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

Still no running to give my legs more of a break, but pool workout today. I started by getting in the jacuzzi for five minutes, then I put on the belt and did a five minute warm up. After that I started my workout: 10 X 2min on/1min off. They went well, I got my heart rate much higher than the last time I did a pool workout. 120 was the highest I got it, and I averaged between 100 and 110. My shins didn't hurt at all, but the resistance in the water against my right ankle did make me feel a small twinge of pain every step on the inner part of the ankle. It felt great to actually get some sort of exercise in. 

My shins do feel better, but they still hurt going up stairs, not to the point of having to grab onto the hand rail like Thursday though. My ankles feel sore and they hurt whenever I make a movement the wrong way. I can't really explain when it is that they begin to hurt, but overall they are hurting much less than on Thursday. Before I went to bed I did some core and arm swings. 

Another day of rest today. My shins feel SO much better. They don't hurt while walking anymore, and only hurt a little while going up stairs. My ankles feel a lot better too, and my right ankle only hurts a little while walking, but I do feel it when I go up stairs, more-so than my shins. I am so happy that I am starting to recover, hopefully I an end up having the end to the season I want!

I will do core and arm swings later before I go to bed. 

AM: This morning I went out for a light 2 mile run, to see how I felt after my short break. I started out okay, but as expected, I started feeling my injuries. At the one mile I stopped to stretch a bit, which really helped. My right ankle was hurting quite a bit, and my shins were hurting also. At 1.5 I stopped to get in some just two strides to see how they felt. My ankle made it hard to get to stride speed, and once I was striding, my shins just hurt even more. After I finished I just stretched a bit more, then took a shower and got ready for school.

Overall, this run sucked. I felt extremely stiff and out of rhythm the entire time, but that was expected after a break like that. My ankle definitely feels better than last Wednesday, but it is a long ways away from healed. My shins also hurt, but not to the extent they did before. 

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/119020505

PM: Today was my first day back to running in five days. We did a half mile warm up, mile speed changes, then 800, and two sets of 400-300-200, with a mile cooldown. My times were 2:28, 74, 52, 36, 70, 50, 32. I ran the 800 comfortably fast, then the first set conservatively and the second I pushed a bit. Those times are okay for the state I am in. My ankle was the biggest problem here. But I was able to push through. Then after we did an ice bath. This time we put three buckets of ice into it. NOT A GOOD IDEA. That ice bath was soooooo cold. Never again. I only stayed in for 10 minutes. 

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/119020497 

Today we had our team service project at This Is the Place. After two hours of labor, we did a shakeout run around the park. Just over a mile for that. My ankle wasn't bothering me too much, but my shins were hurting pretty bad. It was probably all that running downhill around the park that made them feel worse. Then we went over to the wettest, most over-watered grass in existence and did strides there. Apart from all the mud flying everywhere and splashing all over everyone, the strides didn't feel too good. My shins were killing and I wasn't able to actually stride out on any of them. I hope they feel better for tomorrow. I did some light stretching and my core before I went to bed.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/119244426

Regions tomorrow!! I'm excited to see how the team will do. And how I will do. I just hope I can pull a good race off. Where did the season go.... 

Once we arrived at Cottonwood complex, we tried setting up the tents, but the wind was too strong so that failed. Anyway, we finally got going on a team warm up. Well, part of the team anyway. We did two miles right along the course, and we stopped right by our stuff along the course. After some cheering and jogging around the course, I did the 3X1min on/1min off Bill said to do before my race around the baseball field. I had those done around 3:30ish. After that I kept running around the course cheering on Varsity girls, and at about 3:50 I went back to my stuff, put on my spikes, used the bathroom really quick, and got to the line. After some strides to stay warm, we started. Right out of the gate, all the Clearfield guys went out crazy hard. SO ANNOYING. They were all together until past the sand, when all the leaders of the pack started to pass them. One Clearfield guy elbowed me and I saw at least two other Bountiful guys get elbowed as we were all passing the Clearfield guys. Despite those annoying hypocrites, I got out well. I was right where I needed to be and I stuck with the top four guys until a little past mile one. Then Kohle made a move and I didn't respond. That's where I started losing the leaders. Once we were around the finger, the freshmen from WX, Taylor I believe, passed me. Going along the slanted hill Scott caught me. That was a surprise, but it was the perfect opportunity for me to stick with him, and I didn't take it. I just couldn't get myself to surge up to him. Going up Bessie, one more guy passed me. I was in the same position until the baseball field where Kason caught me, I think. At this point I know I'm having a bad race, because I have beat Kason every time I have raced him. I tried to stick on him, but another kid, I'm not sure who, wedged himself between me and Kason, and they slowly pulled away. Past the finger and along the straight in the northernmost part of the course, Kason and the other kid picked it up some more I lost them. Past the triple trunk tree, Rob from Bountiful caught me. That hit me hard. Four guys from Bountiful were in front me of, when I know that only two are as good or better than me. Crap. And to cap it off, right before Bessie, the Highland kid caught up. I was with him going into Bessie, but lost him too once we were about 30 meters into the uphill. In my head I counted myself as nine, but I was actually tenth. It's a good thing I was able to hold off the rest of the pack of about 6 that was kicking about 40 meters behind me. Anyway, pretty sucky race. One of my worst performances this season. Only Pre Region was worse. Today was the day to step it up, and I didn't. Not a good way to go into state, but at least I get to go to state! Good job East boys! I am so proud of all of us! We had some amazing performances and a lot of guys stepped it up. Just what we needed. And congrats East girls as well! 2nd overall and places 1-2-3. Congrats to my fellow medalers, Natalie, Abigail, Sarah, and Scott!! We are going to rock at state!!

P.S. Today my shins weren't really hurting that much after I warmed up. My ankle was fine and my shins were bearable during the warm up. I did't feel them during the race, as expected.

(Race and then some) http://connect.garmin.com/activity/119438546 

Today there was no team practice so Bill just told us to run on our own. I decided to go to Steiner and run on the treadmills there. After about half a mile, I remembered that I hate running on treadmills, so I just put on my Garmin and went out for my run. I only made it to one mile, which was a little past Legacy Bridge, where I had to turn because my shins hurt so bad:(  I got back to Steiner and just did 30 minutes of eliptical. I'm not counting that towards mileage. After that I just went home. I'm starting to really hate my shins.

Here is the part I was out for:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/119627788 

Today for practice we met in the commons since it was so cold. We ran down from faculty parking lot to liberty for our workout. I didn't have full satellite when we started, so my whole warm up is off. Only like .15 though. Anyway we took the short way to the drinking fountain instead of finishing the lap around the park. After we reassembled we jogged over to where we were going to start our fartlek around the pond. The intervals were three sets of 3 min on, 2 off, 2 on, 2 off, 1 on, 1 off. On the first set I felt great, my breathing was in rhythm and I felt like I could push a bit more. On the second set, I noticed my breathing was faster than it usually is at this point in any workout. Probably because the is the first actual workout I have had in a while. The third set was the hardest. I had managed to get a hold of my breathing, but I was feeling the hills. My legs felt tired, but on the "2 on" I noticed I was about to lap Nelson and Abigail was maybe 50 or 60 meters ahead of him, so I pushed to catch Abigail. With 30 seconds left in the 1 "on" I caught her and made her sprint the rest of the "on" with me. Good job pushing through Abigail. After the intervals, we regrouped and ran from the pond back up to the school, but Bill said we could walk up the big hill right before the school, so once we got to the steep part of it we walked. My shins didn't hurt too much during the workout, I was worried that with the downhill going to Liberty and with the rolling hills around the pond, that my shins would hurt more, but the pain remained completely bearable during the workout. 

Here is my link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/120016006 

Later, at the football game against Bountiful, we ran the torch in during halftime to light the big "E." A certain someone who was supposed to be there before halftime showed up five minutes into halftime so we had to rush and make the torch really fast. Fortunately, we had our Skyline shirt handy so we weren't short on  kindling. When we got to the end of the straight, the fire nearly fell off the torch, but managed to stay on until the grass where it fell. Scott wrestled it with the torch until he got it on and was able to light the "E." Disaster avoided, sort of. That was a fun experience, just like last year. And of course, East creamed Bountiful. We are now 8-0! GO EAST!!

This morning I had planned to meet Natalie, Abigail, and Ben for 8 miles, but I woke up and my shins were hurting pretty bad, so I decided not to run and aggravate it more. Instead, a little later I went to the gym with my mom, and while she swam, I got on the elliptical for an hour at about a medium resistance. That was a cool machine. You could customize stride length on it. Plus, the handle bars on it were really ergonomically placed so it was a semi-close match to what my arms do when normally running. I actually felt like I was running for an hour. I got my heart rate pretty high, I think. It was at about 120ish for the better part of the hour. After that, I got in the pool with my mom and just swam a bit with her until she was ready to go. My shins didn't hurt at all during the workout, and they hurt less after the workout than they did before.

I was only able to get through the warm up and half way through our speed changes before I just couldn't take my shins anymore. They particularly hurt on the fast part of the speed changes. My right shins especially. Looks like I will cross train tomorrow.

Before bed I did 3 sets of 100 toe taps on each leg, then walked on my heels for 25 meters with 3 sets of those. After that I massaged with some icy hot and iced my legs.  

Whew! That was the hardest workout I have had in a long time. Today I was with Emily at Steiner for some cross training. I did a 1 min on/1 min off interval workout on the elliptical for 1 hour, increasing both my recovery and fast resistance every 20 min. I started at a decent amount of resistance, 8 recovery and 12 fast. By the end of the first twenty minutes, I felt okay, but my heart was definitely going. I averaged about a 140 heart rate. Then on the second twenty minute chunk I increased to 9 recovery and 13 fast. By the end of this, I was tired. I was averaging closer to a 150 heart rate for the on's. I was completely drenched in sweat and I was struggling to get my strides/min to the same level I had been getting it. Now, I was supposed to increase to 10 recovery and 14 resistance for the last twenty minutes, but I just could not handle that. I was struggling immensely with my current resistance. So I left it the same, but even that got too difficult after about five reps, so I lowered both down 1. I was able to handle 8 and 12 resistance much better and I finished the workout with that. 

This was the first time in a really long while that I feel like I got this much of a workout. I can usually fight through a tough workout, but I had to back off a bit today. I take that as a good sign. It means I am starting somewhere. I don't think I have lost much aerobic fitness, and with a few more of these workouts I feel like I will be close to where I was three weeks ago fitness-wise. After that, I tried doing a squat on one leg like Emily showed me, but it hurt too much to do it on my right leg. Then I foam rolled a bit, did a few arm weights, and headed home.

My shin had been hurting me all day. Now just a sliver of pain on the front-side part of my right shin. The elliptical didn't hurt, only if I pushed down harder on my legs to gain speed. Since yesterday, it did start hurting a bit worse, and has been progressively getting a little worse everyday since last Friday:( Looks like my junior season of cross country is over...

P.S I did the same small exercises before bed that I did yesterday. 3X100 toe taps each leg, 25 meter heel walks. And core. 

No cross training today. My quads are a bit sore from yesterday's intense workout. Before bed I did do some fast, hard arm swings. I did 3 X 2:00 arm swings, then my usual core, 3 X 100 toe raises, then heel walks.

Today, while everyone ran, I went to Steiner and got on the bike one hour for a steady workout. Every ten minutes I increased the resistance by one. I started at 6 and ended at 11. I got my heart rate semi-high, to the mid 120's by the last 20 minutes. After that I did a few arm weights and headed home. I did my core, arm swings, toe raises, and heel walks before bed.

Again, while everyone ran, I went to Steiner and had an interval workout on the elliptical. I got on a different elliptical though, which gave me a different interval workout. This one gave me a 2 min on/2 min off workout. Like Tuesday, every twenty minutes I increased my resistance by one. I started at resistance 6 and 9, and ended at 8 and 11. My heart rate was always around the 140's on the on's. It was a decent workout overall. After that I foam rolled a bit. The elliptical and bike get your quads more than running, it feels like. Since today was the East-Highland game, I know I would get home late, so I just did core and arm swings there. 

P.S: East won!! 22-0! YEAH LEOPARDS!! 

At about 9 this morning I headed over to the gym for my workout today. I got on the bike for one hour, set it to random, and put the resistance at 7. I just left the resistance the same the full hour, but the random setting did include some hills in it. The last twenty minutes I picked up the pace and got my heart rate decently high. Mid 140's. After that I did some arm weights, then went over to the mats and stretched a bit. It is so boring to workout by yourself. 

Before bed I did core and arm swings, as well as toe raises and heel walks.  

This morning I decided to head over to the gym for a small easy workout, mainly to just get loosened up because I was feeling a little sore from yesterday. I was planning on an easy 30 min even pace workout with no setting on it. I put it to 9 resistance and left it there. I was feeling great up until about 26 min when my shin started hurting a lot more than it usually does. So I stopped and went over to try the bike and see if that would hurt as well. It did, so I just did some arm weights and headed home. 

I don't know why it started hurting more. I wasn't pushing. Usually it hurts when I try and go faster, because I am pressing down on my shin more, but today was just an easy, even pace workout. Maybe I just need a little rest. Oh, I just realized that I didn't take Ibuprofen this morning. That could also have been the problem. 

Today Bill said I should try running and see if I could tolerate it to determine whether or not I would run at State. I started running and immediately felt my shin. I only made it to the light on Gaurdsman. It was just hurting too much. Oh well. Looks like state is a no for me:'(

Day of rest today. Did no exercise whatsoever. Before bed I did my core and arm swings.

State today! It's too bad I don't get to run this year, but this injury will only help me get stronger. The next six weeks of cross training will help me be a better athlete. But for those that did run, good job! Everyone did great! 

Another day of rest today. No running, except for once or twice I did sort of scuttle over to a different part of the course to catch people racing. Before bed I did my core and arm swings. 

No running. Did my core and arm swings before bed.

Another day of nothing. No running, just core and arm swings before bed.

No running again. Did core and arm swings before bed.

No running, did my core before bed.

No running again today. When I got home I got on the bike for 20 minutes at an even pace. Then I went "crazy on core work." I did crunches, push ups, medicine ball reps, wall sits, leg lifts, planks, toe taps, and then arm swings. 

No running. Did core and a bit of lifting with the team in the weight room. After I went up to Steiner and did a 30 minute hill workout on the elliptical. After that I went over to the mats and did some more core. Core, core, core, and more core. <--- Try saying that sentence five times:P 

Again no running, and I went up to Steiner. I wanted to get on the bike today, but my butt is just too sore. I am SO sore. So instead I did a 25 minutes of an even pace on the elliptical. Afterwards I went over to the mats and stretched a ton, as well as foam rolling everything. I got some of the soreness out. Then I did medicine ball reps, weighted lunges, wall sits with the big blue ball, crunches, push ups, planks, side planks, and leg lifts. I could barely do the planks. SOOOOOOO sore. 

My shin was hurting a bit after the workout, for about 15 minutes when I got home it was killing me. But it went away pretty fast, so that shouldn't be a problem. 

No running, did 1 hour on the elliptical. It was on a cross training program. After that I did a ton of core stuff. Weighted lunges, medicine ball reps, planks, side planks, arm swings, etc. My lower abs hurt so much. I could barely do crunches and the medicine ball. My shin was hurting quite a bit after my workout again. I felt it on my way home.

Even though today was an early out day, it took an eternity for the school day to end. To say the very least, I had a bad day. Struggling to find motivation for training today. Anyway, I managed 25 minutes on the elliptical, I started at 6 resistance, and increased one every five minutes. After that I did the usual core stuff. Still sore, but have been getting better. My shin hurts again today. I didn't feel it until I finished my workout and was on my way home. Ugh.

My shin has been hurting the past few days so I took today off from cardio. I did my usual core exercises though. Too lazy to list them. 

This morning my shin was feeling better so I went over to the gym and just swam. I didn't measure it or anything I just swam for however I felt like. It felt good. Afterwards I did my core stuff at the gym.

Today I went to Steiner and did 25 minutes of elliptical at an even pace. After I did my core stuff: lunges, medicine balls reps, wall sits, the whole lot of them. My shins feels good, not agitated. I think the lesser amounts of cardio have helped.