How I became the best

Was going to do 8 and 4, but we were about to leave to Heber so I got in 12 all at once. Nice and slow, averaged 7:33 for first 8 then 7: 44 for the next 4. Legs are pretty tired.

Ran up in Heber in the mountains. Pretty tough hills, put in a good effort. 5.5 miles overall. Went sledding after.

Later I went rock climbing with my sister, we'll say 9 for the day.

Nice moderate workout today. Warmed up 5 miles at around 8 minute pace and did some drills. Workout was 3 miles tempo, goal was 18 minutes. First mile was 5:43. Next was 6:11 but that was uphill so it was probably worth around a 5:55 or faster. Last mile I just lost focus. I looked at my watch about 200 meters from my house and it said I was going 6:20 pace so I kicked it in harder than I wanted to but did barely get that one under 6, 5:57. Felt good when I finished, but the two 70 mile weeks I just did really tore up my legs. Hopefully this recovery week will get them back under me. Some drills, then 1.2 mile cool down. 

Easy run, average 7:40 or so. 

Really good run today, ran my 8 mile loop in the fastest I've ever done it I think! Warmed up 1.25 miles at 7:40 pace. I was planning on doing 4 miles tempo but I wimped out and decided to just do a faster medium run. Started on my loop and just cruised, I felt really good. Splits fo the first four miles were 6:34-6:10(downhill)-6:27-6:28. Because the run was going so well I decided I wanted to negative split it and run hard the second half. Next 4 miles were pretty much a really slow tempo, a bit slower than 6 minute miles. 6:02-6:01-6:24(uphill)-6:08. Finished in 50:17, usually on these runs I'm around 56 at the fastest. 6:17 average, cooled down .35 miles afterward, did some drills, and stretched.

Weights today for practice, not hard at all. I took it really easy today. Warmed up 800, then did some weights. Then we went back to the track and did 4 laps of curves@85% and straights@75%, whatever that means. It wasn't hard, Heston and I probably ran 6 minutes for that mile, maybe slower. Did some more weights, then went 5.5 miles with the other Heston and Alivia, really slow. 

8 miles in one hour at the gym, 7:30 pace about.

5 miles at noon pretty slow. Ran to the long hill by the snake hill, then did some sprints up the hill. 20-25-30-25-20-25-30-25 steps, so anywhere from 6 to 10 seconds I think. Finished up to 5 miles. Later I went on a new 8 mile route that I'll probably never use againl First few miles were low 7's, then I slowed to where I could barely hit 8's. Not a great run.

Really short track workout today. Warmed up 2 laps then 2x400s in 71 (they were supposed to be 75). Went on a 20 minute run, then 40 more minutes by msyelf. 

10.4 miles right after school, 7:30 average. I felt really nice and relaxed, my calves and quads were still a little bit sore from saturday and yesterday, but they will probably be better by tomorrow. I'll probably do 4 more later.

4 miles at the gym, 8:05 average.

First real track workout. I was going to do 6 miles tempo but coach cary told me to do something different. 4x1600 at 2 mile pace to 5k pace, so anything from like 5:00 to 5:15 or 5:20. Splitz were 5:20-5:12-5:18-5:10. I think I could have gone faster, but I was all alone and I'm not too worried about it. It was super hard though, mostly mentally because I haven't done anything that fast for a while, other than sprints. Did a 4 mile cool down but I felt completely drained after 3 miles and I was just trying not to fall over. Good workout, really excited for track!

9 miles nice and easy. I kind of just ran wherever today. I went to the sports park, did a few miles on the grass, ran back home and a little further to add up to 9. Averaged 7:40, but I had 2 miles that were sub 7 just to get moving a little bit. I'm going to take the mileage down to about 60 for the next 4 weeks while I'm racing, then maybe try to get another 70 mile week in after that. I'm running the 2 mile at BYU on Saturday.

7.2 miles slow, 8:04 pace. I got talked into going to my dad's school and playing bball with my brothers so I hope that doesn't effect my race tomorrow. We'll say 8 miles.

Good race for the first one of the year. Not happy about my time or place, but really I'm just getting used to this fast pace after running slow all winter. Ran 3.2 miles easy in the morning, 9:10 average haha. Got to BYU at 3:30, ran probably 1 mile or less warming up about 15 minutes before I started. I didn't get any strides in but I did some high knees, butt kickers, and stretches and that got me loosened up. I was seeded 6th, and when we started I got right into second. I didn't think the leaders were going to go any faster than 60 seconds a lap (10:00 pace) but this kid in front was blazing. I slowed to 5 minute mile pace on the backstretch because I didn't want to waste all my energy at the very begining, and pretty much the entire field passed me. I think I was in last at the first lap but I was right where I wanted to be, 60 seconds. Second lap I passed one or two people, came through in 2:00. 3rd lap was similar, came through in 3:00, next lap was 4:01. By this time I was in 7th or 8th, and there was a pretty large gap between me and the next runners, and I was catching up. Passed the mile in 5:04, even though I had been catching people and I thought I was going faster than a 63 for that lap. The next few laps were where I let go of the pace, just like every 3200 I ever run. I hope this season I can break that habit. I was in a pack of 3, and the lead pack had 3 as well. My pack was me, Adam Wood, and Gabe Prettypaint. We kept switching the lead and trying to get back up to the other guys, but we didn't gain very much ground on them. With 400 to go, Adam made a move and Gabe went with them. For some stupid reason I let them get maybe 10 meters ahead. I worked hard on the back stretch to get up there but Adam was getting away. Rounding the final turn, I sprinted past Gabe but a Adam was few seconds ahead of me. If I had gone with them with 400 left I bet you anything I could have beaten Adam and maybe gotten some ground on the leaders. For tactics, I'm giving this race a B. I started the race in a good position, and then let the leaders get away, that was probably my biggest mistake. I have Weber next week, hopefully I can get closer to 10 then. Cooled down half a mile. 

8.75 miles in an hour at the gym, felt really good. Warmed up with a 7:43, then 7:03, a few 6:40s, a few 7:00's, a 6:00, and finished the hour with 7 minute pace. Cooled down 1.25 after that at 8 minute pace. 

Track practice, we're still doing really easy stuff. Warmed up 1200, then stretched. Workot was 3x600s getting faster every timewith 200 jog rests, but Cable said to keep them relativley slow. First one was 5:16 pace, then 4:56 pace, and the last one was 4:45 pace. Felt pretty easy, I pushed the last 200 of the last one hard so I would get at least a little but of a hard effort in. After ward we did 4X60 meter accelerations. 20 meters getting up to speed, and 40 meters all out sprinting. Felt good, I was almost the fastest out of everyone including some of the sprinters. 800 meter cool down. Went into the spinning room with some kids and biked a mile and a half. Good day of running. 

4 miles later, felt really good. Got down to low 7 minute pace for the last mile, averaged 7:33.

3 at the gym. I left because I just can't handle running there.

7 in the darkness, nice and relaxed.

Good strength day. 2 miles on the bike, and 1 lap warming up. Core and arm workout, pretty tough. 30 minute run after, averaged 7:30. 

No time to run today.

Not a great race today. It started out well but I lost it. Woke up at 6 and we left at 6:30. When we got there I ran 4 laps with Heston, then 8 more by myself. Right before my race I went and did a half a mile outside, and when I got back, my heat was all lined up so I like ran over there just in time. Started out in the second row and went right to the back. There were a ton of really good kids there, 15 people were sub 10 runners, and there were some AF guys including Casey Clinger. Relaxed the first lap and got exactly what I wanted, 38. The plan was to do 38's for the first 8 laps and then negative split it really good. I got too competitive and did some really strong surges in the first mile that really took it out of me for the last mile. Passed the mile in 5:01, barely faster than what I wanted, but still really good. Then with like 6 laps to go Casey passed me and that was like a punch in the gut. I lost the pack of 3 I was with and went into no-man's land. Then another guy passed me, and another, and another. I couldn't tell if they were lapping me or if they were on the same lap I was, and I really just started giving up. My last 3 quarter miles were 80 82 and 82. I had practically no sprint, and quite a few people passed me on the last lap. I also had no idea what lap I was on and I stopped really racing and just coasted in pretty much. During the entire last mile my solar plexus was in a lot of pain and that may have contributed to my significant loss of momentum. Cooled down 20 minutes with Taya, and drove home. What frustrates me even more is that I felt like I put in a really good effort despite my result, but I still wasn't even that tired afterward. I'm going to change my strategy next time and go out even easier the first mile because I am obviously not in shape to do two 5 minute miles in a row. I think I'll just try to go 5:10, and then see how fast I can close the last mile. 

6 miles after I got home and rested for a while. 

Moderately hard workout today, but it wasn't that bad. I jogged three miles on the track before practice, and then we did our workout around one of the school buildings. He said the whole building was about 350 meters around. On the two long straights we would go at 75 to 95% of mile pace with a really short recovery. We did them in sets of two laps. We did three sets of those, then went inside and did a bunch of stairs. 2 mile run afterward, I think it was 7.5 altogether. 

Did a 12 mile long run today and felt great! This is probably my fastest long run yet, if I had kept going I would have gotten my half marathon pr (which isn't that fast but I still thought it was cool). Averaged 6:40 pace, and miles 9, 10 and 11 were all under 6:20. Averaged 6:40 pace for the whole run including warm up and "cool down". I guess you couldn't really consider it cooling down at 7 minute pace, but it was slower than what I was doing before. I do have a race on Friday and this will probably affect it, but I don't care that much. I really need to keep doing these fast long runs once in a while to get that endurance to carry me through the season. I want to get my average pace on these down to 6:30, maybe even faster. We'll see. Quarter mile jog to get back home at 8 minute pace. 

Coach had me do a little tempo workout, but I still had that long run in my legs from yesterday so it wasn't as quick as I wanted it to be. Ran a mile and a half, then did a mile and a half at 6 minute pace. Then I ran a few more miles and did another mile tempo in 5:52. I haven't done tempo in a little while so it felt weird. I also want to do a solid tempo workout before my 15k late in February. I'll probably 4x2 mile tempos at 5:40 pace or so. Anyway, my average pace for the whole run was 7:14.

I can't really remember what I did, but it was probably 8 miles.

UHSTCA championships today. I ran the 1600 and the 4x800 relay, third leg. For some reason I wasn't in the official results so I don't know my time but it was around 4:42. Warmed up 2 miles before the mile. Started on the back line on the inside. When we started I just got right into a nice tempo and tried to relax. This was my first race shorter than 2 miles since May so I wasn't too worried about getting out there with the really quick guys. I was probably near the back of the pack after one lap, but I started picking people off. I caught up to this group and worked with them until the last lap and I passed them and got a gap. On the straight I kicked hard but not all out, and I looked over my left sholder and no on was there. Then literally with like 3 meters left this kid leans and gets me, so that was a bummer. Lesson=learned. Cooled down a mile and sat around watching races until the 4x8. Warmed up a mile with the team and did some drills with Fletch. So Fletcher had a good opening leg, and we were pretty tight with the chase pack when he passed. Then Nick ran a 2:27 for his leg, but we're nt blaming him because he had just run a 30 second pr in the mile a few hours earlier. So when I started I was all by myself, no one behind me and the closest guys ahead of me were 40 meters up. I pushed really hard that first 100 meters to gain some ground and it worked, but the rest of that 400 was way too slow, but I was still gaining ground. On the last lap I turned it on and caught one of the kids in that group that was ahead of me. On the home stretch I passed 2 more kids, and kicked really hard, then handed off to Heston. He ran really solid with like a 2 flat or something. We wanted under 8:30 but we ended up with 8:47. Cooled down a mile. 

Ran out of time to run today. This is getting a little ridiculous, I seriously need to get some miles in. Next week I'll do at least 60, then 60 the next week, kick it up a little higher the next week, and then taper a bit for the slctc 15k.