C Mantz Running

     1.25 mile warm up, then 3X(200m at 3200m pace, 200m sprint) with full recovery.  It was supposed to be a pretty easy workout, but I struggled. I felt very flat on the warm up, and just couldn't get going. Kyreal(I suck at spelling names) came again and helped me out.  We usually were too fast on the first 200m, but our last 200m was still good.  I ran 60s on all of them, with a 32 start and 28 finish on the first two, and 33 start, and 27 finish on the last one.  Kyreal usually finished in 26.0, but he was running in lane 2, so that was pretty crazy.  He's run 49.2 and 1:56.0, so that explains why I couldn't keep up with him at all.  Cool down after.

    5 "easy" miles. I had some knee pain yesterday, then a lot of achiellies pain today.  I was almost dying to run a 6:50 pace with the group.  After 2.5 miles I felt better and was able to get into the groove without any achiellies or knee pain. 

    5 miles with 9 strides thrown during them. I felt a little lazy, like you do after you take time off.  The strides were good though, and I feel like they'll help me keep on my toes this week.

     A mile on Hayward field, then about two and a half on Pre's trail with some strides.

     3 easy miles with some strides.

      It was hot, a little windy.  I feel good about it, although third is the most bitter-sweet place(top two make USA team for World Junior.)  Will write more later.

     We got to the meet about 2 hours before the 10,000m started. It was hot, but I thought it was going to cool down, and be partly in the shade of the bleachers.  After an hour of watching events, I went and got my bib, and after the steeple I started to warm up. I felt good heading into this race, more motivated than I'd been in a while. It's been a long season and I had been feeling burnt out, but I was ready for this race.  I warmed up on a practice track they had near the bull pen.  I did what I thought was a mile and a quarter before getting my stuff and going to the bull pen.  I was afraid of over-hydrating, but I think I was pretty good at it. They ended up having water in the outer lanes on the back stretch, so I shouldn't have worried so much about staying hydrated prior to the race. I never take water until mile 6 of races, so I didn't think I would need any.  My goal heading into the race was just to relax for the first few miles, and whether it was from the front, or in a pack didn't matter. I did 4 strides, and after some stretching, we were off. 

     I hesitated about taking the lead, but just committed 100m in, and just ran my pace.  It felt pretty easy.  First 400m I was 1:10, about where I wanted to be.  I just tried to stay relaxed, but I was too used to running the mile and two mile, that I would speed up to paces that were too fast and then slow it down once I realized I was not going to hold that pace for 10 more laps, much less 20.  Some guy from Texas A&M(Austin Wells) would pass me and slow it down, but then speed it up.  He was worse at keeping a steady pace than me.  I found out there was also a headwind on the back stretch too. The conditions kinda sucked. After 2 miles or so, he passed me, and I passed him back after he slowed the pace down.  At about 5K, I was feeling the heat, and finally gave into water at 5,400m about.  I should've got some earlier, because it felt so good.  After that, I got water on most laps that I could(since I was in the back now, The front guys got the water before I could. I was pretty mad for a bit because it seemed like Brendon Shearn was knocking water out of the hands of the USATF people on purpose to make sure no one else could get any, but I bet he was just trying to get it and it slipped.)  The pack passed me, and I just tried to stay with them for as long as I could.  Over some parts of the race the pack would slow into a lot slower of a pace, and it would bunch up. When lapping other runners, I had to get out to the outer lanes because some decided to run side-by-side.  After that I just told myself to wait for the kick, and with 400m I felt like I could outsprint a few people. My feet were also hurting a ton, they were tingly, like when your foot falls asleep, but it also hurt every time it hit the ground.(After the race, my sock had a little blood around my pinky toe. It hurt so bad, I thought it was broken immediately after the race, but it wasn't near that bad. Just lots of skin gone though) I was in 6th, but pretty soon the UCLA kid and Texas A&M kid started to fall off.  The pace increased with a mile to go, and I just tried stay on. With 3 laps to go, it slowed again, and I was sick of the change of pace, so I took the lead.  After 100m, I decided it was a bad idea, which was my first mistake in this race, and I cut out to lane 2 at 1K to go, and just tucked in the pack of 3 of us.  I held on. With 600m to go I know I needed to start my kick, but I just broke mentally. I then said at 400m I'll do it.  Then, Jon Green and Shearn left me.  I finished okay, but after 50 meters, I just let them get too far ahead of me, that I just made sure I finished at a decent pace. Another mistake, but it's learning.

    About a minute after the race, I started to black out. I just told myself to keep standing. My eyes just started to close themselves, like they do when you're really tired.  I sat down after a few minutes, but my dad told me to get up(thank-you dad!) so I did.  It took me a few more minutes and a few bottles of water before I started feeling decent again. They did awards, and then interviews. When I finally got my spikes off, I walked to the building to fill out stuff as the alternate for the USA Junior Team.  I was in there for an hour or two(it felt like forever!) so I wasn't able to cool down. It was a little depressing being there, because we got to see a lot of really cool stuff that they get. We also had to fill out everything "just in case." I'm happy with my race, I know I didn't have it all on the day, but I still had a great race for me, and I pushed it more than I have in any race this year, other than state and New Balace. Cool down for a few miles.

Day off. 14 hours of driving back home.

      5 easy miles at night.  Just getting back into it.  I had a few tendons and joints that hurt a little, but my muscles haven't been sore surprisingly.  I loved just running without caring about anything. It just felt so good.

    10 easy miles in the heat.  I need to get to bed earlier and catch up on my sleep.

    8 miles with some pushes.  I pushed my 4th mile a ton, but running up the canyon sucks sometimes.  It ended up being 6:01, so it was okay.  It was humid, and hot, so it was not the best weather either.  Happy to be running though.

     2 miles at practice, everyone had a super hard week, so we kept it easy, then played ultimate frisbee. After I ran 5.

     4 miles tempo, 2 cool down. I was planning on 5, and I was on track for a really good time, but during the 3rd mile, my lower calves started hurting in a "if I don't slow down I'll probably get injured" way, so I called it quits after 4.  I might go 4 more easy miles later.

    4 easy later.

    5 with the team.  Talked with coach about the race and what to do now. He says just take a break before jumping into the training, if someone drops out(which is unlikely), I'll have a really good taper leading up to it. If not, I got my break in.

    Ran 3.1 miles easy, but at a decent pace.  Just slowly getting into running. Don't want to be too sluggish when I jump back into training.

     7.5 miles with the team at a really slow pace.  I left them for a bit, but realized I'm on my break/easy week, so I just stayed with them.

     5 relaxing miles.

     Had some weird stuff go on for most of the day, but was able to run later(about 6 o'clock), and I just felt awful and it was really hot still. Oh well, got it done.

      7 miles. Felt Horride again.  I haven't eaten well or slept well for a while, so maybe that's it.  It was also pretty hot outside, so it could be that too.

      4 miles. Felt a lot better(I think I ate too close to my run earlier) and kept a good pace at an easy effort.  First mile was around 5:40(downhill), last 1.25 was 7:30, so that was a good sign.

      We went to Wyoming for our high adventure. I never really had any good time to workout, but went three at noon, and five at night.

     6 easy miles in the morning, but was busy the rest of the day. The leaders weren't really too kind when I said I wanted to go running, but I wasn't going to stop.

       5 miles up a mountain while everyone was fishing. It was way beautiful up there, but it was really hard going up the mountian, so I had to take a few breaks for my achiellies and lower calves.  After my break up there, I ran back down for almost two miles before I saw someone on a mountain bike. He asked if I went to the lake. I didn't realize it until later, but I bet I was close to it, because the trail finally started going downhill into a way different looking area. I held a pretty good pace on the way down, but it was really scary to go fast, so I averaged around a 5:50 on the first 3 miles of trail, and then my next two miles(dirt and gravel) were low 5:20s, so that was good for me.

     5 miles tempo, then 5 miles easy.  Tempo was good, it was my first one that I was able to finish in a long time. Averaged 5:20, so that made it good.  My quads were sore from the run yesterday(pounding on the downhill and pushing the uphills), so that made me feel better after, seeing I can still do well even when I'm sore.

     This week was a lot harder than anticipated, even though almost all of it was easy, I forgot how it was hard to just run that many miles in a week(even though a lot of people do more than that on their easy mile weeks).

     After my run I realized I probably went too far for the start of the week.  Oh well, it's all good.

     AM-4.  Warm up with the team, then 4X30 sec. all out with 3X45 sec. all outs thrown in between, with some break of course.  It was painful, I needed it though. Speed work kills me.

     PM-A little over 4 at easy pace.

     Not sure how far I ran. 10-12 with Tanner Anderson and John Dressel.  Pretty easy for most of it. 

     We did a workout at the Nike Elite Camp on the track. It wasn't bad at all, but our last 200m everyone just went all out and ran 25-26. Alberto Salazar coached it, so that was pretty cool. We were able to see Galen Rupp and Matt Centrowitz run their workout too.