Life Liberty and the Pursuit of a Shiny Gold Medal

It's been a year. It's been one year since I last blogged. I'll admit it. I'm not where I expected or wanted to be. No mission call. No scholarship. No state title. No girl friend. Ah... It's the life. 

Now, where to begin.

This run was pretty tough. It was hot, and I started out redlining it from the first step. It's okay though. I backed off and jogged Alley's Loop. 

8 min pace, not bad for day 1.

Jumping up and down after.

Life story part 1: After struggling through junior season of track on depression meds, I gradually went off of them. I got injured in the second week of xc because I jumped in too fast and tried working 10 hr days. I gave up on work and just tried to live happy. Sadly, I largely failed. I did better than I did the summer before junior year, but I still ended up unhappy and stressed out 90% of the time. I still managed to go into xc with more fitness than I'd ever had, but my lack of mental energy showed in races. When I was able to calm down and race, I did very well. That really only happened a time or two though. The rest of the time I either ran stupid or broke down mid-race.

Got up and went to practice today. It was awesome. I am human. It was hard, but I did it without busting a gut.

7:04 pace, very good for day 2

Weights after.

Life story part 2: Then things went up hill fast. Well state and region were super duper awful. My team only did as well as I did. There's no I in team, but the results don't lie; if I did well, the team did well. We were the best team in Cedar High School History, and we came up way short. We struggled so much. Then, I changed. I got my Faith in God back. I got my fire back. I got my thing going. Then, I ran the race of my life. I ran a 1:12 half marathon at Snow Canyon and took 5th. I averaged the same pace per mile at the half distance that I did at state. I struggled the last 2-3 miles, but my 5:15 average for the first 7 miles was very very legit. I even passed people the whole race. 

I got up early today because I was working for a guy in my ward. Big college. Jogged 8:35 pace for a little over the first mile and then dropped it to 6:40's for the final 3. I was feeling pretty legit. I am super fit, and it's week 1.

7:10 avergae pace, not bad for day 1.

Life story part 3: After falling for the wrong girl and getting my wisdom surgically removed from my upper face, I got my mojo back doing some intense track training. I started into hurdle training, plyos and weights. I was training 20 hrs a week. I wasn't running a massive amount of miles, and my tempos weren't jaw dropping at first like they were in xc, but my speed was fantastic. I was so ready, so pumped for track. I totally wrecked Sage in a 1200 and that was cool.

Independance loop. Started out slower and even cut a corner. Ah. Who am I? Then I took a long cut and my brother got way out ahead of me and so I started going very close to tempo pace. Then I went faster than tempo pace. Then I caught him. Brennon caught up too and we kind of jogged the next couple miles. Then as we approached Corry's house from North Main, we all started to go. I slayed. It was awesome.

7:05 average pace. Not even hard. Not even a gut buster. Week 1 and I'm as fit as I was in mid-July last year.

Life story part 4: Track started well. Then things started to go south. It was kind of like exponential decay. I gradually accelerated farther and farther from where I wanted to be. It got to the point I was running 5 min miles in a 1600. Then I relearned Faith in Christ and what it was to act in faith. I learned how to use my agency to put myself out there and run hard. Then I had three of the sweetest meets of my life. I won my heat in the 3200 at BYU. I won my heat in the medley at BYU. I won the 3200 at Region despite immense heat. I qualified in the 800 by time and place in the final meet. I took 3rd and pr'd in the 1600 at state. The race was awesome despite the lack of a jaw dropping result. Unfotrunately, I did not run the medley. I may've taken state because my buddy Luke was an idiot and went out in a 54 and only lost by .0something. The 3200 at state was heartbreaking, but it was the best effort, mentality and racing I'd ever done in a 32. It was perfect, but for some unknown reason I locked up and ran a 1:30 last lap. It just makes me sick to even think about it. I came so close. I came oh so close to a state title, a school record, a pr and at the very least a spot on a college team. It's not that I was too tired. I was never in serious oxygen debt, yet my arms and legs locked up and my brain shut off. Truly one of the most harrowing experiences of my lifes. I was defeated but still ran a very easy 800. Easiest 800 I've ever run and finished out my high school career beating my two favorite d-hills dudes ;) thanks for letting me win that time guys.

7:15 pace, not bad for working 5 hours before hand, being 90+ degrees and having already partaken of lunch.

Nellie's loop. It was hot, and I was feeling sick to my stomach but what's new.

5th and final story of my life: The moral of the story is God always has to come first. Actually, let me rephrase that. You always come first, and the most important part of "you" is your relationship with God. Then you need to concern yourself with finding the source of happiness in your life, and I guarantee it won't be found in being more self concerned. That sounds backwards, but those who know what it is to be truly joyful know that it can only reliably come through selflessness and true love. No joking guys, love saves lives. 

On a more tangible note, I was more fit last season than perhaps some of my results showed but that's often been the case for me. The important thing is that I raced happy, I lived happy, I worked happy. I ran stronger in those final weeks and had more fitness than I ever had. That is the only real battle, our personal improvement. Oh did I ever improve. Some of my track workouts, man, I had a hard time believing just how incredible they were. Big things came from it too. The best part is, God gave me one more season #BYUBound #onemoretime 

Harder-ish trail run. It was actually really nice to be back out in the world. It was slow, though. 8 min pace or there abouts.

I should lift later today.

Went on a date and hiked 4+ miles. It was beautiful. 

Thanks to all who appreciated my ramblings. I'm sure there will be more to come some day ;)

AM: 7 mile out and back by myself because the idea of waking up at 6 just makes me sick to my stomach. Thus, I go up at 6:30. Went out to the temple sight the long way and back. Averaged 7:40's out and 7:00's back. Not bad. The runs I've been doing aren't gut busting, but they aren't a walk in the park either. I just want to be to the point by the end of August that I can go this same route out at 7:00's and come back in 6:20's feeling good. The lightning was pretty much overhead the second half of the run.

PM: Sat around forever, but I probably got myself a job at hotel's breakfast bar. I've earned it. It was the fourth time in the last two weeks I've asked the people at the desk about it. Not to mention the 10 other applications I've put in. Regardless, I did my usual three loop in a record time. 3 miles in 18:47. It felt like the opposite end of a tempo. In other words if a tempo's borderline oxygen debt, than this was borderline easy pace. It was just on the other side of the totally comfortable line. Eh, whatever. I just wanted to prove to myself I could run six minute pace comfortably still (or I was just mad about the computer beating me in FIFA 16 *shrug*), so I ran comfortably and ended up with a nice time. I'm not sure why I'm still rambling or feeling kind of lame about it. It was actually a pretty decent run.

Jumping up and down afterwords.

Goal reached for today: I made it on the mileage board! At least for a few minutes ;)

AM - Tried to get up at 5:30 but failed. I got my ten in and still managed to get to work on time. The run was nice. I just ran comfortably the whole time but still hauled. I didn't even realize until after. The route was basically a super extended bike path narrows. The sweet thing is my GPS registered more uphill than downhill. In other words, it was a tough run. 7:10 pace with the first mile at 8:30 pace. This run honestly reminds me of one I did last fall. Similar distance. Similar pace. That one was definitely easier, and I felt like I was flying. Today's run was more just a straight aerobic stretching, and it was still a solid time.

PM - 3.1 in 22 min. 7:10 pace I kept this one totally 100% easy, even up the last hill. New loop. It's a nice one. The hill at the beginning is kind of nasty. It's so awesome that I can fully impress myself on every run I go on. Mile splits were 8:23, 6:45 and 6:35, respectively. Again, I never see pace until I upload my run to the computer. I just use my polar for distance on runs. Running relaxed is just fast right now. I like it a lot.

Stretching and Eccentrics. I'll do core tonight.

I worked for nine hours today and I did a lot of heavy lifting. I'm debating about what to do about weights.

3/5ths of the way up the mileage board already! I'm getting there.

AM - Tried to get up at 5:30 again. Failed, again. Just hit snooze approximately 30 times. Ah the joys of 8am work. I actually went to run with the XC team. I was intentionally taking it easy and ran with a couple of girls and then Brady and Josh, both new freshman. I only did four with them, so I went out and hit another two around my house.

Jumping up and down after

Cinnamon rolls after that... I need to work on nutrition.

PM - After working another 9 hour day and having a job interview I came back and did another 3 easy. I made up another new route. I think I like it the most of the two new ones. It heads out to Main and back on Sage. It's the easiest way to deal with the hills.

7:40's pace on both runs today. Progressively faster as always. I just wanted to make sure I was all the way recovered from my first day over 10 miles in a very very long time.

Sitting 10th on the mileage board as of right now. Yeah! Motivation!

AM: Did 9 this morning. I started with my normal three mile loop. Then I ran my new 3.1 mile loop. I finished with my favorite of the two new three mile routes. The entire route had so very many hills. It was a pretty solid medium run. 6:55 pace. If the first mile had been on pace with the rest of it, the run would've been under 6:50's. I was moving really well. I had to stop at Days Inn to use the bathroom but other than that it was a continuous run which has been the goal lately. I am still just amazed at my physical capabilites. Not getting injured for nearly a year does incredible things to your aerobic capacity.

PM: Worked till 8. Didn't get a run in. It was sad. 

AM - Long loop around the hill. 8.4ish. No pace because the watch was dead. I'm assuming it was low 7's. It felt pretty alright. The hills didn't stink all that much. I kept it pretty chill.

PM - Worked until 5. I went out and ran 4.5 with some hill sprints after. The hill sprints were only 5 seconds long which is so short it's almost comical. It felt so good to get the legs churning. The funny thing is I started moving fast uphill, and then I turned uphill and into the wind. I decided to pull off the pace and jog the rest in.  I looked back at the pace, and it stayed the same the whole run. I was just working really hard and I jogged really fast. I don't even know. The wind was pretty awful today.

I thought the only way to get passed my intrinsic fear of the long run was to just run downhill south to Kannaraville. I was hoping to do 15-16 today. I didn't run in the morning because I was up rather late Friday on the phone with this one person that I've never met. It's weird dude. It's weird.

Anyways, I left about 6 and ran south...into a 20 mph headwind. I ran in 15-25 mph headwind gusting to 35 for TWELVE MILES. It was basically the worst thing ever. Not only, did the wind not ease up, but I couldn't enjoy the downhills because those were the parts that the wind was the absolute worst on. It was definitely the hardest run I've done in a long time. After pulling nails out of the studs forever yesterday and fighting the wind today, I could hardly lift my arms above my head to get my shirt off afterwards. It was tough. Next time I will not run into the wind for so long.

Finished 14th on the mileage board this week. 

Next week goal: Top 10

AM - Joined the team. I kind of don't like doing it too much. It's just a lot of waiting around for people, running other people's paces and generally feeling out of place. Once we finally got going and after a mile of the most miserably boring jog ever, we did the usual 1.5 mile time trial down the right frontage road. It's a fun one because there are some ever so slight rollers, slight down hill and a lot of flatness. When I was thinking about this two week ago I thought sub-7 would be good, but then I thought this would be several more weeks out. I went out a little stupid, but I just wanted to find out where my fitness was. I was lucky enough that I wasn't totally out of shape, and I didn't slow too much. 2:22, 2:33, 2:22. 7:17 total. My brother caught me after the half mile mark and even tried to drop me a few times, but he was laboring, and I've definitely upped my racing game a notch. We worked off of each other the last half mile, and then I pulled a head by about a second in the final couple meters. Pretty sweet off of nothing to really get the legs rolling. I literally rolled out of bed and ran well below 5 minute pace. The sweet thing is, Jensen is already showing signs of greatness this season.

PM - I've been listening to a ton of the Magness and Marcus podcast on coaching at work, and, besides all the gems of people and coaching knowledge, I am going to be attempting to switch my running to more time and effort based focus instead of the distance based way I've always done in order to maximize recovery, time on feet and overall endurance. For me, running by time is a much more mentally taxing way to run than by running by distance, thus a new place to grow.

Did a 1k warm up and then some grass, downhill sprints 2x30,40,50,60 walking stride length intervals. Followed it up with a 15 minute cool down at 8 minute pace. I figure running fast for easy miles only really benefits on runs not labeled recovery, warm up (the easy section at least) or cool down.

AM - I was just tired from how short of a night Sunday was, so I got out at 6:45. Did the new favorite three mile route. It's really a nice one. I was shooting for 25 minutes, but I miscalculated and ended up 12 seconds over even with a strong finish sprint. I stopped twice. Once to retie my shoes and once at a stop light. Today's morning run was sweet because I ran past the girl's team, and they were all like "Hey!" I'm a sucker for recognition from attractive females.

PM - I was late getting out tonight. I stumbled home from a rough day of work showering in ceiling insulation and drywall, took my shirt off and fell asleep on the the love sac for two hours. That's so unlike me. It was pretty sad, I have to admit.

75 minute run with a 35 minute tempo in the middle. I had this awesome idea to do it based on effort and cut it down. So this is what happened.

21 min W.U. up to the top of the hill. 

9 min at level 1 (fast training run): 1.3, 6:57 pace, all on the hill

8 min at level 2 (really long tempo): 1.22, 6:31 pace, dropped off the hill and saw my ward

7 min at level 3 (normal tempo effort): 1.12, 6:13 pace, Sage to SUU

6 min at level 4 (this side of the red line effort): 1.00, 6:00 pace, up the side of SUU campus

5 min at level 5 (all that's left): My digestive system went pow, and then I knew I was done.

Some distance of cool down... Idk my watch died. I think I ended up right around 10 miles. It was dark and really late. I had a fast five minutes left in me, but my stomach said no. It wasn't time to bust a gut. That takes a while to recover from. The tempo was slower than I wanted, but whatever. I was effort focused. *sigh* Time to recover and focus on improving as much as possible by the fall.

AM - Late morning again after last night's late run. I needed a recovery run desperately after two very tough days. I got in 20 minutes jogging. It gradually got better, but I was so tired. I got in right around 2.5. Probably less. Ugh, that was stinky.

PM - Work was tough, but the time passed quickly. I learned how to use a reciporcating saw and an oscilating saw. I'm no longer an oblivious milennial in the construction world. Go me. It was me, Frankie and a guy from a temp agency named Dave. He's 47 and only has half of his right thumb. Poor Dave. Stay in school kids. Don't be like Dave.

This run was sweet. My mother promised me dinner early today which naturally means it was late. I love her anyways. I waited after dinner for a while. Talked to a pretty sweet girl on the tele for about 45 minutes and then took off on a great run. I was planning a 30 minute out and back, so I split my brain in half and made it a race between the two. The first 30 min brain had to make it hard for the second 30 min brain to get back quicker. Lydiard style, ya feel? Anyways, it was super late and dark, but I ran up the hill and it was beautiful. I started rolling coming back. There was one moment of misery on Cove drive where it goes up a gradual hill for a minute, but the entirity of the run was an easy fast. It wasn't even a medium run. I ended up going 8.2 in 56:50. I flew down Cedar Knolls to my house and came back 3:10 faster than I went out. It was so cool. So awesome. 6:57 average pace. I don't usually publish my splits, but these were sweet.

7:54, 7:10, 7:03, 7:14, 6:54, 6:47, 6:37, 6:16... rollin'

AM - 6:45 this morning. I was in recovery mode this run. I did the SUU loop. Ended up being 28 minutes which is a few more than I was really looking for. Slow pace 8min+. It was necessary. I'm getting my new shoes today, so hopefully that will motivate me to get my run done a little sooner than I have the last few days. I can't tell you how much of a relief it is to get past Wednesday knowing I'm over halfway done with the work week. 

PM - I really enjoyed work today. The guy I've been working closely with the last few days brought in chocolate cake Dunford Bakery donuts. 4 of them. Just for me. I ate 3 and gave one to my mom. That's a lot of deliciousness in one work day. 

I got home, got on my sick new Newtons, or NEWtons as they will be referred to, and set out for an easy 75 minute run on the full trail system. The lacing system was a bit of an issue that I still haven't quite figured out. Reconciling the loose heel and the pressure of the top of my foot was tough. It was weird to run on those awkward lugs, but I adjusted. I've holding true to my no unnecessary break rule, I didn't even stop at the top of the canyon trail. I'm so proud of myself :') small victories, eh. My splits were strongly right (positive) skewed with a mode of mile splits in the 7:00-7:10 range. Data are cool.

Gradual hills are my very worst enemy right now. I'm just very collectively fatigued and those just take it out of me. I need to work on that.  

AM: I really intended to wake up at 6am today. It didn't happen, but I made it out by 6:45 so I didn't totally fail. Put the NEWtons on for another go. I'm just trying to get accustomed to the lugs on the bottom of the shoes. It's a weird process.  Anyways, the first two miles my legs were just so drained. I did my favorite new 3 mile loop backwards. It is less my favorite backwards. A few too many droning hills, I'd say. I sped up pretty well at the end, and got the loop finished 20 seconds within the allotted 25 minute time frame. I'm just waiting for that adaptive process to kick in and make this work/run spartan life style feel comfortable. From what I've read, as long as I don't go beyond the red line and break down physically or mentally that adaptation will occur at some point along the trail to the top of mountain.

PM: Today at work I was given two taco bell burritos because #2ndbreakfast and then taken to Beaver Taco for lunch. Like the nieve idiot I sometimes act like, I ordered two beef burritos. They were legitimate beef burritos. They were fairly large and 95% beef meat and 5% cooked bell peppers. I ate about one and half of the two. I was so sick. I am still so sick. 

I wanted one last run in the NEWtons for the week. My legs were toasted from everything at work over the last week (although today was aboutt he most lax day I've had). I had two words going through my head as I did an out-and-back around SUU campus "Beaver Taco" "Beaver Taco" "Beaver Taco" "Beaver Taco". Stay in school kids. Get a masters in an area that's hiring. Don't eat at Beaver Taco. I went 25 out and got back in 23:36. 7:35 pace on the way out. 7:09 pace on the back. 3/4 of the hills were in the second half. I'm proud of the misery I went through to get the workout in.

I did some hill sprints with my sister filming. It was a beautiful day. I ditched hanging out with people, again, for a very perfect moment with a family member. I'm just working on getting my sprint form better, so I can zip up those hills on the XC course this fall. 

Feel free to take a look at the videos and critique how you will. I'm focused on improvment, so any suggestion would be welcomed.

Sprint Videos

I just wrote an incredible entry about this run, but when I hit publish... it disappeared. Until tomorrow then. I guess I should be more careful in the future. Top ten on the mileage board, though. Good improvement.

AM - Started the week off with a goal to do 30 minutes every morning with alternating runs of 60 min and 80 min ending in a 2 hour long run. I achieved my goal. It was very good.

Got in 4 but very slowly. I started off doing Alley's but was running so slowly I realized I wouldn't quite make it in 30 minutes. I dropped pace dramatically in order to make the route but was mistaken and did it in just over 29 because my addition was bad. 

PM - Ran to Adam's house for him to open his call. Still slow. My stomach turned into the Enola Gay about halfway through. It was horrendous.

AM - Ran bridge. Kicked it down to do it in 29:30. Still slow average pace: 7:40. Generally speaking my legs just kind of feel awful.

PM - Started off down dikes for a twenty minute warm up. After finishing the twenty minutes, I started up the paved switchbacks to begin my 40 minute cut down (10, 9, 8, 7, 6). It went pretty well. Paces were 6:47. 6:29, 6:05 (this one may be slow compared to the actual pace), 5:46 and finished with 90 seconds at the same pace. My legs were not feeling it and my stomach was done. The goal is to get all the way through the final rep and have a 60 second kick at the end once I'm at a stronger fitness level. Finished with 3 miles CD home. Drank too much water, got an awful side ache and ran very very slowly.

AM - Did 30 minutes on the college loop. Ran slower this morning than yesterday morning. Working and running and everything is very hard. I'm just hoping my body will adapt someday. I'm sorry I have no good stories. I've been lazy and have not set aside time to write. This week was pretty hard though.

PM - I wanted my legs to feel good so badly, I think they actually did. I had to retie my shoes twice. I'm having a lot of lacing problems with these new shoes. Both pairs of shoes have issues, frankly. I was a sucker for pain and did something I've never dared try before. I ran the cross hollows loop in its entirety backwards. It's one of the worst loops in the history of the world backwards. Anyways, I ran pretty fast and then kicked it down to try to get the average pace indicative of how good I felt. I just barely missed it and averaged 7:02 pace for 8.53.

AM - Long day today started with 28:30 on a shortened version of college. I hardly ran 3.33 because my legs were so shot. 

I took the day off work because I went through the temple for the first time tonight. It was a mind blowing and physically exhausting day.

PM - Did the rest of my hour and fifty on the longest version of CV I could invent. I was so very dehydrated that I stopped for water at Artic Circle and got an awful side ache from the water cups.

The temple was beautiful and Olive Garden was delicious.

AM - Did the same loop this morning but with my watch to measure it. I ran for the full 30:00 minutes so I got in 3.66. Legs still feel pretty miserable. Slow pace: 8:11. That isn't as awful as yesterday, thankfully.

PM - I started off just doing a 30 minute out and back, but at 30 minutes I was just passing a group of people on the Dikes trail, and I thought it would be weird to turn around with them. So, instead, I ran down and around the old way we used to extend Dikes as a team. Today wasn't too bad. Very fast kick, but I only got down to 7:24 pace.

Today was miserable. Today was pretty alright. I'm not entirely sure how to think about it. Even now, a week and a half later, this run still puts thrills of fear into my soul. I ran Kolob Canyon. I made the mistake of starting at about 7:40. Luckily I had a backpack, my phone and two water bottles. Jensen went with me for the first half of the out portion and then turned around. He really pushed the pace on the initial descent i.e. I've been lazy with pace all week and running remotely fast was difficult. The way down to the stream crossing was relatively uninteresting. Lots of falling light and dirt. By the time I got all the way to the turn off to go see the arch, it was getting pretty dark, and I made the mistake of misreading the first sign and heading into demon infested woods. It was scary, so I turned around and tried to go see the arch. I got within a couple hundred meter and gave up because it was dusk and 9pm, and it was going to take me at least an hour to get back to my parents and the van. I turned around and started hauling. Not fast enough sadly, I made it about 4 to 5 miles out when it was too dark to run. I drank the last of my water and ran by the light of my phone. I fasted in gratitude the next day that I had enough battery and that the phone survived the trip. I lost the trail twice but found it again within a minute or two. That 40 minutes was the longest of my life. I had to keep telling myself that as long as I pushed forward staying on the trail I'd make it home someday. I've never been so happy to begin a 1000 ft climb in my entire life. That moment was miserable happiness. My parent's nearly died from fright and my brother was sobbing thinking I had been eaten by a mountain lion. It was a little over dramatic. Regardless it was nice to see them again after so long in darkness.

Talked to Rebecca every night this week. It was good. Excited for BYU ;)

AM - After a fast Sunday followed by a quick car ride up north, I ran the Provo Freedom Festival 5k. I started off with a 20 minute warm up where I thought I was running fast, and I felt good. Really though, I was jogging pretty slowly. 7:50. My legs had no gears. The race was pretty miserable. I got a decent start then backed off to try to find a reasonable pace. I just had nothing. I was passed by a girl at the mile and tried my best but kind of gave up the last mile because it just wasn't happening. It just was not happening. I ran over 18 minutes and wondered about my future as a runner. Then I remembered the carnage of Saturday that was followed immediately by 20 some odd hours of spiritual food deprivation. I regret nothing, but I don't blame that race on a lack of current ability. Regardless it kind of ruined my day.

PM - The day was pretty decent despite my somewhat melancholy, exhausted and reactionary mood. I finished up with 30 minutes on the Dike trail. The fireworks were consolling and I felt better. Hill sprints in the middle.

I woke up earlier (6 am) to see my scores, but the AP server was down. I fell back asleep. I woke up at nearly 7 to see that I got a 3 on my Lit and a 5 on my Stats test. Looks like I'm going to be a STEM major. 

I got sick today. Was only able to run two miles with a litle pick up in the middle. I am going to be taking a rest week this week. I need it. My legs and body haven't adapted, and I need to try something new.

1 hour of running down to Canyon View. I got kind of sick feeling, but I was doing ok. I ran around the hills there for a bit of a workout. Made it under 7 minute pace. 6:59. I was feeling good, but I was working for it.

AM - Today I realized my need to revitalize my training. I decided that I needed to join my home town XC team until I leave so that I will find motivation to run fast and relaxed and to actually make it up in the morning's. My GPS watch straight up crashed this morning because of the infamous Pokemon GO release. Did a little over 6 today with Cody Drive in the middle. I kicked pretty fast. It was cool.

PM - I was going to a Shakespeare play, thus I had to cut this one short. I ran down to SUMA to find out how much time I had. Then I ran home.

AM - Did a seven miler with the team. Jensen got kind of mad because he was being disrespected by some stupid seniors, so we ran alone. I thought we were going fast, but it was only 7:20's pace. Actually, it was faster, but then my stomach decided to get going and I had to walk a bit to get home without blowing it all up.

PM - Had a magical run. I really wanted a day off of, but I didn't get it. That's ok though. It all worked out in the end. No hauling tile up stairs today. I started off with a fall and slow jogging and a side ache after having eaten dinner at the reunion. Once I made it up to the top of Cedar Knolls, I realized something. I needed to run my classic three mile tempo. It's pretty weak and easy, but that was what I was looking for in this rest week of mine. I just ran as fast as my legs would let me go comfortably and left the rest up to the Lord. My aerobic system was 100% fine the whole time. No O2 debt was to be found. I started to feel sick towards the end, but I toughed it out and finished up in 16:17 or 5:23 pace. That is a standing personal course record by precisely 20 seconds. Now that is beautiful. I walked over to the benches in the cemetary and sang primary songs to myself. Then I realized I needed to try to tempo back up. It's quite the group of hills with no down hill, so I was expecting to be right around 20 minutes. Anything better would require a well type effort. I did what I could and made it to 400 South before a quad weakness from hauling tile started to prohibt my confidence in the integrity of my muscle. I was going just under 19:30 pace and that was the hard section. Then I felt like I should just jog home, and it was wonderful. Even then, I still had a solid spring in my step.

After a rough lazy afternoon off after the reunion, I decided to trade in my long run for a hard trail run up to the C and back. It ended up being a fairly sad run as my quads were shot from so many consecutive days of hills and heavy bag hauling up stairs. I walked as little as possible but still did everything I could to get the aerobic workout. It took me an hour and a few minutes to get up but only 50 or so to get down. It was a beautiful day as always up there. I really love the scar. It's a pretty cool halfway point. Overall a good rest week.

AM: 6 miles in about 40 minutes. We ran Bridge as a team and came back to the Swatc. The guys were antsy to start hauling the whole run, and I used it to my advantage. I executed a beautiful long kick to devestate my brother over the last quarter mile. It was beautiful. I was hauling 4 flat pace, which isn't all that fast, after several successive sub-7's through hilly areas. It was fun. 6:50's average.

PM: I did the same out and back I tried two weeks ago when I was awkward feeling. I started off comfortably and finished comfortably. Easy day at work, easy day in general. I averaged 7:00's with a couple sub 6:45 last miles in the end that I totally wasn't aware of. I'm finally getting back to the way I felt in the second and third week except it's easy and not hard. I like it.