Life Liberty and the Pursuit of a Shiny Gold Medal

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.