Step by step, mile by mile

12 hours in the car to Cali. If any high school blogger wants to do the Wasatch Ragnar my hs team has a few spots to be filled, so let me know.

7 miles at about 6:50 pace. That isn't the shocker... In almost 60 degree weather! Feels great to run here in San Diego. The past 2 weeks have been patchy at best for running, so it was good to get some rest, because I actually enjoyed the run, I've been looking forward to it for a couple days now. I don't think there's a single flat stretch of road in this town, it's all super hilly. I ran from my hotel up to balboa park(I want to run the footlocker nationals course during one of my runs here), downtown for a bit, then towards the bay, and back up. There were some downhills I had to walk down because they were so steep, and running back up was quite the challenge!  Knee pain is minimal at the moment, and that's without any Advil for a few days. I think I'm coming down with something though, it hurt to swallow and I've been pretty congested. Any stop light I had to stop at for traffic made me feel a bit dizzy, like I'd be sick. Hopefully it'll work itself out

AM- 4 easy miles. My knee bothered me a little bit, so strides after. The strides completely erased the pain! I bombed the downhills and was going 5:20 pace which I shouldn't do because I'm building my base right now but oh well. About 6:50 pace again. I had this peculiar dream where I was at simplot and I woke up and found out I ran a 9:20 for the 3200 the day before and I was like "sick" and then I woke up again and found out I ran a 9:30 and I was like "sick" and then I woke up again and found out I ran a 9:40 and I was like "sick" and then I woke up again and realized I'd have to train a ton to run those times so I ran and now I'm typing this. If this is a dream too and I have to retype everything when I wake up, I'm going to be way pissed.

I walked a mile to a sushi place, I jogged a bit because a crazy hobo almost attacked me so I'm adding it to the mileage.

PM - 6 miles up to 4th street then down to the airport. I got lost during it, which wasn't fun. Pretty scary, actually. Lots of hills. Nice to get my tan on here. More strides and stretches after.

3 mile shakeout in the morning with strides. I went a bit quick, not even 20 minutes. I'll try to take the run tonight slower.

^that went over about as well as a pregnant high jumper. Mile warmup to the pier, mile of speed changes, then a 5-4-3-2-1 fartlek run. There were a ton of people about as smart as a black light covered in duct tape occupying it so there was quite a lot of weaving and stopping as to not plow through families. I got flipped off a lot. By people in cars! I wasn't even in their way! Also there was wind and zero bathrooms in sight, but I still made do. I got .99 miles in the 5 minutes hard, then .78 in the 4 minutes, .56 in three minutes, like .33 in the two minutes hard(I had to stop multiple times for little kids), and .22 for the last hard minute. Got a little over 4.5 for the 30 minutes, which I though was pretty solid! Cooldown to the house and strides. Good workout, no knee pain. Core tonight.

AM - shakeout with a few surges up the hills. Strides and stretches after. Calves were way tight when I woke up from yesterday's tempo.

PM - 9 easy miles up to balboa and down to airport. I wanted to go closer to 13 but I decided tomorrow would be the distance today since yesterday was tempo

And so ends 2015. I learned a lot this year and I'm excited to use it for my final track season of high school. Man I wish I had done it my freshman year instead of inferior sports. I made this blog in May and got in 16xx miles which I thought was great. I want those school records, and I'm going to train harder than anyone to get them.

Happy new year! Starting off the year working the grind! I woke up at 6:20, groggy from staying up for four New Years with Emily, grabbed a mint clif bar(with added caffeine, what a beautiful concept) and a glass of water, and went back to bed for 40 minutes to digest the food, woke up at seven, stretched, and left for my run. 9 miles at 7:15 pace this morning with strides. I ran on the bay and pier and it was deserted and it was great. Last mile before the huge hill was right about at 6:00 pace. First 3 miles were about 23 minutes, then I sped up. Felt good! I'm leaving San Diego now to head to LA.

7 easy that night. We're pretty much staying in McFarland in the sense that everyone is Latiño here and they laugh at running. Also every house smelled great, all I can say is I hope whoever ate there thanked the cooks! I've never been so ravenous during a run before! Good run. It was dark the second half of the run but I wasn't too worried. The people in Cali are super friendly, I get yelled at or honked at at least once a minute. I guess they find a kid in bright and colorful short shorts pretty unusual! Good run. Strides after, feeling good!

Core later that night! Man it feels good to put in some hard work, hopefully it pays off!

12 miles in St George on Virgin River trail on to Mayors walk and back in just about 90 minutes. Quite the run! It started off with a gnarly hill so I knew this run meant business. I hoped to see some fellow bloggers during the run but didn't happen. I think I saw Tanner S. from dez hills and another car honked frantically at me so shoutout if that was anyone. Strides when I got back. I feel surprisingly good! I hit 70 miles without my Sunday long run. About to murder some breadsticks @ Olive Garden