Step by step, mile by mile

AM - light 4.5 fartlek run in 30 minutes in the brisk morning. Felt trashed waking up, but felt pretty good on the run in comparison.

PM - 2.5 WU, 3x(30s up steep hill, 45s up gradual hill). Jog down for recovery. Averaged 5:15 pace on the steep hill and 4:20 on the gradual one. CD around stg for 10 for the day.

Driving back to Cali all day, so no morning run. Longer run once I got back. All I ate today was basically 2 quest bars, which are high in fiber and sorbitol and low in carbs so that combined with 2 8 hour car rides combined for feeling not great at the beginning. Took a pit stop at 4.5 and felt much better after that and was able to do a little fartlek. 

Walked Allie to school and ran back quickly in the AM. At 2 I ran pretty fast to her school and jogged back with her for a 2 mile WU. Got back, changed shoes, and jumped right into the workout. 2x(4 min hard, 4 min easy), 2x(3 min hard, 3 easy), 2x(2 hard, 2 easy), 2(1 min hard, 1 easy) on very hilly trails. Took about ten seconds extra recovery catching my breath. After the first 3 minute hard the trails got too treacherous for hard efforts, so I ran the next two miles at an honest pace on a rough trail. Second 3 minutes I hit 1:30 in and saw I was going around 5:25 pace so I picked it up hard and did the second half at 4:10-4:20 pace. Paces for the hard parts were 4:55, 4:54, 4:53, 4:51, 4:42, 4:59, 4:24, and 4:29. My top tier goal for this workout was to get sub 5 pace on everything, and if not that at least get progressively faster. I'm way happy I hit the A goal, my stomach wasn't feeling A1. More B12(bc I had a lot of tuna before the run. Clever, I know). Would have neg split but the 4:59 and 4:29 were all uphill, but every hard part had at least some uphill so it was just a great workout. Covered 7.2 on the 40 min fartlek, so about 5:35 pace. Really just one of those runs where you lose yourself in it. I was very surprised to see I hit 16 miles!

Fartlek. Not too hard. Right quad had a knot in it but the hills helped loosen that up. Surprisingly hot out. Felt around 80's, but it was mid 60's. Stretch, core, and strength after. Icing after that.

My flight got moved from today to yesterday because of "snow-pocalypse so no running yesterday. Made sure to walk around a lot though to keep the legs somewhat alive. Was lazy and just visited with family until the afternoon, where I did 5 miles fartlek w/ strides after. Made sure to push the hills. Felt pretty good, I wish I had time to run yesterday, though. Guess it's deuces to #3 on the yearly mileage board.

Ran to a nearby high school, but it was locked down so I couldn't run on the track. Ran back and did a long uphill stride. My knees been feeling a little annoying lately, it's no injury but I'll take tomorrow off and stretch.

Drove back to Tuscaloosa today. Ran for a bit at 5:50-ish pace, then Ethan stopped me to talk for a second. He was about to go do a track workout, so I decided to go with him. Warmed up about 4 miles altogether. I did 8x200 w/ 200m recovery. I didn't feel great because I had some heavy Mexican food for lunch earlier, and a four hour car ride, so I was gonna try to just stay consistent. Went 29 on all of them. I felt pretty good, not sprinting or anything, just keeping a fast pace. After that I cooled down 2 or 3 miles, then ran the last 250m of Ethan's 800's with him for motivation, then cooled down some more and stretched. Ran grocery run after because Lakeside was closed. Good session.

I keep putting the wrong entries for their respective days. This is correct, but Sunday's run was actually yesterday's run. Today I ran 7 miles fartlek. The first 2 were figuring out my classes for the semester(that starts tomorrow), then 5 down to the park and back to the dorms. My classes are all really close to each other, but they're all more or less a mile away so that'll be good for waking my legs up in the morning(the latest class starts at 10AM). I could have done more 200's yesterday, but I think 8 was the ideal number to start because my muscles I use to go fast(glutes and upper quads) were fairly sore. Besides that I felt good, it was warmer out(high 60's) but the 10-15mph wind negated that.

3 mile WU on the river walk. Certain things felt tight at times, but I felt really strong. Ran a 2000m in 6:06. The AC at the rec wasn't working, and I wore an insulated shirt, so I got overheated really fast. Got some water and jogged a half mile. Tried to go for another 2000m and hit 1200m in 3:41-2 but the heat was destroying me. My stomach also felt like I had eaten something hot recently but I don't think I did. Even though I couldn't finish the workout a 6:06 2000m in early January shows I'm pretty strong already. At least I think so. Long CD for 12 for the day, and stretching, core, and strength after.

Morning run so I could have the rest of the day after physics w applied calc to relax/get a head start on homework. I ran on grass for the most part, and that combined with a heavy dinner last night, and a tough workout yesterday(and no breakfast) means my legs had very little life in them. Pace wasn't bad, it just didn't feel natural. My form felt a little off.

A mile between classes, then 2 mile WU to the track after class, and another mile on the track. Workout was 3x(150, 200, 300, 200, 150) trying to hit 20, 32, and 49. Actual times were 19, 32, 47.00, 31, and 20. Next one hit 21, 30, 49, 31, 20. Last set I hit 20, 32, 48.9, 32, 21.1. Normally I'd be happy I ran faster, but I wasn't going hard as much as I was trying to hit a certain pace. Got pretty close to the times on the last set though so I was starting to feel out the pace. Finished with 200m hard. I felt really good on this, form felt good throughout and I didn't tighten up after 100m. Hit 25.9 which is a huge 200m PR for me. I've never even gotten 26's. And in flats! 3/3 great workouts this week. Good conditions out today too. Mid 70's, 6mph wind, sunny... it felt great. Hurdle drills, CD for 12, stretching, core, and strength after.

7 easy miles. Hot out. I was pretty tired from an almost 4 hour long session yesterday but i felt good irregardless.

Another warm session today. 3 miles WU, 16x150 @800m pace w/ 100m recovery. Was trying to hit mid 21's, so about 1:55 pace. First 2 were about a second slow, then the next one was too fast, then the next few were on pace, but felt harder than they should. After about 7 I realized that the cones I assumed were used to mark 50m's were closer to 60m, and I used the 300m hurdle marks to set them at the right distance after that. After that, I hit 21 for the next 7 and it felt much more manageable. Last 2 I hit 22.04 and 22.09, but that was only because of headwind. By the end I was starting to be able to hit the pace and it feel pretty natural, which was the goal of the workout. I told myself I'd try to get 16 but if my form started to break down at all I'd stop. Felt good on everything, so another good workout! CD for 10. No weights after, I wanted to focus on homework. This semester is going to be challenging, which is a word I haven't used in reference to academics in quite a while.

4 miles in the zantes, but my arches really hurt so I went and switched to the structures and felt fine. Not sure if I was pushing the pace or just low on energy from skipping breakfast and lunch for homework

Speed workout today! Warmed up about 4 miles. Workout was 3x150, 1x200 w/ walking back to the start serving as rest. I felt congested and sort of sick today, and it was extremely windy, but I made the best of it. 150's went 19.70, 19.38, and 19.75. I didn't feel as fresh as normal, I didn't stretch or do strength the past few days so that might be why. 200m I went hard and ran a 25.38. I wanted to break 25 but 25.38 is still really fast for me. I'll just not worry about it, I'll get faster as I get stronger. Ran a 300m for fun after in 54, and did about 7 miles of CD for 12 for the day. Lots of stretching, core, and strength after.

7 miles easy w/ strides after. My left arch killed during it. Rolled that hard, massaged it, and stretched after.

Set a PR today... 15:56. Not running. You solve every square from 1-100 in your head. It might not sound too bad, but I'm only taking criticism from those with 15:55 or better. Figuring out 89x89 in seconds takes some energy! 

Strength session today. Lots of reasons this workout should have stunk today but negative thoughts don't make champions. 3 miles WU, 6x600m with long active recovery, not to recover as much as just tire me out. Good heat training today too. My times were 1:59, 1:54, 1:49, 1:55, 1:50, 1:51. Legs felt like lead from two days off. Arches hurt the first two miles then it got better. Long CD to the dorm, relaxed for a little while, then ran to the rec and did the normal stretching/core routine, plus a fun strength session.

7 miles in the hail/rain. Was supposed to be easy, and felt pretty easy, but I just started thinking about outdoor and got excited. Pace was right around 6 flat for the most part. According to my heart rate, it was more aerobic than easy.

4 mile WU. 20mph winds w/ 30(?)mph gusts today. 20x200 aiming for 32s. 200m recovery. Averaged 31.9, but that was only because I ran a 28.9 last 200 to mimic how tired I'll feel when finishing. Lots of lactic acid and tight muscles. Not trying to save the world on this workout, just trying to hit my paces, which I did pretty well. Those last 5 I was starting to feel it, but I prevailed. Hurdles after that, and CD for 13. Core/stretching and another sweet strength session after.

Normal easy run, with strides after. Ran on the fields for a few steps and my arches began to hurt. Realized that everytime my arches have hurt lately I've been on the fields, so probably gonna cut back on that. I went to bed at 8 last night so 12 hours of rest felt pretty nice.

4 mile WU. 2x(250.250,150,150,200) 800m pace. It was a hard workout and I've been super taxed with school the past two days so I wasn't as mentally strong as I should have been. Times went  36.7, 36.6, 21.0, 22.0, 29.0 for set one. I got really down on myself because I was running a little slower than I wanted to so I was just in a really negative headspace. Watched a little motivational video and that fired me up a little bit. Hit 35.1, 35.0, 22.0, 21.8, and 28.0 on set two. When you add everything together it's an average pace of 1:54 for the 800m so not as bad as I originally thought. Skipped strength bc I don't want to feel like I did today on my next workout. Windy 250's are pretty tough, by the way.

7 miles w/ a 1.5 mile pickup in the middle. Not intentional. For the first mile or two, I was reeling in this guy, despite not going too hard of a pace. As I got close to him I surged and passed him as to not cut him off. I hear his footsteps speed up, and realized he matching my pace! I wanted today to be easy, but my competitive edge got the best of me. It was pretty fun, he was a tough runner. He matched every surge I had, and I was going pretty quick, but on a steeper uphill he sprinted up it and I just kept the pace easier. I realized that if I wanted to maximize the mileage on the riverwalk loop I'd have to turn pretty soon. so I sped up again and got a few seconds ahead of him. As I turned we made eye-contact and waved at each other, so all's well that ends well.

Hard stuff today. My legs felt pretty tired and heavy since the 20x200 earlier this week, I think I still have junk in my legs or something. I wish I had ran yesterday, but schoolwork is the priority. Strength workout today was 3x200m in 30s. 5x2 minutes hard. Averaged 4:37 pace on the hard, but I think it's probably a few seconds quick. 3x200m in 28. First 2 of those were miserable but the last one felt good. Went and played racketball with Grant for a few hours after my run. Legs were on fire after.

Shakeout before dinner.

S/O to Ryan, Kedric, and my lone peak boys for killing it at the oval.

Aerobic run today. Normally I don't run with my watch on easy days because I get too competitive knowing I'm being tracked, but I was running a different path today, and I was curious what my pace is on these days. I was pushing the pace so I turned the watch off mid-run so I could relax a little. 6:19 avg pace for what was tracked, so the actually avg pace was probably in the 6:30's. I felt really good the first mile or two, but since I went a little too quick in the beginning I felt a little tired in the middle miles but I don't think it'll affect me too much. Did some strides during the run. I hate how windy it is here, it's always 15mph+.

4 mile WU. 3x150m in 19, 20, 21. 3x(300,400,300 @mile pace) in 47,63,46, 47,64,48, 48,64,46. 3x150m in 22,21,21. 

Good stuff. I felt really tired and didn't eat too much breakfast so I thought it wouldn't go great. But it went fine. More than fine. I'm really happy these paces are sustainable in January. The pace felt pretty natural come set 3. CD for 12.

7 miles. Very hot out. I dressed with what I had clean(basketball shorts, cotton shirt, calf sleeves), and it was very hot so not fun stuff. My calves were burning crazily after about a mile, I blame the calf sleeves. And very sparse stretching after a hard workout yesterday. Lastly, a good portion of skin was torn off my right pinky toe yesterday from either the sock or the shoe itself. So not a very fun run, but I'm blessed to be healthy and fit.

4 mile WU. 2x200 in 28.4, 30.3. 200, 150 in 29.5, 22.x. 2x150 in 21.x, 22.x. 30s jog in between repeats, 3-4 min between sets. Took a few minutes to tell myself to suck it up and stop running slow and did 7x200m in 27.9-28.3. CD for 12.

Felt really tired and slow at the beginning. 30 second "rest" is really painful right now. Was disappointed with those, but I guess it's the first time I've really enforced a timed recovery. 200's after were good. Very consistent. I made sure to start out fast, keep a pretty constant speed, and maintain form. #5 I didn't hit the lap in time so I'm assuming it was in the range on that one. Strength, stretching, and core after. I need it.

Easy run between physics and the accompanying 5 hours of homework.

Working on my top speed for the last time for a while, or at least a workout that's only sprinting. 4 mile WU. 150m in 19.7. 300m in 37.99(my watch must have gone off early or something. While I do believe I went sub 40, I don't think I held WR 800m pace for a 300m. 150m in 18.8. 200m in 26.2. Wore my sprint spikes, and they felt good. Legs felt really good after, not tired at all. Very windy out, which made it hard to go all out. Strides and CD for 12. Strength core and stretching after.

Very hilly long run. Ran the first 7 with Ethan, but the hills were hard for me because I had a workout yesterday(Ethan didn't). He's already gone sub 9 in the 3k so S/O to him. After 7 I ran loops at the park until Ethan showed up. Strides after. ~6:50 avg pace.

My shorts chaffed really badly yesterday and I didn't want to irritate that any further. I did go for a ~2 mile walk to compensate 

I did an LT workout today. 4 miles WU. 150, 200, 150 in 21.4, 29.0, 21.8. Those felt really easy. Then 4x1200m all in 4:01 w/ 400m jog. I think every 400m split on all 4 were identical. It was really humid out which was hard. ~3 min rest then 100, 150, 200 in 13.3, 20.8, 28.3. I def could have gone faster, but the shoes I wore have insoles in them that only fill about half the shoe, so the other half was tearing up my feet when I ran on my toes. All in all good stuff. I don't like tempo stuff but I'm happy I survived. Grabbed some rice and Gatorade at the dining hall then strength, core, and stretching.

7 miles in the torrential downpour. I highly advocate not retiring a pair of old running shoes for instances like this. It was pretty fun to be up to my ankles in water for a good portion of the run. I wouldn't be surprised if the pace were closer to 6 flat than anything else.

4 miles WU. 2x150m strides in 21.5, 20.1. 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500, and back down the ladder. Mile pace for everything. Times went 40, 48, 55, 64, 71, 80, 73, 64, 56, 48, 39. Avg pace for everything with decimals is 4:16 pace, which is exactly what I was aiming for. Finished w/ 2x150, 1x200 in 20.9, 20.5, 27.1. CD for 15.

Hard stuff today. On pace for 7 of the repeats, fast on 3, slow on one. That 500 was pretty fun. My strength stuff is paying off because even though I was really tired by the end, I kept the pace and my form never broke down. I'm glad I finished this workout, it's a benchmark and means I'm fit. Strength, stretching, core after.

7 miles pretty fast. Core and stretching after. I felt fine on the run, except some congestion. Afterwards I got hit with some random waves of nausea. I think I tweaked my back yesterday lifting.

For the past few years I've annually come down with an awful sickness in track season. Junior year it hit a couple weeks before region and ruined any shot I had at state. Senior year it hit in indoor and lasted for around a month and ruined that season. So when I felt myself coming down with something last night I decided I would nip it in the bud early. 2 mile walk to public for tea.

Ran to the rec center and lifted for about 20 minutes. My lungs hurt and I was coughing so I took the bus home. Legs were hurting after that. I thought it would be because I lifted hard, but it's more likely that I'm weak. I'm going insane not being able to run.

lifted around 2 PM. At around 8PM I decided to suck it up and go run. Went pretty well. 10 min WU, 3x~300m hill sprints walking down for recovery. CD for five. 48 for all three. Cough was really bad when I lifted, not awful on the warmup, and I didn't even notice it on the sprints. Sprints definitely hurt. I ate spicy food and drank pop maybe thirty minutes before the run so that stunk, but man I'm glad I was able to be active today. The sickness is fading.

4x400 in 85, 80, 75, 70. 3x150 coming through the 100 in low 13's. Yesterday was the workout to tell me I still have my speed. Today was the workout to tell me I lost all my aerobic fitness. Those 400's hurt. That means I'm gonna these next couple weeks will be rife with tempo runs and doubles. This next month is gonna be one heck of a grind, but I'm glad to be back.

3 mile shakeout later. 80 degrees out. That's probably why my heart rate was elevated, and not being out of shape.

River walk in the torrential downpour. Only saw one other person, Antibahs Kosgei(Kenyan, 28 min 10k guy, all-American). It felt nice to know I'm not the only person grinding out here alone. And we were running at about the same pace too. Probably 6:40's.

Shakeout a couple hours later on the RW again. Saw that there were 1/4 mile marks, so I decided to do a couple fast in 69. They included sharp turns, rolling hills, and wet asphalt with scarce traction, so I couldn't really get going, but it was an effort. Faster than yesterday's 400's but a couple seconds.

2 mile WU, 3x400, 1x300m on the river walk trail. Hills and humidity made for hell. I went 70, 71, 70, 47. Wanted to do more but I could feel the wheels falling off on number 4 so I decided to stop at 300. I definitely felt the upage in miles this morning, and I felt flat on the run too. 

3 miles shakeout. Felt good. 2 outside, then it started to rain so I did the last mile on the treadmill, starting at 6:50 pace and working down to 4:50. Lifted after. I'm definitely gonna be sore from that stuff.

5 around noon. Pushed the pace a little. Hot out!

Shakeout w/ some strides a couple hours later. Probably gained 100ft in elevation on the last stride.

2 more miles later. Wasn't planning on it but wanted to refresh my mind between spells of homework. Did my core!

Very warm and windy today for my first real workout in almost 3 weeks. 20x200, with the first 9 at 32 seconds with 100/200m rest, the next 7 at 30 w/ 200/300m rest, and the last 4 I just tried to survive. Averaged 32.3 on the first 9, 30.4 on the next 7, and 28.2 on the last ones. Last 200 was a 27.5 which I was happy with because I was really starting to feel the lactic acid. This workout would have been hard before my sickness when I was in pretty good shape, so I'm really happy I survived this.

Shakeout at around 7 w/ some strides at the end. Felt good. Hard strength and core session after. Great day for getting stronger.

Relaxing 7 miles around noon. Felt good! I think I laced my right shoe too tightly yesterday because the top of it hurt, but felt better throughout the run. Felt like I could have gone for another 7.

3 miles w/ strides.

My legs just felt like lead today, probs from not running for 10 days then doing 70 miles on my first week back. 150, 250, 200 in 19.8, 35.9, 26.9. Then 2x150m in mid 21 w/ 44 sec rest in between. Then a 200m on the fields in 32 and some stairs. I need my strength back soon!

3 mile shakeout + strides. Felt better than this AM. Weights, core, and stretching after.

Slept in so just one run today because I want to get ahead in HW. Four uphill strides at the end(200m). Decided to use the watch on the third one. Hit a mid 28 which was pretty good, I'm sure I went quicker than normal for it. Last 7 days were 80 miles so that's pretty good. Planning out training and these next three weeks are gonna be a crazy grind, but if I survive I'll be much better for it. Excited!

Did my core!

3 miles shakeout around noon. Was supposed to be the WU for my workout but I had a lot of wicked side stitches. I'll try the workout tonight, and make sure to hydrate well until then.

Oh man oh man. 2 mile WU. 2 mile tempo in 10:36, 4x800 in 2:24 on all of them. 3 min rest between everything. At least 85 degrees. I could literally wring sweat out of my hair like a wet towel. CD for 12. I HATE tempos so I had to dig really deep for this one. Wanted to hit 2xmile in 4:50 but I didn't think the 2 mile part would go that well and it tired me out a little so 800's instead. Very happy w/ the effort for only having been running for 9 days now. Just happy to get the tempo out of the way so I can do some fast stuff. Lifting, core, stretching after.

I woke up at 10:15 because my alarm decided to off, without making any noise. Calc started at 10, so I hastily tinkled and ran to class and got my full attendance credit. I think the mile was probably sub 6. After class, I did some HW and did an easy run. That refers to the pace, not how I felt. 80 degrees w/ 20mph winds, and VERY humid. It's okay the first 2 miles or so as a headwind, but when it becomes tailwind you start to overheat very quickly. Halfhearted strides after. No life in the legs today, but I'm not too worried, I had a hard workout 16 hours ago. I gotta start hydrating more.

3 mile WU. 2x100 in 13.1, 12.6. 2x300 in 45, 48. Pulled out there. The wind was really bad today. I hit the 200 on the second repeat in 29 and the wind hit me like a wall where it felt like a good effort was just being able to jog through it. I was concerned that my legs were fried from Tuesday, but then I decided to throw in a hard 200m in 25.8, which is my second fastest 200 to date, so that made me think it was just a bad day for Mother Nature. CD for 9

PM wasn't planning on doing anything but it's better than physics w calc. 4x200 on the river walk in 30.8, 28.2, 27.0, 28.1. Felt very good for these, way better than around noon. Good strength and core after!

7 miles w strides measuring some road k's out for the next workout. Pace was fairly easy mid 6's w/ some strides at the end. Ran in the hour I had between calc and physics w calc(I like calc). Felt pretty fine for four workouts and 3 lifting sessions the past 5 days.

AM - just an 8 minute jog. Trying to practice some race stuff, like the shakeout for an afternoon race.

PM - 800m fast, 1000m at tempo, 600m fast. I hit 2:06-7, 3:16, 1:31-2. Legs felt very flat on the warmup, I was SUPER surprised on how the 800 went. Tempo portion felt almost easy, I just had to suck it up on the hills. The 800 going so well and feeling pretty easy was making me think I might be able to go sub 1:30 on the 600, but I didn't take too much rest between repeats and I think I was starting to get some lactic acid buildup. I'm happy with how it went. Did all of these on the loop around the rec, the 800 had a net downhill, the 1000m had a net uphill and the 600 had a net downhill. A good way to end a hard week of training.

5 miles. Tired from yesterday!

Managed to snag a pair of new OG Nike Victory spikes for 20 dollars! I've had my other spikes since 2014 and they're hanging by a thread.

Put off running for HW today. When I did run I did it at the rec and it was a real furnace in there. Only got 6 min of tempo. It's hard to keep mentally strong on tempos for me, and treadmills just make it harder. I'm just making excuses though. Will have a better session tomorrow hopefully!

7 miles w strides in a terrible storm. Felt GREAT!!

Shakeout in the morning. Felt good!

2 mile WU. Hilly 800m @1500 pace on the roads in 2:09. Felt really good after that. Ran a mile and a half to the track. Did a 400 and 4x150 w/ 1 min rest going 66, 24, 21, 24, 21. Felt like I was in molasses on those which was super frustrating. I'll blame the lunch I had, which embodied southern food(not healthy). Had dinner with Sean and Ethan after, they're super righteous and probably the two best people I know in a religious sense.

Evening run. Felt pretty good, but my hamstrings ached on the hills, they've felt tight for a few days. Did strides after and it felt good to change up my range of motion. OG vic's got here today, and they're pretty great. I'm excited to try them out.

AM - WU to the track. It rained all night so it was basically impossible to not get soaked in any of the 6 lanes(I've never seen a track like this before(that wasn't a 200m track)). Did 3x400 in 64, 64, 65. 200m rest, which was a little harder than 4 min rest felt. I felt a little tired from 2 days of traveling, but I could have done more. The reason I stopped early was there weren't any unlocked bathrooms and I was starting to feel sick bc of that. OG Vic's felt great. Another note is while rough-housing with my younger cousin on the trampoline yesterday, he landed on my head while I was on the ground and screwed up my neck. I can turn it to the left, but it's pretty hard to turn it the other way. 

PM - Awesome workout around 10PM! 2x400 on a net downhill on the roads in 59, 54 +4x200m hills. First 400 I slowed down the last 200, so I told myself "get out fast, and don't relax at all" and, as the time shows(3 sec PR) it went well! Def gonna make hitting 57's and 64's feel that much easier.

4 miles of hills + 4x200m on the roads going up and down a very slight incline. 200's were all under 28, and I started the next one after about 60 seconds because that's when I felt ready to go. Core and stretching after. Starting to get fit again...

6 miles around lilburn. I have never seen a more ludicrously hilly place in my life. Made sure to keep a good effort going up the hills. Finished with 3x200m around 3k pace(34).

AM - 4x1000m w/ 400m recovery. First 3 on the partially muddy soccer fields, last one on the roads. 3:11, 3:09, 3:06, 2:58. very cold and very windy. Warmed up after the first k though so that was good. I've never done 1000m repeats but I have done 1200m repeats before and I usually come through the k in 3:20 so this was pretty good. Felt good to keep the heart rate up for a while. Def gonna take a nap before my PM session. Glad I took yesterday off because my hamstrings felt great! They were tight all yesterday.

No PM speed bc I was busy. HUGE S/O to my good friend Zack for getting his mission call! He's a very righteous and fast dude and I'm glad to call him a friend.

AM - Shakeout before going to the bodies anatomy exhibit. Around 6:00 pace, but for only two miles that's not too impressive.

PM - 5x400. First 3 in 57.2, 57.9, 55.2. Told myself "if you get under 54.5 you can stop at 4". I ran 52.87 but I'm certain I stopped the watch a couple meters short. Still, I'd call it fast enough! Def working that turnover! Gained a few pounds over break, so I'll be even better w/o that weighing me down.

Easy recovery + 3 ~300m strides getting some life in the legs. Hilly. Legs aren't sore and nothing really hurts, just tired from yesterday.

5 miles shaking out the car ride with strides after. Rolled my ankle on the run. Strides felt GREAT!

AM - up at the crack of dawn for some tempo before classes so I'd have enough recovery for tonight's speed workout. I don't do morning runs, my legs usually take ages to wake up. 800, 1000, 1000, 400 w/ 2-3 min recovery in 2:13, 3:12, 3:11, 71 on the hilly roads. 400 was supposed to be another 1000, but the wind hit hard and I started getting a wicked side stitch.

PM - Speed! 2x(150, 200, 150) w/ 2-3 min rest between repeats, and 5 minutes rest between sets. Times were 19.3, 25.9, 19.0, 19.4, 26.8, 19.8. High 80's out, but I stayed strong! Anything below 19.5 means a 25s 200m if I sustained another 50m(which I could have done on all), so the first 4 I was rolling. Last two I didn't feel too tired, I got a bad blister on my foot for running in new spikes sockless and my feet were burning because of it. Great double! 

Lifting, stretching, and core after. Good day to get faster!

Baking in the furnace. Felt extremely sore, but after the run and strides, I felt fantastic. Getting to the point where you can feel the heat coming from the asphalt.

3x400, 2x400, 1x400 w/ 100m  rest between repeats, 4 min between sets. Tired from two workouts and a hard strength session on Monday, and back stretch wind was a wall today. Trying to get faster every set. Ran 64, 65, 65, 62, 64. The 5th one told me I was probably just gonna hurt a lot for another 64, so I stopped at 5. I've read that if you can do three sets of these your average pace is your mile pace. That 100m rest killed. Finished with some 80m starts and a 150m finish.

5 miles w strides. Hot out

w/ a 200m in 26 high/27 low. Tomorrow I get to run that and try and survive another 600m.

Grant didn't wake up smh. Stride +3x300 +200 in 44.3, 42.3, 42.0, 28.9. Felt good, but sick to my stomach. 

Might end my training for this season here. I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed/stressed lately because of classes and running and lots and lots of physics HW. I could run some PR's, but with only a month of training + no base training I doubt I could hit a low 1:5x or 3:5x So yeah, I might take a couple weeks off and actually relax. It'll be nice to go a few days without constantly thinking about the next workout or splits. Peace!

AM - 2 miles. Technically on Saturday night, but I wanted to start up again on a Sunday. 7:10 pace. I didn't really feel super pumped to start running again during the break but while I was waiting outside(for about ten minutes) for my watch to link, I just felt butterflies in my stomach. Never really hurt coming back from a break, but today my legs ached something awful. Also never taken a break for more than a few days so that's probably why. It's gonna take some time to rebuild the system, but I'm excited about it.

PM - 3 miles w/ strides. Splits were 6:45, 6:23, 5:37. Wasn't planning on running it like a tempo but the second mile I started hurting and I wanted to see what I could do on the last one. Didn't have the pain like I did earlier, which was good. Not gonna try any fast stuff like this for a while, but it was definitely a good run. Before it felt like when I was hurting it was because I was blowing up, but today hurt way more than that. Man I love running.

3 miles 6:56 pace zigzagging through the fields. It was getting dark and I was wary of twisting my ankle because I've done that often on this route but I didn't. Kept it easier the first two miles. Last mile I started thinking of Ragnar, and how much fun I had doing them. I hope come a couple years Connor and hell raiser and I and more of the boys can form a good team. Anyway that made for a 6:27 3rd mile, which is pretty fast these days. I've negative split every mile of every run so far, but that doesn't mean much.

Racketball + 3 miles later that night. Only used my watch to measure the quad, it's almost exactly a half mile so 3:16 for that, hope I get to do some quicker stuff on it before the semester's over. Didn't really speed up on the quad, the pace might not be 6:30's, but it was probably sub 7. Felt good.

Was going to do more but my stomach was awful and I've felt pretty bad throughout the day. 7:04 pace, all on grass which made it a little harder.

4 miles @6:45 pace. I'm gonna stop putting my paces on the blog for a while. I think I psychologically just have a thing where I gotta have a worthy pace on the blog, and it's much easier to build mileage back up when you're running easy. I've ramped up mileage quickly many times running however I feel and I've never had injury problems doing so, so that's the plan. HOT out! And humid. I was dying.

Off to enjoy my first day of being 19.

Wanted to do more but felt sick.

Noon - 2. Woke up late. It was super hot out, very windy, and I had a pounding headache, so pretty miserable. Just glad I got out there. Gonna get on a good sleeping schedule soon so I can do my runs in the cooler morning and evenings.

PM - 2-mile WU to the amphitheater loop, I've always included it as the turnaround point since it's the end of the riverwalk but I've never done anything else on it so this was new. Did a 300m in 46, then two reps of about 500m. 4:35 pace for those. Took about 2 minutes rest in between everything. Felt great, I haven't done anything fast in about a month now(and wasn't planning on doing anything for a couple more weeks) and none of this felt particularly hard. CD for 6. Felt great overall, it was still pretty warm out but I was running 6 min pace on the WU/CD and it felt easy. Ran by this kid with his dad who about jumped out of his skin when I passed him(the kid).

5 miles @ 6:35 pace on the treadmill. Pace felt fine but man it was hot in there. Glad I stuck through though. Actually pace didn't feel hard at all so that's good. Stretching, core and lifting after.

2.5 to the rec, did a tough core workout. Only around ten minutes, but very intense. Ran 2.5 back. Didn't measure the entire run but whenever I checked the pace it was around 6:40's.

3 miles a couple hours later with strides. I think I'd categorize this as "flying" for me right now(sub 6 pace on non-uphills for the most part). Strides felt good. I feel good. Just 10 more days of classes/finals and I'll be done with freshman year.

3 miles. I recall having no life in me, except the bathroom cramps so I did less than I wanted.

 Did some 150 uphill sprints. Felt good, last ones were sub 4 pace. Mid 80's, which made me feel pretty tired. So much physics HW, done maybe 5 hours today, and it's not bc of procrastination. 14 days and I'm outski. Gonna enjoy living in an apartment and having a car next year

Oh man. A half mile into this run, while in the hub of campus, a large truck blaring music passes me going in the opposite direction. They honk at me and I hear something whiz by my head. One of them had thrown a glass whiskey bottle at me, and missed, luckily. I'm a pretty levelheaded guy who doesn't care about much, but MAN this drove me up the wall. 

In high school, my dad had to basically live in his car, alone, to be able to get to college. I had to take countless tests to get a full ride scholarship somewhere. And some degenerate who no doubt has his parents/the bank paying for 130,000$ scholarship, and treats it like it's nothing by getting drunk all the time? I hate going to a place when 2/3rds the student population is blasted at 6PM, any day of the week. And I hope next time that jackA actually develops  enough intelligence(through some miracle) to actually hit someone so he can pay for his actions(his parents will probably just pay the bail too). As you guys can probably tell this actually upset me, which isn't an easy thing to do

Ran to a turf field I ran on once in November, did a couple strides, ran back. Slept in so I ran at 3PM. Very hot. Very humid. I think it's time to retire the launches, I could feel them putting extra pressure on my left knee and Achilles. So close to 700 miles though

AM - to the rec and back, did core. It rained all night so the grass was muddy, but it was 50's out which felt so so so nice. Did two 30 second "pickups" at 5:09 and 4:36 pace. Felt good for not eating anything beforehand, I just woke up and ran. Also felt good because a week ago I did 3 miles in the AM and I got maybe ten minutes before I had to stop because I was just so winded and weak. Peg's were good as always @Cason

PM - 3 mile shakeout w/ 4x30s strides around 4:20 pace. Felt good. Was raining and still cold but coming back I was going sub 6 pace whenever I checked my watch. First workout back tomorrow!

10x(1 min on, 2 min off). On the grass for the first five where I went quick(4:34 avg pace), then I switched to the turf because I thought the turns would slow me down, so a little more recovery after 5. 4:49 avg pace for those. #5 was 4:20 pace but the other nine felt fairly easy! When I was doing 100 miles a week in September I tried this and could barely manage 5:0x pace, and it felt like sprinting. Super pumped that all my work last season carried over. Good stuff. I was hoping to manage 5 flat pace if I felt good so this was great. Felt fantastic altogether, despite running in the heat and wind!

8 miles with a half mile trying to feel out a tempo pace. Ran on the speed sapping grass to keep it honest. Ran 5:30 pace but I still think it was a little quick. 9 days until I'm a college sophomore, wow. 80's and sunny out so I got to work on my summer tan too. 

2.5 to the rec, core, 2.5 back around 3. Hot out. My fitness has increased exponentially these past couple weeks. I'm able to do 30 reps of core exercises I couldn't have done one of a week ago. Two weeks ago running to the rec felt like an eternity but these 5 flew by. I'm hitting paces I didn't think I'd hit for another 4 or 6 weeks.

3 mile shakeout w 2 strides that night. cut short because of reasons.

I like running, and I think I have a certain aptitude for it(being able to go from 30 miles a week junior year to 70-80 senior year, and 110 last summer w no injuries), I most definitely have a larger aptitude for academics. People debate whether being smart is a talent or the result of hard work, and who am I to say. However, I am one to say that my legs will fail before my brain. Einstein wasn't able to play piano or violin because his body failed him in his later years, but his brain certainly didn't, or at least not at the same rate. I know I'm pretty smart, I got a 33 two years ago on the ACT and I feel that I'm leaps and bounds ahead of where I was then, but in both cases, I think I spend more time running, or stretching, or recovering idly, then I do on getting more intelligent. I've always been curious where I could be if I actually devoted time to research, field and case studies, etc.

This sounds like a resignation from the blog. It isn't, it's far from it. I'm going ALL OUT these next 12 months or so. Not doing 150 miles a week or anything crazy like that, but just every workout is run to the best of my ability, cleaning up my diet, etc. I have certain goals I want to try to get this next year(that I'll keep disclosed for now), and if I get them, or at least know that I was good enough to get them, then I'll stick another 4 years out. If not, then it's a sure sign that I was born to strive for a Nobel prize(I can settle for a Pulitzer). Even still, I doubt I'll stop running, or at least until my legs feel a lot worse going 6 minute pace. Going fast, hitting 2 hour long runs, logging 700 miles on a single pair of shoes... I love it. Plus it has great physical and mental benefits too. Having a nice body and 32 BPM heart rate is sweet. But I also would like a chunk of time to learn the violin...

I'm cool w/ no one reading this. I've just lost a bit of sleep lately pondering these types of things and voicing them(albeit online) is soothing for me. The way I see it, this way, I have nothing to lose! 2018, I'm out for blood. Time to put in some work.

5 miles. My left calf was feeling tight, so I played it safe. Did a stride to loosen it. Gonna stretch a lot now. It already feels better.

7 miles with 4 strides in the butler field. I did them where I'd start at the 50yd mark, run at around 5 flat pace and do a wide turn and change gears the last 100 yards. Only timed the last two 100 yard parts of those, 13.1 and 12.5. Glad I took yesterday off because my calf feels much better. All I ate was junk because it's all the dining hall had though, so I could have felt better. It was mid 80's and windy out too, and I started my run at 9PM so that was strange.

7 pretty steady in the storm, no watch. Almost had my first river walk run ever where I didn't see anyone else, but I had to cross paths with some hobbyjogger with half a mile left.

Shakeout that night to get to 10 for the day and 800+ miles on the pegs. Probably have over 1000 miles on these things counting walking. Felt good, it finally stopped raining so it felt nice and cool out.

5 in the afternoon. 20+ mph winds out! Tired from that, studying, and a bad night of sleep.

Shakeout with strides later. Felt good on the strides.

Ran to the turf field, did dx1.5 laps going a harder pace until I had 100yds left then kicking it up. Was going to do more, but then I thought of how fun this would be to do under the lights on my last night in Alabama freshman year(aka tomorrow), so I'll finish it then. Felt good to put some life in tired legs. Only one final left, physics w/ calc.

Took the past two days off to crush finals. I think I pulled A+'S all around so that's sweet. Did a minute tempo at 4:40 pace and 250,150,150,250 hill strides. I know I went hard because on the last one I bundled up super hard the last 50m or so, which is good because it means I'm pushing my limits. Every time I come to Atlanta it's miserable I swear.

5 in the afternoon. Was hot, windy, and hilly. Felt tired.

Shakeout in the evening with 3x200m getting progressively faster. Went 34, 31, 28. It was raining, hilly and windy(and bad traction on the roads for the 200's) so good stuff. Long run tomorrow, can't remember the last time I did that.

Hard one today. Lewis didn't wake up until 11 so I had to run this in midday. Wasn't too hot, but very bright. Did 7 miles at 6:22 pace(watch didn't connect until 3 miles in, so the 6:22 pace was only for the last 4 miles), then 4x200m in 28.2, 27.9, 27.5, 27.8, then cooled down some and did a 100m on the grass pretending to start a cross country race in 18.2, then a 100m pretending to finish a race in 14.9. That last 100m felt SO easy. 200's were hard. I told myself to do them controlled, so I was going fast, but not sprinting. I've read that if you're going to do year round speed, you can't be going all out. So I was basically telling myself "you've already used up a lot of your energy, so now do some 200m's fast, but using as little as energy as possible", so I was treading a fine line of going as fast as I can without really pushing it. While sprinting is good, I can't run a 25 second last 200m in a race. But, if I work on controlled "sprinting", I think it will be more beneficial. So the purpose today was to tire myself out, and then try to go fast, but have it be controlled. It was pretty sweet that I'm already running around what I was for 200's last season, and they feel a lot more controlled! Hopefully I can work on speed endurance and run some 55 second 400's later in the year. Good start to the week! Cooled down some more, then Lewis picked me up and I cooled down for 12 for the day around the neighborhood. My 8 year old cousin is coming to see me today so I'll def get some cross training in throwing him around. Will do core later too.

AM - 5 as soon as I woke up + some sweet core and strength I got by throwing a tire swing and catching it as it came back. No PM run, in flying to see my family today which is going to take forever. If I'm not running late I might walk instead of taking the terminal though.

AM - 5. Might be the longest I've gone without stopping yet for a crosswalk or to catch my breath, even on Sunday I had to find a bathroom during the aerobic part. Hard to shake some life into the legs after a long day of travel.

PM - 8 miles, breaking my longest run without stopping set this morning. Measured a mile of it in the middle because my watch is low on power and I forgot my charger and want it for tomorrow's workout. That one was 6:35, which felt pretty consistent with the run. Just overall a great run, hitting the trails felt SO good and I felt like I could go on forever. Left calf hurt for maybe a minute or two in the middle but worked itself out. Put my legs in the hot tub after and I'm about to roll out.

2 mile shakeout running back from my 8 year sister's school.

Mile WU, 1000m in 2:43, 5 miles, 600 in 1:40 for 4:23 for the mile(1600m). Wow. How did that come out of like four 40 mile weeks? The k was great but I paced badly. Hit the first 400m in 61 and slowed down a lot. I did that on the roads, so I ran 5 miles to the cinder trails. It was downhill there, but I forgot how technical it is. I eased back a ton so I wouldn't break an ankle. Exactly one year ago today I failed to even break 5 in the 1600m so anything is possible.

Another 2 mile shakeout picking up my sister from school. About to stretch and ice. Not going to do too many miles these next few days, and they'll probably be 8 min miles. I say that like I'm controlling myself, but truth is I probably will be too tired to go any faster. 14 HOUR drive to Utah tomorrow.

The drive up was awful. I woke up at 2AM to leave, and my left leg hated me for it. It was super tight in the knee/hamstring area, so I made sure to stretch a ton every time we stopped. Got my first altitude run in today, 5 miles jogging on Gov. Legs felt good during it. Iced after but I forgot how cold it was so I only put my calves and below in. Glad to be home. Even if Kedric is here.

AM - 3. Hills hurt a lot more at elevation, and I live in the highest neighborhood in Vernal. Tried to ice bath in the creek after. It's an acquired feel. I couldn't do it for more than 30 seconds, but I'm sure once it gets hotter and I get the plank back up so I can ice as soon as I finish most runs it'll be tolerable.

PM - 5 on the trails with strides. First run at McCoy, oh man. It's way out in the desert and all they have is super technical single trails so I grinded it out. Iced after, actually managed to get in up to my knees for around ten minutes. Strides felt great.

AM - 2.5 easy.

PM - 4 miles easy + 4 hard strides(200m) in 28.2, then I didn't time the others because the watch I'm using(my dad's ancient marathon watch) wasn't being accurate/wouldn't display time. Did drills after, those burned.

Long run in the desert. It's been a while since I did a long run. The hills and more technical parts of the trail hurt, but it was a fun time.

AM - 7 miles. First mile kept speeding up and went sub 6. I was surprised how much I could speed up by because it didn't feel hard. Felt tired until the last two miles where I felt good again. Apparently Clayton(Uintah's #1 400-1600 guy) wants to race me in a mile next Monday. I bet he could beat me right now, but I'm trying to get him to race me in a root beer mile instead because that's my true race. Did a 400m on the treadmill in 69 that didn't feel too hard, then stretched and did core.

PM - shakeout on Gov w/ strides. Mileage is starting to add up, I don't feel like I got hit by a train every morning(now like a smart car or dune buggy) and the occasional knee or Achilles tightness is fading away too. This should be the last week before I hit my normal weekly base mileage(90mpw). Less than I did last year, but this time I'll have some quality mixed in with the quantity.

AM - 3x800's all in 2:32. They were on the treadmill so in all actuality a few seconds slower. My legs did not want to move today, I think it's because I only warmed up a mile. 

PM - Ran up to the peak of the overlook dirt road(1.56 miles) in 11:45, and figured I'd TRY to come down in under 10 minutes. I emphasize try only because there was a 20mph tailwind going up, and it was in my face the entire time the way down. Dug deep and came down in about 8:20-30, so mid 5 minute pace. Was happy with it because my legs felt like lead going up, I felt super tired, and the wind was just brutal. Maybe one day I'll go all out down it and try to break 7(and shorten it to 1.50 so it can be done). Iced after. Managed to get in to knee level this time. I was going to do a 2 mile tempo in the AM and some speed in the PM on Friday, but since this went down I'll dial it back a notch and take out the tempo. Jogged around to hit 11 for the day.

AM - 4. Cold out, but I overdressed. I really can't handle heat at all. Came back to find that my dog had run off so had to spend the next 10 minutes looking for her. 

PM -  Went to Uintah's track practice and had a long talk with Clayton about the 800, How he'll have to run it to break the school record, etc. After getting one spot short of state in xc, he trained his rear off and he's running 2:00 for the 800 in the open and medley, and 50/51 in the open/4x400... At the same meets. I really hope he breaks the record, only problem is he's running 4 events at state, and 3 have prelims so he'll probably have raced 5 times by the time he runs the 800. 3 miles after. Wanted more but conditions were awful. I saw a bird flying into the wind and she wasn't even moving forward.

AM - Jackalope. If Hell was a single trail, this would be it. You gain about over 1000ft in the 3.8 mile ascent of nothing but loose rock, extremely steep hills, and overgrowth everywhere. I've ran probably near 7,500 miles in Vernal, and I'd rate this the most difficult path I've traversed. And in the next two miles you lose nearly all the elevation you gained in a trail so treacherous that attempting even normal easy run pace would guarantee broken ankles. On top of all that, windy and snowing! I make it sound terrible, but at the same time I love it. The view at the peak, looking at all of the mountain ranges below you, it's astounding. I'll make an effort to do this every week because it's a great workout. It took me 34 minutes to run up the 3.8 miles, and the 4.2 miles back took 25 minutes. The only reason the descent was that quick was because I hit a semi flat single trail with less sharp turns than usual, so I just kept speeding up and split a 5:20 for the third mile. I was happy with that because it wasn't downhill at all, and I hit a 2:48 at the half mile so the next half mile was 2:32. Kept the momentum going and jogged a mile at the corral. My heart rate never got above 148 so maybe I'm starting to get fit.

PM - easy 3.

AM - 7 easy. Windy and cold. Legs felt tight in places but felt better by the end.

PM - 4 easy.

Noon - 8 miles. The first mile felt like hours, so I knew this would be a mental battle. Very tired from hanging with friends last night. Did Gov and ran on the roads until 6.5, then drove back up to my house and ran down to the creek where I iced, and climbed back up to my house. Coach Galley pulled up next to me at the end of the run where I was actually starting to feel better, always nice to talk to him.

PM - 2 miles WU, strides, jogged until I hit 4. I averaged 28.7. I did faster 200's 2 weeks ago, but I was at half the mileage so I'm not too worried. Right now I'm not supposed to be focusing on closing in sub 60 400's, I'm working on the strength to run the other 2600, or 4600, or 9600m. Longboarded with Syree after. There were others there, but they ditched us because we were going slow.

3rd on the weekly mileage board!! Been a long while since I even cracked top 10.

Since yesterday was "bring your own cup" day at 7-11, my friends and I celebrated by bringing 3 gallon soup pots. I had scarcely eaten prior so I ate nearly half of the pot, and didn't eat anything else, so today I was a bit concerned. First 5 or so miles went by really fast and I felt great. Then it went downhill. I wasn't hurting or anything, I just felt like I had no energy so I was pretty miserable. Around mile 8 I did a couple hill strides, hoping they'd reinvigorate me, and that was a mistake. I was like a car running low on fuel, and those sprints took whatever I had left.

3 more on Gov. about to storm

AM - 7 miserable miles. Hopefully shaking out what's left of what I ate on Saturday. My left lower calf was tight the first few miles, I'm gonna start getting on a good recovery routine. I haven't stretched at all and have scarcely ice bathed, plus hydration. I'll get on top of it, because if running keeps feeling like the past couple of days I'm a goner(core, stretching, and icing after).

2 around noon. It's been quite the past couple days. I was icing after my first Monday run and somehow my dog found me even though it's pretty far from my house, and she jumped in. The current was too strong so she started getting pulled away so I ran to get her and pulled her out but hurt my ankle doing so, so I took a couple days off. Yesterday I jogged for a few minutes and lifted. I was tired today from that. I've also started working at Walmart and it's a pretty big time consumer. Luckily I get the next three days off because I'm working from 10PM-7AM starting Monday, yikes. So I'll probably be doing my runs at 7PM and 7AM from now on. I felt pretty good on the run, probably because I knew it was only 2 miles. I felt this weird thing in my right calf, almost a cramp but not really. I'll chalk it up to lifting repercussions.

4 miles later. Did 3x250m strides on the grass trying to cycle through gears to sub 4 pace

AM - sleeping. Changing my sleep schedule. So my second run of the day is actually going to be at like 4AM tonight.

PM - 30 minutes easy on the turf + strides and stretching. Bought some cheap Vomero's after at Ross, my structures are getting pretty up there in mileage so I'm happy I could get another trainer. I've hydrated super well today and hopefully that equates to a good run this AM.

AM - 5x1 minute w/ 2 minutes off at 4 AM. Watch was dead so I had to use an app that I'm almost sure was quite a bit slow pace-wise, but even with that, the paces were pretty good. 5 miles altogether. Now I'm going to put tin foil on my windows and sleep until about 5 PM. Took a nap around 2AM which helped a lot with the night schedule thing.

PM - 9 tough miles in the desert. Legs felt pretty lethargic after so I drove to the track and did some drills and 150's and 200's changing gears every 50m. The first one was pretty rough because it was a shock to the legs, but by the end I felt very good. Stretched and iced after.

AM - 5 at 5AM. I felt really good during it, not like I ran 15 miles the day before or anything. Best I've felt on a run in a long time, just light and smooth. Maybe that's because of the new shoes. No matter what the reason, I'll embrace it.

PM - 5 miles w/ strides. Finally got on my sleeping routine, I woke up at 5PM today. It's strange that my "second run" of the day is actually the first. Hot out.

AM - 5 miles during my lunch break(at 2AM). My legs burned from stocking all night.

PM - 3

AM - 4 easy. Felt good.

PM - Gov + strides. Gonna count some work mileage so I can round up to 10(I walked about 5 miles during last nights shift).

AM - 3 miles + a few easy strides. Nothing really, just getting the legs loose for my first real workout this evening, should be fun. 7:0x pace felt like jogging this AM so hopefully that's a good sign. It shouldn't be too strenuous, just a fair amount of it.

PM - 7 miles w/ one set of 1000,800,600 in times not worth mentioning. The wind blew(thank you, thank you). Wanted more of a workout today so I got a good lifting session in after. Thanks for joining Rylie!

This job is going to be the literal death of me

AM - 6

PM - Yellow Hill repeats with the Apache. He put the hurt on me, reminding me I till have a ways to go to get in shape. I blame Walmart for not giving me any time to recover between runs. I spend 10 hours working, 11-12 sleeping, and trying to fit everything else into the remaining time. 

AM - 6 easy.

PM - Jogged for about ten minutes, laced up in the spikes and did a couple hard strides coming through the 100m in mid 13's. Wanted to jog a lot more and do more strides, but I could tell it would rain soon so I started the strides early, which didn't matter because it started pouring during my second one. Felt good on the strides nonetheless. Saw Rylie and her mom walking in the rain and gave them a ride back to their car after.

AM - 4 miles. Felt good since I didn't have to work last night, so I could actually rest up a bit. Did a pickup for 2 minutes or so, nothing hard, just trying to get near tempo pace for the 7-mile tempo run tomorrow(I type with fear in my heart). Went 5:20 pace for the pickup which is too quick, I'd like to start out around 6:10 pace and keep picking it up. Felt easy though!

PM - 5 with a couple strides. Would have done more but I might try to do my tempo in the morning.

AM - was originally supposed to do a tempo run this morning, but about an hour and a half out my stomach started hurting from not eating recently so I had some rice. That didn't sit well so I decided to do mile repeats at the park instead so I had a bathroom if things went south. I did 4 mile repeats in 5:26, 5:25, 5:08, 4:54. It was hard because the first third of it you were on the grass but you were fresh, the next third was on concrete so more responsive, but the last third you jump back on the grass and it slows you down. Really dug deep on that last one, it hurt. I had to start it twice because the first time my watch didn't start which stinks because I felt way better on that one for the 40 seconds I was actually running it. The others weren't too bad though, just a good effort all around. Didn't even take my shirt off so how hard could I have been going? All of these were faster than my paces on my 1000,800,600 last week so I'm getting fitter. Long cooldown + stretching, core and lifting after. Squatted 100lbs which is way more than I've ever done before(I'm just starting to understand how important strength is).

PM - 4 miles easy. Very slow. Forgot to mention I pet a horse on my cooldown, so an A+ cooldown.

AM - 5 miles ending with 4x200m trying to hit 36, 35, 34, 33 to shake out the tiredness and such from the legs. Actually hit 35, 31, then decided to try for 36 and 34, which I did. Overall they all felt pretty easy. The 34 I held for about another 50m after stopping the watch just because it felt good to stride out.

PM - 5. 

AM - 6 easy with strides, uneventful as always at 2AM.

This job is rough. If anyone likes hearing me complain about my job I'll be reading some scat poetry I wrote in angst Saturday night at "The Black Cat"

Fun workout with Kenny, I wish I hadn't worked all night prior to it so I would have felt better but we all endure trials of various measure. 5x600m and 5x200m. My good watch died and bad one didn't work so I just would start counting until Kenny finished and subtract the time. Because of the watch I took the 600's a little easier, I would sit on Kenny until different points(from 40m out to 400m out) and then shift gears and drop him(sorry Kenny). The times I got where 1:47-1:52 so not too bad, it wasn't hard besides being tired and having a dry throat. No matter where I kicked, it always seemed like I finished 50m ahead, except when I kicked with 40m left, but that was a pretty monstrous gear change. 200's were good, only timed the 5th, and by timed I mean waited for the watch to get to xx:xx:00 and run it, and I came in on xx:xx:28 on that one. Lifted after which was good, except that it's 12:30 now and I normally wake up at 7PM. Man this sucks. Thanks for tagging along Kenny!

hit a new record for consecutive sleeping time, just shy of 14 hours, thanks work. While sleeping was nice I woke up at 9PM so getting a run in wasn't possible. I'm counting some AM work mileage.

AM - actually did a run during lunch break, but I'm adding some work mileage in too. Felt pretty good. I don't work for the next couple days which I am BEYOND excited for.

PM - 5. I haven't hydrated or stretched really at all these past few days, plus I haven't gotten too much sleep so I didn't feel the greatest.

AM - 15 minutes easy + strides. Wanted to do some more but my left calf was tightening up. I'm gonna work on my hydration a lot these next few hours so I can have a good fast workout tomorrow morning with Kenny. My first 2 strides were 35 and 31.1 which I was pretty happy with because I didn't feel the best and they were in to the wind. Didn't time the lasts 2. Excited for tomorrow, I usually have fun on 400's.

PM - 4 miles jogging + some easy strides.

AM - Jogged around for a bit and met up with Clayton for a speedier workout this morning. What was on deck was 10x400m getting progressively faster and 4x150m. Just as we finished warming up it started to rain and get windy so that was annoying. First 3 400m's were 69(going 37, 32), 65(31, 34), and 67. After the 3rd repeat, I decided to just move to the 150's. I should have just toughed it out, but running with Clayton was a little demoralizing. He still has all of his fitness from track, so on this faster stuff he can whoop me. 150's were fun. Lately getting under 29 on the 200m's has been lucky for me so when I averaged 20.2(26 second 200m pace) and felt in control the entire time I was pretty happy. S/O to Clayton for running a 17 second 150m. Hopefully when we do some longer stuff I can get my revenge. He said he'd make a blog soon so S/O to him. CD for 7.

PM - I woke up(9PM) feeling dissatisfied so I decided to do some 600's on the track. I was planning on doing a few at tempo pace. After a couple I felt tired from just waking up and not eating since maybe 7AM so I decided if the next one was under 2:00 I'd end there. Went hard and did a 1:42. Pretty good for me as 600's go, especially for early preseason, and having a workout earlier/no food in me. Good times!

AM - 5 miles with 4x200m strides at the end. Only timed the 3rd one, that one took 30 seconds. Easy pace today was 6:20's. I don't think that's going to be a normal thing for a little while, but it was a good time. Starting to get pretty trim, I've lost nearly 20 pounds since finals.

PM - 5 at McCoy with Trevor. I could tell he wasn't in distance running shape(he's a basketball player after all), so I took him up a super super steep shorter trail for revenge for all the times he's made me push a pace when he biked behind me.

AM - on my lunch break I ran to Legacy, and did 4 laps continuous winding it up(1 lap=1/3 of a mile). Laps were 2:15, 1:59, 1:42, and 1:40. Tried to stay relaxed and easy on the last lap until the last 100 or so, but that was too late to bring the pace under 5:00. 5:21 for the mile on the last three laps. Tired from work so it was good.

PM - jogged 4.

AM - Ran a little over 2 miles to Legacy, ran a lap in 1:26(4:18 pace), and ran back. Felt good, I listened to my body and ran probably high 7's at the fastest yesterday, and today I was running low 6's on the easy parts, just because that's what felt easy today. I've seen a lot of guys on this blog whom push a fast pace on every run, and they all get injured, and when they aren't injured they aren't running that fast, which I find correlation in. The only exception I've seen so far was Ryan Raff, because he was the only person who actually had the times and was in shape enough to have low 6's as his pace on an easy run. Wanted to come through in 1:36 on the lap(4:48 pace), but I could tell I was going too quick about halfway through so I just sustained. I didn't stretch or anything, just did 2 miles, a couple short strides, and took off. Was not that hard of an effort, definitely could have held it through an 800 at least. Exciting stuff.

PM - 5 easy

AM - 5 easy

PM - was going to do a big workout, but I slept in too late to get in a good workout. I had a little time though so I got in some 150's and 200's. Gonna focus on strength over speed these next two weeks.

AM - 5

PM - 5. Had to go to the bathroom really badly but besides that I felt pretty light on my feet. Wanted to do a ten miler but I have a few big workouts these next couple of weeks.

AM - some easy running on the roads + 400,200,200 with 100m easy between everything. 400m was supposed to be sustainable and 200's getting something harder. 73, 28 high, 28 low. Felt tired but better after, hopefully woke up the legs for tomorrow's workout. I haven't stretched at all lately or hydrated well the past couple days so I'm gonna get on that right now.

PM - 5 miles very easy. I felt tight in a couple places so I found easy pace today and dialed it back another notch. Also did 2 easy strides. Icing right now for good measure. Tomorrow is gonna be fun running-wise, tough workout on deck.

Workouts can go many different ways. It's much easier to have a workout go bad opposed to well, but occasionally, when the stars align you get an A+ workout. And that didn't happen today. What I got might have been an A++ workout. Today's workout took place at RCL, at 8000ft. I don't know why but when I do workouts there they usually go very well. 3 mile WU, 3 mile tempo/time trial in, get this, 15:14(5:02, 5:13, 5:00). Finished up with 3x1000m in 2:48, 2:44, 2:56, hitting the last 800 on the first two in 2:09 and 2:07, and easing up for the last one. Wanted to do a mile after to top off the workout, but I was starting to hurt(starting..) so I called it there. I think I can live with it. Man this one hurt. Very happy with it. One of the runs where it's just you out there loving running, haven't had enough of those lately. Went out with the mindset that I wanted to go hard enough that my next run or two could be 10 minute miles and I'd find it understandable. Iced after in the creek which was colder than anything I could have imagined and it hurt just as bad as the workout. The craziest part, in my opinion, was that my heart rate never got above 142! It was pretty chilly up there though so maybe that should be held accountable.

AM - 6. Quads and hamstrings feel pretty thrashed but it was to be expected.

PM - some jogging to loosen up then 8x100m. First 4 in trainers, last 4 in spikes. First 3 were low 13's or high 12's, last 5 were 12.4(in trainers!), 12.2, 12.1, 12.2, 11.8. My 100m PR coming into this was 12.6, so I obliterated that. I think my 200m PR of 25.4 is going to be smashed real soon. Good stuff, all of the 100's I felt like I could have held for a while more.

I keep thinking "with the previous day I should be completely dead" and every day I'm stunned. Maybe the legs are finally adapting to the ~80 mile weeks! 6 easy miles that felt very nice + 4 easy 200 strides. Went 36, 34, 34, and 29, which I didn't expect at all because it felt like a 33 in terms of effort. By far the easiest sub 30 200m I've ran.

PM - 4 easy with a couple light strides.

AM - 20x400m jogging the bend as recovery. Started off with 77's and 78's and worked it down to 72's and 73's, so nothing too hard, just a good aerobic effort. Took a two lap recovery after number 10. After 16 I realized people were probably going to be on the track soon so I decided to do 18 instead and try to crank the last 2 in spikes. Did 59 low and 59 high, and MAN it hurt! The lactic acid really started to pile up around #12, but I'm happy with that because it gives me practice for powering through when I'm getting tired and tightening up. Drove home and cooled down the long way to the canal and iced(I'm still in the creek while I type this).

PM - glad I did so much of the daily mileage this morning because I woke up at 9PM(work starts at 10) and 2 miles was all I had time for. I just woke up and immediately found some shorts and shoes and took off so I had a lot of stiffness to work out that first half mile or so.

AM - the usual easy stuff. For some reason it felt eerie out at 2AM so I kept the pace a bit brisk, pretty close to 6 flat.

I offered to help with Kenny and his workout, and to my abhorrent disdain he said he wanted to do the workout in the AM. But, I came out nonetheless. He was doing a similar workout to mine yesterday, so I ran across the field to give him splits, and ran his recoveries with him too. Running across the field I was going pretty quit, and I racked up a lot more mileage than I was planning on today. Luckily it was almost exclusively on track and turf. I also ran the last 2 of Kenny's repeats(the quick ones). I ran in lane 2 the entire time and that one was a 73 so I don't know what it really was. Second one I took Kenny through the 300 in 60 and let him kick. He had a pretty good one. Hot out. Gotta hydrate well because I lost some fluids today. Already burned 3200 calories today and it isn't even 11 AM yet.

Overall an amazing week with 3 new PR's, also my first week finally hitting full mileage(not injured or anything, just lazy). Super excited to keep training like this and get in really good shape!

Just 5 in the AM, trying to play it safe with doing 31 miles in just about 24 hours on Friday and Saturday. Honestly more than anything it was because I slept super late and woke up at 9:30PM. Lately I've been needing 12 hours of sleep.

AM - 5 on the golf course. Wet out there. I'm going o do some k's out there tomorrow morning. Should be a blast. Going to try to tough it out and hit 10

Been having trouble sleeping, by that I mean with my job I need 12 hours a night which is a big time consumer, which caused me to miss my PM run yesterday which I was unhappy about, but I made up for it this morning. Did 1000m repeats on the golf course. It actually measured .01 short but I had sharp turns and had to run on pavement in spikes so it worked out. Wanted to get some good volume in at an aerobic effort, so was aiming for about 10k pace(3:20-ish). Hit 3:02, 3:15, 3:11, 3:19, 3:17, 3:11. The first one I hit way too fast, but then I got the hang of it. Legs felt good after #6 but the spikes I had on(sockless) were really tearing up my heels so I decided #7 would be my last. I took it out fast, and every time I rounded a turn I just tried to keep surging and ran a 2:49. Cooled down barefoot on the wet grass, that was nice. Did strides after and drove home. A bit later I figured I might as well get in all my mileage in the morning and did 3 more on Gov. I had to bring the car back though so the pace was about 2 minutes per mile faster than I wanted it to be.

AM - 4 easy

PM - 2 mile WU, yellow hill sprints, CD for 10 for the day. I'd sprint from light pole to light pole, resting in between, and man it was brutal. Harder than any of these workouts the past couple weeks.

AM - 4 with 3x200 strides. Didn't time the first one but it felt pretty bad. I felt tired. The second one was a 30 and the last one was 27, which for a pretty controlled stride in heavy trainers, I'm very happy with. 

I think my fitness is in a pretty darn good place right now. I'd say I've never been in better shape, I think early spring me could take me down in a 10x400m because 63's and 64's were just so easy then, but that's the only thing(I guess "a year ago me" in a 20 miler too). And that's without necessities I'll add into my training once I'm done working nights, like long runs, weights, drills, cutting out junk food(not time related. A guy's gotta have something), stretching, and doing more than just super easy jogging on my distance days, among other things. Even if when I start doing all of these things it ends up doing nothing, I'm still happy at the rate I'm improving. Another big thing that's changed is I'm starting to really like strength work(hills and longer repeats). Any longtime readers of the blog know in the past I've hated anything longer than 200m's, but I guess that's a good thing since strength work is just as essential.

PM - 6 easy w/ 4 strides. Felt tired.

AM - workout. It was cold out, and I never really was able to warm up the body so the times weren't amazing. Did a 1000m on the grass in 2:54 that felt pretty bad. It didn't hurt but I just felt like I couldn't go any faster. Then drove to the track and did 2x400 in 58 low and 58 mid, then 6x200m in 28, 27, 26, 27, 28, 28. These were all on the lower side(like 26.3 or 27.1). Just wasn't really able to ever get into a good groove. After the 200's I did some short sprints and cooled down for 11. At least those 400's were good! I've always had the fear mentally of going under 60 in a 400 at practice, it just seems so much harder than 61, but this was pretty easy so that was good.

PM - 4 easy. S/O to fellow SEC runner Craig Engels for signing to the Oregon Project!

Just an easy AM and PM run. According to my HR I was going very easy but my legs are still a bit tired from the workout yesterday. Lower calves still a little sore from mileage in aggressive spikes.

Overall June was a really good month for me! I got in a few really good workouts and hit my second highest mileage week ever, even though i probably didn't even crack into my top 10 mileage weeks at all. I think the 390 mile month last August is going to remain my PR for another year or two. Hopefully this good training keeps up!

AM - 5 at legacy. In the middle I wanted to do a bit at race pace since I'm probably racing in 12 days or so. Did a lap just on feel without looking at my watch at 4:55 pace. Felt pretty controlled, but that's only 12% of the race distance, I'm sure I would have had a lot more trouble sustaining it for the full 5k.

PM - off. Played cards with my parents instead.

AM - 5 easy ending with 4x200 strides, the first 3 I wanted around 37's and the last one I'd just turn over the legs a little. Ran 37, 37, 35, 28 low. I was just mentally coasting on all of them so it was pretty easy mentally and physically. Gonna have a good workout tomorrow, I know I can handle what's on deck but I get the feeling I'm going to have to make my workout on Friday a B- one to compensate for another A+ one tomorrow.

PM - shakeout with a few 150's.

AM - unintentional light work today. 2x mile repeats in 4:48, 4:52. The plan was 5 or 6 of these hard mile repeats, but I looked in my truck after #2 and realized I had maybe a gallon left(it gets less than 10 mpg) and I was about 20-30 miles from the nearest gas station. This freaked me out so I stopped the workout there and drove home, luckily made it. Irritated because with 6 mile repeats you have to take the first couple extra cautious to avoid blowing up, so I could have made them a good bit faster. Oh well. Guess I'll try harder next workout.

10

2k hitting the mile in 5:18, part of a bigger workout that I pulled. Just have really felt pretty drained and miserable lately from work, which affects the quality of my running, plus I've had to sub in work miles for real ones and that feels pretty bad too.

AM - 5. Felt pretty good, did some strides. Felt good yesterday afternoon too. Probably going to do 50 or 60 miles next week to try and keep the legs light to chase a fast 5k time Friday night, then maybe go back to 80 the week after, if not then work will be over the week after that so I'll definitely have the time to hit 80's.

PM - 4 easy with 3x200 strides in 33, 30, 28.

AM - shakeout 

PM - a little 5k pacing workout with Kenny. 6x600m at 5k pace + 2x300m with 200m rest. I wanted 5k pace for the 600's so 1:52.5. Ran 1:51.3, 1:52.3, 1:52.3, 1:52.3, 1:52.3, and 1:47.2. First 300m I ran 43.2, but second one I got some major side cramps and ran 49. The 600's felt good, I had just woken up and hadn't eaten for about 12 or 13 hours and wasn't well hydrating so it was good stuff. 

AM - 5. I felt good so I just opened up my stride and went a bit quicker for the first 4 miles, if I had the mile mark right it was 5:42 pace(I only used a timer). I stopped after 4 to pet a horse that came up to me, then ran the last mile back to the car a bit easier. There are so many gnats on that trail in the PM so I'll measure it precisely tomorrow morning, but I honestly think it might have been more than 4 miles fast. Either way a good effort, nothing too hard. I'll make sure to take these next couple runs at an easy effort.

PM - 3. I got out but turned around and it started hailing and raining something terrible. All headwind. Luckily I was wearing an athletic shirt so I was able to cover my face completely with it and see through. Glad because my chest and legs felt like they were being torn to shreds. It was brutal.

5 supposedly easy miles I got a bit excited on once I realized I felt good. Same route as yesterday starting out at 6:07 for the first mile and 5:45 for the last one(5:53 pace). I measured what I did yesterday and found out what I thought was 4 miles was actually 4.1, so it was really 5:32 pace for the first 4 miles so eat tricks naysayers(craik). After I finished the 5 on the trail I drove to the track, I was going to do 8x200 but only did 4 since my easy run wasn't as slow as I imagined. Did 30.0, 29.5, 28.9, and didn't time the last one and did it on the field to practice U turns for the road race. Last run with any sign of effort before the (hopefully) 15 minute samba on Friday. Happy with the run, + I got all my miles in that I wanted to do today.

My entire 9 hour shift last night was sweeping a parking lot. Was in bed from 7:40AM-9PM. Extremely sore when I woke up, just everywhere.

Very easy pre race stuff, did 200m strides on the road into the headwind, only timed #2(29.1). Hopefully gonna knock down that 5k PR tomorrow by a good bit if the legs feel good.

AM - shakeout getting a feel for the course. It's different than last year, but only in the sense that the starting point was the halfway mark last time. Did 4x200m strides after that felt good, tried to make them controlled but the slowest one was 4:42 pace, whoops. Hope I feel this good tonight, it's been a long while since I raced.

PM - DNF. Went out too quick, felt flat from the gun. Did 400,300,200,150 after in 66, 49, 31, 21. Wanted to do more but I had to work. Really surprised the stuff hit the fan like that. I think it was a long time coming with training honestly. No long runs and barely any stuff longer than 1000m means a bad time in a longer race. Back to the lab. Would never forgive myself if I didn't congratulate Kenny on taking down Kedric and I! Glad to see my training partner have his time to shine.

I slept for about 14 hours. Still pretty confounded about yesterday, I think I'll take a down week next week to recuperate mind body and soul.

Just paced Kenny for his short but sweet 400,300,200,150 workout, 400 was a 67 that felt pretty easy but my watch died after that. Assuming I got faster as we progressed since Kenny did. After I did some explosive stuff and core with trevor. Did some elliptical there while he biked. Always funny times with him.

8 miles with Trevor at McCoy. We went at 4AM and it was very hot and bright out in the desert today. Was a grind.

Some miles in the early morning + 3x400 laps striding out w/ 200 jog. The mileage was 6:18 pace and the 400's were 73, 68, and 62. Rained all last night and had very little traction so I was happy. Def would have been sub 60 in spikes on the last 400.

Helped make up/time/pace a workout for Kenny. 6x1000m + 5x400m. Ran his last k and the 400's with him and did 3:17 and 81, 79, 77, 77, 65. Last one I ran honest but everything else was easy. Hot out. About to combat it the only way I know, 70oz Gatorade slushies. Anyone who can guess the flavor gets a S/O if any readers want to guess.

5 miles + lifting and core with Trevor. Good stuff.

Some easy mileage + a lap hard at legacy in 1:26. Wish I could have held it through the 800m in 2:08 but it's fine. Hamstrings are sore already. Every time I begin doing weights/strength after a hiatus my core and hamstrings are always super sore, rarely my calves, and never my quads. The run was a testament to that. Probably gonna do core with trevor tonight.

5 to end my easy week. Overall I'm happy I took it, with working nights and trying to run 80 miles a week in my very limited time was just making me super miserable, and I now feel rejuvenated as I type this during my penultimate night shift. Gonna have some exciting workouts soon.

AM - 5. 

PM - shakeout w a couple easy strides!

AM - Looong workout this AM. 6xk, 4xk, 1xk. 2 minutes rest between repeats and about an 800 between sets. Hit 3:21, 3:22, 3:18, 3:19, 3:14, 3:07 for set one. Second set I decided to let off the gas a bit to have a quicker last set(originally it was 2xk but I could feel my legs tightening up, the arms dinosauring, etc that last 400). Set 2 I ran 3:23, 3:17, 3:16, 3:05. Last one I ran 2:53. I think I might have cut the corners a bit tight(there weren't any markers down so I could have been a little off). So the times are taken with a grain of salt, but the point was to get some good aerobic work and I accomplished that for sure. Never done over 5 miles of work in a single session so running 7 miles was a def plus. Good stuff! 

PM - shakeout, 6:54 pace. Felt pretty good considering all the mileage I did this morning. I'll have to thank the creek I iced in for that.

AM - 10 up and down Jackalope. By far my favorite running conditions out this morning, 60 degrees, overcast and dark, and drizzling. Kept an honest pace going up and beat my PR on the ascent by almost 3 minutes, 32 minutes for the 3.8 miles w/ 1200 ft gain. Went to the overlook of Vernal and yelled "Drago" and ran back down, the long way. No one else was there when I arrived, no one when I left. Just a lone runner, the rain, and one hell of a trail.

AM - 6

PM - speed with Trevor. Fun to see the big shot college bball player struggle after showing me up in lifting. 300, 300, 200, 200, 150, 150. Went 41, 41, 27, 26, 19, 19. All on the higher side second-wise. Took 500m rest after the 300's, 200 after the 200's, 150 after the 150's. Prior to tonight I thought I'd try to be in 54 second 400 shape by Christmas break. Those 300's would have been 55's if I finished the last 100(I could have). Happy with my speed, but I gotta buckle down on strength, it has a lot more room to improve. CD for 12 for the day.

AM - 4 + a long lifting session since I had the 24 hour gym to myself. I'm typing this a few hours after and I'm pretty sore. Did everything.

PM - run with trevor + core. He stopped to pee about 2 miles in so I went 6:15 pace the rest of the way back.

AM - 3 mile shakeout before driving up to SLC to buy a college car. Ended up being a bust so all I got was extremely tired and some very tight legs from around 10 hours in a car, so I just went to sleep as soon as I got back home.

AM - 5. Hamstrings felt very tight from the car ride the first couple miles, but it felt good to loosen up a little.

Noon - ran a mile w trevor at about 6:10 pace, lifted, did four more miles alone after with 2 400's at tempo pace to get the legs loose(81, 81). Hamstrings finally starting to loosen up. Swam later that day so very proactive. Good to help loosen up the legs. S/O to Parker Stintson for @-ing me on Instagram 

P.S. , If Brendon is reading this, make a blog.

AM - 4.5 on the trails + 500m at tempo pace, 100 jog, 300 at around mile pace. Ran 1:41, 48.2. Both felt very easy, 64 second lap pace feels as easy as it did in my prime of last season. Ate a heavy breakfast and it was very warm out so that was fun. Gonna have a tough day tomorrow!

PM - swimming, running, and lifting. Very proactive day, hopefully it doesn't hinder me in my double workout tomorrow. Luckily I went to church today so I got the man upstairs on my side(hopefully). Getting pretty lean/strong up top.

AM - 5 w trevor. He wanted to try and go sub 6 in the mile so I paced him for that. We ran 5:32! What a man. Wanted to do more mile repeats but marching band appeared halfway through the second one so I had to go. 

PM - faster stuff with the man, the myth, the skeleton Brendon Merrell. Was originally going to do 9 or 10x300's but Brendon went jello legged after #3 so I did 5 so I wouldn't keep him too long. Went 48, 47, 44, 45, 43. 300 recovery. Kind of workout where after the first repeat you think "man that felt pretty hard", but the times go down despite the effort being about the same. S/O to Brendon for making a HARD push the last 50m of the third one. For doing nearly no running I'm surprised he went sub 45. I hope he has a good year at UVU.

AM - easy shakeout before driving up to SLC to get my car for the next 10 years or so(Toyota Corolla(a recent model too)).

PM - some strides in the new pegasi, shaking out the legs from an 8 hour car ride. Did 150, 200, 150, 300, 400, 100 in 25, 34, 24, 51, 68, 13. Besides the 100 they were all super easy.

AM - 3. Felt good from 11 hours of sleep, but was counteracted by the heat since I slept in. Last workout at altitude tonight! 

PM - spent a long time swimming with my younger sister so I was pretty tired. Did 3x800 and 2x400. Only times I remember were 2:19 for the first 800 and 62 for the last 400. Didn't hydrate well either. 2 miles later + lift w trevor.

AM - slow shakeout before leaving for college. Not sure if I'll have any time to do my second run since I'm driving all the way to Kansas today but I'll try.

PM - 2 miles was all I could squeeze in, last few minutes at 6 flat pace. OXYGEN

AM - 5 shaking out the 15 hour car ride yesterday. Definitely felt it those first couple miles. Ended with 2x(150,120) to loosen the legs a bit. Times were 22.2,  20.8, 16.5, 16.2. For the first time in an eternity I stretched after which I'm very proud of. I'm going to try and stretch before I blog my run just so I'll be obligated. Gonna get back on a good stretchin and hydrating schedule and hopefully I'll be better off for it(I don't see why not).

AM - thought I could just come down to 1000ft and run 3 flat kilometers like it was nothing, but I forgot how TERRIBLE humidity is. Did 3:04, 3:01, but by this point I was starting to feel overheated and had family stuff so called it there. Humidity sucks. Normally I think I could have gone on but had to go to the bathroom bad and my body just didn't wake up that quickly. 6:06 avg pace for the run

PM - run and swim

AM - off.

PM - 3 hilly miles, 3x(3x300m) w/ 100m recovery between repeats on sets #1 and #2, 3 minutes rest after #7 and #8, and 400m recovery between sets, ending with another 3 hilly miles. Ran 54, 55, 51 for set 1, 51, 49, 49 for set two, and 45.5, 45.1, and 41.2 on set three. Very windy out. Felt fine, for the most part, I think I was able to balance the scales of not pushing too hard and overheating in the humidity well, but man that last one hurt. Just went hard, and collapsed and gasped for air in the fetal position for a good two or 3 minutes after. I think I definitely could have run a 40-low in spikes. I wanted to be fit enough to run 54-second 400's in workouts by the time Christmas break came around, and that last 300 would have been a 54 if sustained another 100m(being that I was in road flats, I find that reasonable). Since my speed is where I wanted it to be in 4-5 months if training went perfectly, I'm extremely happy, because that means I'll just have to sustain or barely get faster on my short speed, which means I can focus on my weakness, strength. I'm going to start getting back down to the low 150's/high 140's for my weight. I'm 17x lbs now, and I think by dropping 25 pounds I could be a lot better off for it(I got in the 130's last year, which was pretty crazy for a 6'0 guy. However I only achieved that through running 100+ miles per week for multiple consecutive weeks and eating maybe 1500 calories a day, so I think that was a bit too much).

AM - 3 mile shakeout in the rain before driving back down to university.

PM - broke my damn foot

PM - 3. Foot got pretty uncomfortable from a tighter toe box on the shoes, and not taking my ibuprofen for my foot. A quick synopsis of what happened, I was doing the stretch where one holds their heel against their rear, and I whipped my foot down and kicked a toilet head-on. The pinky toe sustained most of the trauma. The first couple days I was sure it was broken, the pain was excruciating, but by the day it's feeling better so it might just be a serious jam. Maybe I'll try doing some of my easy runs barefoot on the soccer fields and see if it feels better. On a side note, today was my first day back on my own. It's always a little scary at first(my closest family member is 6 hours away) but I'm sure I'll be fine.

AM - 3. Didn't get out until 11 and it was very hot(mid 90's and humid). Gotta start doing my first runs earlier.

PM - 4 at 5, where it was even hotter than the former run. Capped it off with 3x400m going 40, 30 for the 200m's. First two I'd hit the first 200 a little quick and run a 31 last 200, but the last one I was able to hit the splits. Good to know I can switch paces pretty hard, now I just need to be able to do 4600m and then cap it off with that(hopefully faster than 40 for the first 200).

What a terrible world championships for likeable guys this year. Bolt loses one race and DNF's the other, Farah dethroned by a doped up ethiopian, Jager comes in as the heavy favorite and places worse than he did last year when he wasn't, Centro dead last, WVN losing, the list goes on and on. With one men's open race left, I'm calling it now, Kenyan sweep(Manangoi, Kiprop, Cheruiyot)

Botched long run today. Stayed up late catching up with an old friend so I didn't wake up until 11, and it was 100F out w/ humidity. Got excited and ran miles 2 and 3 both in 5:35 so I could tell I'd overheat if I tried to go the full distance so I stopped early. Every mile except the 1rst one was sub 6 which was pretty cool, I think I could have held it for a few more miles if I had woken up earlier. 5:59 avg pace, hopefully I can hold that pace for double digits mileage-wise in the near future. Time to eat some food!

AM - 3. Over 100F out today so I couldn't hit the full 5. Gonna try waking up a few hours  earlier tomorrow. Another thing I need to do is hydrate better, I'm gonna make sure my pee is clear before the second run of the day

PM - 5. Had to make an effort to keep from getting in the 5 minute miles. 6:06 pace. Workout tomorrow!

AM - was out the door by 9AM today, so a couple hours earlier than as of late. Original workout was 2x1000, 4x600, 6x300 w/ 200m recovery but it started getting way hot so I stopped after 600 #2. Ran 3:16, 3:16, 1:49, 1:44. Next workout I'll try to wake up by 6AM and get some food in me because I was starving.

PM - 5

AM - easy run sweating out a fun time last night. Only got a few hours of sleep so tired.

PM - 4x300m because I wanted to do some quicker stuff. Went out at 4 and it was blazing hot(105F w humidity). I was constantly dousing myself and my hat with water and that helped combating the dilemma of overheating. Ran 48, 46, 45, 42. Last one my feet were burning, as soon as I finished I yanked my shoes off and poured water on them/the track I was standing on and it felt better. Good stuff, besides the last two the effort wasn't that hard, and even so it could have been a ways harder, the only thing I was focusing on was my breathing. The 48 felt like a jog. Swam with Grant and Sam later. Probably gonna party more tonight. Woo college!

4x200 in 32, 31, 28, 28

150m in 20.4. 400m in 59, 3 min rest, 400 in 56. Stopped there bc my toe was flaring up. It hasn't gotten worse but workouts are sort of hindering its progression

AM 3

PM 6

Avg pace 5:49. Too quick, I need to ease up until I'm used to 8x mile weeks and then the long run can get faster, otherwise it's a lot harder to increase the distance. Wasn't too bad but I'm sure I'll be tired on Tuesday.

2x400 going 38, 29 and 36, 27

5 At noon. In the afternoon I originally was going to do 4x(3x400m) with 100/200m alternating rest, trying to hit 72, 68, 64, 60 avg's on the sets. However the jump from 68's to 64's was a little harder than I anticipated so 60's weren't happening. I didn't do a lot of stuff well today for this so I'm not too suprised.

So, classes and other things have sprung up, apparently also my social life to some small degree, so finding the time to blog is a chore at this current time. So I'll be getting on once a week now just to post a short summary of the week with mileage and such.

I wish you all the best of luck in your endeavors, running-related or not. I love this blog with all my heart but I just don't have time for it right now. Eugene out!