Step by step, mile by mile

7 easy this evening. I wanted to go longer but I put the run off too late and it was getting dark. It snowed a lot overnight so I wore my wildhorses to get more traction, but man they're clunky and not smooth at all. I had to trek through a lot of deep snow and had to do a few jumps for the side walk to the road, and stepped in way too many misleadingly deep puddles. 7:32 pace.

3 in the morning. It was way cold and really foggy so I went to the walking park as the not get ran over. the walking park is a 1/3 of a mile on the outer loop, so I ran nine of those. First one was like 2:20 because I was getting stretched out, but the I pushed the pace. Nothing crazy, just trying to be the best hobbyjogger I can be(Its official. #hjptakeover) laps after that were 2:04, 2:04, 2:04, 2:00, 2:04, 2:08, 2:04, and 2:01. 18:49 for three miles. 

We were having a practice meet to see who qualifies to go to simplot(I'm going FYI). I thought "what the heck yabba dabba yolo" and ran the 1600 at 3200 pace. There were two heats. Aaron, Kedric, and Talon were the noteable runners in my heat. We decided to make a train of me Aaron and Kedric, each leading an alternating lap in that order(there were a little over 7 laps, 43 splits are right at 5:10-15 pace) First lap and I take the lead quick. I try to conserve as much as possible to stay with the other two but it was hard. First 263m lap in a 40. I yell out the split as I had the only watch and Aaron said something like "Good thing I'm on pace" and I dropped behind Aaron, Kedric, and Talon(what?). Hit 2 laps at 1:28. Aaron drops behind and Kedric leads. Split was a bit slow again. Talon decides he doesn't want to lead the speed train and tries to drop behind with Kedric but ended up stumbling me and Aaron and slowing us down. I hear coach Hill yell "2:40"! at the 800 and I panic and I'm gone. I took off pretty quick. I ran scared, knowing Aaron could get me if I relaxed too much. I remember passing Heaton and hearing her yell at me "3 laps"! "2 laps"! At one lap the other coaches were there and they yelled at me to kick, and immediately I heard the yelling at Aaron to catch me. With one lap left I was at 4:30. I knew Aaron was going hard but I remembered "Hey this is just tempo" so I finished with a lot left in the tank. Won it with a 5:12. Good neg. splitting, 2:40 and 2:32 800's. Didn't feel too hard, I finished and hit a wall with my fist for my loyal fans who cheered me on and felt alright. 27 90 degree curves kill though. I think Christian ran around my time so I might have not truly won it, but I'll say that I made an M today. Felt good! Jacia got 2nd in the girls race, and Rylie got 3rd. Aaron had me do squats with him but after a while baseball came in and Aaron talked to them and I dipped. 2 mile cooldown outside, came back to the indoor then ran another cooldown mile while Jacia and Tommi ran the other direction. After one lap I made the comment "Nice form" where we proceeded to insult each other many times, when she hit me with a low blow that will remain disclosed. I thought she had me beat, but I went savage with the comment "Nice second place finish". A little over 6 for this session. Good day. I was pretty worn out from the morning workout but it went over well.

8.5 on the lonesome. Running alone man, it has its ups and downs. I was really tired all today, I think I might drop AP History next tri so I can get another hour of sleep a day haha. I ate some fruit snacks to wake myself up and ran to the rec center, down Aggie and back home. Drivers were not friendly today! Got called some rude words (probs baseball) by some passerbys, and others just didn't want to waste energy turning a wheel a few degrees to the left.

Another 2 miles on the TM after night school with some strides.

4.5 after school to the turf farm where sprint practice was being held. Coach Hill and Henderson couldn't make it so everyone went to Heaton's practice. I took the long route coming there, and the intense core I did yesterday hurt, a lot. It wasn't the most fun time. After the warmup Mason, Christian, Kedric, and Jordan left to go on a tempo run. I knew I had to run back to the high school so I opted not to. Aaron didn't have warm gear so he stayed as well. Heaton straight killed us RIP in peace my upper body lol we had to do as many pullups/dips/chin-ups as we could at one time. 6 TIMES. It was awful. We also had a lot of plank pushups but it was survivable. Then, as I drink from the fountain, I hear coach yell "Ladders"!! At this point Mason and the others had gotten back, turns out they had gone 5 miles at 7 minute pace. I should have attended. We seperated in age for each ladder, where I discovered a perk of being the youngest guy senior on the team. Mason, Aaron, Jordan, Christian, and Austin were in the 18 group and Mason was won his by a couple seconds. My group was me, Jacia, Brody, Todd, and a couple others. Brody went hard and I stayed with him, but on the last two legs(the longest one) I pulled ahead pretty good. We did them again and a freshman threw up on the drinking fountain which sucked because it was hot af in there. The next set Mason came in quite a bit ahead, so I was inspired. Brody went crazy fast at first but then he hit his wall, and I sustained and on the final one I went as hard as I could and almost collapsed at the finish. Ran back to the high school to add to 10 for the day.

I'm looking at the 4x800 list for the oval and it looks like it'll be wild. Ranked 5th, 10 seconds from the #1 ranking, which is both Lone Peak and Star Valley, but I talked to the anchor of SV's relay at BYU in the mile and he said that they fabricate times. also Springville, Maple mountain, Salem Hills, and Spanish Fork are all in there too!

Premeet easy run, 7:20 pace on the lonesome. 8 strides after.

1600 went okay I guess. I was seeded on the front row on the very right so I ran a lot in the second lane. I got spiked bad the second lap. With 200 left I was at 4:18 I think, and I kicked pretty hard and caught a couple, including josh erickson from LP. I told him to come with me and kicked hard. I think I hit like a 4:53. Austin might have beaten me, he was in the 6th heat, that'd probs get me fired for the 4x800. It probably shouldn't, but oh well. I need to do some speed/ tempo bad.

The 4x800 I screwed up on and did a 2:16. I feel like all the training I've done lately has been pointless when going against talented runners. Mason has done 2 runs this entire week counting today, and he murdered me in both races. I heard a saying "hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard", but I've been working harder than I ever have and I honestly think I'm getting worse. I don't love to whine, but I honestly don't see a point to trying hard at something where you can work all you want and still get beaten by teammates because they're naturals and you're not. I don't know I think I might need a break from this

Either way I needed a cooldown, we immediately drove home after the 4x800 and my legs were killing me. We stopped at The Train in heber and I did a cooldown run. Probably got 4 miles in the low 6's, I was hauling. It was like that scene from "the perfect mile" where the guy just goes ham until he collapses, only I didn't collapse. I stepped in countless puddles but I stopped caring after a while. There was like a 3 ft high snow wall that I cleared twice without stopping. I got back to the train and saw austin's dad drive off to get gas, but my wallet was in the seat so I needed it. I took off after him, luckily he hit all the stop lights, but eventually he sped off and I tried to keep him in eyesight, then I hit a rough patch of ice and hit the ground hard. Not only that, but I slid into a giant pool of a puddle. I layed there, not bothering to get up for a long time. I got up, drenched, and hobble-jogged back to the others who were eating and went home without food(I didn't want to make them stay longer). I'd say that completed the second part of "the perfect mile" scene. Also probs the closest thing to a God-given sign to stop running that I'm going to get.