Step by step, mile by mile

The grind was real today. I didn't feel all that great today, it was really cold outside so I waited until later in the day. My dad had to go to work at the Deseret power plant so I ran there while he did his thing. The run consisted of four miles on the road from the power plant to the road that runs through the desert (being that it's Sunday almost no one worked so I was able to run in the middle of the road for the most part). Once I got to the main road I took off my jacket and tied it to a stop sign and turned right, ran until 6.5, and turned back. The weird thing was either way I went it seemed I was running all uphill. Ran past the Deseret road and went up a steep incline until 10.5, where I turned around. I was about 90 minutes in at this point. According to every science I knew I should have been about depleted of Glycogen at this point, so I sped up to increase my threshold. Dropped the pace pretty good. My last 5 miles were in 33 minutes. I finished the run, and I can't recall a time feeling more wiped out after a run. I felt really tired, and even more cold, I had postponed the run so long I ended up finishing in the dark, even colder than any time during the day. Took a ton of Advil and ate a lot when I got home and I'm starting to feel better, still pretty dazed though.

If I'm not deceased tomorrow and Vernal doesn't turn into a Tundra, I want to go for a top 5 placing of the mileage board this week. So if anyone reading this wants to get 100 miles in a week, I'd save it for another time.

Vernal turned into blizzard central today, so my mother said I couldn't drive to the indoor or go anywhere running. To counter with an equally ridiculous idea, I ran about 200m from our house to the end of the road, turned around, came back, and did it again. 40 times. At night. It was snowing pretty bad at first, but once that ended it got super foggy. The snow and mush I had to run on sapped my legs pretty bad. Good run to think about things. Ecstatic about my current #2 ranking on the mileage board. Proud.

Mile warmup with some of the team.  I decided not to run with the Varsity, I did a warmup with the underclassmen/non-varsity instead. I did some stretches with them and then coach had me go on an 8 mile easy run. Felt easy. At some points I would stride for a few seconds for fun because it felt pretty nice. Ran up Aggie Blvd, down to the hospital, to the park, and back. I was able to quench the fiery inferno that is my soul during the run, so when I got back to the indoor I talked to coaches for a few minutes, and ran with the Varsity on a cooldown. Added to 9.5

3 miles later that night, with core and lifting. Down to 5th.

AM - 5.5 easy miles

PM - mile warm up because my knee was bothering me, then 7.5 easy up to quailbrook/Emily's road and back down mainstreet because I haven't ran that path before. Back up to 4th!

Warm up with the team. A lot of the returning sprinters were there today. They didn't warm up, but the workout today was sprinter oriented. Neat. Anyway we did core and a lot of ladders. For the mileage I'm at this week, I was surprised how it went. The sprinters came in quick at the beginning, but at the end I found myself ahead and desolate, and my legs were hating me for it. The team went on a mile cooldown, but coach had me go on a run. It was originally going to be around 5 miles, but I saw Zack conditioning for soccer as I was coming back into the schoolgrounds, and I joined him on his run. He'll be quick next year. Did a little more when I got home to add to 11. Getting chilly. 3rd!

2 mile warm up with some speed changes, then 4 mile tempo. Since I had such high mileage this week, I'd be fine with anything under 6:00 pace. I went out quick. It wasn't anything crazy but it felt like I was pushing it. Hit the uphill hard. Hit the first mile in 5:36. I expected the rest of the run to be killer but I pressed forward, embracing the pain. My achilles and knee in my left leg bothered me a bit, but the wall didn't come. I hit two miles at 11:12. On the next mile I still pushed but I think I relaxed a little too much. Three miles at 16:59. I looked at my watch around here and realized I could break 23, but I'd have to speed up again. Despite this mile having several hills I was able to come in at 22:42, which shocked me. The splits were:

5:36

5:36

5:47

5:43

Avg 5:39 pace. I felt like I was pushing it, but it didn't feel super hard. Not only did I not die out, but I was able to repeat my first mile time, and drop time on my last mile! Really great run, big confidence booster for me. 3 mile cooldown. Could have gone for more but I figure some rest is in order. Currently 4th.

12 hours of sleep, but my legs were super tight when I woke up. I stretched quite a bit but ended up cutting my shakeout down to one mile because of my left leg. It wasn't hurting necessarily, but I knew pressing forward would only reap detriments. Going from 27 miles to 50 to 75 was a pretty drastic increase. I'm going to try some biking/elliptical later today, and a lot of core tomorrow, then start fresh on monday; I'd rather take off days in 20 degree Utah than 60 degree San Diego. Rest until Monday, then hit the grind hard again. I'm not injured or anything like that, I'm just being wary, or as wary as a guy could be who increased his mileage almost 300% over the past two weeks.