Well I didn't think I'd make it this far....

AM: Slept in way too long so I got to run in the heat. I did my usual ten mile loop and felt a little better than I did on my last time running this loop. 6:40 avg

AM: This morning I went to practice. I went to SHP as usual, but there was no one there once I arrived, so upon inquiry of a certain BYU runner about the whereabouts of the run, I headed down to practice at LIBERTY. They had just started as I pulled in, and it took me about half a lap to catch them. Once back to the fountain, we did 10X80 meter strides, then jogged over to the start. The team was doing 2Xmile with half mile recovery, then one half mile with about .25 recovery. I have to focus on my workouts this week, so I decided to take this really easy. I stuck with the 5:40 group for the miles, which was about 5-6 people. I hit 5:44 and 5:31. I find it's just as hard to hit slow reps as it is to hit really fast ones. Then I hit 2:36 for the half miles. After regrouping at the fountain, Natalie and I went for a four mile run to get us 10. Then we had the annual Dutch Oven breakfast courtesy of Billiam! 

PM: Got off work pretty late, but dragged myself out the door for 4 miles. Finished right around 11 pm. 

AM: I had to do fartlek this morning, and Natalie needed a longer run, so we met at SHP. We did a grass lap warm up, then I did my farltlek on the road while she ran laps. The fartlek ladder was 5-4-3-2-1 with 3-2-2-1 recovery. I got in nearly a mile during the 5 min rep, about .96, then my average for the rest was about the same, between 5:15 and 5:20 pace, so a solid effort with those hills on the road. Then Natalie and I did Cemetery Run with no laps in the cemetery to get to 12. 

PM: Before work I went for my rum. I did half of my ten mile loop and managed to not overheat, although I didn't give myself enough time after eating, so I felt super full and uncomfortable :/ 

AM: Natalie's teammate is staying with her for a few days, and she only needed five miles. So we went from Nat's house to SHP, a lap around, and back and then added a bit for 5. Then after some water and a snack, Natalie and I went out four miles on Shriner run and back to get 13. 

Today was a running first for me. I've fallen before, but I'm pretty good at catching myself and I've never broken the skin on any fall. But today, I wasn't so lucky. As we were starting the Shriner loop, I caught my foot on one of those metal, disk looking sprinklers and ate it HARD. Like, really hard. Like - Natalie didn't know whether to laugh or help me up - hard.  I cut up my ankle, my knee, my butt, my hip, and especially my elbow. But the rest of the run surprisingly wasn't that bad. 

I learned something today: my blood is really, really red.  

PM: I went for an easy five miles in the afternoon. It was pretty hot, but I'm getting used to the heat so it wasn't that bad.

I'm grateful that I turned 18 before this Friday. Now I don't need Mommy to come to my physical with me :) 

AM: This morning I had to do a tempo so I just ran at home. I felt pretty crappy, even though I got enough sleep last night. I started with two miles warm up on my ten mile loop, then did 20 minutes tempo with 60 recovery at halfway. The part of the loop I was doing had equal parts downhill and uphill, but looking back I should have run this somewhere totally flat. My goal was heart rate 180, so I wore my heart rate monitor. I didn't realize that heart rate 180 was that high. During the first ten minutes I got my heart rate to about 172 after the first 3ish minutes, but I was breathing really hard. I was practically pushing like a race. I took the minute rest, and I knew that I wasn't getting my heart rate that high anymore. The second half of the tempo I got it to about 160. I averaged about 5:15 on the first ten minutes, and about 5:25 on the next ten minutes. I know I probably could have run this workout better on another day and if I had some others to run it with, but this is the last time I'll have to run this by myself! I cooled down to 9 miles and was exhausted. 

PM: I went for an easy five miles in the early afternoon. 

AM: I had to go down to Provo this morning for physicals and what not, so I got to run with my team! Once we had a group of guys done with all their stuff, we went for a run. We split into two groups once we got far enough out. I went with the group doing 10. We did Carterville with an extra loop on the Provo river trail. That was 9.5 back to the locker room, and then Connor and I added 2.5 miles to get 12. Now I don't have to run twice! We started out pretty slow, about 7:40 pace, but we sped up as we went along, and averaged 6:34 for the run. 

AM: This morning I ran on Rail Trail with Bill, Dakota, Chris, Garek, and Jacob. When we started I stayed back and ran with Bill and pushed him probably a little faster than if he would have been by himself. We were at like 7:30's. Then we got some water at our usual spot at 5.75, and when we started again the whole group ran together. We just plugged along as a group until about 12.5 or so and then Chris and I picked it up and finished a little faster, but still not very fast. We added a little past the cars and back to get the full 15.