Step by step, mile by mile

My team arrived to region about 30 minutes before the first event(1600) was to start, so I was pretty nervous. Based on last year's times I'd need to run a low 4:46, with my best being 4:46.85. I knew I could do that, but the recent sickness I was recovering from filled me with some doubts. There was thunder and lightning, so the meet was delayed an hour. While we all took shelter at Morgan High School, and while we waited Mason, Aaron, and I ran about a mile around the school to keep our muscles warm.

After the hour passed the three of us ran about a mile and a half for a warm up and did some stretches, and got on the starting line. I wasn't feeling too well, but I told myself that I would stick with Aaron. The first 400 we came in at a 66, which was around my goal, but it felt bad. The next 400 was even worse. At the end of the first lap I was in fourth, on Aaron's tail, but aaron went too quickly as well so he started to die out. I got passed by two park city kids during the second lap and the gap between Aaron and I grew. My next 700 was basically a jog. I got passed by another park city kid and I couldn't care less. The gap between aaron and I was an entire stretch. In the last 100 Kedric caught me, so I sped up and basically sprinted my last 100, feeling full of energy. I could have easily run the same time again, which was a 4:57. I felt like I let my team down, but I told myself there'd be redemption in my 800 race tomorrow.

I felt much better today. Yesterday all of the team went to Applebee's, but Mason and I wanted good food so we went to chick-fil-a and bought uncrustables afterwards. We got to our room an hour before everyone else, so we just browsed instagram and had a major freak out to find out our boy Matt Maton broke a 4 minute mile! Props to him. Anyway, to the race.

The morning of it was raining pretty intensely. In order to keep warm Mason, Aaron and I ran the mile and a half course, but mainly to keep Aaron company because the 3200 was the first event of the day. We were all top four on the team in the 3200, but coaches wanted me to qualify for state in the 800, and for Mason to win region in the 800 so we weren't running it. We did, however, cheer our hearts out for our boy! He was ranked fifth in the race. There were three park city kids who all ran mid 10's, and Andrew Allen, who won XC region this past season so his state spot was assumed(he told me he was going for fourth). The first 1600 Aaron had the lead, with Kedric on his back and Park City and Andrew close behind. Park City's 3200 plan is always to pace the first 1600 and go quickly for the second half, so when they hit that fifth lap they struck. One Park city kid, Sam, decided to take the lead. Aaron knew it'd be stupid to fight, so he let him take it. Andrew passed him soon after, and caught Sam as well. The final 600. Andrew had a large lead, and Sam had some ground on Aaron. Kedric was about 50 meters behind, with Wes trailing him. Wes wisened up and kicked it in. By the final lap he had Aaron, but Aaron was going strong. Mason and I are going mute screaming. The two fought it out, With Aaron losing by .1 second to Wes, 3 to Sam, and 5 to Andrew. But my boy made state! He was so happy. I'm proud.

Flash foward to the 800. It's pouring. In in straight spandex, so is everyone else. I was ranked 6th, but Wes dropped out to save energy for the 4x400(he'd lose anyway). False start. The rankings were Mason in first, Andrew in second, Mason Stephens(Park City) in third(technically Wes would have been third), Aaron in fourth, me in fifth, a Morgan kid in sixth, Austin in seventh. Gun goes off. I told myself prior to the race I'd need to beat Mason Stephens to get my state spot because I didn't forsee Wes pansying out, So I decided to stay on Aaron. As we hit 150m I was in like 8th. Mason Walk and Andrew were battling it out for first. Austin was in front of me, and he hadn't beaten me once this season so I realized this pace wasn't right. I sped up at a comfortable pace and caught Mason at 250. Felt good. Amazing. As we hit 350 I realized that I was feeling comfortable, something I'd never felt in the 800. I didn't like it. I sped up and caught Mason and Andrew at the 400 mark and went for the pass. I kept the lead up until a bit past the 500 mark, then time slowed down. It seemed like Andrew was going at a full sprint as he passed me. Same with both Masons, and the Morgan kid that passed me. In the last 100 a Morgan kid, Austin, and a Park City kid caught me. I was mad at myself, I did beat Aaron though for the first time ever. I'm almost sure if I hadn't gone for the pass for the lead I could have kept up a sub 2:07 and qualified for state, but oh well. Just seeing the pure shock on both Mason's faces and the confusion on Andrew's made me happy. Austin acted like he was better than me at the finish line, and maybe he was. For the day. But I have a full second faster PR that begs to differ. Cooldown around the ol' mile and a half path. Pretty irate to not go to state, but now I have a fire in me to win. I guess this loss will just make my victory next year all the sweeter. Time to put it in work, and lay it out on the #grind. 1:57 at region next year or bust.

Did a 1600 warm up on the track, and did what I thought would be a quick 3 mile jog before taking my mother out to a mother's day dinner on me. However, once I hit the 2 mile mark I decided that I felt great, better than I had in a long time. I kept going, and ended up doing a 5 mile run instead. Didn't have my watch, but it felt like I was in the 6:20 range. Good day.

Went to the park, did a mile warmup, and did a couple mile repeats at 5:40 pace, which dissuaded me as I was hoping for a quicker pace, but it's alright. after that I did 2x800 repeats at 2:40. Pretty slow, but that's why I'm training in the offseason. mile cooldown afterwards.

Did a mile warmup, and did a little over a 5k at 6:22 pace. I went out at a sub 6 first mile, and slowed down pretty drastically. After that I did 8x50 meter wind sprints, and a little over a mile cooldown.

Mile warmup, and about a 6.5 mile run. Here are my mile paces;

mile 1- 6:30

mile 2- 7:00

mile 3- 7:20

mile 4- 8:00

mile 5- 7:20

mile 6- 6:55

mile 7- 6:50

There was about a 300m stretch around 5.5 miles in where I sped up to sub-6 pace because I saw a hot girl. According to my watch I set my 10k record of 45:11(with the watch) hopefully I can break 40 by August. After that 8x50m wind sprints, and a little over a mile cooldown.

Did a mile warm up at the park, then ran the time trials course for XC in 18:25, but I was running for splits. I was trying to conserve as much as possible for later in the run, so I averaged a 6:45 pace the first mile. After that I sped it up to a 6:10 for mile 2, ending mile 3 at about 6:05. My goal for the actual time trials this season is sub-16 for the 3 mile road race, so I need to shave a minute off each split, hopefully averaging a sub 5:00 pace for my last 600. I hope to break the Uintah High School 3 mile record, which is a speedy 16:13.5 set by Keaton Graham. After my course preview I did 8x75m wind sprints, and ran a mile and a half cooldown.

No run today. I had to go to state for choir. I planned to wake up at 5 and go run 5 miles and do some heavy reps of light weights and some core, but getting between 2-5 hours of sleep for thw past four days due to calculus, AP English, and AP Chem finals. On another note, I'm super stoked to go to team usa XC camp in a little over a month. The week before I'll be in Georgia for a family reunion, but I plan on using the elevation change as a reason to increase mileage. Hopefully I don't get stabbed whilst running through the hood haha. But in all seriousness, I'm really hoping I'll learn a lot about dieting and strength at the camp. This year I haven't mentally in to running. Is train what I thought to be hard(this week alone is harder than any week my coaches have gave me). My sophomore year I was so into it, but I was pretty weak so I didn't get that fast. I got all PRs this year, but they could have been more drastic if I had put my heart into it. On another note, I'm seriously questioning my coaches thinking. They tell us never to do more than 30 miles a week, yet I know for a fact every one of those top ten at footlocker west did at least twice as much as that. I'm going to try to do 40 this week, 45 the next, and keep moving up until I'm around 70. I had a talk with my dad, and we discussed matthew matons breaking of 4:00 in the mile. I'm sure he does more than 30 a week. The first high schooler to ever break 4? Between 100-150 a week. Wow. If I increase 5 miles per week, I might be able to work up to that. I also am pretty excited to run a Ragnar in a month. I start the race off on the USU track. I want to average around a 6:20 pace. I have about a mile straight downhill, and those are my advantage, so I could average a low 5, and hopefully recover.

Did a 1 mile warmup, then ran 7 mile run. Not too proud of the pace, but it was up U hill and the rest of that mountain range. All together I ran up a little over 1500 feet. However, the first half of my last mile was 5:08, with the next 400 being 4:57, and going all out with a 4:48(downhill). .85 mile cooldown afterwards.

Today's workout hurt. I drove to the sand dunes about 30 minutes out of town to get a new workout, what I didn't plan on, however, was how difficult it would be. It may have been soreness from yesterday's run, or from my stomachache, but it hurt pretty badly. I did a one mile warmup on the highway, then ran 4 miles around the dunes. They were very hilly and my feet kept slipping due to loose sand, and that combined with the fact that I only had a one mile radius to run around made for a slow pace, but it hurt, which is good. I'll need to be sure to do this run again, as I've heard from multiple sources running up dunes builds leg muscles drastically for running up hills, which is really what I need to make my stremgth if I want to break 15:30 at sugar house and place top ten. After the four miles I ran a mile and a half down a pretty steep hill at an easy pace, and the. Turned around and ran back up it. It was about a 400 foot hill, but I still managed to keep up a 7:45 pace for the most part. I'll need to remember this as well for hill training. After I ran back up the hill I got lost for half a mile trying to find my truck, once I found it I ran a cool down mile and went home. I think I need to keep the next couple of days easier training-wise. This is the training I need to do every day to get my goals, but I haven't worked up to this level of intensity so I'm fairly wary of injury. After camp usa, however, this needs to be the quality and intensity of my daily training(at least). Surprisingly after an ice bath I haven't been all that sore, possibly because I've worn calf sleeves for both of my past two workouts. These past two days have definitely made my top ten hardest workouts. Can't wait to see what's on that list in ten months. Another recent goal I've developed in my brain is to qualify for the Adidas 2016 dream mile. Farfetched I know, but I'm willing to but everything on the grind for the next year until I get to that level of speed.

Went to the track, but turned out there was a team dinner going on at the time, so I waited for them to leave the track, did a one mile warmup, and did a 5k run. My first mile was at a 6:10, then 6:00, then 6:02. Felt good, besides the rain downpour. After that I did a 400, 300, 200, and did one third of a mile for my cooldown until the weather got to the point where I could no longer run,

Did a 1 mile warm-up, then did an easy 5k at 6:40 pace. 1 mile cooldown afterwards, then I lifted for about an hour.

Ran a 1.1 mile warm-up at a speedy 5:47 pace. Planning on a distance run, I got about a tenth of a mile out until major calf and arch pains forced me to jog back to my truck and drive home for injury prevention.

Mile warm-up, and about twenty minutes of stretching because I was still having pretty big pains in my lower left calf. I went for a 4 mile run, averaging out a 6:31, 6:53, 6:18, and 6:00. My calf was hurting pretty bad the first mile and a half, but after that the pain subsided and I was able to pick up the pace. After that I did 3 300m wind sprints (about 47-49 seconds each) and I did a mile and a half cooldown and went home. After thinking about my goals for the season, I'd like to break 16 at time trials this year, with a high hopes goal of sub-15:40. Icing leg currently to recover faster.

No run today. Today was the last day of school, so I sent it hanging out with friends and watching seniors graduate. I feel bad about not running, nut then again all my friends(runners) were eating donuts and stuff like that while I chose to keep my palette pretty clean, so I guess I did something right today.

Also I've been reseaching my injury alot, and what I've assumed it to be through many websites and such I found it to be what I thinnk is Achilles Tendonitis. I guess I increased my mileage too quickly at too intense of a pace, which resulted in me hurting myself. Once again I'm icing right now, and I looked up a few stretches to do as well. I think I'm going to aim for 40 miles this week, but for the next week or two I think I'll drop down my mileage to 30-35 miles a week to recover. I really hope to get better soon because I want to be the best, and an injury will not assist that.

Didn't run today because I'm afraid of injury, however I did mountain bike six miles, and it was even more dangerous. I fell off a ton, and cut up and banged up my legs pretty badly. Not a great day. Good exercise though. Major icing and stretching to maximize recovery.

Still afraid of tearing my achilles even more, however I did play tennis today, with minimal pains. Major recovery. Hoping to run tomorrow with Aaron, Austin, and Mason.

Drove up to McCoy flats with my boy Aaron(Mason was busy and Austin was lazy). Did a little over a one mile warm up, and ran a 10k down the trails. It was very hilly, and a pretty intense workout. Our splits were 6:39, 6:53, 6:33, 7:12, 6:46, and 7:12 with the last .25 coming in at a 6:17. As the splits show, the second 5k was much more difficult, with it being much more hilly then before. Overall probably ran up over 1000 feet(according to Nike). Aaron says we could have broken 40(we ran 42:40) if we hadn't been talking the first 3 miles and had treated it more intensely, like a race, which I believe. Aaron wants he and I to break 35 for a 10k. That'd be crazy to do. But, if I'm to acheive the goals I want to get, I'll need to do things like that.

I didn't have achilles pains!!! I'm so happy. It hurt a few steps at the beginning, but it subsided almost immediately. After the run I was pleasantly surprised to feel no pain there(the rest of my legs hurt like a mother, but I'm not complaining). Great day, truly blessed to recover so quickly, and to lose little speed as well! I'm still going to train hard, but now I'm more wary.

A.M.- Aaron and I went to the Rec center in the morning and swam about 1000 yards. I could have done more, I had to do stuff like this all the time when I was a lifeguard, but Aaron wasn't accustomed to it so I ended the workout early, with me catching him pretty quickly and it detering him. Glad to see I'm finally faster than him at a sport haha. After swimming laps we walked against the strong current of the whirlpool for about 5 minutes, which hurt but felt good. Planning on doing a little speed with Aaron this evening.

P.M.- Did a little over a mile warmup with Aaron, then got our workout disrupted by the other XC seniors, apparently there was a meeting today we were unaware of. We took part in the meeting, which lasted a bit over an hour, then we drove to the park and did about 1000m repeats. Our paces for the four me and Aaron did were; 5:05(5:30), 4:52(4:48), 5:05(5:10), and 4:59(5:00). We each ran alone, starting our leg when the other one finished, so I was happy to see I could pace a bit faster than him for the most part. Now I need to be able to do this without the three minutes of rest between each leg. A bit over a mile cooldown afterwards.

A.M.-Aaron and I did some lifting in the morning. Hurt. Going downstairs in my house I thought I'd die. Still alive though.

P.M.-Aaron and I were to meet up for a five miler, but he said he hurt too badly from the A.M. workout. We decided to do a ten miler tomorrow morning, so I wasn't going to run today, plus there were tornado warnings in vernal and thunderstorms. So I made myself dinner while my family went for pizza. After they got back my mom sent me to buy her a cookie from my boy JJ's, and some uncrustables for myself. However, I felt guilt inside, so I did a quick 2 mile run at 6:00 pace. Wasn't aiming for anything quick, just a little workout.

A.M. - Woke up at 5:30 and met up with Aaron for our ten mile run. I needed to go to the bathroom about 4 miles in, but it was too late to stop, so I was dealing with a lot of cramps. Since it wasn't supposed to be a hard pace I stuck with Aaron at a pretty casual pace. He sped up at the seven mile mark and I followed. When we hit the last mile I got awful cramps and had to slow down pretty majorly for about a minute. After they subsided Aaron had about a 50 meter lead on me, so I shaved about a minute off the pace and caught up to him. The new pace felt like something I could have been doing for a long time. When I reached Aaron, I realized this was supposed to be an LSD(Long Slow Distance) day, so I adjusted to his pace. Cooldown afterwards and stretches. Going to do some intense core tonight.

6 mile run in the evening. Pretty bad stomach cramps until I found a bathroom three miles in. Shoutout to Uncrustables for wrecking me on an easy day. Did about 5 300 meter repeats on the golf course at about 4:40 pace afterwards.

A.M. - Pop's and I drove out to Colorado to get some rocks for our garden, afterwards I did 6.5 miles in the mountains. Difficult hills combined with a blistering heat works to make a good hard run.

P.M. - Did an easy 5 mile run at the high school, coming in at around a 6:50 average pace. The word of the day today is success, because Colorado School of Mines wants the D... and by that I mean distance. They want me to join their XC and track teams, but they are a Division II school so yeah. With my mediocre 4:46 I ran this season, I'd be in the middle/top of their distance team. My 2:10 would put me up there as well. Got my third letter from University of Oregon today, and they want the G... PA. GPA. When they ask me to join their track team then we'll talk

Played some post-church soccer with the fam(after I got a sick haircut, flow). We played about half an hour on a half of a field, with them 4 v 1-ing me, so a lot of sprinting. I'll undermine it and call it 1.5 miles. Afterwards I decided to get a glimpse of hell and do 3.5 miles in the blistering heat

Afternoon - Went to the park with mama G and lil sis, while they played I did a casual 2 miles around the park. Hot as the Eta Carinae out there though.

Evening - Drove out to U-hill and did a little over 4 miles uphill, and about 2 down. Shouldn't have ran up a mountain in shoes as light and thin as the MD500's, Every rock and pebble I stepped on was pure agony. Feet are hurting like a mother currently but oh well

Did an 8 mile run with Aaron in the desert. We called austin and mason up again, but they both flaked. That's fine by me, in the end they wont see me coming

Was going to do a seven mile run in the morning with Aaron, but he overslept so I ran by myself. My legs were completely dead, it was a pretty slow and painful run. I'll pprobably just do the regular core tonight, and then try to convince Aaron to do an evening run tomorrow so I'll be well rested for the next workout so I can crush it.

Met up with Aaron, and ran a little over 3 miles to U hill, 3 miles up it and 1 mile scaling down(something I recommend to anyone who wants to die painfully), and 3 miles back. Pretty intense run

I started with a mile warmup and felt like crap. I hurt and wasn't really into the run. I decided to just do a short run, about 3.5 miles. I didn't really look at my watch, instead focusing on just keeping a steady pace with pretty large strides. Turns out I went quick. My mile splits were 6:20, 5:54, 6:01, and my last half mile was about a 5:30. It makes me happy that even though I've done about 7 miles every day this week, with a pretty difficult 10 mile run yesterday, that I can feel not well and still go pretty quickly. Super excited to start speed training in a few weeks and get that mile time down. #grindisreal

A.M. - Took the SAT, which was pretty terrible. I'll count it as a workout. 

P.M. - Did a mile warmup, 3.5 mile run, and mile cooldown, same as yesterday, only took it easier. I think the 6 hours of sitting in a room cramped up my legs. The first mile it felt like there was a hypodermic needle that was stabbed through my rear end(I thought of that during the run), So I pretty I did a pretty slow jog, and then sped it up to an easy pace. I drank way too much water after the 3.5 and I wanted to throw up during my cooldown, but then I saw my old AP English teacher who yelled at me to speed up, so I increased to a 6:00 pace which hurt my foot a bit.

Did a 1.5 mile warmup at the track, 2 mile run around the surrounding neighborhood, followed by 2 sets of 8x100m strides at 4:00 pace. 1.5 mile cooldown, and then 30 minutes of crying because I locked my keys in my truck, so I had to wait half an hour to be picked up by my dad with a spare key, so shoutout to him.

A.M. - Aaron flaked out again, so I went to the park instead. I ran a little over a mile warm-up, then had some stomach cramps so I ran to the restroom, but some guy got there moments before me and wrecked it beyond repair, so shoutout to him. I was going to just drive home and use the restroom there and come back, but I saw the top two girls on our team, Emily and Alyssa, who asked me to finsih their run with them, so I ran about a mile with them. After that I sped up the pace and ran another couple miles alone before the cramps caused me to cut the run short.

P.M. - Mile warm-up at the track, there was someone I knew at the adjacent tennis courts who could see me so I went to quick and did a 5:40. After that about a 3.5 mile run. I averaged mid 6's for the first 2.5 miles, but then I got stomach pains and some mad shin splints so I slowed down considerably. After that I was going to do a 2 mile cooldown, but half a mile in I turned around because of cramps.

A.M. - I went to the Rec Center and did some core, swam 1500 yards, and ran against the water currents for 10 minutes.

P.M. - I was going to do a long run at an easy pace, but my right hamstring got super tight and I cramped up(gotta stay hydrated) so I cut it short to an 8.5.

6 mile run in the blistering afternoon. It was 70 degrees and overcast, but as I started my run these conditions dissipated. I haven't been all too motivated as of late, so I watched a few motivational running videos before I ran, which got me too eager for the beginning of the run. My splits were 5:55, 6:46, 6:55, 6:59, 6:43, and 6:09. After the third and fourth mile I needed to stop to stretch out my still tight hamstring, so that's why those splits are a bit slower. Still, not a terrible run. Core when I got home.

Another 4 miles later that night.

Fun fact; There are three people who'll be in my division next year that can run both a sub 4:20 and sub 9:20. And two others that can run a su 1:55. This has nothing to do with my run today, all I've done so far is core, but that's still pretty crazy. I guess it's time to update my goals

Alright my actual run was a 6 mile easy run from the high school to the temple and back. I averaged around a high 6:50 for the first 3 miles with a light drizzle surrounding me, and then it transformed from a Snoop Dog to Snoop Lion type of thing. Point is, it started thundering and pouring down in an extremely cold fashion. The second half of the run my clothes were soaked and heavy, so the pace slowed. I took my shirt, gloves, and shorts off afterward(I was wearing spandex) and did a 2 mile hard core, feeling like a straight G.

Easy day. I met up with aaron, who wasn't feeling too hot(I wasnt either), we did an 8 warmup and a four mile run at a really easy pace. I'd do another run tonight, but I have the ACT and wanna remain fresh for that.

I met up with Aaron and Christian at McCoy and we ran 8 mile on the steepest and most difficult bike trail. It hurt, but Aaron and I got to slow down every couple of miles for Christian to catch up(he's been at some camp and hadn't run for two weeks). The 5th and 6th mile Aaron and I managed somewhere between 5:40 and 5:50, which was good. Excited to run a Ragnar in 6 days!

Today was suppose to be an easy day. The plan was around 4 miles at a slow pace. Well a mile and a half into the run, I got some stomach pains, so I had to run 2 miles off the original path to go to the park for their bathrooms. I sped up the pace way too much as I came back to the high school, getting sub 6's for a little over a mile, which didn't feel too great. After that some hill repeats followed by strides, and I saw my coach so we had a talk. 

Should have cut yesterday short. Every mile after I hit my third mile I had to stop to stretch out my left leg. It felt like my foot and lower leg were asleep, they had that tingly feeling you get when you lose feeling, but every time my foot hit the ground it hurt pretty bad. I had awful stomach cramps as well. Slowest run since I hit the sand dunes in May. I think I'm going to take tomorrow pretty easy, only run a couple miles and cross train. I think the pains were caused by my warm-up. I was going at a solid 6:40 pace the first half, but then some poser tries to race me, so I speed up pretty quickly to match him(by warm-up standards). He dies out after about 20 seconds, but I keep the pace up until I finish a mile going that quickly. The pace was 4:52. After that I ran a pentagon-type of path from the rec center to Walgreens, to Walmart, to @Collin_Coolbeans house, to Aaron's house and back to the rec.

Hit a new record for my longest plank with a little over 4 and a half minutes. I couldn't even get 3 full minutes after track season ended. More core after that

I ran a little over a mile warm-up in the afternoon, and did a tempo 3.5 mile run. I was aiming around 6:15 because that's what I'm aiming for my pace in the Ragnar. It was really windy, which made it harder to run, so I sped up a bit. I came in at a 5:57 pace for the run. Same cooldown as the warmu. 6 miles added up.

After my run I went home, took an ice bath, and went to a ragnar meeting with my team. Afterwards Mason, Austin, and Jordan decided to do their run for the day, so we called up Brendon and I decided to go with them as well. I was hurting from the run prior, but I still managed to match their pace, which they actually found pretty hard apparently. Added up to be a little over 4 miles. We watched Macfarland USA after the run until midnight(Brendon and I had to go find a Blu Ray player), so no core bcause I'm going to Salt Lake to get some new kicks.

The Grindle clan traveled to Salt Lake so we could buy me some stuff for the camp XC USA that I'm going to soon, so not a lot of time to run, I planned on doing four easy miles in the heat. I started having stomach problems though, so I didn't run and my family left the hotel for dinner. Whilst they ate I decided to go downstairs to the gym and run on the treadmill. Mile warm-up, and a Ragnar four mile tempo run. 3.5 miles at 6:35 pace on a slight uphill, then I sped it up to a 5:40 for .25, then 5:00 for .25. Shout out to my boy Zacharius and lady Emily for making blogs!

Easy shakeout run @ 6:20 pace

First day of Ragnar, which was intense. I did a mile warm-up, and then did some stretches since I started the relay. Different groups were assigned different times, and there weren't too many menacing groups, save a bulky group of Ultra runners and Syracuse high school. The race started, and I got myself out in to a pretty large lead. I think my first split was a high 5:50, which was stupid since it was uphill. After that I hit the switchbacks and had a struggle, including falling down one, which sucked. I slowed down until mile 3, but I had such a lead that no one could catch me. After that I passed my van, who cheered for me, and kept going. It turns out it was 104 degrees that day, the hottest day of the summer. I can't handle heat. I was struggling for my run, and managed to average around a 7:30 and hand off to Mason. The Ultra runner almost got me, but I had a better finish and got a few seconds on him. Mason had a good run, Jordan a bad, Christian an alright one, Aaron a really good one, and Austin a good one too. Everyone in the van was saying how great Aaron was, so I got pumped for my next run.

No sleep before my 2 AM run. I forgot a sleeping bag, so I just layed down outside and developed hypothermia. Eventually Austin and I broke into a wrestling room and rested there, which was sick. I was woken up at 1:30 and told that the swimmers who made up the second half of our team were going super slow, so we'd have to go without the slap bracelet. I did a quick warm-up, a few stretches, and took off into the night. The first 2 miles I didn't see anyone, just myself under the moonlight, until I saw the flashing light of a runner down yonder. I caught the light, only to discover another, and keep going. I had a good pace an finished my 4.5 mile race at a 6:34 pace. Mason had cramps and had to walk a few times but still did well, Jordan did pretty good, Christian did good, Aaron killed, and Austin did great.

My final leg was supposed to be at nine. It was still pretty hot, and the sleep withdrawls and all that were starting to hit me. I was ready at nine, but the swimmers didn't do good(they somehow blamed us for the group slowing down, even though they were averaging ten minute miles). They actually showed up at 11, so I was standing in the heat, ready to run for two hours, which wasn't great on my muscles. When Carly finally handed off to me I took off and caught a few people in the first minute. I think I got 13 by the end of mile 1, and I stopped counting at 60. It was a hilly run, but I still managed my fastest pace in the Ragnar, a 6:19. It was a little over a 5 mile run. The rest on the runners did well, swim team didn't, and the latter party were quite crass with us at the finish line. I realized a few things during that race, one is I hate swimmers. On the bright side, Mason and I got Aubrey Argyle's number, along with the rest of the Davis Varsity Girls, so props to us. Overall a great learning experience. Next year Mason and I are getting some faster people and kicking out the swimmers, and we plan to win it.

A former teammate, Morgan, flew in from Oregon so we did a run and caught up afterwards over breakfast. She's recovering from an injury, so the pace was slow. Afterwards breakfast with the two of us along with aaron, Emily, brendon, and a few others. After that Aaron and I hit some tennis balls at the baseball fields.

I'm in Colorado, so I did a short 4 mile run. My legs were hurting from the 7 hour car ride, and that along with the heat and humidity of Denver made for a difficult run. 3 miles barely under 7:00, and then my last mile sped up to a 5:17 pace. Core that night, where I managed to hold a plank for a little over 9 minutes, probably due to taking a week of easy core rather than strenuous. After that I hit 4:30 for a plank, my previous PR.

Mile on the treadmill, I was getting hip pains so I biked 3 miles at high resistance before getting back on. after that about 5 miles at 6:45 pace at 10% incline. Last half mile sped up to what the treadmill said to be a 4:37 pace, but it felt way too easy. 

In Georgia now. Three miles in the Atlanta heat right after dinner at gramma griddle's house, but the humidity and stomach cramps made me finish earlier than I wanted to.

4 miles on the treadmill when we got to the hotel.

Not sure how long I actually ran, but 6.5 seems somewhat accurate. I left my watch at a crackerbarrel on the way to our hotel(we're in Mississippi now), but it felt really quick. Much better than yesterday. I suspect 6:30 pace, but you never know.

I hate this hotel were staying at. In all actuality it's beautiful and I love the surrounding beach, but we're staying on the tenth floor. Which means you see a building that looks like a mile away whilst in the hotel, but once you start running towards it you realize it's way far away. I ran at 2, The humidity sucked, and I was glistening by the end of it. I considered jumping in the ocean, but thought "nah". I'll measure the real distance later, but for now I'll call it 4.5. I really wish I hadn't lost my watch, every run I've gone on has felt really quick. Currently throbbing pains engulf my shins, so I'll hydrate and see how I feel this afternoon. another 7 miles tonight if I feel well didn't happen, I got Achilles pains

Didn't run because of yesterday's pains, but I did get in a sauna, which was a new experience but not relaxing. I felt like I was in a vegetable steamer

A.M. - 5 mile tempo run focusing on long strides. 

P.M. - 4.5 miles. At the beginning I started thinking about state XC and who I'd need to beat to win as a team and I went out too fast. I'm thinking 5:20. After that my right calf started to cramp up so I cut the run short(i was thinking 7-8 miles). My leg still really hurts, I'm going to ice soon. Core later that night.

Major Achilles pains after my second run yesterday, so I decided to just bike instead. 13.1 miles in 52 minutes at the highest resistance(level 20), so barely under 4:00 pace. Lifted for a bit afterwards. Achilles feels better but too much is on the line to risk anything. Core that night.

10 miles on the bike in the morning, core afterwards

5 more miles in the evening, followed by weights

6 miles in the morning. I really hate running without a watch, it makes me mad not knowing the distance or pace. The run took 40 minutes, so Id call it 6 miles. I'm going to try to measure out 7 tomorrow and run it, then 8 on Saturday, and so on until Camp USA comes around. 

The area I can run in is really limited(I'm in Georgia now), so getting in some distance was difficult. Our cabin is on the top of this super steep hill that goes down about 600m down and 600m up. I did 11 repeats, and it hurt pretty bad. Shoutout to the African American family in the cabin next to us that had like seven children that all would race me as I came up and down the road because it made me speed up and made 8 miles of hill repeats somewhat survivable.

Hill repeats on the same course as yesterday. I was tired from attending a family reunion that morning so that's all I could run before my body told me to stop. Good thing I did, as soon as i finished the run my Achilles started to ache.

4 miles on the treadmill at 6:50 pace. Would've done more, but I'm waking up at 4 AM tomorrow to head back to Utah

Despite such a long journey back to Utah(14 hours), I still managed to attend the team run that night. It was an easy run up and down Moonshine Arch. Aaron and I managed a low 8/ mid seven pace, but everyone else was about ten/fifteen minutes behind us, the rest of boys Varsity included. Shame. Kedric tried to stick with us but died out about a mile in. Uintah XC needs to step up.

Aaron and I met up in the morning and did a light 10k. Started going low sevens, ending at a mid-6 pace. In other news, I leave for team USA XC camp tomorrow!

First day of camp USA. Camp started in the afternoon, so only 5 miles today. My roommate(who I ran with for the most part) is a guy named Charlie from Georgia. He runs a 4:40 and 16:30. His teammates, Max and Will, are here as well(they have even better PRs). The first mile of the run was about a 7:30 because everyone thought they were a hot shot and went ham on what was supposed to be a medium day, pushing the four of us to the back. We caught a lot of people after that, ran about 17 minutes in, and turned back(we run in minutes, not miles here. Since max and will have been here longer than Charlie and I, they were told to be between 35-45 minutes instead of the new kids, 25-35 minutes. Charlie, Will, and I turned around but Max went a couple minutes more before turning. At this point the trail got smaller from people, so I was pushed behind the other guys, and got mad cramps(it's 8000 ft elevation here), so I slowed down a bit. I finished around 20 seconds behind Charlie, who averaged a 6:46 pace, so I'd call it 6:50 for me. After that strides and stretching.

15 minute shakeout run in the morning with Will and Charlie. Our first mile was a high seven, followed by a low 6. Strides and core afterwards. 2.5 together.

Our real run took place through the mountains at 13,000 ft. We had the option to run for 25, 30, 35, or 40 minutes. Charlie did 30 and was kicked out of the van and sent up the mountain, along with the majority of the campers. I wanted to do 35, but did 40 instead. The first mile Max, Will, a div. II runner named Jacob, and I ran behind everyone(including the three girls). The four of us passed the girls, and Jacob kept progressing so I kept with him, leaving the others behind. We eventually caught the front pack of the run 3 miles in, but Jacob kept speeding up and I stuck with the pack. At about 4 miles I started to slow down. The pack had dissipated at this point, so I stuck with a kid from China(nationals qualifier(and Caucasian)) for a bit, but then he gained some ground on me at the end. I managed to beat both Max and Will, and the Mississippi XC state champ, along with a few others, so I'm pleased. Strides after. Sub 6:55 pace. 6 miles altogether for this run.

After breakfast 15 min shakeout run. I stayed with Charlie for the easy part, and then passed him, Will, and Max, along with some others, sticking with a kid named Liam. Strides and core afterward.

At lunch I ate too heavily. After lunch we were literally forced to go into our rooms for an hour and sleep. People caught awake would have to do push ups and crunches. Pretty terrifying. And that we did Cloud Loop run. It's a five mile course, with 1184 foot elevation gain and 600 ft loss. At 13000 ft elevation. On a tiny trail that bikers occupy. We were put into groups of about ten based on speed, I think I was in the second fastest, or maybe third, along with Charlie, Max, Will, and another few kids, notably Ernest and Hugo. For the first mile Max, Hugo, and Ernest made a wall, making passing impossible, going a 7:11 for our first mile. After that the trail got smaller, so I made a move in front of Hugo and drafted off Max until the second mile, he drafting off Ernest. Once we started hitting the big 1100 foot hill the pace slowed, but about mid way I passed Max and followed Ernest, Charlie not too far behind, or Max or Will. I planned to trail off Ernest and surge the last 200, but after the hill the trail only had room for one person, and I was trailing about four feet behind him(the rest of the pack was quite a bit behind. Ernest and I were bombing the hills). He told me to just hurry and pass him, but I didn't want to. A About a minute later he got impatient and worried we'd trip and fall off the mountain face the trail followed, so he hopped into the surrounding grass, forcing me to pass him. After that I started mobbing the hills, passing about half of the group in front of me. I passed the Junior USA XC coach, coach Sanderson, towards the end but he didn't see me. I finished the 5 mile run in 31:57. Charlie ran a 32:48, and Ernest ran a 32:50. Max ran a high 32, and Will had to stop and go on the mountain top. Strides afterwards. Apparently coach Sanderson did notice me, because as Charlie and I did our strides we passed the coach, he looked at me and said "very good form, good pace," ect. I didn't hear him say that to anyone else. After that stride he pulled me away from the rest of my team and talked to me about my trail run, along with my PR's and goals for this season. Yee yee!

15 minute shakeout run in the morning. After that strides and core.

200m repeats after lunch while coaches looked at form.

The afternoon run was the same as my first day. 25, 30, 35, or 40 minutes. I ran with Liam, and we did a little over 40 minutes. Our splits were:

6:43

6:44

6:40

6:37

6:34

6:20

It was a quick run. Afterwards coach Trent pulled us aside to talk to us, and watched our strides. After that he took us to ice personally in his USA hummer, which was sick.

15 minute shakeout run in the morning. I ran at the track and did a 6:48 and 6:43 running in lane 8/7 entirely. Core and strides after.

A bit over a 45 minute run in the afternoon. I paced off Charlie and Ernest, who both did 30 instead. Trent was irate that I finished at the pace I did, he said finishing too hard only causes injury. Strides after.

15 minute shakeout and strides in the morning. Core after. 3 miles

During the real run we ran for 45 minutes and I decided to stick with the #1, 2, and 3 runners; Pedro, Jack Dicintio, and Blake(Pedro runs for college). Once we hit mile 3, we started running 5:50's.I got 4th overall. Strides afterwards. 7 miles

Another 15 minute shakeout run that night. Coach Trent had the whole team do it to pump is up for tomorrow's distance run. I ate too much for dinner and got really sick a mile in. After I finished that I kept running. Strides after. 2 miles

So today was our long run, and I decided to run a half marathon(plus a bit extra). The course was mostly uphill, and pretty difficult to run. No one else ran as far except Ernest, who I ultimately finished with. The first two miles I paced off the front pack, but they were only running around 9 miles so I slowed down the pace. At mile 5 I ran off the road to go to the restroom, which took a while(and slowed down both my pace and time). While I was doing the act, Ernest passed me. I got back on the trail a minute later and caught up to him, and we fought for the lead, which I held from miles 6-11, where he surged and caught me. We ran the two miles together and finished side by side. If I hadn't gone to the bathroom I know I could have broken 1:30. But oh well, I'm glad I did it. We looked at our paces afterwards, if I hadn't taken the bathroom break I would have beaten him by a couple of minutes. Strides afterwards, and a shakeout, strides, and core that evening.

Really bad running day for me. I haven't felt energized or motivated today. The shakeout run most people caught me at the end. The normal run I got 1.5 miles into and had to stop because of foot pains. Tomorrow is a speed tempo day and I need to be better for it.

Shakeout in the morning. Felt good, solid low 6 pace. Strides and core after

The tempo run was awful. After our daily nap was about to end I went to the restroom, while I was in there everyone left to go to the buses for the run, which got moved thirty minutes earlier without anyone's knowledge. I got locked out of my room, and had to hunt Charlie down to get our key, get dressed, and get on the bus. I wasn't prepared at all, didnt have my watch, and overall had a bad run. Everyone slipped away from me, and I fell away. I did 4 miles in about 26 minutes to my aghastness. Strides afterwards

Fast shakeout, strides, and core in the mornings.

7 miles and strides in the evening

Shakeout in the morning and strides. After that I said my goodbyes and departed from my team in Gunnison to go back to Utah.

30 minute progression run that evening, followed by strides. Paces were 6:50, 6:40, 6:20, and 5:45.

7 mile run on the ol' stomping grounds, feat strides.

11 miles, my first official practice as a senior. It feels pretty strange. I ran with Aaron, and we kept up a 6:51, so not too hard. Our first few miles were low 7's, so I sped up to a couple 5's to keep the pace a bit quicker. I blew ahead in the last mile. No one was even close to the two of us. Christian did about 2 miles less than us and still finished seconds behind us. Strides afterwards.

30 min shakeout and strides that afternoon.

Morning run with aaron. The arch of my left foot hurt badly during it, and continues to. Strides afterwards

Mile repeats today. 7 miles in total. Our team does them in pairs, and while you rest your teammate runs, sort of like a two man relay. Aaron and I weren't allowed to pair up with each other, instead coaches told us to choose our # 3 and 4(out of who were at practice), Christian and Jordan. I chose Christian. Kedric(the freshman who knocked me out of state last year) was told just to try to pace off me. The first mile Aaron caught me in the last 500m and beat me, he running a 5:16 and I running a 5:23(my last quarter mile was at a 5:50 pace). Kedric ran a high 5/ low 6. Christian ran a 5:40 and Jordan ran a 6, so I was alone in the lead for the next repeat. I lapped a few people, but then settled into an easy pace(6:20 for the last third). I finished in 5:37. Aaron finished in 5:40's. After that repeat my feet hurt from doing speedwork in Pegasus 30's, so I changed into my flats. The next repeat I ran a 5:27, and stayed in that range until the gap grew large enough that coaches told Jordan(and the rest of the team) to just to stop, and that the top boys would run a few more repeats while they watched. Aaron, Christian and I were the only ones to keep running. When Christian tagged me to start running Aaron went with me, and we fought for the lead until we got to the place where he caught me on the first repeat. He tried to surge, but I kicked the pace up a bit and finished in 5:23, he finishing 5:27(first quarter mile at 6:00, then we picked it up). The final repeat all three of us ran together(Christian, Aaron and I). I didn't feel good on the start, Aaron was pushing the pace and Christian was pushing me behind him, and I started wanting to quit. I held on though, and at the 800m mark I caught Aaron and Christian fell behind. I trailed behind Aaron, giving him space so he could win. However, in the last 300m I made a move and passed him, and my pace kept speeding up. my final repeat time was a 5:21, and Aaron ran what I recall was a 5:33. Christian ran a high 5:40. It felt good, I didn't push too hard, and stayed consistent. Strides afterward.

2 easier miles at 6:21 pace, followed by strides and core.

3 miles in the morning. Splits were 6:40, 6:00, 6:12. Strides and weights afterwards

8 miles that evening doing hill repeats, 1000m up, 1000m down. Averaged a very low 7 pace for the most part. Strides after

Today the varsity team met up with Harley, a former teammate now on the women's track/XC team at UVU. 2 miles from the park to the track, then 3x1000 repeats with a 600m jog in between. I took the repeats a little too easy, gaining the lead and then coasting there. The first one was about 3:15, with Mason and aaron about 5 seconds behind me. The next one I tried to stay with the team. Our first 200 was a 40, the next was a 43, the one after that a 49. At that point I sped up and blazed past the pack, running a 68 last 400. The others were still about 5 seconds behind me. On the final one Aaron started behind me in lane one, with austin and mason in lanes 2 and 3. At 100m in I started to take the lead, but mason cut me off and austin pushed me in to my lane, boxing me in. With 600m to go the three of them were running in a line about 10m ahead of me(I had mad stomach cramps during this repeat). On the straightaway going into the final lap I passed Austin, caught Aaron, but then the cramps came back stronger so I couldn't get mason, who ran around a 3:13. I did 3:19. I ran an extra mile more than the rest of the team coming back because I strayed in order to find a bathroom.

Another 4 miles up on the trails with strides that evening. Felt nice.

3 easy miles with strides in the desert about ten minutes after I woke up. I went 6:56, which was probs a bit too quick for a shakeout. I'll do an easier paced run tomorrow. It was blazing hot, which in a way is good because I'm not great with racing in heat so running in it should help somewhat. My team XC camp is on the 3rd 4th and 5th, and on the final day we have a 2 miles race up a steep mountain. Conner Mckeachnie has the course record of 16:29. My goal is to break 15 on it.

9 miles that afternoon. It was supposed to be an easy run, but the average pace ended up being 6:50. It didn't feel hard to maintain or anything, but I suppose I should have taken an easier day more lightly.

11 miles at red cloud loop(about 10000 ft elevation). 3.5 miles on the top of the plateau, a little over 3.5 going down the mountain, and the same coming back up. Pace was 8:38. I'd feel bad, but 1.) it was an easy day 2.) I ran up a mountain and 3.) my pace down the mountain was 7:48. Strides and core afterwards.

Mile warm-up, 8.5 easy miles at 7:25 pace, and strides afterwards. Aaron got in a bike wreck and hurt himself, so he's out until camp. By the first mile I had a 200m lead on the rest of the varsity boys, and I wasn't even going aaron and I's normal distance pace. I got bathroom cramps halfway in, but it didn't phase me too much. Strides after. During the strides coach Hill and Henderson came to talk to me. They asked me about my run and how I felt and such, and then they basically told me I should run for college(they both ran Division I back in their day). I said I'd like to and they encouraged me to pursue it. Coach Henderson ran for USU, and he said the consistent 5:21-5:23's I was hitting last week during repeats were his usual repeat times in high school. They also had a talk with me about how I need to keep my body strong and not get sick and have a bad region race like junior year. 

3 miles that evening with strides

Mile warmup, then since today's my easy day I ran 3.5 with the varsity girls #slay. Strides afterwards. Core before practice

4 later that night with strides

Mile warm-up, then 40 minutes of 4 minute sets of fartlek running on the beach. Aaron was at practice today, so he, Kedric, Jordan, and I were in the front pack. I wasn't feeling the greatest, but still managed to lead the pack by a few strides. Aaron trailed pretty close behind me, but Jordan and Kedric fell back pretty quickly. 1.5 mile cooldown once we got back to the park on my own, followed by strides. S/O to Aaron, Jacia, and Kyrie for playing some fire beats on my aux on the drive to the beach and back.

Another 7 miles that evening at an easy pace. My core hurt during it. Strides after

4 easy miles in the morning at team practice. It would have been more, but I overslept and showed up late to practice and had to catch up to Aaron and Christian. Core and strides after 

8 more that evening. My Achilles felt some discomfort during it. Strides after. More Core that night.

Mile warmup, then a 6.5 mile run. We actually had a few people today. The varsity pack was Christian, Aaron, Jordan, Kedric, Mason, Austin, and I. The first 4.5 miles were easier, at about a 7:20 pace. We were all having some pretty good conversations, so it was by no means difficult. When we reached the canal at 4.5 we did what was natural and sped up, except Austin who had to take a shortcut back to the park to go to a meeting. Aaron and Christian got caught at a stop light, so it was just Mason, Kedric, Jordan, and I. Mason started to run on the path parallel to the road, so it was just the three of us. I decided to speed up a bit, and Kedric followed for about 10 seconds and died off. I kept speeding up while keeping a maintainable, stable, moderate pace. I finished my last two miles in paces between 5:48 and 5:57. I later found out Aaron, after pacing with Christian for a bit, blew past and got close-ish to me, until dying out and pacing with Mason(his own words). Mason didn't go to slow either, I think they both averaged a low 6 for the last couple miles. I felt like I could keep the pace for longer, but stopped at 6.5. 800m cool down, followed by stretches and strides.

4 more that evening

2.5 in the morning. No strides, I'm leaving for park city to buy a bed so I didn't have time for anything too major

9 miles on the trails that evening with aaron. I let him lead because it was an easier day for me but he sounded like he was going hard. Probably dehydrated from the desert heat. I blew ahead in the last mile because I wanted to get to my water bottle at the coral we were parked at.

Also shoutout to me for getting the 7th highest mileage on the blog this week with 83 miles!! Hard work pays.

3 easy miles w strides in the desert. Core after

2.5 shakeout in the morning with strides before I left with Aaron to go lift and buy supplies for camp. At camp we did a distance run. The farthest anyone went was about 6, but after I finished I ran back and cheered on the slower runners, which in turn won me a sick swag bag for being a team leader.

Mile warmup, followed by 5 mile repeats on a hilly course. It was pretty difficult, I wasn't on my A game for it. However, Christian and I still dominated Aaron, Mason, Austin, and all the rest as a team. Strides after.

Amazing Race that afternoon. It's a fun race where the team is divided in to 4 colors and has to complete various challenges. Christian, Aaron, Natalie and I were made the four captains(Blue team ftw). Each team was pretty even, but they all had a slow person and you had to run as a team, so I had to keep telling freshman hotshot boys to slow down for the girls. We took dead last, but managed to beat every team in Tug-of-War. Strides after.

2 miles with Mason, Kedric, Austin, Harley. Aaron, and Coach Henderson that night while the rest of the team watched McFarland USA.

Today was the Death Race. 600 foot elevation climb up a mountain. Mile warm-up. Feeling not too great. Cramping. I wanted the course record. The race starts, but most of us thought the start was faulty so we just stood there for a second or two before starting, adding time on. By a quarter of a mile in Mason, Aaron and I have a little over a 100m lead. We were flying. Mason had a bit of a lead so Aaron and I waited. Aaron picked up the pace halfway in and I stayed constant on the hills. Mason walked a few hills, but would pass me soon after. Suddenly, it's the last 300m of the race. Aaron has a bit of a lead on me, and I on Mason. Suddenly, Mason stops walking and goes in a dead sprint. My legs were lead in the home stretch and I couldn't go with him. He catches Aaron, and barely beats him. Mason ran a 15:25, Aaron a 15:27, and I a 15:52. Shoutout to the three of us for all breaking Conner's winning course record time of 16:29. The next runner was Christian, and he ran what I recall to be a 16:48. Overall, it was an alright race. I'm happy I broke 16, but I wish I had prepared my speed and hill work more than just distance training. Looks like I know what to work on for the next week leading up to time trials! Ran the course backwards to cheer for slower runners, then to the start of the course where I left my shirt, then back to camp. Strides after.

6 that afternoon with strides

6 miles with warm-upand strides in the morning with the team.

Time trials is next Wednesday, but those who will be absent have to run the course tomorrow instead. Christian is one of them, and since he's Varsity Coach Henderson asked me to pace him for the second half of the race tomorrow(Aaron paces the first half). I went out to the halfway point and ran the course at Christian's hypothetical race pace, which is 5:40. I jogged back and did it again. I was going 5:30 half a mile in, so I decided to pick up the pace to my hypothetical race pace. Shoutout to the guy who drove up next to me and told me I was going 15 mph .75 miles in, who also called me a pro. In 400m I dropped the pace from a high 5:30 to 5:08. There's a hill toward the end of the first mile, so I slowed down a bit, coming in at a 5:13. I averaged a 5:25 pace for my second tempo run, because I got mad cramps after the first mile. Strides, stretches, and core after.

I paced Christian's second half of his time trial race, and it went pretty well. I set a high 5:30 and he followed it for about a mile, then slowed down a bit. I still yelled encouraging things at him, and he finished hard, running a 17:20. He seemed a lit unhappy about the time, worriedit wasn't fast enough for top 7, but I'm sure it will be. In my opinion the pace I set felt nice, I definetely could keep it up for three miles. Jogged a bit and did strides after. I wanted to get more mileage in, but my body was telling me I need rest, so I'll oblige for today.

2.5 miles that evening just to warm up for the lifting, core, strides, and stretches I did after 

2.5 in the morning w strides

11.5 in the desert with aaron. Easy pace, we were talking the entire run. Hiked up a mountain and went to Aaron's house after.

12 miles at red cloud loop @ 7:47 pace, a full minute faster per mile than when I did it two weeks ago. It was super muddy which made it way more difficult than last time. Strides after

Mile warmup- followed by a 6.5 mile tempo run.

Splits - 

6:41

6:41

6:00

6:02

6:31

6:27

Average pace 6:23. It could have been faster, but my legs were tired from the past two days, and I REALLY had to go to the bathroom after mile 4. Next fastest pace was a 6:47 from Mason. Strides after

Shakeout and strides that afternoon that added up to 3. Went out 6:56 for the first mile then dropped down to 6:16.

Mile warmup, followed by core. Afterwards we did a few sets of 30 seconds easy, 30 seconds hard around the park. The first few I ran alone, trying to get into the swing of pacing myself for when I hopefully snatch the win in tomorrow's race. The last easy 30 seconds I went with Mason, and we both went all out during the hard 30 seconds. I got about a 5m lead on him and kept it up, but the pace certainly wasn't an enjoyable one(sub 4:00). Mason told me afterwards he started to lose me at the end, and that I was hauling. S/O to him for the flattery. A bit of ultimate frisbee after. I walked the most part, not wanting to risk anything. I did go harder for a few seconds, and in those moments I denied a sophomore hard core for the frisbee, and I jammed my finger as we tumbled down. Afterwards Aaron, Austin, Jordan, and Kyrie were playing volleyball and invited Mason and I, but we said we'd rather save our energy for tomorrow and I went to do my strides. Added up to 3.

2.5 shakeout that afternoon. First mile pace 7:06, second mile 6:14. Felt pretty good. Strides after.

It was an alright race. Yesterday I was on my A game, today not too much. I actually think the course was closer to a 5k than 3 miles. Aaron almost didn't race due to not having his physical, but showed at the last possible second. The start was a little quick. Mason went out with the lead, and I caught up to him by the second turn. We came in at the 800 at 2:29, so a little quick. After that we slowed down a bit, until Aaron caught and passed us, which made us speed up. Aaron had the lead for about 5 seconds until we ran together again. Ahead of us the path narrowed, leaving room for 2 runners. I sped up a bit and Mason and I took the front, Aaron trailing behind. There was a sharp turn, so I took the lead for about a mile. After the next turn Mason surged ahead a bit, so I settled the pace a bit slower. Aaron caught me, but as the second mile ended I surged ahead of Aaron and trailed behind Mason, who sped up again. I was trailing Mason with about 1000m left, with Aaron about a second behind, when we got to a sharp turn at the post office. Mason swung out wide and I took it sharply, hoping to gain a lead, when I rolled my ankle on the curb. It sort of threw me off pace, and Mason sped up. With an 800 left Mason had maybe 5m on me, and me on Aaron. My finish wasn't as strong as it should have been, and Aaron got me at the end, with Mason creating a large gap. Top times were;

Mason-16:27

Aaron-16:37

Me-16:47

Austin-17:52

Jordan-18:02

Kedric-18:18

Christian technically got 4th with his 17:23, but besides him there was a huge gap between the top 3 and number 4, just like death hill. All three of us broke Keaton's course record of 16:57. Overall it was an alright time, I should have made it hurt and pushed harder though. I'll try to aim for top 2 on the team at Pre-region next thursday. Strides after.

I technically did this race last night, but I can't put two races in one day. I met up with Austin, Aaron, Mason, Kyrie, and Jacia at Austin's and we played air hockey and relaxed for about three hours before the race, so shoutout to Austin for that. We were all still hurting from time trials that morning, so it was a pretty painful race. I was having bad stomach cramps since time trials, so the run was painful. I didn't even realize the race started where it did, so I started about 10 seconds late at the very back. I pushed ahead and got away from the big pack of people, where a whole bunch of inexperienced runners were going ham. Rather than hurt myself by surging ahead I stuck at a high 5:30 pace and let the others die out trying to keep a lead. By 800m in there was only one runner ahead who was falling back, so I dropped the pace to gain the lead. By the first U turn about a mile in I saw there was another runner about 30 seconds behind me, and besides that the road was all but deserted. I saw Aaron, Austin, Mason, Kyrie, and Jacia coming back and they cheered for me, so I sped up again. At this point my chest was starting to hurt pretty bad. at 1.75 miles in the course turned on to a road with no lighting(we were supposed to wear glowsticks, but mine fell off. It was sketchy racing alone in the dark, but I liked it. When I was hitting the second U I saw the 2nd place runner was a little over a minute behind me, so I sped up even more, hoping my chest pains would fade away. They didn't, but I kept going quick. The XC squad cheered for me again as we passed each other. I finished pretty well. I won by over three minutes. Really glad I've been doing two runs a day, because it finally payed off. Shoutout to Kyrie for winning the girls division, and Jacia for getting 2nd! The three of us got out pictures taken and some sweet empty moonshine bottles for our victory. Feels good to finally win an XC race, my debut senior year 5k no less! Now I need to win an invitational and life will be perf.

5 miles that morning. Did the first three with the Varsity boys, then I ran a little extra to join Kyrie and Jacia after. Strides after that.

3 more with strides that afternoon

Mile warm-up, then we ran the flume trail. It's a pretty narrow trail for about 2 miles, then you turn back on a dirt road and finish. A few freshman took the lead early, Aaron and I pushed them back as they started to die about a minute into the run. Tragic. Aaron and I knew I'd set the pace too quickly, so I let Aaron take the lead. Austin, Kedric, and Jordan were trailing a few seconds behing the two of us as well. We got lost and missed the turn off, going an extra mile too far. Once we hit the main road the pace sped up a bit and Kedric and Jordan fell behind. I decided I felt comfortable enough to take the lead, so I started striding out. Austin was going ham so Aaron and I had to keep speeding up(sidenote- Aaron was wearing LT's, Austin wearing Zoom Elites. I was wearing 12 dollar trail shoes I got on clearance). Eventually Austin started to fall off, so Aaron and I fought each other for the last two miles. I think we were going 5:30 at least. Aaron would surge, I would stride to keep my lead, and that kept going on until he passed me with a half mile to go. I might have been able to fight him for it, but two races in the past 48 hours started to take a toll. After that I decided just to keep my lead on Austin, which I did. If I had had speed shoes the run may have gone differently, ut I don't care all too much. In other news Kyrie told me that I ran the moonshine 5k in 15 minutes according to her cousin who timed the race, but I'll believe it when I see it. Strides after

3 mile shakeout with strides that evening. 7:03 pace.

3 easier miles in the morning. Splits were 7:16, 6:29, and 6:10. I wanted to do speed training but football was too busy practicing how they'll lose every game this season for me to run on the track. strides after.

Went to do speed training at the track at 4, expecting the football players not to be there. Was incorrect. I think there's a middle school tournament going on or something, because the players were too small and too good to be my team. These kids can actually catch the ball #fightin'words. I drove to the park instead. 5x600m, 4x400m, 3x200m, followed by 8x100m strides, with a minute of active jogging in between each repeat. I ran the 600's with the mentality of running the first half working on form, and kicking the second half. First repeat pace was 5:10. Second and third were both 5:25, fourth was 5:15, then took a short bathroom break, then 4:51. 400 time's were 68, 72, 75, took a water break, and finished in 67. I was pretty dead tired for the 200's, I believe it was over 100 degrees out, and that combined with the flames coming from my shoes just made it difficult. I was also wearing a heavier shirt, I was planning on running shirtless but it seemed like every pre-schooler in Utah was there. Ran 34, 35, and 32. Strides after. I think I did something to screw up my throat because it causes me immense pain to swallow, it's like having a barbed wire cotton ball around my uvula #APEnglishanalogies I'd call it 6. I went over my mark of dropping to 61 miles this week. Dang shakeouts.

12.5 @ Red Cloud Loop with Aaron. Pace 8:14. Pretty easy. Ate wayy too much after church though, so my stomach was killing me.

Mile warm-up, followed by easy 6.5 mile run. Aaron had a dentist appointment that morning so he did the workout while we warmed up, coaches told him we were doing a 50 minute tempo run. For everyone else the coaches changed their minds and decided to go easy pace. For the first 1.5 miles Christian, Jordan, Austin and I were in the front. Christian slowed down and they sped up, I following. Eventually I realized they kept trying to pick up the pace so they could beat me or something, so I slowed down, telling myself I'd speed up at the last 2 miles. When we hit the 4.5 I started striding out and doing low 6's, blowing past the other two who were slowing down from surging. It wasn't too hard, my legs felt heavy though. I finished with about 3 minutes on the other guys. Splits;

6:59

7:19

7:14

7:07

6;25

6:04

With the last half mile being a 6:05 pace. Overall felt pretty easy. Strides and cooldown after added up to a little over 8. Averaged a 6:48 pace. Aaron said he averaged 6:50 on his tempo run, so I felt pretty solid.

2.5 mile Shakeout that evening. 6:06 pace. Nothing too awful. Core, strides, stretches, and lifting after

Mile repeats. Aaron partnered up with me(sorry Christian. You'll always be #1 to me), and made me start off. The other faster people starting were Christian, Austin, and Kenny. I ran pretty quickly and came in at a 5:12, which was sweet. Austin and Christian ran like a 5:30. Mason(Austin's partner) got a bit closer to Aaron but Aaron prevailed, running like a 5:29, Mason a 5:27, which caused me to take this repeat easier, coming in at 5:25, gaining a little more of a lead on the team in second. The next one Aaron ran a 5:33 and Mason ran a 5:19, so Austin got a few seconds of a start on me. I let him tire himself out for a bit, and passed him at about the half-way point. I picked up after that, running a 5:21. Aaron held Mason off in the end. For the last repeat the Varsity crew and anyone else who fancied to hurt had the option of a fourth repeat. It started, and by a minute Mason and I had probably a 10m lead on everyone. The two of us kept pushing each other, and when we had a quarter mile left either I surged or Mason slowed, either way I came in with the win. I ran a 5:12 again, Mason a 5:18, Aaron like a 5:25, and Austin and Christian got 5:30's. Cooldown and stirdes after added up to 6. Overall felt good! I was going quick, but I wasn't pushing super hard or anything like last time, and I could only do 5:23 then. Crazy thinking that I beat my sophomore 1600 PR 3 times on the non-linear repeat course, without the use of spikes or major competition! Coaches seemed impressed. On a side note I payed my footlocker fee today, so looks like I'm coming back for round 3!(Nationals will be round 4 ;))

2 mile shakeout that evening. 6:14 pace. Last half mile was 5:20 pace. 8x30 second hill repeats and strides after.

3 easy miles with the team w/ core. Strides after. Preregion is tomorrow. Coaches want Aaron Mason and I to pace varsity for a high 5:50 the first two miles then kick it in gear. Hopefully I can pull out one of the 5:12's I was throwing out in repeats on Tuesday.

2 mile shakeout. 6:14 pace. Strides after.

2 mile shakeout that morning.

Wasn't the race I wanted. Rather than packing, we decided Mason Aaron and I should go out 5:40 pace. That's fine, but Aaron didn't tell me until we were on the starting line, so my mental was screwed over. First 100m went well, then tight curve. Mason went sharp and got in the front, and Aaron took it too quick and stumbled and cursed a bit. about 50m later Aaron trips and falls. Christian passes me. Can't swallow, feels like I'm dying. I work with Christian to pass people. I pass him a little over a mile in, but he passes back. Halfway point. I can hear Aaron's breathing behind me. I know he'll make a move soon. I pass Christian, and Aaron passes me. finish kick = nonexistent. Barely managed to beat Christian, I let Aaron blow ahead. Varsity Times-

Mason - 17:11

Aaron- 17:25

Me- 17:38

Christian- 17:39

Kenny - 18:37

Austin - 18:52

Kedric - 19:06.

Overall not a great race. I'm glad I got it out of the way. Time to get some speed. Also top 5 made relay for American fork! #KennytheSlayer

Did a mile warmup with the team. Coach told us 20 minute easy run, about 15 seconds into it my knee started killing me, a problem that arose during the meet yesterday. Walked back to the high school, biked for the 20 instead, and did core with the team. Drove out to salt lake that night. 10 miles on the bike in intervals of 5 and 15 resistance in 37:30. Ran on the treadmill for 3 minutes. Lifted and did a little plyometrics after.

AM- 3 easy miles on the treadmill at 7:19 pace, 4 miles on the bike. Bit of core after.

PM- Was aiming for 3 miles under 16 on the treadmill. Was strong at the beginning, but a heavy lunch made the run 2.25 at 5:18 pace. 1.75 at 7:13 after. Strides after that.

Another mile that evening at a steep gain, 3 miles on the bike, then lifted and did core

Went to lagoon in the morning and walked like a 5k throughout the day

The car ride back hurt my legs, so I did a distance shakeout. About 10 easy miles at 7:04 pace. Around a 300 ft elevation gain. Strides after. Calves hurt from the three hours in the car. Overall not too bad.

Woke up, did some core, and left for a 2 mile shakeout at 6:48 pace with strides. After that took a quick ice bath and headed to school. Typing this in AP History(rebel)

Mile warmup and 7.5 run with varsity after. Had some major bathroom cramps and had to take a few restroom breaks in between. Still passed Kedric, and averaged a 7:53 pace which isn't awful considering all the breaks I had to take. Core later tonight 

5 miles with strides. Lone wolfed it at 7:11 pace in the evening.

Mile warmup, 3xmile repeats and 4x800s(more like 650-ish) first mile straight murdered in 5:02, then 5:16, then 5:18. I think I could have broken 5 if Mason and I had ran together, instead I lead a solemn lead. Didn't feel too hard. Aaron ran some high 'teens, mason went 5:27, 5:16, and 5:21. 800's mason and I blew ahead of everyone. First one mason went ham with 1:46, me 1:49, next Mason 1:52, me 1:55, repeated, then I ran barefoot for the last one. Mason started a couple seconds ahead so we'd both go hard. I caught up to him, ran even with him for a 100, then passed. Kept that up for maybe a second, before he crushed the finish. I died. 1:46, 1:48. Not sure if anyone else broke 2:00¿ Christian went pretty ham#newbalancenationals4x800prospect Cool down and strides added to 7. Core after

Warmup, then a bit of speed. 6x400s on the garbage sidewalk/highway/rocks and grass. First one I went out ham. It felt like my legs were dead weights before we even began. Just kind of felt like I was falling forward. By 100m in I couldn't even hear footsteps behind me #Leadgameenormous almost ate it on the bend at 250m though, and Mason got closer. I came in at 60, Mason 61, and the next time was like a 65. Next one Mason 61, Me 63. Wasn't feelin super hot. besides the heat, of course. Mason and I repeated our times for the third repeat, and Austin swears he beat me. Not true. Next one I gave up on. Ran a 68, Mason, Austin, Aaron, Christian, and Robert all beat me. S/O to them. I went to the restroom quickly before the next one, and started about 3-5 seconds behind everyone else. Managed to catch everyone except the people who beat me before, and Stockton, Last repeat Mason and I fight for the first 100m for it, and I get it. I don't slow down this time. I can hear Mason on my back so I keep it quick. Finished with a low 61 for the final repeat, with what I understand to be the two fastest times of the day. 15 minute jog w/ Aaron, Jacia, Kyrie, and Austin afterwards. Left premature and ran alone because they started walking to get water. Afterwards coaches had a long talk with Mason and I. They want one of to start the American Fork relay. I told coach I wanted to do 10:20's, so he said I'd probs start. Strides after. It hailed during them. 

3 easier miles from the hotel to UVU and back. My hamstrings were hurting mad from repeats. Did over an hour of stretches that night to no avail

Once we arrived to american fork Mason and I ran the two mile course for a shakeout, then a few hours of rest. I was pretty tired and it was Supa hot. Did about a 1.5 mile warmup, ran with dez hills for a couple minutes and then headed back. talked to Garek, Kennedy Powell, and American Fork for a minute or two, then did my stretches and headed to the starting line. The girls took forever, so I sweated on the starting line for like an hour. Flash forward to starting the relay. I went out alright, but 200m in the course bottlenecked, and I got pushed back to the back. For the next 800 a few people passed me, then I just kind of coasted into a weak pace. I don't know, I just couldn't. Lame. The second mile I caught an orange guy and almost another, but Mason got him after I handed off. I don't actually know my time but for now I'll call it 11:00. Mason and I ran like a mile after cheering for the other relay members. Shoutout to Talon Hull for hauling, and Garek for being 2 seconds away from the record with like a 9:45! And for Mason for making a blog #cherokeenation

2 miles when I got back home, and 6 more that night. Was supposed to run with Jacia but she bailed last minute, so I went a bit quicker. First few miles were in the 6:30's. strides after

17 miles. 7:50 pace. Didn't hurt really too much beside the occasional cramp, but man my calves are sore now that it's done. Ran from my house, across the entire city, to masons house, where I there punched his trash can, and ran back home. Longest run ever by almost three miles. Was dark for the last 5 miles. Currently considering dropping his whole Uintah XC thing to become a Nike sponsored ultra runner. Hit the half marathon mark at 1:41. Strides after. What a time to be alive.

1.5 Mile warmup, followed by 8 mile distance run. Aaron and I averaged 6:35 pace the first four miles, the second mile being under 5:40. After four I got bathroom cramps, and ran alone to the bathroom at 7:00 pace. Avg pace 6:58. Strides after, and core, where @CherokeeKenny and I hit a 4 minute plank. Didn't feel too bad.

4 miles at 6:32 pace, alone because I had to skip practice. First half mile I was sore, so I sped up and clocked a 5:32 first mile, then I remembered it was an easy day. Strides after. 

Everyone was gone today for a JV meet except the 9 guys and 5 girls who made the BYU mark, so practice today was coach free. Mile warm-up, then Yellow Hill repeats. It consists of a mile up-hill where you run up two light posts (spaced about 100m apart), then go back down one, then back up two, and so on. The first one I had about a full light post on Mason and Aaron, and they on everyone else, but in my lightning speed I missed the final light post, so I didn't turn back. I only noticed when Aaron shouted my name as he went back down the final post, so I turned back, adding an minute and like 300m on to my time and distance. 6:29 pace. Next one I went out ham and settled back, still leading by a large amount, about 15 seconds on Mason and Aaron. 6:39 pace. My calves started to ache pretty bad on the jog down, running just felt like a continual stumble. The next one Aaron was pretty close to me. 6:39 again. The next one I started a little late and couldn't go as hard because I didn't have the lead pressuring me with Mason and Aaron in front. Mason kicked hard at the final post, and I could hear Kedric's breathing behind me, so I kicked to Aaron, who in turn kicked. we fought, and he beat me. 6:34. Only one repeat I did with a good finish. That was the final repeat, but I, as per usual, was the only one who jogged back down the hill for active rest, so when I hit the bottom and saw that people were still just starting to walk down, I decided to run straight up the hill by myself. Thanks for everyone who cheered for me as we passed ways. 7:10 pace. Not sure if it should be slower or faster than the ones before? Anyway, I turn around to see Aaron and Christian running up as well, S/O to them for wanting to be the best. 7/11 Party afterwards (feat.) Team Slurpees and my Gatorade I bought instead. Strides after, then joined Austin and Aaron in the AUX cord battle of the century vs. Kyrie and Jacia. We were 'ight until I got the cord, where I then murdered the two. R.I.P., I'll miss the fun we had. Thanks to Jacia for not getting upset about the stealing of her car while her and Kyrie filled up their water bottles. But, she did leave it unlocked and running, with us 5 feet away. No surprise

Picked up my sister from her JV meet and dropped her off at church. Was going to head home, but then I remembered that I told Talon that I'd go to Nationals with him, so I ran another 2 miles to become stronger, Through the ghetto #Runninthroughthe6ixwitmywoes

Did some core before practice. Hit an easy 3 minute plank. Mile warm-up, followed by 30 minutes of lifting/jump ropes. Had a long meeting afterward, then an easy 5 mile run with Mason, Christian, Kedric, Aaron, and a couple sophomores who went too hard. Core after. Coach informed the team that Mason, Aaron, Christian, and I have been taken out of Varsity to be put into the "Elite" division. sick. Strides after.

Mile warm-up, then a two mile run at about 80%. I ran a 12:04, and it felt super easy. Strides after super quick but leisurely. Super stoked for BYU! Coach wants me to pace with Christian the first mile to take it easier, then move up to Aaron, then Mason for the third lap. I think I'll try it and see how it's going. Also going to take the next week a bit easier, with the home meet on Wednesday, and my first "Elite" race on Friday.

Went to bed at 8 since I had to wake up at 3 AM to get on the bus. Ran a lap with Mason when we got to the campus. The course consists of 3 mile loops. I had it as a 5k but they called it 3 miles. The plan was to get Aaron to pace us for 5:40, then kick the second two laps. Gun goes off, and we hit the mile mark at 5:02. Nice job, Aaron. After that I just felt awful. Ran 5:50's the next two laps. Got beaten by Kedric and Christian. Not a good day. I think I need to cut back on my mileage and stop with these 12< mile runs once a week, they aren't good for me. Going to take the next day or two off and see how it works at the home meet. Pretty discouraged from the race, but the team needs me. As a team we did well. Mason managed to take 24th with a 16:11, Aaron and Christian both broke 17 and Kedric got a huge PR. We would have gotten 8th, but we tied with Corner Canyon, and their 6th was about a minute faster than Austin, our 6th. We did however beat Springville, bringing us closer to a region 8 win.

A very much needed off day after a difficult week 3 months. First day with no miles since Ragnar. After church I have to move tree branches from one part of the property to the other, so that was somewhat of a workout #farmersonly.com I plan on doing around an hour workout after dinner consisting of squats and core. In other news, Mason finally updated his blog. Shoutout to him for that, and for him running a 16:11.

3 miles going 30 seconds race pace, 2 and a half minutes easy. Took the 30 seconds a bit hard, it felt like a sub-five pace. But then again, I wasn't feeling too hot so that might have been it. My right hamstring was annoying me towards the end. Strides after.

Lifted and did core that afternoon.

Mile warmup, followed by 30 minutes in the circuit room and a 3 mile run. Ran the first mie with the varsity squad, then a mile later Chrsitian, Mason, and I broke off and picked up the pace at the end. I was going 5:40 and it felt alright. Legs are still a little tired. Strides after, and watched girls tennis. Shoutout to Courtney and Mariah for winning the singles department. Strides after, then a sick spaghetti dinner at Mason's house. It was dope. Kyrie Austin Aaron and I had a sick jam sesh and Mason and I had a real moment with his horse #forbiddenlove. Home meet tomorrow. Pumped. Gonna finally win an invatational.

Mile warm up beforehand. Gun goes off. By the 400 mark I had about a 50m lead. It feels great. Running right behind the golf cart. Going good. By the 1600 I have a 30 second lead. Mile mark at 5:12. That wasn't the plan. I wanted to do a 5:40, then negative split. I slowed down pretty bad. Mason caught me at the second mile, then with an 800 to go Aaron, Christian, and Cody Layton from Altamont all catch me. By the finish I'm catching them again, but oh well. Another race to learn from. Took fifth overall, and had a full minute on number 6, so it wasn't awful? Asked Mckenna Sprouse to homecoming after #D8

Woke up today with a knot the size of a golfball in my calf, so after Kyrie rolled it out for about 10 minutes to my anguish coaches decided we should just do core instead. 40 minutes of that, then iced with Zach and Austin as well, then the four of us went to the soccer game and went to Zach's house for banana bread and trail mix after. About to ice again. Murray is tomorrow. With calf permitting, Coach wants me to run a bit slower, with Christian for the first mile, then once I push up the hill, speed up and try to get to Aaron. Beating Aaron would be dope, but I'd just like to get into the top three again. The thing is Aaron and Christian have been really close as of late. We'll see how it goes. My spots on the team have gone 3,3,4,5,4 #Pattern(?)

Never forget. Prayers out to the families of victims.

Anyway, got on the bus and got a pretty good nap. Also got answered by Mckenna to homecoming in the morning #D8D8 got to the course and did a mile warmup with Davis and then half a mile with my team. Decided against using spikes and wore flats instead. I decided, with coaches advising, to run the beginning of the race easy then kick it in. Gun goes off. Austin runs in front of me for some reason and cuts me off, so I run outside the pack to get Christian. By a quarter of a mile in Mason, Christian, Aaron, and I are separated by like ten yards altogether. Hit the mile mark at 5:19. Felt pretty easy. It was super hot and hilly though, but nothing major yet. Started passing people at 1.5, caught Christian with about 200m left on the second mile, and kept passing. Aaron was in my zone, but I was still taking it too easy. Finsihed alright. Left a lot in the tank. I got my bronze Uintah spot back though! Mason ran a 16:30, and Garek ran 15:03. Wowza. Will run harder at the rendevouz. 

4 miles after with Mason and the Varsity girls from Jackson. Talked to the UVU coaches after

Homecoming was today. Straight fire with McKenna #d8d8d8 

AM - Woke up and went on a nice shakeout. Went a little quicker since my mileage last week was sub-par. Ran the first mile just working on form, taking large strides on the downhill. Hit the first mile in 5:23. I'm sure running up was a bit slower, but my watch died halfway through the uphill so I can't say the second mile time. Strides after.

PM - Sick speed workout. The general idea I was able to think up was 6 800's in 3:10, 3:00, 2:50, 2:40, 2:30, then one all out. The idea sounded pretty good, but I had a better idea. Same paces, but the second lap I'd run ten seconds faster than the prior one, as to work on my non-existent kick. First one, 1:40 and 1:30 adding up to 3:10. Next one I hit 1:35 and 1:25, 3:00. Next one, I started thinking about races and stuff, rather than my form, and I think I hit the 400m mark at like 1:33. I hit the 600 at like 2:10. Picked it up and finished in 2:45, 5 seconds too speedy. Next one I hit the 100m at 18. Slowed down a bit but still hit the 400m at 83, a bit too fast. Finsihed the next 400 a second too quick and did a 2:37. My watch actually got these as barely over .5 miles because of having to swerve into the second lane a few times due to football team belongings. next one was supposed to be 2:30, and I got a little excited. Hit the 400m in 76-77. 3 seconds too quick. I decided I needed to punish myself and that if I ran the first lap 3 seconds too fast, I'd do the same for the second one. Did a 66-67 and hit the 800 in 2:22. After that I botched the all out 800m idea, instead aiming to break my 1000m record of 2:57. I ran this sophomore year going on a steep downhill. I still was doing the speed changes, however. Went out well, then realized my watch didn't even start. jogged back, and started again. Hit the 400m at 75, then sped up a bit. Felt quick, but didn't hurt. I actually felt good throughout this entire workout. Ran a 67 after to put me once again at a 2:22 800m, then finished hard with a 34 200m. I ran a 2:56 1000m, just barely breaking the prior record. It felt pretty maintainable, I think I could have kept going to run the 4:40 1600, but oh well. Good workout! The strides I did after felt amazing. I almost always feel like my form is crap or I'm sluggish ever since I came back from Team Prep USA, but this felt good. Really good. I was hauling and form was on point, and it didn't wind me or anything. My calves were pretty sore from 6 miles in spikes, so shoutout to my dad for not letting me ice bath because I was too busy updating my blog so he got mad and drained all the water I had just spent ten minutes waiting for it to run. Next stop, injury city

A little over a mile warmup, then an 8 mile distance run. The first two miles I ran with Mason, Austin, Christian, Kindon, and Kedric, but my calves hurt a ton from yesterday so I slowed down quite a bit. I hit just under 32 minutes for the 4 mile mark. The rest of the guys had 2 minutes on me at least. After that I sped up quite a bit. I caught the pack at 6, but didn't slow down. At this point it was raining pretty awful and was freezing, plus very heavy winds and a lengthy uphill to top it all off. Mason and I still managed to run the last .9 miles in 4:54, according to Mason's watch. Official splits;

7:44

7:39

7:47

8:27

7:08

6:50

6:47

5:47

Calves stopped being so sore 4 miles in but then I felt good, but afterwards they were hurting again. Did strides after, felt uncomfortable below the knees, above the feet. Nice workout. I think I could've fought Mason harder and pushed us harder, but also I went too hard anyway. Oh well. Looks like tomorrow's easy.

Mile warmup, then core. Iced after w/ kyrie bc my calfs and her tendinitis were killing while everyone else went on a 20 minute run. A few varsity boys who will be unnamed stuck back and didn't run because they're lazy pieces of trash who are going to get kicked off varsity by people who care about their training. Watched soccer after with austin, kyrie, and Mason. It rained super hard so Mason and I took shelter under the Walk umbrella. #12lookinfresh went to church after and got baptized. 

T

JV was at a smaller meet, so Varsity and a few others ran U hill. The pace was supposed to be quick. By half a mile in Aaron, Mason and I packed way ahead of everyone. After a couple minutes Aaron got a medium lead on me, with Mason in between. I caught Mason, but he kicked it in and blew past me and beat Aaron as well. While everyone recovered I  ran back down to the slower runners and ran up with them. After that it stormed bad and Aaron and I hauled down the mountain. Strides after.

4 easy miles. Good luck to everyone running at the rendevouz on saturday. Except you, Seth Freckleton. I'm gonna kill ya

2 miles on the treadmill while Aaron biked

Got to the meet pretty early, early enough for Mason and I to run the course. The rendevouz consists of 1 JV race and 7 Varsity races where all the #7 Varsity runners race, and so forth. The squad ranks were as follows; Jordan 7th, Austin 6th, Kedric 5th, Christian 4th, me 3rd, Aaron 2nd, and Mason 1rst. In the JV race of 388 people Clayton, a newer member of the team, managed to get 12th place and run a 17:44, so shoutout to him, and Kenny as well for having a good race. Jordan and Austin both got like 18:10's, and Kedric ran a 17:45, making Clayton at least #5 Varsity. When Kedric started I got Jacia, our girl #3, and went on a 10 minute warm-up, going hard the last minute. After that we stretched and ran to the starting line, where I forgot my bib, but Jacia was the coolest kid on twitter and went and got it for me while I went to the restroom for the final time. The gun went off, and everyone went out hard, despite it being a 20-something person race. At the first big hill about a third a mile in I passed a few people, getting into 10th place. After that I worked with Jake Graves from Stansbury for a while. He hit the mile mark at 5:25, I was at 5:28. After that I caught him and at the two mile mark he has some room on me again, and coach tells me I did a 6:00 mile so I speed up and catch him again. we got to the point where we had 1000m left and Mason yells at me that I'm tied for 7th. Jake moves up, and I do as well but as we work to pass this kid from Brighton, he keeps cutting me off as I try to pass. I ended up not passing the jerk because of it, and ran a 17:21. Splits were 5:28, 5:59, 5:55. Didn't even feel winded at the finish. It bugged me that I ran so cautiously, but ya win some ya lose some. Christian got 3rd in his race with a 16:59, Aaron 5th with a 16:39, and Mason 8th with a 16:27. Shoutout to Talon Hull for murdering the #1 race with a 15:12. Cooldown afterward with the team, and I did some strides after finishing Cafe Rio quickly. Ran a mile when I got home to add it up to 10 for the day.

I was going to take the day off, so I listened to some old recordings from team prep USA. There was one talk where the western coach told us that long easy sunday runs are essential, especially after a race. So I laced up and went for a 75 minute run in the desert in the early afternoon. Pace was slow, and it was super hilly. I think that coach was full of guano, but what's done is done.

Ran from the high school up to Docks Beach, a lengthy journey of a run. I let the rest of the faster guys get a lead on me until we hit the major hills, and then I sped up a ton and caught everyone. I think I sped up to quickly though, because after I passed Aaron, who was in front, I started to hurt. He passed me again and after that I trailed with him. Coaches drove up to us 4 miles in and told us we had gone too high, and that the stopping point was half a mile behind. Looking behind I saw Mason right behind us, but the next guys were like 200m behind. Mason and I lengthened our stride and got back to the stopping point rather speedily, where I rested a bit less than I probably should of because I felt good. I looked down the road and saw Kenny and Jordan had already left a little while ago. I caught and passed them, but Kenny picked the pace up major and I decided to take this part of the run easy since the difficult part had passed. Avg 7:03 pace. Strides after added to 9.5

2 miles of 3/1 pacing. Core after, and watched 4 hours of girls soccer after. in other words I think #12 is my least favorite number

Ran 4 miles throughout the hours before the race, and got on the starting line. Gun went off. I decided to take today easy because of Bob Firman being on saturday. Hit a 5:21 first mile. After that, I tripped and it sort of threw me off. It didn't even feel like a race, it just felt like a tempo run. Which is why I was shocked to find I dropped a PR of 16:39! Crazy. Now I just gotta drop a sub 16:30 on saturday. Mason won the race with a 15:46, And Christian managed to barely beat Aaron with a 16:22 to his 16:23. I need to work on my kick. With a 400m left, the two of them were just maybe three seconds ahead of me.

4 mile run. Paces were 7:20, 7:10, 7:04, and 5:40. Last mile felt easy. Half mile in the parking lot after.

Simple as that.

As soon as we got off the bus Mason and I jogged the course, bought gear, and napped for about an hour. After that we cheered for the Varsity teams, then stretched and warmed up for the Elite division of the race. Mason, Aaron, Christian, and I were the only ones from Uintah racing in it. I decided to race in my mid distance spikes to see how I'd do. It was alright. It was super hot and dirt was thick in the air during the race, so I wore sunglasses. Gun goes off. The four of us were pushed to the very back, but we were taking the first mile a bit easier. We hit the mile mark at 5:22. After that we started passing a lot of people. At about 2000m in I hit a wall, and had to stick with the people around me for about a minute, after that I kept moving up and passing people, including someone who I mistook for Connor Arnell, which made me speed up so I could beat him. Turns out the real Connor took 9th. Anyway I hit the mile mark at 11:10 which was super demoralizing, and after that I just kind of coasted. I was still passing a lot of people and speeding up, just not enough. I passed a couple people in my finish which was sick. Overall an alright race, not exactly what I wanted. I think I'm going to stop jogging like 3 miles before I even warmup, I think it just tires out my legs. 3 miles after with the other 3 guys, who did well. Apparently at dinner that night an athlete who wore a Pioneer jersey, that I assume to be Lehi, and had "Surfer dude hair" came up to some of sophomore and asked about me. Sick. In other news due to having to miss Park City my next race will be Region in 12 days, so 10 days to work my butt off to get a sick time. I'm hoping for top 5, but whatever will get Uintah a region championship.

Yellow hill repeats. The first repeat we just sprinted half a mile straight up. I got out ahead of everyone and kept a steady lead. Mason caught me towards the last pole but I managed to kick it in and blaze it. The second one we ran up two poles, down one, making it about 1000m. Kedric, rather than taking the downhills easy, hauled down them, messing up the workout, but I still managed to barely beat him. The next one we moved up a pole so you'd only have to go up 2 and down 1 three times. Kedric sprinted down again, and I took the downhill wayy easy, instead hauling uphill. Going into the final uphill he had about 20m on me. I caught him by the first pole and had blazed ahead of him by the second. On the next repeat we only had to go out twice, but I started to fade out pretty bad. Jogging back down after the repeat, I thought I was going to pass out. Pushed through the next repeat, but I had to get water after it so I wouldn't die. Kedric, me, and a few other runners missed the final repeat because of this, but I chose to do it. I took off with coaches watching me, and I was hauling. Way faster than any other repeat. Then I passed Jacia and rylie, and for some reason I started kicking way harder. Felt dead when I finished. But happy that I pushed myself hard in a workout for the first time since track.

Warm up, core, then a little over a 4 mile run with Mason. Ran by Brendon's house, shed a few tears. Then ran by Courtney's and Gena's and didn't. Took a three hour Calculus final at the library after. Almost dropped a toaster in the ice bath that night.

Mile warm-up, then 2 mile run. Afterwards coaches informed us we'd race a mile today, courtesy of Christian Graham. I had to run in the 2nd lane for basically a 200m stretch so I'd call it a mile. Coaches told us to hit a 75 first 400m. Race goes off a little quick. Hit the first 200m in 35. I slowed down a tiny bit. By the 400m I was in 5th behind Mason, Aaron, Austin, Kedric, and Christian right on me. But, I was the first one to hit 75 seconds, I heard Christian say "We're right on pace Nathan!", so I naturally sped up a bit. By the 600m Mason had about 5 seconds on me, and the rest of the varsity guys on my tail. Hit the 800m at 2:28. Good. By the time I hit 1000m I was within striking distance of Mason, and no one was with us. Unfortunatly Mason had an insane kick and ran a 63 last lap. I hit the 1200m at somewhere between 4:39 and 4:41, and my kick just wasn't there. I coasted. Settled for silver again, I should have kept with him. With 200m left I heard the breathing and heavy footing of Aaron behind me, so I sped up to a good pace and managed to beat him by a second, running a 4:53. Only it wasn't Aaron. It was Christian. He came in at 4:54. Ran my second fastest mile/1600 time ever, and got 2nd, which was pretty cool. Did a three mile cooldown on the track after with Jacia where we just talked trash on everyone on the team, except Cherokee Kenny, and it was super chill and fun. Except I ran in my spikes during the cooldown, sockless, and my feet were hurting #norisknoreward I shaved off a full 20 seconds from this same race from last year, and I got 7th last time, and only one of those people ahead of me weren't present today.

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.

9 miles @ 6:38 pace. The first two miles were downhill, and the last two uphill. Everything inbetween was pretty flat. Hit the first mile in 5:26, 2 miles in 11:27, 3 in 17:37, and 4 at 23:52. After that I settled down the pace a bit, but man those first four miles came to haunt me in those last two uphill miles. I saw some of the team running a bit ahead around 5 miles in, but I opted not to take it easy with them as our paths crossed. "Gotta do what I gotta do" - Drake

I was planning on doing like 6 mile repeats on air village hill, three up and three down, but to quote Conner Mantz, it "went over about as well as a pregnant high jumper". Did the first mile(downhill) in 5:07, then 5:52(uphill), then 5:33, then 6:13. After that one ran back home. The wind during the run was awful, apparantly no one can fly out of Vernal because the planes might crash due to wind, but I don't think I was being mentally strong during the run. I think when I overthink runs I tend to fall short of what I'm hoping for, whereas when I don't think about the run I do pretty good. 

5 miles just under 32 minutes later on the treadmill. Paces were 6:40, 6:30, 6:20, 6:10, and 5:57. Lifted afterwards. Ran to my truck and back to add up to 10. "It is what it is" - Drake

10k tempo at McCoy. My watch was being weird with the last three miles but I'll allow it. Paces were apparently 5:42, 6:00, 6:01, 18:25 at 5k, then 6:35, 6:32, and 6:43, coming in the 10k at 38:30. Came in the last 400 under 80 so that wasn't too bad. Hills killed, so did my calves. Cooldown after to add to 8. Avg pace 6:14 for the run all together. Grind was feeling real today, but "It's far from over" - Drake

About a mile warm-up, then about a 650m run on the grass to get my legs warmed up, 39 degrees is chilly. 2000m in 6:35. Felt pretty easy, I relaxed a bit too much on the second and third lap. After that 1600 in 5:25. That one was hard to fight through, I wasn't feeling the hottest. Changed out of my sweats after that. Went to do 1000, clocked in a 70 first lap, and stopped and went to the indoor to continue the workout, despite wrestling and the cheerleaders being there as well. Went to do a 1000, but ended up doing an 800 instead. 2:21. Did another 800, but the wrestlers got on the track and I had to stop a couple times to squeeze by them as to not crash. That one was 2:31. 600 after that. I went super ham on that one and clocked in a 1:32. Felt good, until I started jogging after, where my calves said some non-family friendly things. 400m After that in 63, then a 200 in 29. Strides after. With the jogging in between I'd call it 8.

20 minute run on the treadmill, lifting and core after. Training alone lately has been hard, but I'm liking my improvements. "Everybody got a deal, I did it without one" - Drake

5 miles at 6:15 pace. Was going to do 8, but apparently my sock was wrinkled or something, because it felt like my foot was being dragged across a gravel road at 60 mph. Not fun. I stopped at five because I thought my foot was bleeding, then biked three miles at high resistance

10 miles @ 6:39 pace along West Jordan. Felt really just like crap during it. My legs were like lead as soon as I started moving, and at about 3 miles in my foot pain came back from yesterday. "Ever since I left the city" - Drake my legs haven't felt A1. Miles 3-7 were pretty hard to push through, but after that I felt a bit better and the pain subsided. Some great carbs at Macaroni Grill™ After

AM- 5 easy miles in the morning. Notice how "easy" was crossed out? That's because I wore Pure Cadence. I hadn't ran in them in a while so I assumed that I may havce misjudged them. Nope. My legs felt awful, despite taking yesterday off. No traction in the shoes either so that blew. 7:11 pace

PM - 8 miles. I had two bowls of some super-fiber cereal so I felt pretty awful during the run lol RIP my intestines(update; those two cups contained about 200% of the daily fiber value). Anyway I ran up to the U, then the base of the mountain, then four miles down there. Not the "best I've ever had" -Drake. I think I'm coming down with something, might not do the usual core tonight, I feel pretty awful right now

Rained hard today, so I ran at the indoor facility. A few laps to warm up, then 6 miles alternating between fast and slow. First hard mile was 5:02, second and third were 5:28. I was going to do a fourth hard mile, came in at the 400 at 77, feeling good, but I hit the turn and my ankles told me to stop #anklewhisperer. Nothing better than 90 degree turns every 15 seconds. Easy miles were high 7's. Cooldown after to add to 9. Austin, Aaron, Jacia, and Kyrie were there doing an easy workout, I saw them run jog like an 800, but I think they were doing core. Anyway their sublime obliviousness made a few close calls take place. Just got my ACT back, and happy to say I'm now at 33. @masonwalkrun got a 31 so that's sick. Too bad he's going to a community college in colorado or UVU or something. Excited to give him a little surprise at NXRSW.  "I've been working with the negatives to make a better picture" - Drake

I was going to go a little easier today on my distance run, but on my drive there I saw Aaron and Austin doing a tempo run and I decided I could rest when I'm at the Hotel Del Coronado. Ended up being a bit over 9 miles. It was a weird run. I went out quick on the first mile(uphill), and then felt really sluggish on miles 2-4, which were oddly enough the major downhill miles. After that had to climb up until mile 8 which was downhill, then the last mile was uphill again. Splits; 

6:26(uphill)

6:40(downhill)

6:44(downhill)

6:51(downhill)

6:22(uphill)

6:36(uphill)

6:28(uphill)

6:26(downhill)

6:15(uphill)

Avg pace 6:32. Felt really great during it, except the last two miles I had to go to the restroom, and I wore the Uintah team shorts, which really arent meant for more than 5k comfort-wise haha. Cooldown to add to 10 for the day. There's no way I could have done this like a month ago, but I'm not complaining. I hate to say it but maybe fading away from the team could be prosperous. I still want to compete with them, Mason and I have a 4x400 finals title to reinstate at simplot after getting 11th last year, but I think training on my own is better for my own benefit? I haven't raced yet though, we'll have to see at Nike. "She says they miss the old Drake, girl don't tempt me" - Drake

My legs were pretty tired, so I just wanted a good quick run before my concert with Emily #babe. 5 miles at 5:55 pace, and it actually felt not awful, albeit a tear in my sock hurting my foot a bit. 2 mile @OMP from the park to the high school after massaging my calves for a few seconds. Once I got there I stretched a bit more, and Mason and Christian got back from their run, so I talked to them for a while which was pretty fun, but the cold had me shiverin'. Rocked at the concert with Emily, then played some sick poker with Stockton and Christian, along with a few others. "I'm trying to do better than good enough" - Drake

Timed a time trial for Mason, Aaron, Christian, and a few others with Kyrie. Aaron slaughtered the race, coming in at an 18:40, but I think it was actually 3.2 miles. Christian and Mason got 19's. I opted not to run because of my tempo yesterday, and I'm glad I did. My legs were pretty shot for the run. 8 miles in the freezing cold, I think I just barely averaged 6's.

4 miles, core, and weights at the rec center that night. "What am I doing? Oh that's right I'm doing me" -Champagnepapi -Drake

I would have done a shakeout in the morning, but I had my day date for Sadies in the morning. I had to walk like a mile down the road because my date couldn't find my house. Then I heard my "Hotline Bling" - Drake. I wont add it to the mileage though, it was more of a wanderer thing than a runner thing. Anyway it was way fun, we did a "chopped" sort of competition to make breakfast and Alyssa and my own dish were quite delectable. Except I ate too much french toast-biscuits. so I didn't feel that great when I got home, and procrastinated the run a bit. Oh well.

Mile warmup, then 12x400 at 5k pace or quicker, so hopefully 73-77, also working to get my breathing down for Nike and Footlocker. Times:

72

71

71

68

69

70

73

70

71

69

74

72

and then a 200 in 34. 200m rest in between each repeat. My watch died before the start of the first 400, so that was nifty. I had to run with my phone in my hand instead. After the third repeat Austin and his college runner/coach/DIImentor he has came to the track for him to race an 800, so my paces got a bit quicker, but I didn't die out like I kind of expected to. Overall I think I hit them a bit too quick, that translates to a 14:50 5k, but it was a good hard workout, and no regrets. Had to run a super quick 3 mile cooldown in order to get prepared for Sadies, just got back. It was dope. Alyssa, Stockton, Emily, and I watched Psych for a good bit, I ate a ton of bread while everyone had ice cream sundaes #lactoseintolerantprobs and got pretty turnt for a white person at the dance. I went ham, and got a good workout, my calves are mad sore. Shoutout to Alyssa for asking me I had a great time!! #Librarianperks

AM - Warm up, then started with a 1200 aiming under 3:35. Hit the 600 at 1:47 and had to stop, it felt wrong. Jogged a lap, drove to the bathroom at 7-11, and headed back. Ran the 1200 at 3:47, it felt awful. It snowed overnight so I wore heat spandex, but I didn't need to. My legs were way hot, and I'm not too great in super hot conditions, and my legs were completely sapped. Sat down for a few minutes to gather myself, laced back into my trainers, and ran a little over two miles in 13 minutes. Should have been pretty easy, I hit the first half mile at 2:55, but again, the heat spandex sapped all my legs energy, turning them in to dead weights. I'll do the workout in the afternoon, NOT in spandex. Appreciating the teacher prep day today being the first day of the tri, because I can do two runs in a day and shamelessly watch Netflix for the entire time in between. Sherlock and Malcolm in the Middle, man. Also I hit a 7 minute plank in my hour long core workout yesterday

PM - Workout: 1x1000m, 3x800m, 4x400m. 400m jog in between each repeat. No predetermined pace, just getting in some speed that won't be detrimental at Nike. Warmed up, ran the 1000m in 3:10. Didn't feel the best, I was still bundled up pretty good. I took off my jacket and beanie and ran the first 800m at 2:35, 80 first lap, 75 second. "Crap!" I exclaimed into the unforgiving and harsh winter winds. Maybe it wasn't the spandex slowing me down in the morning. I took off my sweatpants, and ran the next 800m in 2:28, it felt much easier than before! First lap was a 75, then a 73. Last one I came in the 400m at 71. I was feeling good, but on the back stretch I just started coasting, the wind was hitting hard. I was going to stop at 600m because mentally I was gone, but then I looked at my watch and saw I was at 1:50, a second faster than I had been on the second 800. After that I pushed through to another 2:28. After that I decided for the 400's if it was faster than 73 or slower than 77, it didn't count. The first one I wore kept my sunglasses on despite the draining hue known as nighttime, so I was unsure if I was going too fast so I ran conservatively. 76. Next one I hit the 200m at 39 and came in at 73. Same for the next one. For my final repeat I decided just to go nuts the last 200m. Came in at 39 for the first half, then cruised in at a 70. I wasn't doing the normal things when I kicked, like driving elbows back and high knees, I was just striding. It felt nice, like I was running downhill or something. Drove to the rec center and ran a bit and lifted. Easy core tonight. 11 for the day. "Last name ever, first name greatest" - Drake

7 easy miles and lifting. Core later tonight would write more but AP History, Bio, and music are blasting me hard "My actions speak louder than my words" - Drake

4 mile tempo just under 24. Didn't feel that great during it, the park bathrooms are locked for winter so that was a true detriment. Jog back to the high school after. "Know yourself, know your worth" - Drake

4 miles + strides feat. The boys. Getting pumped.

Did the course, had some good dinner, and did some strides by myself in the parking lot after. Gonna leave it all on the line

Got out good, I was in the top ten first mile, 5:11, then I did what I've done every other race this year and given up, but this was by far the worst. 6:40 3rd mile. I feel bad for all the sponsors I've gotten to run like this. I'm just miffed at myself for not pushing myself, I trained hard for this and I'm really just unhappy that it didn't pay off. Leave it in the past

AM - 4 easy miles. Sterling Scholar man. #mathematicslife

PM - After a draining interview I was ready to have a solid workout. Did a mile warm up in the oxymoronic cold night(emphasis on the moronic part for me running in that freezing cold weather). It wasn't even a warm up, I threw in a few strides during it. 6:32. After that I had a euphoric epiphany that made me go to the rec center to continue the workout where I wouldn't die. The plan was 2x2 mile repeats, getting faster as time went on. Did the first one right under 10:30. Got off the treadmill and jogged for a few minutes and got back on. Hit 1.33 barely under 7:00, then the treadmill started to bug out. Proud to say I'm fast enough to break a treamill. Or my legs were failing. I'd believe either. Hopped off because I was wary since Kenny fell yesterday on the treadmill and skinned his face, so I wasn't finna get injured. Jogged a bit more, did a half mile in at sub 5 pace, and lifted and did core. Feels good to have good workouts. After a lot of analyzing my season and saturday, I think my problem with racing was I got too worried and my own mind became my worst detriment. That, and heat. Going to take Footlocker with a easy breezy beautiful covergirl attitude and hopefully do well.

Tempo. LSD. Races. Intervals. The four essential workouts lived in harmony, until the racing nation attacked. Only Eugene could stop them. But when Uintah needed him most, he vanished. Believe it or not, I showed up to team practice today. I was actually going to do my own thing, but I heard we were running Yellow Hill, which was false. The team decided to do core instead. Around a mile warm up, then headed to the indoor. Coach Hill was stacking up the box jumps when I thought it would be fun to have a core race of sorts, so I suggested it to him. He and I devised a killer workout, where a male/female duo switched out between running a lap with stairs faster than race pace, while the other did box jumps, push ups, wall sits, etc. Paired up with Jacia, and we str8 murdered it. Mason and Jessica and Jordan and Reagan were not too far behind, the latter pair almost beat us until Jacia beat Jordan in the home stretch lol hot next we had to switch partners and Jacia and I departed for the battle of the century between Mason and Jacia and Reagan and I. I managed to get us a pretty big lead, but Mason threw in a crazy third lap and I had to haul. Too bad there were still four laps left. Reagan and I took the crown for that one. Really fun workout, I liked it. Would have been more fun if Aaron weren't too cool for school but oh well. 5 Easy miles after in the freezing cold #Brr. I threw in the last 800 under 3 minutes striding out. Let the tapering begin!

Easy 6 mile run from the high school to the post office to the rehab center and back to the high school. First three miles were 6 minute pace, so I had to hold my horses for this run. A few barefoot strides after.

After spending 9 hours starting and completing online government in the span of 24 hours, I was pretty spent last night. I woke up and my neck hurt, I think I slept on it wrong. Had a small breakfast and went around looking for my short shorts and racing Saucony shirt. I couldn't find it anywhere, it turned out my mom threw them in the washer. Put them in the dryer for a few minutes, and drove to the start of the race. I found Mason almost immediately, and we did a mile warm up and a few stretches. I heard it was 19 degrees, and I believed it. I took off my sweats and got on the starting line, but the announcer droned on for an eternity. My shirt was still a bit wet, and my legs felt frozen. The officials countdown from 5, and we're off. A lot of younger kids sprinted the beginning, but by 400m in Mason, Kedric, Christian, and I have a bit of a lead. Mason was taking the pace fast, so I decided to pack with Christian and Kedric for a bit. At almost a mile in there was a U turn, and I didn't want to get pushed on the outside so I got in front of the two of them. I picked it up a bit, and hit somewhere between a 5:35-40 for the first mile. The cold was way strong, I can't even explain it. I could see Mason was only maybe 50-75m ahead of me, so I picked up the pace. I hit the second U(about the halfway mark) with Mason about 10 seconds ahead, Christian maybe 5 seconds behind, Kedric trailing him. Mason heard me behind him and threw in a hard surge. I picked up the pace some more and at the 2 mile mark I caught Mason. He told me there was only a mile left, so I passed him to get the inside of the final U. With maybe .8 miles left Mason surged again and caught me. I said something like "let's go" to him and he said okay, and we ran together until there was a half mile left, and I started to kick. Mason yelled at me to win it, and I was gone. I ran 18:21, Mason ran 18:30, and Christian ran an 18:40 something. The conditions were pretty bad for the race, there was like 15 mph winds, but I'm happy with how I ran. This was the first race since time trials where I was able to think somewhat clearly about something that didn't involve pain and/or slowing down. Kedric got 4th, and Austin got 5th. Mile cooldown with Mason. We cheered for Kedric and Austin during it, I didn't realize how far ahead we were until I turned around after the race and saw Mason and Christian were the only two on the 800m home stretch. Another cooldown by myself after. I won 75 dollars so it was a good day.

The McCoy 10k road at an easy pace, surging on some of the hills. Ran to the rec center after and lifted for about ten minutes. On the way out my prior amigos Kash and Karston walked in, they had just came back from SUU for the holidays. They made me go back in the weight room where another hour of hard core lifting took place. I saw the Mockingjay with them later that night along with a few others, and it was a terrible movie lol core when I got home. It snowed at least 4 inches while we were in the movie.

6 miles. My back was killing me from yesterday. Thanks for nothing Kash. Mile warmup, followed by 3xmile repeats. Since it snowed hard yesterday I had to run at the rec center. The way the repeats went was 1/3 of the mile was at 5:07 pace, then 1/3 at 5:36 pace at a pretty difficult incline, then 1/3 easy on the track. The first two parts were on the treamill, the turns on the track are way too sharp for anything more than a quick jog. 3 of those, then a cooldown to add up to 6. Did some core after. I think I've done everything I could to get in the best possible shape I could in the past month with the conditions I've been given. All I need to to do is keep a cool head and not sweat it.

A little over a mile warm up, then a 5 mile run about the town with Mason, Christian, Austin, and Jordan. It was a nice fun run. We were making a lot of jokes and having some good laughs. Had a heated argument between Austin Mason and I about who the best runner of all time is/was. Daniel Komen ftw. However due to massive snow storms we were forced to run through some suburban neighborhoods and the slush that it housed. Felt about the equivalent of running on sand dunes. The others decided to end their "40 minute run" a little less than 4 miles in, but I decided to literally go the extra mile. Went 80% during it, which translated to about 6:10-6:20 pace. Ended up being closer to 35 than 40 but I figured with the speeding up I did it was about the same. There was blood on my shoe when I met the guys back at the indoor, and my other leg was bleeding moderately. It was so cold out I didn't even notice. My arms were red/purple towards the end of the run.

Mile warmup with the team. Aaron finally returned to the team after he and I drifted off for about a month, so it was nice to finally have the ol' gang back together again. Coach had us do different core exercises in pairs, doing a hard lap and easy lap between each exercise. Aaron and I paired up. Zack and Devin were pretty close to us until the box jumps when Devin's ankle killed him, so shoutout to them for going ham, because Aaron and I weren't taking it easy. First hard lap I focused on striding out instead of speed, I learned last week that during these workouts going all out the first lap kills. Aaron was a few meters ahead of me. The next two Aaron and I had to weave between all the people who were jogging because they were behind us in the workout, so I managed to pass Aaron after he led the first 150m. Last one Aaron was leading, but Bianey was jogging ahead so Aaron passed on the outside, but there was enough room for me to pass on the inside as well. I could feel Aaron breathing down my neck, so I went harder than the other laps. We finished together.  I didn't go 100% on the laps, but I did try to get the legs moving quick.  So pumped!!!!!!!!!

4 miles maybe more in St. G. average pace was 6:35 for the first two miles, but then Mason and I took off at the turn around point, going sub 6. Whoops. Didn't feel crazy hard though. Easy run tomorrow. Some running through Vegas later that nignt

Warmup then 3 mile easy run with Christian. hilly. Aaron, Mason, and Austin turned around to scare Kyrie, Jacia, and Reagan, who were running behind us, but Christian and I thought we'd rather just finish the run. Strides in the baseball field after. At dinner the bus almost left premature so Aaron, Austin, Kyrie, Jacia and I had to sprint like half a mile

Ran the course and did some strides with Mason. Went to Santa Monica pier with Aaron Rylie and Jacia after. Super fun day. Jacia and I almost died on a roller coaster and got stuck upside down at the top.

Woke up at 2 and drank some water. Went back to bed and woke up 3 hours to leave for the race. Had a pretty good breakfast, ate it in like 30 seconds because the bus was about to leave. Mason and I waited for like an hour at the restroom. Flash forward to the starting line. I felt really nervous. Mason Aaron and I usually joke around on the starting line but all silence today. Hurricane came to talk to us and we were just awkward. Gun goes off. We were planning on taking the first mile easy, and we did. Like no one was with us. A ton of people fell at the start and I thought Aaron was one of them but apparently he was right on my back. I hit the mile mark at 5:26, Mason a few seconds ahead of me. The hills killed, man. But I flew downhill. I recognized Collin Morrison from the blog a few seconds ahead, and I told myself that I'd get him. I worked and caught a lot of people, but managed to catch him in the last 400. I turned to him and told him to come with me. The track was an uproar. I heard everyone yelling at Collin to catch me. He had a crazy kick that last 100m and got me. I talked to him for a few minutes after and went back to the team. Mason ran an 17:27, Aaron a 17:43. I beat Heston from SP though, and he won preregion so that was sick. And so ends my Uintah XC career. Wasn't quite the season I hoped for but to go from running 25's to now running 16's. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity I've been given. However, the 1600 and 800 have been calling my name.

And so ends five years of being coach hills slave.

Getting back to the basics. 70 minute run out in the freezing cold from my house to the hospital, the high school, and back home. My right arm was red/purple and I couldn't move it all that well. The run went better than I expected, I was having stomach cramps all day so I expected the run to be way painful, but I guess my core workouts protected me or something because I didn't feel too bad until I hit the uphill at Aggie Blvd. This is a few days late but shoutout to fellow bloggers Garek, Talon, and Connor for making Nationals. What a time to be alive.

2 miles at the rec center after a couple hours of rest, some good core with Kash, and a mile cooldown to add to 13 for the day. I havent hit 12+ daily miles since my 17 mile run of h*ck in August

I had senior pictures today and community performances for our schools advanced choir that night, so I only had time for a 45 minute run. Alternated between a mile in the indoor, a mile outside, repeat, repeat. The last mile I had to run in the harsh winds of the winters night which was the opposite of rad.

Some photographers requested to take pictures of me running, so I obliged. A few minutes, a couple of stretches, and a lot of strides and sprints later I embarked on a 70-odd minute run. I couldn't start the run until 4, so it was super cold and dark for the last few miles. My first 4 miles were at a 6:40 pace, which felt pretty easy, but I want next to no speed for the next month, just base building. On the last mile, which involves an 800m steep hill climb, I was joined by a friendly Husky. Normally a few dogs bark/chase me, but not today. I like to think the dog gave me the "Blessing of Alaska", which causes canines to view me as one of their own.

We had a wrestling assembly today, so I went on a 90 minite run during school instead. Managed to get in 13 miles. Went to team practice after, did core, then 2 miles as a cooldown with strides at the end

I had to go out to U of U for a choir recording today. After that I walked around salt lake and temple square with some of the amigos. Got a sick picture with Emily with the temple in the background for the gram. We watched the U of U choir concert after, and then I had to drive back home to take the ACT in the following morning. Just give me a dang 34 already @collegeboard

8 miles at McCoy shoutout to my truck for dying the third time this past month, anyway I wore my Wildhorses and just ran on some trails and 4-wheeler roads, and it was pretty great. The newly fallen snow made the ground soft and it felt like a distance run on the track. The hills killed, but it was still a really good run. I haven't been able to enjoy a run like this for a long time. The first bit of the run was 6:20 pace, but I had to tell myself to chill out. I strided some when I could and it felt nice. After that another choir performace that night. Had a sick road trip with Emily in the parking lot because she had my overnight bag from U of U and we were on opposite sides of the parking lot which was like a mile long. I got my senior pics back and they're great. Good day, I can barely even remember my (last) ACT.

The grind was real today. I didn't feel all that great today, it was really cold outside so I waited until later in the day. My dad had to go to work at the Deseret power plant so I ran there while he did his thing. The run consisted of four miles on the road from the power plant to the road that runs through the desert (being that it's Sunday almost no one worked so I was able to run in the middle of the road for the most part). Once I got to the main road I took off my jacket and tied it to a stop sign and turned right, ran until 6.5, and turned back. The weird thing was either way I went it seemed I was running all uphill. Ran past the Deseret road and went up a steep incline until 10.5, where I turned around. I was about 90 minutes in at this point. According to every science I knew I should have been about depleted of Glycogen at this point, so I sped up to increase my threshold. Dropped the pace pretty good. My last 5 miles were in 33 minutes. I finished the run, and I can't recall a time feeling more wiped out after a run. I felt really tired, and even more cold, I had postponed the run so long I ended up finishing in the dark, even colder than any time during the day. Took a ton of Advil and ate a lot when I got home and I'm starting to feel better, still pretty dazed though.

If I'm not deceased tomorrow and Vernal doesn't turn into a Tundra, I want to go for a top 5 placing of the mileage board this week. So if anyone reading this wants to get 100 miles in a week, I'd save it for another time.

Vernal turned into blizzard central today, so my mother said I couldn't drive to the indoor or go anywhere running. To counter with an equally ridiculous idea, I ran about 200m from our house to the end of the road, turned around, came back, and did it again. 40 times. At night. It was snowing pretty bad at first, but once that ended it got super foggy. The snow and mush I had to run on sapped my legs pretty bad. Good run to think about things. Ecstatic about my current #2 ranking on the mileage board. Proud.

Mile warmup with some of the team.  I decided not to run with the Varsity, I did a warmup with the underclassmen/non-varsity instead. I did some stretches with them and then coach had me go on an 8 mile easy run. Felt easy. At some points I would stride for a few seconds for fun because it felt pretty nice. Ran up Aggie Blvd, down to the hospital, to the park, and back. I was able to quench the fiery inferno that is my soul during the run, so when I got back to the indoor I talked to coaches for a few minutes, and ran with the Varsity on a cooldown. Added to 9.5

3 miles later that night, with core and lifting. Down to 5th.

AM - 5.5 easy miles

PM - mile warm up because my knee was bothering me, then 7.5 easy up to quailbrook/Emily's road and back down mainstreet because I haven't ran that path before. Back up to 4th!

Warm up with the team. A lot of the returning sprinters were there today. They didn't warm up, but the workout today was sprinter oriented. Neat. Anyway we did core and a lot of ladders. For the mileage I'm at this week, I was surprised how it went. The sprinters came in quick at the beginning, but at the end I found myself ahead and desolate, and my legs were hating me for it. The team went on a mile cooldown, but coach had me go on a run. It was originally going to be around 5 miles, but I saw Zack conditioning for soccer as I was coming back into the schoolgrounds, and I joined him on his run. He'll be quick next year. Did a little more when I got home to add to 11. Getting chilly. 3rd!

2 mile warm up with some speed changes, then 4 mile tempo. Since I had such high mileage this week, I'd be fine with anything under 6:00 pace. I went out quick. It wasn't anything crazy but it felt like I was pushing it. Hit the uphill hard. Hit the first mile in 5:36. I expected the rest of the run to be killer but I pressed forward, embracing the pain. My achilles and knee in my left leg bothered me a bit, but the wall didn't come. I hit two miles at 11:12. On the next mile I still pushed but I think I relaxed a little too much. Three miles at 16:59. I looked at my watch around here and realized I could break 23, but I'd have to speed up again. Despite this mile having several hills I was able to come in at 22:42, which shocked me. The splits were:

5:36

5:36

5:47

5:43

Avg 5:39 pace. I felt like I was pushing it, but it didn't feel super hard. Not only did I not die out, but I was able to repeat my first mile time, and drop time on my last mile! Really great run, big confidence booster for me. 3 mile cooldown. Could have gone for more but I figure some rest is in order. Currently 4th.

12 hours of sleep, but my legs were super tight when I woke up. I stretched quite a bit but ended up cutting my shakeout down to one mile because of my left leg. It wasn't hurting necessarily, but I knew pressing forward would only reap detriments. Going from 27 miles to 50 to 75 was a pretty drastic increase. I'm going to try some biking/elliptical later today, and a lot of core tomorrow, then start fresh on monday; I'd rather take off days in 20 degree Utah than 60 degree San Diego. Rest until Monday, then hit the grind hard again. I'm not injured or anything like that, I'm just being wary, or as wary as a guy could be who increased his mileage almost 300% over the past two weeks.

6.75, nothing too intense. My legs felt much better. My knee was an ever slight nuisance towards the end but no worries, i took an ice bath when I got home and felt much better. I felt pretty tight towards the beginning of the run but it mostly faded away, but my chest felt tight the entire time, I didn't hydrate very well. I had a fun night with Emily after. We played air hockey, ate some Quiznos, and made fun of Star Wars more than we watched it, honestly. It's a good life.

I wasn't allowed to drive in the hard falling snow today, so I was driven to the rec center(the roads were completely salted but oh well). I did a warmup inside, and did an easy run to my house down mainstreet. It was snowing pretty hard during it, but I still still think I overdressed a lot. I wore heat spandex and my state jacket and I couldn't feel the cold at all. Unfortunately my legs have no life in them if it's hot, so I felt pretty sapped. Also I stepped in a huge puddle about a mile in and got my shoes soaked. Since my run was from point A to point B, I made my route so there was a pretty large elevation gain. I wanted to run more, but it feels good to be running without pain. I requested a new style of BOA 1 inch shorts for Christmas and I can't wait to show them off at Cali if I get them.

I drove up to McCoy, got about a third of a mile in and the conditions made me turn back. The wind was way strong up there thus the new fallen snow was hitting like a blizzard, it was awful. I drove to the high school and started over. The first couple miles my knee was worrying me a little bit, but then the pain just disappeared(I think the pain is from my left hamstring so maybe I stretched it out while I ran). At about 30 minutes in I did two sets of 90-60-30's, going my normal pace on the rest times. I hit right about at .3 miles for 90 seconds, .2 for 60, and .1 for 30 both times so that consistency was pretty righteous. I did a square from the high school to Aggie to the rec center to the hospital and back. Felt good. I drove back to the rec, ran for a couple minutes to warm up, and lifted/did core. Good workout! The tempo part of it felt easy, I wasn't going all out and it was still pretty quick.