Step by step, mile by mile

I went to bed at 9 on the dot last night to be well rested for a morning workout. However, I didn't actually fall asleep until past midnight. Woke up at 6, looked out the window, saw dew, and that was enough to make me go back to sleep until around 9:30. Set out at ten for my run, and it was blazing hot and extremely humid. Warmed up maybe 5.5 to a "nearby" high school track, but I needed to go to the restroom first. I ran to 3 different convinience stores, a family dollar, a park, and a car wash before I found one. Went to the track and hit my first 400 of my 1000m in 75 and just stopped. I probs could have kept going, at least for the repeat, but the heat was killing me and I wasn't sure if I wanted to play that game. Did some strides and cooled down for 12. Got back to the dorm and had a large fruit smoothie, along with a hearty portion of red white and blue rice crispies; 120 calories in 1 1/4 of a cup!

Another 7 miles about 4 hours later. Pegs forced me to go nice and easy

Core late at night with my roommates. Really regretted 3 cups of chili, and I'm sure I'll regret it even more tomorrow.

Slept way in. After that just relaxed until a little before 2, where I did 7 blistering miles. The past few runs I've felt like I really need to pee when I'm running. It doesn't hurt, but it's an annoyance. Avg pace was 7 flat. Gonna do some more mileage tonight.

Warmed up 4 miles. Tried to do a tempo. Got two "eh" miles in, and cooled down for 9. Did strides after. I thought the tempo would be good, but mileage was still in my legs, plus I had to stop three times for cars and hop on endless amounts of grass/sidewalk which really screwed up the pace. Oh well.

Early PM - 6 miles of death around campus finding classes. Alarm didn't go off so pure death in the sun today. I had a very large amount of peach cobbler before the run which I regret immensely. I'm surprised I didn't die.

Late PM - 9 miles. Felt tired and kind of trashed at the beginning but felt really good by the end. At about 4 miles in I was in a sketchier part of town, when I passed two dudes. As I pass by them I hear one of them yell "HEY!" And, being an idiot, I turn around. It's two black guys, one my height but bigger, and the other maybe a foot taller than me, and im 6 ft. "Can I ask you a question?" The bigger dude asks, walking towards me. I have a brief inner conflict. "Sure" I say. "I'm an MMA fighter" he tells me. Turns out he needed to lose 40 lbs by his match in October, and asked for my advice. I told him everything I knew. Good ten minutes of conversating. During which more of his friends showed up on bikes. They taught me a handshake and we parted ways. Best of luck to Orlando. Nice guy. Anyway avg pace 6:49, so it was a nice run. Classes start tomorrow. Ugh.

Because I have to walk about 5 miles to classes on Monday and Wednesday, I'm counting some walking mileage today. Not all of it. Still did a long run. Woke up at 6 but my feet hurt badly so I slept in. Not the muscles, it's just my feet are torn to shreds. Lots of blisters and burns. After Chem 101 and Honors Calc I took off on my run(about 11). I get a mile in and was yelled at by none other than Orlando! I said hey and kept going, no stopping. Today's run was in 100+ degree weather with no clouds, so just a true battle with me vs. the sun. Felt okay for about 75% of the run, but then I got hit with a massive wall. The heat killed me. Pure hell. The last three miles it was really tough to push through, I really wanted to walk, or sit down and cry, but I did it. I don't know what will go down on October 13th, but all I can say is I think I'm def training on a level that should get me wearing that crimson jersey.

3 miles before core and strength that night, 2 after. While on mile 20 of the day I figure "let's try to get a minute slower than 5k pace(5:05-5:10)", Just started striding out and got it down to 5:33 before I hit the docks and stopped to stretch. Good work today. I'm racing a 5k Saturday morning(for charity), and probably another one saturday night(for Honors college). We'll see how that goes.

AM - for the first time since starting college, I woke up and actually did a morning run! 4.5 warmup, 10x 1 minute hard, jogging back to start for recovery. Ended up catching my breath for about ten seconds after each hard, before the recovery. I did these repeats on a field that was drenched in water and totally overgrown, so that slowed me down a bit. By the end my legs were soaked in water, mud, and grass. Averaged 5:00 pace for the hard. 2.6 cooldown.

PM - four easy miles in the heat. Big S/O to Kenny the Apache for slaying it @highland! Kedric and Rylie did well too. And big S/O to Ryan Raff for getting third overall!

AM - 10 after Chem, at around ten. Ran 2 miles to where I THOUGHT the race packet pickup was for tomorrow, but I was mistaken. It was about 5 miles in the opposite direction. And there was no trail to get to it. So I ran 5 miles on the side of a highway. it was terrifying, but nothing compared to the end. I had to cross a river, which meant there was a bridge. It was about half a mile long, 300-ish feet in the air. The bridge was constructed where there was the road, a 20-inch across cement barrier about two feet above the road, and the ledge of the bridge, about a foot higher. So for half a mile, if I trip, I'm gonna either fall into a river and if the fall doesn't kill me, alligators will, or I fall the other way and get obliterated by a car. Oh, and wind from passing cars was no help. So yeah, terrifying. If my parents read this I'm sorry. I survive, and make it to the plaza, except I can't find the store where the pickup was at ANYWHERE. I look the store up on my phone(instead of the plaza), and it said IT WAS WHERE I STARTED. I was so mad. but I went into the bank next to me just to make sure. The teller said "oh, the store's in the plaza NEXT to us". So thank heavens I went into that bank haha. The women were extremely nice at the check in. They gave me a cookie, and when I asked how to get back to the college safely and they realized I had ran on a bridge, one of the ladies offered to drive me back to my dorm, and I couldn't say no. She drove me back, and I ran to Publix and back, and did my strides on the mini canal at the end. Some guy in a car saw me as I finished and said "hey, Rio's nowhere near hear buddy!" Which made me laugh. He asked me how much I'd ran today, and I said "10, but I have a race tomorrow so I'm taking it easy". He laughed at that and wished me luck.

PM - REST

I woke up at three this morning and I felt really sick to my stomach. Fell back asleep after thirty minutes or so. Woke up again, ate some bread w/ a dollop or two of marshmallow spread and watched some American Dad. That stuff's great. Jogged over to downtown, and ran a little more, did a couple strides. 3 mile warmup altogether. There were a couple guys who said they were from some senior college "elite" club that looked pretty quick. Race starts and all these kids dart in front of me and I almost trip. By about a minute all the sprinters have died, and it's just me and one college guy. At half a mile I make a small surge and gap him. At around a mile the biker turns around and says "we missed the turn" which I noticed, but figured "this guy knows what he's doing. I turn around and see the college guy turned, and I surge a bit to catch him. He doesn't even try to stay with me. Rest of the race was uneventful, lots of speed sapping turns that last mile. Just sorta cruised. With maybe 400m left we hit a stoplight, and the biker tells me to stop, because of traffic. I start to, then he says "never mind". I was just like "tf dude". Finished pretty well. Stomach felt not well at all throughout the race, still doesn't. They had an ice bath at the finish which I used the trash out of.

Splits: 5:20, 5:26, 5:48, :55 for the last .23