Step by step, mile by mile

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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