Speed only kills if you don't have it!

Logan met at my house and we traveled over to Logan to run with Jon's club.  Paul and Dan were there.  We drove up Blacksmith Fork a ways, parked, and ran the last 3 miles up.  On the way back we stayed together for a few miles then split up to do some marathon pace miles.  Logan and Paul took off, Jon and I ran together and Dan and Russ Bennett ran together, so it worked out perfectly.  This run was like a progression run, we started at a 7:50 mile and ened with a 5:50 mile, and after we started going down the canyon (the last 17 miles)  we were under 7 minute pace.  Jon and I got down around 6:30 pace by 10 miles and and started into marathon pace.  We hit 6:00-6:10 for 5 miles, and then dropped under 6:00 pace for the last 5 miles.  I was telling Jon how I was running faster today than I was in my race last week, kind of funny.  We got done and had some bagels and juice, drove Paul and Dan back up to their cars, and delivered some peaches before heading home.  It was a very good run, and fun to visit with the guys.  Thanks to Jon for a great workout.  We averaged 6:30 pace for the whole run.

(Omni- 129 miles)

My wife was out shopping until late, so I didn't get to run as far as I wanted to because it was getting dark.  I went on the canal trail south for 3.5 miles and came back the same way.  I started out with an 8:30 mile and worked into a 6:30 last mile.  Good run, I felt good and ran well on some tough rolling trails.  It was dark by the time I got home.  51:16

(Hurricane-510 miles)

I didn't get to go far because of the thunder storm tonight plus I had my Cross Country openning social to got to.  I got stuck in the storm with lightning crashing all around.  It would have been a great run if the hair on my body didn't stand up every time lightning hit close by.  I was going out at a good pace but picked it up to 6 minute pace on the way home so I didn't die out there.  6 minute pace on that trail with those hills was killer, I felt good though.   It was my first day of student teaching today and I just got the Varsity Boys Cross County Coaching position at Bear River High.  I am not the head coach, (he has our struggling girls), but I have the big boys, and the other assistant coach  has our JV boys.  I am excited to run with my guys, I finally met them all today.  Chris Brower is our best kid, who I will be working with the most.  He beat me and Jon in a 10K a month ago by a few seconds and ran sub 16 minutes at the Judges Invitational last week.  I have a lot of kids with potential and I am excited to run with them and help them along.

Easy warm-up and cool-down with my guys before and after the CacheBox Invitational meet.  Pretty exciting meet for us.  Chris and I had strategized before the meet as to how he might have a chance to win.  Mountain Crest was favored to win and so were their top four guys.  But Chris played it right, made a move when I told him to, and held on for the win.  Mountain Crest's top four guys were right behind him 2,3,4,5.  No one thought Chris would win, but I have raced against all of those kids this year and had a good idea of how they would race and knew he had a good chance.  The rest of our team held their own, and we ended up 2nd place ahead of  Sky View, Logan, and Box Elder.  It was a fun meet to watch, with alot of people there.  Way to run boys!

Easy 6 miler out through Garland to the cemetary and back during lunch.  Talk about a flat run!  There are zero hills in this part of Box Elder County, something that I am not used to.

Afternoon-  Long run with my boys.  We went on an 8 mile run out to Dewyville and back. We stopped at the Artic circle for some water on the way out and back.  We actually had a couple big hills coming up and out of some gullies.  My guys are not used to hills so that will be something we will work on. My best kid started having troubles with a couple miles to go, so I finished out the run with the rest of the guys and went back for him.  I quickly diagnosed his problem as dehydration.  I got him some poweraid had him sip it and had another guy take him home.  I later called his parents to see how he was doing.  I took all of my guys and we had a little talk about post race and run recovery and hydration.  Oh the joys of coaching!   Good run today with my guys, I was impressed with them, they are good kids and have a lot of running potential.  We started at 7:30 pace and progressed in to 6:20 by the end of the run. 9 miles  6:57 average for the run.

Ran this afternoon with some of my Varsity guys.  We did 5 miles at about 7 minute pace out to the south under pass and back, and through in 5x100 meter strides in the last couple of miles.  I am sending most of my guys over to the Peach Days 10K in Brigham City tomorrow, and I am going down to do the Spanish Fork 1/2.  I plan on doing this 1/2 as a workout and not going out too hard, probably 1:18 pace.  The course is rolling, slower, and sometimes has a good headwind, so it will be pretty honest in telling me how I am doing and what I need to do in the next couple of weeks to get ready for St. George.

(Omni- 134 miles)

I was pretty hammered from my first week of student teaching, plus I got to bed later than I wanted but I stayed with my little sister in Spanish Fork, so I got to sleep in longer.  I ran into Chris  Rgoers before the race and we warmed up for 2 miles on the course.  We met up with chad and decided to go out together and see how we all felt.  Chris was planning on a little faster run than Chad and I were, so I figured he would make a move for the win at some point.  I wanted to run somewhere around a 1:18 time and not trash myself so that I can pull off some good runs next week, so this was a training run more than a race for me.  Here is the breakdown from the Garmin.  I did wear it because I was treating it as a training run or i probably would have worn my watch.

1.  5:56- Some kid was trying to hang with us.

2.  6:02- Still running with Chad and Chris, and had dropped the other guy.

3.  6:04- Still with Chad and Chris, bit of a headwind too.

4.  5:59- I got some water behind Chad and Chris kept going.  Chad made a surge to get  back up with Chris and I stayed back about 15 seconds.

5.  5:55- Chad falls off of Chris a bit and Chris seems to pick it up.

6.  6:20- Climbing into Woodland Hills we hit some bigger hills, Chris still pulling away from us.

7.  6:19- Some more hills Chris has a big gap now.

8.  5:49- Finally a little downhill as we loop back on to the course we came out on.

9.  5:55- Feeling pretty good, but staying about even with Chad.

10. 5:55- Trying to decide if I want to push and work on catching back up to Chad, Chris no longer in view.

11. 5:58-  Okay, this is getting a little boring but I don't want to go faster unless I have to.

12. 5:57- 5Kers getting in the way, now I want to be done, and i am staying even with Chad.

13. 5:50- Nice last mile, but i am getting tied and want to be done.

13.1. :26  Get me passed all these 5Kers who are trying to out kick me to the finish. 

1:18:31 was my total time.  Chris and Chad were waiting for me to finish so we could cool down.  Chad turned around and ran back with his wife, and later came and found us.  Chris and i ran the 5K course for a cool down.  I was happy with my workout/race today and ran about how I planned.  I like the course although it isn't really fast, but it is good training and very honest.  Those guys in Spanish always put on a good race too.  I ran that race a few years back in 1:21 and pushed it a lot harder than I did today.  I ran a 2:41:44 at St. George a month later, so this gives me a good idea of where I am right now.

(Tangent 2-18 miles)

Easy 5 miles out in Garland during lunch.  There was quite the headwind going North.  Started at 7:40 pace and eased into a 6:50 pace.  Felt good, no soreness from Saturday, but I have had a sore throat for the last 24 hours.  I will do a workout this afternoon with my guys.  36:15

Cross Country Practice- Did a workout with my guys.  I made an 800 meter course on grass and we did 6x800 meters with 2 minutes recoveries.  I took turns running with each guy and would work my way up to the front eventually.  Running on the lawn is a  lot tougher than the track and my guys hadn't done it yet this season.  I was pleased with their workouts nad with my own.  All of the 800s were between 2:30 to 2:35 for me, but my last one we started racing a bit in the last 200 meters and it ended up being 2:27.  Ended up with 7 miles this afternoon.  This was a much better start to my week than the last two Mondays have been.

(Adrenaline-329 miles)

I ended up getting a little sicker than I had hoped.  I tried to get to bed eary last night but I didn't sleep well anyways.  I also got fairly sore in my hip flexors from my workout on the grass yesterday.  I played some flag fooball with my 3rd hour PE class again today and then went out for an easy 5 miler during lunch.  I ran down into downtown Tremonton, (if you can call it a downtown), ran down main street to the end of town and back to the school.  I am trying to make myself familiar with my this area on these lunch-time runs.  I started off at 8:00 pace and worked into 7:00 pace without really knowing it.  I felt a lot better once I loosed up and got some of the crap out of my body.  37:07 (7:25 ave).

Cross Country practice- I took all of my varsity boys and the three top JV runners on an easy run.  We warmed up for a mile and then found a road that goes down into and up out of a big gully.  I had my guys do race pace stiders down and up the hill and we worked on our form.  We did it 4 times with about a 60 meter cool down in between, each rep was about 1/4 mile.  My guys really struggle on hills (up and down), because they are from flat old Tremonton, so I will be doing a lot of work on that over the season.  Cooled down for a mile or so, total of 4 miles.

(Omni- 142 miles)

AM- I met my #1 (Chris) and #3 guy (Kevin) at the school at 6:00 am.  We ran out west by and up the hill by the water tank.  I was sore from the last couple of days, and I am still sick, so I didn't feel that great.  We ended up with a good run though.  6 miles, with a coule miles around 6 minute pace.

Lunch time- I went out for an easy 5 miles.  I ran out south by a new stake center and came back.  I started at 9 minute pace and eased into 7:00 pace.  7:40 ave.  We have a meet with Ogden today and I am going to sit my #1, #3, and #5 guys out and save them for our meet on Saturday. I want my #2, #4, and #6 guys to step it up and learn how to race without pacing off their teamate in front of them.  I guess I will see how it goes, and those who race today will sit out next Wednesday.

Two more miles at the meet this afternoon, warming up with my guys.  Ogden handed it to us preetty good today, but we didn't run 5 of our best guys, so they will get a little surprise once we chill with the two-a-days and run everyone.  My guys ran well though and all but one improved from last meet.  Took the team for pizza after the meet at Ogden.

(Adrenaline-340 miles)

I ran with our top ten guys at practice today.  We went out for an easy 5 miles and did 4x100 meter barefoot strides on the grass at a park.  I am feeling better today, but am still pretty sick. 

(Hurricane-516 miles)

After I got home, Logan came over and we went out on the canal trail to the south and back.  I coughed up and spit out about a gallon of junk in those two runs.  Logan and I ran about 7 minute ave. pace on the trail with an 8:30 first mile.  Tomorrow will be an easy day and hopefully I will feel good enough to get a good long run in on Saturday.   6 miles in 42:33

(Hardrock- 112 miles)

Met Blake (my #2 guy) for an early morning run.  We did 4 miles in the dark, starting with a 7:40 mile and ending with a 6:10.  Good run, and then I ran another mile on my own.  Blake is taking off to go Elk hunting, so I had him run this morning since he will miss the meet tomorrow.  I am still pretty sick, but we get out of school early and don't have practice today, so maybe I can get a nap before we head to Logan tonight.

(Adrenaline-345 miles)

All I can say is I am still very very sick!  I think I have had everything possible this week, sore throat, stuffy nose, head ache, fever, cough, diarrhea, runny nose, vomiting, etc.  I have really struggled through every run this week, and seem to get more sick everyday.

Diarrhea has been my most recent plague.  I went to the bathroom five times in between when I woke up and left Dan's house to run.  I know that I was super dehydrated, and I felt like death, but I wanted the miles.

Dan and I left his house and ran up TOU course.  Dan wasn't feeling good himself, so the run turned into a marathon viewing run instead of a marathon pacing run.  We had every wise guy on the course telling us that we were going the wrong way, No really!!!   We went up to about mile 12 before turning around.  The wind was crazy!  I bet it was one heck of a tailwind, because it was standing us in place.  We went from a 7:10 pace to a 9:00 pace fighting that wind!   Hobbie came through the half way mark way out in front, and we stopped to cheer him on.  He was flat flying, and looked like perfection out there! Plus, he had a big grin on his face.  The two Kenyans were a good 3 minutes behind, and Sasha was a couple minutes back from them.  It was quite a while before we ran into the Jon Allen pace group, and then Cody, Kory, and Bill were an other couple minutes back.  We cheered everyone on and turned around.  We headed back into Millville averaging 6:25- 6:40 pace.  The runners around us didn't know what to think of us running a training run with them.   We stopped at every water stop on the way up and way back to drink, and instruct them on how to hold the cups.

When we hit by Dan's house we wanted to make it back to the park to see our friend finish, so took every short cut to get there.  All of the volunteers and some of the runners would freak out that we were going the wrong way.  Even Bill Cobler got a little nervous when we cut through a park in front of him around mile 24!  We got back after Sasha had come in and had to sneak in the finish area to talk to him and the two from Kenya, that is when we found out that Hobbie had pulled a 2:16.  We had to wait for a while to see Steve come in, he was all alone.  Then a couple minutes later Jon, with Paul, and Logan came in.  I started coughing up a lung from yelling so hard for Jon.  It was cool that Paul and Logan stuck with him, and it was fun to see them all come in together. I was excited to see him break 2:40.  Bill, Cody and Kory eventually came in too, with Cody and Kory both PRing big.  Seeing everyone come in so good today made me wish that I wasn't so sick and that I would have run today and went for my sub 2:35, but as it was I wouldn't have been able to finish today.

We cooled down with the guys and went and jumped in for a massage, even though we didn't run.  Logan took us back to Dan's afterwards.  I slept for most of the day and missed out on going down to the State fair with my wife.  I am still really bad off, and can't keep anything in my body. I am a little concerned because I never get sick for more than a day, (except for when i got Pneumonia),and this has been with me for a week now and seems to be getting worse.  I know if I can get healthy I can do some good things in 3 weeks, but if I can't it might be another running season down the drain!

(Omni- 160 miles)

No run, stayed home from school, and still sick as a dog!

No run again today.  Stayed home from school, and cross country practice.

Went to school today. I am still too weak to run. We did take our cross country team out to Grantsville for a meet. My guys ran very well. I hope I can recover soon and get out the door before I lose too much fitness.

I finally got out for a run today during lunch.  It wasn't anything very fast, but it was some miles non the less.  I did a big loop around flat Garland and Tremonton.  The weather was nice, but I didn't feel very good.  I spent half of the run coughing and hacking, and I am still very weak.   I didn't mention before, but I weighed myself Monday and I had dropped 13 pounds since September10th.  I weighed 150lbs.  I haven't been that little since I was a junior in high school.  I have never called in sick for anything either, so my wife thought I was going to die or something!  I have gained 3 lbs back since Monday, but I still weigh 10-12 pounds less than the low weight I have maintained all summer.

(Hurricane-516 miles)

I had parent teacher conference all day, and that was a pain!  I went out for a couple of miles on the canal trail this evening, felt like crap and coughed a lot. I didn't feel like running but forced myself out the door anyways, and had a worse experience than what I was afraid of having.   I am bummed that I can't shake this illness yet.  29:59

(Hardrock- 116 miles)

I had a hard time talking myself into my run today, because I still feel kind of crappy and weak, and I would be all alone. I started in Brigham City and ran up Sardine Canyon on the highway. The shoulder was big enough that I didn't have too much trouble with traffic. I'll tell you, that is one heck of a climb for that 8 miles to the summit when you are running into a headwind! About a half mile before I hit the summit (Box Elder and Cache County lines) the wind switched, not what I was looking forward to.  I was pretty hammered when I turned around, but sucked a GU down and knew that most of the next 8 miles was pretty good downhill. I averaged about 8:45 per mile going up.  On the way down I wanted to hit some marathon pace miles and I did.  I had 6 miles between 5:40 and 5:50 and a couple others around 6:00 minute pace. By the time I got down to Brigham I was at 16 miles and had about had it, but I struggled home anyways for the last 4 miles. Once again I was going uphill into the wind, but managed a 7:15 average home. I averaged 7:29 pace for the whole run, that is what happens when you run 9:00s up and 6:00s down. I was so glad to be done! That was by far my toughest run of the year, for how I felt. 2:29:45 for the run, and a headwind for about 19+ miles.

After I finally recovered enough to eat and shower, I got a sweet 2 hour + nap that really helped me out. I probably over did it today, but I felt I needed that run, for my confidence if nothing else.

(Omni- 180 miles)

Workout with my team this afternoon. We did a really easy warm-up and 1.5 mile run. Then we did two miles of Indian running, and finished with a hard mile on the track. Our last Indian run mile was 5:40 so I will count that as a marathon pace mile. The mile on the track was 5:01. I told my guys that I would pace them at a 5 minute mile pace and I wanted them to stay with me as long as possible. Chris stayed with me and wanted to push around 1000 meters so I told him to go ahead, the others hung in there pretty good. Chris ran a 4:54, I was 5:01, and my next three guys were between 5:11 and 5:14. The others were about 10- 15 seconds back. Everyone was hurting except me and Chris, we could have done at least one more at that pace, or so it felt. I was proud of my guys, I have been working them hard and they are tired, but it will pay off. We cooled down for a mile afterwards and I had to drive over to Logan for a class, so my run was short and sweet today. I still have a nice little cough and some congestion in my sinus area, but I am slowly starting to get some strength back.  It felt weird to run that fast since I haven't done it in a while, but it also felt good.

(Hurricane-521 miles)

I ran around Garland today during lunch.  I started off slow, but settled into a good pace and ended up moving pretty good.  It turned out to be a progression run, since I got faster every mile.  I wasn't pushing it, that is just how it turned out.  My last mile was 5:50 pace.  I felt good, and my coughing was minimal, even after I yelled at 9th graders for a whole hour before.  I am still recovering, but I am feeling better everyday. 

(Adrenaline-352 miles)

Lunch-  went down to the golf course in Tremonton and ran the course that we set up for our invitational meet on Friday.  Should be a fast and fun race, and it is a tag team thing with boy and girls partners.  I ran back to the school afterwards.  I will do a workout with my varsity boys this afternoon before our home meet with Morgan.  We are only running the JV boys and varsity girls today, so that it will be a good competition for the other school.  4.5 miles at 7:25 pace.

Practice- I took the varsity guys on a hill workout this afternoon.  We ran out west of town by the water tower on the hill and did a 400 meter intervals up, rested 30 seconds and did 400 meters down.  We did 5 up and 5 down.  The 400s up were at about 80-85 seconds, and the ones down were around 65 seconds.  My guys were trashed at the end, and I was done myself, but it was a good workout.  We went from there over to watch our home meet against Morgan.  We cooled down during the girls race and cheered them on.  Then we ended with 4x100 meter strides barefoot on the grass.  The meet was at a sod farm out in Thatcher, a little town west of Tremonton.  Our JV boys did pretty good against Morgan's varsity boys, and our girls ran their best race yet.  6.5 miles total running.

(Hurricane-532 miles)

We have a home invitational tomorrow, so I was out marking the course during lunch because both of the other coaches were gone today.  I didn't run at practice either because all I had the kids do was play Ultimate for 35 minutes.  I did get out the door for an easy 6 miles when I got home though.  It was all on the canal trail heading towards Brigham City.  I ran all of my miles around 7:25 pace until the last one, where I picked it up to 6:30 pace.  It was a beautiful afternoon, and I had a nice run.  I still have a lot of junk in my lungs, but my strength is finally coming back slowly.

(Hardrock- 122 miles)

Nothing big or exciting today, just a couple miles during lunch and a couple mile after.  We put on our home invitational today, and four other schools came (Box Elder, Emery, Clearfield, and Roy).  Before the race we had a mile race for 6-8 grade kids in the school district, we call it the Golden Spike mile.  It is similar to the Wellsville Mile, for all of my Cache Valley buddies.  I ran the course out a couple of times during lunch to get it as close to a mile as possible. 

The meet went really well, and our kids ran good.  I did get a couple more miles in but nothing serious.  I mostly got stuck starting races, doing results, and getting awards together.  Our JV girls and boys stepped it up and actually won their meets for the first time this year.  Our varsity boys kicked some trash, we took the 1,2, 7,9,10 spots.  But we ran the varsity boys with the girls as a tag team relay, and our girls didn't do as hot.  Box Elder ended up with the fastest five teams, and we were second.  It was fun though, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  I was glad it went well since I did a lot of the race organization. 

I am glad for the weekend.  Tomorrow I will try to get 12-13 miles in with some tempo.  I am kind of scared to run St. George in one week after I have had pneumonia.  I feel tons better, but I still have have junk and some infection in my lungs.   It makes it so I cough if I run hard, and I get short of breath.  I am getting stronger though, and hope it clears out by next week.

(Adrenaline-355 miles)

I wanted to get some good down hill and about 12 miles so I had Allison drop me off at the top of Sardine and I ran home.  I got a later start than I wanted, but was glad it wasn't any later because of the nasty weather.  I left my Garmin at the school, so I did my run normal (with a watch), and was glad I did.  I wanted to hit some faster miles and knew I would on the downhill portions.  Six of the those 12 miles are really good downhill!  It was cold at the top and the wind was a head wind most of the run, I should taken gloves.  When I got down to Mantua it started to snow, and with a strong headwind I was getting pelted in the face pretty hard and had a hard time seeing.  I thought I was going to have another pre-Ogden run like I had with Cody and Paul (see May 5, 2007 entry).  Luckly, the snow only lasted about two miles and it cleared up as I came into Brigham City.  I came out of the canyon onto HWY 89 averaging under 6 minute pace, with a headwind, and two uphill miles.  That was a lot faster than what i thought I was going.  The last 4 miles to home I settled into a comfortable pace.  With a mile to go the wind switched and I got a nice tail wind for the first time in 11 miles.  The wind pushed me home right infront of the storm.  I averaged 6:30 pace (with slight uphill the whole way) for the last 4 miles, and ended up with a 6:09 average pace for the whole run.  I was moving a lot faster than it felt, so that was good.  I was super happy with that run, it was the best one I have had in the last 8 weeks.  I need some confidence boosters right now.  I know I am in great shape, other than my recovering lung tissue, but I am weak mentally.  I think I can run good next week, and I am hoping for a breakthrough run, but you never know!  I am as ready as I will be and now, I just need to work on my race mentallity.  1:13:49

(Omni- 192 miles)