Step by step, mile by mile

Woke up at 6AM and drove up to dry fork canyon(about 8000ft elevation). The canyon was dark and really really cold. Ran 5 miles to the base of Red Cloud Loop, and did 6x(2 minutes tempo, 3 minutes easy) up to the top. Elevation gain was stupid high. All of them were exclusively uphill save #5, which I ran at about 5:15 pace. The trees interferred with my signal on my watch except for the repeat at the peak, which was #5. At first I was discouraged because it was 8 flat pace for the hard part, but then I realized that when I was coming down(fairly quickly) the pace was the same, so I guess it was off, so that's a relief. Ended up being 15 miles in the end, which is about 3 miles over what I was supposed to run but oh well. I gained a little over 2000ft elevation, and averaged sub 8 for the pace so three cheers for that. I took my mom out to Denny's after, and had some good banana walnut pancakes. I feel quite fulfilled.

I woke up pretty tired from hanging with friends last night. I was gonna split my mileage into two runs today, but I felt slow from yesterday so I decided "might as well just get another longer run" ran down canal and up and down Gov, then jogged to the KOA fields and did about half a mile of strides. Felt much fresher on the last one compared to the first. Jogged home. A little under 85 minutes for 11 miles. I didn't ice, roll out, and I barely stretched after yesterday bc I had to rush to breakfast, so def gonna catch up on that stuff today. Final note- tomorrow's tempo run will be up and down dry fork canyon, then I'll be camping that night and if I run the next morning it'll be on the campgrounds. Then I'm outta here. So this was my last run in Vernal. Although I find this town dreary and dreadful usually, I met a few quality people here who I'm gonna miss. Speaking of missing people, goodbye to my good friends Asa, Connor, Christian, and Chestnut who all leave tomorrow. Thx 4 the Mars, my DMs won't be the same without you guys. Or my instagram. Or blogging.

I did a time trial today. It went stellar so I'm putting it as a race. Warmed up 2.5 to the creek with Trevor, who was on the bike. I came in with a goal of neg. splits and accomplished that. I wanted to go 6:00, 5:40, 5:40, 5:40, 5:10. First mile was much quicker than I wanted, but didn't feel too hard. 5:34. Trevor immediately was gone on the bike. At the ten minute mark a started to pick it up. Next mile was a 5:27. Around mile three my legs started getting pretty tired and I had to dig a bit. Next mile was a 5:20. Here I caught Trevor and started getting some bad uphill. 5:20 again. Last mile there was uphill and downhill. Pushed it in for 5:00 for the remaining .97. Great work! I'm beyond blessed. Cooled down back to the truck and iced in the creek. I split a 16:25 5k, so PR. The course I ran on was aided, but it was also at 8,000 ft elevation so I'd say it breaks even.

Had a fun night with some good friends last night. We camped up in the mountains which was fun, but I got almost no sleep. "Woke" up at 6 and did three miles. Drove home and now I'm on my way to alabama!

7 miles in Colorado Springs. My stomach felt like trash per usual the night after hanging with Will. Quads were dead from an 8 hour car ride. My parents cancelled my race... again. So no race on Saturday and no 1000$. Dangit. Besides that stuff felt pretty good

It's cold in Colorado! 57 degrees on the snapchat filter this morning. Set out with a plan of a good fartlik workout. Well, I did three miles warmup, and when I started the workout I could barely get under 6:40 pace. My legs had no life in them and my feet hurt. I ate a TON for dinner yesterday so my stomach wasnt too well either. Changed the run to an out and back. 6.6 miles out, 6.6 miles back. Took 50 minutes to get out and 43 to get back, on the dot. After almost 12 miles my legs finally felt good enough, and my foot stretched out enough, to pick up to 6:10 at the slowest and 5:30 at the fastest. Doesn't sound quick, but I gained 250 feet in that stretch so def. Some good work.

I just got a call from the head xc Alabama coach about meeting with me! He said my 8k time was impressive. Hopefully that means something good.

Another 3.8 before dinner on the treadmill

First run in humidity. I ran pretty early in the morning but it was still pretty bad. I was full out drenched by the end of the run. Did 6 outside, not because of the humidity, but because Amarillo sucks to run in. Came back to the hotel and did two miles on the treadmill, with the last half mile at 5:20 pace. Core and stretching after.

5 miles on the treadmill in dallas. Completely drenched by the end. Gonna put in some good work this next week!

5 miles in the morning. I'm not allowed to leave the hotel bc Dallas, so I had to run on the treadmill. Tried to do a tempo and failed. Just wasn't feeling it. Did some good core though.

PM - Warmed up to the nearby episcopal school, and found the track. Legs were tired from the start from 8 hours of drive/little sleep/afternoon humidity. Workout was 3×(4x400m). 2 minute standing recovery between repeats, 2 laps jog in between. My watch was dead so I had to use my phone timer, which probably slowed me down a bit. First set went 69, 67, 68, 68. Next went 68, 68, 68. At this point I noticed my phone was about to die so I decided this would be my last 400. Hit the 300m at 44-45, but then the I just hit a wall and jogged it in for 64. My phone died, so I did a mile on the track striding on the straights, did some more strides on the grass, and cooled down the way I warmed up for 10 for the day. I got some new shoes, Nike zoom structure 18's for 29.99.

8 miles warmup around. 3x200, 2x300, 1x400 of grass hill strides at the episcopal school. Jogged back down for recovery. Wind was against me on the uphill. Managed sub 5:20 pace for the 200s and 300s. Watch died for the 400 but the effort felt the hardest. Cooled down for 13. Had some real good oatmeal with some sublime toppings after. Foot hurt a little by the end of the repeats, but that's 23 miles with 2 workouts in the past 16ish hours so it's expected.

5 humid easy miles in the evening

Set my alarm for 6 AM, hit the snooze button, and by snooze I mean the off button. Woke up at 10 which was great. The run was very hot and very humid. Not fun. I'm hopefully meeting with coach Waters today.

On October 13th I will be running at the Crimson classic here at UofA. If I can break 26:20 on an 8k, I will get all the benefits of running D1 and coach waters will put me on the team. However, I cannot train with the team. Two months. Let's do this.

PM - hot, surprise surprise. Felt better than this morning. Ran around the nice dorms, to the hs track, did one lap striding the backstretch, a 400, another stride lap, back for 5. 400 was in 77. I wasn't going hard, I never looked at my watch, just trying to feel a pace. Now I just gotta do 20 of those.

If anyone has any feedback on this, I'd appreciate it.

I've been eating less than usual lately to get my weight down a bit. I'm still eating, and eating well, but cutting out pointless calories, like chips and such. Yesterday I drank probably 3 bottles of water between when I had dinner and went to bed. Had a good dinner of pasta with salmon, and a bowl of cereal. So I woke up at 8 this morning, had maybe 5 grapes. Usually I eat a little more before I go on a morning run, but since moving out of Utah I haven't. I felt progressively worse on the 10 mile run today. It was hot out, and, naturally, I was sweating. I noticed my sweat wasn't salty, like at all. The structure's are new shoes, and heavier than my other lighter trainers, but still, I felt just like crap on this run. Last half mile I had to stop a couple times because I felt just sick to my stomach, like I'd throw up, but I didn't. Managed to get back to the condo, went to the bathroom, and went to do some strides. I got two in and had to sit down, I just felt awful! completely dead. Did another two strides and jumped in the pool to cool off. This next part is tmi, but vital to the problem I think. Went to pee after, and it was almost orange. But I thought I'd be well hydrated. I'm just kind of confused. I've drank a couple glasses of water since then. Any advice would be well appreciated.

PM - run after getting moved in. Felt better than this morning, averaged sub 7 pace so starting to somewhat get used to humidity.

AM - Def could have felt better. I was up late last night. After my afternoon run my roommate Grant and I went to where my parents are staying at and had dinner. Grant and I played an insane 1.5 hour match of ping pong. After that we met up with Grant's friends Alva and some girl. Alva was really cool, we have a lot of common interests. After that we went to Target, and hung out with our female neighbors for a little while. Didn't get a lot of sleep last night. Anyway. Alva, Grant, and I were supposed to run this morning but they both slept in. I ate a bit before I went on my run and felt a bit better compared to how I have lately, but that isn't saying much. Went slower going there, quicker coming back. Did that in 11:46. Not impressive, but I'm still getting acclimated and was pretty dang tired, plus I didn't go too hard. Orientation all today, then dinner with my family for the last time for quite a while in the afternoon, so we'll see how the afternoon sesh goes.

PM - Orientation was long and difficult. And extremely stressful. I didn't have much time left when I got back to the dorm, so I decided to just run a quick 5 miles. Got out and decided to do a 3-2-1 fartlik back. Ended up getting 2 miles in 12:46, so not too far off this morning! Wasn't great work, but I know I'll have better runs. For now it's about my family.

10 miles in the morning. Felt tired and slow at the start but progressively sped up. Finished with a 6:18 mile with some considerable uphill. 6:45 avg pace, so not exactly hard, but I wasn't jogging.

PM - 7. Got 1.5 into the run and had to jump into publix and chill there bc it started to pour and I was running with my phone. Browsed cereal. After about 5 minutes it cleared up and I got back into it. First two miles were a bit slower, then I just sped up to about 6:30 pace for the last 5 because I felt really good. Hopefully I'm finally getting accustomed. I also walked about 3 miles today walking around college, but it doesn't count.

7 easy miles, no watch. Sped up at the end just a bit. I was gonna do some faster stuff today, but after yesterday I think I'll just get my 12 in today, take tomorrow easy, and on monday do some good work.

PM - 5 miles. I saw a runner in the distance after maybe half a mile who looked quite fit. So I started speeding up until I got to 5:25 pace to catch him. I do, but rather than strike up a conversation, I notice him slowing, so I just pass him. I don't need that slowing down thing in my life. Haha, I sound like Talon Hull's blog. Anyway I kept the pace pretty chill after that, sped up a bit at the end. Avg pace 6:49 to conclude a great week of training!

I went to bed at 9 on the dot last night to be well rested for a morning workout. However, I didn't actually fall asleep until past midnight. Woke up at 6, looked out the window, saw dew, and that was enough to make me go back to sleep until around 9:30. Set out at ten for my run, and it was blazing hot and extremely humid. Warmed up maybe 5.5 to a "nearby" high school track, but I needed to go to the restroom first. I ran to 3 different convinience stores, a family dollar, a park, and a car wash before I found one. Went to the track and hit my first 400 of my 1000m in 75 and just stopped. I probs could have kept going, at least for the repeat, but the heat was killing me and I wasn't sure if I wanted to play that game. Did some strides and cooled down for 12. Got back to the dorm and had a large fruit smoothie, along with a hearty portion of red white and blue rice crispies; 120 calories in 1 1/4 of a cup!

Another 7 miles about 4 hours later. Pegs forced me to go nice and easy

Core late at night with my roommates. Really regretted 3 cups of chili, and I'm sure I'll regret it even more tomorrow.

Slept way in. After that just relaxed until a little before 2, where I did 7 blistering miles. The past few runs I've felt like I really need to pee when I'm running. It doesn't hurt, but it's an annoyance. Avg pace was 7 flat. Gonna do some more mileage tonight.

Warmed up 4 miles. Tried to do a tempo. Got two "eh" miles in, and cooled down for 9. Did strides after. I thought the tempo would be good, but mileage was still in my legs, plus I had to stop three times for cars and hop on endless amounts of grass/sidewalk which really screwed up the pace. Oh well.

Early PM - 6 miles of death around campus finding classes. Alarm didn't go off so pure death in the sun today. I had a very large amount of peach cobbler before the run which I regret immensely. I'm surprised I didn't die.

Late PM - 9 miles. Felt tired and kind of trashed at the beginning but felt really good by the end. At about 4 miles in I was in a sketchier part of town, when I passed two dudes. As I pass by them I hear one of them yell "HEY!" And, being an idiot, I turn around. It's two black guys, one my height but bigger, and the other maybe a foot taller than me, and im 6 ft. "Can I ask you a question?" The bigger dude asks, walking towards me. I have a brief inner conflict. "Sure" I say. "I'm an MMA fighter" he tells me. Turns out he needed to lose 40 lbs by his match in October, and asked for my advice. I told him everything I knew. Good ten minutes of conversating. During which more of his friends showed up on bikes. They taught me a handshake and we parted ways. Best of luck to Orlando. Nice guy. Anyway avg pace 6:49, so it was a nice run. Classes start tomorrow. Ugh.

Because I have to walk about 5 miles to classes on Monday and Wednesday, I'm counting some walking mileage today. Not all of it. Still did a long run. Woke up at 6 but my feet hurt badly so I slept in. Not the muscles, it's just my feet are torn to shreds. Lots of blisters and burns. After Chem 101 and Honors Calc I took off on my run(about 11). I get a mile in and was yelled at by none other than Orlando! I said hey and kept going, no stopping. Today's run was in 100+ degree weather with no clouds, so just a true battle with me vs. the sun. Felt okay for about 75% of the run, but then I got hit with a massive wall. The heat killed me. Pure hell. The last three miles it was really tough to push through, I really wanted to walk, or sit down and cry, but I did it. I don't know what will go down on October 13th, but all I can say is I think I'm def training on a level that should get me wearing that crimson jersey.

3 miles before core and strength that night, 2 after. While on mile 20 of the day I figure "let's try to get a minute slower than 5k pace(5:05-5:10)", Just started striding out and got it down to 5:33 before I hit the docks and stopped to stretch. Good work today. I'm racing a 5k Saturday morning(for charity), and probably another one saturday night(for Honors college). We'll see how that goes.

AM - for the first time since starting college, I woke up and actually did a morning run! 4.5 warmup, 10x 1 minute hard, jogging back to start for recovery. Ended up catching my breath for about ten seconds after each hard, before the recovery. I did these repeats on a field that was drenched in water and totally overgrown, so that slowed me down a bit. By the end my legs were soaked in water, mud, and grass. Averaged 5:00 pace for the hard. 2.6 cooldown.

PM - four easy miles in the heat. Big S/O to Kenny the Apache for slaying it @highland! Kedric and Rylie did well too. And big S/O to Ryan Raff for getting third overall!

AM - 10 after Chem, at around ten. Ran 2 miles to where I THOUGHT the race packet pickup was for tomorrow, but I was mistaken. It was about 5 miles in the opposite direction. And there was no trail to get to it. So I ran 5 miles on the side of a highway. it was terrifying, but nothing compared to the end. I had to cross a river, which meant there was a bridge. It was about half a mile long, 300-ish feet in the air. The bridge was constructed where there was the road, a 20-inch across cement barrier about two feet above the road, and the ledge of the bridge, about a foot higher. So for half a mile, if I trip, I'm gonna either fall into a river and if the fall doesn't kill me, alligators will, or I fall the other way and get obliterated by a car. Oh, and wind from passing cars was no help. So yeah, terrifying. If my parents read this I'm sorry. I survive, and make it to the plaza, except I can't find the store where the pickup was at ANYWHERE. I look the store up on my phone(instead of the plaza), and it said IT WAS WHERE I STARTED. I was so mad. but I went into the bank next to me just to make sure. The teller said "oh, the store's in the plaza NEXT to us". So thank heavens I went into that bank haha. The women were extremely nice at the check in. They gave me a cookie, and when I asked how to get back to the college safely and they realized I had ran on a bridge, one of the ladies offered to drive me back to my dorm, and I couldn't say no. She drove me back, and I ran to Publix and back, and did my strides on the mini canal at the end. Some guy in a car saw me as I finished and said "hey, Rio's nowhere near hear buddy!" Which made me laugh. He asked me how much I'd ran today, and I said "10, but I have a race tomorrow so I'm taking it easy". He laughed at that and wished me luck.

PM - REST

I woke up at three this morning and I felt really sick to my stomach. Fell back asleep after thirty minutes or so. Woke up again, ate some bread w/ a dollop or two of marshmallow spread and watched some American Dad. That stuff's great. Jogged over to downtown, and ran a little more, did a couple strides. 3 mile warmup altogether. There were a couple guys who said they were from some senior college "elite" club that looked pretty quick. Race starts and all these kids dart in front of me and I almost trip. By about a minute all the sprinters have died, and it's just me and one college guy. At half a mile I make a small surge and gap him. At around a mile the biker turns around and says "we missed the turn" which I noticed, but figured "this guy knows what he's doing. I turn around and see the college guy turned, and I surge a bit to catch him. He doesn't even try to stay with me. Rest of the race was uneventful, lots of speed sapping turns that last mile. Just sorta cruised. With maybe 400m left we hit a stoplight, and the biker tells me to stop, because of traffic. I start to, then he says "never mind". I was just like "tf dude". Finished pretty well. Stomach felt not well at all throughout the race, still doesn't. They had an ice bath at the finish which I used the trash out of.

Splits: 5:20, 5:26, 5:48, :55 for the last .23

AM - 12 miles. I thought it would be nice and cool from all the rain(that cancelled last night's race), but no such luck. Very hot, and I suffered a bit. Tried to go to the old golf course where they hold the crimson classic, which is about 5.5 miles away. Got 5 in and my knee started bugging. Stretched for a couple minutes and felt fine after that, but cut the run short today to play it safe. Tried to do some strides on the fields, but it was really wet and I wasn't motivated to look for another soft area.

PM - ran to the honors rec center, did four miles on the treadmill, stretched and did core after. Did my last half mile on the treadmill at 5:12 pace. Felt a little tiring for the first minute but by the end I felt pretty good, like it was a pace I could hold for a while. Ran back to my dorm.

AM - got in what I could before morning classes 

PM - 5. I would have gone longer but my stomach wasn't agreeing with me. Also earlier today I had to go to Publix, which is about .75 away from my dorm, to buy green tea. Ran there pretty briskly after Calc, and walked back carrying groceries, among them 4 seperate gallons of Arizona green tea. I got green with honey,  peach green, blueberry green, and another with honey. Walking back was incredibly tough. I'm counting it for mileage. Also did some tough core, and met a fellow local elite at the gym named Ethan. His 5k PR is the same as mine, but he has a blazing 3200 time (9:37). We exchanged phone numbers and we're doing a 5 mile tempo on Wednesday.

AM - slept in on accident. When I woke up I could have done a little, but opted to just eat a lot of cereal and relax in the hour before calc. 

Noon - 5 miles before lunch. I was rushing so it was a bit quicker, but consistent. Slowest mile was a 6:35, fastest was a 6:33.

After lunch my roommate Grant and I made a bet whether I could beat my other roommate, Nathan, back to the dorm without his knowing(he rides a longboard). He figured out, but I still won.

I did 8 miles in the afternoon. It was really hot, very bright, and my stomach REALLY wasn't agreeing with me. Barely managed to survive. Got another shade browner from the sun rays though, I can feel the crisp, like that one spongebob episode.

AM - 2.5 WU, 4 mile tempo, 3.5 CD. Mile on my own when I woke up. My body hasn't been functioning well lately. My muscles are fine, but I'm having some other problems. Sleeping is a big one, I think I'm getting insomnia. Met with Ethan and did another 1.5 warmup. Workout was a 5 mile tempo run, but due to miscommunication I thought it was 4. As soon as we started the tempo, my legs were tired. Stuck with Ethan for the first three, had bad stomach problems that last mile. 23:50 for 4 miles. Def. could have been better, but I'll allow it. Cooled down with Ethan. He did 29:15-20 for 5 miles and I've never seen anyone so happy lol. I thought he might cry. Nice kid. I secretly hated him on the CD though! He kept surging!

PM - 5 easy/core routine with some quick drills after.

AM - 11 miles depletion run. Ran the first five miles with Ethan. It was nice to run with someone I guess, but he kept surging and I really just wasn't in the mood. Around mile 8 I felt like I'd throw up, but besides those two things it was a pretty nice run.

PM - 5 easy with some strides thrown in. My knee popped as soon as I started so I had to stop forr a sec and stretch. I wore a very small pair of shorts with TIGHT inner lining on the morning run, and they cut into my inner thighs pretty bad, so this run hurt that. Also my left pinky toe has just been taking a beating lately. So the running was easy, but parts of me felt pretty bad.

Man I felt awful waking up today. Ate something real bad last night. I thought I may have had a fever, but after 10 miles I feel fine. Gonna run to Fresh foods and back for lunch, and I'll probably race Nathan on his longboard again so I'll count that preemptively.

AM - 9 miles with Ethan. On friday I was doing 800's on the grass, and hitting the times I wanted, but I was having a pain on the outside of my shin so I stopped. Afterwards it felt much worse, so I took a couple days off. First four mile we went pretty easy, then Ethan asked if we could speed up and I begrudgingly did. He kept putting in little surges, so on mile 9 I sped up a little bit. Nothing crazy, like 6:20 pace, so Ethan was like "Slow down dude" and I was just like what?? Anyway stretched after. Shin didn't hurt during the run but hurts now. Any advice would be great.

PM - 2 miles warming up, followed by strength training/core. Stretched and rolled out my ankle real hard. I've had about 7 apples today.

AM - 9 miles easy. Right calf was really tight when I woke up, the other one had a calf sleeve on. My peroneal tendon that's been hurting in my right leg bugged throughout the run, but it was a faint pain, not really a hindrance as much as an annoyance.

PM - swamped with classes. When I'm not in class/doing homework I plan on resting. I want to do short speed stuff tomorrow so hopefully my tendon permits.