Life Liberty and the Pursuit of a Shiny Gold Medal

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