Speed only kills if you don't have it!

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)