Just do it

Went for a swim to give my legs a break for a day.  Swam over a mile in about 32 minutes so I am not doing too badly even with not swimming as much :)

Nice easy recovery run.  Our coach told us that we all needed to tell a crazy story about ourselves during the run which made for a very fun and interesting 40 minutes.  After we ran, we went to Sugar House Park and did 2 hill sprints for some speed at the end.  Good day :)

Tempo run.  We went to the pathway by the Jordan River.  Guys did 5 and girls did 3 (since those are our race distances).  We did a 10 minute warm-up jog and some stretches and started.  It was pretty stinkin hot... Coach told me to hit between 6 and 6:10 pace so I figured it wouldn't be too bad.  I started with Jef and Oliver though (fast freshman) and we hit the first mile at 5:38.  After that we basically made a nice parabola.  The next miles were 6:01, 6:14, 6:24, and 6:09.  At least I brought it back on the last mile somewhat.  Ended up being a 30:28 which averages to an AP of 6:07 so actually I was right on.  I feel like it would have been a lot better though if I had started a bit slower.  We lost Oliver at 2.5 miles due to stomach problems... Jef is at about 50 miles this week and ran 12 yesterday so he was tired and I lost him at the last mile.  I pushed it pretty hard though and I was feeling it when I crossed.  Good time, but it just wasn't the best day for us all...

Went out to Park City for long run today.  It was a dirt road at Jeremy Ranch.  I did an out back to make the 9.  We kept an AP of about 7:20 I think which was a little faster than I felt like going today but oh well.  I am feeling some pain in my quad so I will need to make sure I take care of that.  Good run otherwise.  I was just super tired probably due to yesterday's tempo run.

Starting a taper week so I will probably be shooting for around 28 miles.  Today I felt like crap.  I am thinking it was due to the afternoonishness.  I really don't like running in the afternoon.  I felt like I was going to poop my pants.  After we got back we did some weight training along with some jumps, leg work and core.  It was actually one of the most intense weight sessions we've had as a cross country team.

Today we jogged down to Fairmont Park which is about 1.5 miles from Westminster.  There we did 4x1000 meter intervals.  Coach wanted us between 3:20 and 3:25 for our pacing.  My splits were 3:19, 3:20, 3:20, 3:25.  We then did 2x400 with splits of 78 and 76.  It was a good workout.  Coach wanted us to relax a bit and not kill ourselves today since this week is a taper week.  We then jogged back and that was it :)

FIRST TIME EXPERIENCE TODAY!!! I will tell about that in a moment.

I normally cross train on Wednesdays because they are the day after speed work.  Last night I also played ultimate frisbee so after all the lifting and speed work and UF my legs were hurting.  My coach wanted me to get about 50 mins of cross training so I swam 50 laps.  It actually took me 45 minutes but I was good with that.  While I was swimming a guy got in my lane and was going faster.  I couldn't allow him to pass me so I sped up for the last 12 or so laps.  It was actually a pretty good workout!  I held him off :)

 Then came the FIRST TIME EXPERIENCE!  I went to the training room and did some foam rolling, sat on a tennis ball for a bit and then stretched.  Foam roller and/or tennis ball = PAIN.  Anyways, after that I prepared my ice bath.  I added ice until it was 55 degrees which is pretty dang cold.  I got in up to my stomach as usual.  My upper body though was also sore so I decided to get the smaller stool.  I THEN SUBMERGED MY WHOLE BODY UP TO MY NECK!  It was so friggin cold!  I began to shiver uncontrollably and could only stay in fully for a few minutes.  After I got out I felt like I would never feel warmth ever again.  It was a pretty interesting experience!

Today was just a normal mileage run. We planned to do about 5-6. All of us have some pretty sore, heavy legs right now so we were keeping it at about 7:40-8 minute pace. We met at Sugar House park and did 3 hill sprints before going back to the school for some core. The ice bath felt real good today!

We did some fartleks at Sugarhouse Park today.  We used the North loop that we had at our conference meet which ends up being about 3/4 of a mile.  We would go hard for a half a mile and then active recovery for 1/4 mile.  That means that your first 200 meters is uphill followed by a slight downhill for the rest.  It was pretty challenging.  It wanted us to keep it at about a 3 minute pace and we managed pretty well.

Went out to Dimpledell trail... I have no idea if I spelled that right.  This is a trail normally for horses.  It's by no means flat.  Pretty much a climb until about 3 miles and there' s a lot of soft woodchippy ground.  Then after 3.5 we just came back.  Not my favorite place to run.  My knee has been feeling some pain too so that's not fun :(

Since we have a meet on Saturday we did our longer run today.  I would have felt better with 9 miles but I didn't see the necessity to push it too much so I just cut it at 8.  It may have been a little more because it was about 1:04 time.  We ran up to Hogle Zoo and then back down.

Okay so I actually ended up running another 2 in the afternoon to make 10.  My coach wants me to be between 35 and 38 this week and he wanted 9-10 for today so I bumped it.  Felt good. :) I then just went for a little swim.

Normal 6 miler today.  My legs were feeling a bit heavy but I did okay.  We did some strides after the run (6) and then some core work.  Good workout today.

Speed work today at Sugar House Park.  We did 9x800 meter intervals.  Coach had the main group hitting splits of about 2:40.  We were within 3 seconds of that split for all 9 intervals so I would say that was a good day.  We lifted this morning as well so I was pretty happy with how I felt during the speed work.

Just a little swim for cross training today.  I honestly felt like crap in the pool.  I have been getting less sleep lately and I think that is contributing to my poopy feeling.  I need to start getting to bed earlier.

Pre meet run today.  Kept it at a slow pace just to keep the legs moving.  I felt like I needed a lube job because my legs were hurting.  The muscles were fine but everything else was just hurting.  I would think that it might be I need to shoes but these only have about 200 miles on them so I don't see why that would be.  Oh well.  Montana meet this weekend!  I am nervous...

First race of the season!  I am rather torn with this race and my performance in it.  We left at 3:30 on Friday to head to Montana.  This was a problem because it caused us to get to our hotel at about midnight and in bed by about 12:30 only to get up at 6:30 to prep for the race.  I haven't been getting much sleep this week as it is.  

Race morning we headed over to the golf course where it was held.  It was really cold!  Our warm-ups were not helping too much.  We started running and we got warmed up so that was nice.  I will say I was pretty nervous for this race and I don't think I was too prepared mentally.  We got to the start and the gun went off.  We took off through the hilly start as a pretty large group.  I stayed close to 2 of my teammates and then two of us peeled off at about 800 meters.  We hit the first mile at 5:30... Okay David... Don't freak out... You can keep strong... However the problem was that just before the first mile I started to think about how I had 4 miles left... Bad idea.

Going into mile 2 and 3 were okay but still mentally tough.  Hit mile 2 at about 11:20 I believe. The golf course had a portion that did two loops.  This mean that as you were finishing mile 3 you would run straight toward the finish line just to peel off and run another loop...  Very tough mentally.  At mile 3 my teammate (Ty) got a surge of energy and took off. Our split was a 17:30 so not bad.  He caught up to Jef who was about 10-15 seconds ahead.  I really should have stayed with him but I didn't feel like I was capable at that time.

At about 3.5 miles I was completely by myself.  That's when the race sucks... I could just hear by breathing and all I was doing was trying to maintain my pace.  I still had Jef and Ty in my sights but I had already told myself I couldn't make it up to them (another bad decision).  So I stayed back.   Then finally I see the mile 4 marker and it gives me a bit of motivation.  I began to remember our mile repeats from practice and knew that I could push it out for 1 more mile while holding that pace.  I think I was at about the high 23s to 24s so I also knew that if I kept my pace I would make it under 30!  

 I pushed through the last mile and the rolling hills right before the finish.  I was pretty happy when I saw 29:30s and counting as I was approaching.  I still think though that I could have done a lot better in this race.  Jef came in about 30 seconds before me at 29:09 and Ty was right behind him.  Oliver was our top guy with a 27:50 something I think.  He got 49th and he is a freshman.  Andrew wasn't too far behind him in the 28 range I believe.

Felt good to finish... After the cool down I started to feel a bit sick.  I got really really cold and my body felt like crap.  I think I would attribute that to a lack of sleep... Maybe?  I felt better as time went on but it wasn't an enjoyable feeling... Yeah that was that.  Just shows you how fast some of these kids are!  87th out of 110 and i was holding about a 5:56 pace!  Beast!  The top guy had 25:05 which makes me a bit sick. 

Meet this weekend as well so we did our long run today.  It was actually a really good run.  My hamstrings were a little tight but other than that I felt really good!  We ran down to Liberty and did one lap.  Then we ran up to 15th East (BEAST HILL) and North to Miller Park for a loop on the trail.  Then we ran to Sugar House and did the outside loop.  When we got back to the school we were only at about 1:08 so I added a little on 13th East to finish at 1:18.  :Pretty sure that was about 10.  I think we averaged about 7:30 pace.  It was a good run :)

Ran along 13 East on over to Sunnyside, up to Foothill and across to 21st South and back.  We had to add on a little bit when we got back because we were under 7.  My legs did not feel very good on this run and i had some strange pain in my foot.  I iced and hopefully by tomorrow they'll be a bit better.  It didn't help that I went to sleep rather late last night.  Tomorrow we have mile repeats so I am hoping my legs will be feeling a bit better by then.

I actually have no idea how far I swam but it was a good swim indeed.  I went for 50 minutes so I probably had about 55 or so laps.  I was swimming next to a guy who was pretty fast so he kept me going.

Went light around Sugar House with my fingers crossed that my tendon wouldn't hurt and it worked!  6 good miles without any issues!  Definitely excited for the meet!

AWESOME MEET!  This one was definitely much better than last week for me.  I felt a big difference going into it as I wasn't feeling super nervous or worried.  Last week I was fearing the pain that I would have to go through.  This week I wanted to focus on my position in the race and each step as opposed to thinking about how much I had left.  So needless to say I was feeling a lot more at-ease at the starting line.

Unfortunately the race people were retarded and we ended up starting 15 mins late but whatever.  This was a huge meet with like 14 races going on throughout the day.  We college men were first.  We also ran with some track clubs.  Anyways we lined up and the guy said, "Ready"... BANG!!!  I was expecting a "Set" so I wasn't really ready but oh well I took off nonetheless.  I told myself this meet that I was going to stay with my teammate Ty so that was my goal.  As we went off we were going pretty quick.  I felt myself pushing to stay with the pack.  I felt good though so I didn't think on it too much.

The course consists running around a lake 3 times then doing a little out and back to the finish line.  It's actually about .05 under 5 miles because it's an 8k but I wasn't going to put 4.95 in that little box up top.  So the first lap felt good as all the runners start to spread out.  I could see Oliver and Jef (my teammates) just up ahead and I wondered if we would be able to keep them in our sights.  The first mile I have to be careful of my thoughts.  I could feel my mind slipping to thoughts of the magnitude of the race and how much I had left. I had to just shake my head and think of the here and now... Then and there?  I just focused on staying with Ty and we did manage to pass a couple of people.

There was one nice part just before the first mile that was basically 180 degree turnaround.  We had to take that turn 3 times but Ty wasn't too prepared for it the first time and took the longest route possible around it.  That was kinda funny.  You basically just had to stop and go again which is not easy at that pace.

Then came the first mile!  The first mile marker was on a beach... Yes we had to run along a beach.  Luckily the sand was damp so it wasn't too hard to run through.  Ty and I crossed mile 1 at about 5:28.  As soon as we hit that I heard some obscenities from Ty out loud.  I guess he felt like that was too fast although he said he wanted to hit a 5:30 so that was confusing.  I just said not to worry and that it'd be fine.  Perhaps I was the one worrying.  Last year a first mile like that would have meant my death shortly thereafter but I didn't think that way.

After the first mile came the beast hill!  You go up a little hill around a bend and then up a HUGE BEAST HILL!  The first lap up felt really good and we passed a track club guy.  Then on the other side it was a beast hill back down.  As we rounded that next bend the track club guy's little girl was screaming, "GO DADDY GO DADDY GO DADDY!"  Okay how in the world is he not going to be flying after hearing that??  It was cute.  With the first lap down we just kept it up... Through the sand again and over the beast hill one more time.

As we were starting the third lap (coming to mile 3) Ty saw an old guy and asked for the race time by saying, "Time".  The old guy said, "Sorry".  Not sure what that meant but if he didn't give us the race time just because we were a different team then that's just plain rude.  Ty did his normal speed up at mile 3... This was where he lost me the last meet but I told myself that it wasn't going to happen again.  I had to put forth every bit of mental strength I had to speed up and catch him again.  I just had to keep telling myself I could do it.  We managed to pass a couple of guys but then they passed us back unfortunately.

The third time up the mother beast hill was a bit difficult.  Legs were burning.  Ty pretty much flew down the other side and I did my best to keep up.  We came around the corner and I noticed a couple walking peacefully in on the trail next to where we were running and I felt burning envy!  I wanted to be walking peacefully... I knew we were close but it was mentally tough because they had no marker for mile 4.  I couldn't really tell how much we had left.  We went down and then started coming back to the finish.  Ty was about 8 seconds or so ahead.  He was probably around 6 or 7 when we rounded the turn toward the finish.  There it was!  The finish line!  I was giving it everything I had until I saw that the clock was still under 29 minutes!  Then I gave it more than everything I had.  I kicked hard and came across at 28:43 (3 seconds behind Ty).  I was completely fine with that considering there were no runners in between us.  Felt really good that I had kept my goal. I ended up having an AP of about 5:47

Team got 4th out of 5.  We were able to beat a track club ;) Our guys

16th Andrew Archer 26:58

25th Oliver Lange 27:42

29th Jef Marsicola 28:18

35th Ty Gregg 28:43

36th Me 28:46

49th Ian Asay 31:19

GO TEAM! 

Started the morning with some weight training at 6 am.  10 sets of 2 reps with box squat (exploding up), high jump and broad jump with a 15 lb medicine ball for 5 minutes, ladder speed exercises, and weighted core work.

Mileage run after that.  We went North along 13th to South Temple and then headed West to 700 East and came back to 17th South and ran Easterly back to the school.  My right foot was a bit sore but I managed to get through.  We then did 6 strides when we got back.  I then spent about 1 hour in the training room.

SPEED WORKOUT! We went to Fairmont Park today where we ran 20x400 Meters.  That was a lot of 400's.  We kept about  72 second pace so it wasn't too horrible.  Felt pretty good.  My legs started getting pretty heavy on the last five.

Today was my cross training day and the dumb pool was closed! So I went and used the stationary bike for 50 minutes instead. Holy boring! No music (since they don't turn it on upstairs), no iPod!  So all I had was a little paper in front of me that told me when the bikes might be needed for the spin class.  I also watched the lacrosse team as they ran around.

Just a mileage run today.  Coach led us astray a bit.  We headed west on 17th South and turned South on 9th East instead of 3rd East to make the 7 miles.  We had to run a lap and a half around Sugar House Park to get the total mileage in.  We then did 4 hill sprints which was rather difficult because we all have very sore bottoms.  We did core when we got back to the school.  Tendon is feeling good so I am happy about that.  When you are running for about an hour it's easy to worry about pain coming along.