GOING THE DISTANCE

12pm - Today we had an early out so we had practice right after at 12.  It was nice and cool and sunny, perfect weather.  There were bands that were practicing on our field so they gave us some nice background music.  We did a harts warmup then got going on the workout.  It was hard 1000's.  I stay right up front a bit back from byron and abel.  My times were 3:14, 3:17, 3:15, 3:13, and 3:05.  Andrew was legit and he is really stepping it up.  He was only about 4 seconds behind me on each one.  My tendonitis was hurting but not quite bad enough to stop.  

4pm -  I took my dog and ran into the desert.  I ran on trails at first but then just run through the bushes up to this hill.  It was a good view from the top.  After I got to run down the hill which was a mile long.  I was going really fast and was dodging bushes and stuff.  It was fun, but it hurt a lot.  Thats why I wasn't able to get in a tempo.  I really amped up my mileage this week and my body has responded with pain but I think its feeling good now.

6am -  3 miles to arctic circle and back.

3pm -  Mile repeats was our workout today.  We started with a 1.5 mile warm up and then did 4 repeats.  I got 5:34, 5:32, 5:40, and 5:39.  These are really hard on our loop especially with going up the hill twice.  My last one was really hard to run that fast cuz everyone else was done.  I had to relieve my body before so I missed the first one.  After that a 1.5 cool down.  I have been sore in my legs and stuff cuz of all my tendonitis but i've been rolling a lot more and its been helping.

3pm -  1 loop around Shnobkibe.  It was full of pain and suffering for me.  Then tendonitis in my ankle/lower leg hurt with misery and agony.  I totally had a mental breakdown from running and had to take a 5 minute break under the bridge.  I am so sick of this pain the last 2 weeks.  and the last 2 weeks i have taken care of myself the most so it makes me even madder.  I felt like running truly sucked today.  

6am -  3 miles to Arctic Circle and back.

3pm -  Today we did a cool 400 meter repeats workout.  The whole team had the same goal pace and it was just based on how many you could do.  The starting time was 1:20.  Then it went down 1 second for each time.  If you didn't get the time then you had one more chance to get the next time.  And if you didn't get it you were done.  After we got down to 1:15 there was only like 8 of us left.  Then at 1:10 it was just Me, Paul, and Abel.  Me and Paul both ended on 1:08 so we did 13.  I didn't make it on 1:11 but came back and got 1:10.  

3pm -  5 miles easy.  Mall loop.  Pretty fun and quick but my leg hurt a bit but its feeling better.  I ran a mile barefoot while everyone did striders.

6am -  3 miles to Arctic Circle and back.  My leg felt pretty good.  Me and Paul got donuts for being awesome.  I had 5 they were great.

7pm -  We got to American Fork for the race at AFHS.  We all ran 3 miles and I felt great, I'm feeling better everyday.

9am -  Today was a very fun and positive race for me.  We got to AF high school at like 7:30 and we ran around till about 8:15.  All us boys ran down to the busy part of town to warmup and to go to the bathroom.  I would say we overall warmed up about 4 miles.  I hadn't really even realized that I was actually racing till I woke up that morning.  We got lined up after the girls race and the AF coach started the race.  I got a good start and moved up the whole first mile trying to push the pace and pass people.  I was with Abel and Colton about the whole race.  I just was pretty positive the whole time.  I just stayed with Abel and didn't let him get away.  I just try not to let up on my effort.  The second mile my belly was hurting but I kept going with Abel and Colton.  I think I do a lot better in races like this where theres no pressure.  When people get talking to me and telling me to race hard and do my best I just get more nervous.  Anyways the last mile was hard and Colton started to fall back from me and Abel.  We got more speed with a half mile left and the last 400 I was just trying to beat Abel but he had too much speed and he beat me.   He really helped push me this race even though he didn't really do anything.  After we cooled down a mile around the course.  I got about a mile later coming home exploring the great back country of Utah with Paul, Krenny, Jake, and Trevor.

6am -  3 miles easy arctic circle.

3pm -  7 miles total.  the workout was mile repeats.  We dropped down to 3 this week.  I didn't feel good on the 1.5 mile warmup but I didn't think anything of it.  On the first mile I got 5:24 which was good but my second half was much slower.  My next two my legs felt so bad it was hard to run but at least I pushed through and finished the workout.  Mondays are always rough.

6am -  3 miles to Arctic circle and back.

3pm -  5 miles out to the old part of washington.  It was a pretty good run, about 7:30 minute per mile pace.  After we did striders and everyone forgot what they were actually for, working on form.  So coach gave us a little lecture about knee drive and stuff.  I got new shoes some lunarglides.

6am -  Easy three miles. AC route.

3pm -  4 easy and 4 200's to prepare for the time trial tommorwo.  We ran the Dog pound loop.  I ran in my new shoes they were nice.

4pm -  Today was Pine View All Comers 2 mile race.  Its basically our teams final time trial of the year but we invite people to come race.  Desert hells came so that made it more fun and competitive.  I warmed up with our guys 2 miles then we raced.  I tried to stay up with the lead pack but fell of after the first lap and Dallin and Jon from Desert Hells passed me.  I used them the rest of the race, I tried to stay with them.  I did good and when I started my sprint I almost passed Jon but he heard me and kicked it.  It was a fun race and a PR for this course.  

6am -  I had a campout later today so I did my workout alone in the morning.  It was 5*400m.  They were on the track and it was pitch black so it was a bit sketchy.  I didn't have anyone there to run with or anything but I still did good.  Got times of 1:07, 1:06, 1:05, 1:05, 1:04.  It was pretty tough.  Also did 1.5mile warmup and cool down.

5:30pm -  Went out for a nice easy run.  I had a route in mind when I started but I didn't know how long it was.  I started at my house and went up and around the churches then down green springs drive and under the freeway.  Then I ran down telegraph until the street that goes past the rec center, I turned left up that road.  I went around the rec center and around the church up there.  About this time I guessed my loop was gonna be about 6 miles.  I kept going and crossed under the freeway then passed the fire station.  Then pretty much straight to my house from there.  I felt so great, my average pace was 7:16 and it felt super easy.  I am really liking my lunarglides, they are so light and cushiony yet I put my superfeet in and get the support I need.

6am -  Easy 3 miler, Arctic Circle route.

11:30 am  -  We had an early so that was legit.  Me, Jake, Paul and Luis ate lunch so we knew we were gonna be late but we should have only been 9 minutes late cuz we got out at 11:39 and the team was gone.  So we chose to do 4 mile sandburgs cuz we thought the run for the day was supposed to be 4 miles.  Luis ran with a so it was a bit slow pace, around 8:30 minute mile, but it was relaxed and really fun.  We jumped in the pond and it was muy frio.  Dallin and Brad showed up right before we left.  We asked them how far we were supposed to go and it was only 3 miles and we were already at 3.3 so we walked to the road.  Then we ran the rest of the way.  After that I did 5 hill sprints.

3pm -  Today was our teams winter 1600m time trial.  I didn't have much goals coming in to today but I guess I wanted to at least pr by a second.  On the warm up my legs felt tired and I started to say to myself, "oh great, I'm gonna do crappy."  But then I totally changed my attitude and told myself I felt good and practiced my knee drive.  We got back at the high school and put our spikes on and did final warm ups.  I did my normal routine of jogging back and forth across the field.  I keeps me from getting nervous.  

The girls ran and then we started.  The first lap was good and mostly everyone was still in a pack.  The time was 1:08.  I pushed a bit and felt good and the next lap we came through at around 2:20.  The third lap hurt but I was able to stay strong mentally.  Going into the last lap I think it was around 3:31 so I knew I could get under 4:40 but I would have to demolish this lap cause I was beat.  The last 200 me and matt kinda moved up together and passed kyler and we sprinted in basically right next to each other and tied.  My time was 4:42.  Didn't get my mid-race goal but I got a nice PR that I didn't expect to get so I'm pretty pumped.  My bro did was legit getting 5:20 and PRing by 20 seconds.  Ashby better watch out.

3pm -  We did 4 mile sandburgs and did striders after.

7pm -  Ran an easy three miler in Kingman on the way to nike regionals.  Good.  Swell.

7am-  Ran 3 miles down route 66 in kingman.  

8am-  Ran 1 mile getting breakfast at mcdonalds.

4pm-  Ran 3 miles on the Nike Southwest Regional course.  It was pretty wet and a really pretty course since it is on a golf course.  It was rainy and a nice temperature.  Looks like it will be way fun.

9am -  Our team got to the golf course at like 7:30 and unlike yesterday, the wind was blowing super hard.  Which made it really cold.  The 2 days I'd been in Arizona it was cold and rainy.  We watched Rylee and Christina race then I went and laid in the tent for a while.  At 9 we went and warmed up for 1.5 miles so I kept jogging till I had to go line up for our race and got in 2 miles.  I just kept jogging in the starting area which really keeps me not nervous and makes me race better.  

The race started at 9 and the sun came our right at our race.  This race was pretty official so the gun really dissapointed me.  It wasn't much more than a pop.  I got out good and looked for pine view guys to move up to.  I passed Kyler and moved up to Colton and stayed with him most of the race.  We came through the first mile at 5:07.  The course was really muddy and torn up.  I was shooting for at least a 16:30 and I'm sure the mud slowed the times down a lot.  Mike ran faster last year than the winner this year.  There was this gulley thing that ran through the middle of the golf course which was full of water like 3 inches deep.  We crossed that 4 times.  Me and Colton came through 2 miles at 10:40 so the pace really fell of and that wasn't good.  I started to speed up here and I pulled away from colton here and it hurt significantly. My hammy were hurting.  I just told myself that its ok and to keep running.  1000 meters left I gave it another push and began to pass people.  Only problem was I started my move to soon.  With 400 meters left my legs were starting to shut down and my legs were burning.  I yelled to myself to go but people were passing me.  It was the first time i didn't have anything left.  I was able to dig the final 50m and passed a guy and barely broke 17 minutes.  This race was way legit and I am happy with how I raced.  After we got together and did a short cooldown.  The championship race was cool and Connor Mantz did way good.