Well I didn't think I'd make it this far....

AM: This morning I couldn't make practice so I went on my run early in the morning. After a mile warm up on my ten mile loop, I started 20 minutes fartlek with 60 secs rest at half way. The first half I struggled a bit to get moving but I averaged 5:31, then took the minute break, and the second half I managed to average 5:24. I feel like it hurt a little more than it should have, but this is the first tempo I've done in a while, and it was on uphill. So in the future I expect them to be faster with the same effort. Then I cooled down to 6 miles. 

PM: I was pressed for time this morning so I didn't get quite as much as I wanted, and I accidentally napped for 2 hours more than I meant, so I only had time for 5 rather than the 8 I was planning.  

AM: This morning we met at Liberty park. We did a lap on the wood chips as warm up, then did 10X(1 min on/1 min off) around the pond. I did these with Chris and we started out a little slower on the on's than usual, but we picked it up by the fifth one. Then we did another lap on the wood chips cool down, and I added some with the RealDeals to get 8.

AM: Met up with Jake and his group for a long run this morning at Jeremy Ranch. There was a big group, about 12 guys I'd say, which is about 11 more people than I am used to for long runs. We just plugged along at a nice pace and had some interesting conversations. They say you can learn something from every run, and on this run I learned that smart distance runners use PED's whenever they can. (Performance Enhancing Downhill, that is). It felt like we picked it up a bit on they way back, but really it was just the climb of about 400 ft that you really don't notice on the way out. 

Dang, I miscounted miles. Now I hit an ugly number :/

AM: Just the same ol' same ol' for a Sunday. I really should be getting sick of this run by now... BUT NOPE!

AM: Today is the first day of HILL/HELL WEEK! We met at SHP and did an outer grass lap warm up, then four different sets of hills. First we did the road hill, or the first hill in the state course, up from the trees to the tree past the light post where we turn, then we jogged over to the top of state hill, and did that back to the start of the road hill. We did three of each of those. Then we went over to Poker Hill and went from the normal start to the Sego Lily Pavilion sign, then recovery on the road each time. After four of those, we went over to the state hill and did that loop another four times. Then we did an outer lap cool down, and Natalie and I added to get to 10. When we added, we found Ben Saarel and he finished out to 10 with us. And so ends the first day of Hill Week! #hillweek2013

PM: Was able to get off work semi-early, so when I got home I went out for 6 miles. It was a nice, cool night. My calves were a little sore from this mornings hills, but they loosened up.

AM: This morning was our Puke Hill run! We went up canyon to Guardsman Pass, then started  from the trail head and went out 6 miles to Desolation Lake, and back. Of course about .75 of the run in, there is a mammoth hill that we so fittingly named Puke Hill. It was hard, but actually not as horrible as I remember it being. Once at the top, Chris and I waited for more people to catch up, then we Clayton, Natalie, Chris, and I continued the run. We saw a momma moose and her calf  in one grass clearing, then we saw a bull moose a little later. We took the run nice and easy, especially with the rest of the hills that I seem to forget are there every year. At the turn around we took some pictures as everyone arrived, then headed back. Chris and I picked it up a little on the way back, but definitely not pushing. Day 2 of Hill Week has come and gone! #hillweek2013

PM: Got off work sort of early, but later than yesterday. I did four miles around my block. 

AM: I have some stuff I had to do today before noon, so I wasn't able to make it out to practice this morning. I started my run early, about 6:30 and did my usual ten mile loop. It was a little cooler because of the earlier start so that was nice. Took it easy, about 6:45 pace. I ran in some new Pegasus, so I felt out of sync a bit trying to break those in, but they should feel great for my next run. 

PM: Just like last Wednesday, I did three miles before meeting up with Natalie and 7:30. We did the same run as last week, except we only went out 2.5 instead of 3. On the way back we saw Chris on his run, and then right as we were getting back to Natalie's we saw Susannah driving. So I got in a solid 8 miles. 

AM: This morning was by far the best workout of Hillweek, the JCC hill workout! First we go out 4 on the trail, and then come back to the monster hill. I was by myself the whole way, then did hill with all the people that only went out 3. They were hard, but after 5 they pretty much stop hurting worse than they already do and they go by faster. Once I finished my ten I headed back to the cars and added a quarter mile to get 11. Day 4 of Hill Week is over! #hillweek2013

PM: Before work I went out for an easy 4 miles. It was getting cloudy and a little cooler so that was nice.

AM: This morning we met at Cottonwood Complex. We did our usual warm up, a lap around the softball fields, then a lap around the block, and back to the fountain. Then we did 10X100 meter strides on the field by the starting line. After those we went over to Bessie and went up from the start to the fence twice, then down from the double trunk tree twice. After those we went over to the hill on the backstretch, the only hill we haven't named yet, and went from the triple trunk tree to the first apple tree three times. Then after that we went over to the volleyball court by Miranda and did that hill once both ways. Then we went over to roller coaster and did that once both ways from the green tank to adjacent hill. Then finally we jogged over to Bessie again and did that hill twice, but we timed them and did them as if we were finishing on the Region course, so from the 90 degree turn on the fence, up the hill, then around the trees, and back along the flat finishing stretch. I hit both of them in 1:32. We did more hills today than I expected, but I felt good on them and feel like I'm getting stronger. Now I'm really excited to start workouts with the BYU team soon! Day five of Hill Week is over, which means that Hill Week has officially ended! Happy Hill Week everyone! #hillweek2013

AM: Long run this morning! I started at the fountain at Liberty and did the City Creek loop we've done recently. I went up to 900 E, then across that to 3rd ave, then down that to Memory Grove. Then I went up the road to the fountain. I got a quick drink, then headed up the canyon more. I was going to go out 6 and back, then just add 3 at the park, but I found a trail on the side of the road and took that. It turns out this trail was Shoreline! I was excited about finding a new trail to run on, that I decided to keep going past 6 despite that fact that this trail was pretty much all uphill. I made it to 6.5 out, and stopped at a point where I could see the whole valley, and all the mansions of the avenues. I turned and headed back down, then headed back to Liberty the same way I came, even up the 3rd ave hill. I guess I didn't get enough hills during hill week! Once back to Liberty I got a drink at the fountain, then added about 1.7 to get the 15 that I needed. That's a wrap on 100 miles, hooray for coming down in miles next week! 

AM: Slept in a bit, but finally got out for my run. I was surprisingly pretty stiff and didn't feel too great on this run, but I'm happy I got it done with. I probably should have stretched a bit after my long run yesterday, but I never learn! 

AM: This morning practice was at Liberty instead of the usual Sugarhouse Park. We did a lap warm up, then regrouped at the fountain, got a drink, then headed over to the start. The team was doing a few reps on the sidewalk, so I more or less tempo'ed them. First we did a mile repeat, my goal was to hit it in about 5:10-5:15, and I came in at 5:07. Then we did recovery back to the start, and did 2X800 with 800 recovery. I hit those in 2:30, and 2:28. Then we did another lap as cool down, and I added 4 miles with the RealDeals on the wood chips to get 10.

 PM:  After work I went on an easy four miles.

AM: I couldn't make practice this morning, so I just ran on my own. I woke up feeling really sore and stiff for some reason, even though I felt totally fine yesterday and didn't do anything that would have made me particularly sore. So I just counted the speed from yesterday as my fartlek today. I did my usual ten mile loop at an easy pace. 6:56 avg

PM: Again, after work I went on an easy four miles. 

AM: This morning practice was at the Zoo Trail head. We didn't do the trail, instead we went up past the zoo and ran along Wasatch to Thunderbird, got a drink, then kept going to the fountain at the parking lot at the end of the southern part of Wasatch. That was about 4.2, and I went out to 5 by the elementary school, then just headed back to the cars. I saw Natalie on Wasatch as she was doing her tempo.

PM: In the early afternoon, I met up with Clayton and we did Shriner run out 3 miles and back, then added a mile in grass laps at the East track to get 7.  

AM: I didn't set my alarm correctly last night, so I didn't make practice today. So I just did my usual ten mile run. I felt a okay on the run, but I just took it easy. I'm ahead in miles right now, so I get to have a lower mileage weekend! 

AM: Met the team this morning at Liberty. It was actually a little chilly when we started. The warm summer mornings are gone! We did a lap around the park, then went over to the grassy flat area by the start where we do strides and we did 10X60 meter strides. Then we went back to the fountain and out to the metal box and back to get 4. Then Clayton and I went out and back two miles on the City Creek run to get a total of 8. Then I had some French Toast Foolishness at Park Cafe :)

AM: This morning I went over to SHP to get in my not-really-a-long-run. I got ahead in miles and my run has to be at least 12, so that gave me a low mileage Friday! I started at the Northeast corner of SHP, and did the Cemetery Run until I got to 2700 S on Alden, where I turned up and went straight to Melbourne, then took Atkin up to Tanner Park. I went into the park on the biking trail, and ran along it until I hit 5, right around the end of the park. I turned back and headed to SHP the same way I came, which for some reason left me .3 short. I then added a lap around the park and the little I needed to get 12. One last week of miles before camp! 

AM: Slept in way too long so I got to run in the heat. I did my usual ten mile loop and felt a little better than I did on my last time running this loop. 6:40 avg

AM: This morning I went to practice. I went to SHP as usual, but there was no one there once I arrived, so upon inquiry of a certain BYU runner about the whereabouts of the run, I headed down to practice at LIBERTY. They had just started as I pulled in, and it took me about half a lap to catch them. Once back to the fountain, we did 10X80 meter strides, then jogged over to the start. The team was doing 2Xmile with half mile recovery, then one half mile with about .25 recovery. I have to focus on my workouts this week, so I decided to take this really easy. I stuck with the 5:40 group for the miles, which was about 5-6 people. I hit 5:44 and 5:31. I find it's just as hard to hit slow reps as it is to hit really fast ones. Then I hit 2:36 for the half miles. After regrouping at the fountain, Natalie and I went for a four mile run to get us 10. Then we had the annual Dutch Oven breakfast courtesy of Billiam! 

PM: Got off work pretty late, but dragged myself out the door for 4 miles. Finished right around 11 pm. 

AM: I had to do fartlek this morning, and Natalie needed a longer run, so we met at SHP. We did a grass lap warm up, then I did my farltlek on the road while she ran laps. The fartlek ladder was 5-4-3-2-1 with 3-2-2-1 recovery. I got in nearly a mile during the 5 min rep, about .96, then my average for the rest was about the same, between 5:15 and 5:20 pace, so a solid effort with those hills on the road. Then Natalie and I did Cemetery Run with no laps in the cemetery to get to 12. 

PM: Before work I went for my rum. I did half of my ten mile loop and managed to not overheat, although I didn't give myself enough time after eating, so I felt super full and uncomfortable :/ 

AM: Natalie's teammate is staying with her for a few days, and she only needed five miles. So we went from Nat's house to SHP, a lap around, and back and then added a bit for 5. Then after some water and a snack, Natalie and I went out four miles on Shriner run and back to get 13. 

Today was a running first for me. I've fallen before, but I'm pretty good at catching myself and I've never broken the skin on any fall. But today, I wasn't so lucky. As we were starting the Shriner loop, I caught my foot on one of those metal, disk looking sprinklers and ate it HARD. Like, really hard. Like - Natalie didn't know whether to laugh or help me up - hard.  I cut up my ankle, my knee, my butt, my hip, and especially my elbow. But the rest of the run surprisingly wasn't that bad. 

I learned something today: my blood is really, really red.  

PM: I went for an easy five miles in the afternoon. It was pretty hot, but I'm getting used to the heat so it wasn't that bad.

I'm grateful that I turned 18 before this Friday. Now I don't need Mommy to come to my physical with me :) 

AM: This morning I had to do a tempo so I just ran at home. I felt pretty crappy, even though I got enough sleep last night. I started with two miles warm up on my ten mile loop, then did 20 minutes tempo with 60 recovery at halfway. The part of the loop I was doing had equal parts downhill and uphill, but looking back I should have run this somewhere totally flat. My goal was heart rate 180, so I wore my heart rate monitor. I didn't realize that heart rate 180 was that high. During the first ten minutes I got my heart rate to about 172 after the first 3ish minutes, but I was breathing really hard. I was practically pushing like a race. I took the minute rest, and I knew that I wasn't getting my heart rate that high anymore. The second half of the tempo I got it to about 160. I averaged about 5:15 on the first ten minutes, and about 5:25 on the next ten minutes. I know I probably could have run this workout better on another day and if I had some others to run it with, but this is the last time I'll have to run this by myself! I cooled down to 9 miles and was exhausted. 

PM: I went for an easy five miles in the early afternoon. 

AM: I had to go down to Provo this morning for physicals and what not, so I got to run with my team! Once we had a group of guys done with all their stuff, we went for a run. We split into two groups once we got far enough out. I went with the group doing 10. We did Carterville with an extra loop on the Provo river trail. That was 9.5 back to the locker room, and then Connor and I added 2.5 miles to get 12. Now I don't have to run twice! We started out pretty slow, about 7:40 pace, but we sped up as we went along, and averaged 6:34 for the run. 

AM: This morning I ran on Rail Trail with Bill, Dakota, Chris, Garek, and Jacob. When we started I stayed back and ran with Bill and pushed him probably a little faster than if he would have been by himself. We were at like 7:30's. Then we got some water at our usual spot at 5.75, and when we started again the whole group ran together. We just plugged along as a group until about 12.5 or so and then Chris and I picked it up and finished a little faster, but still not very fast. We added a little past the cars and back to get the full 15. 

AM: This morning I went for my usual 10 mile run. Nothing exciting to report except that tomorrow is camp!

AM: First day of camp! After we got all our sick gear we went over to the intramural fields for the famous 10X1000 workout with 60 seconds recovery.. We did a few laps around the fields and got in 3 miles of warm up, then we changed shoes and got started. For some reason I didn't get the flats I ordered, I got some Nike Free Flyknit, which are still really nice, but they aren't really flats, and I felt it during the reps. We ran the first one together, and I hit 3:09. It felt really easy until the last 40 or so seconds. I knew that pace was way too fast to hit all of them in. The next one was 3:12 and after that we got divided into 2 groups. The first group was all upper classmen and the second group was everyone else. The next several 1000's were between 3:18 and 3:26, progressively getting slower until about the 6th one, then I managed to bring them down to low 3:20's. The freshmen were only required to do 8, so that was a relief. I felt pretty crappy, and like I totally tanked the workout, but apparently I handled it really well. Better than most incoming freshmen, so that was good. This was a really tuugh workout that I'm glad to have out of the way. After we did 4X~80 meter strides on the field, and we cooled down. I cooled down until I hit 10.

PM: After we drove up to Eden, and finally got settled in to the enormous house we stayed in, we drove down to a trail to get our second run in. We did 2.5 out and back. About 7:00 avg on a semi hilly trail.

AM: This morning we drove down to Eden Park to go for our run. We start from the park and run East towards the more rural part of town, then turn and run South, were we hit 5 and headed back. About 6:40 avg

PM: After an incredibly fun and tiring day of playing softball and just messing around, we went for our second run. We went to the same trail and did 2.5 out and back at about the same pace as yesterday.

AM: For our run this morning we went down to Eden Park again, but this time ran West instead of East. We ran until we got to the same trail where we did our second run the apst two days, and ran until that trail ended and we were runnning on the road that went through the canyon until we hit 5, then we turned back. Once back to the park I added two miles with the other Tommy G on the team to get 12.

PM: While waiting for dinner to be ready, I went out 1.5 miles from the house and went up the road, and ended up avoiding as much mountain as I could, but still got a good chunk of hills. 

AM: This morning we had our fartlek workout. We started at Eden Park again, and went East, once we warmed up about two miles, we started our ladder. 10-5-4-3-2-1 with equal recovery after except for only 5 minutes recovery after the 10 min on. I handled this workout a lot better than the K's. I stuck on the lead group as long as I could for the first interval, and hung on until about 6 minutes in, then I fell off but I didn't totally crash. 5:12 avg on that. Then we turned around and did the 5 minute interval the way we came. I stuck on the lead group agian, but they sort of split up as the interval went on, and I hit the mile in 4:50. Then for the rest of them I just went hard and tried to stick on some fast guys with a fair amount of success. On the last 1 minute on we all stuck together and were basically sprinting for a minute. Then we turned back and headed to Eden Park where we hit 10 almost exactly. 

PM: For our second run today, the group of guys I was with decided to start our run from end of the trail we usually run on, and run backwards on it. Again, we just went out 2.5 and back for the five miles.

AM: This morning we did the same run we did on Monday. Just 5 miles out and back. There isn't a whole lot of options for a run in little Eden, UT. 6:35 avg.

PM: We did the same run we did on Monday as well for our second run. Just 2.5 out and back on the little trail. I can't believe camp is almost over:( It's a blast, but I'm too lazy to write about it now since it's been several days. Next year I am taking my laptop so I can blog daily and put in some stuff that we do.

AM: Long run this morning. We started at Eden Park again and did the same route we've been doing going East, but we kept going until 7.5 instead of turning at 5. But I got a bit of a surprise. Apparenmtly the guys like to go fast on these long runs. We started the run at about 7:00 avg while everyone warmed up, the we picked it up. Soon we were going about 6 minute miles. Once we hit 7.5, we stopped, got some water, then turned back and got right back into our pace. I was with the lead guys and by mile 10 we had picked it up to like 5:45's. At around mile 13 is where I fell off. Theykept picking it up, now at about a 5:30 pace, and I could not stay with them. They broke away and I ran by myself for almost a mile. I knew the next group of guys wasn't far behind, so I stopped or a bit to stretch my hips which had been tightening up throughout the run, then joined in with them. They were going a much more controlled 6 min pace. The last half mile ish we picked it up a bit, but I ended up averaging 6:01 pace for the full 15. I was really, really tired after this run. I barely even remember having lunch at the restaurant on the way back, much less the drive back to Provo. It was a tough run, bit I'm happy with how I did. I finished pretty high up with the guys, and it's the fastest I've ever done any run over 10.