Getting back in shape!

First run in my new Asics GT 2160. They seem a bit heavier than my other shoes but it makes up for that in comfort. Running E-pace with them is wonderful while running T-pace in them is not so much. I'm thinking this will be my long run shoe for a while. Today we did 1 mile easy with 4 miles at T-pace (5:54 pace) for 4 miles with a one mile cooldown to end it.

The sluggish feeling I suffered from yesterday didn't go away today and really suffered keeping up with my teamates in this quick and easy run. They all seemed fine and not even tired while I was trying to keep up and take deeper breaths, hope it goes better tomorrow now that it starts with 3 pm practices.

Today we finally started more serious speed workouts in XC. We had five 800s with the varsity pack supposed to be running 2:40s. The first one was a breeze for me and had to keep myself from going too fast. I finished with a 2:31. The rest were in order, a 2:39, 2:35, 2:40, and a 2:40. Finally I'm starting to get back into form after a rough two days.

A slow 4 miles in very hot weather.

A bit longer than I would have liked before a race but felt good the whole way. Running in the sun is going to be hard to adjust compared to running in the morning.

I have a strong tradition of not doing well at the first race of the cross country season. This meet was the American Fork Grass Relays. We came to this meet very shorthanded due to many of our top runners running or helping out in the TOU Half Marathon. Me and Jerrell were the only ones with Varisty expereince in our 5 man realy team. I was chosen to go first and Jerrell last.

I got in a one mile warm up looking around for a bathroom and finally got to the starting line after some delay. A lot of teams put there fastest runner first and so I had some work to do to keep our team alive. The gun went off and everyone took off sprinting. I knew we were all going way too fast for our frist mile but I still kept going probably because I didn't want to let down my teamates. We were all pretty close the first mile but after that everyone started suffering and slowing down due to the fast start. I shared that same fate. The first mile I ran a 5:20 and the second was a 6:13. I was still pretty close to other runners due to them slowing down as well. I felt so bad that second mile that I couldn't believe I broke 12. The many hay bales obstacles didn't help my suffering. Nothing was feeling good and my whole body was screaming for it to be over. After suffering to the handoff with the baton I ran to the nearest shade I could find and contiued cheering on my team.

Turns out everyone on my team ran a slow time for themselves and Jerrell said it was probably beacuse we handn't had many practices in the heat of the day yet. He finished with a 10:30 and 14th overall. Jake Heslington was there and won all comers with a near course record of 9:57.