Getting back in shape!

        Today was the LRC Cache Junction Time Trail which was an out and back 10 miler. I came to the TT pretty tired from an earlier fish and bike workout. Then sun was blazing and the course was wide open field with no cover from the sun. Usually I'm fine under heat but today I guess I cracked and really burned out the last three miles after a really strong start. My main goal of the TT was to get more points for the overall series and I did score few.

        Later at around dusk I went on a 5 miler that included some uphill and a large set of stairs. Feeling very light I was running about a 6:30 mile pace with not much difficulty. A rare expericene for me this sluggish summer.

An relatively easy run with the XC team. Went fast the first 2 or so miles trying to help Mark catch the fast pack up ahead. Went a comfortable E-pace once we caught them until back to the school and finished with 200 M sprints on the track. Feeling well rested for the Preston Biathlon tomorrow and I hope I can beat last years time of 55:24. The TT bars for my bike should be here by today. I have really been missing them this year in biking.

I was really nervous coming into this race. I arrived at the race and immediately saw some fast college and high school runners. But they were on relays so I knew they would help push me throughout the race but not be a threat. I had made it to the race with just enough time to get set up and was putting on my bid at the starting line seconds before the race start.

I knew the college runner (Josh) would be quick and he said he wanted a 17 flat time for the 5k so I made it a goal to stay with him. Within the first mile it was me, Josh, and some other young guy who was making both of us go faster than we wanted to for the first mile. The first half of the run I felt really good and had both other runners a few meters behind me. Then I started to relax a little and Josh made a move and just slowly made distance on me. As I thought the other runner had started to fast and he fell quite a ways back. After a hill Josh was just within reach and I thought I could get him but I was struck with some side aches. I took that as a warning that I was pushing it too much on the run. I held back and consequently fell back to the other runner and third place. I finished the run just right behind him with a 17:20.

My transition was about a minute or so long and I was soon rolling on the bike getting my gloves and sunglasses on in a hurry. They two relay bikers were far ahead and so I got to work early to try and maybe catch one. I got on the top bars in an aerodynamic position since I was racing without TT bars. I was in a fast position but I was going slow so I didn't miss the turn. I saw a lady in a green reflector vest standing in the middle of road and stared at her for a good 10 seconds to see if she wanted me to trun. She just looked and me and I flew by still concentrating on catching the other guys. I kept it up and soon I got to the highway and was rather confused that they changed the course so much. I looked back and had a guy a good 50 meters behind me and also saw what I thought was another volunteer in green up ahead. Soon the road came to a dead end and I knew then that I had missed the turn. The man behind me (Paul) had turned around the same time I did and we got back to the missed turn, adding an extra two miles to the race. I was super unmotivated after this and just wanted to cruise the bike, but Paul looked at me and said "Luis we got some work to do" which really helped me. Soon after I got off the saddle and took off passing many people with Paul doing a good job keeping up. I even had to pass my little brother who was doing the whole race. I felt really good on the bike and I'm sure I finished at a good time. Not entirely sure what place I was, but that really didn't matter too much after such a good bike. I was happy with my overall performance and won my age group.

Biking in the morning, Cross Country camp later in the afternoon.

XC camp.Four 600 meter intervals and a hill run.

Three seperate runs including a downhill 1 mile race, 4:41.

This is my favorite bike race of the year, but I guess I don't go to many since it is a hard uphill climb from the bottom of the road to Tony Grove up to the parking lot at the lake. After wraping things up at the Cross Country camp with a 1000 Meter steeplechase that I did not take seriously at all, I was doubting wether to go to this race or not. I ended up feeling better after some rest and I felt like taking a shot at it.

I arrived and I quckly saw plenty of talent in the field. USU cyclist Kodey and another stellar cyclist in Tanner were the two main people I was most worried about. Considering how tired I was, my original plan was to just stay in the group and finish in a sprint with everyone else.  So we all lined up and I started in the back according to plan and Kodey was there too. The race starts and I began riding towards the end of a group. I was feeling amazingly better than I thought I would after camp and so I quickly attack and leave my current group to join the equally size lead group with about seven or ten riders. This group stayed in tact until about three miles into the race. I was keeping an eye on Tanner who leading the group and knew he was just itching to take off. He took off while he was leading the pack to my surprise and I wasn't quite sure how to react. But then I saw Kodey who was responding to the attack with an attack of his own. While he was passing everyone to the top, Something just made me go and I quickly pulled left and got behind him. It didn't take us long to catch Tanner and pretty soon it was just the three of us, or so I thought. Up ahead was a Cat 1 rider who rides  for the cycling team, Competitive Cyclist. He had a good lead on us but didn't seem to be getting too much farther than that. Tanner and Kodey were taking turns leading and when it was almost my turn I purposefully started fading away. This made Tanner go to the front and lead, I quickly caught up making, giving myself some extra time to plan out an attack. When Tanner was done leading and started going towards the back I pulled right and just pounded the pedals, trying to take advantage of Tanner being tired. He had beat me the last time and I was worried more about him than kodey, who I have beaten twice in this same race. I dug deep and just kept my attack going with my intentions of having one of the them become weary and want to chase after me instead of working together. I never looked back and made the Cat 1 rider ahead of me my target, hoping to work together with him. I kept pounding but he slowly slipped away from sight and I knew I was going to have to finish it alone. I was less than 400 meter away from the finsih still holding my position and to my surprise Kodey was just right behind me. I tried to sprint but I was already at my limit. He slowly passed me and cheered me on and ended up finishing ahead of me by two seconds.

After the race Kodey told me he had left Tanner shortly after I attacked. He followed my wheel and slowly was catching me. He shortly began vomiting like crazy, which strangely made me feel better about my race because it showed he had pushed himself hard to pass me at the end. Tanner was about 30 seconds behing us. All in all, this was my most excicting race of the year yet due to all the strategy involved compared to my other racees. I will definitely will look forward to next year.

Five mile fartlek. One minute fast at about race pace for the mile, followed by three minutes rest. Only for the middle three miles of the run.

Hill Repeats on Old Main Hill at USU. 5 repeats of about 300 Meters in length each. Pure uphill with about a 13 percent grade. Ran there and back.

Blacksmith Fork ride with Logan Race Club. This TNR was a little long, ran out of water halfway and had to ride a while without it.

Hard six with many up and down hills along the Deer Fence trail. Almost had to walk on the last major hill. Tired from TNR yesterday but was able to keep up with Henry of LHS XC.

Really fast run with the varsity Logan runners, left the pack about halfway into the run and kept the distance.

A few Hills, along campus.

2 mile Time Trial with the XC team. Couldn't keep up with the pack after yesterday's run so I surged really hard to spread it up and then slowed to a snails pace with one mile left. Ended up finishing with a 11:50, about a minute and 30 seconds from the leaders. Then went on a 4 mile run at a very easy pace with no hills.

Didn't feel like running today, played some basketball instead.

Nice, sorta hilly run on the river trail in Logan Canyon with the XC team. Went slow at first than took the trail to Bridgers Look off on a right fork in the river trail. Made it a loop around Spring Hollow and headed back at a faster pace than what I started with.

3.5 at T-Pace

Long run.

First run in my new Asics GT 2160. They seem a bit heavier than my other shoes but it makes up for that in comfort. Running E-pace with them is wonderful while running T-pace in them is not so much. I'm thinking this will be my long run shoe for a while. Today we did 1 mile easy with 4 miles at T-pace (5:54 pace) for 4 miles with a one mile cooldown to end it.

The sluggish feeling I suffered from yesterday didn't go away today and really suffered keeping up with my teamates in this quick and easy run. They all seemed fine and not even tired while I was trying to keep up and take deeper breaths, hope it goes better tomorrow now that it starts with 3 pm practices.

Today we finally started more serious speed workouts in XC. We had five 800s with the varsity pack supposed to be running 2:40s. The first one was a breeze for me and had to keep myself from going too fast. I finished with a 2:31. The rest were in order, a 2:39, 2:35, 2:40, and a 2:40. Finally I'm starting to get back into form after a rough two days.

A slow 4 miles in very hot weather.

A bit longer than I would have liked before a race but felt good the whole way. Running in the sun is going to be hard to adjust compared to running in the morning.

I have a strong tradition of not doing well at the first race of the cross country season. This meet was the American Fork Grass Relays. We came to this meet very shorthanded due to many of our top runners running or helping out in the TOU Half Marathon. Me and Jerrell were the only ones with Varisty expereince in our 5 man realy team. I was chosen to go first and Jerrell last.

I got in a one mile warm up looking around for a bathroom and finally got to the starting line after some delay. A lot of teams put there fastest runner first and so I had some work to do to keep our team alive. The gun went off and everyone took off sprinting. I knew we were all going way too fast for our frist mile but I still kept going probably because I didn't want to let down my teamates. We were all pretty close the first mile but after that everyone started suffering and slowing down due to the fast start. I shared that same fate. The first mile I ran a 5:20 and the second was a 6:13. I was still pretty close to other runners due to them slowing down as well. I felt so bad that second mile that I couldn't believe I broke 12. The many hay bales obstacles didn't help my suffering. Nothing was feeling good and my whole body was screaming for it to be over. After suffering to the handoff with the baton I ran to the nearest shade I could find and contiued cheering on my team.

Turns out everyone on my team ran a slow time for themselves and Jerrell said it was probably beacuse we handn't had many practices in the heat of the day yet. He finished with a 10:30 and 14th overall. Jake Heslington was there and won all comers with a near course record of 9:57.

Workout today was a 3 mile run at E-pace followed by three 800s at T-pace. Felt bad on the run but on the 800s I felt pretty good.

A 4 mile run at E-pace. Pretty easy day for tomorrow's dual meet against Roy at the new USU course. Finally starting to be able to run in the heat without it bugging me as much as last time.

Today was our first dual meet of the season against Roy high school. It was also our first meet on our new course by the Stan Laub center at USU. The course was four loops starting with a small loop and then two bigger ones and then repeating the smaller one.

A girl was suffering heat problems so the boys race was delayed as an ambulance came to pick her up. The heat was blistering and so was the dirt we were going to run on. The race then starts and I get off to a good start. I find myself in a Logan pack and not seeing any Roy kids around I try to keep the pack intact. For about the first mile we were a pack of about 7 strong. A little after the half way mark our pack was strung out and the lead pack was just three including me. It was J.D. who recently ran a 1:19 at the TOU Half and Henry Olsen. With less than a mile reaming Henry began fading and it was just me and J.D. I made a little surge and was able to gap J.D and ran the rest of the race comfortably. Except at the finish I had a little scare from a charging J.D so I had to sprint a little to stay safe. Overall the race felt slow and I feel like I could have gone faster. The heat seemed to affect everyone including the Roy kids. Out team finished with a perfect score of 15-45 on both boys and girls races.

Today we went on a quick 4 mile run along canyon road. Coach let us have a breather after a two meet week. We did have an accelerated last mile.

Slow four mile run to Willow Park, and did some strides and starts there.

I ran in the Aggie Invitational.

wellsville founders day run, 3rd place 36:20. Did it in my heavy training shoes.

Quick 4.

1 mile warm up. 3(1000+800) + 4(30 sec strides) + 1 mile cooldown

Four miles easy for the meet tomorrow.

Was still recovering from a week long flu that one of our cross country runners has been spreading throughout the team. I still wanted to do really good at this meet though considering that just about every high school runner in the state of Utah was running in it. Got in about of mile warm up, that consisted mostly of running around cheering on our teams runners. 

Once at the line my plan was to sprint as hard as I could so I wouldn't get boxed in. We were in a good spot that we just had to go straight to the funnel and not make any diagonals. The gun went off and I tried sprinting but was reminded of why I don't run anything less than the mile in track. I was horrible at sprinting and still ended up getting boxed in, bad. I one point I was running near almost walking speed as we all tried to squeeze in through the funnel just after the wide start. Kept going slow until about 600 meters into the race where I was able to go way to the side and kick up the pace, only I was not alone. Just about every other runner did what I did and I just got more clogged up. Finally at about 1 and half miles into the race I felt I was in the right pack with Zan and Sean, from MC and Nick from Sky view. Sean Faded but Zan got ahead of me but I kept him close. Nick than made a move following his team mate Steve. I kept about 10 meters from Zan but started feeling weak probably due to the sprint I did at the beginning. I faded those last 800 meter but so did most everyone around me. Hunter and Tanner from Box Elder both passed me pretty quick as they seemed to have a strong kick. I kinda just cruised to the finish not having lost most of my motivation.

I'm pretty happy with my time but I knew I could have been at a much better placing had I not died at the end. The two Box Elder Kids that passed me the last 600 meters got just 10 seconds faster than me but about 11 places lower. Oh well, this week we have a dual meet against Sky View and I'm really excited to race with fast team like them.

Today was a hard workout for once. We did a 1 mile warm up and than 2 800s at T-Pace (2:44.) Than followed by two 1 miles at T-Pace, I got 5:40 the first one and a 6 the last one. All with 1 minute rest in between.  Than 3, 200 meters strides which we pretty much did as races. All followed by a 1 mile cool down.

Easy Four Miles! Decided to give the GT 2160s a break and go with the Gel Kayanos.

Dual Meet against Sky View! Went great but took a wrong turn. Basically race ourselves since Sky View held off their Varsity!

Easy 4 with 4 200 meter strides at the end.

Hill Workout at Old Main Hill, 5 600 Meter Hill Climbs at R-Pace, a few I might have gone all out on. 2 miles there and back.

Missed Practice due to Homecoming Week activities. 

Missed Practice Again but did late night workout. 5 400 meters at race pace with 800 meter warm up and cool down. 

Tri-Meet with Box Elder and Bonneville's JV. Both us and BE swept Bonneville but BE had Hunter and Tanner stay up just ahead of our pack. Had I not been sick I would have followed my temptations of going up the extra 15 meters and break up their pack but my head was on fire the whole race with a fever. Don't how but managed a PR of 17:14 after a really sluggish start.

Missed practice again, man Homecoming week has it's up and downs! Did a hilly 4 miles on my own though on the Bonneville shoreline trail. Back to the 2160's again!

After a Long Drive to Boise, we ran the course at the Bob Firman Invitational. Later in the day we might or might not have tired ourselves out playing football and basketball at a middle school close by in Boise!

After a mile warm up, spent half an hour in line to buy spikes for my gel dirt dogs since I forgot mine at home I was still feeling sick but not as bad as the previous days. We were in the Division 1 Race.

At the starting line we got a starting spot via pulling a number from a basket and going to the spot with the number on the sign. The start was divided in two by a line of flags with a podium in the middle for a gun starter. We got the spot just to the right of the dividing flags. Did a few stride and got a team cheer in and waited for the last runner in the last race to finish.

The gun started and Mark and Jerrell had amazing starts at the cost of me, JD, and Sylvan getting boxed in, big time. At the funnel 200 meters from the start (according to a race official even though the starting line was huge, it was designed so that from any spot you start it was 200 meters to the funnel which was a hard right 200 meters from the start) we encountered heavy traffic. A runner slamed into a flag post and three more tripped over him with me getting push around but holding my own. At the funnel we had come to almost a complete stop. After wards the trail was small with not much room to pass but I saw a Davis kid Pushing people through so I followed the path he was making right behind him. There were tons of people so I was a little aggressive with arms moving or pushing some people a bit for both of our protections. The race was a two ordeal around a small lake. I kept making surges passing tons of people but there were still lots more ahead of me. My time seeded me about 40th in this race. Made more gains but soon I found out I had lit all my matches at around halfway through the second lap. Not much more left to go I kinda died but hung on. At the 3 mile marker I was done for I think due to all the surges in the middle. It was my quads that were tired the most. Zan from MC passed me at this point and he was cruising. I finished and just lost out in a kinda slow sprint finish with fellow teammate JD. Zan had surge so much and I died so much that in that last .1 of the race he got 30 seconds on me. 

Overall It was a great experience and Mark who usually runs in a pack with me and JD said that he got a bad start and can't imagine what the rest of us got. Overall it was a neat experience and I was pretty satisfied with the effort I put in. It was a fun bus ride and home and a unique birthday for me.

Felt better from being sick so decided to take the old Pinarello out for a spin in Logan Canyon. It was a neat ride with all the colors and I felt good, even did a few surges on the climbs.

We did 3 sets of 3 400s at race pace on a big hill at a park. Didn't really feel tired afterwards but sure did while I was doing them.

Very easy three miles in preparation for the Cache-Box Invitational.

First race in a while where I wasn't feeling sick. I got a good start and didn't go sprinting with all the leaders at the beginning of the race. Passed quite a bit of people during the 2nd mile and kept my place the whole third mile. I never really felt extremely tired because I was trying to save energy for the end, after past experiences. Still felt hard the last 200 meters where it goes from gravel to grass, that part always gets me. Got passed by a few people there, mainly my own teammates, which was good! Most of our team was really happy we beat Mountain Crest which is usually a very strong school in Cross Country. Overall it was a great race.

Today I missed practice and did 6 400s at r-pace instead of the short recovery run they did in practice today.

Four mile pre-meet.

Just a dual meet against Mountain Crest. I kept the a good pace and I like running on road so I did pretty well, getting 5th overall with 17:18. This was also the last race for my Gel Dirt Dog three. They will now be retired.

Coach had us do a short 3 mile recovery run today.

Today we did a workout I really did not like. It was an 800 meter at T-Pace with 2 minute rest followed by three miles of T-pace, the last mile of which was on the track. I really don't feel like I got anything out of it and I felt like crap, I would've really like to do 4X400s at this practice instead, being so close to the final races.

Took Saturday off and did feel like I got anything from Friday's workout so I originally planned on a 30 mile bike ride today but I guess i got to into the awesome fall colors of Logan Canyon so I went a total of 50 with a short drink break at Rick's Springs. Went at a really fast pace up with the aid of tail wind but kept just about the same speed back to Logan with headwind.

I knew I felt good on yesterday's run because I did not feel it at all today even though it was a really random long ride at an weird time in the season, well I guess I just got into deep thought throughout the ride and it really refreshed me mentally. Today I kept most of the songs I listened to on my ride for my running workout, irritating some of my teammates. Amazingly I felt really good on our 4x400 workout today. I was well ahead of everyone in my pack for most of the races, being a little ahead of pace. Still I noticed I was not as tired as them at the end. So I didn't want to slow down but it still irritated some of teammates that I was going fast, but it didn't get to me.

Just a slow short 3 mile run with 4 100 meters at race pace for region tomorrow.

It was finally time for the region meet. The one race that usually ended my season in the past, and the one race I put was the most important race of this season for our team and myself. We were pretty well matched with Mountain Crest for the final spot for the team qualification for the State meet (Top 4 teams qualify.) Box Elder, Bonneville, and Sky View where realistically out of reach for us as a team so we had to beat Moutain Crest. I had already accepted the chance that I might go my High School Cross Country Career without ever making it to the state meet before the race, but I didn't plan on making it easy for whoever would be the one to beat me out of it. This race was also the debut of my new Racing shoes, the Asics Hyper XC, replacing my long time racing shoes, the Gel Dirt Dogs series.

I got a good half mile nervous warm up and went to the line. I liked our position at the start and ended having an alright start. I felt like I was right were I needed to be the first 800 meters. I was leading the Logan pack which consisted of everyone except for Jerrell (who was leading the race.) We were well packed and I knew they were all right behind me. I knew most trusted me with keeping the pace so I sped up a bit to catch some Box Elder kids, hoping they would follow, as well as catching some Mountain Crest kids. Eventually I was right behind the Mountain Crest pack and saw that the whole pack was right behind me. After a Mile the MC pack started to loose us and I knew we were in trouble. That's when my teammate Henry Olsen came up right beside me and helped me pick up the pace again with his surge. Henry contiuned his surge and dropped me. Soon, Sylvan came and was right with me, which really inspired me due to all the injuries he's struggled with this season. The three of us were making ground on many people while the other half of the pack lagged behind. With one mile left, seeing as how MC had the majoirty of their guys ahead of ours, I lost faith in qualifying as a team and went into survival mode. At this point I made my move, going for the individual qualification in which, in between the last two teams, the first three runners qualify to the state meet. While moving up, I saw how far up Henry was and that the rest of the team was still on my tail, so I regained a little hope because I also didn't see much Box Elder kids around, which really surprised me. Assuming most of the Box Elder kids were already ahead (pesimistic thoughts are unavoidable in desperate situations) at this point I was pretty worried and again lost faith in my team beating MC or BE. So I took off harder, solo chasing after Henry who had attacked earlier. I was still third on the team in the final turn and I felt like I was going to make it to state (since the other loosing team we had already swept earlier in the season and I knew there wasn't any of them ahead of me.) Shortly after this feeling was when Sylvan and Mark passed me with about 100 meters from the finish line. My chances for state gone with them, and that somehow just made me sprint harder for an already lost cause. I finished and immediatly saw the race as my last XC race.

At the finish I was tired, really hot, and sweaty. I wasn't mad, or sad. I had already thought this scenario through and accepted the outcome. It just felt like the real. Whatever feeling it was that I had, I begun morphing it into elation due to reflective thoughts of the season and the sight of happiness in the rest of the team (the girls had qualified as a team to the state meet, and Jerrell had won the whole race.) I just kinda walked around for a while and went over the MC tent to congratulate the kids (who I thought were the ones who beat us for the last qualifying spot. To my surprise they were down with the blues too, thinking they didn't make it to qualify for state, they were kind of laughing at it too, which really cheered me up and caused me to laugh at my troubles. Then I saw fellow blogger Connor Mantz and congratulated him with his second place finish and talked to him about his race. I then went over to my fellow teammates and told most of them it was fun racing them for my last year of XC. That's when they started calling out the awards and I just sat under a tent reflecting on my 4 seasons of XC by myself. After all the individual awards they were getting ready to annouce the team results and I got curious and yondered over. That's when they announced that there was a tie for 4th place (the last qualifying spot) between us and Box Elder. Mark helped me up from the ground and I stood alongside my teammates, Sylvan, Henry, Mark, JD, Jerrell and Josh.  They announced the results and It turned out we beat Box Elder via our sixth place runner Josh and we all just got really excited since that was our goal all season to make it to state. I felt a great wave of new emotion and wandered over to my previous coach, Coach Reeder. I gave him a big hug and we were both way happy for the team and that a longtime goal of ours was finally reached. Now I have a another race to look forward to, with a whole different outlook.

Just at short like 1 mile jog to the park to play firsbee as a celebration for our performances yesterday.

A one mile warm-up, then some stretches at the River Trail in Logan Canyon. Then 1 mile at T-pace followed with 800 meters at I-Pace. Then 400 meters at R-pace on the uphill single track part. Then an 800 I-pace back followed by a 1 mile T-pace back to Stokes NC. Felt good most of the way though I did feel the fast bike ride to the trail.

Didn't feel it today unlike the last two rides. I meant to go a little farther but I guess this is good too.

Today we did a speed workout today, 800 meter warm-up with two 800 at I-Pace (2:44 for me) and then two 400s at I-Pace, though the last one we kinda raced. After that we got all the JV runners and practiced our starts by starting in a small area and funneling into an even smaller area. One runner even got elbowed in the teeth. overall I felt bad at the beginning but towards the end I felt great.

Today we did an easy three miles around willow park for state tomorrow. I'm not nowhere near as nervous for this race as I was for Region. I'll just have to see if that helps me or not.

I decided to go ahead and race in my Asics Japan Thunders track spikes at this race. I had tried them out on the road and cement an it didn't bug me as much as I thought it would.

We got to the starting line and I was behind my teammate Henry. I was hoping he would go out fast and when the race started he didn't. I can't remember how in all the chaos but I maneuvered around him and got in the middle of the pack. Going uphill on the road I realized that I wasn't the only one who was running in spikes. I crested the top of that hill pretty well and passed three of my teammates, sylvan, josh, and Mark along with the Mountain Crest pack. I got up to the two Box Elder runners, Hunter and Tanner and hung with them for a while. Eventually Hunter ell back and Tanner sped up, and then Zan caught up and passed me. Zan surged by me but I surged back and stuck right behind him until about 800 meters left where I burnt my last match and surged past him. I couldn't surge past him enough and he stayed behind but was struggling. Once we got on the track I passed a pack of about 5 runners and thought I lost Zan but I look left and he was right there. the last 50 meters we sprinted it out and he got me by a hair or .1 to be exact. I PR'ed pretty well at this course and my team struggled due to inexperience on hilly courses with the exception of the seniors, Jerrell, Josh, and me. We did beat MC in the team category so that was good. Overall I felt really good today and it was a perfect way to end my last Cross Country race.

Went on my first run, after a week long break. felt bad the first part of it but good the last mile.

Barely had enough time to fit this one in but managed to get another 4 mile run. Same thing as yesterday and felt really lightheaded during the middle of it. I hope to start running some longer distances soon in preperation of the 1st dam run 10K

I couldn't find time yesterday for a run due to studying for the ACT. I did get in one today and I felt kinda bad with stomach aches through most of it. towards the end it did go away though. Also did some swimming and strength training later in the day.

Got a few miles on the stationary bike and then went on the same run as yesterday later in the day.

Found enough time to bike and run today! Went on a 35 miler today on the bike and later got an easy 4 miles on the foot.

Short recovery 4 miler

4X400s today for race Saturday.

Just nice and easy, legs felt really light.

Today was the annual First Dam run. I felt good going into it, trying to carry momentum from the state meet. In the morning for breakfast I ate some grapes that might or might not have been bad. 

I warmed up a mile and saw Tyler at the starting area. I thought he would be my main competition in this race. We lined up and there was a small lead group of about 8 or so. We were all close and two guys that didn't know what they were doing were leading. Then Tyler made his move and started gaping. Almost at the same time me and a local triathlete named Glenn surged away from the group at around mile 1, which was about 7 minutes. We caught Tyler and I kept my momentum to gap them a little. I held my lead till about mile 3 which I was at 17:40. There they both caught me and we ran as a pack. Me and Tyler alternated the lead and started gaping Glenn. Then at about mile 4, instead disaster struck. I took a big breath so I could make a move on Tyler but when I did my stomach felt it was an overinflated balloon. It wasn't a side ache, it was more of a stomach ache. Also at that time my headache that was minor the whole morning until that point flared. I slowly started loosing Tyler and I tried to make one final comeback but to no avail. Soon Glen caught me and he was going strong, he encouraged me and that helped me keep up but it was temporary. By mile 5 I lost Glen too and just struggled to keep going. The last 400 meters it eased up and I got a strong finish. At the finish I nearly collapsed and had to sit down just hold my stomach and take it in. Tyler finished first a minute ahead of me and Glenn was 4 seconds behind him.

I got home, drank some tea and took a nap. I woke up with my stomach feeling better so i convinced myself to go on 35 mile ride around Benson and Mendon. It was really pretty but I went way fast the last 15 miles cause it was getting late.

Went on a fun 5 mile run on the deer fence trail. Had many rough hills and the pace was not constant but it did feel a little to slow for most of the run.

Legs felt really light and good all day so I'm motivated to up my mileage this week. Went on a long mostly flat 10 miler to Benson and back.Kept a nice constant pace that felt pretty quick. Ran the last 800 of it at r-pace.

Went out with Sylvan towards River height that included a very steep hill. Sylvan surged up it and almost ditched me. I need to add more hills in my runs, I was not ready for that. Sylvan kept the pace fast and we met Mark out running and ran the last mile with him and a 200 meter stride. 

Not sure how to describe this run. I ate a lot before and didn't have to time to wait for it to all digest, so my legs were feeling really light and I was hardly tired the whole run but I just couldn't go fast with a full tank. Towards the end, the puking motions went away and I could run faster but for the first 3 miles i was proabaly going like 9 minute miles, and the last 2 were around 6:30.

Speed workout. Started with a mile warm up on the indoor track and then 5 1000 M on the outdoor track in the snow. A runner I was running with kept boxing me in and not letting me pass him so I didn't really feel the 1000's until the last one, which were supposed to be T-Pace. 3 800s were next. I was around 2:40 on each one. Last were 4 200s at R-pace then a 1 mile cool down. Later I did some strength training at they gym.

Took today off. Did some grueling strength training at the gym though. Decided today that I will run the TOU Marathon this summer for my first marathon and do the Bear Lake Brawl 70.3 Triathlon again. I plan to start swimming on a regular basis starting next week.

I got good 10 miles today. Included a pretty decent hill in the middle and the usually uphill first 2 miles. Felt great. I probably started going to fast towards the end of the run.

Started with an elongated warm-up picking up a runner at his house. We ran to Old Main and did 5 uphill 400s. They were all around 1:37 pace. I was on pace but the others were gaping me on the uphill, while I made progress on the flat sections. I was definitely feeling yesterdays run, but just my legs were tired while my breathing wasn't as labored. Weird, because for me it's usually the other way around.

Rolled my ankle walking down stairs today. It's been hurting pretty bad (I've been limping) and so I'm playing it safe by not running today, which would have probably would've been a 5 or 6 mile recovery run

Went on a very cautious 6 miler with my hurting ankle joint. I think i just sprained it, and since I wasn't using it, it became very stiff during this run. I had a hard time turning corners and really using this leg in general. Sometimes I think my high pain threshold is bad than good for me but I had to run today.

Went on a late night run, not that any of my other runs are much earlier, but I started out at 10:30 and went for four. My foot is no longer stiff and after much icing feels much better. I ran pretty comfortably and ran a a quick pace to make up for the short distance.

My foot has gotten better but to no overdue it this weekend I decided to take today off. Tomorrow is the Turkey Trot 10K. Was not able to do it last year and it is a hard uphill course.

Did a mile warm-up and felt ready for the race. I knew this course would be difficult with the many hills in it. This was the biggest turnout I've seen for this race, there were so many people. I have ran this course before two years ago and finished with a 41 or something close to that. That didn't help though cause shortly after the start we missed the first turn, (like 15 meters from the start) and kept going straight. It was some guy in blue that was leading. I was close and about 10 or so guys had to turn around. It didn't hurt much but I couldn't help laughing at the mistake which probably cost me more time. 

I ran with Paul and JD for the first mile. It was a lead pack of about 8 people, including Sylvan and Henry. The lead guy in blue slowly started surging and gaping the group. That's when Steve shot from the pack and caught him. I surged too and caught the two of them. Now it was just me Steve and the blue guy (I didn't get a chance to ask him his name.) Steve than dropped back on the first uphill, I thought about it too because we were starting too fast but I wanted to see if I could keep up with the lead guy. On the second hill I started fading so I let him go as well. He never really took off fast and left me in the dust, it was much more gradual and I used him to make sure I was going the right way. I came in at 11:50 for the first 2 mile. At the 3 mile mark I was at 18:12 and felt a little discouraged by the time. I was still alone but I was expecting to be caught by my teammates or Steve. At the last hill I glanced back and Henry, Steve, Daniel and some really fast girl were within reach. I started to surge, cresting the hill. After around mile four, which I was at 25:20 I glanced back and their was no one. Here I started getting small side aches and I got too comfortable with my lead so I started to kinda slowly cruise. I probably shouldn't of done that, but at the moment I wanted to save some for a kick. The last .2 I heard steps behind me and saw Steve right there so I started surging. I made it to the finish with a 38:02, not bad but could be better. The winner finished 2 minutes ahead. Steve was close behind while Henry finished with a 39:44. Sylvan and JD finished in the 40s.

Overall I thought it was a good race and now the only races I have to look forward are Indoor Triathlons and worse even, Indoor track meets (running circles on a 200 Meter track bores me more than math) for the rest of the year.

Decided to change my usual route up by including an out and back into North Logan. I don't plan on doing that again any time soon though because at around 4 miles I got attacked by a rather strange dog. I was in a rhythm at a fast pace and boom, it jumped at me and I pushed it away. It wasn't big and if it had a collar I would've pinned it but it didn't. It didn't bite but it didn't go away either. It took me yelling and getting mad at it to go away.

Went on another long run today. Talked to the coach today and he want's to put everyone going to footlocker on the same workout plan as Jerrell. It is full of speed workouts with one like everyday. I don't think it would be good for me to switch my running that drastically nor do I plan on doing this new plan at all, though I might steal some of the workouts for some speed days.

Quick run around town. I've been contemplating doing a 5K tomorrow.

I somehow found the effort to wake earlier than I wanted and run this local 5K. I was expecting a small turnout but in turned out the race did a got job getting people out. I was wanting to make this like a speed workout for the week. I just trained through this race unlike the last few where I gave myself some rest the day before.

After a mile warm up I got to the start. The gun went off and a guy took off pretty quick gaping the the pack I was in. No one moved any moves to get him so I did. I caught him, he ran out of gas and I started pulling ahead. Soon though I was caught myself at about 1 mile. Henry, teammate from the cross country team started running right beside me. I ran with him the whole rest of the race and he kept surging and then slowing down hoping one of those surges would work. With about two blocks to go he surged again and gained about 10 ft on me. About a block left I kicked into another gear and went past Henry did not respond. I finished about 5 seconds ahead of him and 15 seconds on Kodey, a USU biker who used to run cross country in high school. I got in a 2 mile cool down in my racing flats, which I finally fully broke in. I've ran this course a few times before and it is quite notorious for being a bit longer than a 5K, so I was not that disappointed with my time. Later I went on a bike ride up to and past Amalga, leaving me wanting more.

Got new shoes today! There a lighter training shoe that I think I'll start using for workouts more and maybe a few races. Around mid-day I went up to Green Canyon and did 2 1000s, one uphill another down and 4 400s, all at R-Pace. I was running fastest towards the end of the workout, which I think I just needed to warm up more. Later went on a 4 to break in the new shoes.

Did a speed workout today. 6 400s at R-Pace with a 3 mile warm-up and an 800 cool down. Legs felt light.

After taking yesterday off I still felt a little sore during today's workout. It was 5 400s at R-Pace. Me, Sylvan, and JD drove up to the deer fence and met Mark to do them on a very steep hill. I was struggling on the hill and also didn't want to push that much. I plan on doing something easy tomorrow to get back in form with the footlocker race pretty close.

Was a very busy day so I had to stop by the gym and get my run in on the treadmill. I went T-pace to make up for the short distance.

We stopped at St. George to do our run. It was warm and we went at a pretty fast pace on the run, mainly because we were running the Mountain Crest kids.

Ran part of the course with Conner and his coach. The course was very muddy but their trying everything to pack it down for tomorrow.

Regardless of my place or time, this was not the best race I've done. Probably the worst I've done strategically. That said, I think they messed up my time because as soon as I got on the track I was at 17:20 and I'm pretty sure I didn't run 300 meters or less in 1:17. After the race was over they posted unofficial results on a board and had me at 17:40. But these are the official results so I'll just go with these to motivate me more.

I started the race with a pretty good start that put me at around 30th. My goal was to stick with Zan for the whole race so I had no strategy besides that. We did two loops for the first mile and I was looking for him and keeping my place the entire two loops. Finally on the first hill I found him but it seemed like he was on to me cause he blew by me fast. I saw him for like 10 seconds and than he disappeared in the pack ahead, he ended up finishing int the top ten. I wasn't quite sure how fast I was going, so I just stayed where I was. I then realized that I was going too slow on the second hill, which was the steepest and decided to surge up it. Dumb choice. I blew all my matches on that surge and only moved up around ten places. I started getting passed by a few people on the back stretch and once the third hill came I blew up. I was pretty close to walking on that part. My legs were really heavy. It is here were I got passed by the most people. The last 800 meters I still kept getting passed but once on the track I found some new life and actually picked up my pace.

Overall it was definitely not my best race but I'm glad the season was over. Jerrell missed out on qualifying by two places but he still beat his last year's time here by a minute or so. Conner had an amazing race, making it to nationals! My cool down was running around watching these guys race. I probably should have done what Conner and Zan did by starting off slower. The trip was fun though and I'm still glad I went.

Rest day.

Second rest day from running. I went on a ride around Benson on the bike and felt better towards the end of it than the start. I tried out my new TT helmet and it fits better than my previous one. Now I just need new Aerobars and I'm set for the CV Time Trial Series in the summer.

Did six miles on the trainer. Went at a hard pace for most.

Went out and back to Newton on the bike.I attacked all the hills and felt better than I did on my last ride. Later I went on a 4 mile tune up run for a race tomorrow.

Today I ran a local 8K race as a training run. It was the Reindeer Run, put on by a local running store. It was a really cold morning and I didn't dress warm for the race. The race started and the wind had blown down the signs of the course and so me and three other people missed a turn and added 1.5 miles of pure hill climbing to the race. I finished at around 43 minutes. Jerrell was here and he went all out but still had trouble with some guy from Idaho. He won by less than a minute with a 25. Later I swam about 800 yards with two 50 yard sprints in the middle. I also did a quick sprint workout on the trainer.

Decided to check out how things were going with the xc runners at our indoor track program. I got them to go on a long run, and we went out towards USU. Later I did a hard speed workout on the trainer.

Late night run around the temple and USU.

Went out for 40 minutes with  1 minute long surges every 5 minutes after 10 minutes into the run.

Went out on an easy long run with Jerrell after he had done some strength workout. We went at a good pace, at around 7 minutes with a lot of hills and I was feeling great.

Nice easy run in the rain, felt good the whole way.

Just had enough time for a quick 4

Met Josh after school and went about 6:50 mile pace for most the run.

Met Jerrell after school and did the loop to first dam. We went about 7 minute mile pace the entire way.

Did a nice pleasure run around USU. Came down with the flu and had to miss some days of running. Did this run still sick but the run made me feel better.

We do our gifts on the 24th so I gifted myself a day of rest from running. So today I went on a 6.5 in the morning. In the afternoon, I set a PR for my coldest run, at 15 below 0 Celsius (5 Fahrenheit) in a quick 4 miles. The balaclava I was wearing proved to be quite annoying and I don't plan on going out in that cold again. 

Had to save a bunch a people in the bad conditions outside so I didn't get a chance to run outside but I did do 3.5 miles at a gradual declining pace on the treadmill 7:30, 6:42, 5:40. Man I hate treadmills, almost as much as tracks.Got some fast swim laps in too.

Long slow distance run. Even with the good grip of the Gel-extreme, I still looked like I was ice skating while I was running. Time to bring out the shoe chains.

Hut my knee playing basketball so I took a few days off until today. Braved the freezing cold for one last run for the year. Reflected on the past year of racing and training and it lacked process goals. That will change for 2013.