Life Liberty and the Pursuit of a Shiny Gold Medal

Embarrassing frankly. Saides and 60 mile an hour winds prevented me from doing literally anything. Not homework, not running, not eating, nothing. Saides was pretty alright but other than that it was one tough day. 

8 with the team round canyon view. 

2 solo. 

Freaking cold

2.75 Warm up

3x1 mile w/ 4minutes rest

5:18

5:13

5:09

3 miles

It was cold and my legs thought that 5:30 pace was 5k pace. I was just way tired and my stomach was unhappy. I need to get more sleep. I was gonna hit some mile pace stuff after but my body was so toasty dead. On the cool down, my form was absolutely incredible. Everything just felt so smooth.

7 mile with the up and around the hill/cove area

2, 3, 4, 3, 2 w/ 1 minutes rest

33

48

66

50

33

2 mile cool down

The 7 miles was waaaaay fun and the intervals were fast but not smooth enough. Things felt good, form was great on the cool down again.

7 easy with the team

3 easy plus strides in track spikes

Legs feel awesome. Achy but awesome. Pumped for tomorrow's time trial. 

1.5 mile warm up

4:35.9

6 for a cool down

Went 67, 69, 67, 71. Honestly I probably would have pr'd in a race but kicking is so hard solo. Impressed with the time considering it was solo at 6000 ft. Tempo/long run tomorrow. 

1.5 mile warm up

5.5 mile tempo

3.25 home

Rumor has it I ran 5:30 pace for the tempo, but my gps watch was toast so I can neither confirm not deny that fact. Whatever it was it was fast and I felt awesome. Calf cramped after I finished though. I'm gonna need to get it loosened up before Tuesday's workout. 

Jesse Falls today. Fun run, went all the way back in the cave lightless. That was cool. Calves kill. Massaged, did a warm jetted tub, and stretched. Hopefully things are feeling better tomorrow.

Postponing the East High workout until tomorrow, just to make sure the calves are full strength. 

6.5 with team (reverse dikes+shortened college)

3.5 on suu's grass field. 

2.75 workout

East High Workout (ran course continuously, started next rep where last trip left off)

5:13

1:09

1:09

5:19

1:15

1:05

3 mile cool down

The miles were both long and very much uphill. Like legit uphill. Ach. I had to kill myself on that second mile. Legs felt remarkably good, but the cold was terrible and made this workout very difficult, it being the first terribly cold day. Mitchell bet me in the last 400. Frustrating. 

Figure I'd keep it short today.

1 hour adventure run \ discovery park tag

8 strides

2 mile warm up

10:15 3200m time trial

6.25 after

Solo effort with wind and cold. Davidson paced me on a bike. Breathing got shallow and sporadic during 5 to 6. My breathing got back on for the last two laps and I closed on pace and kicked really well. Didn't hurt too much. I felt good. Legs are doing well. 

Miles for warm up

20 minute tempo

Miles later today

Ran around. Stopped for bathroom and after the tempo. Things ached pretty badly on the second run, but things loosened up later.

Ran bridge and threw snow balls. It was pretty chill.

8 strides

2.5

1.5 mile warm up

800 @ tempo pace

2:40

800 @ race pace

2:32

4x400 @ fast (mileish pace)

67

68

68

68

2 miles extra

I honestly can't remember which cool down I did. I can remember the workout. Things flowed incredibly well. Especially on that tempo section, I hit a very comfortable gear and cruised, really coasted, a time that would've killed me just a season ago. 

Made a new run. I call it sketch west. We ran through all the sketchy places on the west side of main street. It was legit. 

Mile extra+4 strides

Legs are starting to flow really well. I am absolutely stronger than I have ever been. Training has paid off big time. 

New dikes, slightly shortened

4x200

29 mid

29.5

29.0

29.1

2 extra

Didn't finish in a 27 like the other guys, but after strides or intervals every day my legs were tired of that speedy stuff. Things were pretty achy until the final .5 of the extra run and then things started to feel really good. Found out I actually got in to the championship race. So stoked. It's time to go race with the best the southwest has to offer. 

Well it's been a week since this run, but I have to stick with the blog. We ran the nxrsw course and the other guys started burning it. I hung back with Harris and we talked. The drive was fun. Oh, and Harris and I almost got nailed by a stray golf ball. Dang golfers can't keep it on the fairway. At the hotel I got some strides and drills in. The town was creepy, but I enjoyed it. No power, no food, no problem.

Ah. Here goes nothing. Not my best work, but this is more for personal rememberance than public enjoyment.

PreRace: I was excited. I prepared pretty well and the legs got feeling good on the course preview the previous day. Our hotel was in eloy and it was sketchyas it gets. A semi ran into one of the telephone polls. We had no wifi, or telephone, or even power. Slept well, ate well (frosted flakes), prepared mentally, it was a pretty normal pre-awesome race routine. Things were good. Legs felt solid on the warm up, execeptionally good for so early in the run, although I was a tad impatient and started a little too soon. The pre-race stuff for the race was pretty legit too. I got my name announced and I talked a little with the guys in my box. I was pretty seriously prepared.

Race: The race went out so crazy fast. I was in dead last after 10 steps. I tried to follow the race plan and stayed as relaxed as possible while ignoring the fact there was a solid 100 meters of guys in front of me already. I found Cubby and Josh and Sage a little before the mile, which was good. First mile was about 5:05 although results say a bit slower. That shouldn't hace been a problem considering I've hit that pace consistently since state without a problem. For whatever reason I hit the mile and I was hurting a bit and I got concerned. Josh pulled away around here and Cubby slipped back. I knew I was slowing down (or at least not running as fast as I needed to). I did everything I could to push it like I had planned to. I expeted to feel like I did at state, a desire to just fly or even just the ability to start pushing it, but it wasn't clicking. I stopped passing and Sage stayed a little ways ahead. I came through the 2 mile and I was exhausted. Pace had slipped to 5:20 or a little faster, which isn't bad for the average 3 mile at elevation and thick grass, but this was Nike. I was on short golf course grass with the best in the region at low elevation, and I didn't have what I had had in most workouts since state. I stayed focus because that was the one goal I could still achieve, and that was the one thing I failed at at state. With .5 to go things came back a little and I tried to pull things together. In the end I didn't get outkicked, finished 135 and ran 16:23. It wasn't what I had wanted, and based on what my coach thought I should've been sub 16 at least. On the upside I beat Cubby for the first time, but I feel bad that he ran poorly. Workouts had been going so well, and its sad to have a relatively mediocre performance to show for it.

The rest of my thoughts: The cool down was nice. I had a nice chat with some of my box buddies. The ride home was long, but enjoyable. Honestly, when I finished I was glad I didn't have to race again. I figure I've raced a least once a month (April was more like 15 times) since January and I'm drained. I've got big goals for track, and I'm pumped to start building mileage again and doing wights and such, but I'm so toasty dead right now. My legs are battered, my mind is exhauste. School has gone downhill lately. I need to finally replace all those friendsh I lost to graduation last year. It's time for running to take a back seat for a little while. 

Good bye, for now, Fast Running Blog world. I will be back when running calls to me again.