Step by step, mile by mile

Quite a wild long run today. At church today we talked about how the Sabbath was made for rest, so I felt guilty but I've been slacking on mileage from sickness so I needed distance. Drove out to McCoy at the corral that normally signals the turnaround for the run, but instead I just kept going. After two miles it switched from gravel to dirt, it was intense. Eventually I hit this ledge overlooking this giant divide with a huge river flowing way below me. I stood there in wonder, listening to nothing but wind. It was serene, then I heard the yap of a coyote or wolf or something, then many responding barks, sounding somewhat hostile. It then dawned on me that I was not even close to civilization and hadn't seen another person since the corral, so I turned and bolted. Despite the run being mainly pretty difficult uphill, I pressed hard, I figured "if I get eaten by wolves I'll regret going too slowly" so I kept a good quick pace. Finished 10 miles at 7:08 pace. Good run, quite scary.

S/O to my literal hero for winning nationals. @garek u r quick

Mile warm-up, legs were tight so I stopped for a lap to stretch them out. 2 miles easy for pre meet, but at 1.5 My right hamstring suddenly tightened up and I had to stop to stretch it out. We were supposed to run some 400's after but I didn't

Really bad conditions today, not a fun time overall, but I'd rate it okay. My tendon was hurting really badly on the bus ride up and the warmup, but it sort of disappeared before I toed the line. Not really, I just blocked the pain. Still felt a bit sick too, it started snowing around here so that got worse, anyway. I decided to not go too hard in the 1600 and save for the 800, so I decided to pace with Mason for 5 flat. First lap was 72, feeling good, I talked to Mason and Chesnut for the first 200 and jokes were cracked, good times. At 600 I just suddenly got this back pain like I pulled something, and it hurt to breathe really badly. That was hard to deal with, I got passed by quite a few people, Jordan passed me in the last 100 and I knew I should've kicked and caught Kedric, but I just didn't. I wasn't in a racing mindset after the back pain, just trying to survive. I got put in the medley so I dropped the open 800 since they were back to back. It was me, Chesnut, and two Salem teams for the 800 legs. So all Salem, but me. Chesnut had maybe a 50m lead on me and he went ham, I tried to just keep the gap constant as best I could which I thought I did okay. Turns out he did a 57, I dont quite think I did that haha. Second 400 I really felt dead, no energy in the legs. I wanted a trifecta in one day, so Mason and I ran the 3200. We did it jog a lap, run one quick, repeat 4 times. First one Mason led in 66, I wasn't with him, I stuck on him the first 200 then the back pains reappeared, three cheers for that. After that I led them in 73, 77, and 69. Mason and I finished in a dead tie which was cool, in like a 13, so less cool. Looking back I felt crappy today but I blocked that out way better than last week so that's progress. This back thing I need to get rid of pronto though. Also my legs felt dead and I still feel sick. Get outta here. I'm most proud of my 800(not at all) so I'll put it for my race report. I'm irate I'm not as good as last year yet though. You better bet I'll work for this.

Choir region. We got literally the best possible score we could get that wouldn't get us to state. Dang. Good thing there's two region competitions I guess.

Good work today. Warmup, then 5 minutes hard, 5 minutes easy for 5 miles. First hard I got out and I worked pretty hard for that one. I got close to .9 for the 5 minutes, and that was heading into the strong wind, and uphill. No one was really with me for that one. Got out good for the second one. That one was downhill, with the wind on my back, and man my quads were shot for that. I never really went as hard as the first, which is what I should have done for all of them. For the last two hards I decided to start out easier with Aaron, which I regret. If I'm not leading it, I feel like I don't push as hard, evident today. I was right on Aaron for the first three minutes then I lost him when we hit the uphill wind again. Last one was in to the wind and uphill again, Stuck with Aaron then just wasn't pushing as hard mentally. I did another 2 minutes hard to hit 6 miles, ran behind the school through the baseball and soccer fields. The baseball players (2 specifically) threw rocks and pebbles at me, love those guys. I really don't get the whole beef thing, it's wayy childish, grow up. Anyway got back did core with Aaron and Brady, did stretches and went home. Didn't really get a cooldown in, dangit. Ice bath tonight. 

Mile warmup and the team worked on running form briefly. I did a loop with Brady and Aaron, the pace was really slow, I think the avg. pace was in the 8:20's, I hated it, but Aaron was sore from yesterday so I obliged. When we got back to the stop light in front of the high school I went for some more rather than ending it there. Did the same loop, went quicker and it felt good, I really had to go to the restroom though, maybe I should start eating lunch later or something. I dropped the pace down to higher 7:30's for the average of the 6 miles, so that's like 6:40 or such on the second loop. Did some core on the track after, I was the only one there. #loneranger

AM - 10.5 slow up at red fleet with Aaron and Brady. Last time I did this was with Aaron back in August, we should really do it more, it's a great time. Pace was slow and easy, about 7:50, but I pushed on the uphills. S/O to Brady for doing it with us, he only started track like a month ago! We hiked up a mountain face after and it was a solid time.

PM - 4.5 @ 6:55 pace. Just felt great for this, which surprised me, I thought I'd be dead. I ran from the walking park to the bathrooms, which were locked, to the trail on Kid's canal, down to the hospital and back. I ran around the walking park to get the run to 4.5 and the last quarter mile was 5:30's which didn't feel like I was pushing it hard. Strides after bc stretches always feel better with strides. Well you have good days and bad days for running, and today was definitely the former. Just a really dandy day with solid mileage. Glad I finally had a good day, because lately running's been feeling on the other end of the spectre.

S/O to my parents for getting married 23 years ago. They would then work to create the perfect specimen and after 4 years succeed with the creation of Eugene Nathaniel Grindle III #tb