Ethan Cannon

I am back! Won't run again till Thursday.

Beautiful day for  run

Accidentally went an extra half mile. Foot felt fine. I went slow at Kiwanis. But a twinging left achilles the last part of the run reminded me why I have to make a slow recovery. The rest of my body needs time to get into it too. For that reason I am also trying to take all the precautions with stretching, rolling out, icing, and strengthening. 

Achilles tendon flaired a little bit after monday, just ran a bit today.

felt better today, that is good.

Beautiful day. If all goes well, tomorrow I'll be able to go for a run again.

6.5 with team. We were going pretty fast for how I felt. 

Yesterday the bottom of my foot started hurting after the run. Today it felt fine during the run at least. 

Lingering achilles pain which went away to an extent by the end. Plantar pain is totally gone.

Despite starting my run really fast and the fact that it was in the morning, my achilles felt good today. Maybe it was my shoes...

Felt a little tight. Hopefully I recover by tomorrow. Felt good to run that far.

Ran mostly on grass today. My left hip and knee felt a little sensitive, like they were picking up the slack of a weak achilles tendon. Definitely not ready for a workout yet. I will have to be really judicious in getting back in it. On the one hand, I am running out of time, but on the other, I have really wrecked myself before getting back into it too early, especially after achilles tendon issues.  

I wanted to take it a little slower today. I went faster at the end. 

8 miles in two sessions. Lots of things have changed today with coronavirus. I still want to be as fit as I can, but now my goals might be changing a little bit.

It started randomly just snowing a ton. Idk where that came from. We had a good team meeting where I learned some things and edited my vision for this season.

8 windy miles

8 miles in Mapleton.

Did some more exploring today. I ran up some steep hills. It was a little rocky, but I appreciated the aerobic workout.

More exploring = more ridiculous hills

The weather was chill and so was I (finally). I've been feeling a little fatigued (hard to believe based on this mileage right?) but maybe it has to do with the hills I've been running. 

8 miles that felt better for my achilles tendon than it has been in a while! That's good. I ran on the flat, and its hard to say my pace. But I'm have been trying to overestimate my pace so I may have run as much as 8.5 miles. 

I measured 10 miles on Map my run to see how my pace was. The good news was that I felt pretty chill and ended up doing 6:30 pace, so that means I am not in terrible shape and I may have run more mileage than I accounted for this week. The bad news was that I had to rip out a sliver, my old socks gave me a blister, and my right achilles tendon felt sore. The last one is the only major concern, so I am glad to have a couple days off. 

Nice run up towards Hobble Creek. It was grey and really still outside. I got a little light rain and may have been going a bit faster than 7 min pace so I probably went farther than 9. 

Felt pretty good today. I found a nice trail to run on in Maple Canyon. I will now list some of the runs I have found here to keep track of my options while here in Mapleton. If Google maps doesn't betray me, I still have yet to discover a lot of the coolest stuff around.

UPDATED 5/15/20:

Hobble Creek Canyon: Nice long run, equivalent in difficulty to RoxyAnn more or less.

Spanish Fork River Trail: Haven't tried this yet, but it is six miles long that joins up with Powerhouse road soon after getting on the road on the way from Mapleton. Directions: take shortcut to highway down 1600 w, cross over and get on 3400 e, take a left at end of road to river bottom, hop on trail on right side when it appears.

Highline Canal Road: I believe this long run which is located off of Powerhouse road via Spanish Oaks drive is the one we did for long runs.

Salem Canal: ???

Power Line Run: A solid six mile run. You can do up to nine miles and get great views, but the last part is steeper, more rocky, and therefore more dangerous. 

Bonneville Shoreline: It goes to Springville! It would only take me I think about three miles to get there; a great 11 miler.

Backroads: There are four canyons around here that all have roads/trails going through them which just go back into beautiful and serene, hilly and quiet roads and trails. They interconnect which is super cool. I am so stoked to explore them both hiking and running. 

Springville Run: This run doesn't use the bike path and is easier to track exact mileage. It could extend into a long run (albeit not the nicest one) that goes up into Provo once I start going longer. For now it is a nice 10 miler. Modify by going to Hobble first to make it 13 miles max.

MMHS run: This run takes me down into Spanish Fork and Maple Mtn High school. With a small shoulder on the road, it is a little sketchy for part of the run, but once I get down there, there is a lot to explore. 

Windmill bike path run: This is a perfect and rather quiet run for a 5-7 miler. It can be windy sometimes though.

Windmill/ gatehouse bike path run: Pull off the path on the way back to extend the run and see a neighborhood (emphasis on "neigh")  with some of the coolest houses in Mapleton. 

Hobble Creek loop: This is a modifiable run going north on the bike path to suit different distances. The "main street" version has me going all the way down main street to the south. I can even go through the construction and loop back around on the bike path for a longer run. 

Maple Canyon run: I need to explore this more. It was super fun to run on the trail though today. Aerobically taxing on the uphill, yes, but fun!

Slant Road run: Towards MMHS, a little less hilly.

Foothills runs: A couple of paths take you up rocky paths to the foothills with nice views of the valley. There weren't intended to be running paths and aren't as good as Bonneville shoreline, but I might be able to find some good running there. 

It snowed this morning but was warmer later on. 

Snowy Run! 

Very windy run

Ran to Springville again on a crazy weather day where it would go back and forth between dumping snow and being sunny. It actually felt really good. Just chilled 6:22 pace or so for my longest and fastest run since October. 

Ran up Hobble Creek. Its really sad that I am almost done with my Ride 10s, they are probably my most beloved running shoe I've ever had (the model which I have repeatedly bought, not these shoes themselves). They are no longer sold unfortunately. Idk if they have a Ride 11 or what. 

I went on a nice four mile hike with family today up Whiting canyon after my run. Its interesting how my body is so used to running that I feel totally fine after running 9 miles, 12 miles, whatever. Even after 18 miles, I recover quickly. But go on a four mile hike and my legs feel like jelly. I have also noted previously that I feel I am a slow walker. Hmm. 

10 miles on a warm day toward suburban Spanish Fork. A little bumpy ride for my achilles and body, hopefully it will be better tomorrow. 

Achilles felt a little sore at times today. Better at the end.

Still felt some achilles pain, but more toward the beginning of the run than the end which is good. It was a gorgeous day outside! Sunny with crisp cool air. 

It felt great to run about 13 (or more) miles. I am now brushing up with what I might consider to be a short long run. My achilles felt fine for most of the time. I almost changed directions after I was hit by a powerful wind before I even got to the canyon. The wind ended up not being too bad and it was a beautiful morning, even though my hands were freezing. I like the morning of saturday conference long run tradition. I hope to continue it even when I get older. It just feels really good. 

Spring has sprung! It was a beautiful grey morning for a longer run with the flowers and trees blooming. 

Its getting hot outside!! Not in the mornings though!

Achilles felt a little tight today. 

Achilles felt better today! I have a really uncomfortable sore on my foot due to my dry skin. Unfortunately once it becomes an open cut, you can't just apply lotion to it anymore. Sorry that's kind of graphic but it hurt pretty bad when I started running which was quite dissapointing but then it went away (for now) which was a blessing. 

One thing I have learned from the achilles tendon problem is the importance of continung to do all of the work you do when you are injured, other than running. It is easy to slip the mind because I wasn't putting any strain on my achilles when I was using the elliptical. However, I might have avoided hurting myself a little as I have come back from my foot injury (which I can't feel at all anymore) had I been more diligent. Lessons learned I guess. 

I usually dont report a 0 mile day. 

Yesterday the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Russell M Nelson, called for a worldwide fast to help with the coronavirus. He mentioned that normally people fast two meals, but that you can consider some other sacrifice instead. Immediately after that and for the days leading up to the fast, I thought about running. So I didn’t run on Thursday. I believe that God knows me, He knows how much I love running, and He sees my sacrifice. I believe He will bless us for our efforts to honor Him and petition Him for help. 

Morning run up Hobble Creek. I really hope that some race I run this fall is just super windy and I totally rock it because I am sure getting a lot of practice with windy canyon runs. 

This is probably very innacurate, but I measured my stride length by counting my strides over 1/2 mile. 540 steps, 2640 feet. About 5 feet per step. Of course, the mile markers could have been off. More importantly, I wasn’t running downhill, so those were longer strides. I had estimated 3 feet per step for some reason. Maybe I’ll do that some time on the flat and get soemthing like 4 feet per stride as a more average number. In that case, each mile Would require 1320 steps on average, or 13,200 steps for a 10 miler and about 24,000 steps for a 18 mile long run. I don’t care that much, it’s just interesting.

This was one of the most memorable runs in my life. I saw this cool trail (which I suspected existed) when I did a hike the other day. The trail goes under a power line that runs along the foothills of Mapleton (like the Bonneville shoreline trail). I checked it out today... what an interesting experience. It just kept on going and going. I tried not to get my hopes up that it would. I was perched up in the mountains looking over some cool views, like the windmills, a canyon (with another dirt road I want to try running on), a huge complex of BMX type trails, and more. I even ran past a herd of sheep. Crazy!

My achilles felt quite well today. I did feel a weird pain near the end on the inside upper middle of my right foot, as if it were on the bone. But I'll see how it feels tomorrow.

Cold morning. Nice except for the wind. Even though it was cold, I decided to run in the morning. I hope to always live in a place with a temperate climate where I can run in the mornings for a good chunk of the year. It is just really nice to do that first thing. I think my ideal day would include a longer run in the morning and then a short afternoon run. 

Ran to Springville. I felt really slow (on purpose) but ended up averaging 6:42, which surprised me. 

I realized how much I love morning runs when the forecast called for snow this morning and I was heartbroken. Thankfully it was fine. It looked like a storm was coming as I ran, but it never materialized, and I enjoyed a nice, slow run. 

10 miles, nice and slow. Here is my hypothesis: what if I can run a little slower each day (as in 7-7:30 per mile instead of 6:30-7). I had an amazing workout a few years back the day after I ran with a friend who was slower than me and thereby ensured I ran slow. The other day I was looking at previous training logs, and boy, I can get really beat up during the season. I think I've come to some good conclusions and learning experiences from the injuries I HAVE had, but what about the injuries that I ALMOST had? During the season I often seem to be battling against overdoing it physically and sometimes psychologically. What if I could improve my workouts, peak better, and enjoy running more by eliminating the tiny little bits of "pushing myself" that remain on easy days? For example, if the wind is blowing at me, I can feel comfortable going 8 minute pace. Thats ok! Just an idea. I have been feeling really good recently. 

Note: I don't intend to run slow every day of the offseason. Some days, yes. But this is most important when I am running two hard workouts and a long run each week.

I take it back. TODAY felt like a legit long run, complete with chafing, sore achilles tendons, and hammered knees lol. I worry a little about my fitness. I assume the mile markers are decently accurate and they showed me going like 6:25 pace up the canyon and two steep miles downhill in 5:35 and 5:42. We'll see. It was tiring at times but not ridiculous. Plus, the run went by so quick. 

Super cool morning run! I ran up to the hills to do Bonneville shoreline, Springville edition.  It was a really cool dirt trail looking out over Springville. Couple this and the quietness of it with the fact that it stays in the shade for longer during the summer and I am a big fan. It’s not perfect- it can be very steep at times and often quite rocky. But still nice. 

Achilles felt a little sloopy today so I only ran 10. I’m sure it’s gonna be better tomorrow. Because of my shoulder I can plank or do push-ups! 

11 miles. Achilles felt a little loose still.

Yay for rain!!! Felt pretty good today. I started running up Whiting canyon and eventually turned around and ran through mapleton. I saw like 30 ladies walking or running in groups. I wish they would be better about social distancing.

11 miles. 

I ran up the right fork this time. Wow. It was one of those tiring days where your face is covered with dried mucus, spit, and sweat haha. I felt very tired and am concerned by my level of fitness. One solution I have for this is that I will plan on beginning to run strides next week. That always helps a lot more than you would think it would. 

Bonneville shoreline. I found a new way that isn't quite as steep for part of the way.

This cool canal railroad dirt trail keeps going farther than I thought. I know this now because I ran 11 miles today instead of 10. I also did strides (just three) for the first time. That is the fastest I have made my body go since October. Yay!

Felt a little wank today, but not overly so.

AM: 10 miles

PM: 5 miles and strides in the wake of the storm. I am not super happy about my energy levels, but I am grateful about the health of my achilles tendon and the rest of my body.

I meant to go just 11, but I was able to map it out and see that I went at least 11.5, about 6:30 pace. That's good news. I may be underestimating my mileage. 

Felt tired today. I tried out a new run, hoping it could be a bike ride. Unfortunately, there was no shoulder or sidewalk (this is past the highway on the west side of Springville, Palymra area). I meant to go 16 but had miscalculated the distance. I ran about 6:13-14 pace but it felt a lot slower than that. Thankfully my achilles and foot overall felt ok. 

My right foot still felt a little weird, but my energy was back, which was a miracle, especially after last night. Normally I feel a little hypoglycemic/weak at the end of my fast, then I eat and go into an insulin coma, and then I feel better by the time I go to bed. But last night, my belly was full but my limbs felt weak as if I was fasting. I went for a walk before bed and felt really weird. So it felt good to feel good today. 

Foot felt a little weird but I still felt fine doing three strides.

Didn't do strides again but felt plenty of energy. 

Felt good today. 3 strides. 

Note to self: Spanish fork via South route is actually 11.5 miles to the end of the trail.

3 strides at end. 

I think I am going to try not using my inserts on Tuesday. They may be causing more harm than good. It was a nice morning. I got out late which is why maybe there was so many people outside. Sarah was going to ride next to me but we had bike trouble this morning so I gave up. Went pretty chill the whole time. 

MLR around towards Hobble Creek, then bending back to Springville and almost to the coffee shop where I normally turn around. It should be noted that this is my longest ever non-long run. It wasn't until late 2018 that I went up to 80 miles a week and stayed above that that I considered doing longer mileage runs. It was at this point that I became comfortable with an 11 mile mileage run (rather than 10) and even up to 11.5 miles including strides. But I did a couple 12 milers as I recall that left me feeling pretty tired, and by last summer, I had given up on that and stayed under 12 miles a day, even when I consistently was in the upper 80s per week in mileage. Even though this week I am only planning to hit about 75, it feels good that perhaps my body is better at handling a longer single run. This might also be due to the fact that I take Sundays off between my LR and my MLR. Knees hurt s bit, tomorrow is my trial with no inserts. 

10 miles. Strides felt good. 

AM: 10 miles. Sarah biked the whole way with me. That was fun. I showed her one of the cool neighborhoods I run through. 

ACV seems to be working.

PM: 5 miles. 

11 miles. Tried my first "hard" thing running in months. I did three segments of two minutes hard with ample rest in between. It looks like I was doing about 4:40 pace so that was decent for first time back. 

It was a nice gray day with little wind or traffic, which made it possible to go down to Spanish Fork, cross the highway, and explore a little. I am super excited to check out a few of the trails and paths they have in that area. That would be a nice place to live! I was surprised to see the Spanish fork cross right there on the hill too, I expected it to be more up in the mountains. On the way back I saw fellow blogger Zack! He sent me some motivation from his truck. 

6:16 pace. Nice day on the Spanish Fork river trail! Little windy at times but overall was fine.

Warm morning.

Felt a little arch pain today. It's hard to tell if that has to do with wearing the inserts or not wearing them. I threw in a mile around the resevoir which I ran in 4:51. Harder than it should have been. Ran another hard one as well.

AM: 10 miles.

PM: 5 miles.

AM: 10 miles. I went out in my shoes with the inserts and my foot was killing me. Well, now I know what the problem was! No more inserts for now.

AM: 10 miles. It hurt at first, but felt better near the end.

PM: 5 gray miles. Saw some cool things, which is surprising for a 5 miler haha. Hoping my foot is OK.

What a day! I said "this will be my first rainy long run in a while" yesterday after looking at the weather. Sure enough, today's run was unique. It was a nice lightish rain on the way up Hobble Creek right fork. Idk why people were camping in the rain, but I enjoyed the run. On the way down, I ran into the storm, which turned to snow/hail. In addition to the normal numb hands and face, my eyes started feeling weird and it was a miracle I made it back by putting one foot in front of the other. At one point, close to home, the hail was so bad that it hurt and I had to put my head down and keep slogging until I turned left. When I got home, Sarah had a towel ready and I just lay on the ground to begin recovery. I think I might have had very mild hypthermia, I felt cold inside my body instead of just outside, and on my extremities. I'm fine now though. It was like 40 degrees so I think I learned a lesson that being wet in cool weather is worse than being cold and dry on long runs (which I guess I have technically known since boy scouts). I am super happy with how my foot felt though, and surprised after all that slogging to see I actually made it out of there in 6:07 pace. 

Slant Road, long route.

AM: 10 miles.

PM: 5 warm miles. Made sure to stay hydrate now that it's getting warmer.

AM: Gorgeous morning run in the foothills of Springville with some rain, strides.

PM: 5 miles with Sarah.

11 miles around Mapleton. Warm day but I got used to it. Did a 2 mile uptempo on Main street from 1600s to 1600n @ 5:14 pace. I've definitely got a long way to go... That's ok. 

PM: Wasn't going to run a double but decided to to make our Garland trip work better.

10 miles in the evening. Providentially, a cloud covered the sun right as I began, making the 89 degree weather significantly more bearable. By the end of the run there were beautiful clouds. 

A little dehydrated after also running last night and leaving at 7:40 when it was 71 degrees. Pretty to explore more of Hobble Creek Left fork. 600 feet elevation gain. 6:14 pace. 

New shoes felt good. 12 miles, first two with Sarah. Did a windy but sweet run in Spanish Fork almost up to the cross.

Did some exploring.

Nice morning.

Those new shoes again felt good. Maybe I need to go through these shoes quicker. I did 14 minutes of 1 on, 1 off. Really chill, I just have taken a while to find my speed again. 

Explored Mapleton and south Springville. 

Tired today. Yesterday afternoon I went for a 24 mile bike ride up Hobble Creek. the 1000 foot elevation gain was nothing compared to the brutal wind (20 mph according to my phone but likely with higher gusts) that I had on the way back. I got a ton of stuff in my eyes and on the bike trail was going like 7 minute mile pace. Yikes. I woke up tired this morning and it was windy and supposed to storm so I did the whole run on SF river trail. I was tired but not too tired to notice the cool new parts of the trail I was discovering. SF is a cool town. 

Didn't mean to go 6:09 pace but I guess I did. I was just trying to get it over with. 

12 miles before the trip. So glad I could run before being confined to the car prison.

11 miles in Lake Almanor, CA. Reminds me of Lake of the Woods.

AM: 10 miles. Found a way that was a little flatter. Knee felt better but not quite to run hard.

Felt a little tired but I did three minutes one, 3:30 off five times. Lots of hills.

Ran up the hill of death (400 feet elevation gain really quickly) and past a really nice golf course onto the forest road I had wanted to run. Turns out I think I went on the wrong road but it was still really nice out there. 

RoxyAnn! It was supposed to rain but didn't. I went up it pretty quick but wasn't trying to run hard so I ended up just doing 6:47 pace. 

11 very hilly, very wet miles in Brookings, Oregon. It kind of reminded me of running in Hawaii. Just wet, humid, not super cold air. I actually ran this in two parts, as I had a job interview at 8:00. The interview went well. Then I finished running.

11 miles in Medford. They have developed a ton in the neighborhood next to mine. 

AM: 10 miles in Mapleton. My knees were a little achy at the end, but it could have been a lot worse the day after driving 12 hours.

PM: 7.5 miles. Had some time to think.

AM: 10 miles.

AM: 10 miles.

PM: 5 miles.

Just went easy because of tender achilles' which was caused by my soreness and pain from the trip I believe. Felt pretty good though.

Slant Road, long route. Ran nice and chill 6:47 pace. 

AM: 10 miles. Legs felt good. New shoes!!!

PM: 5 hot miles.

AM: 10 miles

PM: Describe thos run using words that start with H: Hot, Hungry, Heavy, Hard... you get the idea. Felt some Osgood Schlatter pain for a bit. I'll have to watch that. 

AM: Felt better for multiple reasons, including both my knee and the cloud skies that made it much cooler.

PM: 5 miles.

Didn't sleep well last night but felt good. 

Felt pretty good but dehydrated. Thankfully I found a waterfountain that actually worked. About 6:14 pace. Interesting how your mind perceives things. I felt fast on the way out and slow on the way back but went faster coming back despite net elevation gain. Maybe because my runs always start our slow. 

Thankfully, the rain got rid of the smoke and it was a nice grey run this morning. Felt good. 

AM: 10 miles. Grey again.

PM: 5 miles. As good feeling of a double as I've had recently lol.

21 min of 5 min on, 1 min off. The last "hard" part was only three min since I got to a hill. I think about 5:30 pace overall, which means I was likely going 5:05 pace when I was "on" If I was 8 min pace on the "off". That is solid improvement. It didn't feel too hard, I just haven't gone fast in a while so I felt like I should. 

AM: 10 miles on SF canal trail. It's been a while.

PM: 5 miles. 

Talked to coach about mileage today. He wants me to reign it in a little. It's probably for the best. I think he is a good coach for me because he is not like a "ra ra" type coach (most XC coaches aren't) but he really emphasizes being smart, healthy, and not pushing too hard, probably because I am not the first athlete he has had who likes to push really hard. So the "2000 miles to Nationals" plan will probably look a little more like "1900 miles to nationals", but that's ok. 

10.5 miles.

Happy Fourth! 6:08 pace overall, about 6:28s on the way out (pretty windy today) and 5:45s on the way down.

Note to self: If you ever feel a little underhydrated on a Friday night, you need to pound the water for the next few hours. Drinking a lot on Saturday before you run will not do the trick. I was definitely dehydrated today. 

Felt a little weird at times and I went out slow but I think I'm fine.

AM: 10 miles, ran the first few with Sarah on her bike.

PM: 5 miles.

Sarah biked with me while I did a harder run today. On the way out I was telling her how I want to go easier this year to stay healthy, so as we ran north from the end of the bike path, she kept telling me to slow down. I didn't listen as much as I should have and went decently hard, so I decided to call it quits at 22 minutes instead of 25 as I had originally planned to avoid making it too hard. About 5:14 pace, which is the same speed I went for just two miles a while back. That's good news. 

PM: 5 miles.

AM: 10 miles.

PM: I only went 4 miles. 

11 miles. My achilles has felt a little rough the past couple days. I've really gotten to thinking about what my body can and cannot handle in terms of training. The situation with COVID is very unpredictable and so I don't know what to expect for this fall or winter really for team sports, but I just feel like doing high mileage with a long run and two workouts with the team is just a lot. I've had a good number of injuries and while each may have been due to one specific training mistake I made, I think they also related to just pushing my body too hard in general. So for after I graduate I think I may decide to do one workout a week and a long run. For this year maybe I'll just have to figure out how to really not push it too hard on our two workouts. 

First chill long run in a while, 6:40 pace in the end. 

It's been super hot. Thankfully it was ok this morning.

AM: 11 miles.

PM: 5 miles.

AM: 11 miles.

PM: 5 miles. *I think* my body is adapting to running in the heat. 

AM: 11 miles.

PM: 5 miles.

11.5 miles.

Oops, I ran a whole extra mile by overestimating my pace (underestimating my speed). I averaged 6:03 pace for the run in Diamond Fork canyon (Spanish Fork). About 500 feet elevation gain on the way out, and it started at 5000 feet which was nice because I think that made it a good amount cooler. Well, that was my longest run and longest week ever, something I haven't done since last summer! Woohoo!

12.5 miles, some of it with Sarah. 

AM: 10 miles, strides.

PM: 5 miles.

Grey outside, but not cool. I was pretty wet by the end of my hard run. About 4.8 miles at 5:10 pace, which was just about what I had targeted. I won't run hard again till August but when I do I'll feel a little more confident than I was a month ago.

AM: 10 miles.

PM: 5 miles.

11 Pioneer Day miles. 

Nice end to the week, pretty chill.

12.5 miles. Didn't sleep great last night. 

AM: 11.5 miles.

PM: 5 miles. 

AM: 11 miles. 

PM: 5 miles.

AM: 11 miles and strides. 

PM: 5 miles. This was one of the hardest runs I've done in a while. I was just so so tired and hot. Felt totally fine this morning. I was even decently hydrated. Rough. 

11.5 miles, strides. I tried a new way of foam rolling that I hope will loosen my calves better, which doctors have always told me are very tight. 

The deathly hot day (supposed to be 80 degrees by 9 am) wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be. Still tiring. 

Nice morning.

AM: 11 miles. Strides. 

AM: Interesting workout. It felt like when I worked out in Virginia and my shoes and socks were soggy from sweat. I was quite sweaty, but my feet were only wet because of the grass. I thought I could probably run about 3:10s per K if I did 10. We went fast, or maybe not. Coach didn't use the wheel so it could have been a little short. Anyway, I ran 3:10, 3:05, 3:07, 3:06, 3:05, then I took one off, then I ran 2:57, and 2:58. We may have run a little less without the wheel, but we weren't slacking on rest, my watch shows I got like 57 seconds of rest each rep ha. Anyway that's alright I guess, hard to tell.  

PM: 5 miles. 

AM: 11 miles. 

PM: 5 miles.

11.5 miles.

Really windy.

Windy. 

AM: 11 miles and strides. Arches have been hurting. 

PM: 5 miles. 

AM: Bad sleep last night. I just ran normal, not the workout. Bummed. My foot hasn't felt super well. Hopefully today will give me another data point and I can work out tomorrow. 

PM: 5 miles. Foot felt better. I'll try working out tomorrow.

AM: Tempo run from the bike path. 5:12 pace for 4.5 miles. Too bad. Oh well, that happens sometimes. 

PM: 5 miles. 

Ran longer today, long story. Weird though, it felt too long to be a short run and too short to be a long run. Have a really busy day today!

Didn't get on my run till 9 AM (long story again) and was quite worried about the heat. By a miracle, there were a few sprinklers on that I could get soaked under. That was an amazing feeling. And the water fountain on the SF river trail was working. This allowed me to do all my mileage this morning instead of doing a double. I even swung on the rope swing on the way back. Only downside besides a little tightness in achilles was that once again I overestimated mileage. 

Felt a little icky and slow. 

Felt better this morning, ran strides. 

PM: Really hot outside but I actually did OK.

AM: I don't love the intramural fields, but the soft impact is a big bonus. Wore my trainers again today. We did 3 by 2 miles. Four laps is a long way, but I enjoyed the grind. 10:16 first rep, 10:08 second rep, then a 4:56 mile, rested the third lap, and 2:25 800 to finish. I could have finished the workout but everyone was going fast in anticipation of taking a break I think and I didn't want to slog it out on my own. That isn't really my philosophy with workouts- I'd rather run the proscribed way and hold my pace rather than speed up and drop out, but oh well.

PM: 4 miles, thank you clouds for making that much better. 

AM: 11 miles. Tired, especially the first 20 minutes or so. 

PM: 5 miles.

AM: 11 miles. Bad smoke.

PM: 5 miles. It's been a long week.

Still smoky today. 6:27 pace. Even with the wind I just feel like my non-hard days are kind of slow these days. Oh well, I can still celebrate my highest mileage week ever!

Morning workout at intramural. 10 by k in 3:14, 3:11, 3:11, 3:09, 3:06, 3:11, 3:11, 3:10, 3:10, 3:07. Averaged 3:10 according to the wheel. Not great, hope things start coming together soon. 

AM: Slept in and ran 11 miles.

PM: 5 miles. Really slow which felt good. 

AM: Deer creek. Still not sure why, but we only did 9.5 miles.

PM: 5 miles. 

AM: Workout at Spanish Fork. 10-5-3-2-1. The 10 minute at 5 min pace felt pretty hard, but I moved up after that and sped up generally. Kind of interesting to do that workout on the rocky road but oh well. 

PM: 5 miles on pipeline trail. It goes way up high, which is fun, but I rolled my ankle bad coming down. Hoping to be better tomorrow.  

Darn it. I was not ready to run today. I walked for a couple miles in the morning and rode on a junky mountain bike in the afternoon. 

That was a great comback from having a rolled ankle Thursday and not running yesterday. I started out my run this morning praying it would be OK. I went out really slow and on my own to be careful. Somehow as the run progressed it felt fine. That's not to say there wasn't concerns- this issue I believed has caused a little achilles soreness that I hope to be over with by Monday afternoon. But I am very grateful to have gotten the mileage in at all after not running yesterday. 6:23 pace for 18.88 miles, my second longest run ever. Today I added to my Utah Valley Tour Circuit by christening the "Tour de Spanish Fork"- it goes straight out west along 1600 S through Mapleton, then Spanish Fork. Once you get into rural SF, your turn south and go under I-15 to hook up with the bike trail and run home. I went past a girl's JV XC meet, and was very proud of myself for doing such a good job estimating that this loop would work relatively close to my mileage on the fly. For the record, my other tour is a 16 mile "Tour de Provo" that starts near the LSB at BYU and goes to the airport and through southern Provo. 
 

AM: 5 miles.

PM: 11 miles. It was cooler outside today which was nice for my first afternoon longer run. I do need to make sure I’m still stretching and taking care of myself even though it’s hard with COVID.

Kiwanis workout. 4 by mile. Different markers today, so it wouldn't be super worth saying my times even if I hadn't accidentally deleted them, but I think I was like 4:52, 5:00 (we went long on this one), 4:52, 4:54. It's whatever. Next week we are racing there I guess so maybe I can just like not take it seriously or something (since there is really no point) and run it in trainers. I just need to avoid getting injured. 

AM: 5 miles.

PM: 11 miles. Walmart loop. I actually quite enjoyed it, other than the stoplights.

I have been sneezing a lot since the workout, which is very normal after a hot workout. Unfortunately this is the first time of what I knew would be inevitable... I have symptoms of illness even though the symptoms themselves are no indication of coronavirus. I assume I'll be better by tomorrow but if not, I'm glad I don't have class in person because I probably shouldn't go. People would be concerned. Weird how that works. 

Me Adam and Michael planned to take it out nice and comfortable. Two groups formed pretty much right away which ended up being a little bummer because I probably went a little too slow (13:02 for 2.5 miles around the track complex), but it felt great to meet my goal of not pushing it very hard today. On the second rep I ran faster (10:08 for 2 miles) but still not an overly tough workout which is what I wanted.

AM: 8.5 miles. Didn't sleep well. Not feeling great. Would have gone farther but I had class at 8.

PM: 6 miles.

Ran slow. I had an idea while looking on the map to do an insane run on Squaw Peak road sometime before I move from Utah. It would be absolutely gorgeous during the Fall (the leaves are already starting to change) but would start at 5500 feet and end at 8500 feet for an 18 miler (9 out). It would probably be like running up the Aspen Grove road except on a rocky trail instead. Yikes. 

11 miles.

11 miles, afternoon.

11 miles, mid morning.

11 miles.

11 miles.

Talked to a guy doing his "virtual Boston" on an ellipti-Go. He had already gone 49 miles this morning! Apparently they are super expensive which is too bad because I wouldn't mind owning one of those later in life. 

AM: 5 miles.

PM: 11 miles. 

7 by "K" at the sports park (60 seconds rest). There was no water other than the bathroom so I splashed myself with some on the neck and stuff, but I still got pretty hot so now I'm sneezing and stuff. I estimated the K, afterward I looked at it on Map My Run and it looks like you can take 10 seconds off per K because they were too long. At the time though I was just proud of myself because I was consistent throughout the workout. Especially given that I alternated directions so I went faster each time I went one direction. 3:22, 3:17, 3:19, 3:16, 3:15, 3:14, 3:13. Not bad for doing it alone. Have a hard choice to make about going back to practice. Hopefully will make a good one. 

11 miles.

Just chillin, but still I felt a little clanky and tired. 5:18 pace 5 mile tempo. 

AM: 5 miles.

PM: 11 miles. Ate an apple and a plum thing I found along the way.

6:19 pace @ Hobble (6:32s up, 6:07s back). Felt tired. Sometimes this happens mid season. 

AM: 5 miles.

PM: 11 miles.

3 by 2 mile on main street. Overall the elevation change is pretty small, but each time it feels like you are running uphill the second mile and into the wind. I can't speak for the wind, but there is a small uphill on either end. Ran 10:06, then 10:12, then 10:06. The first mile of my first rep was 4:55 and the first mile of my last rep was 5:00 so I felt good with my closing mile on the last one because it had gotten a bit cooler with the clouds and I was able to close feeling pretty good. Like after 2 I was worried about the last one but after three I felt like I could have done a fourth. 

AM: miles before class at 8

PM: Ran up past Whiting campground. It's about 700 feet elevation gain in a couple miles. Pretty tired not from the uphill so much but from the pounding my quads took on the downhill. 

(Mile, twelve, 800) x2. Very hot, very windy, very tall feeling grass, didn't feel very good. Probably a pretty slow pace. 

AM: 5 miles

PM: 10 miles.

LR. 

AM: 5 miles.

PM: 11 miles. Gorgeous day. One of those perfect times to be running, and I felt well so it was one of the most enjoyable runs I've done in a while. 

Felt just kind of tired today, and like I was working harder than I should have been for the pace. 

Since I've been feeling fatigued, I did a workout I really like which goes one mile "on", then one mile "recovery", which feels easy in comparison and you can catch your breath while still going relatively fast. It was a nice midmorning run on the bikepath. Pace: 5:08, 5:30, 5:01, 5:32, 4:53, 5:27. Felt really good the whole time which was good. The last hard mile was challenging but if I had chilled (i.e. 5:00-5:05 pace) I think I would have been fine to go 8 miles. 

11 miles. 

11 miles. 

Pre conference run. Since I only worked out once this week and I'm still trying to break out of a bit of a rut, I went harder than normal. 5:51 pace for 18.5 miles is the fastest long run I've done since 2018. Felt good until like a quarter mile to go when I had a weird pain on my anterior lateral inferior right leg. Hopefully I'll be good to go by Monday. 

AM: 5 miles. 

PM: 11 miles. 

Workout at Kiwanis. 6 by 800 uphill. The first 200 of every one hurt but then I felt much better for example, going up the second hill. I timed myself at 2:28, 2:28, 2:25, 2:26, 2:26, 2:24. Even recovery. Makes me wonder what I could do on a track, which I haven't been on in forever. 

Ran. 

(Mile, 1200, 800) x2 on the grass field in flats. 4:51, 3:35, 2:20, 4:49, 3:34, 2:16. Felt pretty controlled. Idk if it was a good workout or just OK. Hard to tell. Probably in the OK range haha. Less than 1:1 recovery.  

AM: 5 miles. 

PM: 11 miles. 

LR, 6:35 pace. 

2 by 2 mile @ intramural field, wheel measured, in trainers. 

First rep: 10:02. Felt pretty good. 

Second "hollow" rep (hard first and last 800): went out in 2:20, felt pretty trashy after having done that, mile at 4:55, finished in 9:54. 

Might have liked to gone a little slower, but our team is in an interesting boat right now where it appears that there is a Mantz/Casey group, a pretty much everyone else group, and then a few stragglers who do middle distance and shouldn't feel bad at all about falling behind. In other words, I couldn't just chill further back with someone else cuz although I'm not sure because I'm pretty focused during the workout, I don't think there were many people spread out behind me. 

AM: 5 miles. Bad sleep. 

PM: 10.5 miles. 

Workout. I didn't expect to do the same thing the traveling people were doing. So this was my first track work I have done in a long time (nearly a year) and certainly a fast way to begin track work, especially on the 400s. My foot bones started hurting a bit and my achilles tendon ached a tad near the end so I did my last 400 on grass. I hope I feel better. Last time I really hurt my achilles was after doing fast track stuff for the first time in a while. 

5:00 grass mile, 2:17 grass 800, 2:09 track 800, 65 grass 400, 61 track 400, 60 track 400, 64 grass 400. 2:30-3 min rest. 

AM: 5 miles.

PM: 10 miles mostly on grass. Achilles felt sore but not too bad to run. Gotta take care of this. 

AM: 5 miles.

PM: 10 miles. 

16.6. miles, 6:34 pace, achilles still feeling tight. Last night we were at the store and I got a calf massage using this device. It was really nice, I wish I owned something like that. On the run the sun didn't rise until 8:30 when I was in Spanish Fork and then by the time I got back to east Mapleton it went behind the mountain again, and then it came up yet again when I got near my house (this is at almost 10:00). 

AM: 5 miles.

PM: 8 miles. I was already low on time after the team meeting before my class, but I knew I should go get treatment for my achilles. They did "deep heating" and taped my leg. Idk which one it was, but it worked! I felt great. I think a lot of my achilles problems are due to tight calves. I should try loosening them up more. 

10 by K at intramural. My achilles tendon was sensitive but I didn't decide to pull the plug. We will see how smart that was tomorrow. 3:09, 3:07, 3:05, 3:06, 3:05, 3:04, 3:07, 3:07, 3:09, 3:08. Averaged 3:06. Felt really tired at the end (last four particularly), on a different day I'd be excited to see what I could do.  

8.5 miles on alter G (100%) and treadmill. Got heated today but still didn't feel spectacular. It's a tough decision with achilles problems because on the one hand you don't want to push it and push it until you hurt it really bad, but on the other hand, if you stop doing impact entirely, when you go back to even short easy runs its easy for it to flare up again. Thankfully I have been able to stay at full body weight but I would like to see things get under control again. 

Alter G and treadmill. 

Ran outside, felt good. Grass loops. 

I was hoping today would be the last day of any repercussion from my achilles issue. Left side felt fine but I actually had a little niggle in my right side. We'll hope for the best. 

11 miles. Freezing this morning, felt not bad on run. 

Last year the Michigan was probably my best workout of the season. Despite running significantly faster than last year (mostly on the tempo miles) while doing it in trainers, it felt fine but not like "an amazing workout". I guess I just feel good, like I'm in mid-season, not the end of the season, which is weird because chronologically it should feel like that- we started working out at the same time and have been doing it consistently since then. I think a few things caused this: a) being already on the team so I didn't have Isaac there giving me summer workouts to give me an extra edge by September B) making an effort to chill on the workouts, since they don't mean as much now that I am on the team and we don't have a season C) I worked out on my own for like a month which is hard, but you really can't push yourself like you do on a team, and D) I did completely skip I think at least three workouts from our two a week schedule due to health reasons, or like last week when we just took Thursday off as a team. Not all of these things are reasons to celebrate, but I will say that I feel fresher than I have ever felt in late October. Hopefully I can replicate that in the coming winter track/XC season without being injured or working out on my own. 

Track mile, grass mile, track 1200, grass mile, track 800, grass mile, track 400, grass mile. 1:30-2:00 rest. Times: 4:35, 5:06, 3:26, 4:57, 2:13, 4:56, ???, 4:51. 

Note: ran the 400 on grass for my achilles. I'd put it at a 61 effort. It didn't feel great today and hope it gets better. I plan to go swimming tomorrow morning. 

AM: swimming. We woke up at six and driving to Provo it felt like the middle of the night. That was really weird haha. But I am glad swimming worked out. The only downside is that I didn't have goggles because I don't think they are letting people borrow them right now so it limited what I could do. 

PM: 11 miles. Started out on alter G, then was able to run. That was kind of surprising but I am very grateful. I was not expecting to feel well today. 

My achilles felt good so that was really nice!! However, I felt SO TIRED before starting. After the first rep, I didn't feel the lactate feeling my legs, I wasn't panting, my heart wasn't beating super fast. It was weird, like it wasn't hard, but it was because I was just fatigued (from Tuesday, I assume). I was then able to gradually go faster each rep. I think other people felt the same way. I'm just happy I was able to stick to the pack because my expectations were quite low today. Wore trainers. 

4:58, 4:52, 4:50, 4:45 at intramural field. Four minutes rest. 

AM: 5 miles

PM: 9.5 miles 

Long run. 6:36 pace overall, including some very slow running and some very fast stuff. I felt a little fatigued, hopefully just due to the week of training. 

Muddy workout at Intramural, not because of rain or anything, but the sprinklers. That's what happens when you live in a desert lol.

Mile breakdown: 4:46, 3:33, 2:18, 67, 65, 65. Three or four minutes rest. The first mile didn't feel as good as hoped, felt some lactate in my legs. Afterwards my right achilles felt a little sore, I think it will be fine. 

Amazing that a morning run felt so warm in November. I'll enjoy it while it lasts. Achilles was still a little sore, so no strides. 

10 miles in my new Pegs. I like them more than previous version. Even though we are on break after Friday, I am hoping my achilles tendons can be ok through the 5 mile race in spikes. 

60, 60, 30, 29. Wished it would have felt a bit easier. 

6 morning miles and strides. It's game time!