Distance runners; We can do it longer.

Almost didn't run today, it was so hard to get up after last night! But I eventually put on my shoes (changed out of my pajamas too) and went for 8 along the boardwalk. I keep passing a high school track team from around here. They're never running the same direction as me so I can't embarress them ;) But I wonder what kind of times they run down here. Hmm....

Well this week has been very symmetrical. Runs of 4, 6, 8, and 10 miles. A pretty embarrassing mileage total but it works for vacation week. The next 4 weeks are the hill phase of my workout plan. Although I'm thinking about only doing 3 weeks and adding a week of aerobic running to split up hills and the anaerobic phase, just to give my body some rest...

Quatro easy. My heart rate moniter seems to think easy is 85% of my heart rate for some reason. Does anyone else find it annoying when you start typing in a post in the space thingy then the whole font settings and stuff load and you have to start all over?

4 in the morning. Man is it cold!

 After school I did a hill workout. Since it was raining and probably 33 degrees outside I just ran on the treadmill. a 2 mile warmup, 30 minutes of a hill circuit (3.5 mi), then a 2 mile cooldown. 

5 easy in the morning then a leg speed workout after school. It's goes like this, a 15 minute warmup, then 10 windsprints of about 150 meters with a 3 minute rest inbetween. After that is a 15 minute cooldown. It wasn't much fun because of my lingering soreness from yesterdays hills. 

A.M. 4 easy on the usual loop around town. 

P.M. 8 miles that included a 2 mile warmup and cooldown, and 4 miles of a hill circuit, on an actual hill today. I learned that it can be dangerous running around in your home schools sweatshirt when you pass by your arch rivals school on a warmup. It makes you a target! 

I don't really know what category to put my miles in. They should have a hills section for miles.

 Another side note, although I've had nearly the same distance in all of my runs this week, I haven't ran the same route twice. Weird....

A.M. 4 easy. I'm starting to get scared that my computer might decide to shut down or mute itself or something and not wake me up one morning for this run. I love these morning runs! They're easy and they make you feel great the rest of the day.

 P.M. 5@6:40 I had no idea how I was going to get home today and I received homework from all 6 of my classes so I decided to do a quick 5 on the treadmill and see if I could get a ride home from someone instead of my usual hour and a half it would take me to do the leg-speed workout I was planning for today. Okay, that was a run on sentence, lol. But oh well, time for some homework!

A.M. 3 easy. Slept through the alarm but didn't get out any later than usual. Just gave myself less time to "wake up"

P.M. 8 miles including a 2 mile warmup/cooldown and 30 minutes of a hill circuit. I felt like doing an hour, which is what is recommended for my training plan, and I didn't have anything better to do anyway, but Coach Rexus says Tyler's planning a 12-16 mile long run for us tomorrow and I decided to save my legs for that.

Ran 10 with Tyler and some xc kids today. Well, they ran 8, but I wanted 70 miles this week. And if your looking at my week total right now and thinking 'Hey! That's only 69!!!' then you're wrong. I rounded down on some of my morning runs because I was to lazy to hit the period and then another number key.

A.M. 4 in the morning easy. Maybe a little too hard for a morning run, but I needed all the runners high I could get. Today was a big day!

 P.M. 8 after school on the treadmill (I can't believe how good 6:40 feels!). I had a doctors appointment at 3:30 so I couldn't get my hills in today. Did some lunges later on to make up a bit for the "missed" workout.

A.M. 4 simple and easy. I saw FIVE whole runners out this morning! Crazy!!

P.M. A leg speed workout. Which is a 2 mile warmup, about 2.5 miles of windsprints and recovery jogging, then a 2 mile cooldown. When I got back to the school I couldn't get a ride home for another half an hour, so I ran super easy on the treadmill for a couple of miles.

A.M. No am run because at the pace I'm going, I'll have 75 miles in only 6 days of running. I don't think I could pull something like that off after a 70 mile week w/o getting injured

P.M. This run wasn't any fun. I was supposed to do hills but those stupid windsprints yesterday took all the life out of my legs and I felt like I'd pull a muscle if I attempted any hills at all. So I went for 6 easy, which happened to be as fast as my legs wanted to go. 

A.M. 4 miles super easy. I think the morning run high I usually get for the rest of the day is wearing off sooner and sooner each time :P

P.M. 6 miles easy with some guys from the team and Tyler. It was a different run then normal because we actually stopped and screwed around a couple of times. I'm starting to forget that half the fun of running is doing random fun crap with the people you run with!

A.M. 4 easy. I don't know if it's just me, but if I start out these runs as slow as I want to go, giving myself plenty of time to warm up, I run just as fast of a pace as I do when I try to go out at my normal 6:50/7:00 pace. Just a thought...

 P.M. Friday, after school, what do I do? Go run 8 miles of hills, of course. 

Possibly 7 miles of moving around but only 5 of them were actually spent running. Went on a run with some guys from the team today and we decided to run straight up Thompson Hill. We found a bunch of interesting stuff, but that's about it.

5 miles with the team. Then Pizza Hut all you can eat buffet afterwards.

4 this morning then I had to run, home.... It's a long story. 

Finals week has me really stressed out. There isn't time to do anything anymore!

No morning run. Today was the first day of finals for our school and I got in 8.5 easy around town afterwards. 

Eh, today was a weird run. I couldn't get a ride home, AGAIN, so I had to run home without any of the books I needed unless I wanted to walk around Kennewick for 7 hours with all my stuff. 

And of course I left my house key on my desk in my room and none of the doors were unlocked. So basically I was stuck out here until my brother decided to show up from middle school, which let out in an hour. 

So I figured I'd at least do something useful with my time and ran the loop around Thompson Hill before I stopped by the school. After school let out and I was garunteed that the house would be unlocked by the time I got back home, I visited some old teachers and stopped in to talk with Coach Rexus.

In the end, 11 miles of running total. Completely spontaneous and unplanned.

It was hard to find time to run today. School let out at 10:30 because of finals and I probably could have ran then, but it was a choice between getting my run in for the day or going to Pizza Hut with the team to celebrate the end of finals. So of course you know what I did. 

After that I headed to my cabin north of Spokane for the weekend with my family. The sun sets at 4 and it was a 3 hour drive at least after leaving at 1, so yeah, that's my excuse. 

I received this booklet from the last time I went to Flathead Summer Running Camp and I remember it said something like "You must give up hanging out with your friends and going to parties to get your run in for the day bla bla bla" But I've also heard that you don't sing to get to the end of a song. It's all about what's fun right?

Well now I'm up in the mountains with the clean crisp air. The temperature is hovering around 40 degrees but I got in enough miles to give me 40 for the week. Dissapointing? Yeah. Acceptable? Mmm, maybe :P 

Did some hills today after school. The usual 2 mile warmup and cooldown but this time I did an hour of hill circuit instead of 30 minutes. Didn't feel too bad so hopefully I didn't overdo anything!

A.M. 4 really really easy. Pretty much the definition of a recovery jog. 

P.M. 4 not as easy, but still easy. Keeping my legs fresh for 6 miles at 6 minute pace tomorrow with Tyler. 

That's right, 6 threshold miles. I went running with Tyler and some kids from the team at 7 last night. It was kind of creepy running around in Columbia Park at night. Heck, it's even kind of creepy during the day.

Well we had a two mile warmup, then started our 6@6:00 pace. My splits went more like this though...

1. 6:00
2. 6:00
3. 5:50
4. 6:15
5. 6:20
6. 6:30 

Easy 5.5 with a completely different group of kids from the team. My legs are so tight!

Throat hurts.... no run. 

Finally felt better today. Went for an easy 8 after school.

My lungs felt fine but my legs were so stiff, hopefully that wears off over the next couple of days.

A.M. 6 easy before school. I wanted to get out at least 15 minutes earlier then usual since I was going longer but I actually left at 5:30, which is 30 minutes earlier. Too early! I felt buzzed the whole run I was so sleepy.

P.M. 4.5 with the guys. Kind of a stop and go kind of run with all the streetlights. I added 1.5 more on the treadmill afterwords and still had some time to work on my awesome benching skills :P

2 mile warmup, 4 miles@6:00 pace, then a 2 mile cooldown.

4 nice and easy. I love recovery days!

Tried some speedwork today. A 2 mile warmup and cooldown and 8 400's with a recovery jog of the same distance between each one. The splits were as follows....

1. 72
2. 72
3. 71
4. 77
5. 74
6. 76
7. 75
8. 68

A really easy run just to recover from speed yesterday. I don't know if I'm tight from the workout in weights we did today or my speedwork....

I got this book called Lore of Running today for my birthday. This thing's a beast! It's nearly 1000 pages all about training and running in general. You might want to check it out if your really into finding the best way possible to train.

Another interval session. This time with 200's. There's too many splits too name them all. Over 20 splits at least. 

Recovery from yesterday and for tomorrows run. Lifted some weights after the run too. 

Another tempo run today. Did it again by the river where it's nice and flat. Decided to do tempo intervals where I run a 6:00 mile then jog for 3:00 because I was running with some slower guys from the team and I didn't want too hard of a run on my birthday ;-)

 Drivers license here I come!

Recovery from yesterdays tempo run.... Yay!

Went to Spokane

It was one of those days where you think you're going to have a ton of free time but you end up doing things all day. 

In my case, doing things involve going to watch the US National Cross Country Championships which was in Spokane this weekend. It was awesome seeing all the Olympic runners tear it up with all the college guys. Unfortunately this meant I didn't get a run in besides running around the course with my camera. 

After just two days of unplanned rest, my legs felt like rocks on this run. Maybe it was the fact that it had been raining ALL day, including during my run. I came back soaked and tired, but glad that I actually got a run in.  

Went for a run with Alan after school today. Nice and easy for tomorrow's workout. 

Did a set of 10x400 on the track with some guys from the team. The normal 400 revovery jog between sets and a 1.5 mile warmup. This workout seems to go soooo slow once you get into the later intervals. 

Easy run to recover from intervals yesterday. Supposedly there's going to be a time trial this Saturday so we'll see how that goes.

Since I didn't run Monday I screwed up my calender here so everything's a day behind.

An easy run with Alan today... I think

Stopped at the school to meet some guys for a run but I was 5 minutes late and everyone had already left. Lame. 

So I started heading home but I ran into my running group on the way there and headed back to Kamiakin with them. I probably only ran 2.5 but that's alright the day before a race I suppose. 

Today I finally got to see some results of my 600+ off season training miles I've put in. We started with a 10 minute warmup and some strides on the track. After that we broke out the short shorts and started the mile race. I tried taking 200m splits with my Garmin's auto lap option but it wasn't as precise as I'd hoped it would be. Splits went something like this.

• Lap 1 ~68 seconds - This lap was just keeping with my pace. I made sure not to get in the way of any of the people who were shooting for 4:30's and after they passed me I just tucked in behind them and tried to keep my distance so I didn't start out to fast. Apparently it didn't work because I was aiming for 70's and a 4:40 time.

  ---

• Lap 2 ~73 - I could feel that I was working hard already from lap 1 but I knew I still had a lot left in me. One of the 4:30'ers had started falling back towards me but after I saw the splits on my watch I stepped it down a notch because I knew it was about to get tough and I needed all the extra energy I could get.
  

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• Lap 3 ~73 - On the backstretch of lap 2 I had caught up with the slowing 4:30 runner and tucked in behind him to avoid running straight into the wind. The wind was actually fairly bad that day and I know I could've ran 3-5 seconds faster without it blowing in my face. Now was when the mind started questioning why I was still running. My form tightened up and my arms were no longer swinging effortlessly at my side. I tried to relax but it's a lot easier said then done when you're going all out. With about 600 to go I made my move and passed up the 4:30 groupie. I was now mentally preparing myself for the effort it would take on Lap 4 to stay ahead.
  

  ---

• Lap 4 ~71 By now my lungs were burning and my form must have looked pretty bad to anybody watching. The 4:30 runner passed me on the first turn and I kept on pushing as much as I thought was reasonably possible, but he kept extending his lead throughout the lap. My pacer who had hopped in at the 800 was yelling at me to get on his shoulder but I was pushing as much as I thought I could. When I finally rounded the bend of the last 200 I went all out but was regretful that although my lungs were burning like mad and my heart was ricocheting around in my chest, my legs didn't feel like they had been pushed as hard as they could've gone. I finally passed the line in a time of 4:50.
  

That probably doesn't add up to 4:50 but oh well. My goal since winter had been for my first meet to be in 4:40, and that is still 3 weeks away. I know the wind was slowing me, and I'm still in the middle of my interval phase so I think I'm on good pace to reach that goal. That was a PR for me, but my previous PR was from the end of my freshman cross country season. I had an injured hip and lots of sicknesses during track last year. I think how I felt showed how much better I might do in a two mile race. It's kind of unlikely I'll be racing the mile often in track because we have a lot of good milers at our school but I've put in a lot more miles then them this offseason.

Anyway, we finished with a 20 minute cooldown and I had a chocolate shake afterwords. Sweet stuff, and I'm looking forward to seeing how far I can push myself this track season.

 If you want a detailed report from the front of the pack check out Tyler's blog. Not sure when he's gonna write his up.

Ouch, my calves hurt. Today's run felt pretty good besides the tired legs though. 

1.5 mile warmup, then 12x400 with recovery jogging inbetween intervals. After that a one mile cooldown. Legs are feeling a bit better today. Anyone know how fast you should do your recovery jogs? I basically do them as slow as I can but that seems ridiculously slow at times. 

Another set of 12x400 today. Same routine except this time I did them at the park. Turns out that there's this certain loop that is exactly 800 m so it worked out pretty nicely. 

Um, switch this one with "Wednesday's" workout. It always seems to throw me off when I miss a day on the blog. 

Ran to 7-11 for a slurpee. YUM :-)

Went to the mountains today for a high altitude training run of 16 miles.

Strangely enough that run never happened ;-) But I went sledding and it isn't easy walking up that hill!

8 miles at an easy 6:50. Yay.

Oh hey, new shoes. New spikes too. I didn't wear either of them for this run though. Still breaking in the shoes. I wasn't sure if my new spikes could top my old one's in badass-ness, but I was WRONG. My old ones were pure white with neon green lacings but my new ones are bright yellow and have some crazy dragon artwork on the sole and heel. I can't wait to pass kids up on the track with these things.

Today track workouts started. They wasted our time for an hour and a half and it was 4:00 by the time we got around to a run. I've been feeling a little sick lately so I decided to take it easy. But when your running with the rest of the guys on the team, 6:40 pace feels like your taking a day off if you bother to look at how far ahead everyone is. Since I didn't know if we were planning on doing some interval type work tomorrow, and being sick, I didn't go berserk and average 6:20 with the rest of the guys, but it turns out Rexus doesn't have any intervals planned until Wednesday so I suppose this was an alright day to go a little crazy on. 

An "Easy" 7 with the team. My watch had me averaging 6:30 pace for the entire run, and I was still a minute behind the lead guys on the way back and out. We've been running way too fast in our workouts. It wasn't exactly a hard workout, but I've never been able to keep my easy runs below 6:40 before. Intervals tomorrow. And the day after that I refuse to run faster then 7 minute pace.

Did 12x400 with the team today. It was actually easier then what I've been doing by myself in the off season because although I was running my intervals a few seconds faster, I wasn't going interval-recovery jog-interval-recovery jog. I actually had 10-20 seconds of rest between each recovery jog, which made it much easier. 

It was still a good workout though and I am definitely looking forward to getting some good sleep tonight and an easy run tomorrow.

An easy 6 (duh) with the team. I feel wiped out after such a hard week. Hopefully I can will myself to take it easier then what the rest of the front group guys consider an "easy" run. They all want to run 6:30's and faster day after day. I know none of us are actually in that kind of shape, but I'm not going to tell any of them otherwise. They wouldn't believe me that it's actually better to keep it easier except on the hard workout days anyways. 

Okay, back to studying for my math quiz. 

An easy-ish run to the library and back. All this running on pavement is giving me mild shin splints in my right shin so I'll probably be icing tonight. 

I forgot to add that I ran 2 in weights today. Easy running just so I could stretch out the muscles.

Met with the team for a 10 mile run today. I was actually planning on going pretty fast for the whole thing and Justin and Anthony were there to help me push myself. It felt really good, although it was a tough workout, and the last 5 miles were 6:14 or faster, three of them under 6:05. Monday were having a 1000 meter time trial, although I think it would be better if we did speedwork. 

2 out and 2 back along the canal. Legs are still really tired from the hard 10 miler yesterday. Hopefully they're a bit more fresh for tomorrow's 1000 meter time trial.

In unrelated to running news but more of highlights in my life news, I was rear ended by an old lady at an intersection today. She was going about 40 miles an hour and it shot me, my mom, and my brother all the way across the intersection. Luckily, other then a cut on my forehead from hitting my head on the steering wheel, nobody was hurt. At least now I can say I've been in a pretty bad car accident before.

Ran a 1000 meter time trial today. I didn't go into the time trial with much expectations because it was definitely more of a speed distance but, with the 10 mph breeze, I think I ran decently with a time of 2:50. I really think we could have done a more productive workout today but right now the workouts aren't up to me. Unless I want to do extra ;)

I'm pretty sure I did 6 today. Hard to remember xD

Had to run a 45 second run all out for stupid testing. I was actually like 90 meters short of 400 but I don't feel like doing the math :P

Felt really tired and sore today. All those days before have finally caught up to me. Meet on Saturday. 

Hm, three in the rain. 

I doubled up in the 1600 and the 3200 at an early season jamboree yesterday and I think it went pretty well. 

 The first race of the meet was the 3200. I started off fairly slow and ran pretty even splits for the first mile. I think I ran that first one in 5:07. After that kids started falling back while I was able to hold my pace. I passed a couple of kids with three laps to go and started working my way up to a group of three runners, one of which was wearing our arch-nemesis' high school's jersey, Southridge :P I caught up to the group of three kids and passed two of them. Actually I passed all three, but the Southridge runner wasn't finished yet. He passed me with 350 to go, but that didn't last very long. I had way more in me then he did and I kicked passed him with 300 to go and never looked back. Usually my races involve me going out with the lead pack then slowly dying. But this race I ran nearly even splits, 5:07 and 5:09, and I even had a kick at the end, which, not gonna lie, felt really good. PR because that's the first time I've ran the 3200 on the track.

Two and a half hours later was the mile. There were three heats in the mile, and that was the cause of a bit of controversy because the fast runners were split up between all three heats. By some unspoken agreement, the fast guys decided to run in the third heat, regardless of what heat they were assigned originally. I really didn't care too much because I was doubling up anyways, and I had been focusing on the 3200. So I ran in the second heat, the one they put me in. Turns out, the second heat is filled with a bunch of kids that can barely break 5 minutes. I realized a minute before they fired the gun that that was my heat lining up on the line so I ripped off my sweats and set up in the second row of the waterfall start. I started off REALLY slow. I think my first lap was a 75. After that it was all fun and games. I started passing up kids left and right. Well, mostly on the right because we were running on a track. It was ridiculous how slowly these kids were running and by the straightaway on the third lap I had caught up to the leaders. By now I wasn't even breathing that hard and my legs felt good. So I passed up the leader with about 450 to go because he was dying like a fish without water, but mostly because I wanted to hear the crowd cheer. It was such and easy pace for the first three laps that I pretty much kicked the last 400. It was really awesome to win one for once, and even better, it was easy enough that I could just enjoy it. Final time 4:54. Would have been a  PR for sure if I had been running fresh.   

Went to the park and ran 6x600 with the team. I was not ready for this kind of stuff, at least the legs weren't because I could still feel them from Saturday's double. Planning on jogging tomorrows run, whatever it may be.  

Did a step down kind of speedwork today. 4x400 4x300 and 4x200 with a one minute rest inbetween intervals and a three minute rest inbetween transfers to another distance. I strongly despise this kind of pure speed speedwork, just for the record.

Whoops, switched Wednesday and Tuesday again. Easy 7 to the highway. 

Two laps around the library and back. 

This space is reserved for my 1600 and 3200 race entry as soon as I find some time to get around to it.