him, so I didn't know what to think.  The second and third miles I sped up, and same with the 4th mile.  The 5th was alright, but the 6th and 7th were 6:30s.  At mile 4, this guy caught me.  I later found out he is John Coyle, who runs Steeplechase for Weber.  I let him lead for most of it.  I probably led about a mile of the 3 or 4 miles we were together.  Mile 8 was just under six, so it was alright, but not where I wanted.  Mile 9 was just as fast as mile 3, a 5:20, and that is where he gaped me.  Miles 10, 11, there were people telling me to catch him.  I didn't but he was with-in sight the whole time. 

     He finished maybe 20 seconds or so before me, so he never lost me.  I was a bit mad at my time.  Oh well, maybe another day.  I averaged a 5:49, and I usually average around a 5:40- 5:44 in that canyon on my training runs recently.  I did a cool down with Jerrell who finished 4th, and talked with a lot of people after.  Nice fun run.

     XC- A medium run with the XC team.  We didn't go too hard.  I could feel the half in my legs kinda, but nothing hurt as much as Utah Valley or Blacksmith Fork runs.  We sped up at one part, which felt great to do.  I'm probably going to take some time off soon though.

     I haven't had a good hard tempo run for a while.  Maybe since a week before the Utah Valley even.  5 mile tempo, at faster than what I ran for the half on Saturday.  I whose my Garmin and my miles were: 5:04(downhill) 5:36 (slight uphill) 5:38 (up then down) 5:22(slight downhill.  Faster than usual for that mile)  6:20 (uphill).  I then went for a cool down.  During the last mile and the cool down my achelias hurt a bit, so I definately will be taking a few days easy starting Thursday or Friday. 

    XC-4 workout on the track.  Working on sprints, for 70m with 130 in between.  Trying to evaluate our form with sprints.  Did that for around 10 times with a cool down, then we did some 300m sprints.  I didn't run either of these that fast, or atleast I didn't feel like I could.  With the 300, my first 100 was slow, and then I would pass anyone running between the 100-200 mark, and would then end up dying the last 100.  

     PM-5.  I didn't know if I was going to be able to run tomorrow, so I did a run.  I did a mile and my right achilles started hurting.  GREAT, just what I needed.  I looked up and tried to find why and ways to stay away from hurting it more.  I found that in the last few months since the middle of the track season I've been running on my mid-foot to my toe, instead of running heel first.  That's just one theory though.  Others I have is I've been putting more mileage and more racing in this summer.  I'll probably take a few days off running and try some cross training, like swimming or something else. 

     No running

     We left Lake Powell today.  I went on an easy 30 minute run.  I'm guessing it was around 4 miles.  I tried to push it, but just didn't feel it again.  Yesterday I went on a hard hike and a fast downhill run after with my brother.  

     8 or 9.  Slow at some parts because my Achellies or ankle or whatever down there was hurting.  At the end I felt good and had 2 fast miles at the end. 

       We just got home from Lake Powell.  I did a mile swim each day except sunday for some Cross-training. 

      I did a 5 mile run at 1 O'clock today and burned up during the last mile, but I never stopped.  I timed my 4th mile to see what pace I was going at.  That's where I started speeding up.  During that mile I hit a 5:33, which I wasn't feeling like.  My next mile was pretty dog slow though. 

     XC- sprinted to the warm up because I came late.  We ran some hill repeats with some running in between.  It was around a mile for every lap.  I sprinted the first big hill, which is known as beast(300-400m), with Calvin.  Then jogged with him and Steve to mack park area, and then I ran the other hill(100m maybe a bit more) at a sprint.  We did this three times with a cool down in between.  On the last sprint Calvin beat me after I cut him off, but other then that I ran the hill sprints alone.  Coach Eck had breakfast for us after.  After that I ran home. 

    With the sprints yesterday I didn't know what to run.  I felt really good when I was doing my stretches, so I decided 5 mile tempo.  goal time: 29 minutes.  All I had to do was 5 min. mile for the first downhill mile, and 6 min. for the rest.  It didn't happen at all where I expected it to.  I felt really good my first mile, but it was slower than I usually run that mile.  5:17.  This made me push all the other miles a lot more to get the time I wanted.  5:42(uphill), 5:35(uphill, then downhill), 5:21(downhill), 5:47 (pretty big uphill, so I was really surprised and happy with this mile.).  Did a mile cool down after.  I felt pretty good about this week with running.

        XC- Sunnyside extended.  We went on a tempo run for two miles of the 7.   Tyler came and made us really push it a bit more.  I didn't feel as good as I usually do on Monday mornings.   Also we found out when our first XC meet is, so that is pretty exciting. 

      Hard 4-mile tempo.  Before it I wasn't feeling like running that much, but during I felt good.  I average a 5:24 pace, except it was an average of downhill.  I was going to go 5, but I pushed my 3rd and 4th mile too much too go hard on the hill.   2 easy miles after.