Step by step, mile by mile

12 miles at red cloud loop @ 7:47 pace, a full minute faster per mile than when I did it two weeks ago. It was super muddy which made it way more difficult than last time. Strides after

Mile warmup- followed by a 6.5 mile tempo run.

Splits - 

6:41

6:41

6:00

6:02

6:31

6:27

Average pace 6:23. It could have been faster, but my legs were tired from the past two days, and I REALLY had to go to the bathroom after mile 4. Next fastest pace was a 6:47 from Mason. Strides after

Shakeout and strides that afternoon that added up to 3. Went out 6:56 for the first mile then dropped down to 6:16.

Mile warmup, followed by core. Afterwards we did a few sets of 30 seconds easy, 30 seconds hard around the park. The first few I ran alone, trying to get into the swing of pacing myself for when I hopefully snatch the win in tomorrow's race. The last easy 30 seconds I went with Mason, and we both went all out during the hard 30 seconds. I got about a 5m lead on him and kept it up, but the pace certainly wasn't an enjoyable one(sub 4:00). Mason told me afterwards he started to lose me at the end, and that I was hauling. S/O to him for the flattery. A bit of ultimate frisbee after. I walked the most part, not wanting to risk anything. I did go harder for a few seconds, and in those moments I denied a sophomore hard core for the frisbee, and I jammed my finger as we tumbled down. Afterwards Aaron, Austin, Jordan, and Kyrie were playing volleyball and invited Mason and I, but we said we'd rather save our energy for tomorrow and I went to do my strides. Added up to 3.

2.5 shakeout that afternoon. First mile pace 7:06, second mile 6:14. Felt pretty good. Strides after.

It was an alright race. Yesterday I was on my A game, today not too much. I actually think the course was closer to a 5k than 3 miles. Aaron almost didn't race due to not having his physical, but showed at the last possible second. The start was a little quick. Mason went out with the lead, and I caught up to him by the second turn. We came in at the 800 at 2:29, so a little quick. After that we slowed down a bit, until Aaron caught and passed us, which made us speed up. Aaron had the lead for about 5 seconds until we ran together again. Ahead of us the path narrowed, leaving room for 2 runners. I sped up a bit and Mason and I took the front, Aaron trailing behind. There was a sharp turn, so I took the lead for about a mile. After the next turn Mason surged ahead a bit, so I settled the pace a bit slower. Aaron caught me, but as the second mile ended I surged ahead of Aaron and trailed behind Mason, who sped up again. I was trailing Mason with about 1000m left, with Aaron about a second behind, when we got to a sharp turn at the post office. Mason swung out wide and I took it sharply, hoping to gain a lead, when I rolled my ankle on the curb. It sort of threw me off pace, and Mason sped up. With an 800 left Mason had maybe 5m on me, and me on Aaron. My finish wasn't as strong as it should have been, and Aaron got me at the end, with Mason creating a large gap. Top times were;

Mason-16:27

Aaron-16:37

Me-16:47

Austin-17:52

Jordan-18:02

Kedric-18:18

Christian technically got 4th with his 17:23, but besides him there was a huge gap between the top 3 and number 4, just like death hill. All three of us broke Keaton's course record of 16:57. Overall it was an alright time, I should have made it hurt and pushed harder though. I'll try to aim for top 2 on the team at Pre-region next thursday. Strides after.

I technically did this race last night, but I can't put two races in one day. I met up with Austin, Aaron, Mason, Kyrie, and Jacia at Austin's and we played air hockey and relaxed for about three hours before the race, so shoutout to Austin for that. We were all still hurting from time trials that morning, so it was a pretty painful race. I was having bad stomach cramps since time trials, so the run was painful. I didn't even realize the race started where it did, so I started about 10 seconds late at the very back. I pushed ahead and got away from the big pack of people, where a whole bunch of inexperienced runners were going ham. Rather than hurt myself by surging ahead I stuck at a high 5:30 pace and let the others die out trying to keep a lead. By 800m in there was only one runner ahead who was falling back, so I dropped the pace to gain the lead. By the first U turn about a mile in I saw there was another runner about 30 seconds behind me, and besides that the road was all but deserted. I saw Aaron, Austin, Mason, Kyrie, and Jacia coming back and they cheered for me, so I sped up again. At this point my chest was starting to hurt pretty bad. at 1.75 miles in the course turned on to a road with no lighting(we were supposed to wear glowsticks, but mine fell off. It was sketchy racing alone in the dark, but I liked it. When I was hitting the second U I saw the 2nd place runner was a little over a minute behind me, so I sped up even more, hoping my chest pains would fade away. They didn't, but I kept going quick. The XC squad cheered for me again as we passed each other. I finished pretty well. I won by over three minutes. Really glad I've been doing two runs a day, because it finally payed off. Shoutout to Kyrie for winning the girls division, and Jacia for getting 2nd! The three of us got out pictures taken and some sweet empty moonshine bottles for our victory. Feels good to finally win an XC race, my debut senior year 5k no less! Now I need to win an invitational and life will be perf.

5 miles that morning. Did the first three with the Varsity boys, then I ran a little extra to join Kyrie and Jacia after. Strides after that.

3 more with strides that afternoon

Mile warm-up, then we ran the flume trail. It's a pretty narrow trail for about 2 miles, then you turn back on a dirt road and finish. A few freshman took the lead early, Aaron and I pushed them back as they started to die about a minute into the run. Tragic. Aaron and I knew I'd set the pace too quickly, so I let Aaron take the lead. Austin, Kedric, and Jordan were trailing a few seconds behing the two of us as well. We got lost and missed the turn off, going an extra mile too far. Once we hit the main road the pace sped up a bit and Kedric and Jordan fell behind. I decided I felt comfortable enough to take the lead, so I started striding out. Austin was going ham so Aaron and I had to keep speeding up(sidenote- Aaron was wearing LT's, Austin wearing Zoom Elites. I was wearing 12 dollar trail shoes I got on clearance). Eventually Austin started to fall off, so Aaron and I fought each other for the last two miles. I think we were going 5:30 at least. Aaron would surge, I would stride to keep my lead, and that kept going on until he passed me with a half mile to go. I might have been able to fight him for it, but two races in the past 48 hours started to take a toll. After that I decided just to keep my lead on Austin, which I did. If I had had speed shoes the run may have gone differently, ut I don't care all too much. In other news Kyrie told me that I ran the moonshine 5k in 15 minutes according to her cousin who timed the race, but I'll believe it when I see it. Strides after

3 mile shakeout with strides that evening. 7:03 pace.

3 easier miles in the morning. Splits were 7:16, 6:29, and 6:10. I wanted to do speed training but football was too busy practicing how they'll lose every game this season for me to run on the track. strides after.

Went to do speed training at the track at 4, expecting the football players not to be there. Was incorrect. I think there's a middle school tournament going on or something, because the players were too small and too good to be my team. These kids can actually catch the ball #fightin'words. I drove to the park instead. 5x600m, 4x400m, 3x200m, followed by 8x100m strides, with a minute of active jogging in between each repeat. I ran the 600's with the mentality of running the first half working on form, and kicking the second half. First repeat pace was 5:10. Second and third were both 5:25, fourth was 5:15, then took a short bathroom break, then 4:51. 400 time's were 68, 72, 75, took a water break, and finished in 67. I was pretty dead tired for the 200's, I believe it was over 100 degrees out, and that combined with the flames coming from my shoes just made it difficult. I was also wearing a heavier shirt, I was planning on running shirtless but it seemed like every pre-schooler in Utah was there. Ran 34, 35, and 32. Strides after. I think I did something to screw up my throat because it causes me immense pain to swallow, it's like having a barbed wire cotton ball around my uvula #APEnglishanalogies I'd call it 6. I went over my mark of dropping to 61 miles this week. Dang shakeouts.