Train insane or remain the same

Saturday long run. Good end to the week. We ran towards Rainbow Gardens. Felt pretty good, legs just a little ginger toward the end.  

Zach, Tracen, Carson, Tyson, and I. Easy 53:30 on upper but we ran up Luge to get there and wow that thing is awesome. It was a good time, good temps. My right hamstring randomely tightened up a lot after we finished, even when I was stretching it. Barefoot strides, it didn't cause too much of a problem.

4xMile repeats  @ Beus 

15ish minute warm up. Stretches, strides. 400 @ 72. Workout was mile repeats. I had a goal going forward of doing better to feel the pace during workouts by not looking at my watch, going off of feel and adjusting accordingly. Well I forgot my watch today lol so I had no watch to look at which actually was kinda nice. Goal pace was 5:06-5:12. I hit 5:12,5:07,5:08. Legs were feeling great, it was really hot but I did a good job of fueling and hydration today. Coach was originally thinking to have me do 3 miles and then an 8 and 400 but I was running really smooth and consistent I just did a 4th mile. It was 5:11. Good day, really happy with the workout. Cooldown, lifting, ice bath. 

Easy 50 on Pipe with strides. 

AM: 4.5 towards South Ogden 

PM: 4.18 easy. I get to race other people for the first time in soooo long tomorrow!!!

Drove up to good ole Twin Falls to race at CSI. Warm up. I was sweating a bunch even just during the warm up. Got the spikes on, a few strides. First mile: Nice and chill, was running with guys from Group three. Hit 5:29ish. The second mile you get a bit of downhill and so I used that and picked off people. On the watch I had it as a 5:24. Mile three, coming back up is where it started getting harder physically and mentally. I think my mind got into race mode and I made moves like I was running a 5k but it was a 7k, and I still haven’t been home that long so I slowed quite a bit but not terribly. I was still moving up places at least. 3.5-4 kinda hit a tough spot and some guys who had been by me for a bit moved ahead of me on the uphill towards the final stretch. I let them go for a sec, gathered myself and then threw in a nice kick the last couple hundred meters. Tbh it was a faster kick than I thought I was capable of and felt nice to have those fast twitch muscles working at the end and to leave guys. I mean it felt terrible, I was so tired at the end but ya know the good tired. 

Positives: Even tho I was really tired from the last couple k’s, I kept working and didn’t just throw in the towel. Put up a nice last couple hundred, got the legs moving, passed a few guys. 

Things to work on: Staying patient, remember it’s a longer race. Working together with teammates. 

Cooldown around the course barefoot, briefly ran up to the waterfall. Good day

Went over to the Parkway for our long run. My legs felt pretty good for having raced the day before. I can tell I'm getting stronger. Nice weather, good morning, delicious bagels after. 

AM: 57ish minutes from the house up to campus, out on Pipe to the viewpoint and back. Legs felt good. Smooth run. 

PM: 31ish minutes on the loop from Beus on lower and back. Good times. Strides. 

3x800,400,800,400,800 at Beus. 

2.5 Warm up to Beus, stretches, strides. Workout was 800's at 2:30-2:34, 400 active rest. 3-4 minutes in between sets. Averaged 2:31's, was locked into the pace nicely with Tracen and we were working together. Everything felt good, felt strong. Dropped a couple seconds on the last one. 

Cool down, lifting, ice bath. 

Recovery day that I was looking forward to. Slow start to get the most out of recovery day. Picked it up towards the end which I didn't really want to do but my legs were just going naturally so it wasn't too bad. 

strides

8x400 

Warm up and then some 400’s on the track at 70. It was a nice tune up. Cooldown 

AM: Easy 50 down Harrison and then a few strides. Feeling good for tomorrows race. It was changed to USU's course due to bad air quality in Utah County. Last time I ran there was sophomore year, I'm excited to run fast and see how it goes. 

Warm up, drills, strides. 

Didn't think about the race very much during the week. I got to the race and didn't feel very pumped so I tried to hype myself up and get mentally read to grind. Got ready and I was good to go.  

Went out quick to not get boxed in and then settled into rythmn. First couple miles just chilled. 1st mile 5:06 and 69th place, 2nd mile 5:17 and 61st place. Once we got to the top and headed downhill I started to pick it up a lil there. Coming back up the second time I was cautious to not go too hard and not have a kick at the end but looking back it is downhill to the finish and I saved a little too much. 3rd mile 5:26 58th place. Pushed it til the finish, had a good kick. Last 1.3 at 5:17 pace and finished in 47th. Overall I'm happy with it. It was another solid performance. I moved well throughout the race. Now we are gonna get a few solid weeks of training under our belts and then at the USU invite I want to go and really push myself to see what I can do.   

30ish minute cooldown with the boiiis. It was a lot of fun having a meet in Utah which meant seeing so many running homies. Shout out to fellow bloggers and childhood friends Nick "Hell Raiser" Hill and Preston "Warbeast" Warby for coming to the meet and cheering me on. 

AM: 2 Hospital Loops with Jamison. On the second one we did a couple laps around the pond.

PM: Did the full Upper run for the first time! Pretty excited. Ran it with Carson. Strides after. 

4 sets of 3x600 with an additional 600 at the end @ Beus

Warm up, drills, strides, workout. Paces for each set of three 600's got ever so faster. If I remember right, first set was 1:51, then 1:49.5, then 1:48, and 1:47. It took us a few of them to find the right pacing but we got it down for the most part. They were faster than the other stuff we've been doing at Beus but it didn't feel that much harder. The last one he had us run fast but a controlled fast at 1:38-1:40. Good workout. On Thursday its supposed to be cooler so we are gonna do our workout on the grass! I like the grass. 

Cooldown. Lifting.  

Recovery 60 on Pipe. Strides. 

3x2k, 1xmile 

Warm up over to the soccer field. Drills, strides. Workout was 3x2k. First one was at 6:27 but adjusted a lil slower after that. We then hit 6:32's. Pacing wasn't very smooth on the two but third was a lot better. Then 1 mile and I hit 5:08 and it was really smooth. Started dry heaving the last 200 of the third 2k but finished and then the mile was fine. 

Some barefoot on the grass and then finished up. Lifting.  

Soooooo today I took my very first college exam!!! It was great but the one down side is that it took a really long time. A long enough time that I couldn't run home and get lunch so I had to buy lunch on campus and eat 15 minutes before running. I got to the locker room and realized that since I didn't go home I didn't get my running clothes either lol smh. Carson stepped up big time and supplied me with shorts, socks, and shoes haha.

We had a distance run that I took pretty easy. We went on Pipe and finished on Mt. Ogden and Gibbs, that was a tough last mile or two. Strides. 

Ran from Coach P's house. It was my first 90 since being back and it was also the most difficult trails that I've done since being back which made for a tough run but we made it out alive haha. Im really pleased with it and with this whole week. It was a hard week but a great week for building the base that I need for the months to come. 

AM: Chill morning run on the Hospital loop. 

PM: Ran Middle for the first time. It was sweet. Really liked it. Bonus, the fountain of speed was on! Apparently middle has more verticle than upper.... Strides. 

Warm up to Beus, drills, strides

Workout was 2x400,7x800,2x400,2x200. Faster on the first two 4's. Then 2:26's for  the 8's. Back down on the 4's and 2's. We were running pretty smoothly on the 8's. It was all feeling pretty good. 

Cooldown and lifting. 

Easy 40 minutes. Going down to St. George this weekend! I’ll be at the Cedar invite so I get to see some Pine View homies :) 

Drove over to 21st street Pond for the tempo run. I like that place. It's really nice for tempo runs with each lap being a lil over a mile. 

Warm up, strides, drills. Workout was 2mile tempo, 90 sec rest, 2 mile tempo, 8 min rest 6x400. I hit 10:28 and 10:23. It felt smooth, good strong effort, my achilles was fine, fun times. The 4's were faster to open the legs up a bit. Cooldown and then lifting.    

Carson and I embarked on our totally lit weekend in St George right after my History class. We got to the Cedar invite with a JV race to go and then the varsity. The team raced well and got 1st for boys, 2nd for girls. After it was all done, Carson and I did our 60. It was perfect timing. Light when we started, dark when we finished, and an amazingly beautiful sunset during it. We ran down Thunderbird way and got on the Coal Creek trail going into the canyon. Good times.  

Did about 65 of my 90 with the guys. We ran on the River Trail which I've done before while in St George. Its right below the house of a family friends house that we've stayed in. Its flat and fast so that plus the guys being a little antsy made it a medium effort. I got some of the run on my watch and then some on Juliens. About 6:25avg for 14 miles. Had some nice chocolate milk after and a lil nap. 

The rest of the day was pretty sweet with going to Pine Valley and playing pickleball.