Step by step, mile by mile

Handicap race. Basically the slowest person starts, then based on times people keep taking off, with the last person being the fastest. Started 18:20 after the first runner. 4th to last to start behind Christian, Aaron, and Mason. Kedric started 20 seconds in front of me, and I caught him by the 800m mark. I hit it in like 2:27 and I knew the race wouldn't be enjoyable. I caught Clayton, who started a full minute ahead of me 2 miles in, and should have caught Austin but I coasted. But I did beat him by a full minute timewise so who's the real gazelle here? Anyway Mason ran a 14:41, Aaron ran a 14:54, and Christian ran a 15:14. Could have PR'ed had it been another quarter mile but whatev's. I hit the first mile at 5:15 and slowed down pretty bad, just wasn't going all that hard, so it was a quick time. Pumped for region. Watched four hours of girls soccer after with Mason and I think the number 12 shouldn't exist 

Warmed up, then did a 30 minute easy run. Aaron, Christian, Austin, Jordan, Zack, and I ran around the baseball fields while throwing each other tennis balls. It was sick. Afterwards Christian and I and a couple other guys ran the flags at the football game. Basically what that is is four guys with four flags with a U T E and S on each one run up and down the football field to get the crowd pumped. We led the football team on the field and hauled down it in front of the entire school, which was rad. Fun night. As the buzzer went off I ran down the field shirtless, in short shorts, with a red U on my chest, carrying the "U" flag, and everyone chanted my name which was sick. Too bad the score was 8-38.

So I took the SAT, ad that was super grueling. Ate lunch at Quizno's with President David (Great)White, changed the oil on the car, and took a nap for an hour. After that I woke up to go pick up Emma from the school, where I discovered Christian took tenth place with a 16:31, getting 1rst on the team with Mason and I not being present. I'm super proud of him, but I was admitedly a bit jealous. I then did a sick workout. Warm-up, then 16x400 repeats at the high school at goal race pace, with a 200m jog back to the start. I didn't stop moving after I finished a repeat I immediately started jogging, and as soon as I hit the starting line I was gone. There was about 250m slightly downhill for the repeat(on concrete) then a full 180 speed sappin' turn, then an 150m uphill. Some repeats were over a 400m, some were less, so rather than times I'll just put the mile paces.

1-5:05

2-5:07

3-5:10

4-5:04

5-5:28(Idiot)

6-5:15

7-4:54

8-5:10

9-5:12

10-5:02

11-5:10

12-4:59

13-5:13

14-5:08

15-5:08

16-4:48

Overall averaged 5:07 pace. Felt pretty good! Mile cooldown afterwards and some strides, then I realized how pointless strides were when I did four miles of them. Something I nooticed is when I drive my elbows back when I run, those were the repeats where I went really smoothly and at a good pace. Gotta remember that. Still aiming for a top 5 finish at region.

Yellow Hill repeats. 2 sessions in 7 days! Pretty sure coach wants Mason and I dead at the paces we were going. Every repeat either I came in first or Mason did, but Mason won more. In retrospect I think I should have gone harder.

5 miles. Did core and such after. Hit a 5 minute wall sit.

Warm-up, then some speed. And I'm talking more hardcore than a heroin addict. first off was a 800 with a strong kick. coming in to the second 400, I was pretty much in last. I hit the 400 at around an 85. Came in at the 800 with a wicked finish where I passed everyone but Aaron and Mason. 2:27. Next was a 400, kicking the last 300. Went out well, but could have finished stronger, Aaron got me in the end. 60-61. Next one, kick at the 250. Mason caught me in the end this time. 62. Next one kick at the 200m. I won this one by a few seconds and had a sick Louie Zamperini finish. 65. Next was a 200m, kicking the last 150. Everyone went ham. Mason and Clayton beat me by a lean. High 28. next kick at 100, Mason caught me in the end. High 29. Next kick at 75 left. This time I kicked really well, beating Mason barely. Low 29. Final one, kick the last 50. Mason and I were running comfortable the first 150. I had a bit of a lead because I got excited because I ran in lane 5 and he ran in lane 3. Kick was crazy. Mason was almost a full second behind me. Low 28. Long cooldown after

warm-up, then a mile of speed changes with Mason. Afterwards senior speeches were given. There's only four seniors who've been here since the beginning. Shoutout to Aaron, Christian, and Mason. I heard my speech was really good, so that was nice. I got the biggest applause when I announced I was running for college. Sick team dinner after. Had a lot of fun with Jacia, Kyrie, Austin, Christian, and Aaron. We made some sick hoop shots and Christian and Jacia's screams had me dying. I'm really going to miss them.

Wasn't too great of a race for me. Got out well, hit the mile mark at 5:22, right on Aaron's tail. I was supposed to stay on him until the third mile, but he made a move and I told myself I'd get him after a while and I didn't. Christian passed me soon after, and Kedric with about half a mile to go. Kedric almost beat Christian, so that was cool for him. I finished and everyone was saying how badly it hurt and how they could barely move. I felt fine, like I hadn't even raced and it made me mad. Barely got a PR, and had a pretty good finish. Mason got 3rd, Aaron got 7th, Christian 10th, Kedric 11th, and me 18th. If I had shaved off twenty seconds I would have taken 9th, which once again ticked me off. but oh well, because UTES WON REGION!! We worked hard for this, and I'm glad we were able to accomplish it. I'm glad that even with a sub par race we could win. And now we're ranked 4th in the state! Next step, stop racing stupid, and break 16 so we can beat Olympus. Shoutout to Lehi for doing well at their region, along with Lone Peak's boys for beating AF! siiick

4 miles. First three at a high 7, then dropped the last one in about a 6:20 as to work on my kick. It didn't feel amazing, but mainly because I reaallly had to go to the restroom. Strides after.

About 7 miles that evening with Austin and Aaron. Easier pace, difficult course. Lot of hills.

About 11 easy miles on the trails. Rigorous run though. Some parts were so steep I had to crawl up. A little under 90 minutes, and it did wonders to clear my head on some matters, both XC and not. But mainly XC. My phone was blown up when I returned to the corral, which was sick. Except my stomach doesn't feel A1, and I haven't eaten the 1000+ calories I gotta consume that I burned, not even accounting for the regular ones. Time to get stuffed

Mile warmup. Feels weird being that there're 9 people left on the team. Found out I got accepted to Colorado School of Mines, which is sick. We did a 50 minute easy run. The others went a little too easy considering how hard this week is supposed to be, save aaron and I who went on a difficult and hilly run at 7:05 pace. Still felt easy. Bonneville offered to take our varsity team to Nike Southwest, which would be way cool if we can go. Time to start the fundraiser. Also everyone yells at us when they see us running now because of winning region, I feel like I should be in McFarland or something.

Warmup. Some good core and strength, then ran around town going to various places to get sponsors for NXRSW. I managed to smooth talk a bank into giving us 150$, so that was sick.

Yellow Hill repeats, aka murder ^2, because they killed me, but I killed them back. Won every one by at least a few seconds, not to sound pretentious, but it made me happy. Won one by an entire pole, which was crazy. Good day. Forgot to mention this but I've done core every night since saturday, and plan on keeping that up, so core tonight.

Mason, Aaron, Austin, Christian and I were told to meet at the indoor track at 7, so we did. Galley came and had us warm up, do some stretches, lift and do core, and then had us do an easy run. We did about 5 miles around mainstreet, looking for sponsors. Not too fruitful of a day. Senior feels are starting to hit a little harder knowing this is one of the last distance runs we'll do together, as Utes, since in track Aaron will go to distance, Mason and Austin sprints/mid, Christian hurdles, and I'm just lost.

Easy speed day with Mason, Aaron, Austin, and Christian. Galley had us do an 800 and kick at the 400, after a 400 at 5k pace. Hit a 79 for the 400, so around pace. After that I flew in with a 66 second lap, hitting 2:26(Decimals and such). Aaron and Mason were on my back coming into the second lap, but I blew ahead in the last 300m. It was great. Next was a 400 kicking the last 300 and I came in at a 60. Next was a 400 kicking the last 200 and I told myself I'd pace well. Hit the 200m at 40-41 seconds, and then went straight ham and smoked 'em. came in somewhere between 68-69. Next was a 200 kicking the last 100m somewhere between 28-29. Mason was right behind me, or maybe he beat me. The 200's were a blur. Next one kick at the 50m. Didn't get the time, but I'm pretty sure Mason barely got me at the end. Next was a 110m, kicking the last 75. Everyone took off at the start except me, and when I hit where we were supposed to kick I caught Christian and Austin. Took off my flats to discover my toe was bleeding. Tubular. Cooldown afterwards, then we recieved State uni's, then we spent the next four hours getting sponsors for NXRSW. Currently on the way to a group d8 and the 64,000 dollar question is who am I taking, Mckenna or Jacia, and I think that question is rhetoric

Last night was sick. Jacia and I ended up wandering around the corn maze for a couple hours, which involved people chasing us with fake chainsaws which was stupid. somehow during the date I screwed up my neck.

8 miles at 7:21 pace. The last 1.5 were pretty hard, I was feeling good, attaching the uphills super hard, but after five miles the difficulty of McCoy started to hit me. Also I had to run with my head positioned strangely because of the whole neck ordeal. Worth it. ;)

90-60-30's. Three intervals. In the third set Mason and I hit just over a third of a mile in 90 seconds.

Warm-up, then long motivatio talk with coaches and the other six runners. Ready to murder state. Going to make a all-state team, and try to get top 10. No, I WILL. I've trained way to hard to get it handed to me by Mason and Aaron again. Time to haul. Good luck to fellow Utahans at state tomorrow. Strides at home

No one's entered their entries about state yet, so I might as well be one of the first. Wasn't even close to the race I wanted, or any Ute wanted, for that matter. Gun goes off, Christian, Aaron, and Mason get out well, but Kedric and I get pushed back. On the second big hill Kedric creates a small gap on me, but I knew I'd get him on the downhill. Suddenly, as I hit the top of the hill, I started to fade. Not running-wise(well that too), but I started stumbling and getting dizzy. Hit the mile mark at 5:15. I kept running, and I passed a few people, but got passed by many more in the second mile. Kedric has a huge gap on me. Suddenly, I see Aaron in the distance, Kedric passing him, and I', suddenly in focus. Passed a ton of people in that last 600m, Aaron being one of them. Came in to the track and saw a 17 on the board, and I wanted to die. I heard coach yell at me from the sideline to get two more people, and I think I did. As a team we did pretty mediocre. Christian had a good race, almost beat mason, and Kedric did well, but overall the top three runners from the beginning kind of blew. Aaron did really bad, I think that was a season worst for him, Mason ran almost a minute slower than usual, and I haven't ran that slow since around preregion. Overall I was pretty happy with how I ran the first mile, and the last 800m went alright, but the middle part sucked. I just gave up. What a way to end my XC career as a Ute, right? It was a good learning experience. I found out that I need to step off and re-evaluate myself as a runner. And train like I never have before, to be the best I can possibly be. Congrats to every blogger who was out at state, notably Hell Raiser for winning 3A state, Lehi for beating AF and LP, Talon Hull for almost winning 5A, and Garek for running a pretty rad race. #Cherokeelivesstrong

After a tiring day, a lengthy sterling scholar meeting, 2 hours of ACT prep and some AP bio homework, I felt dead. But, I knew I need to train harder than ever to accomplish my goals, so I grabbed some heavy gear, my trainers, and headed out for a run at 9:30.

My legs felt pretty crappy before the run. My stomach hurt from the sushi and fried rice I had an hour earlier, so I told myself I'd go out at a pace that gave me just a bit of discomfort. Hit the 3 mile mark just under 17:50, starting at a 5:59 and negatively splitting. What. Running basically 20 seconds faster yesterday was impossible for me. decided to take it a bit easier after that, ended up being a 6 mile run at 6:32 pace. My legs felt great. Strides after.

5 mile run. Splits were 7:07, 7:01, 6:46, 6:33, and 6:07. Actually felt pretty easy. I tried to speed up a bit on the last mile, but beside that it just kind of happened. Really enjoying the chance to start intensifying my training a bit again, I feel way better than I did running with the team. I feel like I'm running up at Team Prep USA again, only even better than before. Strides after, then drove a ways away from the rec center, ran there, lifted so I can get some sick calf veins and destroy Mason's 800m school record. I just feel great.

Took the ACT in the morning with Aaron and Mason. I can almost taste the 34, and it tastes like nerds

It was called a 5k, but my watch had something closer to a three mile, so I'll call it that. Warmup with Mason and Aaron. The plan was to hit the first mile easier and negative split. Aaron and I came out way quick, gapped everyone pretty well. By the 800m I got out in front of Aaron and got a couple seconds of a lead on him. Hit the mile mark at 5:23. U turned, and Aaron caught up to me on the downhill, but when the course evened out I got a little bit more of a lead than before, and on the downhill it grew a little more. I hit the 2 mile mark barely at about 10:58, Aaron at 11:03. Hit the final U turn and I suddenly got hit with MAD bathroom cramps. Aaron caught me, and I let him gap me. Aaron finished at 16:09, I at 16:19. Our lead was enormous. Mason took it pretty easy, so no one was even close to us. We both got ten dollar coupons to Dickies™, which we then have to the football players who got third and fourth as to reconcile the football/XC Twitter war. A 19 second PR for me, and a 1 second PR for Aaron. What a race. Felt great. Now I'm watching Gobley of Fire with Austin, Kyrie, and Aaron, after acquiring some delectable smoothies. 

8 miles up Jackalope, aka the most difficult and sloped trail at McCoy. Took most of the run a bit easier. Well, you can't really make it "easy" when you're running Jackalope, but I wasn't going crazy. After 5 grueling miles up to the peak of the run I got back to what was basically the elevation I started at in one mile, and it was so steep and rocky that I had to go the pace I went uphill as to not die at a disclosed location in the desert. The trail evened out at 6.5 miles, and a snake slithered by my feet which lowkey terrified me. I told myself I'd take the 7th mile hard, for some stupid reason. The trail got less rocky, and I started striding out. Started the 7th mile 48:10 into the run. Hit 6.25 at 49:32. Hit 6.5 right before 51 minutes, then my watch died. I didn't slow down though, and I think that was about a 5:40 something mile. Didn't feel awful. Ran back to the corral on the main road which added to 8, as I judge.

It was supposed to be a 5 mile tempo run, but it didn't quite turn out how I hoped. I just wanted to average a sub 6 pace. The first half mile of the course I did was a gradual uphill, then a slight downhill, then uphill for the second mile, then downhill for the next two miles, then uphill for the last mile. I wasn't feeling too hot, but I told myself I'd run strong. I came out on the first half mile quick, and sped up on the downhill. I misjudged the pace pretty bad. I hit a 5:28 first mile. Crap, that was 30 seconds too fast. The uphill after that killed me. I just felt awful for the majority of the run, I couldn't even start dropping the pace on the downhill, my legs were so dead. At about halfway through the 4th mile my legs felt a bit better. The last mile I started to drop the pace a bit. Finished at the park, 6:12 pace. got a drink, and ran 2 miles back to the high school @ OMP. Splits for the run were 5:28, 6:05, 6:43, 6:27, and 6:26. Need to run my next tempo more conservatively. However, the fifth mile felt pretty sustainable, like I could have kept that for a couple extra miles. Iced back at home, ate dinner, then went and lifted for about an hour because #Gainznation #Gainztrain #nextstopnever and did some core as well. Going to ice again for safe measure.

6.5 easy run. My legs were feeling pretty heavy during it, but I pressed forward. Also there were winds of about 20mph so that was dandy. Splits were 6:13, 7:07, 7:03, 6:29, 6:21, 6:17, and 3:08 for that last half. Avg pace of 6:35. The second and third miles were head-on into the wind, and on the downhill too so bummer. But hey, I finally got to wear my windbreaker in a run. Obviously the pace was a bit quicker than anything I've done prior to this week, but I'm not complaining. It's like I'm a new runner, one that just takes the burn and keeps going, rather than just giving up like I did this season. Anyway a mile cooldown barefoot on the grass with strides after. Mason and I officially signed into the seeded race today, so get ready, Walnut.

8.5 mile run from the high school to the very top of Docks Beach and back. About a 750 ft elevation gain. My stomach felt awful during the run, I wanted to stop, but every time I felt weak someone would cheer for me and drive by, so I'd speed up again. Shoutout to Jacob, Porsha, Matthew, Zack, and McCall for that, I really needed the speed boost. Sped up the most when I saw McCall but ya know it's the thought that counts. Splits were 6:38, 6:57, 7:10, 7:33, 7:01, 6:31, 6:39, 6:21, and 2:50 for the last half mile. Average pace 6:47 which is pretty great for a crappy run. Cooldown afterwards, where band and student council cheered for me, so that was radical

4 mile progression run to test out my new Pegasus 32's. Goal pace was 6:30, 6:15, 6:00, and 5:45. Hit a 6:30, then had to stop at stoplight for about 20 seconds and haul to clock in a "6:12" (but really around 5:57). Then a 6:01, then a 6:04. Average pace 6:10. Not difficult. Cooldown after, then went to the end of the season XC social, then went to the rec center, where I ran two miles right under 14, lifted, and did core.

Headed to the track, where Kenny and Aaron were doing their workouts. None of us planned on meeting, we each did our own thing, but we cheered on each other and it was pretty cool. 400m jog to get warmed up, then 4x200 to practice the first 100 getting out fast, then pacing the latter half. Hit them in 32-35 second range. After that 3xmile at goal 5k pace. After the 200's my legs were really feeling heavy and dead from the lifting yesterday and stuff, so I had to fight through these repeats. Hit a 4:55 first mile, but I think my watch was like 8 or 10 seconds off. Jogged a 400, talked to Kenny for a bit, and took off again. Hit a 5:00, but like I said before about the timing being a bit off. The time was only off for the miles. Last one and I'm feeling dead. I take off, hit a 70 first 400 and stop. Way too quick. I was starting to get woozy, in the miles I kept stumbling and getting in the second lane. Ran an 800 after that in 2:29. Kenny and Aaron left around this time so I did a 3 mile cooldown @ OMP. Added up to 8. My legs really aren't feeling all that great, Hopefully a good night of sleep, an ice bath and some ibuprofen will improve the feeling.

I was going to do a 7 mile easy run because my legs are still pretty tired, but then I hit a 6:12 first mile and decided I might as well make it the same thing as monday, so a tempo run. Splits were 6:12, 5:58, 5:51 (during this point a distracted driver almost collided into me, so I had to stop for about five seconds, then I kept going, only I lost all my momentum). After the third mile my legs were getting heavier but I pressed on. I hit a 6:01, then had to do the last half mile on some speed sappin' grass that made my final mile 6:12. 5 miles in 30:14, over a minute faster than monday. 6:02 avg pace. 2 miles @ OMP back to the high school. Can't wait for my off day tomorrow.