Step by step, mile by mile

Definetely the most difficult conditions I've ever ran in, save maybe my 2nd leg of Ragnar when I had the asthma attack. Still, close. Shakeout at 11:30. I thought the race was at 4:30, but apparantly it got moved to 2:30, so that messed up my schedule. I ate lunch with Jonathan. I had an apple, a banana, some pineapple, and some rice with what I thought was pineapple salsa, but actually was more of a curry/potato thing. It was gross, but it was the best pre race meal I could find(I honestly think anything else would've been better, but more on that later). Johnny boy and I left almost immediately after lunch to go get signed up so we'd have around an hour to relax and cool off in our dorms(it was 100 degrees out+ humidity) before heading out, but due to confusion we were standing out in the sun getting checked in for over an hour, losing precious fluids. Returned to the dorms and had maybe 5 minutes to go to the bathroom/change. Jogged to the start and chilled with J-man, Parker, and a few others. Got to the start, and had to wait there for around 10 minutes because of even more confusion. There were about 400 people running the race. These sorority girls came up to Daniel, Parker and I, and told us we'd have to get top three for some reason. We agreed. Bull horn goes off, and the three of us are off. The course markings were terrible! As soon as I took the lead, I started to make a gap and I heard Parker yelling at me that I missed an unmarked turn, so an extra 10 seconds or so were added on catching back up to them. Around here Daniel got dropped, so it was just Parker and I side by side. First mile in 4:24. Ha! The markers were so off. Just add about a minute per mile for the first two markers. We hit the uphill at about 1.3, and the curry hit me. Oh man, did it hit me. I felt so sick. My stomach was on fire and I wanted to hurl but couldn't. Two miles in 9:27. At this point Parker's long gone and I'm just trying to hang on for dear life. I turn my head and see an older guy maybe 8 seconds behind me. I started thinking "even if he passes me, I get first for my age group". I was wussing out so hard, all I could think of was how sick I felt. But, I wasn't going to just hand him my 2nd place plaque. I picked up the pace quite a bit on the downhill(not to too respectable of a pace), and just hoped I'd drop the old guy. I looked behing a little while later, and he's maybe 4 seconds behind. I still didn't slow down though. 3 miles in 16:38. Not sure about how off this split was, but I do know that it took me another 2 minutes to finish the 5k. I looked back after I finished, and I had dropped the old guy by about a minute. Overall poorly coordinated and marked race. Poor racing conditions. Poor attitude. Not sure if the course was an actual 5k. I hope not. Cooled down maybe a mile with Jonathan, who got 6th. He ran 20:12, which isn't too far off his 19 min. 5k PR, which is crazy when his 800 PR is 1:59!

Really had to force myself to get out and run today, I was really busy in the AM and by the time I got back I wasn't feeling it. However, as soon as I walked outside I felt great, and adamant to do some great work. Ran 3.5 to the track, and I was going pretty quick. For the most part the pace was within 6:20-6:50. Felt good! Legs were a little tired. Too bad there were HS-ers on the track! Ran to the rec and did some real good core.

AM - Woke up at 4 AM and my stomach felt bad and my throat was sore. I had a calc test at 9 so I figured some rest would do my brain good. It's a shame, because I felt extremely well rested for 4 AM. Did 2 W/U, 2xmile on the grass in the heat w/ 3:30 recovery. Really wasn't feeling it. 5:15 for the first one, then for the second half of the second mile the heat hit me hard, and I just couldn't dig deep. My mind was wandering. 5:30 for that one. Cooled down for 6.5. Gonna get some good speed in in a few hours!

PM - 2 WU, 16x (30s hard, 30s easy), 2 CD. I wanted to average .10 on the hard. Ended up averaging .11 and got at least .1 on all but #11, because I tripped at the start. Good work for two workouts in 5 hours! Heat once again killed. There's nothing quite like the feeling of just lying on the grass after the final rep, eyes burning from salt, your heart pounding. I had to take about 15-20 seconds of rest after repeats #4, 8, 10, 12, and 14. The grass just sapped my legs. Overall today was pretty fun, two workouts a day is pretty neat.

AM - Alarm didn't go off! So no 7 mile tempo run. Got a shorter workout in before lunch. 2 WU, 5 x .2 hill strides w/ recovery down to the bottom, 2 CD. Hit 1:02, 1:05, 1:02, :59, and :57 I have two tests today and 8 hours of classes today, so we'll see if I have time for another workout.

Looking at the mileage board, I do believe I'm the youngest runner on page 1 of the yearly mileage board, which is pretty neat.

Great workout today. I knew when the warmup ended up being 6:30 pace that it would go swimmingly. WU 2 miles to the track. Workout was 3 sets of 4x400's in 85, 80, 75, and 70, with 800 jog between sets. Wasn't too hard of a workout, more of to open up my stride. Or, at least in theory. There were 15-20mph winds, but the tailwind was blocked by bleachers/hills. The headwind certainly wasn't though! Times went 82, 80, 75, 71, then 85, 79, 75, 68, and finished with 85, 79, 71, 69. My watch had the distance to be 1ong on the track, and the markings seemed off, but if that's the case then even better work today. Finished with some strides. Cooled down, which again was pretty quick. 5:57 avg. pace for 8 miles!

3 miles with some difficult core in the evening. Legs weren't even kind of sore, my back was a little tight though at points in the day.

AM - 5.5 miles before lunch with 4x200m strides. Felt a LOT better than my 150m strides on the grass last Saturday. Wasn't going ham, just feeling out my stride. 38, 36, 35, 31. Avg pace 6:40, making 9 straight days of sub 7 paces. It took a while but I'm finally getting to a good place with my fitness. Finally got my abs back too! Maybe they're related. Two weeks until the Crimson Classic!

PM - rest

60 minute run on the dot. Since today's a home game the town is SWAMPED. Too much weaving and jumping around to go quick, so I took it pretty easy.