Speed only kills if you don't have it!

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)