The best pace is a suicide pace

Today was pretty dumb. Didn't run yesterday or the day before because I had my wisdom teeth out. Went out planning 8 miles. I got halfway, and I felt good. I was like, "I can do more. So I added an extra block or two to my route. Added 3 miles. Average pace was 7:08, but most miles were 6:54-7:05. The average was higher because I died at the end, and my last mile was almost a minute slower. It's definitely time to get new shoes, my calves hurt like h*#k today. Short cool down and ice bath.

Another distance day. Ran with Aaron and Nathan by red fleet. Mile warmup, followed by stretches and an 8.5 mile run. The "fast" miles were actually mostly low 8/high 7, so not really that fast, but it was a hilly course. My calves were still killing me from yesterday, and the hills wore out my knees. Definitely need recovery days in the near future. 3 mile cooldown, followed by a dip in the cold lake to beat the heat.

No run today, or tomorrow, or probably Wednesday. This is because I got a nasty sunburn on Saturday's run. I've got blisters the size of golf balls, and I'm gonna rest them out

U-hill with Nathan and Rylie today. Two mile warmup with dynamics followed by 2 miles straight uphill. Took in the view, then cooled down down the hill, 2 more miles. Today was my first day back after the sunburns, which I know anyone is laughing about who is reading this that didn't see them. But picture yellow water balloons the size of golf balls on your shoulders. It was bad. Broke out a new pair of shoes, the Pegasus 33's. I loved them a lot, definitely more than my pureflows. Later played an intense game of ultimate frisbee, which was basically speed training, and I'm counting it as about a mile.

Still not used to the new shoes. Still not recovered from taking a week off. Three mile "tempo" run today. After a mile warm-up, started on a five mile tempo run. But I was way sore from U-hill, and the wind absolutely hated me today. Strong winds basically the whole time, and it would change direction the second I turned. Due to these factors, I sorta gave up at three miles. The pace was mid-high sixes. I used the rest of the course I had planned to cool down, so, two miles of that.

I'm gonna pretend I waited until 10:30 to go running because I wanted to prepare for my Ragnar night leg. Really, I just put it off to the last possible minute. Running in the dark was pretty sick though. And also slightly sketchy. I've been pretty sore the last few runs, so tonight was a slowish 3 mile shakeout. Held 6:45ish. The first mile felt pretty bad, but then my muscles started relaxing during the second mile, and felt almost great when mile 3 started. The rest of the run, two things hurt: my right knee, and my lungs. The lungs are just from taking a week off, so they'll be fine after a few more days of training. The knee, on the other hand, is different. That's what I get for doing u-hill on my first day back, I guess. Icing the knee rn, and elevating it tonight while I sleep. I don't think it's that bad, but I don't want to take any chances. Really hoping it heals by Ragnar

No run today. This is on account of spending the entire day at Lagoon. Walked around a lot though, so I'm counting a sort of guessed mileage for the day. Knee still sore, but I think it'll be fine

Leg five of a Ragnar. This was the choose your own exchange leg, so it was 7.4-8.8 miles. I ended up doing 8.3. This isn't so bad, until you take into account the 1500 foot elevation gain, with only 58 feet lost. It was the worst of times. 7:43 pace, pretty good considering the circumstances. My knee hurt pretty bad, but it was too late to turn back, so I dealt with it.

Leg 18

I was supposed to run the 17th leg here, but Rylie messed up and ran her leg and mine at the same time, so she stole my five mile night leg. Oh well. I ran the next leg, which was supposed to be Jacia's who dropped out, so I saved Christian from running an extra leg. This one was 4.1, and I did it at 6:30 pace, which felt good. Night runs are night funs. Sorry for rhyming. (I'm not really sorry). When I finished, Kyrie had taken an ill-timed bathroom break, so I was left there awkwardly waiting. The guy at the exchange zone was like, "too bad, after you made that effort to sprint in." I was really offended because I hadn't sprinted in. He thought my pace was me showing off, and that I couldn't have held it the whole time, which I did

Leg 29

My last leg. It was flippin' hot, and my knee was the worst it's been all week. Basically it was in keeping with the spirit of Ragnar: horrible. The map said it was 3.6 miles, but my garmin, said it was 4 flat. I feel like the watch was more accurate, so I'm going with that data. I did a 6:30,  two 7:00's, and a 7:30 for a 7:00 average pace. The heat was brutal so I'm cool (pun intended) with these timez. Got in the van, ate some marshmallow mateys and thought about how I was done. At the finish line, I got an injury evaluation . The guy moved my leg around, stretched some stuff, rolled some stuff, massaged some stuff. My knee felt much better after, and he gave me some stretches to do to help recover.

Today was my first day after Ragnar. Took a week off for my knee. Mile warmup followed by a six mile run. It was also the first day of team practice, which meant a lot of new people. Started with a fairly large pack, going pretty slow the first four miles. We sped it up for the last two miles and dropped a lot of our teammates. The last mile or so was jut me, Clayton, and Nathan. S/O to Nathan for having graduated, but still coming to practice. #supersenior. The knee hurt pretty bad still, but was bearable, and getting better. Rolled it out after a short cool down.

Took a few days off because waking up early in the morning is hard. Mile warmup today, followed by core. The issue is that these morning practices are a small group of mostly girls on the days when the coaches aren't there. There were only two other guys there today, so the core we did had a large focus on hips, which was sort of weird. 2 miles at about 12:00 pace with finishes after. Sat and talked for about an hour and a half. Fought off the urge to get donuts