Life Liberty and the Pursuit of a Shiny Gold Medal

7 way easy with the team

4x200m after

2 mile warm up

16:43 5kish on Dixie's course

2 mile cool down

Race started and I led the team in the good ole pìna colada (I can't spell alcoholic drinks) and started mid front pack. The first mile felt like a jog (5:40ish). The competition weeded down to Nephi and the two Dixie kids. The Dixie kids took off at the top of the first loop and Nephi went with them. I was still pretty unsure about how things were gonna play out. Thanks to a great cheering section (freshman girls and dhills runners) I decided to not let them get away from me even tho they were a pretty good distance off. Paul caught me at the bottom of the second loop and he drafted off of me as we caught the first Dixie kid to fall off pace. We made it to mile 2 in 11:30 and then coach Holt told Paul he could win it so I took that to heart and started chasing Nephi. I caught the other Dixie kid crossing in to the center of the course and I saw Nephi wasn't cresting the hills quite as quickly as he was earlier and that was a confidence booster. I caught him before the turn to the bottom of the course and got by him around the tree at the bottom. As I pushed past him before the tree, I had a flash back to the hurricane all-comers track meet and getting on Bryan for going to soon and I realized I was doing the same thing. I really had no choice. I could've attempted to slow and wait for the hills or the final straight away. It's just the fact I had the momentum then so I went for it. From then on it was a constant push to keep the lead for as long as possible. I got 400m left and realized I could win and so I sprinted and ended up winning. 5:14 last mile. That was huge.

Winning a race is a lot less elegant then I expected. I expected more careful planning and deciding when to go. It's all guts and subconscious decisions to fight through the pain.

Backwards junkyard. Legs felt pretty drained until three from the end and then things started clicking.

5x1k

2 mile warm up

3:28 (400m rest in between)
3:17
3:21
3:18
3:16
2 mile cool down

I couldn't get on to the BYU course becuase some team was on it and the track was packed. My dad and I ended up at a soccer field complex a block west of the stadium. There was a gradual uphill the last 400 meters of each repeat. The first one was pretty tiring and the second hurt a lot so I backed off and just kept things as comfortable as possible for the third and fourth and then allowed myself to feel a bit more pain on the last. I was never going close to all out. I tried to keep things as consistent and relaxed as possible. Solid workout for being on wet grass and no downhill to help out. It was way early too and it's usually hard for me to have a good early morning workout.

8.5 total

To the burgess's pool and back. 3.x tempo on the way out. Super easy. Stride felt better during the tempo than during the easy sections. Went 6:35 6:20 and 6:13 and a bit faster pace for the last half mile or so.

Harris took us on the razorback trail today. Tons of fun and that run is gorgeous. It takes all of the spring out of your stride so the way back up main street was rough. That and I had a little less than three hours of sleep last night.

I was tired and exhausted but first double digit run since July 24th. Haha kick workout. (100-200 by 20's starting at mile pace dropping to 400 pace)

27 second last 200, and I was boxed in the first 100 and had to weave through people and cones. Pretty solid.

Good warm up but I was struggling deciding on goals. I said a prayer right before that I could have the race I needed to and my my altra's came untied in the first turn. The shoes really weren't working out. They had no traction on the grass and slipped every time I took a tight turn. I gave up on Nephi cuz I simply couldn't run that today although my legs felt great. It's all good because I ended up pulling Luke to a 15:37.5 and our 1-5 split was 18 seconds. It was the race I needed to have.

7.5

8 strides

2

Started the day with what I affectionately call lead legs and finished with the lightest stride I've felt for a couple days. Good mileage day.

Warm up

4x1200m cruise intervals (tempo effort on the track)

4:24 (about 5:50 pace with the team)

4:13 (about 5:40 pace mostly by myself)

4:08 (about 5:30 pace completely solo)

4:02 (about 5:20 pace solo)

4x200m

31

30

29

27

Cool down

3 after

Fast never felt so easy. Both the 5:20 pace and the 27 was very relaxed. The 27 is especially impressive because I couldn't have gone under 29 last year without killing myself. 

7 miles

8 strides

17:30

Expected a great race. I was way confident before. I guess it's just proof that you can prepare as best as you can but its what you do in the race that counts. Struggled with the mental game around the hills. Should of preformed better.

Felt decent. Canyon view run.

Strides after

2.5ish warm up

5x4min @ 5k pace

2.5ish cool down

I was exhausted before this workout started, and I ran the warm up fast cuz Cole was chasing me. Needless to say I wasn't caught. First rep was about 5 minute pace comfortably. I wasn't using a GPS watch so I didn't know pace during. I hurt for the entire rest of the workout. Averaged a little under 5:20's for 2-5. I was frustrated but I have eaten a ton of sugar because of my birthday and I was tired and it was 20 minutes hard instead of under 16. I was just so drained.

10 miles easy. Warm up cool down etc

I've been lacking in motivation lately. Just no desire to run. It's all wrong. At least my stride felt smooth today.

Warm up

10x loose dirt hills @home depot (6x125 2x150 2x175)

Cool down

There is something off. There is something wrong. This workout was supposed to be hard, but I nearly died after. I would say 8 out of 10. 10 being hardest workout, 9 being Tuesday.

Here's the situation. Last Saturday I woke up at 5 to make it to BYU for my race. The race was pretty bad. I went to bed at around 12:30ish and woke up at 8. 7.5 hours of sleep is about average. My b-day was Sunday and I ate a ton of sugar and got to bed late (7-8 hours of sleep). Monday I was exceptionally not happy and unmotivated. Tuesday I was dead tired and killed myself during the workout. Wednesday was ok. Throughout these three days I've been unable to get myself to do homework, I've been going to bed late because of one reason or another (11pm-6am is about average), I've been sleeping through class more than normal, I haven't wanted to run, I've been a little stressed over a lot of things (band, lack of races before region, grades, etc.) and I ended Wednesday hardly being able to hold a conversation because of tiredness. So today I quit. I slept in until 11 and didn't leave the house until xc. I felt great. I was more energized than I have been in weeks, but then I could hardly finish today's workout.

From what I've gathered from listening to my body I have compound stress and compound fatigue. Each one fuels the other and I'm struggling to break the cycle because now I'm simply less tired with more unfinished homework. With homecoming this weekend and an overnighter next weekend I can't seem to find a way out of this. I need help and advice. Does anyone out there have advice because running hasn't taken so much out of me since my first attempts at high mileage before freshman year?

Got frustrated with school and skipped third and fourth. I ended up running to Kannaraville and back. So 14 then 3 on the CV xc course after.

3 mile tempo with cole and Luke to cv to watch the races. 4.5 before and after. Crazy day with homecoming and all.

Got a crazy week to catch up on. I was still feeling some residual depression at this point but things were going better.

Run 

Kick Workout

More Running

The kick workout was odd. All my paces were jacked up but I finished the full 11 reps and closed in a high 27 which is still pretty freaking fast.

Id personally like to think Garek B for todays workout. It hurt a ton and the right achilles started to flar up, but I think Im just getting over anxiety. Anxiety drains you.

Mile: 5:17 (<3:00 rest)

400: 1:08 (<2:00 rest)

400: 1:06 (5:00 rest)

Mile: 5:12 (<2:30 rest)

400: 1:07 (<2:00 rest)

400: 1:06

30 minutes aqua jogging for a cool down.

Easy day with a couple of hard hill sections. My legs were so clogged with lactic acid. 6:30 pace was honestly easier on my legs than 7 or 8 minute pace. Achilles was just weak. Didn't hurt.

I've honestly forgotten mileage for most of this week. We went running to bicentennial park and did 4x30 seconds at 5k pace or a bit faster. Did 2 after. Tiny hint of Achilles pain.

I was on edge, but excited. I ended up figuring out that I just needed to trust myself to pull through and I relaxed and tried to have fun. Race started well and I was in great position. Then I ate some grass. Foot caught on a flag fence, and I went down. I spent the rest of the race recovering from the crash and the rest cruising cuz I couldn't get myself to go after Id already thrown the race. Beat Tanner so cool. I out kicked a kid or two. It was alright.

My legs felt so incredible before. I was pumped. I was in a pack with a bumch of guys through 1.5 and then I lost the mental battle. A bunch of guys got by me and I sat between 4th and 6th most of the rest. Metal Effort=6. If I woulda been willing to hurt I probably coulda won. I just wanna hurt like I do in workouts. I WANNA RACE FASTER!!!!!!!! I know I have the potential. I talked to Coach Holt and he just basically told me to relax. I really like that guy. XC really brings out the best in people or the best people. I guess both.  My goal for this season is to learn to love xc racing. I wanna learn to push myself to the max.

Positives: I had to kick like nothing else to get a medal. I outkicked a Richfield kid for the second year straight. That one move put us in tying position with weber and we pulled out the win in total time. Congrats to the team. You guys desereve it. 

Easy 8 with the team and strides+extra miles

Ran junkyard except Logan and I connected to blue water tank in the middle. My legs have never felt so strong and fast. I was just a little tired but running fast was so easy.

2.5

3x1mile on Cedar XC course (5min rest w/ 600m jog)

5:13 (net uphill, full 1.00)

5:05 (slight net downhill, 0.98)

4:58 (slight net downhill, 0.98)

1.25 cool down

2 after

I've hit another wall of emotional drainage and depression. It was pretty bad Sunday, but I thought I was over it. I haven't had enough water and too much sugar and I was stressed about this workout. I'm not sure why I was. Overall I feel like it hurt too much for the pace, or the pace was too slow for how much it hurt. The first rep was managable, but 2 hurt and 3 killed.