Step by step, mile by mile

Today was suppose to be an easy day. The plan was around 4 miles at a slow pace. Well a mile and a half into the run, I got some stomach pains, so I had to run 2 miles off the original path to go to the park for their bathrooms. I sped up the pace way too much as I came back to the high school, getting sub 6's for a little over a mile, which didn't feel too great. After that some hill repeats followed by strides, and I saw my coach so we had a talk. 

Should have cut yesterday short. Every mile after I hit my third mile I had to stop to stretch out my left leg. It felt like my foot and lower leg were asleep, they had that tingly feeling you get when you lose feeling, but every time my foot hit the ground it hurt pretty bad. I had awful stomach cramps as well. Slowest run since I hit the sand dunes in May. I think I'm going to take tomorrow pretty easy, only run a couple miles and cross train. I think the pains were caused by my warm-up. I was going at a solid 6:40 pace the first half, but then some poser tries to race me, so I speed up pretty quickly to match him(by warm-up standards). He dies out after about 20 seconds, but I keep the pace up until I finish a mile going that quickly. The pace was 4:52. After that I ran a pentagon-type of path from the rec center to Walgreens, to Walmart, to @Collin_Coolbeans house, to Aaron's house and back to the rec.

Hit a new record for my longest plank with a little over 4 and a half minutes. I couldn't even get 3 full minutes after track season ended. More core after that

I ran a little over a mile warm-up in the afternoon, and did a tempo 3.5 mile run. I was aiming around 6:15 because that's what I'm aiming for my pace in the Ragnar. It was really windy, which made it harder to run, so I sped up a bit. I came in at a 5:57 pace for the run. Same cooldown as the warmu. 6 miles added up.

After my run I went home, took an ice bath, and went to a ragnar meeting with my team. Afterwards Mason, Austin, and Jordan decided to do their run for the day, so we called up Brendon and I decided to go with them as well. I was hurting from the run prior, but I still managed to match their pace, which they actually found pretty hard apparently. Added up to be a little over 4 miles. We watched Macfarland USA after the run until midnight(Brendon and I had to go find a Blu Ray player), so no core bcause I'm going to Salt Lake to get some new kicks.

The Grindle clan traveled to Salt Lake so we could buy me some stuff for the camp XC USA that I'm going to soon, so not a lot of time to run, I planned on doing four easy miles in the heat. I started having stomach problems though, so I didn't run and my family left the hotel for dinner. Whilst they ate I decided to go downstairs to the gym and run on the treadmill. Mile warm-up, and a Ragnar four mile tempo run. 3.5 miles at 6:35 pace on a slight uphill, then I sped it up to a 5:40 for .25, then 5:00 for .25. Shout out to my boy Zacharius and lady Emily for making blogs!

Easy shakeout run @ 6:20 pace

First day of Ragnar, which was intense. I did a mile warm-up, and then did some stretches since I started the relay. Different groups were assigned different times, and there weren't too many menacing groups, save a bulky group of Ultra runners and Syracuse high school. The race started, and I got myself out in to a pretty large lead. I think my first split was a high 5:50, which was stupid since it was uphill. After that I hit the switchbacks and had a struggle, including falling down one, which sucked. I slowed down until mile 3, but I had such a lead that no one could catch me. After that I passed my van, who cheered for me, and kept going. It turns out it was 104 degrees that day, the hottest day of the summer. I can't handle heat. I was struggling for my run, and managed to average around a 7:30 and hand off to Mason. The Ultra runner almost got me, but I had a better finish and got a few seconds on him. Mason had a good run, Jordan a bad, Christian an alright one, Aaron a really good one, and Austin a good one too. Everyone in the van was saying how great Aaron was, so I got pumped for my next run.

No sleep before my 2 AM run. I forgot a sleeping bag, so I just layed down outside and developed hypothermia. Eventually Austin and I broke into a wrestling room and rested there, which was sick. I was woken up at 1:30 and told that the swimmers who made up the second half of our team were going super slow, so we'd have to go without the slap bracelet. I did a quick warm-up, a few stretches, and took off into the night. The first 2 miles I didn't see anyone, just myself under the moonlight, until I saw the flashing light of a runner down yonder. I caught the light, only to discover another, and keep going. I had a good pace an finished my 4.5 mile race at a 6:34 pace. Mason had cramps and had to walk a few times but still did well, Jordan did pretty good, Christian did good, Aaron killed, and Austin did great.

My final leg was supposed to be at nine. It was still pretty hot, and the sleep withdrawls and all that were starting to hit me. I was ready at nine, but the swimmers didn't do good(they somehow blamed us for the group slowing down, even though they were averaging ten minute miles). They actually showed up at 11, so I was standing in the heat, ready to run for two hours, which wasn't great on my muscles. When Carly finally handed off to me I took off and caught a few people in the first minute. I think I got 13 by the end of mile 1, and I stopped counting at 60. It was a hilly run, but I still managed my fastest pace in the Ragnar, a 6:19. It was a little over a 5 mile run. The rest on the runners did well, swim team didn't, and the latter party were quite crass with us at the finish line. I realized a few things during that race, one is I hate swimmers. On the bright side, Mason and I got Aubrey Argyle's number, along with the rest of the Davis Varsity Girls, so props to us. Overall a great learning experience. Next year Mason and I are getting some faster people and kicking out the swimmers, and we plan to win it.