Just do it

Tempo run at Liberty.  It's about 1.5 miles down there and then we did a 5 mile tempo run on the inside concrete loop.  He told me and my teammate to go for a 6:10 pace so we did just that.  It was pretty good!  The splits were 6:14, 6:11, 6:08, 6:06: 6:03 which made for a total of 30:32ish.  I felt really good.  Last couple of miles were a bit tiring.  I also had some stomach pain at the end and only barely made it to a bathroom.  We then ran 1.5 miles back to make the 8.

Long run in Park City!  We ran along a path out there out and back.  We went for time since the course wasn't marked. Ty and I went out for 37:30 and then back which made about 10.  The run felt pretty good!  I was a bit worried after yesterday's tempo but I felt fine.  What I did feel though was that my legs were super tired.  No injury pain, just tired muscles.  At about mile 6 and 7 I was really wanting to stop.  We made it back at exactly 1:15 though so we were right on at a 7:30 pace.  Still felt really sick after but it was good.

Longish run today.  We have a meet on Saturday so we went longish.  Since this is our taper week, a longish run was 7-8.  I was going to go 8 but I decided to go 7 just to be safe.  I feel good now so though so I believe twas a good decision.  Ran up around Hogle Zoo and back down to 17th South to Westminster.

Ran along 13th East to South Temple and back to the school.  I rolled my ankle on the way back and it's a little sore now but it shouldn't be a problem.  We did strides and core when we got back.

2 x 1 mile (AP of 5:35)  2 x 800m (AP of 2:40), 2 x 400m (AP of 75)  Did them all at Sugar House.  I actually really enjoyed it except for the little marsh we had to run through.

Really don't know how far I swam.  I didn't keep track.  I went for 50 minutes straight and I know that each lap was less than a minute so yeah... Over 50 laps.  Really boring!  That's probably because I just did freestyle the whole time.  It would help to change it up a bit.

Quick pre-meet run along 13th East.  

LOVED THIS RACE!  I felt like I was a lot more in the zone on our way to this race as I have been in the past.  While we were driving to our motel the night before I was listening to music and visualizing.  I kept telling myself, "You will fast.  You will run well.  You will be strong."  Stuff like that.  I also did that on the morning of the race while we were headed there.  The van was very quiet as everyone was zoning in and focusing.

It's always a little hectic right before the race, especially when there are but few restrooms.  We managed to get a 1.5 mile warm-up jog and start getting ready to roll.  The girls had already run before us for this race so we knew we'd have a good cheering section.  We lined up at the start ready to go.  I was definitely pumped.  I was relaxed and calm, but also very focused.  I felt like I was right where I needed to be.  Right before the gun went off I looked over at Ty and said, "5:40 first mile?"  He agreed gleefully.

The gun went off and we squeezed all together.  There were 126 runners and it became almost a funnel into the first turn.  Due to the amount of runners it became very tightly packed.  I was using my elbow a bit to get people off of me.  The first mile felt really good!  I was thinking we were right on pace.  However due to the group we were in at the start, we went out a bit fast.  We crossed the first mile and she called out 5:17... Oops... Ty said, "What time did she say?"  I said, "Uhhh 5:35."  He then said, "Shut up!  I know what she said!  She said 5:17!"  I just smiled and said, "I tried."  It was a very funny moment.  That tends to happen to us.  

The course was a crazy figure eight with some downhill bike path and 2 beastly uphills.  The 2nd mile didn't have too much craziness.  Ty and I were passing people left and right which felt really good!  We hit the 2nd mile at 11:07 so our pace hadn't faltered too much.  It felt about right.  You usually go out a bit fast in the first mile to gain position and then you settle in.  That way you don't have to worry about passing tons of people.  You do want to pick it up at about mile 3 though.  We did continue passing though.  We went through some crazy rolling hills and Ty was hauling.  I was like ohhh poop.  Then he eased up.

 We ran down that gradual decent and we were probably at about a 5 flat pace.  It was a nice hill.  We crossed mile 3 at 17:02... Good pace still.  The first hill was very very beastly.  It was nothing like Bob Firman.  We came around the bend and it was almost straight up.  We climbed and climbed and finally reached the top.  The only thing I could think of was, "I am never going to recover from this hill."  Then a miracle happened.  After it flattened out I pushed to get my pace back and my legs started to recover!  Energy came back and my pace quickened!  I felt good!  I started to leave Ty behind at this point.  We went around the big curve and Ty caught back up.  Just before the decent we saw the girls and I flashed a peace sign.  Then when we hit the gradual decent for the 2nd time, he started to fall back again.  He had some serious sideaches.

We crossed mile 4 at 22:27... Good news at this point.  I could see my teammate Jef not too far ahead.  Throughout the race I had been telling myself.  "I can do this.  I can do this.  I can do this."  When I saw Jef I thought,  "There is Jef!"  I'll finish right behind him!"  Then I saw that i was gaining on him and I though, "Wait!  I can catch him!  I can really catch him!"  I kept my pace strong. I caught him right at the bottom of the hill with about 3/4 a mile left.  I gave him the butt tap and he was good.  He said, "Are you ready, David?"  I was like ohhh poop, he has been saving up and he is going to smoke me now.  At this point my legs are pretty toasted and my breathing is quite heavy.  Then to my surprise Jef didn't stay with me.  I started to leave him behind and continued passing runners.

At this point I had probably moved up a good 25-30 spots throughout the race.  I had 800 meters left and I started recalling our 800 meter workouts and was telling myself, "You know you can do this.  You know you can push it out through this last 800."  I passed another couple of runners.  One had a shirt that said on the back, "You trail a snail."  I just thought, "Not anymore! hee hee hee!"  

As I was going along I saw the last hill. They were cruel and decided they wanted to put this beast hill right before the finish.  I hit it and gave it everything I had to maintain somewhat of a reasonable pace.  My legs were BURNING!  My heart was pounding out of my chest.  I passed another runner going up the hill and was gaining on one coming toward the top.  Everyone started yelling, "Go!  Don't let him pass you!"  I just thought, "Too late... Thanks for the motivation to pass him."  I picked up my pace knowing the finish was just ahead.  I was giving all I had left.  Then I noticed the finish was a lot farther than I thought... Oh well!  Keep the pace!  AHHHHH!  I started to grimace... My breathing was completely sporadic and my legs were crying uncle like never before.  The banner came closer and closer until I finally crossed with a PR of 28:25.  Euphoria!  I felt really woozy and it took me a good while to recover but it was an amazing race!  I loved every second!

After I finished I found out that our number one man had dropped out due to some injuries.  It was sad to hear. I also found out that Oliver and Jef were basically leading the whole race for about a half a mile.  They him mile one under a 5 minute pace.  They went out super fast and kind of died because of it.  

 Results

28:25 (AP of 5:43- Notice the goal on my blog :)

Splits: 5:17, 11:07, 17:02, 22:27

My team:

Oliver Lange: 59th 28:05

David Sondrup: 65th 28:25

Jef Marsicola: 80th 29:02

Ty Gregg: 83rd 29:12

David Perales: 97th 30:14

Ian Asay: 109th 31:28

Romnick Poindexter: 122nd 36:32 

Distance run down to State Street and across to 27th and back.  My achilles tendon wasn't too happy for a bit but hopefully it will be fine tomorrow.  We finished off with some strides.  3 and half hours of sleep probably wasn't helping either.

Speed work today.  We ran over to Sugar House Park and did 10 intervals of 800 Meters.  I hit 2:38 pretty consistently throughout the whole workout.  My legs were giving out on the last couple.  My muscles just didn't want to continue.  

Cross training day!  It was very welcomed considering I have been feeling some achilles tendonitis on the right side.  I have been doing light therapy with ice cups so hopefully by tomorrow it might be feeling better.  

Swimming was a bit boring.  I went for 35 minutes of freestyle then I did 10 minutes of sidestroke and breast stroke followed by another 5 minutes of freestyle. 

We had a GREAT 5 mile tempo run this morning at Liberty.  There were 3 guys there including myself.  Hit the first mile at 6:10 and the 2nd and 6:20.  Jef and I had relaxed a little and were talking still during the second mile so I picked it up after seeing that split. I left Jef behind at that point and the 3rd mile was a 6:08.  I was feeling super good!  I picked it up some more and crossed 4 with 6 flat.  Then I was like, Yeah!  So I picked it up some more and came across the finish line with a split of 5:49.  The overall was 30:30 and I didn't even feel very winded.  This is definitely a confidence booster for conference.  Going for a sub 28.

Jef was actually able to catch me and came across right at the same time.  Well done! 

Got my new shoes today.  Felt pretty good.  It's always weird trying to get used to new shoes.  Went for a minimum of 6 today.  Didn't want to overdue it with the tendonitis I have been feeling.  I still felt it on the run but hopefully I will be able to keep it at bay.

Good long run :) :)  I was a bit concerned about the tendonitis I have been having.  It seemed like it was trying to decide if it wanted to flare up or not this week.  I was battling it with news shoes, light therapy, ice cups, and cold whirlpools...  I think I may have won.  There wasn't any pain throughout the whole run.  The new shoes probably are helping. I am not going to take any chances though so I will keep taking ibuprofin today and using ice cups.  

I ran from 11th East down 17th South to 700 East... I then took that to 4th South and dropped down that to State Street.  Looped once around the Temple (got a drink from the fountain) and hiked it back up South Temple to 13th and back.  I pretty much love that run!  The only part I don't really like is 13th East because I have run it so many times.  Felt really good though! 

Ran down to State Street, over to 27th and back up to 13th.  I think it was just under 7 but I also did 8 strides so I figured it was fine.  My legs felt rather achy today so it was nice to get those strides in.  I would say the aches and pains may have just been from the 22 slow miles this weekend since Friday until today.  The strides helped me shake off the rust a bit.

Felt really good today!  We ran the Hogle Zoo route and then did some core afterward in the weight room.  No ice bath, but the legs felt good :)

Speed work.  We did 5 1-mile repeats.  My splits were 5:26, 5:31, 5:28, 5:32, 5:25.  Consistency could have been better but 13 second spread isn't too bad.  Coach was only going to have me do 4 but I was feeling really good so I added in the last one.  Ice bath was pretty dang cold!  Probably didn't help either that we did some lifting this morning.

Swam for 50 minutes... Boring as usual.  I went 35 laps freestyle, then some side stroke and breast stroke and finished the last 5 free.

Not racing this Saturday so coach had me running some fartleks.  I haven't been sleeping as much as I should be so this was quite fun.  I ran down to Liberty and then just did them around the park.  I went 3 minutes at about a 5:40 pace and then 1 minute slow for recovery.  Did that 8 times and ran back to my house.

We were down in Orem right next to UVU campus for an Institute retreat.  Went to bed at about 1 and got up at 5:30 to go running before the next part started.  I ran from La Quinta Inn to the Provo Temple.  It may have been just over 5 miles up because it took me about 41 minutes to get there.  Total time ended up being 1:17 by the time I got back.  It was a really fun run if i do say so myself.  I did surprisingly well with how much sleep I have been getting.  

Really cold and rainy this morning so that wasn't very enjoyable.  I stepped in a huge puddle at about 8 minutes so that was great.  Felt pretty good otherwise though.  Knee was a bit sore afterward.  Probably more from the cold.

I got muh watch back yesterday!  It was nice having something to tell me my distance and pace.  It was still super cold this morning but at least it wasn't raining.  Just went for a nice little run and kept about a 7:30 AP.  Speed work tomorrow.

Woke up to the lovely snow and freezing cold.  That was exciting... especially considering we had interval training today.  Since Fairmont Park was covered in snow, we went to the track at Highland H.S.  We did 16x400.  I was pacing at about 75 seconds per and we had a minute of rest in between.  They felt good for about the first 8 or so and then they started to get harder and harder.  It was a struggle to keep the pace up for the last few but we did go shirtless for the last ;)  I think it's a bit hard because we're just not used to the cold air.  Our conference meet could be quiet cold up in Montana so I will consider it good training.

Cross training day which means swimming. I swear that 50 minutes takes forever regardless of what i do.  

Air Force Fitness test this morning so I had to do my workout around that.  I got there and ran a mile for my warm-up and then we did push-ups and sit-ups for 1 minute each.  I did 70 push ups and 60 sit ups.  I didn't want to wear myself out at all so I stopped early on the time.

1.5 miles on the indoor track kinda sucked.  I had cotton mouth and my legs were a bit toasted from the sit ups right before.  I hit my mile at 5:06.  I have never felt like that at a 5 mile race in a meet.  I did finish with my goal of 7:55 (below 8) so I was happy but it seriously raped my throat.  I will be clearing it the rest of the day.  

After that I did 4 sets of Fartleks 3 mins hard and 1 slow.  I tried to maintain a reasonable pace but it was rather hard.  Then I cooled down for a mile and that was it. 

Went out to a trail by Jordan River that did not end up being so great.  We ran out and along a road and then wound up in a big track for motorcycles.  We ended up weaving all through that (potholes, mud, curves, etc) just to go back the way we came reaching only about 6 miles.  We then went left along another path that led straight back to the same place!  Luckily by the time we got back we had reached about 9 miles.