How I became the best

Really good workout at cross country. We did 8x200 meter hills, and I stayed with Heston on every one except the last one. On the last one I started too fast and Heston pulled away in the last 100 meters, and fletcher had an amazing sprint and got me. Warm up and cool down was a mile.

4 miles in the morning with Nate, guts, and fletcher. We ran up the big hill by diamond fork and a loop around there. Nate had us finish fast, but I stayed back because I wanted some recovery.

5 miles later.

Easy 3 miles, did 4x100 strides on the grass barefoot. It felt really strange, my back was arching and my legs weren't moving quick enough.

Great race today! I ran the 10k and got a huge pr! My previous pr was 36:30, I beat that by 2 and a half minutes. I got there at 6 and started warming up at 6:15. Went to the bathroom twice and did some strides. I found Nate and Heston and we all started together. That first mile was kind of slow, I'm not sure what the time was. It felt easy but I didn't want to push the pace early and die at the end. There was a pack of 8 or 9 in front of us three, but they were flying so we let them go. Our second mile was mostly downhill and it was pretty quick. Heston and I started dropping Nate at about mile 2. We ran together for another mile and a half and then someone caught up to us. We stayed with him for a while and then he started pulling away. I decided to go with him, and I guess Heston wasn't feeling it and he stayed back. The gap that kid made was a little too big and I never did catch him. I Caught another person around mile 4.5 and stayed with him until 5.75 or so, then he made a move and I gave up. But with 400 to go I heard footsteps behind me so I just layed it all out there. Honestly it was probably one of the fastest kicks I've ever had! I caught the kid that made a move on me and gapped him a ton. Finished in 34:05, a really big pr! I got 8th which is better than I was expecting. I also threw up at the end. Cooled down a little with my mom afterward. 9 total.

7 mile run with Nate. Probably low 7 pace. Felt great but my legs were pretty sore.

Am: 5 miles with Nate. Total was 37 mins so we averaged about 7:20s maybe. I didn't feel that tired at the end which is good because most of my runs are a lot slower than this.

Pm: warmed up 1.38 miles, then did 2 tempo intervals. The first was 1.33 miles at 6 pace. Then I jogged 2 miles and did 1 mile in 5:40. Cooled down 2.42 miles. I was going to do another of these workouts, but I think I need to take it easy.

5.7 miles with Heston in the morning.

4 miles with Heston and Nate in the morning.

5 miles later, did a faster mile in the middle.

9.33 miles at over 8 minutes pace. Mostly a recovery run so I can have a nice long run tomorrow.

Really solid 15 mile long run, finished in 1:49:30, averaged 7:18 pace. I had a few fast miles in the middle, it was awesome because I didn't even feel like I was going fast! Splits were 8:26-7:51-7:48-7:06-7:09-7:26-7:01-7:25-6:46-6:31-6:45-7:05-7:13-7:11-7:46. Much better than my usual long runs. 

2.25 miles at cross country we warmed up then ran 3x600s at 10k pace. I felt really relaxed and it wasn't very difficult. When I got home I ran 5 more miles and threw in a 1 mile tempo at 5:30 pace. That felt harder than it should have but it was pretty hot when I finished. 

8 mile recovery run. I started picking up the pace half way through but my hamstring started bugging me so I slowed down and cut it to 8 miles. Swam a little when I got home.

Went to practice today. Nate and I did holds while everybody else just did mileage. We ran to the junior high and did the hill on the north side. It's not super steep but it's pretty long. I beat Nate each time by about 3 to 5 seconds. Ran a little more on the way back to the sports park to add to five. 

7 miles later to get mileage in.

3.1 mile warmup, then 4 mile tempo at sub 6 pace. I thought it would be a lot easier than it was, but there a few reasons why it was harder. I did hills yesterday, I didn't hydrate very well, and I was by myself. I'm pretty pleased though because it was my first really solid tempo of the season. Cooled down 2.5 miles.

I'm just going to say I did 3 miles. I played soccer with my brother in slc while we were at my sister's tournament. I didn't have any time to get an actual run in, but I guess it's fine because I need some recovery. 

Tried to do a 10k specific workout, but had to cut it short. Warmed up for 30 minutes (3.1 miles), then tried to do some mile repeats at 10k pace. I got through the first one pretty well in 5:30, but the second one was terrible. After a quarter mile I got a really bad cramp. It was probably just because I was dehydrated, and I stopped after 0.55 of a mile. So I tried to do some mileage but I was completely drained and I could barely manage 8:30 pace. I was pretty much just trying not to pass out.

4 miles at night to get my weekly mileage where it needs to be.

For cross country we went to the springville reservoir and did a run on a trail through the canyon. It was pretty hilly and the whole team ran together for the first two miles. Then everybody turned around but the varsity kids. We went probably 7:20 for the next two miles, then Heston and I picked it up a lot, I swear every time we run together we start racing. Our last mile was definitely sub 5:30. Total of 6, then we jumped in the 10 degree water and swam for a while. Pretty nice workout.

8 miles later. Coach saw me running and told me to stop running so much, so I'm going to do like 48 miles or something this week

6 miles easy. Ran on the grass for a bit.

So I was an idiot an slept in till 10 because I'm lazy, and I missed practice. Did the workout at 8:30, and it was dark by the end. Workout was 4 miles of 60 seconds easy and 45 seconds hard (5k to 10k pace). I got to try out my new shoes and they feel awesome, and they glow in the dark which makes them 5 times as cool. Workout felt good, not too hard. Just taking it easy for my 10k on Friday.

4 miles. I felt really nauseous and out of energy. My legs were heavy, probably slower than 9 minute pace. I was going to do some strides but I wasn't feeling it.

Ran the speedy spaniard 10k today. I felt similar to yesterday. Warmed up 1 mile with like 5 strides. I lined up with Heston and the American fork kids. We started and I stayed in the front pack. I left Heston and didn't see him again until the end of the race. I thought I was running kind of conservatively, but it was too fast. Joe Simmons surged away from the rest of us and I ran with an older guy and Patrick Larkin from AF. He got away and so did the older guy and I ran by myself for another mile. I put in a big surge after mile 3 and caught Patrick. Then another high school kid caught us and I tried to go with him, but he was going to fast so I slowed down again. I ran with Patrick for half a mile and then he surged and I couldn't follow. Almost right after that I got really bad stomach cramps. This happened a few weeks ago and I was worried it would get bad enough I'd have to start walking. I probably slowed to 6 or 6:30 pace the last two miles. I was probably on pace to go low 33 before my cramps. With a mile left i was basically crouching over because it hurt so bad. I looked behind me and saw Heston about 45 seconds behind me. I tried to push it on the last mile but it wasn't enough. We passed the 6 mile mark and a few seconds after Heston came past me really fast. He beat me by 10 seconds, I finished in 34:40, which is an alright time. I really wanted to get top 3 and break 34. Cooled down a little, I felt really sick.

Woke up late and tried to go for a run at 3, but it was in the upper nineties. Only went 4 miles. 

Lots of swimming later

First day of xc camp. We went down to Mt Pleasant to this sweet cabin in the woods. It was like 7000 feet elevation. Once we got there we went on a team run, really easy about 4 miles. Later we did a 5 mile run with a 2 mile tempo thrown in there. Despite the altitude it felt super good! It was also downhill which probably made it easier, 5:30-5:28. There was a strong headwind which didn't seem to hurt us at all. Had a pretty sick game of capture the flag afterwards, #teamhéroe.

Second day of camp. Woke up and destroyed everyone at ping pong for an hour (not to brag or anything) and then had a great hill workout. It 2x(4x90 second hills). We had to get further each time, so the first one was supposed to be easy. A bunch of the younger runners got excited and ran hard the first few though and it made it tough to get around them. I was ahead of Heston for the first 4, then we stayed together for the next set. It started really hurting on the 6th one. To practice surging and catching up to opponents I let Heston go about a second ahead of him and I would real him in in the last 200 meters. I tried to stay with him on the last one but I had nothing left, but I gave a good fight, I only finished 2 or 3 seconds behind. After we jumped in literally the coldest water I have been in, like it was probably 33 degrees. 

Later we drove all the way up to the summit of the mountain and did a 4 miler with my boyz on skyline drive, 10000 feet elevation. Legs were dying from this morning but it was an amazing view. 

Last day of camp ;( Our run today was a mile race up the road to the cabin. The course had over 1300 feet of climbing in one mile so it wasn't going to be fast. We ran down to the start as our warm up and stretched for a while. We started and Heston made a 5 meter gap. I ran with Nate and Fletchmeist for 2 or 3 hundred meters and we caught up to Heston. I immediately put in a surge when we caught him and put a 5 meter gap on everyone. We came up the first big hill and I just relaxed and focused on not dying. At the top of the hill I could still hear footsteps and I looked back and only saw Heston about 5 seconds behind me. It flattened for a sec and I regained my energy for the steepest and longest hill. Part of it is steeper than 50 percent grade. I pushed up really hard and realized I may have gone too hard. My quads were frozen and I could barely move my feet. It was a relief getting to the top of that thing, I flew down the other side. Halfway up the next hill I looked back and Heston still had not gained any ground on me. It was then that I realized I might actually beat Heston at a race this short. I made it up and down that hill then up the last hill and won by about 10 seconds. I went back down the course with Heston and cheered people on. Team héroe won by 25 points! #yeeyee The time was ridiculous, 6:45. 

At 7 I went for a 6 mile run, felt good. 

4 in the morning with Nate and guts.

8 later by myself. Pretty easy.

6 at xc practice. Probably 7:15 pace, my knee was really bugging me so I'm going to take it easy tomorrow and ice it.