The Mongoose

9.25 miles this morning before going to help Coach's parents move some stuff into their new house. They were really nice and got lots of pizza for all of us. 

No morning practice today. In the afternoon we did some repeats on the track (4x200m, 2x400m, 1x600m, 1x400, 2x200). It felt good to do some quicker stuff today, but I could tell that my legs haven't quite adjusted to doing these quicker intervals because they were pretty flat towards the end of the workout. Good workout though.

2.5 1 1 .5 .25 .5 .5 1 

I was up way late last night finishing up an essay so I had to skip out on morning practice today to get some extra sleep, pretty bummed out about that. In the afternoon we did 7 miles out on the Arizona strip. I felt pretty good but I need to roll out because I was a little tight in some areas.

3 easy this morning, I kept thinking it was Tuesday for some reason.

In the afternoon we headed over to the Dixie Center again for another tempo run. 20 minutes again like last time. I made sure I was staying relaxed this time and it helped a ton. Very good workout for me today. I'm starting to kind of like these tempo runs, and I think that they're really going to build my endurance up for the mile.

3 easy in the morning to the bridge. I rolled out last night and I think it helped a ton because my legs felt better even after yesterday's workout. Another 4 mile Kenyan run in the afternoon, I'm really liking these Kenyan runs. 

6 miles this morning before the drive up north for the UHSTCA Indoor Meet tomorrow. Good run, I did some 30 second pick ups on the way back to get some turnover and I felt great, although I overdressed a bit so it was a little warm. I don't really have a time I want to hit tomorrow, I just want to run hard and see how it goes.

Got to the oval around 8:10ish and just sat around for awhile. I tried not to think too much about my race so I wouldn't get too stressed about it. When I thought I had about 40 minutes until my race I went and warmed up a couple miles. The cooler weather actually felt pretty nice. When I got back they still hadn't even started the girls 800 yet so I still had about 30 minutes to go, so I just tried to stay loose but ended up running around a little bit trying to figure things out. Anyways, it was a pretty good race. There was a few things that I definitely could've done better, but in the end I can't really be mad with a 1 second PR in my season opener. Cooled down about 4.5 afterwards to get some extra mileage in. And in the spirit of these winter games get started up, I also went ice skating on the oval inside the track so that was pretty fun, and way harder than it looks on tv that's for sure. 

3 miles in the morning to Hidden Valley. We had an interesting conversation about the complexity of the female gender. Chloe tried to prove us wrong, but her argument only ended up proving our point. Chicks man, frick.

In the afternoon we did the Kosmin test again, but this time I did the 800m test instead of the 1500m test, which is basically the same thing but with two less 1 minute all outs. Coach had meetings during practice, so I don't know the exact distance, but if I had to make a rough estimate, I would say it was about 825-830m. If I'm right, I think it predicts my 800 time to be around 1:59ish. If that's accurate, it's pretty sweet if I can go sub-2 right now. I think it is, because I think that if I would have raced a little smarter on Saturday, I was capable of possibly running sub-2. I won't know though until track starts up, hopefully by then I can be running even faster.

3 easy this morning to the bridge. No interesting conversations today.

5.5 easy in the afternoon on the trails, I felt good. Mile repeats tomorrow I think so those should be pretty good.

I had a pant-load of homework last night and didn't get to bed until pretty late so I was tired for my morning run. 3 easy to the Spectrum. 

During school I had some tests and stuff that were pretty stressful so it felt good to get running. 2 mile warm up, then 2x1600m and 3x300, with a 1 mile cool down. The 1600s were pretty tough for me. I hit my times but it was hard to find the pace and keep it consistent during the whole 1600m. The first one I started out a touch fast on the first lap but settled too much on the next two laps and had to speed up to hit my time. On the second one my first three laps were a little slow and I had to make up for it on the last lap. The 300s were good. Good workout for me today. Another Kenyan run tomorrow so that's exciting.

3 in the morning to Hidden Valley. It's been pretty cold at first but I usually feel great once we get going a bit. 4.5 in the afternoon with the Kenyan run. I felt pretty good but I was a little sore from yesterday so I need to roll out a bit. Oh, and I got to lead plyombata today so that was pretty flippin sweet!

3 in the morning to the bridge. Power run over by Little Valley in the afternoon. We warmed up about 3.75 and then started the 2 mile power run. When we got going, it was a good push but I could tell we were going a little too relaxed so I tried to pick things up a bit. We came through the first mile a little slower than I thought we were going, so Josh, Ben, and I immediately bolted to try and make up for it on the second mile. We ended up right around where we were supposed to be so that was good. I really like this workout. I just need to figure out how to get that first mile on pace because it usually seems like we're a little too slow on the first mile and we're trying to make up for it on the second one. Still a good workout and a good day.

Slept in a little bit and it felt really good. Then I got out and did 5 miles and kept it pretty easy. I felt great, so a good way to finish off the week.

Workout this morning due to no school for the holiday. Felt like I had school anyways because I was doing homework for the rest of the day. Anyways, we were going to do mile repeats on the track, but there was a soccer game going on so we moved them to the road. 2.5 mile warm up out past the Spectrum, then we got into the repeats. The repeats were on a gradual downhill for the first and third, and back uphill for the second. The second one was the toughest for sure, it felt like it took a lot out of my legs. It was a good workout though and a good push. 1 mile back to the school where I did 4x300m. I was really drained on these for some reason, they felt harder than they usually do for the times that I was running. I think it was just the fact that it was in the morning though. Cooled down half a mile and Coach said to take the afternoon off so I did.

I had to go work this afternoon because they were training us on some new schedule changes at Firehouse, so I did the afternoon run before school. 6 miles Webb Hill loop. It smelled rather skunkacious on the trail today. 3 miles after I got off work, I was a little tight at first but I felt pretty good. The new sandwiches were good, I like the turkey salsa verde one, and the sarachi beef one is pretty dang spicy.

3 easy in the morning to the Spectrum. I accidentally slept through my alarm so I had to play catch-up to get up to the other guys. Pretty tired this morning. 

In the afternoon we did a 2 mile power run again but this time it was on the track. It was a little windy but I didn't think it would be too hard. Once we started though I realized that it was going to be a lot harder than I thought. Coach brought us through the first mile on pace and then paced us again for laps 6 and 7 and let us go on the last one. We ended up a little faster than our goal time, so it was a major confidence booster that we were able to hit our time in the not-so-perfect conditions. Great workout today and I'm looking forward to some easy mileage for the next couple of days.

3 in the morning trying to catch up with the guys again, I keep sleeping through my alarm!

5.5 in the afternoon out towards Sunriver. I felt good.

3 in the morning to the bridge. I was on time for morning practice for the first time this week so that was good.

4.5 miles in the afternoon, another easy Kenyan run, love these runs! 

I signed up for the Dogtown 9k on Wednesday because Coach wanted us to sort of do it as a workout. I got there about 30 minutes early and warmed up for about 2 miles. It was really nice weather this morning so that was good. I ran with Matt from PV at the start and kept it pretty easy for about the first 2 miles and started to pick it up a bit. I got to the turn around and started to try and push it a little more. When we got back to the main road I thought we were supposed to go left but I was following the guy on the bike who was leading the race and he turned right. It turns out that he actually made a wrong turn so when I finished I was about .75 short of 9k. I felt bad for not running the full 9k so I talked to the race director about it and she said she would figure things out. It turns out that everyone was making that right turn for about 15 minutes after me, and I guess she figured that the first few runners to finish were far enough ahead of anyone else so we didn't get DQed or anything. I cooled down about 3 miles waiting for the 1/2 runners to come in. I wish I could've run the whole course, that part kind of bummed me out a little bit, but it was a fun race and a good day, I watched the USA indoor men's 3k after I got home. Pretty exciting race and pretty agressive running towards the end. Bernard Lagat and those guys are fun to watch!

Last night I started to get an itch in my throat and I knew a sickness was coming on, because that's generally the first sign for when I start to get sick. So I made sure to load up the vitamin c but it didn't help as much as I'd wanted it to. Woke up this morning and the itch was now pretty painful and my whole head just hurt. 3 miles easy and I started to feel a little better. 

In the afternoon I was a little better, but I was just plain tired. I felt like a dementor sucked all the happiness out of me and I was stiff as a board. 8.5 miles what should have been easy but totally drained me. Hopefully I can kick this soon because I hate not being able to run my best.

I was feeling really crappy last night and had a lot of schoolwork to do so I decided not to go to practice this morning. I felt a lot better when I got up but as school went on I just kept feeling worse and got more fatigued with each class period. This afternoon was supposed to be 1000m repeats but I knew that if I tried to do them I wouldn't be able to hit my times and would probably negatively affect me more than it would positively. So I just did the warm up and cool down and jogged around the track while the guys did their workout. Pretty bummed about missing a quality workout like this one, but I think I already hit the peak of my sickness and I should be better soon. This sickness has been pretty frustrating because every morning before I got sick I drank orange juice and took a multivitamin so I don't understand why I even got sick in the first place. Oh well.

I was still feeling pretty bad last night so I slept in to get some more sleep. I didn't feel a whole lot better when I woke up. At practice I ran 4 miles easy, but it felt hard. It was hard to breathe. 

No morning practice again today. I slept in to get some extra sleep so I can get over this sickness faster. In the afternoon I felt okay enough to go the full mileage with the guys so 7 easy out on the trails. Still kind of hard to breathe but I can tell that it's getting better. My nose was pretty stuffed up too. Some more easy mileage tomorrow and hopefully I will be able to do the power run on Saturday.

Coach moved the afternoon practice Kenyan run to this morning. I was planning on going but I kept waking up throughout the night and would have these kind of cough-attack things, so I tried to get as much sleep as I could and did the run after school instead. I actually felt pretty good for probably the first time this week which is a good sign going into tomorrow's workout. I'm pretty bummed that I missed some quality mileage this week due to being sick, but that means that I'm going to have to work really hard these next couple of weeks in order to catch up to where I'm supposed to be. One thing that this sickness actually helped me with was that it got me back into the groove of taking care of myself the best that I can. I went to bed at a pretty good time everyday this week, started taking a water bottle to school again, and made sure that I was taking my vitamin everyday. I think these little things will really propel me forward this season and avoid injury or another sickness if I'm able to be consistent with them.