The best pace is a suicide pace

first day back after two week break from track. No warm up, six mile run with Nathan. First mile was 6:28, than we held 7:20's pretty consistently. My knees hurt a little, but I think they'll be fine.

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

Another morning with the girls. Mile warmup, 5 mile distance run. Went really slow, about 10:00 miles. I could have gone faster, but I brought my little sister today, and she was hurting. I hung back with her and McKenna, who was having some probably show related issues. The knee felt better today, I think it's healing.

core day. Mile warmup w/dynamics, followed by 30 minutes of core. Focused on abs today, which has been a very weak are for me lately. Cereal after the workout

Mile warmup, core with cardio, and three miles on TT course. Real easy day

Today was my first real run in a long time. I've been doing a lot of core or running with the girls, so naturally, my running ability was down and today sucked. Mile warmup with dynamics. Six mile run. I tried to go fast, I really did. 6:45 average for the first three miles. These were uphill and it burnt me out. The next three were 7:30 average, and sucked. My legs felt fine the whole time, except a little knee pain still sticking around. What killed me was my currently weak cardiovascular endurance. Half mile barefoot cool down. I definitely need to work harder

Mile warmup, core, two slow miles

Little late on the post today, but whatever. Mile warmup, 4xmile repeats. Splits were 5:43, 6:13, 6:23, and 5:52. Really disappointed with my performance today. Mile cooldown and stretches. I'm putting this in almost twelve hours after the workout, and I am dang sore. I need to workout more. So I can have a strong core. Like Thor. 

really sore today. Mile wu, Core/cardio, two mile recovery run. 

Afternoon-5 mile hike w/fam. Ran about two miles of it, felt pretty good, knee wasn't a problem at all

Evening-Light in the dark 5k. Mile warmup. First race in a while, from felt good, but I'm not in shape, particularly mental shape. I held a lot back and didn't go as fast as I could have on the second and third miles. My watch had it at 5:43, 6:12, 5:59. 18:10 was the official time. Nathan hauled and took first. Mason said he was way out of shape and would quickly fall behind, but I didn't buy it. I was correct I'm not buying it. After about 1.25 miles he pulled ahead, leaving me in third. Soon there were large gaps in front of and behind me, so there was no pressure, so I settled, rather than competing. All in all not horrible for off-season, would have liked to be in the mid 17's though

Mile warmup, distance/tempo run. Six miles at high six pace. Ran with Nathan, Kenny, and Clayton. First two miles were a little slow, then we sped up to 6:50's with about two miles to go, Kenny and Nathan sped up, I guess they wanted to impress the girls. I held the same pace, because I was still a bit sore from the 5k on Friday. Mile cool down 

Dinosaur track run today. Mile warmup w/dynamics at red fleet, 1.5 mile trail run to the lake. Swam for about half an hour, then "ran" back. The water felt great, and it was a great recovery day

Mile warmup. 8.5 miles at high 7/low 8 pace. Felt pretty good, but the pace wasn't very fast. Rafted the river later

Mile warmup. Today was supposed to be distance, but it almost felt a bit more like tempo. 6 miles. First mile was 7:30. We sped up consistently after that, so it ended up pretty quick. The last mile was about a 6:10, so we got going at a pretty decent pace. My knee started hurting after about a mile, but only for about half a mile, so it's probably fine.

"Fun" run today. We drove out to U-hill for incline training. Mile warmup, then up the hill we went. This workout is basically a race, and I won. Didn't track pace because that's always disappointing on this workout. Got to the top, thighs on fire, ran to the U at an easier pace, soaked in the view for a minute, and walked down. Sore, but a good workout

mile repeats, so good workout. Mile warmup, at this point I really wish we could do the repeats on the same course as the warmup, because the course we use is on really long, thick grass for at least half of the distance. The grass saps my speed, and my will to live. Four repeats, the first three I focused mostly on form and consistency, so they weren't too quick, but they were really close together. 5:56, 5:53, 5:56. The last one I decided to go ham. The issue was that we did the last one as a team, so I, having ran in the first wave the whole workout, got way too much rest. My legs were super stiff when I started and this stuck around until almost the halfway point. I found my groove though, and tried to haul the rest of the course. Did alright, I was planning low 5:10's and finished with a 5:20,  so not terrible, wish we wouldn't have rested for so long.

First day of XC camp. 6 mile distance run with lots of hills. Not super steep hills, but really long. Mile warmup, and hit the road first four miles felt great, kept sub-7:30. Last two sucked. They got quite hilly. Ran an 8:10 and 7:52 before my legs practically gave out on me. Mile walking cool down

AM-Mile warmup, then repeats. 2x1600, 2x800. I was really dead after yesterday, but I did my best. After the first mile repeat, my legs were totally dead, this was a 5:26. I ran the second at 5:52, so I lost a lot. We then switched to eights, and shorter distances are better, but I was already dead. My legs were basically useless, so I sort of gave up halfway through the first 800. Pretty much just jogged the second 800. The first was like a 2:50, the second was more of a 3:15. Cooled down half a mile, and iced in the pond. It was really cold. The amazing race later today should be sick

PM-The "Amazing" race. About four miles. The pace was pretty slow, but there were lots of hills, and difficult challenges, giving it a cross-training/core value. My team finished second, but took last because we failed at tug-o-war. Decent workout overall. Swimming/paddle boarding/icing in the pond afterwards 

Death hill. 2 miles. 700 ft elevation increase. Race pace. Mile warmup, dynamics. Lined up. Went out quick, felt great to be racing again, so the adrenaline was high. First mile was moderately hilly, so ran 6:40's. The real hill began at the beginning of the second mile. Went as fast as I could, but it was steep. Finished first, with 15:36, so 11 seconds behind the record, really great time, but really wish I could've gotten the record. Oh well

slow, easy recovery day. Mile warmup, two mile shakeout run. Ran about 9:00 pace, and I was so sore, that even that felt like pushing it. Timed mile tomorrow, so should be good. Hoping to break five.

Speed day. Mile warmup, then a timed mile, tried to go hard, but I was sore, and my speed is weak right now. Wanted to go sub-5, ended up  5:09. Recovered from the mile and did 4x4 repeats. First three I held 80 sec. laps, consistency is good, but those were slower than my mile splits, so not good. Walked one lap between each repeat. Final repeat was 73, so better. Mile barefoot cooldown. 

Today was supposed to be an easy, slow-paced distance run. But Kenny and Clayton had other plans. Coach gave us a shorter course, and that was the beginning of the horror story that was my morning. We decided to go a bit faster after the first mile, due to the shortness of the run. The first mile was a 7:30, which felt good, the second was at 6:49, felt okay, then, everything changed. The third mile was very uphill, and I'm not gonna point any fingers, but whoever was setting the pace thought 6:25 sounded good. That was our third, very uphill mile. I died off the group after that, held 6:50's finished at 5.1 miles. Felt more like. A long tempo run, but, this will do I guess

Mile warmup. Ran mile to the HS for a moderate core workout. Ran back to the park on a longer route, 2.5 miles. Dynamics and went home. Ready for #tastytuesday

One of my favorite runs today, we did the flume trail. Time trials are tomorrow, though, so we didn't go as hard or as fast as usual. Mile warmup, than 2 miles uphill on the trail, and 2 more miles downhill on the road. Coaches had food for us at the end. Pop tarts and donuts. And some other things. Psyched for time trials, hoping for sub-17:45

Mile warmup, as usual. I was really patient today, which may have hurt my time a little bit, but it doesn't really matter that much. First mile or so, hung out in second place, then when we turned onto the canal road, I made my move into first. Held that for the rest of the race, but it got close. Not sure if it was Kenny or Clayton, but someone was breathing down my neck the whole way, pushed me pretty hard. Felt like less than 3 miles, but it's been measured so the time's legit. S/O to Austin and Mason for not getting burnt alive, and for taking time off to come watch me race. Ready for highland on Thursday.

after the warmup left me feeling pretty tired on its own, I could tell the workout was going to suck. Distance day, but I only did five miles. By mile four my entire digestive system felt like it was going to explode, and I was dehydrated, my mouth was full of that thick slimy stuff. I kept trying to speed up, but my gut just wouldn't let me. Avg. pace was 7:27, so really weak run today

Is there even a point in writing this if I didn't run? Missed my alarm, and therefore missed the mike warmup, which was the only running done today. Did a moderate intensity, but really short core workout, and received uniforms. Short, easy day

One last run on the dinosaur trackway. Drove to the trailhead, did close to a mile warmup.  Ran pretty hard to the lake, it's short enough that it's really fun to go fast, especially with all the down hill. Got to the lake first and jumped in a few times, the water felt great. Walked back to the cars and came home. School starts tomorrow, but I'm only going to one class, due to the highland meet. The race is only 2.9 miles, so I'm hoping the time will at least look fast, despite some crazy hills.

Highland meet. Really sucked. Real bad heat. Lots of ducks. The race may only have been 2.9, but the hills are insane. Plus this was my first real run in the heat. The conditions were as awful as they could be, the race was basically he*k for me. I felt totally drained on the line, yet the fifth fastest course time from my school was mine. Ran second from Uintah, Kenny was first, claiming the second fastest from the school on this course with like a 16:40something. I felt way dehydrated the whole time. I need more water. I also need to focus on cardiorespiratory strength in the future, I had lots of chest/side ache, and I couldn't get enough air. My other issue today was moving through the crowds, I was continually cut off and had a very difficult time getting around people. I need to improve my ability to smoothly and efficiently move through large groups of people, without cutting the course

P.S. Nathan, if you're reading this, it was a two star race.

super sore today. Highland sucked, it was bad to me. We did the mile warmup, which exhausted me. Then ran a lap around the high school, followed by strides, which together added up to about another mile. Ran to the bull and back for one more mile, then a really good core workout. 

I think the coaches spent the weekend in H--k, because today's workout was demonic. It starts with near 40mph winds. I checked. Ran from the HS to yellow hill. Most people stopped and rested for a second at the foot of the hill, but not me. I started straight up, for one set of ladders, after 3 difficult milez. The whole time I was on the hill, the wind blew directly against me. It sucked a lot but it was kinda funny. There were these two 9 or 10 year olds, who lived at the top of the hill they were walking home, and I was running behind them, I was in lots of pain, and the wind was brutal, so I was squinting a lot, and I suppose I must have looked pretty angry. When I got close these kids looked frightened, and started sprinting away from me. They looked really surprised (and relieved) when I ran right past them. Got to the top, and literally collapsed. I could hardly breathe. My legs and lungs on fire. My situation was dire. Eventually I got back up and walked it off, then started back. Galley must be my only real friend, because he was at the bottom of the hill with water. The avg pace was 7:25, but with hills and wind, I'd place the effort level closer to 6:20. Icing as I write this.

This morning when I was grabbing my stuff for practice, I accidently grabbed spandex instead of shorts. so I ran in my casual shorts today. Luckily it was only a recovery day, so it was just the neighbourhood and core. mile warmup and started the workout. 8:30 pace. Once in the circuit room, I avoided leg machines like the plague. I do have to race tomorrow. Focused ona few week areas, mainly shoulders and back.

Today was a learning experience. I did not do super well, and the team sort of flopped, too. Wasn't hydrated, didn't get sufficient warm-up. Don't quite have the pacing down yet, got too excited. I learned how to run the course the hard way though, I ran it totally wrong, but I'll be ready when real region comes. Note to self: take the first lap easy, be patient. Stay on the inside of all turns. Kick way sooner, course ends abroubtly.

Super easy day. Mile warm-up, then 2 easy miles. 15 minutes of "core" but I wasn't feelin' it and didn't do much. Psyched for the night hunt tomorrow, running in the dark is my favorite.

Great day! Finally had a bit of a breakout race, went uner 17 for the first time this season, so I'm getting back to where I once was. The course deffinitely helped, I absolutely loved it. The conditions also helped as it was cooled down, and I didn't have any sun in my eyes, plus running in the dark is exhilerating. Finally ran a race smart. I've been going out hard and trying to compete lately, but here, I didn't. I relaxed the first mile or so, then slowly picked it up. This was hugely successful, and made racing fun again. Passing people gives you more eenergy, which you can use to pass more people. I started towards the back of the middle, but finished in fifth. Team took 3rd of eight teams, we were close to Salem, so we're improving in the region as well. Timpview took first, their guys were flying. S/O to Clayton for top 10ing it with me. S/O to Kenny for almost top 10ing it with us. Our first three runners are a really tight pack right now, which is great for scoring, we just need to work the time down a little bit. 

Super intense day. Ran from the HS to the top of Docs beach hill and back, 6.25 miles, with friggin' steep hill. ran with Kenny the first half, ran low sevens, rested for a minute at the top of the hill and started back. As usual I got a huge boost from the downhill, and got a little bit ahead. after about a quarter mile, Kenny caught me. We ran together for a few minutes, then I died off a little. I hung back for a while, but then I caught my second wind, and got back with Kenny. We ran the last mile together, and it felt way fast, I think it was like a 6:20.  Average pace was 6:50. Iced at home.

Way sore from yesterday, had to walk almost half of the mile warmup. After dynamics, we did a two mile recovery run, and then played games. I'm gonna call the games half a mile of fast pace, cuz I was pretty active. Repeat/speed workout tomorrow, I intend to go ham, want to get back under 16:30 at BYU on saturday.

Repeats. Mile warmup followed by 1x1600, 4x800, 4x400, for a total of four miles. splits were 5:33 for the mile, low 2:40's for the 800's, and 75, 75, 80, 69 for the 400's. Pretty consistent for evertything but the fours. Feeling pretty good about today, got in some good speed, iced, now I have two rest days before BYU. 16:30 or bust.

Mile warmup, then the neighbourhood. We were supposed to do core after, but I just stretched instead because I was way sore from repeats. We leave for BYU tomorrow which should be heckafun

Mile WU, then one 90 60 30. super short workout, but I'm not complaining. Got my legs moving at a decent speed, hit a couple of hills, good shakeout run. Psyched for BYU tomorrow

Good race. I didn't get as much sleep the night before as I would've likes, but I felt good. The course is mainly flat, three laps around a 1 mile course. I went out too fast, hit a 5:25 first mile. This hurt a lot and I died off a bit for the second mile, which was a 5:40. I guess everyone else died more, though, because I was still passing way more people than passed me. I picked it back up the last mile and ran a 5:35. This race hurt a lot, I gave my all, and it felt horrible, but great at the same time. Top 6 got medals, top 30 got shirts, so I got my first a top finisher shirt from a big meet this weekend. Final time was 16:40, so 40 seconds faster than 17:18 on the same course last year. This season should be exciting. S/O to the TP in the porta-potties for being the exact same texture  as my math homework. Next up is our home meet this Wednesday. We've never been beat at home, and we don't intend to break the tradition this year. 

Did not get out for a run today, but I did do two miles of moderate hiking so I'm counting that

Recovery day. 1 mile to the canal, iced in the canal. Ran back for easy core workout and visualization.

Home meet. The Uintah meet sucks. Multiple horrible hills. My thighs were super sore going in, and I went out way fast besides that. Ran in 2nd the first .5, moved into 1st for about 1.5 after that, then fell back to second for the last mile & finish. I think I'm legitimately going to talk to coach about running somewhere else next year, our course is horrible. However, my fame grows. I got my first interview for the paper today, so that was pretty fun. The time wasn't super great but I didn't really care, I'm not super focused on this meet, and the team won, so didn't really matter

Iced instead of the run today, the front of my thighs are dreadfully sore. Did the circuit room afterwards, going ham on al machines that did not use legs.

the workout was 2x90, 60, 30. Covered 2 miles, and assume about 0.5 of those were recovery, so the 1.5 miles were hard. The average pace was 7:19, but I think we were probably running low 4 pace on the sprinting intervals. Good speed. Wasatch is tomorrow, it's at soldiers hollow, which is where Ragnar ended. I remember that there were some really steep hills there, so it'll probably suck

That was horrible. I am not overly fond of that course. A lot of people really liked it, but I guess I didn't have enough hill/speed training to enjoy this one. The course was at soldier hollow (the finish line for Ragnar). A lot of the course was actually part of the 2002 olympic cross country ski course. There was way too much uphill, and the downhill was all so steep, that it hurt just as bad as the uphill did. I tried to go out kinda slow, to save energy for the hills, but something made me speed up way sooner than I should have. The time wasn't great but the course was difficult. Really wish I could have placed better, there was a really big pack about 10 seconds ahead of me that I wish I could've beat but oh well.

Good race run today. Mile w/u, then 4 mile tempo. The goal was 6:10 pace. We were way inconsistent. First mile was 6:08, so good. Mile two, Kenny pushed the pace hard, and him and I left talon and Clayton behind. Mile three we hit some headwind and hit 6:11. 5k at 18:54 (faster than the low varsity race time). The last mile had horrible wind, and we died a bit at 6:34. Average pace was 6:11 though, so I guess we nailed our goal decently. Great workout today, I'll be sore tomorrow. S/o to Kenny for being a freaking monster.

mile w/u, 2 mile recovery run, moderate core workout felt good, nothing's sore

The workout was 5xYH ladders. The distances are approximate, and I don't know the pace, but it wasn't too fast. But these things don't matter on workouts like this. I didn't go too fast, I didnt want to be sore when I take on Clinger and Hull this Friday. They don't stand a chance 😂

longer than usual recovery run, then a simple core workout focused on abs. I need more abs.  The wasatch rendezvous is tomorrow, and I've never had a good race on that course, but there's a first time for everything, and I'm staying positive. It'll be fun!!!

The rendezvous. They run 7 different varsity heats, one for each position on a varsity team. I ran in the #1 heat, and took 8/16 in that heat. So for really fast people, I'm exactly average. I ran a really conservative race. The hills are brutal, and with only 16 in the race, and all 16 spread out very thin, I was very alone. It would've been basically impossible to catch the guy in front of me, and the guy behind me wasn't going to catch me, so there wasn't a lot of pressure to push. I was very relaxed. Considering the effort level I actually put forth, I'm very happy with this time. 10 seconds off season record on a hilly course without pushing is not bad at all. S/O to Clayton for running a killer race. Our top 3 have an excellent spread this year, usually finish really close together. Clayton ran a 16:47 at this one, so now our top three have all been #1 at least once. We need to get two more up to our level if we want to qualify for state though. Next meet is carbon, which always produces some sick times, so I'm psyched. Maybe I'll finally get a PR.

1x1600, then 6x400. The mile was 4:55, glad to have gone sub-five in a workout, it was exciting the fours were 66(my favorite), 79, 71, 71, 71, 71, so nice and consistent. I'm sore, but I have work and lots of homework, so no rest for the weary

2 mile easy, then core and games. 

The story starts in duchesne. The bus breaks down, we have to wait 45 minutes for another one to come get us. In this downtime I caught 3 Pokémon and took a gym. We pulled up to the golf course. The boys race is first, the other teams are already on the line. I race off the bus, and take a hasty dump before the race. I swiftly attach my bib, and get to the line. The race commences basically immediately. Carbon. They changed the course this year, they removed the switchbacks, made it a 2-lap full 5k (supposedly). I went out at about 5th, hung around there the first mile. Clayton and I moved into 1st and 2nd, and ran shoulder to shoulder until about 1.5 miles. I moved forward, in order to stay ahead of this upstart kid from Richfield. I led the rest of the race. Finished with a 16:39. With no warmup, very little competition, full 5k distance, and considering that I wasn't all that tired at the end...great race today.

It was pouring, so most of the workout was inside the school. half mile warmup, then 15 minute run, followed by weak core and weird games. interesting recovery day

We ran the homecoming parade. I parked my cat at the end of the 1 mile parade route, and jogged it once to warm up. We then ran the route 4 times with the team, the last two times, Clayton, Talon and I went hard. The average pace was 7:45, but the slow leges were way slow, on the fast section we were probably doing mid sixes

We did yellow hill! Yay! We ran all the way up once, then we did one ladder, then four 45 second sprints. The total distance was about 2.5 on the hill, but it was intense and fast. Good workout, totally ready for park city

I'm on an FBLA trip at Utah state, so the workout happened there tonight. It was late, which is always fun. We ran 3 miles in the dark. 1.5 to the track, raced 300 on the track, then came back. While on the track, I had an instinct, an urge. We're racing this lap, and I see the steeple curve for the water jump something clicked inside me, and I was about one step away from the barrier when I came to my senses and realized there was no water in the pit, and I was about to hurt myself. I stopped and stared into the pit. I really want to run a steeplechase. Ran back to the hotel. The average pace was 8:20, but there were lots of up and downhills. 

Today was supposed to be an average recovery day, but it wasn't. Junior had to push the pace. We did three miles at 7:00 flat, so a bit harder than was probably good the day before a meet, but I'm sure it'll be fine. The last mile was so fast I almost though a certain group of idiots had returned from beyond the veil of graduation to make sure the end of every workout was a race. Good core workout after.

We ran 5:45 first mile to pace the slower guys. That was the plan. The crowd seperated everyone so the plan didn't work at all. Only Clayton, Talon, and I were together at the mile. I wanted a good time so I sped up a lot at this point. I don't know my second mile, but it was fast. I overcompensated, and therefore died the third mile. final time was 10 seconds slower than the same race a year ago. Still no PR's this season. Sucks to suck I guess. 

We do the warm up. Coach explains the event. My handicap is 18:15. We are told the course is 3 miles, and due to my PRless season, I intend to go ham, knowing it will be a flat course, hoping I can finally drop some time. Clayton starts, I begin five seconds after him.  It takes me almost half a mile to catch him. Sprinters. I later discovered we ran at 4:30 pace for a while at the beginning. I eventually pass Clayton, then Kenny. No one else offers any resistance. I keep moving up. I pass lots of people, I run fast. I get to the last 400, and there's a huge pack ahead of me. I kick hard. I pass lots of people. As I cross the line coach says, "33:03." Those of you who know math will note that 33:03-18:15=14:48. The watches tell us 2.85. 14:48. 2.85 miles. That's my time today. I found a race converter on the internet which informed me that I would have run a 15:37 if the race had been a full 3 miles. The goal is 15:30 for region. Based on current rankings, that puts me in 5th, right in front of Haden Penrod, who I 've been really close to beating this season, so it's not too unrealistic. It's only about a minute PR. I've done it before. I'll do it again, especially if it's the only one I get this year. Surely the training has done something, right?

Recovery run at 8:00 flat. Minimal core workout. Conversation with Coaches about region rankings. If our top five guys drop 4 positions each, then we will qualify for state. This shouldn't actually  be too difficult. I intend to drop ten or so positions myself. 

Easy speed workout. raced One 800 first, my first lap was 66. final time was 2:21. Clayton ran 2:07. Why he long jumps I'll never know. We next did 4x400 at pace with finish. 68, 72, 72, 68. Not too hard today, I kinda like tapering.

I did not play tag after we were told to do a 20 minute recovery run. No matter what anyone says, I did what I was told. After the run, we played one round of dodgeball, then did senior speeches.

Region VIII championship. They shoulda called it the chumpionship. This weekend did not go well. We needed to lose 20 points from the rankings to state qualify. We didn't. We finished basically exactly where we were ranked. 6/7. Yay. Small consolation is that I qualified individually, but state will just be really depressing without the other guys. S/O to Rylie for also making state. My personal mistake was going too fast the first mile. If I'd known I were going 5:10, things would've been different. I died hard at the end. I feel really bad for Clayton though. Came in 19th, one position off of a qualifying spot. Can't wait to train for state alone.

First distance run in a while. We did the dock's beach run. Six miles, going one direction it's slightly downhill the whole wawy, until you reach a massive uphill at the end. We rested for a few minutes at the top, then headed back, with a huge downhill at the beginning followed by 2.5 miles of long, but gradual hill. We held about a 7 flat pace, so decent run. I'll probably feel it tomorrow.

I took today a bit hard for a recovery day, but oh well. Hard work is good. I did the three mile run at 7 flat, not too fast for three miles, but faster than usual, especially where I was sore from yesterday's run. I worked pretty hard on the machines after the run, so I'd better have noticeably larger biceps tomorrow.

Note: my biceps were not noticeably larger this morning. I woke up at 4:00 this morning. I left the house at my favorite time (20 minutes after I woke up), and didn't get home until 7:15. I went to the prison in draper. I sat on a bus all day, and ate way too much lunch, which was way too close to practice. Also I went mountain biking after practice yesterday, so possibly not the smartest move. I went straight from the bus to the track when we got back into town, and the workout commenced shortly. 1x1600-5:05. Disapointing. 4x800. We paced these, so it's not a bad thing that I ran 2:40 on all of them. That was the target. Then I went to work for half an hour. Then I went home to do homework. Today just sucked.

Recovery day. 2 miles with the girls because Clayton bailed on me today. Did some good core after. 

I really wish I were better at speed. 6x400, then 4x200. The 400's were supposed to be at about mile pace, and I did decent, splits were 73, 72, 68, 69, 72, 73. Not super consistent, but all in the range of what my mile pace should be. The 200's were where I failed. We were supposed to accelerate slowly through the whole thing, hitting top speed right at the end, but there was a 180 degree turn a little more than halfway through the course we were using that drained all speed. My legs were pretty dead from the fours, so I never really reached top speed. Clayton seemed to enjoy himself tho.

Last official practice of 2016. Really easy day. 2x90,60,30. I think we covered close to 2 miles, but I didn't have GPS running. Got the legs moving, felt really great. State is wednesday, and we'll do a short shakeout run at the hotel tomorrow. The season is over. Time to catch up on my "life."

The last meet of the season. Honestly I'm kinda glad it's over. I have lots of homework to catch up on, and now I finally have time to do so. State was decent. I feel like my pace was pretty consistent, but I didn't get any mile splits, so who knows. The course was different than I remembered, so I didn't race it quite right. There were a few hills I forgot about, and having to run extra hills beat me mentally. In the end, I came out 67th, which is exactly the same place I took last year, but I did it 17 seconds faster. Still of PR's for this season, but at least I know that I ran this course faster than I did last year, which means I did improve at least a little. Next year WILL be better

First day back, training for footlocker now, so that will be fun. Mile w/u, then 40 min distance run. We hit 5 miles at 7:40 average. We did the last two significantly faster, high 6 pace. Good run for first day back

Easy day. Ran the neighbourhood at 6:30 average, then did a round in the circuit room. Felt pretty good, but I need to work on my back and my abs. Other than that, good day. 

INJURY WARNING: Intense pain in left knee at beginning of run. Went away after a mile or so, but I'll have to watch that carefully. Other than that, this was a great day. Mile W/U, five mile run. The average pace was 6:53, but most of them were faster. Ran with Talon, who has pacing issues. He doesn't seem to have a training mode, and every time I run with him, it starts to feel like a race. We did 2 miles at a quick sub-6, then we both decided it was ridiculous, slowing to 7:20 for the 3rd. After that we said, "screw it, I wanna go fast." The rest were about 6:40. Don't know how Kenny does 6:00 for 13, so S/O to him. Good workout, nice to be getting distance again after so much speed at the end of the season.

knee felt fine today, don't know what was up with that. Today was a burnout. We did intervals on the track, with much less rest time than usual, and without pacing, we did them all at full speed, which made it much more difficult. We did 2x400m, 2x200m, 2x100m and 1x800m w/stadiums. Splits were 66.6 (yes, that was the real time), 68 for the 400's, 28, 30 for the 200's and 14, 13 for the 100's. PR'd in the 1 and 2 hundred. I will be very sore tomorrow, but great workout.

I was going to do a distance run, but the weather was disagreeable. I forgot how cold it is at 7:00 am right now. My plan was to do 8-10 miles, but the freezing air in my lungs disagreed. I decided I wouldn't make it very far, and cut the last 2-4 miles of my planned route off. I couldn't hold a steady pace today. The average was 6:45, but the fastest was 6:20, and the slowest was 7:02, and the others were all over in between, and there were no hills, up or down, so no consistency. Not bad for my first run in real cold, but could've been better.

30 minute "LSD." We held between 8-9 minute miles for most of it,but there was this one 800 somewhere in the middle where we went sub-5 for no reason at all. Talon can be difficult to run with. 

PM-got really stressed. Went for 2 easy miles at 9:00 pm to clear my head. felt good. Few extra miles are always helpful.

Pretty sore today. Was not feeling good. We ran the neighborhood at about 8:00 pace. Sped up A LOT at the end, per usual. Core afterwards.

ran in the school, so I'm not sure how far it actually was. We would run really fast down a few halls, stop in the commons, do some core, and then take off on a different route. I think the average pace was probably close to 5:00, we were going pretty fast. For core we did 35 push-ups, 25 sit ups, 50 squats, holding every fifth one for 5 seconds, 45 second plank, 30 second side planks, and 30 tricep dips. We did not do burpees. Burpees suck.

1x1200m, (4:15) then 10x190m (30ish splits) the 200's had two short, steep hills, and one tight u-turn around a tree, so they caused some pain. My thighs were already pretty dead, I took the stairs in the school a bit too hard yesterday. The sharp turns made my ankles hurt. The hills really burnt. It was cold and I had a hard time breathing. It was a great workout! 

First thing's first: it was 25 degrees this morning. The sun was out, so it wasn't as bad as it was last year (last year sucked), but it was still pretty frigid. I came to win. Then my life flashed before my eyes. I hadn't expected Kenny to show up. But he did. This meant I would actually have to compete. Oh well. Splits were 5:47, 5:45, and 5:53. I hate the Aggie course. There are too many U-turns. I went out hard, and stayed in front basically the whole time. Time wasn't quite what I would have liked, but it was cold. Not a bad start to Thanksgiving day.

First workout in the indoor, which I refuse to refer to as the "UTC." Simple workout, two laps, followed by alternating core and sleds. Pace felt close to 4:50 while I was running, and those sleds burn a lot. Solid workout, I'll probably be sore for a while. 

Mile w/u, then 6x400m repeats. Splits were 67, 69, 71, 79, 73, 74. Got some good burning in my legs, so that's always fun

FOOTLOCKER!!! Left at 7 this morning, got to St. George around 4 or 5, and did a run there. It was supposed to be a whole team kind of run, so the pace was pretty easy, close to 8:45. Sleep in Vegas tonight, California tomorrow!

We did the park run we always do on thursdays at footlocker. I really love it. It's a good one. Lots of fun fences to jump over n stuff. From the park, we ran up to the course (which is actually way close to the park) and I ran one lap around the first loop and did half of the switchbacks before going back felt good. It was late, and I love night running. I went pretty fast

ran the Mt. SAC course, with only one lap around the dirt loop that makes up the first 800, which is done twice in the actual race. I'm actually excited, the course was somehow really fun, and I can't wait to run it, in spite of the hills.

 I actually enjoyed this race, and ran it competitively for the first time ever. The hills hurt really bad, I seriously need to work on hills a lot next season, but I felt really strong when I wasn't on one of the hills. Talon set a quick pace at the beginning, and we ran the first mile with the front pack. This pack spread out over the course of the race, but I stayed with it the whole time, which I'm quite proud of.  Pretty sure my first mile was sub-5, but that's going off of that I was a few seconds ahead of talon, whose watch said 5:04, because there wasn't a timer at the mile markers this year. There was only one timer, and that was at about 1.5 miles for some reason, which makes no sense. There weren't even any other coaches calling out splits. This kind of upset me. This was my last XC race of junior year, and it sucks that it ended with me 4 places away from a medal. Four places. I'll get that shiny next year, so help me. It was really a great race though, pardon the bipolar entry. My back was really sore right at the shoulder blades, which is really weird for me, that never happens. I'll probably take a few weeks off now, so sorry to all my devout followers who will have no exposure to quality literature until the new year, in the absence of my blog entries.

USU track camp sprint clinic. Lots of sprint drills, very little actual running though. Learned to use blocks and improve my start so those things could be useful someday.

distance clinic today. During the sprint clinic last night, I never really got tired, but apparently we actually did some good work. My hip flexors, hamstrings, and quads were all quite sore this morning. Did dynamics and an 8 mile run. The first mile or two was terrible because this was my first real run at altitude since footlocker, so I wasn't quite acclimated at first, and I was way sore. Once we got in a little way though, my lungs caught up and my legs loosened out a bit, so I finished it pretty strong. Did intense core stuff afterwards, lots of ab, quad, and hip flexor stuff. Made me very sore, tomorrow is going to be painful

fell down my stairs and sprained my ankle

It was cold. 12 degrees, it kind of sucked. Considering the conditions, I'm pretty happy about today's run. warmed up with Talon, Rylie, and Reagan at the indoor, then diecided I needed a longer run than I'm capable of doing in there. I stepped outside, and immediately regretted it, but too late, the door locked behind me. First run with new watch (forerunner 235) which was really nice. lots of useful information that wasn't available with the old 10. Pace was good, fastest was 6:17, slowest was 6:35, so pretty quick for the weather and having only ran twice since footlocker. BYU indoor in a couple of weeks, and if I can go, hoping for either a low 4:50's mile or a 10:30-40 3200. not sure which I'll do, but I refuse to do both

Met up with Eugene for a longer recovery run. We did 6.5, with the average pace at 7:30. It's been a while. Had some good conversations, talked about Ragnars, college, and the sweet, sweet release of death. The run felt great, the weather was similar to yesterday, but the sun was out, which made all the difference. It was nice to just do a chill, conversation pace type run. I have a surprise for anyone reading this who was on our ragnar team last year...