Eric Nelson's Running Blog

First day back to running from Christmas break. Did a four mile tempo run with Spencer, Hayden, and Joe. When we started the tempos they all took off ahead of me, I can't wait till I'm back in shape.

Just four easy miles with Spencer, Hayden, and Trey.

Did hill repeats on Blacksmith Fork hill, they sucked.

Just did 2 miles inside today because of the bad air outside. After that I went home and did a lot of core.

Ran 3 easy mile for pre-race workout with Spencer and Hayden. I can feel that im getting back into shape and I am excited for my first indoor track meet tomorrow.

Today was the USU Indoor meet. The first event that I ran was the 1 mile. I was the last person to be put in my heat so everyone else was a lot faster than me and that sort of discouraged me throughout the race. The first three and a half laps were fine, but after that it really started to hurt. People started passing me and by the end of the race I was second or third to last. I felt like I had gotten a really slow time, but I ended up with a 5:11. I am pretty happy with this right now because I've only had one week of training and my time was only 5-6 seconds slower than what I was averaging last year.

The 800m wasn't for a couple of more hours after the mile so I took a long nap in between. Like the 1600m, I was the last one to be placed in my heat again. The race felt good except for the fact that I went out too fast.  I finished with a 2:17, I had never really run the 800m seriously before and I didn't really know what to expect timewise, but I think that that is a decent time. BTW, the curves for both races really sucked.

I am excited for the months to come when I will have my endurance and speed back! :)

An easy four miles today by myself at a 7:00 minute pace. It's also the first run in my new shoes. My first two miles felt pretty easy, however, once I got to mile 3.5 I started to get really tired. I finished, went home, and did some core.

Today I ran 7 miles with Hayden. The first couple of miles I did fine but starting at mile 4 it really started to suck and it didn't stop till we finished. When we got back we did five 100m sprints on the track. On this run I found out that my new shoes were too narrow by the toes and I got blisters so I sent them back and am getting different ones.

Todays workout was suppose to be 5 miles starting off at a 6:15 minute pace and then getting 15 seconds faster each mile. Spencer and Hayden did that but me and Trey felt like that was too much for us so we started at a 7 minute pace instead of 6:15. We were right on the first 3 miles but when we were suppose to be going 6:15 we just stayed at a 6:30.  On the last mile my legs killed and I slowed way down to a 7:00 minute pace. It didn't help that I was still sore from the 7 mile run yesterday.

Today was 3 easy miles with Hayden and Spencer. I was still way sore from the previous days but it felt good to go on a short run.

Today I just did 5.5 miles at a 7 minute pace. When I set off I originally planned to do 4 miles but somehow I convinced myself to do 5 and a half. The whole run felt easier than it did the week before.

Today the workout was 16x200m sprints with 100m of recovery in between each one. We started off with a mile warmup to Canyon Elementary and back and then went straight into it. We did it on the road because there was snow on the track. We just measured .125 for the 200m and .6 for the recovery. The first 8 felt ok but the last 8 really sucked. 

Today we went to providence and ran 7 miles. It was suppose to be to be alternating between easy and moderate every mile. Our first mile was easy and that felt pretty good. Once we got half way through the first moderate mile, however,  I started feeling really sick. I finished it and I just did the rest of the run really slowly.

Today me and Spencer went over to Providence and did a hill workout there. We did a short warm up and then did 30, 60, 90, 120 hill repeats. They all really sucked but I could tell that I got a lot farther than the previous week that we did it. We then ran up to Don's house and talked to him for a bit. Then we cooled down and finished with 3 miles. Since we didn't really run that far afterschool I ran 3 easy miles later in the day.

Today Hayden, Spencer, and I went to Providence and ran 7 miles. We started at Zollinger Park then ran up around the temple, down to mainstreet, and back to Zollinger's. I felt really tired before starting the run but it felt good to go some easy distance.

Today I just did 3 easy miles with Spencer and Hayden because they have a race tomorrow. I think that I am going to go do the charity run at Runner's North tomorrow. I liked having a short run after yesterday.

Today since I could't go to the meet at the oval I went and did the charity run at Runner's North. You just go there and pay 5 dollars to run on one of their treadmills for thirty minutes. I had never ran on a treadmill before and it felt really wierd at first but I got use to it. I kept it at a 8 the whole time exept for the last 5 minutes I had it at a 10. I didn't really know how fast that was but it felt cool. Don had also signed up for the same time as me so we got to talk, it was a fun day. 

Today Hayden, Spencer, and I a "hill" workout. We did a mile warmup to a square block that we usually do relays around. The workout was to go fast on the sides across from eachother and easy on the other two sides for 3 miles. At the end I felt really good and I pushed myself more than usual, I still wasn't even close to Spencer and Hayden though :) . I think it took us 5 and a half laps around it to get us 3 miles and then we did a mile cooldown back to the school. My parents brought our treadmill home from our storage unit today and  I think that I am going to start doing 2-3 really easy miles when I get home during the evening.  

Today me, Spencer, and Hayden did our little 7 mile loop in Providence around the temple. All of the runs that I go on are starting to seem easier now so that is good. When we got up to the temple we saw Cameron and Paul running so we stopped and talked to them. I didn't have time to set up my treadmill today so I'll try to do that tomorrow.

Did 6 miles moderate pace with Spencer. I finally did it at a pretty fast pace for me which felt good. 

Today was intervals on Hollow Road with Spencer and Hayden. We warmed up to the beginning and the workout was hard for .25 an then easy for .25. I did my hards at about a 6:15 which felt good to actually be going fast. Once we got off hollow road it was just easy back to the school.

Today was an 8 mile hill workout with Spencer and Hayden in Providence. We accidentally didn't turn where we were suppose to but we still got lots of hills. Once we got to the top of the biggest hill we were really hot so we all took our shirts off which felt amazing. I feel like I have actually started to improve this week which is nice.

Today was just 7 miles at moderate pace. I was planning to do it on my treadmill at home because it was bad air outside but after 3 miles on it I couldn't do it anymore. I got dressed and did 4 more miles outside. It felt a lot better once I got outside. I got chased by a dog for a quarter mile also, so that was fun. Then I finished and did some core.

Today me and Hayden just did 5 miles easy. It was still sort of bad air outside but I didn't want to run on a treadmill so I just went out. We ran down and did spillway in reverse and then went a little farther once we got back to the school. Then I just went home and did some core.

Today it was bad air outside so I had to run on my treadmill inside. All I did was 6 miles easy. It felt super long running on a treadmill like that.

Three miles easy on the treadmill.

Today I did 6 miles really easy and I got to run outside. I started off and my left knee really, really hurt, but I just kept going till one mile where I stopped and stretched it out. After that it felt a little bit better but I started to get a lot of cramps in my legs.  I got back to my house at 4 miles and I was just going to be done. I went and laid down on my bedroom floor for like 15 minutes and then I got myself to go outside and do 2 more miles really easy. Later that day my knee really started to bother me. It's the same thing that I got at the beginning of summer running, runner's knee. I iced it in the evening. I hope its better for Simplot.

Today was suppose to be a progression workout but I just did 5.5 miles at a painfully slow pace. I didn't want to run in case it made my knee worse, but I also didn't want to not run because Simplot is only in 2 more days, so I decided to run really, really slow. My knee had felt swollen all last night and all of today before I ran, but I stretched it a lot during the day. For the first 2 miles it felt like it had for the whole day, swollen and sort of hard to bend, but after that it sort of started to loosen up. By the end of the run I could bend it to its maximum extension point without it hurting and it wasn't swollen anymore. I've been stretching it all day and it seems to still be fine. I'll still have to be careful with it tomorrow probably too, just in case.

Today was suppose to be 10 miles at a moderate pace. Spencer, Hayden, Joe and I ran 7 miles together in Nibley. I stayed with them for the first mile, which was a big mistake. They were going way faster than I probably should have been going and that sort of tired me out for the rest of the run. My mile splits were 6:07, 7:13, 6:54, 7:17, 7:17, and 7:36 with a mile cooldown. I feel like 6:40-6:50 would have been a good moderate pace for me but I was just so tired after the first mile. Later that night I went out and did just 2 miles really easy. The past couple of weeks my mileage has been pretty low and I don't want to injure myself by having it jump up too high, that's why I only did 2 instead of 3. I really want to work hard these next couple of weeks and try to beat my PR in the mile by a couple of seconds in the very first meet.

Today Spencer went and ran in Nibley again, but Trey was here so I stayed in Hyrum and ran with him. We did 6 miles at an easy pace, high 7's, which felt pretty good because my legs are still way tired from yesterday, Trey also hasn't been running a lot so slow was good for him.

Today Spencer, Trey, and I drove over to Providence and did a hill workout. We started off with a short warmup and then went right into it. The workout was six sets of running up the hill for two minutes at 5k pace, jogging back down, and resting for 1:30. I did my first three sets pretty well and got to about the same place everytime, but after that I started to not make it as far up. This workout is by far a lot harder than doing 30,60,90,120, as it's basically like doing the 120 second one 6 times. When we finished me and Spencer did a cooldown and finished with 5 miles. Later in the evening I went out and did 2 more miles at an easy pace.

Today was just a recovery day from yesterday. Spencer and I did 6 miles of alternating between easy and moderate pace every mile. My first moderate was pretty slow, 7:10, but as we got going it started to feel better. My next two were 6:45 and 6:30. Later in the evening I did another two miles at an easy pace. I am starting to feel good again like I had two weeks ago before my mileage dropped, so that's good.

Today I just did 8 miles by myself in Nibley. I was pretty tired when I first started but that went away after a while. I also got chased by 2 dogs on my run so that was fun.

Today me, Spencer, Hayden, and Trey went and did a workout on the track at Logan. We started off with a mile warmup then put on our spikes for the workout (a decision I would regret later in the week). The workout was 400, 800, 1200, 1600, 1200, 800, 400 with a 400 recovery between each one. I tried to stay at an uncomfortable pace consistently throughout the whole workout, which was hard because I didn't have my watch with me. Trey was there also, so that helped to push me a bit. When we finished we did a couple of laps bearfoot and finished at 7 miles. By the end my left calf killed and I rolled it out when I got home.

Today was suppose to be an 8 mile progression run. It was suppose to start out at 6:45 pace and get 15 seconds faster each mile ending with a 5:00. There was no possible way for me to accomplish that so I was going to do the same thing except a minute slower, starting out at 7:45 and ending with 6:00. I started out at the easy 7:45 pace and my ankles and knees really, really hurt but the pain went away after a quarter mile. My left calf was still pretty sore and it just got worse as I ran. At mile 2 I stopped by my house and stretched/rolled it to see if it would do anything. I started off again and it felt better at first but quickly got bad again. It got so bad that I really couldn't run anymore without it hurting really bad so I had to just walk home.
 

Today I just planned on doing a short easy run because of my calf. I started off and it was just a little sore, but like yesterday, it just got worse as I went on. My right ankle also started hurting. It got to the point where my calf hurt too  much to run so I just stopped and walked home again. I didn't just want to do nothing so I rode my went and rode my bike. It didn't really hurt my calf or my ankle so I went 6 miles at a pace that burned my quads. Later in the evening my ankle started hurting and it was hard to walk on.

Today I didn't run at all because my right ankle still really hurt. I think that it is because when I ran the past days I was limping on it and putting more pressure on it because my left calf was hurting. It hurt walking from class to class during school and I tried to stay off of it as much as possible. Track started today and I have the 5th hour class. While everyone was out running I went in and talked to Marcus our athletic trainer. He made me put my legs in tall tub of cold water and ice that had a pump in it that turned the water round like a whirlpool for 20 minutes. It was excruciatingly cold at the beginning but my legs eventually got numb. When I got out it felt like it had helped my calf a lot but not so much my ankle. Depending on how it is tomorrow I will probably have to take the weekend off in order for it to heal.

I just wish that it had occured to me on monday that running 6 miles in spikes that I am not use to may not be the best of ideas.

Still not running today because of my ankle. Today at practice I just did a lot of core while everyone else did a hard workout. It feels a lot better than yesterday and it should be all the way better before monday at most.

Today was the first day back of not running for about a week. Spencer, Hayden, and I started off with a mile on the track and the team warmups then we went out to the Stake Center and back for 4 miles. Then we did 4x100 meter strideouts on the track and finished with a half mile barefoot. I felt a little more winded than usual from not running, but that will probably be gone by the end of the week.

Today I started off with a half mile on the track and then the team warmups. Then Spencer, Trey, James, and I went and did the 2 mile mcdonalds loop for our warmup and went back to the track. The workout was 4x800m at 5k pace with a 400m recovery in between each one. My first 800 I did fine but after that I just dropped like a fly. I don't know what it was, I just felt so exhausted, even Trey lapped me.  When we finished we did a mile cooldown to Canyon Elementary and back and then did a barefoot mile.

Today Trey and I went and did the actual track distance workout. We ran down to the rodeo grounds and did 1 long lap (probably at least 800m) accelerating throughout with a 1 minute rest after followed by 3 short laps (around 400m) at 85-95%. When we were done we were only at 1.5 miles. Trey got a bloody nose so he just went straight back. Me and James went and did the mcdonalds loop in reverse and went back to the school. Trey was waiting for us there and we went and did the mcdonalds loop again with him. I then did one more lap on the track and finished with 6 miles. 

Today I just did 6 easy miles by myself. I didn't get exhausted quickly like I had on Monday and Tuesday so that's good. Also, my ankle is pretty much all the way better now, it doesn't get worse when I go out and run anymore. Tomorrow we are having a team meet to basically see where we are. Even though I really didn't even do any hard workouts this week I don't really think that I am going to feel fresh. I think that I'll probably get around what I ran at Simplot, if not slower.
 

Today we did a little team meet. My legs were pretty sore from getting back into running this week and I didn't do very well in either the 1600m or the 800m. My goal, since my legs were tired, for the 1600m was atleast under 5:20. I ended up getting 5:18, I'm not really mad about it though because I wasn't really racing. Next I did the 800m and got around 2:17, still not very good. Then I went and ran some more and finished with 6.

Today, since Spencer and Hayden weren't running, we had to do the actual distance workout. We got into groups of three and did a little 200m relay sort of thing. We just went till everyone had run 10x200m. Once we finished me and James went and ran till we got to 6.  

Today we went and did hill repeats on cemetery hill. We start at the bottom and run up it and then all the way down the street to the intersection, we did this 6 times. It started hailing when we finished our 4th one and that made it really hard to see. When we finished me and James did Mcdonalds loop and finished with 6.

Today I just ran 4 miles to the Stake Center and back as a premeet.

Today we ran against Fremont and Northridge for our first track meet. It was super cold outside so it was just miserable. The first event I ran was the 1600m. I ended up getting a 5:03, which I'm not happy with, but I'm also not mad about. I just didn't run my race very well, I started out to fast, my first lap was 1:08. My goal for the next meet in a couple of weeks is to get atleast under 5 minutes. I'm going to try to have my splits be 1:12, 1:15, 1:15, and then the last lap as fast as I can. Next I ran the 800m just because I had to do another event. I don't remember my time but it wasn't very good. Then I went and ran a cooldown.

Today was "FUN DAY FRIDAY" where everyone just goes and plays games and doesn't workout, me and James, however, did go and workout. We went and ran Hollow Road at a pretty decent pace. The first 1.5 miles we were going a 6:45 and the next 2.5 miles along Hollow Road we ran a 6:15-6:30. The next 1.5 miles we ran a 6:45 again and the last 1.5 miles we ran at 7:15 and finished on the track with some stride outs. That is probably the fastest that I've ran in a long time and it felt good to go fast. I've made it a goal to try and go harder on days where we have hard workouts.

Today we did a workout on the track. It was 300m, 500m, 700m, 700m, 500m, 300m. After the 300's we were suppose to do a 300m walk and after the 500m and 700m we were suppose to take a 5 minute break. That was way to long for me and Trey so we made them significantly shorter. I tried to stayed right behind Trey on all of them and I did. When we finished that we did 5 laps of going up and down the bleachers, then did some core. Then me and James went on a 2 mile cooldown. I got back and Spencer was done with his run so we did a barefoot mile and I ended with 5.

Today Don had a workout on the track for us. It was 200, 400, 600, 800, 800, 600, 400, 200 with an active recovery half the distance of what you just ran. It was a pretty good workout, a lot better than the day before and I pushed it a little more than usual. Then Spencer and I cooled down to 7.

Today Spencer, Hayden, Trey, and I went and did an 8 mile progression run along Hollow Road. We were suppose to start out at a 7:00 minute pace and then go 10 seconds faster each mile, ending with a 5:40. This was a lot easier than most of our other progression runs we are suppose to do so I tried to stay as close to what we were running as possible. I stayed on pace until around mile 6 where I slowed down to around a 6:50 pace. I then did the 7th mile in 6:45 and pushed the last mile at a 6:20. When I got back me and Spencer cooled down with a barefoot mile.

Today our team had an "intersquad meet", which is basically like a time trial for everyone. I was in no condition to race, I was so sore, so I ended up running the 800m just because I had to race something. Spencer and I then ran upper turkey and I finished with 6.

Today me and Spencer went and did hill repeats in Providence. We were suppose to do 30, 60, 90, 120 today. I pushed on the 30 and 60 and slacked a bit on the 90. But then I really pushed the 120, especially the last 30 seconds. I finished a little bit past the turn, that's a lot farther than the last time we did this workout. Then we went up to say hi to Don and cooled down to 6.

This morning was the Nibley Easter 5k. I was pretty sore today from this week so my goal was to run as slow as possible bute still get first. At the starting line it was just a bunch of kids and moms except for two older guys, one in a red shirt and the other a grey shirt. We started off and I was in lead for the first 1/2 half mile with red shirt right behind me and grey shirt a block behind us. I then started pull ahead of red shirt there was quite a gap between us at 1.5 miles, but grey shirt was still behind me. He passed me at mile two and I was too tired to try to stay with him so I just made sure that red shirt didn't catch up to me so I would finish in 2nd. Red shirt finished in the high 17's and I finished in 18:28. I probably wouldn't have been able to beat him even if I wasn't sore. The top 3 got easter baskets full of stuff and I got a ton of cool coupons. I then wanted to run 5 more miles and finish with 8, but after the first 2 miles my stomach started to really hurt so I just went home. I probably could of ran later but I didn't really have any motivation.

So today we had a dual meet at Clearfield. My plan was to pretty much just run everything easy so I wouldn't be sore for the Grizzly Invitational on Saturday. I ran the 1600m first and I didn't go out fast. My first lap was probably 1:20, which was WAY slower than what I usually run and I was in the back of the pack. My next lap I sped up a little, but not much. When I finished that lap James was in first place and was probably 50-75 meters ahead of me. I wasn't tired at all so I decided that I could probably catch him and win the race (Spencer and Hayden didn't run it). I really sped up these next two laps and I caught up to him with 200m to go. I kicked hard and finished first with 4:59. I was super suprised by my time because of how slow my first laps were. Next wa

Just a 3 mile pre-meet to Lincoln Elementary and back.

So today was the Grizzly Invitational at Logan. The 3200m was one of the first events and it was pretty cool outside when we ran it. They had us start staggered on mini-waterfalls, I actually quite liked this start better than everyone just on the big waterfall. I had never ran the 3200m before so I didn't really know what to expect. Trey ran a 10:40 at our first meet, so that's the time that my goal was around. I didn't start out to fast, I just stayed with the pack that was close to me. Throughout the race I just slowly passed people one by one in the pack. I finished 10th with a 10:33, which I was pretty happy with.

After I cooled down I just sat in the sun for four hours till the 1600m. The whole time I waited my hamstrings killed. They were pretty sore before the 3200m. Anyway, when the 1600m finally rolled around I was starving, even though I had eaten two PB&J's while I was waiting. We did the mini-waterfall start again, which I liked. I didn't start of fast like I usually do, I just went out and tried to stay with the pack in front. I stayed with them the whole race and finished in 5:01. I was happy with that considering the circumstances. Next week at Cache Box I want to just run the 1600m and my goal is to try to have a good race and qualify for BYU(4:49).

Just 4 miles easy  pre-race with Matthew.

Today we had Sky View Invitational. I got there at around 8:40 and I didn't run till probably around 10:00. I warmed up a little bit with Trey and James and then we raced the 1600m. My goal was to try and get 4:49 and qualify for BYU but it was SUPER windy and it made running from the 300m mark to the 400m mark really difficult. The first lap I just tucked in and stayed with the group, I was towards the back of the group when we finished  the lap. The next two laps I tried to pass a lot of people when the wind was to my back and I did. The last lap I really caught up to the group in front and and finished 7 seconds behind first place with a 4:51 and got 4th place overall. 

James, Trey, and I then went on a cooldown and then it was time to start the 800m. My goal was to qualify for BYU it and get 2:10. I know I can get that easy if I was fresh, but today my legs killed from running the 1600m and it was still really windy, so I really wasn't expecting to make it. Regardless, I tried my hardest to. First lap was 1:06 and second lap was 1:05, so I finished with 1:11 and got 6th overall.

Pretty pissed that it had to be crappy weather today, without the wind I would have qualified for BYU in both events. Atleast I PR'd in the mile, I guess.  I think we are trying to get into another invitational next saturday so I might have one more shot at it. 

Today we had a workout on the track. We started off with a mile warmup, then we headed outside onto the track. We started with an 800 in 2:20, then we did 8x400 alternating between 1:05 and 2:00 each time. On my fast one's I got 1:10, 1:11, 1:12, and 1:13. I was a little bit confused about the workout and I didn't know that we were on our last one, I could've ran that one faster. When we got done with the 400's we did a 1000m. After about the first 400m I was freaking tired. I finished that in 3:04. We then did a couple more laps on the track and then me and Spencer went and did a one mile cooldown.

We are going to the Orem Tiger Trials on Saturday so I still have one more chance to qualify to go to BYU.

Ran 4:49.7 in the 1600m and 2:09.95 in the 800m. Missed qualifying for BYU in the 1600m by .7 seconds and barely made it in the 800m by .05 seconds. Pretty windy.

Got 2:09.5 in the 800m. Got boxed in, couldv'e ran a 2:07 and won my heat...

PR of 4:47 in the 1600m today.

PR of 10:28 in the 3200m today. Rekt Trey and James.

Took the end of this week off of running. I'll start doing some distance next week for cross country and hopefully start updating my blog more.

Just 5 miles easy today, went and ran our course by myself.

6 miles easy today at home.

Only 3 miles today because I rand with Zach at school.

We didn't have school today so I ran just 5 easy miles around Nibley. I wore some new shoes today that I got for when we have up-tempo runs during the summer. I really liked them, they felt fast and springy.

Last day of running at Mountain Crest ever. James and I jogged over and ran through our course for the last time, they are getting a new course next year at the American West Heritage Center. Running through it brought back many good memories.

Today was our last day of school so summer running has officially started. Don wanted me to start doing some of the workouts that we have planned for the summer right now. I did one of the tempo runs by myself in Nibley. It was a 1 mile warm-up and then 20 minutes at 5:50 pace and then a mile cooldown. I couldn't quite make the 5:50 pace but I averaged 6:05. I'm happy because we did this exact workout on the first day of summer running last year and I could barely maintain a 6:50. Super pumped to have some fun workouts.

So today I ran in the hottest part of the day and by the time I was done I was just drenched in sweat. I just did 6 miles easy recovery from yesterday. I was really sore so I had to run a lot slower than usual.

Today I ran right before the sun went behind the mountains and it felt super good outside. I did an easy 6 miles around the 10k loop in the new shoes. My feet hurt after the first time I wore them, today it wasn't as bad.

Did the same 6 mile route as yesterday at a slightly faster than average pace. Next time I'll be running it'll be at 6am on monday morning with the new team! I have to miss Tuesday and Wednesday for trek, but I'm super excited to get that over with and start the summer grind.

First summer run with the team, 6 easy miles at 6'42" average pace. It's super nice to actually be running with other people again. I leave for Trek right when I get home and I'll miss the next two days of running.

Couldn't run today because I was at trek.

I got home from Trek today in the afternoon. I got home earlier than I thought that I would so I decided I would go for a short run. I did 3 miles really easy. I had to go when it was still hot outside and it really sucked. I was really fatigued the entire run, I was just so exhausted from trek. I hope I'm not so tired tomorrow.

Five miles with the team in the morning. We ran a 2 mile warmup to cemetary hill where we then did 2 hill repeats. It was really easy and I was feeling really good and then we ran back and did core. 6'40" average pace

Three easy miles in the evening, I ran the nibley 5k loop. 7'05" average pace

Three miles up Baxter Hollow and back with the team in the morning. Going up I wasn't really feeling that good, but going down I felt amazing.

10 miles with James and Neil today in Hyrum. We went and did the upper turkey loop twice and then ran down mainstreet for a couple of blocks then ran back to Mountain Crest. That got us to 9 and we finished with a barefoot mile on the turf.

Started off with a 1 and half mile warmup to Ryan's Place Park where we stretched. The workout we had today was suppose to help us get use to cresting hills in a race. We did it on a series of roads that formed a triangle. We were to run up the hill hard and continue going hard on the straight, turn right (still going hard), then turn right again and just go easy back to the start. We did this 3 times and then we ran back to Zollinger's. Everybody just stopped there but we were only at 5.5 so I went another 1.5 to get 7.

Two miles easy in the afternoon.

So I just spent about 30 minutes trying to talk about the time trial we had today and when I tried to publish it it got deleted, so I'm just going to talk about it briefly. In the end I ended up getting 18:24. I was pretty disappointed with that time, seeing as how I ran a 17:24 the very first week of summer, but our new course is way hard. I think that it's a lot harder than the course at Mountain Crest. They have 2 little hills while we have 2 giant hills and lot of gradual uphill. I did stop to tie my shoelaces twice during the race too, though, and I wasn't really looking at my watch and I had never run the course before so I was pretty suprised when we turned to come down the last road and the finish was just half a block down. I could've sped up a ton more before that. If I could've ran it again and not had my shoelaces come untied I think I could have gotten under 17:10, at the least. I feel like I'm a lot faster than I was at the beginning of the summer and I can't wait to go and run a flat course to see how much I've actually improved. 

Today we all met at Heritage Park in Nibley to do our tempo run. We started off with a mile warmup and got right into it. The target pace for me was 5:30 for 20 minutes. I could normally do that but not after yesterday, my hamstrings were super sore and I was just tired. For the first 10 minutes I was running at 5:45-5:55 pace and started to struggle to stay under 6 minutes. The second half I had to slow down to a 6:10-6:15. Once I got back we went and did a mile and a half cooldown to get us to 6 miles.

PM - Three miles easy in Nibley. My coach wants me to start running at around 3pm when it's really hot outside so that's what I did today and what I'm going to be doing from now on. I wasn't as tired and I felt a lot better than I did this morning.

Today we had a hill workout at the 4-way stop. So apparently on this hill we weren't going for pace at all, we just wanted to get them done. I wish I would have known that last week when we were hauling up and down it. Anyways, Jonathan and I ran together and sort of paced eachother. This morning there was a warm, dry wind that made my mouth super dry, it felt like I was running in the middle of the day in the heat. We finished and did a mile and a half cooldown back to Zollinger's for 8.

Six miles easy today for the Cabin Run. I had really bad memories of this run from last year so I wasn't too excited to go run it again today. It ended up not being so bad though, I think that the reason that it sucked last year was because we were going so fast. This year I just ran it easy and it was really enjoyable, well, as enjoyable as it could be with all the hills and the heat.

This morning I just ran an easy 7.5 miles for Peavine. I was feeling a little from our run yesterday afternoon and I have a race tomorrow so I just went easy today.

PM -  Easy 3 miles in the heat.

So today was the Mendon Pioneer Day 5k/10k and Don wanted me to run it so I did. I got there pretty early and I had to wait a while for other people to show up. A lot of kids that still run for Mountain Crest ended up coming and it was pretty fun to see all of them again. Hayden was there but he was running the 10k, so my only real competition in the 5k was Branson Fonnesbeck, who is currently the fastest runner from Mountain Crest. We started off and Hayden, Branson, and I immediately took the lead. We started off a little bit faster than I would have liked but it ended up being ok. We stayed together for probably the first half mile before Hayden pulled ahead of me and I pulled ahead of Branson. The first mile was the only part of the course that had any significant hills in it, but they were a breeze compared to the hills on the course we ran on Monday. I finished my first mile in 5:28 and a little bit after that the 10k course took a turn off of our course so Hayden was gone and I was left with Branson. At this point Branson was 30-40 meters behind me and by the time I finished my 2nd mile he was probably 300-400m behind me so I wasn't really worried about him. I was running pretty fast, I think I was at a 5:30 average pace but with half a mile to go I realized that I still had a ton of energy left. I sped up a ton and finished with 16:28, it ended up only being 3 miles though, which I was pretty disappointed about because I was really looking forward to seeing if I could get under 17 minutes or even PR. After today though, I have no doubt that if this had been a true 5k and if I actually used all of that extra energy, that I would be well below 17. Anyway, I was still happy with my time, seeing as how it is a 32 second PR from my 3 mile PR last season and we still have 4 more weeks of summer training till the season starts this year. I'll be looking for some pretty sick times this year. :)
 

Since today was a holiday there was no practice in the morning. I wanted to get up and go run at 7am but I couldn't get myself up and ended up getting up at 9 o'clock and running at 10. It was around 85 degrees when I started running but the heat didn't bother me to bad. My normal running shoes are starting to tear at the sides so I decided to run in my Zante's today to help break them in for when my other shoes get to the point of being unwearable. I ran a giant loop around Nibley to get 9 miles. At mile 8 I stopped to take a break for a second in the shade of a tree and got stung by a wasp just above my ankle. That scared the crap out of me and my leg hurt a ton for the last mile.

Ten miles easy with James today in the morning. We wanted to go sneak onto the new track at Ridgeline and be the first people to run a mile on it ever, but there was a bunch of workers there so we decided not to. We'll probably go try again sometime earlier in the morning. The run today was pretty fun, we ran around Providence, Riverheights, Nibley, and Millville. At around mile 8 my left achilles started hurting so I stopped and stretched it a bit and then finished the run. When I got home it felt really sore and it hurt to walk on it. I'm writing this at night and right now it feels better, not all the way better though. I'm glad tomorrow is sunday so I can give it a break. Hope it's better on Monday and doesn't lead to anything else.

Today was our first real meet and I was super pumped for it. We got there at around 2:20 and my race didn't start till 5:45 so I tried to stay out of the sun as much as possible. Mountain Crest came and set up by us and it was really fun to talk to them. At 5:20 we did a 1.5 mile warmup and went back to put on our spikes/flats before going to the line. Since we are a new team we all have to order new uniforms. They were suppose to get here the day before Highland but there was a delay and they won't come till September 1st. We had to race today in our cotton team T-shirts in 92 degree weather. I was feeling really nervous before the race but it all went away when the gun went off. My plan was to start off easy and relaxed the first mile and then go harder the last 2 miles. I went out fast for the first straight away and then just stayed where I was in the pack for about the first .75 miles. I couldn't have really passed anyone before that anyway because there was so many people. There was a hill just before mile 1 and thats when I started to pick it up. My watch didn't load in time for the start of the race so I didn't know how fast I was going. I held that fast pace and was constantly passing people for the entirety of the race. We came around the last corner to the straight away for the finish and I could see the timer read 15:45. I pushed hard to the end and I wanted to break 16 minutes so bad but I ended up with a 16:05. I'm not disappointed with that time though. My goal for this race was to get sub 16:15 or get into the top 30 and I ended up getting 30th so I got both of those goals. I'd say that getting that time in the heat while wearing cotton T-shirts isn't too shabby. The hard work we put in this summer really payed off and I'm excited to see how well we do later on in the season.

I've been waiting a long time for this race, it is one of my favorite races of the year. Half an hour before the race started we went on a 15 minute warmup, put on our spikes/racing flats, and went to the line. We started and I went out pretty fast for the first 150-200m and then I just stuck with the guys around me, this year I've been going out pretty easy the first mile and then been passing a ton of people the last two. It didn't really feel like I was going that fast but my first mile was a 4:53. I was pretty suprised when I saw that because that's only 6 seconds slower than my 1600m PR. It was around the first mile when people started to slow down. I was in like 35th place and I started to pass people. Slowly but surely in those last two miles I passed a lot of people and ended up getting 11th place with a time of 16:48. This year they changed the course up a bit and me and a lot of other people got it to be just a little bit under 3.2 miles instead of 3.1. I'm pretty happy with that time because converted into a 5k I would've been in the mid 16:20s and that's a PR. Also, I'm happy because almost every single team from our region was here (there are 2 slow teams that didn't come) and I beat all of them. There is one kid from Morgan that finished 10 seconds behind me, but I think that when region comes around I'll be able to win it.