Patrick's Blog

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.