How I became the best

3 miles at my sister's soccer games in park city. Pretty slow. I have efy next week so I get to do what I want so in going to do a few workouts specifically targeting my half marathon.

Later I did lots of squats, sit ups, crunches, planks, push-ups and pull-ups.

5 miles in the rain with the varsity kids and Wyatt. 

So in going to efy this week, I'll probably have to wake up at like 4 to go running

So the counsellors aren't letting me run... I'm actually really pissed off about it, now I have to like sneak away during free time to go, and even then I won't have enough time. They also aren't letting me practice piano while I'm here because it's "too loud". But the piano is in a sound proof room, so they're making no sense at all. I really hope. This doesn't ruin my chances of having a good half marathon and xc season.

My mom checked me out during the dance so I could go run. I ate way too much at lunch, I felt sooo heavy, it was weird. I was going to do an 8 mile tempo but that went down the drain, I was just concentrating on finishing. It felt terrible. I'm not sure what I'm going to do for the rest of the week.

Got home from EFY (finally). It was great but I really needed to run. Ran 3.5 with my mom before my little brother's soccer game. 

I tried to do a long run but I'm an idiot and did it in 90 degrees. I was going to throw in a 4 mile tempo but only got 2, and it was way off pace. 6:23-5:57. I'm going to go again tonight and get a good tempo in. 

5 miles tonight with 2 mile tempo, it felt great! I'm seriously like so happy with this! Warmed up two miles and started the tempo immediately. My pace was all over the place for the first half mile and I kept looking at my watch. Eventually I settled into a nice pace. Came through the mile in 5:40. I was still feeling super good and I guess I sped up. I looked at my watch at like 1.5 miles and I was going sub 5 pace. Hit the second mile in 5:26, a bit too fast but I felt like I could have kept going for a few a long time. My legs don't even feel that tired from this high mileage day. My half is in 2 weeks from today, I'm so excited!!!

6.4 miles at xc. Last 2 miles were really fast, probably tempo pace or faster. Finished with  Heston, fletcher was about 30 seconds behind. Averaged 6:55. 

5 really slow miles when I got home. Averaged 8:00.

6 miles with Nate. We went pretty slow and met up with Wyatt and Alivia after a mile. Probably 8 minute pace

4 miles later. Also really slow, I felt out of energy though. Speed workout tomorrow.

Woke up at 5 then set my alarm for 6:45, and did wake up till 7:20. So I got ready in literally 30 seconds and remarkably made it before the workout started. I got maybe a quarter mile warm up. The workout was 4x(400 building strider-200 all out-600 race pace). All of these had a 100 to 200 meter jog in between. The first one I stayed with Heston for most of it, but I've was going really quick. Even on the 600 it was hard to stay with him. The second one went pretty much the same. Then We had a long break and started again. I was out in front the whole time with Nate not too far behind. Heston wasn't far either. On the fourth set I stayed with Heston for the sprints but when we got to the 600 his speed was ridiculous. Heston is and 800 meter guy, then fletcher passed me, he's a quick sprinter as well. Nate and I were behind them on that last one. From this workout I think I see I can beat Heston if I push hard the whole race. Waiting until the last 800 or less won't work out for me. 1200 cool down, I'll do more later.

Did some more speed stuff because I just felt like it. My mom took the kids to north park and there's this grassy area that's .17 miles (275 meters) so I did loops on that. 6 laps warming up, then 3xloops at full speed. First was 41.9, then 41.98 and 40.4. There was a hill so I incorporated that into the loop. Shoutout to my mom for timing me <3 1 mile cool down.

10 miles. For some reason I have a problem taking my easy runs actually easy. I kept speeding up involuntarily, and my legs still felt pretty tight by the end. I'm hoping they'll be good for tomorrow, I've got a killer workout planned!

Went to the track at 7:20 and ran a mile warm up. My workout had intervals decreasing from 1600 to 400, with 2000 tempos thrown in. So 1600-2000-1200-2000-800-2000-400. The mile was perfect. I hit every 200 in exactly 40 seconds so got 5:20 pretty easily. My pacing was super good today. The 2000 was in 6:55. 1200 was also 5:20 pace, I got 4 minutes exactly. The next 2000 was 7:05. My 800 was 5 minute pace, 2:30 exactly. Next 2000 was 6:55. I tried to kick the 400, but didn't get as fast as I wanted. First 200 was 32, and I finished in 64. My splits were like perfect today it was weird. 800 cool down.

4.5 mile trail run to the hot pots with the team. Nobody got in the hot pots, but when we got down back to the start we all jumped in the river. It was cold but good.

I was up in Kamus at my family reunion. Instead of running 6 miles I was going to do a 2 mile swim. I soon found out that swimming long distances takes a lot more upper body strength than I had! Yeah I only got a quarter mile in, it was bad. I was really active today though so I think I'll cheat and say I got 60 miles this week haha.

Had our team trials today. Ran to the pioneer cemetery as a warm up which is 1.4 miles. We started fast and after about 50 meters it was Heston and I, then Nate not far back. The downhill was super fast, we were going sooo fast I thought I was going to fall. On the bottom we just cruised. I was going to make a move and try to break Heston 50 meters from the hill, but we were already going a pace that I could barely handle. I guess I wasn't really prepared for this to hurt so I took my foot off the gas on the uphill. He made a gap on me but I did close it a little at the top of the hill. I put in a half hearted kick at the end, Heston beat me by 7 seconds. Nate was about 10 or so seconds back, I'm not quite sure. I'm so excited for these next 2 xc seasons! Coach thinks we could take state next year! After a lot of pancakes and a parents meeting I ran a mile and a half back home.

Went out again about 10 minutes after I got home. Maddie, our top girl, came over and we ran together for 2.5 miles then she went home. I was going to do hills but decided to do a steady state run in stead. Splits for the second run were 8:19-7:36-7:48-6:32-6:48-6:31-6:34- and 5:04 for .71 miles. Felt really good, not that hard. I'm kind of bummed about not being with Heston, but I think I will be at the end of the season. Me Heston and Nate are gonna be the guys to beat next year!

So todays run sucked. I won't go in to detail because I wrote this big long thing and then accidentally deleted it. 7 miles

2 miles in the heat with fletch and nate. Will do more later. First XC race tomorrow! And my half on saturday!

7.2 miles really easy at night. Did 2 strides after and some drills.

First official race! Warmed up 1 mile with the team, and about one more about 30 minutes before the race. Maddie did super good! She got 6th and alivia got seventh. I was pacing fletcher today to because I was going to do a half marathon this Saturday, which I ended up not doing.  The start was really fast and the course was ridiculous. We had to run under these metal bars that several kids got closlined by, and it was really twisty. I got into maybe top 20 and I turned around to find fletch and he was right behind me. I started running 5:30 pace like he wanted but he was having a rough time. He kept working hard to catch up with me and then he would slow down, and work his way back up again. Our first mile ended up being 5:43. I was encouraging him the whole time, but I guess he just isn't good enough for that pace yet. He's put in great mileage over the summer and I think he will get there. Second mile was 5:46 and coach told me to just go and get as many people as I could. I was 17th at the time and I pushed it hard and closed with a 5:12. So I passed 13 people! Oh and Heston won which was freaking amazing! I got fourth and Nate got 5th. Our next guy was fletcher who got 20th. We really need those back guys to improve or we won't win region. Salem beat us by 8 points. I think if I had actually raced I could have gotten first or second. I'm pretty sure I can stay with Heston. Cooled down .5 miles with taya afterward. I'll run a few when I get home.

4 miles easy.

Missed xc so I ran later at vasa. Workout was 2 miles tempo. Warmed up 3 miles at 7:30 pace and did the tempo at 1% incline, 10.2-11 mph. First mile was 5:40, second was 5:29. Felt good, I get really sweaty when I ran in the gym though. 1 mile cool down.

Got to run with Nate and his brother spencer who is at byu now. He's soooo fast! He's gone like 14:10 in the 5k so he probably thought we were so slow. First few miles were 7:30s, then a one mile 'tempo' that felt faster than it was, probably because of the hill. Talked a lot about training and funny races he's had, he's a cool kid. He dropped Nate and I off while he finished to 12 miles. Really solid long run! I'll do more later

6 miles in the heat. We should have only gone 6, it was too hot.

Pretty good race today! Warmed up on the course with the whole team, and then cheered on the girls while we jogged around some more. Stretched and did some drills. I got in 5 strides before the start. When we started the kid in the alley next to me like pushed right into me which made me push Heston and he got a terrible start. Right after that though I got out in front and I lead until 400 meters. Heston passed me at 600 and I hung on to him for a minute. I was feeling good, and I really wanted to be Heston! So, I took the lead and opened up a gap pretty quickly. I never looked back, but I'm pretty sure they were far behind me. I just kept pushing and pushing and there was just nobody around me. When we crossed cement I could hear spikes 5 to 10 seconds back. I put in a few surges to make sure nobody caught me. Passed the mile in 5:14, about where I wanted to be. Then at about 2 miles I could tell Heston was catching me, and I through in another surge to get away. About 30 seconds after that he blazed past me, using a downhill and pretty much sprinting. I stuck with him, and kind of nudged him to get the inside of a corner. He passed me back 50 meters after that and used an surged up a short hill. I let him go a little bit, but made it up fairly quickly. By this time we were on our second loop. I stuck right behind him for a while, then with about 800 to go there was another short uphill. He surged up that and my legs locked up and I couldn't follow. I never looked back to see if anyone was behind me, but I just pretended someone was there to motivate me to keep it up. When we got on the track I put in a half hearted kick, but overall this was a good experience. I've never been the frontrunner in a race, it flet amazing! I was so in control! I'm actually kind of suprised Heston caught me. He's a great runner, but he's only been doing 30 miles a week this summer, and he's more of an 800 runner. I thought I would get him if I pushed from the start, but oh well, we still have the whole season to battle it out. Nate was 45 seconds back, and I felt pretty good about that because I had done all the work to get us that much ahead of the pack! Nate also beat all the Salem kids in a sprint finish, so we got first, second, and third! Our next guys were 9 and 14, this was our first time beating Salem, and they are really our only competition in our region. Super excited for this season! Cooled down a mile and rolled out.

Post race workout: 2 miles @ 6 minute pace. Warmed up a mile and did the workout on a treadmill. Felt super easy, but I didn't want to push it. .5 mile cool down.

Another tough day today. Warmed up to Park Elementary (1 mile) and did mile repeats on the hills. Course was up the hill about 300 meters to Diamond Fork, then down the hill next to it, up a shorter and less steep hill through neighboorhoods, back down, up the hill by Diamond Fork, and back down to where we started. This was one of the hardest ones we did last year, and it was pretty tough today. He wanted us faster each time, so the first one was slow. I led for the first 3 repeats. On the last one, Heston took the lead at the top of the first hill, and the down hill was really fast. The next uphill was faster than we did it on the other ones, and thats when I really started to struggle. The downhill was super tough too. We turned the corner and I was too far outside so he got ahead and I started to fade. I kicked it in again to catch up, and I actually did. But after a few seconds my legs locked up and I faded really bad. By the top of the hill he was 10 seconds ahead, and he got even more on me on the downhill. Splits were 6:29-6:09-6:04-5:39, Heston's last one was 5:25. 1 mile cool down. 

Warmed up 2.75 miles at 8:30 pace, then coach had us do a 1000 at mile pace, but it ended up being quite a bit slower. 3:06 for me, probably 3:05 or so for Heston, 4:55 mile pace. My legs were really sore from 2 hard days and I'm ready for a lot of recovery! Cooled down 1.7 miles. Grass relays on saturday.

Easy miles and some ultimate frisbee.

Got to AF at 7:10 and ran part of the course. Then I waited in the port-a-potty line for 45 minutes, not even joking. Cheered on some people for a while and asked someone to homecoming #slayin Layed down for a while, and warmed up again with the Varsity team. Our top 4 ran and our number 8 had to run. This day felt soooo long, I should have just driven up at like 10. Heston was first, I was second, Nate was third, then Fletcher and Tanner. Heston started and was about 5:10 at the mile, came through the second time at high 5:1X. We were in 9th at that point. I quickly caught the kid ahead of me and another kid caught up to us. I moved past them and started catching another guy ahead of us. Btw those hay bails are freaking annoying. I caught that other kid ahead of me and the one guy that came up to me the first time kept getting in front of me then slowing down, so I just stayed behind him. My coach told me to move up and not let him slow me down, so I swung wide and surged hard. I wasn't feeling that bad, I think I could have gone faster if I had had fast guys to run with, I need to work on running hard by myself. The whole second lap I was trying to catch this guy that was like 50 meters ahead or so, but I never got him. I got a really big gap on the guys behind me, so I was really happy about that. Finished strong with 5:28. Thats a good course, but seriously those hay bails... When I finished we were up in fourth. I think I could have run much faster if I had taken this race seriously and had some good runners to go with. Its really hard for me to push it when I'm by myself. Cheered the rest of my team on for half an hour then cooled down half a mile. Rolled out.

8.2 miles at 4 o'clock. Felt alright until the last few, they were tough. 3 surges in the middle. One on the golf course hill, one on the hill by the canyon, and a 1:30 surge through the grass hopper fields. There were so many bugs today, on every step like 5 grass hoppers would freak out and try to get me.

Am: 5 miles total w/ 3 miles tempo. Tempo was 6 minute pace with anywhere from 1 to 2 percent incline, with the last mile flat. Felt good, not too bad. My legs keep hurting in weird places, and my hip has started to pop when I walk, like something comes across the bone when I take a step. 

Pm; 6 miles with the team. Really hot, first 3 miles were 6:37 pace, then my watch died. A little bit slower for the rest of the run. I let Heston and Nate go ahead and I ran with Fletcher, then surged up to Guts for a little bit, then caught up with Nate and Heston. I did this as just a little practice on catching up to people. Hopped in the river after.