Patrick's Blog

This morning, since it was freezing outside I went early to get it done, I went over to Sugarhouse Park and did a lap and came home then did LOADS of homework.

This morning we had Track Practice on the First day of SPRING BREAK!! So when I got to the track, not many people were there. As a team we did a 2 mile warm up then a mile of speed changes. By the end I was in a group with Tomy, Natalie, Scott, Chris and Abigail. Then we heard the workout. It was 400x800x400 2 sets. We were supposed to hit out best mile pace then for the 800 half of our best mile pace then minus five seconds. Since mine is a 5:25, that felt to slow for me so I decided to do 75 on the 400s then do the mile pace on the 800s. So my times went like this, 75, 2:44, 76 for the first set. After these I was not that tired at all so we took a lap then started the second set. I ran the 400s with Natalie and the 800 with Bill. My times went 74, 2:54, 75. I am not sure about the 800 time but I know it was a lot slower than what I needed it to be. Today I had an okay workout, I want to do more workouts like these because this seemed like a really good workout. Then we did the foothill loop for a cooldown.

Today since we had practice at 8:30, I accidently slept in till 10:30 and it felt great but it was too late to go to practice. So I ran over to Sugarhouse park, Did a lap and then went passed my house .37 out and back to get the .75 I need to get to even mileage.

Went to track practice, we did usual 2 laps warm up, stretching, and drills then everyone did the distance workout. Started with mile warm up, mile of speed changes, ran to the bathroom. Then found out the workout, it was the 200 400 workout. So I was partnered with Kevin in a group with Caden-Dakota and Yance-Abigail. I ran a 400 then Kevin would do the last 200 with me trying to outkick me. Then he would do a 400 and I would try to outkick him. My group was supposed to get 75 for the 400s. So For the first one I lead and we did 71 which didn't feel fast, it felt fine and I didn't get outkicked. The rest of my 400 times went like this 71 and 74 so they were all faster than supposed to be. Then my 200s went like 32, 33, 35 so also all faster than supposed to be and I out kicked Kevin on the last 2 times. Then after I went to the zoo I ran a half mile thinking I could go farther but couldn't because my mom came and picked me up at about Clayton because we were going to see the Hunger Games.

I went on my own run today because everybody else went up to Arcadia. Ran up to 1700 south, down to Shop N Go and over to Sugarhouse park, did an inside lap in there and came back along 2100 South and turned north of 1900 East and ran home from there. When I got home I went on the Hamstring machine, Quad Machine and did calf raises. Afterwards a ton of stretching.

This morning I met up with Sarah at the Highland High School track to do some stride kind of stuff before our race tomorrow. So I ran to Highland, met up with Sarah and did 2 miles of speed changes on the track and then we cooldowned home (as if we weren't cool enough socially and from the freaken snow!!!); we went along 2100 south, turned on 1700 east, over to downington, up to 1900 east and then home. Later I will do some more but right now my hands are freezing and I can barely move them...........

PM: Tonight I went over to Sugarhouse park and met up with Levi for a short shake out run. I got there early and did a mile warm up, half mile of J's then stretched. Levi then showed up and I did another lap of regular J's and then we did 2 laps of Curve J's where you run hard for the whole curve then 50 meters of the straightaway. Took a recovery lap and then a timed 400 in 73 seconds I think. Then I did a half mile cooldown and stretched and finished off the day in a 10 minute ice bath. 

Today the three of us that were racing today showed up at UVU totally exhausted and freezing. I only got 5.5 hours of sleep last night because I couldn't fall asleep and it was like 25 degrees when we arrived at the track. So we all went and checked in for the mile and warmed up with Sarah. I did 2 laps on the track and it was hurting my knee so I stopped and stretched then did another lap with Caden. We all went over to the Bullpen to get seeded and Caden and I were in heat 4, I was hip number 13 because of my incredibly slow time from last week.

Caden and I did about a mile and a half warm up including strides and the jogging we did around the Bullpen. We finally lined up, after we lost our entire warm up from standing at the line and at the Bullpen forever. The gun goes off and since I was up on the second shelf thing I had to wait till the 100 meter mark to cut in and I was in second place at that point. Then I cut in and Caden passed me again and I mentally gave up. I went through the 400 at 76 which is a lot slower than I wanted so I tried to push this next lap. My 800 was 2:47 which is way slow. The third lap I started to pick up the pace at the 600 meter mark and it was a good thing. Then on the last lap I passed one person on the far end of the track then I saw a kid about 10 meters ahead of him so I passed him at about the 200 and from the 300 I was kicking pretty hard but I got outkicked again this time. My final time was 5:43 which is faster than last week but still incredibly slow!! I need to focus and push these next few races!! Then when I got home, after I watched Kiley race in Arcadia I did a 3 mile run to finish out for the week.

Three mile shake out run around sugarhouse when I got home from my grandmas house.

Well this run sucked!!!!!!!!! So we started with the usual 2 laps warm up, then stretching then six laps of drills, stride, jog, stairs, jog, repeat. We did high knees, butt kicks, power skips, lunges, then karaoke both ways. Then we jogged over to Kernodles Hill and did 10 strides up it. Then distance finally went on our run. THIS RUN SUCKED!!!!!!! It was sooo hot, felt long, boring, tiring, etc. It was so hot I ran the whole day today shirtless haha and got my tan on haha. But we ran up emigration canyon 4 miles and back. It took me 74 minutes of running, 45 up the canyon then 29 coming back. I felt ok coming back but on a rock in the road I tweeked my knee and now I can barely walk. Hopefully it feels better by tomorrow.

Yesterday I tweeked my knee running down the canyon and it was hurting all day today but I decided to try practice anywase. So I started with the warm up and that absolutely killed it so we stretched and even bending my knee in some of the stretches hurt my knee so I decided not to do the workout and Bill didn't want me to race tomorrow:( so I came home, took an ice bath and iced my knee and sore calfs.

Today since I am not racing at the meet, I went to the APUSH Seminar and then drove out to the meet. But Rich missed the bus so I gave him a ride out to the meet also. When I arrived there, Bill asked me how my knee is and I said it was better, still a little sore but I think I can run tomorrow. I still decided not to run today to make sure it is totally healed, I wanna try tomorrow out with the Tempo and see how that feels. After helping Abigail and Gavin run the Javelin spot, I went and FREAKED  out at THE ENTIRE TEAM for not cheering anyone on when they were racing. I am if your not going to cheer, you might as well leave the meet when your done! After freaking out at the team multiple times because they didn't cheer until the very end of the meet, I cheered for the 4x400 guys and girls and went home on the bus. When I got home I iced my knee and my calfs because I want to start running again tomorrow.......... Hopefully

1st day back from taking a few days off for my knee and it was too soon. We started with the two vertical laps in the school because it was pooring, stretching, drills in the halls, wall sits, high knee line thing and then step ups. Then distance did a fartlek workout down at Liberty when it was pooring rain! I jogged down with Caden and my knee was not hurting at this point. But when we got to the drinking fountain it hurt a bit but I was going to tough it out, which was the worst thing I could have done to it. The workout was 5 sets of 2 on 1 off 1 on 1 off, five of each. I ran with Caden and we were staying consistent 75 second 400s for the ons then for the offs we slowed down a bit for Kiley to catch up to us. My knee hurt a bit but not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to. Caden and I got about 4 miles in the fartlek workout according to my watch but I didn't start it until the light at the park. When we finished we went back to the drinking fountain and when we stopped I immediately collapsed because my knee couldn't hold my weight. So we decided to walk back the opposite way, walk a few steps and then collapse- then Caden help me up then collapse again. When we got to the light at 7th east and 9th south, the team was on the opposite side of the street so I called over to Bill and he knew something was up so he offered to have me walk to 9th and 9th and he would pick us up at the coffee garden, Thanks Bill. So we stopped at the coffee garden after about a half hour of walking the half mile from me collapsing to the ground and my parents came and got us and drove us up to the school. I found out I have something called Plika or something in my knee and I can't run for about a week, and I need to ice it and apply heat everyday. Just as I was getting my speed back, this happens. GREAT!!!!  

Today was my first day back with Plika. So we started with the 2 laps warm up, stretching and drills and my knee was feeling fine so Bill had me go with the sprinters today because he doesn't want me to go straight into the hard workouts and reinjure myself, to ease into it and get my speed back by saturday.... Hopefully. But I was with Jasmine, Gavin, Sam, Dakota and Sophie and we did 2 sets of circuits of 2 legged hop ups, FREAKING HIGH step ups, squats, lunges, push ups, planks, side planks, and fall and goes with grapevine. We did that twice and my knee started to hurt a little on the second set. Before we broke into groups we all went over to the Hill going into the Soccer field to do 8 hills. We were put into groups with our physical fitness and I was with Dakota and Caden, I was a bit worried considering I hadn't run for almost a week but I did pretty good. Especially because I won all of the hills. We started like a race and strided up the hill then kicked it in hard about 20 meters at the top of the hill. After those, Bill wanted me to do 2 300s so I did them in 48 and 49 so pretty consistent and pretty fast considering I hadn't run for a while. Then I did 2 laps cooldown with Dominique and it was a good thing because my knee was starting to hurt. Not terribly bad like last week but enough that I was starting to limp. Then we set up the ice bath and I took a REALLY REALLY REALLY COLD ice bath for 15 minutes and that made my knee feel better. Hopefully I feel good enough Saturday to race the mile competitively!!!

Today I got to go to practice and run. We started with the 2 laps warm up, then stretching. I didn't do drills because they hurt my knee but I stretched during those. The workout was go over to Sugarhouse Park, do the outside laps of 10x 90 second fartlek workout. I made it to 1300 east with my knee getting progressively worse so I turned around because I didn't want what happened last week to happen again. It looks like I am not racing on Saturday:(

Today I got to run and do the whole workout......... Kind of.. We started with the usual track warm up of two laps, stretching then drills but I sat out of drills so I would be able to run. Then the distance group with mile warm up, two mile speed changes then mile cooldown. I started out with Natalie and Caden, but after the first mile of speed changes I was with them feeling great but then I wiped out and todally died. I was exhausted. I kept telling myself I need to finish this so  I did the next mile of speed changes a lot slower. Then I only did a 2 lap cooldown because I was totally exhausted. But today was my first day back doing any kind of speed in almost two weeks and I did half of it with Natalie so that is some sort of accomplishment. After my knee kills so bad! It hurt like it did last week:( but it didn't hurt while I was running:) Looks like I am not racing tomorrow:( 

Today I got to run at practice. We did the usual 2 laps warm up, stretching then drills but again I sat out of drills because they hurt my knee a lot. Then the workout was 12 hills on the cement hill over by the soccer fields. I was in a group with Caden and Gavin and I won all of the hills we did except on the second to last one Bill put me in Tomy, Natalie, and Chris' group and  I got second in that heat. Then I went on the Gimp run where Me, Caden, Abigail, Sarah S., and Gavin all ran over to ninth south, up to Stephies house, over to Bonneville elementary to stalk the lacrosse players, over to Sarahs Grandmas house, ran through the sprinklers, back on to 1900 east, over to 9th south, and down to the track. It was a fun run that it felt nice to be back running again.

2 days of running I got to do in a row! We started with the 2 laps war up, stretching, sat out of drills, then we did 3 laps warm up, and a mile of speed changes. Then we found out the workout was 12 400s and I was supposed to do as many as I could. My times for the first set of 4, we did 3 sets of 4 400s. So my times for the first set were supposed to be 83, 81, 80 and 79. I actually hit 80, 80, 76, 79 so I went faster than I was supposed to and I felt pretty good! Then we took a lap the opposite way as a recovery and started the next set. I was in a group with Abigail and Gavin but Gavin had to leave and Abigail fell behind so  I was hitting my times alone. My times for this set was supposed to be 84, 82, 80, 79 and I hit 84, 82, 80, 79 so I was right where I needed to be for this set, then I took another lap recovery and by this point my knee had been hurting a lot so I did another lap and called it a day. I iced my knee, did arm swings, and calf raises when everyone was still finishing.

3 Days of running in a row! Today I got to race for the first time in about two and a half weeks! So I decided to do the 400 and see how that feels then I will see where I am after that. So I warmed up with Dakota, Sam, and Gavin for the 400 and we did about a half mile warm up, then we stretched and did strides before our races. I was in heat 2 because I was assuming I was going to be slower than I actually was. So they called my heat up and I was in lane 5 and Gavin was in heat 2. They lined us up and shot the LOUD gun and were off. I got out pretty fast because I didn't know how fast to go out in a 400 but after the 100 I immediately took the lead! IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So going through the 200 me legs were getting tired but I told myself  "Patrick, you are winning the race, do not give up now!" So I kept going and with 100 meters to go my legs felt like lead but I was still in the lead. Then I heard some one coming up in lane 4, it was some Highland kid that ran the mile with Caden. I held him off until the last 5 meters of the race! I have to admit, winning that race for the 395 meters that I did was freaking amazing! Then I did 2 laps cooldown. I decided not to do the 800 because my knee was hurting when I finished the 400. Oh, by the way, my 400 time was 58 seconds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I decided to do the 4x400 team with Neff starting us, then me, then Chris, the Sam Hafen. Neff got us out pretty good, we were in second place behind the Other East team. Caden was their second runner as was I to my team so I was not going to let Caden beat me again. So I went out fast just as I did in the 400 but they were about 40 meters ahead of my team. Along the far end of the track, I could see Caden coming closer but I knew my race was coming to an end so I kicked really hard and I got about 10 meters from him then I couldn't pass him. I don't know if physically I could have gone those few strides faster to pass him or mentally I didn't want to die and loose it for my team, but I didn't pass Caden. I did make up 30 yards on him in about 200 meters! My 400 time for that was 62 or 63ish, my mom didn't know when to start the stop watch. But then I did a lap cooldown and called it a day because my knee was hurting, this is the 3rd time I have run this week, and regions is in 2 weeks and I can not afford to re-injure myself this close to regions! I came home and iced my knee a bit then went to bed.

4 Days of running in a row!! Today for practice, we started with the usual 2 laps warm up, then stretching. Then for drills we did the 6 laps of jogging 100 meters around the curve, then doing high knees-butt kicks- power skips- lunges- and grape vine both ways for 50 meters, then stride out the other 50 meters, jog around the far curve and then go up and down all of the stairs then repeat for 6 laps. I did the first one and it hurt my knee so I stopped and stretched and I did the 3rd and the 5th one. I started and did me 3 laps with Chris, Caden and Gavin. Then the workout was 4 200s passing a baton for the 4x800 on Saturday. I was Partnered up with Caden and he started so I went over to the 200 mark and got the baton about 10 meters 20 meters behind chris and I caught up to chris and outkicked him. Then on the Second one I started with the baton and since I finished 3rd, I started 3rd and I got out fast and immediately got ahead of chris by about 10 meters and passed the baton to Caden pretty well. Then for the third one my hamstrings all of the sudden got really tired but Caden got the baton to me in 5th place right behind Tomy so I caught up to Chris and we passed Gabriella and I outkicked Chris again. Then on the Last one I started in 4th place next to chris, then I started out slower than usual then I had to catch back up to chris, I got about 5 up to him then I passed the Baton to Caden really well. Then I keeled over DEAD! I don't know why this workout killed me, maybe because I did the 200s really fast but I was exhausted. Then I went to peer court.

5 Days of running in a row (sort of)!  Today we started with the 2 laps warm up and I ran with Ben Pearson and I got to catch up with my cousin. By this time my knee was absolutely killing me. So then I stretched and found out the workout. It was a mile warm up, mile speed changes and mile cooldown. I made it 2 laps of the warm up then had to drop out because of the pain:( Then I did my arm swings, calf raises, planks and hamstring weight things while everybody was finishing.

Ran up to 1700 south and back with my knee brace on. It hurt pretty bad.

Track warm up, stretching, 3 laps warm up, 3 laps speed changes then speed. 200x 400x 400x200x200x200. My times went 34, 80, 73, 33, 32, 31. Felt really good but by the end my knee was killing me!