Life Liberty and the Pursuit of a Shiny Gold Medal

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 ;)