C Mantz Running

Went to mission home for something.  Ran a 5k time trial on their treadmill. 17:35 isn't too bad for not running for a long time.

Last run in Ghana.  I ran with Elder Peters and Elder Perry going back and forth on the road for a little over 30 minutes.  We are guessing on the distance. 

I just returned from Ghana today.  The past two years have been the best two years of my life.  I may write more on it later.   Went 3 miles with my sister.  We held a 6:52 pace.  core later.

Still adjusting to running.  Went about 16 minutes today.  Biked in the evening.  Just trying to adjust slowly.

twenty minutes.  A bit sore and it's taking a while to get used to running again, but it's enjoyable. 

Tough 2.5 mile run.  About 16 minutes.  Core after. 

Ran hard, probably too hard.  24 minutes for the first 4, then realized after that I'd hit it a bit quick for what I can handle now.  Fun though.

A little slower than yesterday.  30 minutes running.  Later I biked for 30 minutes.

25 minutes.  My calves were pretty tired, but it felt good. I think I'll take it a bit easier tomorrow.

30 minutes.  Felt easier then the past few days, and felt faster.  Tried some new shoes also. 

45 minutes.  Started out feeling good, and things just started feeling better. 

6 miles in 36:17.  Nice run.  It's feeling easier and easier as time goes on.  It took a while to get into a rythem, but after the first mile it went well.

An interesting thing, is since I left to serve in Ghana, I haven't listened to music while running.  I always made it a point to run with a friend or with music before, but I don't think I need it anymore.
 

A bit over 30 minutes(whoops).  I ran with the high school team.  They ended up doing tempo, so I just ran with a couple of guys for the 3 miles.  They said our pace was about 5:40-45 on the tempo.  Cool down after with 8 strides at the end.

Today wasn't great.  I felt a bit tired from the past few days, so I just took it easier.  32 minutes for the first 5 miles, then 3 minutes quick to finish it out. Lots of rain and I was soaked about half way through.

Ran with the team again.  We went through a warm up, stretched, did strides, then the team did a mile and I watched, then I cooled down with a few of the guys and Claire.  Small quad pain.

35 minutes.  Felt super tight in my hamstrings and quads.  I think it was from the strides.  I kept it at 6:30ish for the first 2.1, then after things started to loosen up and kept it around 6:00-6:10. 

Good day.  I'm trying to get a good sleep schedule, but last night I stayed up fairly late, so when I woke up at 6:30 to get ready, I was super tired.  First mile was just waking up, then after I was able get in a good groove.  45 minutes overall.  It was somewhere between 7.1-7.2 in distance.  No hamstring pain, but my quad felt like yesterday.  It will be good to have Sunday off. 

Looking back on this week, I ran more than last week, but it wasn't as fast as last week.  I'll still take it as a good week though, as it's a build phase. 

6 miles.  35 minutes.  First run over 3.5 miles in the past two years that had a sub-6 minute pace.  Legs surprisingly felt alright.  Breathing was another issue.  Kinda got competitive on the pace early on. 

40 minutes.  Felt good. 

40 minutes for the 6.5, then 4 strides.  It felt alright.  I felt like my first half mile was slow, so I sped it up, and it ended up being a lot more of a speed up then I thought.

I decided to try and make more of my running not on the road.  I went up Birch Canyon.  I wore a GPS watch, but it wasn't sufficiently charged, so it died partway.  My average up the canyon was around 7:00 pace and my pace on the way down was about 5:50. 

Started out a bit quick, so I changed to make today to a harder day.  Out and back up the canyon.  The first 6 were fast, then I did .5 cool down with 4 strides at the end. Splits: 5:27, 6:14, 6:11, 5:31, 5:52, 5:56. 

8.25 miles in about 50 minutes.  6:03 pace.  I felt pretty tired from mile 3 to the end.  I think my legs were pretty beat from the previous days.  It's been a good week looking back on it. 

7.62 in 45 minutes, and then the extra 200 meters back home.  Felt super good at first.  3rd mile was hard, as always, due to the big incline, but it's good to have it be hard. 

40 minutes for about 6.4.  Strides after.  Calves were a bit sore, but nothing big.  I'll probably be running with some of the BYU team the next few days.

Went down with Josh Ward to Provo to run with some of the BYU guys.  1 mile warm up, then they started an 8 mile power run.  I'm not sure on the splits, but I held with them for 25 minutes(almost 5 miles).  At 25 minutes Patrick Parker and I slowed it down to a jog and then started speeding it back up.  I think my overall time was around 44:35 for the 8 miles.  1 mile cool down.  I felt pretty beat for the next few hours.  I was pretty surprised to run with them for that long.  BYU has a pretty deep team by the looks of it, and not everyone was there either. 

Easy run with a group of the guys.  Jake, Josh, and I turned early and ran together, then Jake went to do more and Josh and I did some strides. 

45 minutes.  We drove back yesterday, so this run was alone.  It felt good for the most part.  Tried my best to go under 6 min. mile pace at the end.
 

9 miles in 54:24.I ran up Smithfield Canyon, and there seemed to be a headwind between miles 1.5-2.5 that slowed me down a bit.  Nice run though.  After I did a quarter mile cool down. 

Looking back on this week, I feel a lot more confident on coming back and running again in a competitive field soon.  I know it will still take some time, but I feel the strides I've made since I've returned from serving a mission have been great. Also, this week is the first week where running has felt natural again.  Like, I really felt good during it.  I'm excited for the future.

8 miles in 47:45 then a cool down up the street.  Last two miles were a bit tough. 

5 miles tempo.  5:33 mile pace.  First mile was pretty fast.  It was kinda a tough run for me, but I'm happy I got a good push in it.  3 miles cool down after, 2 of them were with Claire. 

About 8.5 miles.  Ran up Birch Canyon to the 3rd gate through Smithfield Canyon.  I was going time it, but my calves were super tired, so I just kinda went off feel and distance. I think yesterday's run took more out of me than I expected. 

10 miles up Smithfield Canyon.  I still felt a bit sore in my calves.  First 5 miles were about 34 minutes, next 5 were just over 30.  I felt alright, hoping tomorrow I'll feel better. 

Drove to the USU cross country course and ran there.  Ran from my dad's work there, then did the 5k loop twice and then did 2 more miles before heading back.  I did a 5 min. pick up in there as well. 

Fun run today.  I met a couple of the Utah State runners yesterday on the run and they invited me to do a long run with them today.  We went up Logan Canyon and ran a trail near Beaver Mountain.  It was a pretty easy pace, but I think there is a small knot in my right calf.  I turned around before the group and ran the second half alone. 

Good run.  I felt pretty good at the start.  Did the first 7 miles progressively harder.  Splits were(from memory)-5:27, 6:00, 6:15, 6:10, 5:26, 5:22, 5:04(fastest mile since I've been back).  The plan was to go the first 8 hard, but I had some small pain in my calves and I didn't want to risk injury.  3 easy mile after. 

Nine miles at 6:30 pace. Calves were pretty sore. Hopefully they'll be good by tomorrow. 

Calf started hurting more than yesterday during the first mile, so I took it pretty easy.  After that mile, I felt pretty good, but kept it at 8 to keep the risk low.

Ran the canyon, then did 4 strides.  Kept it easy again.  My calf felt good until the downhill, so I think I might need to do some flat runs for the next few days.  It still felt better than the past few days, so that was good.  The strides felt good though. 

Ran to Sky View, then tried to do a portion of a workout(as well as at a pace that seemed reasonable for me) that the team did a few days ago.  I did 2 miles at 5:15 pace, then 4 minutes rest, then I did another 2 miles at 5:14 pace.  Cooled down around the track a bit before running home.  I think it was good, but I'm not sure what to compare it to.  It didn't seem too hard, and now looking back at it, I probably should've tried to go a bit faster(I just told myself that 5:20 would be a good pace to go).  I may run a bit later tonight.

Congrats to everyone who ran the TOU half today, I was cheering for a bit of it.  After I ran 13 miles in the afternoon. About 6:25 pace.  First four miles were at 7 min. pace, then I decided to start speeding it up, and then my last few miles were a push.  After I was pretty tired, I think it might have been a bit too far for me right now, but I didn't have any pain, just a lot of fatique.

1000 m cruise intervals. Did the first 4 on the backend of the team, then did every other one. 3:08 for the first one, 3:07 for the rest, other than my last 2 were 3:04 and 3:06. 2.5 warm up, 2 cool down . 

A bit over 2 miles later

We ran up a neat trail in Ogden canyon. Saw some moose, which was nice because I was just trying to stay up with the group, and they stopped a bit to point out the moose. We gained a lot of elevation, and I could feel yesterday's run, so it was a bit tough for me.

Nice run. I felt pretty good for the most part. Ran with Andrew Brewer and Zac Jacklin on the way back. Our last mile was pretty quick, about 5:30ish.

Warm up, then a fartlek work out. 10, 5, 3, 2, 1, with equal "rest" at 6:40 pace(except the 10 min had 5 min. Rest). I didn't feel great during the warm up, but felt good the first mile of the 10 min. After 8 minutes the group dropped me, but I think I still hit 2 miles. The 5 minute one was tough, then the 3 minute one was downhill and I stayed with the group, the last 2 were pretty tough. It's fun running with such a big and great group. Nice cool down after.

3 easy miles later

We ran a trail today. It was bushy later on in the run. It was pretty slow, but I am not particularly good at trails, so that may have contributed. 

Long run today. It felt better than any run yet. I did the first 7 with the group, then turned around with a few other guys that were only running 14. I ran the last 7 miles with Connor Ross, and we kept speeding it up. In there somewhere we hit a 5:20 mile. Our 13 mile split was about 1:14:20, then we slowed down for our last mile, which was 6:15. Tough run, I hurt a lot, but I feel like it's my best run yet since returning home. 

Also, this is my highest mileage week ever, so that's a cool thing for me.

felt good. Slow pace, but there were some tough short inclines and declines.

Mile repeats. Warmed up 3 miles, ran with the team for 3 of them. 5:01, 4:49, 4:54. The first one felt super easy. The third one was pretty brutal, and Coach had me just run with them for the first 800 of the next one, then I was done. We ran at K park. Cool down after, then I ran in the late evening on my own for about 3 miles.

 10 easy miles with a part of the group. The heat made the run feel long. 

Today was tough. We ran up hobble creek canyon for 8.2 miles, speeding up every 15 minutes. The first 15 were at 6:00 pace, then the next 15 min were 5:30 effort(probably 5:40 or slower pace. It was a lot of uphill!) then we went to the finish at tempo pace/effort. It was tough for the first 15 for me, people were talking, but I was just feeling the hills out. The next 15 felt good. I actually felt hungry, I need to learn how to find time to eat with classes, studying and running taking up all my time( and the blog post when I have a few minutes). The last bit was tough. I wanted to give in at 40 minutes, but then told myself to make it the full 45, but then learned that it was 8 miles. Then painfully learned it was 8.2 miles. 47:19 overall, so that was good. I've felt a bit sick since ending this run. 2 miles of cool down, then weights. 

5 miles in the morning before class.

8 miles pretty easy after class. It started to rain quite a bit during the run, and a group of us on the trail had it kinda bad with the wind.  It got better later on during the run.

LONG run.  Today I could definately feel tired from the previous days this week.  I've been getting good sleep, but school and running seem to take most of my time recently, so it's been a bit tough.  The run went well though, I went 15 miles, and we started slower than usual(7:40 for the first mile), but then sped it up after.  We got it down to 49 minutes for our first 7.5 miles, then a group of us turned around.  I don't think one of the guys heard how we were supposed to take it easier in preparation for the workouts and race next week, so instead we ended our lst 7.5 miles in 43 minutes.  I think our last mile was at 5:29.  I'm ready for tomorrow's off day. 

Also, now this is my highlest mileage week ever, so I think that's pretty neat.

Not a good day. We had a good workout, but I wasn't able to finish due to fatigue and a very sharp pain in my hamstring. Hopefully I can run tomorrow 

6 miles easy on my own in the morning. Little hamstring pain. 

6 miles east with some of the guys on the team. After Judd put my hips back in place and it Hurt! But he said it will make it better. He said I'll be sore tomorrow, but I'll be good soon. 

3.2 miles warm up, maybe a bit more, then a light fartlek. 4,3,2,1 with recovery at 6:20ish pace(or something fast like that. It was a hard "recovery" effort, but the workout was good for me. No hamstring pain! Cooled down to 10 miles. 

good race but not great. I'll write more later 

Solid workout for me today.  First we did a 2.5 mile warm up, then the workout was 3X2 miles progressively getting faster.  The front group was the top-15 from the race on Saturday.  I was 15th on the team, so Coach let me run with them.  First 2 miles was supposed to be pretty controlled.  It was uphill, and I hit 9:42 and was with the group.  We jogged a bit, then did another.  This one had a u-turn.  I was with the group until the u-turn, then I kinda hit a small wall.  I tried to push, but my legs just didn't have it.  Like, I'm just not in the same shape as the other guys.  That two mile was in 9:45 for me.  Our first mile was 4:47.  The other guys negative split it on top of that.  The next one I decided to just stay with the group for the first mile, and get a solid mile in, and then call it(mainly because I got dropped on that 2nd one).  I wasn't ready when coach said go, so I got into a flight-or-fight instinct and took off.  Well, after about 2 minutes at that, I let the guys pass me, and I slowly got put near the back.  I ran 4:42 for that mile.  The other guys were just 2 seconds ahead of me, and then they negative split it.  Cool down back to the park, then cool down to the school.  

I have a lot of good takeaways from this workout.  Even though I'm not in the same shape as most of those guys, I was able to stay with them for parts of the workout.  I had the goal of staying with them(the top 10) for the full workout by October, so hopefully I'll get there.  

5 am 5 pm

Michigan today. Warm up, then mile on track, mile on grass, 1200 track, mile on grass, 800 track, mile grass, 400 track, mile grass. About 80 sec recovery. I heard 90, but usually it was 80. 4:40, 5:05, 3:25, 5:04, 2:18, 5:04, 64, 5:00. It hurt, but I kept through it. Last mile I wanted to go sub-5, but just missed it. Good day. The grass miles were supposed to be our recovery, but they weren't for me. 

Easy run.  I haven't had much time with classes to write what's been going on.  Turns out college classes in college are a lot harder than AP classes or concurrent enrollment classes.  

15 miles in Monticello.  For some reason my laptop has had trouble with posting my mileage.  First 5 miles were around a golf course, fairly slow, next 5 were up near blue mountain in about 37 minutes, next 5 were going down the road to blue mountain in about 28 minutes.  

Good workout today. I'm racing at USU this weekend, so coach had our group only do 6X1000m. 1 min rest. 3:00, 3:00, 3:01, 3:04 3:04 3:05. Felt really good until the 5th one. Still went well though. The main group did 10 and they were flying!

Am-5

Pm-5.  Trying to find time to write more. Felt a bit tired, but nothing too bad. 

Premeet today. I felt good, the strides felt really good. I decided to keep it pretty easy because this may be my last race before track cones, so I would like to do well and have that bit of extra confidence heading into track season than not

Good race. In a gist, warmed up 2.2 miles, then raced. It was my first time being back in Cache Valley since August. The race went out well. Jason Lynch took a commanding lead, and not knowing who he was, I expected to reel him back in. I had 10 m on the pack and was about 20m from Jason. After a mile the pack caught me, then I took the wind for the next 2.75 miles or so for the pack. Slowly people fell off, but I never made a surge. At 5k there were 3 of us, and I sped up a tad bit to try and catch Hason, whose lead has grown to 40 to 60 meters. Then the mud slipped Connor Ross and he had a bad fall, and Cody, from USU fell off a bit. I tried to kick it in to catch up to Jason, but he had a sizable lead, plus a kick over the last 350 m so I just didn't have enough room to catch him. Good race. Hopefully by track I'll improve a lot. 4 miles cool down, then ate a nice home cooked meal with the family. 

Smithfield Canyon. 6:03 pace. I may have pushed it a bit too much on some of the downhills. 

Great workout. Coach had the Group that was recovering from the race do a mile tempo and then a mile breakdown. Mile tempo was at 5:04ish(although everyone said their GPS watches said it was quite a bit far) then 1 mile at 4:50, then a 1200(we didn't have a set place to end it, so they told us to go off our GPS watches. Unfortunately, some of us were only running with regular watches, so at the front we kept going. Then the 800m was slow for me, about 2:24, then a 400 at 67. Great at the start, but I had trouble finishing. 

Medium long run

Great workout for me today. I felt good and I stayed with the pack for the majority of it. It was a ladder of 4,8,12,8,4. The first 400 everyone was kinda just feeling the legs out. About 65 or 66. The 800 went better about 2:16. The 1200m I felt pretty good, about 3:28. I tried taking the lead into the wind for some of the guys, but I feel like it just slowed the group down but I still was up with the top group. The next 800 I got dropped and ran 2:22, the next was easier and I was in the middle/back and ran 63. Cool down after

10 easy miles. I didn't feel the greatest, but it went alright 

Ran with Talem to the ropes course the track team was doing, then ran back 

long run up Smithfield Canyon. Happy Birthday to my dad today, he just turned 50! And BYU also won Pre-nationals, so today was a big day.

Easy medium long run.  Felt pretty good.  I need to find time with school so I can do doubles instaed of going 10 miles every run.

hobblecreek. 8.2 or 8.3 miles up hobble creek canyon at a progressively harder effort. I felt good, a ton better than last time, and last time was one of my better workouts ( I was our tenth guy last time) first 15 minutes we keep it fast but easy(about 5:45-5:50 average) Next 15 we speed it up(about 5:40average pace) then we go into tempo effort, which was around 5:30 pace with the steep incline. I stayed with the top pack until the last 1.25 miles, but only faded about 8 seconds back, so that was better than last time. 46:07 overall time

3.1 in the morning 

10 later with the team

good workout. I learned that I need to pace myself better. It was 2xmile, 2x1200 and 2x800. Miles were meant to be fairly controlled. 4:50 and 4:46. 1200 was supposed to be 3:33 for the first and 3:30 for the second, but the first was 3:31 and the second was 3:33. 800s went poor and it was all just mental. 2:20 and 2:25. Cool down after. Warm up 3 miles, and ran about 400m in between intervals. The workout was at intramural field. 

Ten cold miles on canal trail

Deer creek today. It was super cold at first and I over dressed. We started out slow, but then sped it up. 1:30:00 exactly for me. I ran with Casey and Matt on the way back because most people went longer 

Tough workout for me again . It was only a mile breakdown, but I just didn't have it. I went 4:44 for the mile, 3:29 for the 1200, 2:50 for the K, 2:18 for the 800, and a bad 1:42 for the 600, and I didn't start the 400. Arms hurt, stomach ached, just not my day. 

10 miles then 4 strides

10 easy. No strides. Feeling recovered again.

5 mile tempo at lake loop. First time running it, and it was fun. I miss running tempo runs. We ran as a group for the first 3 miles, then a few of us sped it up a bit and finished around 24:58. I felt really good after.

easy run 

A bit over 15 miles on the trail near Spanish Fork Canyon. I stayed with Matt Owens for most of it. First mile was about 7 minutes, then we sped up to 6:15 for a few before going to about 5:40-50 for the rest. 1:29 for the run. 

12 miles, felt sick after first 5. 

warmed up, and I kinda felt a stomach ache during the day, and during the strides before. The workout was 4x1000m(cruise intervals) with 1 min rest, then 4x400 at mile pace with 2 min rest. The 1000s weren't very hard, I was about 2:59 or 3:00 for them, and it felt relaxed. As soon as we started the first four, my stomach had a fit. I ended up only doing one 400, then a slow off and on cool down, then a slow jog/ walk back to the fieldhouse. Not a great day for me.

4 in the morning, felt a bit sick, but a ton better than yesterday, then I ran 8 later in the afternoon. Hopefully I'll be good for tomorrow's workout.

Good workout today. No stomachache, so I was excited to run. It was 4xmile for the travel squad, and 2xmile and 3x800 for us. Miles were 4:49, 4:46, 800s were 2:18, 2:18, 2:17. I felt controlled during it, but was pretty tired by the end. While cooling down I twisted my ankle or something, because it started to hurt a ton. Slow jog back to the school, then iced it. It swelled up a good bit. Iced it later too.

only a little ankle pain, so I did 4 in the morning, then 8 in the afternoon. Put a hot pack on before the afternoon run and that made it feel better. Iced after. 

15 miles, some ankle pain. Iced it after. A bunch of guys were trying to get one of the 880 guys to go under 90 minutes for the run. He probably could have, but the pacing was pretty inconsistent. I think we had a few 5:35s randomly, and then we'd slow it down then speed it up. The other guy was pretty tired from the week on top of it. I think the group averaged about 5:51 per mile. 

warm up, 2x800, 2x400.  First 8 was tempo, second was a race pace with the travel group for the first 800m of their second mile, the 400s went okay. 61 and 64. I slipped on the leaves for the second one, so that was a bit frustrating. Cool down after 

6 easy miles. I felt good, but I underdressed. Strides after.  It's cool that it's snowing. Sad fellow blogger Ryan Raff signed with NAU over BYU, but wish him the best. 

Wrote a long race report.  Then the internet got disconnected. Not sure if I want to put in the effort to write it again.

AM-4 felt easy. 

PM-9. Felt easy. 

10 miles around birch canyon and Smithfield canyon with some of the guys from the team, then 3 miles running around USU course cheering for regionals.

15 miles, started slow, about 20 minutes for the first 3 miles, then we sped it up to 45 minutes at 7.5 miles. Ran most of the run with Marcus Dickson. We sped it up on the way down and then Brady, Josh and Zach came off a different trail and ran with us, then Marcus slowed a bit, and Brady and I sped it up. I finished in 1:25 for the run, so 5:20 for the way back. Good run for my confidence.

Felt great today. Had to make a few stops, but my legs felt great. I'm super stoked for the race this Saturday, the team is looking so good right now.

3 miles warm up, 6x800 on grass track (I like it more than intramural field), and it went super well. I felt good, relaxed and just stuck in the front of the group. 2:18, 2:17, 2:19, 2:16, 2:16, 2:13, then a cool down after. 400m jog between the 800s. 

4 easy miles in the morning. Little pain in my left lower calf, but nothing too bad. 

8.4 easy miles. Did most of it with Marcus and Zac. It felt relaxed. I can't wait to watch the team kill it this weekend. 

2.5 warm up, then fartlek(10, 5, 3, 2, 1) with equal rest (other than the 10, where we had 5 minutes) at 6:40 pace.(that's what it was supposed to be.) We got about 7 miles in during the fartlek. I felt pretty good, and it was with a fun small group. Most of the guys went to watch nationals, and then we split with the 880 group.  I ran the first two with Connor Weaver, and the next two alone, then for the final minute I started in the back and nearly got in front by the end. I heard we ran a 400m for the minute, so that was cool to see. I'm so excited to see how our team does on Saturday, it's going to be sweet!

10 miles. When we split up on the run I was only with the 880 guys. After I did 6 strides 

5:48 average pace. We ran after watching the race. It was pretty depressing that the team had the worst race all season. NAU ran pretty amazing, so I personally think we still would've taken 2nd if it would had a good day. We still have next year though. 

12 easy miles with some strides after

Am-8 easy miles. Well the trail was pretty tough, but it wasn't fast. 

PM-5 easy miles with Doc.  I talked to Coach about mileage, and I'll be taking this week easy for the most part and will jump into it hard next week.

Woke up early and ran up the canyon.  I felt a bit sluggish from the drive back home yesterday, especially because I hit some bad traffic so it took really long.

I wasn't feeling great so I decided to put my tempo off and do my long run today. We were in Montana visiting family, and I decided to start on a trail.  This trail got pretty rocky and wasn't very good for a long run, so after nearly 2 miles I found the road and ran on it. For the next 10.6 miles or so, I kept the pace pretty steady.  During the first 5 I was running with the wind at my back, so it was around 5:30s-40s, the next 5 were around 5:45-59, and I think my average was about 5:47.  My legs felt good, but I had a sore throat and a cough for most of the run.

10 easy miles.  I wasn't feeling the greatest.  It could be from all the food I ate yesterday, although I didn't feel like I overate. It could be the cough I've had a few days.

AM-went to a track near the high school, but it was pretty rugged and icy.  I started jogging a lap, and I just wasn't feeling it at all, so I did 5 miles on a treadmill at the hotel at about 5:55 pace and decided I'll try to run hard tonight.

PM-Ran around the block twice.  I used my dad's GPS watch because I know it is just a bit over a mile long each time around.  4:57 first mile, 4:49 second mile.  It was late and I just wasn't there.  I could've done more, but I'm planning on hitting it pretty hard next week, so I called it good. Cough didn't help much either.
 

AM-4 slow miles. Felt really tired. 

PM-12 miles and 4 strides. I felt a lot better. 

Great workout. We did a mile, then 5x800m. Our group was pretty small because the 880 guys have their workouts now, and the travel squad is on break. The mile was 4:29/30(I started behind the group, so my watch had 4:29, but coach said 4:30), then we were told to run 2:13s. I went 2:13, 2:10, 2:12, 2:10, 2:08/09. It felt really smooth. We jogged a bit over the amount of time for each one(so about3 minutes jogging between the 800s). 3 miles warm up, 3 cool down. 

AM- a bit over 3 easy miles. I planned on doing more, but took a long time to get out and had to make it to a lab. 

PM-10 easy miles. My hamstrings were sore. My back, shoulders, and arms were also sore from weights. And my head hurts from all the class work. But all this hurt is the good hurt at least. 

warm up, tempo up canyon, 60 sec recovery, tempo effort down. 13 minutes up, 12 down. Hit a lot of traffic lights, which was super annoying because it would throw off the pacing and just made it hard. 

Easy miles after a test. I think it's interesting on how much a hard test can take out of you before a run.

 Long run at Murdock canal trail. Started at 6:50 pace, slowly sped it up and finished around 1:25:45. Our last 13.1 miles was 1:13, which is close to a PR in the half for me. I'm excited for next weeks race. 

Also, shout out to BYU commit Aidan Troutner for winning NXN, and for fellow blogger Ryan Raff still running through an injury.

4 miles full of coughing, snow and ice. Really slow and relaxed.

8 miles. Warm up, then mile breakdown. Lots of coughing, mile was in 4:29. Not as relaxed as last week. Then the 1200, 1000, and 800 were slightly quicker, but I had to run to the bathroom on the test for all of them. But after the 800 my coughing was pretty bad, so I sat out the 400.

10 easy miles. Lots of coughing.

5 miles warm up, strides, 2x400, 2x200 with jog between, 3 miles cool down. 400s were supposed to be at65, 200s at 30. 200s were fast, but I didn't get the time. 62 and 61 for the 400s. 

5 miles and strides with Talem. Didn't cough as my much as yesterday. Race tomorrow!

Great race for me today. I ran a shake out of about 2.5 miles in the morning and it felt really good. Throughout the day I tried to focus on school work. 45 minutes before the race I did 2 miles with the guys racing, and felt good. Almost no coughing. Did strides before we started and felt pretty good. 

We get to the start line, and there is about 25 people on the 5 lane track. It was super crowded. I was in lane 1/2ish with a lot of guys. The gun goes off, and I start moving aggressively, but just get pushed down from behind and roll. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but the gun fired again and everyone came back to the start. I had a scraped knee and a hole in my shoe, but other than that I felt okay. The official asked if I still wanted to race. Of course I did, I've been looking forward to this for a long time. So that was that.

When we restarted I didn't want to fall, so I started slow. I was near the back. My first lap was easily my slowest. I tried moving up on the straight-aways and I felt good getting up there. We were 55 on the first lap(it's a 5 lap per mile track), so that made me a bit uneasy as we were planning on 53s-54s for the first mile. Rory was pacing the first mile of the race, and he had a bit of a lead on me, so I tried to just keep moving up. I stayed on his tale for the rest of the first mile, where he ran 53s-54s. A UVU guy passed me, and I just tried to have patience. We came through the mile at 4:30(goal pace was 4:28), and I stayed with the UVU guy for a bit, then passed him, then another UVU runner passed me, then I passed him, and he came around me again, then I came around him. This was all in the course of 1.5 laps. Well, with about 3 laps to go I made a move to get a good time. It seemed that my goal of sub-8:20 might be out of reach today, but I just kept pressing. With a lap to go I saw I needed to run a 52 last lap if I was going to get it. Here I started moving. I just tried my best to go. When I hit the final straight, I saw the time slowly move up and I thought I wasn't going to make it, but I was wrong. I crossed right at 8:19. Chase Horrocks came in about 5 seconds after, then Patrick and then a big group. It was a lot of fun to race again. I was surprised that most of the guys I've been training with weren't up there with me. We have a solid group of guys that didn't travel during cross country that all train together, and I expected at least three other guys to be right up around 8:20 as well. 

Cool down was for about 2 miles, but I kept coughing really bad, so I had to stop a few times. Later I ran another 2 miles. 

Pretty tough day of running. Lots of coughing, had to stop once to cough a lot of junk out.  

AM-4 cold cold miles. 

PM-12 miles and 2 laps on the indoor track doing strides.  Lots of coughing still.  It's been 3 weeks since this started.  It might be a problem.  

10 miles.  Lots of coughing.  It's just hard to run at all with this sickness.  I did pick up the medicine that the doctor recommended.  It ended up being pretty much just a cough syrup.  

AM-3 easy miles on a treadmill because it was pretty cold outside and I was pretty sick of running in the freezing weather.  

PM-2.5 mile warm up, strides, then a 6 mile progressive tempo.  Goal was to run 5:10, 5:05, 5:00, then sub-5 for the last 3 miles.  We went 5:08, 5:04, 5:02(which was weird because this one felt faster and it was downhill a bit, while the second one is uphill), then I didn't get splits because those who I was around didn't have a GPS watch on.  But I finished the 6.06(that's what people's GPS watches said) mile run in 30:10, so that was great.  Faster than my 10k PR pace and it felt controlled. Well, the last mile I was pushing it a lot, but other than that it was pretty controlled.  Jared Ward was running with us for the first 3 miles, but was more like 4:40 pace for the next 3.  It was pretty crazy to watch as he just looked like he was running with absolute ease as he left us in the dust.  Like, he didn't even seem like he was pushing it. I coughed a little bit during the workout around 2.5 miles, but had almost no problem with the workout.  Lots of spitting though from mucus built up in my throat.  After the run the coughing was pretty bad.  Enough that I lost some of the food I ate earlier today.  Kinda gross.  Cool down back to the park(over a mile), then cool down back to the school(2.5 miles).  

10 easy miles on the extended carter-ville route.  Ran with Dallin Farnsworth and Zack Jacklin for the majority of it. When some of the guys went to use the bathrooms on the team, we kept going because we were pretty tired from yesterday and wanted to run slower.  They caught up around mile 8 or 9 and gave us a lot of crap for leaving them. I learned that I really enjoy running with a smaller group some days. 

4 easy miles in the morning.  About 6:30 pace.  The day is going to be busy with studying for finals.  

Did some studying then ran another 5 miles 

15 miles in St. George. More coughing than usual and I had to stop running about 4 or 5 times until I stopped coughing. My throat felt so sore after. I talked to another doctor that is a family friend and he recommended an antibiotic. Hopefully it works because my throat hurts so much and makes running so miserable. One good part of the run was where I got to run with Collin from the blog. 

AM-4 easy miles. 

PM-10 easy miles and some strides. 

Great workout today. We did 5x1000m at 5k race pace(or goal pace for me) with 3 min jog recovery. 2:46, 2:44, 2:45, 2:43, 2:45. Last one was tough and started slower than the rest, but we kinda raced each other for the last 100m. I felt good about how things went. I hope to run a 3k at that pace this next race, but if I don't I won't be too upset. 

AM-4 easy miles. 

PM-10 easy miles with strides after. My legs were pretty sore and my mind is tired from the tests. Only one more final to go!

12 miles. One easy mile, then 10 steady state miles (5:22 average) then a mile easy to cool down.  

10 easy miles in Smithfield. There was a lot of ice up the canyon so I turned around early and did a few miles around the block. 

Long run with JD from Sky View to the island and back. We kept it pretty easy because it was pretty snowy, icy, and cold. I only fell once though. It was nice to catch up with JD. He ran at Mountain Crest and his best 3200m was 9:40. This year he was USU’s 4th man. And they qualified for nationals, so I feel like that shows big improvement, especially that he only recently returned from a mission in France this year. 

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. It was a great day to come together with family and remember the birth of our Savior. 8 miles in the morning, 6 in the afternoon. Lots of snow!

11.5 in the morning with JD. Roads were still pretty icy. 2 miles with my brother in the evening to shake out my legs.

11 miles. Did the workout of 3x2 mile. Did the first one on the track in 10:06(goal was 9:50), then took a long break to find the bathroom and motivation, then ran the next on the road in 10:19, then the last in 9:50. 

4 miles hiking around some old Native American ruins. It was really interesting to see these and imagine how they’ve lived.

Ran to my uncles house, then ran up blue mountain road for about 5 miles, then back. I think I went 5:50 pace down the road, not because I was pushing it, but it was just a really steep road.  The altitude is killing me though, I think I ran up at 8300 feet today. 

Fartlek today. I’m pretty tired from the altitude and hiking we’ve been doing, but we are driving home today, so at least I’ll be back for the long run.  I did the 10, 5, 3, 2, 1 fartlek. I gave a good effort, but my paces were pretty slow. The ten minute one was uphill and that added into it, but it was just tough running at over 7000 feet. At least the run was pretty.

Long run today. Being back in Cache Valley was nice. The altitude difference felt huge. I ran with JD and Jim from Utah State’s team. We kept a pretty even pace around 6 minute miles, and sped it up after we turned around. Little bit of coughing, but it’s improving. Fun run, it was good yo hear about the team here and how they’re doing. 1:21 for the run.