Step by step, mile by mile

10 miles @ 6:55 pace. Legs were really tired from yesterday, particularly my hamstrings and calves. I tried something new where I went slow the first two miles and then kept picking it up. 7:30's for the first two miles, but I started speeding up a lot around miles 3-5 which was way too early haha. Jumped in the pool at the rec after which was sublime. Drills and stretching after. S/O to my teammate Rylie for making a blog. And unshoutout to Kedric for his not working still.

Good work today. My legs are still quite shot. My stomach was acting up today pretty bad, and my job as a USU neurobiologist intern(which I love) requires 80% standing/walking on a 9-5 job. If this is adulthood I'm not ready. Anyway my legs felt tired during and from that. First run with my forerunner 235, and I think I went a bit quick to impress it. First three miles were around 7:20, then picked it up, next three miles were about 6:40, then I just opened up the stride a bit and finished with a 6:19. Avg 6:51 pace. Little quick, but my heart rate was said to be good. It says my VO2 max is 65. I'll have to look that up later. Cooled down and did strides. I HAVE TO TAKE THE REST OF THE WEEK NICE AND SLOW. Just a reminder to myself. Easy mileage for now! Still didn't feel quite hard.

7 up 1400. At work today I had to attend a meeting on octopus tetrodotoxin, so I missed lunch. Also didn't have time to hydrate, and it was in the 80's. Anyway lifted with T_81RD then ran. Was neg splitting the first 5 pretty good, but I didn't like where my heart rate was at, so I didn't put forth too much effort. Around 5.5 I got some minor pain above my knee and stopped to massage it out which ruined the pace. 7:09. Bamboozler beat me by 1 second pace wise today, dangit!!!!

What a day. Stayed up until 1 on the DM with Connor, Tyler, Bill, and a few others. I usually go to bed at 10. Woke up at 6-ish to go on my run at red fleet with Kedric(Bamboozler) and Aaron. I forgot my hat and glasses. We warmed up for a mile, ran 9, and then cooled down to the lake, then cooled down by jumping into the lake. We all forgot water and were SO dehydrated. When I got back I don't think Gatorade has ever tasted so supreme. I drank a full thing of Gatorade AND ate a package of gummy worms, and my weight was at 151, which means before that it was at 149. I haven't been this light since freshman year, and I was like 6 inches shorter. #Approachingkenyanweightstatus

I did a good 20 minutes of core before my run. It was in the 90's in the evening so another night run. 8 miles real easy, 7:38 pace.

AM - 4 easy. I tried using my heart moniter to decide my pace. The first mile it told me I was going wayy too easy, where I was at the point where I got down to 6:05 pace and it still said I was going 100 bpm. Then a bit later I slowed down on purpose, and the watch started reading my pulse right. It kept saying my heart rate was barely over easy pace and beeping at me to slow down. So yeah, I flipped off a watch today. No more of that. I'm gonna go move some tree branches I cut since I'm living on my own now lol.

PM - Lifted with Tbird for a bit, then went on an easier run. Watch kept beeping at me that my heart rate was too low (117bpm for 7:20 pace) but I ignored it. Threw in 1 set of 90-60-30, hit .28, .21, and .11. Felt good to get a bit of speed in, but I'm only a week back from my break so not too quick yet haha. Avg pace 6:54. I gained 135 feet to my 132 feet lost so it was a good run. 

I am sad to announce I must DNS for the Connor Baller Classic this weekend. I was super pumped to sleep over with Connor and Asa, but my parents are gonna be in town so I gotta stay.

AM - 3 easy on Aggie. Legs felt pretty tired for the first two.

PM - Played ping pong with Trevor, then did 7 easy. Started to get in a nice groove on the downhill, but then I remembered tomorrow's tempo so I took it easy. 7:05 pace.

5 @ 7:24 pace. Lots of 180 turns.

Bump in the road today in the form of knee pain in my left leg. Original plan was 12 for the day with seven miles tempo. I iced and compressed and wasn't even sure if I'd be able to run period. But, my leg felt better. Didn't risk anything with tempo though. Half mile of strides after and they felt great. Stretched after.

Mile just to see how the knees felt. Felt pretty good.

PM - 8 in the extremely brutal heat(91F) of 2 PM. warmed up 2.5, managed to get about 3 miles in at 6:20 pace before the heat killed me. I was dead by the start of the quick stuff. Not a fun time, barely survived it. 7:12 pace avg. Extremely dehydrated. My heart rate stayed in easy/aerobic 99% of the run so that's good I suppose. Maybe 4 more tonight after work. I put 2 coconut waters, ice, and blue gatorade mix in a blender and make a fizzy drink. It was gross but I'm dehydrated. hit another low in my weight, havent been this light since 9th grade.

4 more tonight after work. Easy pace, but stomach felt wrecked. Since I ran 13 today I sped with maybe 300m to go and pretended I was finishing a half marathon.

Extremely good run today. After two failed attempts at the tempo run, I succeeded at  it today, and man it felt great.

2.5 WU with speed changes, 

7 miles tempo @ 5:58 pace

2 cooldown

I can't believe I ran how I did on the tempo. After a track season of barely breaking 5 and 11, today was crazy. Just a reminder, I've been back from my break for less than 2 weeks. The hard part about this run was every mile I had to do a 180 degree turn which slowed the pace down SO bad. So pretty dang cool, stoked for Ragnar. And if anyone actually reads this with all the CBC hype going on, ily

Splits from yesterdays tempo: 

5:47, 6:05, 6:16, 6:11, 5:50, 6:09, 5:42

AM - slept in.

PM - 2 miles to U-hill base, mile with Kedric, mile with Rylie. so 4 miles warm up. Then raced up the hill. Kedric and I stuck together for about 1/3-1/2 of a mile, then Kedric slowed, poor kid hasn't ran in 7+ days because he got so sunburnt last saturday. I made some good moves up the hills, and was in extreme pain for most of it. Hiked to the U, then jogged back down easy. Dropped Rylie off and did 4 mile cooldown for 12 for the day.

5 7:09 pace @ 10000ft elevation. Besides that all I've done today is talk to one person and watch Psych, so yeah it's been a pretty great day.

AM - 7.5 easy. I didn't sleep well last night so I was pretty groggy at 6AM. First 5 mile splits were 7:40, 7:30, 7:20, 7:10, and 7:00. Then my watch died and I pushed it a bit. Didn't feel hard, excited for Ragnar! 

PM - core and 3 miles around. I would have done more, but I lifted so much I was fatigued

AM - My phone stopped working(again) last night so I slept through my alarm and left at 7 instead of 6, so it was a bit hotter than I hoped. 2 WU w/ speed changes, 3 mile tempo on TT course, barefoot cooldown and strides for 8. Saw McKenna and Rylie so S/O to them for putting in work. Tempo splits; 5:32, 5:33, 5:24 for 16:29. I was wanting to break 16, but my legs were tired and I wasn't all that motivated racing myself. I need to sleep more

7 more on McCoy while Trevor biked alongside. Not sure on the pace but I believe it was somewhere between 6:50-7:10, so quick for trail running. Also that whole sleep thing didn't work out, I'm updating my blog at midnight. Two easy days, then Ragnar

AM - 5 very very easy neighborhood. I'm quite tired so today's easy run was more of a trudge. There's an 8ft high dirt wall I have to climb to get up to the trail ending the run, and I may or may not have fell off it a couple times. Also S/O to Brianna from PV, because last night she happened to happen upon Will's number, and Dubras and I some fun with that

PM - 4 with strides. stretched after

AM - 3 ez. I got some more sleep than usual, but not a lot. I think I'm gonna ice bath because my legs didn't feel too fresh.

Well one of our girls quit for Ragnar, so I guess I'm running 6 legs tomorrow. Racing 30+ miles.

Leg 1 was eh. Got out to the starting line with 30ish minutes left, watched a video for ten minutes on safety, and sorta warmed up. Starting line with the 20 best guys(and one girl) of Ragnar teams. Started out pretty quick and got myself in 10th, behind a pack of four college runners, Connor, Springville, Riverton, Aiden troutner, and star valley. Passed springville pretty early on. The hills murdered me way bad. Adam Wood caught me around mile 2. I was so dead from the heat, I had awful side stitches. Luckily I was able to come in semi-clutch and catch Aiden and Star Valley. I was reeling in Adam and Riverton the last mile but they had too much ground on me. Got 8th out of the fast team starters. Mason got us in front of Herriman, and Christian got us in front of Riverton, but then he died out and got passed back by Riverton herriman and star valley. #triogameatrocious

My third run went amazing! Pretty bad start. I didn't even get to stretch, Jordan was immediately on the line, so I took off my sleeves and pajamas and took off. First mile was an 8:13 because it was at midnight and I fell off the trail and got lost and had to stop. Chest pain was still pretty bad. Next few miles were low 6's. I was irate because I really wanted to go sub 6 pace. Then I remembered I told someone I'd try and win for them, and suddenly all my chest pain was erased. Mind you I still had to control my breathing and make sure I was breathing in an awkward pattern to make the pain subside. But I went crazy. Split a few 5's, including a 5:32 and a good portion at 5:12 pace for 5:57 avg pace! What a great run. Killed my quads though lol. Was totally serene and calming to run completely alone down a highway overpass at night. I thought about a lot of stuff when I wasn't picking up the pace 

Nothing noteworthy about my last leg. Chest was pretty bad, got a 24:50 for four miles. Our team got us behind a bit but I closed some of the gap on Alta 

Well this was it. Every factor was against us on the team. One of our girls dropped, forcing Mason and I to add extra legs to our three original. Rylie got lost and ran an extra 5 miles on her night run. Someone collapsed and Kyrie had to stay with them and call for help for 20 minutes on her last leg. Kedric had knee problems, I had chest problems, and Kenny had some stomach issues. But still, we were at 23 hours and only had one runner left. We knew it was gonna come between us and Alta. We waited on the finish line, knowing Jordan should finish any second now. As the time passing by got ludicrously long, we watched Alta and another team pass by. Then we fell timewise behind another team. It turns out Jordan's tendons had locked up and he barely survived his run(not literally). There was really no one to blame. I gave my all, that's all I could've done. But the website has us ranked second, so I call it that for now. We lost by 7 minutes, which is pretty insane for all that went down. Good times.

AM - rested and did core

PM - 2 mile WU, 8x200m grass hills, w/ 200 rest back down. Drills and 3 mile CD

Snapchat I sent right before had 96 on the degree filter. I think it was being modest. 200's ragned between 31-37, which wasn't great but I felt quite bad. Only felt good on the final repeat and last mile of the cooldown.

AM - 5. Tried to go easy but I didn't have my watch and went quick and just never really slowed. Probs a high 6:30/low 6:40 pace. Gonna try draining my legs after typing this.

PM - 3 on the treadmill, 4 outside in the blistering heat. Apparantly I don't handle warmth well??? Who knew. Achilles hurt a bit at the end. Gonna roll and ice that one out.

Holy moly I was tired today. Original plan was 3x2 miles but marching band was on the track. Then went to the park and changed it to 4xgrass mile instead. Warmed up three and felt pretty trashed. I went out on the first repeat and managed to get .20 in the first minute, but my legs told me to stop. No point in wasting a workout on dead legs. Went 6 miles after. Ran sockless and that was a huge mistake. The last mile my left heel hurt so bad, my limp game was awful. Took off my shoes and ran the last mile on the turf. I might do a short run later and try the workout again tomorrow.

Also I got quantified(finally) which is sick. On the other website it says I have 238 monthly views.

PM - went and lifted, did 3 easy on the treadmill after, ran the last quarter mile at 5:20 pace which felt pretty good. Also did 100 pushups and 100 sit ups.

I woke up at 5:30 and marching band still beat me to the track. WU, speed changes, drills. 4 mile tempo. I went quick the first mile but sustained, but those last two miles I just lost focus. I think it's because, in my head, I was planning to only go hard for two miles. Splits were 5:21(uphill), 5:29(downhill), 5:47(uphill), and 5:47(downhill). So four miles at 5:36 pace. Only a bit faster than when I did it in December, but that was coming off better training, I'm still running on tired legs, and in December I went hard enough that the run injured me. Cooled down for 8.

PM - did 100 push-ups while I was waiting in the Enclave room. Got caught at the end. Was extremely awkward. Did 5 miles up at McCoy. Ran the dirt road loop I never run on. Wow that thing is steep. Averaged about an 8:30 pace the first 3.5ish miles, then picked it up on the downhills for 7:30 pace for 5 miles. Total elevation gain was right below 600 ft. My left shin hurt a bit during it. S/O to Alli bc she blogs so much, truly an inspiration to us all💝(The joke here is she'll never see it because she doesn't even blog)

Ran 2 up main, 2 up the gov. trail, and 3 down back to the rec center. Splits were 7:50, 7:40, 7:30, 7:20, 7:10, 7:00, and 6:50 so that was neat.

4 in the afternoon. For the first time since Ragnar I felt pretty good, and it was in the heat too! Started at 7:20 pace and dropped down to a 6:20 pace by the end. Finished up with some strides, lifted, and did core. If I hadn't done Ragnar I bet I could have been #1 on the mileage board this week. Oh well. Tomorrow's progression run is gonna be prime time blues.

Wow quite the run today. Woke up at 5:20 and drove up to Kenny the Apache's house, where his dad drove us up to brush creek. I say "up" but there sure was a lot of uphill coming back. Ran the first 10 with Kenny and picked it up and finished at the Dino tri. I ran with the leader at the end at about a 5:40 pace which was pretty quick after all I did haha. Jogged just a bit while waiting for Kenny to come pick me up. Avg pace was under 7 so that was rad. Would have finished quicker, but Kenny was going quick at the beginning and I stayed with him. Good work today

I also found out that the winner I ran with at the end was Jason Holt!

After church met up with Adam and Kelly. We drove up to Ice Cave and did some serious hiking and spelunking. It was quite difficult so I'll count it as a workout. While climbing down an extremely steep section my footing slipped and I fell down a few feet, luckily I managed to grab a tree trunk, but I got caught in some thorns and scraped up pretty badly. I hung on for dear life with one hand and with the other got a rope tied to the tree and climbed down. It was quite heroic. After about three hours of hiking they dropped me off back at the Basin, so I ran up to my house, which gains about 400 feet altogether. Managed 7:30 avg. pace which was sweet.

Went to Uintah XC practice in the morning. Started off the run really slow with maybe 10 of us, then worked the pace down so by 4 miles it was just Clayton, Kedric and I. By the end it was just Kedric and I at 5:15 pace. Cooled down barefoot.

Real workout at 5:30, right after work. It was blazing and that makes for bad times, but I kept my head up. WU and strides. Workout was 3x2000m, going 600 fast, 100 jog, 400 fast, 100 jog, 300 fast, 200 jog, 200 fast. 500m jog in between sets. I dont recall the exact 2000m times but they were mid-high 6's. First one the fast parts went 1:47, 70, 53, 35. Next one's times were 1:48, 71, 50, and 30. Last one the heat hit me pretty hard that last 150, and my legs locked up. Hit 1:45 but I was on a faster pace. 400 I came in the 300 at 50, but my legs really got tired and I hit a 71. Decided to stop there. I was able to run those three laps under 4 minutes with the jogging though so that was neat. Good workout, the heat was awful and my legs haven't got any real speed in them lately so today was good. Cooled down to the temple park, where Claire taught Christian and I how to slackline. I'm pretty good. Claire made me some homemade lemonade which would have been good, but it was really acidic and my throat burned from the run already so it hurt to drink. Later on that night Claire told me some wild stories of how she partied back in France.

AM - 10 down back canal, past Quailbrook, down Gov, and back. I felt tired, but besides that good. I had to cross 16 cattleguards which wasn't quite ideal for keeping a solid pace, still managed 7:30's avg. ezpzlemonsqueezy

PM - Rec loop with strides. Gonna do some core before I go to bed.

Parked a little farther away from the park for extra mileage. Warmed up and drills at XC practice. The workout today was 2x(4 min hard, 4 minutes easy), 2x(3 min hard, 3 easy), and finished 2 minutes hard. I ran on the grass with quite a few turns, but still managed about a 5:05-10 avg pace for the hard ones. On the fourth hard I slowed a bit. Lately I've been able to switch from fast to recovery pace pretty easily, so I never walked which was good. Cooled down on Canal with Kenny after, S/O to him for staying close to me, even though I told him I'd go 5:30 pace lol. 6:48 avg pace for the run in entirety.

6.5 on the dirt road, pretty easy paced. My fourth mile was a 5:58 because why not, i felt good. Avg pace 7:20 which is p. good for 500 ft elevation gain.

I've only gotten around 6-7 hours of sleep per night this week, and I decided to hang out with a friend last night, so at 5:20 I was too tired. Opted to sleep until 7 and just do a distance run later today. A lot of stress at work and in other things, once I get off work today I should be able to breathe easy though. This weekend is gonna be spectacular.

PM - was going to do a long run, but work made my diet shoddy today, and my legs just didn't feel great, so I cut my 14 miler down to 9. Def. felt better at the end, but I do race in three days so why risk it. Gonna get my confirmation about my trip to St.G tonight, so wish me luck guys, I got a date with destiny. And someone else lol