Step by step, mile by mile

PM - 3 miles between shifts, 5:52 pace. ran on a grass field with a pretty good slope on either side so got some uphill running in too

AM - 8 miles up and down the canyon, 6:04 pace. first few miles were all uphill with a strong headwind. sort of demoralizing to start a run, but once i turned around and had nothing but downhill and tailwind, it got a lot more fun. kept track of the mile markers on the trail, so even though i ran what my watch called 8, it seemed to undermeasure a bit. i hate blogging mileage that doesn't end in .0 or .5, so i won't add an extra 100m or so, but i will take two seconds off to account for what the pace more likely actually was(watch said 6:06). hate to jinx myself but i think this one signified the ankle is all better and i'm ready to get back in the trenches, so to speak.

PM - 4 on mural

AM - warmed up a couple miles, then tried pacing t-bird for a 3-mile tempo at 6-flat pace. after 800m he was falling off and told me to just go, so i ran another 4 laps for a 8:10, so about a 5:10 mile. that felt really good, and i wanted to hold it for longer, but t-bird was basically jogging and my ankle has been a bit annoyed since yesterday. funny how it originally got upset after running on pavement, then got better, then as soon as i tried running on pavement again it once again flares up. and by funny, i mean it put some merit behind me demonizing pavement and sidewalk running the past couple years. i get that it's doable, and most people on the blog run nearly all on roads(i did too back in my 2015-2017 days on the blog), but i've stuck to soft surfaces since i picked training back up a couple years ago and my legs respond way better to it

anyway like i said t-bird had fallen off, so i stopped after the ~5:10 mile and told him i'm switching up the workout and we'd just finish with 2 x 800 trying to run the second lap faster. i ran 2:20(73, 66) and 2:18(70, 68). the homie killed it and ran 2:50 both times with solid negative splits. wish it had been a more substantive workout, but i definitely got something out of it, and had fun. going into the 800's i was hoping i could do 2:30 going 80, 70 so i was very surprised(my watch charger broke so i had trevor taking my splits, so it was mostly ran on feel) not exactly sure on the mileage but i'm confident i got at least 8

AM - 7 on mormon mural

AM - 13 on mormon mural. no calf sleeve or KT tape the past 24 hours and the ankle felt 100% the entire time, thank heavens. i'm going back down to the south after my best friend's wedding but that still gives me 3 weeks at elevation, and barring something else flaring up i'm gonna try my hardest to get triple-digit mileage for each of those. the 13 felt good, i was out of breath for a while after though. didn't have trouble doing it but i could tell i lost a bit of fitness since the ankle originally got aggravated. gonna really get on top of plyos and weights when i get back to bama so this kind of thing doesn't happen again.

AM - 5. warmed up on the track for a workout, but on the last lap i felt a tweak in my left calf and stretching didn't do much do alleviate it. did a couple hard strides that felt pretty good but i knew the workout was doomed so i drove back to the apartment. after stretching, rolling and icing the calf feels fine again so silver lining, i guess.

AM - 2. jogged to mormon mural and my ankle felt better than yesterday, but still a little irritated. then i saw sage ducote fly by and realized today is the utah valley half, and i told spencer i'd cheer him on so i stretched on the sidewalk for about an hour looking for him. unfortuanetly i haven't seen him in over 5 years, so i'm pretty sure he ran past me without me recognizing him. once the pacer holding up a sign with a certain pace on it(that i won't say in case i'm wrong and he was behind it) passed, i figured he'd have had to pass by at that point, so ran about 2 miles on mural, but my ankle still felt off so i jogged back to the apartment. i did see former blogger and running partner a couple weeks back in chad though, and i cheered for him. nice job, spencer and chad!

also a couple hours later driving down university i saw former(i think) blogger tom slick as well(i could tell because it said the pseudonym on his shirt). shoutout tom too