We are who we choose to be.

High Altitude Camp- Last day at camp. Today was just supposed to be an easy 4 miler. Boy is that an understatement. Coach led us on a trail he'd never done before and it ended up being this super hard, really hilly run. It seemed to go on and on and on. I kept up with the guys for the whole time on this run, but that wasn't an easy task. This whole camp has been so inspiring for me and has made me want to be a better runner than I am now. I have a feeling I've improved so much just over the past few days.

AM- Today Andrew, Cam, Jake, and I all met at Washington Elementary for our tempo. Josh Farish forgot there wasn't organized team practice today so he ran with us (plus some). I was expecting to go on a 7 miler with 2.5 tempo, but Andrew and Cam checked and said it was 5 with 2 tempo. We ran from the elementary school to almost the mall and back, starting and ending our tempo at Harts. This was probably the best tempo I've ever done. I stayed up with Andrew and Cam. We had about a 6:40 average tempo pace, but we got up to like 6 flat pace at the end of it. I didn't even feel very sore or tired by the end of this tempo and it felt pretty easy. I don't think I would have ran this morning if I didn't organize a practice with these guys because 1. I was so tired and 2. I didn't want to run this one on my own.

PM- 3 miles easy. This truly was the easiest run this week despite the 100 degrees with some moderately heavy wind. I decided to just take it as easy as I wanted. I ran the dirt mile/grapevine trails. I had a little sideache on the way back that would usually bug me a lot, but didn't bother me as much as usual... It might be because of the peanut butter bar I ate prior to my run, but we'll never know haha.

OH! I decided to take Coach's challenge and research a runner that I knew nothing about. I looked on some websites and took me a long time to find a runner that I really admired. My runner is Ryan Hall. In his senior year in highschool, he ran a state record time of 4:02.62. He ran at Stanford University. He broke the U.S. half marathon record with a time of 57:54 which killed the previous record. Ryan had the fastest marathon debut by any American, and the fastest marathon ever run by a U.S. citizen with the time of 2:08:24 in London. He ran the fastest marathon by any American with 2:04:58 in the Boston Marathon in 2011. He also qualified to run the marathon in the 2008 Beijing Olympics in 2008.

AM- Today we did 6x1000 repeats. I hit 4:30, 4:48, 4:50, 4:30, 4:32, and 4:38. They were easy, but a little faster than normal. I don't know what's up with me today. I felt super tired and short of breath. The workout, which doesn't usually tire me out, made me extremely tired. I don't know. Maybe I'll feel better by this afternoon. (half a mile barefoot warmup).

PM- Ran in Desert Hells territory for my 3 miler. Ran a nice easy route that ended up being 3.1 miles, but that didn't bother me ;) felt pretty good. Couldn't make it to team practice today, but will try on Thursday. 

AM- Today we did a new workout called 1/1 which is just like 30/30s but just double the hit time and distance. I made it all the way to 15 which is the most anybody got because coach stopped us for kid's club. I felt super good today! It felt easier than the 30/30s, but it was still a nice hard push. 1 mile warm .5 mile cool. (half a mile barefoot warmup).

PM- I know for a fact that this was 3.1 miles. I calculated it yesterday with a GPS watch. Yesterday I hit it in 23:35. That for sure is a promise. I say this because none of you are going to believe what I did and I just about hate/love myself for it. I went out on a run purely because I was angry. I didn't even think I was going to do a PM run today. I don't want to say exactly why I was angry, but I was furious. I've calmed down now, but it was bad. So I went out of my grandma's house with my watch and started running. I decided to do the same route as I did yesterday. The exact same route. My watch was running the whole time. The thing that was so shocking about this 3.1 MILE RUN, was that I ran it in 17:58. That is more than a 1:30 PR and this wasn't even a race. I confirm that this was a 3 mile run if not more! I got to the halfway point at like a 9 minute and I decided that I was just gonna kill it. I didn't care what anyone would say. So I started going. I think I was in the zone. I felt amazing during the whole thing. I felt like I was on top of the world. I don't know what the heck happened, but I was not expecting me to run any faster or stronger than I usually do. I don't know what I did different, but I sure dang hope I can run this good at the time trial tomorrow. Coach don't kill me.

AM- Half a mile warmup then 1.5 mile warmup then 2 mile time trial then 1.5 mile cool down. Felt pretty crappy and I hit above 13 minutes which is not good at all for me. I think I just need to start thinking more positive. Plus, it was grass and that never helps very much. Good job to Cam though! He really knows how to C.A.M. it.

AM- Today we ran 8 miles with 3 miles tempo. I figured today would be pretty tough and it was. We had like the biggest tempo group we've ever had on one of these tempos though. It was me, Cam, Andrew, Nick, Jake, Jason, Dallin, and Jake at the beginning and then by the end of the tempo it was me, Cam, Andrew, Nick, and Jake. We lost a few guys but we made it. Our splits were 6:40, 6:30, and 6:17 for the last one. I felt myself falling off towards the end of the tempo so I told Andrew and Nick to let me run in front of them so I would be pushed and that seemed to work. I'm pretty sure that I ran a lot faster today then I did at the time trial and this was a whole mile more! I don't know... (half a mile warmup). 

AM- Today I ran on my own because my poor grandma can't take me to practice. I ran near Snow Canyon High. I did 3 miles before I started my hills and then a dog chase and ended at nearly 7 miles. For my hills I did 5x1 minutes and they were really tough. I was consistent at running to about the same place every time and felt satisfied with those. Then an evil dog came out of nowhere and started to chase me! It was a fast little devil and ended up making me sprint half a mile and then it gave up and I reigned victorious. Then I decided to find a new hill so the dog didn't find me again. Then I did 3x30 seconds and they were awesome. Each one I went farther and faster then the last. It was sweet and I felt good with those. It felt pretty much the same as doing them in Hell's Hole.

PM- Finally got around to measuring my 17:58 and guess what... I lied to you guys. What I thought was a 5k ended up to be only 2.94 miles. Still a huge improvement and a definite PR. I took it slow today and ran the 2.94 miles in about 23 minutes. Someone honked at me near the end and scared the jibby out of me! Felt dead by the end and I have some pain in my left calf, but it should be fine. 

AM- .5 warmup, 1.5 warmup, 6x1000 (4:30, :30, :35, :26, :35, :32), 1.5 cool. I think I did a pretty good job at pacing on this workout, but I felt super tired, dehydrated, and my legs were killing me around the 3rd-end of workout. I hope I feel better sorewise by the race tomorrow because I really want to do good. I sure regret not starting running earlier.

PM- Feeling a lot better this afternoon. I felt pretty dehydrated though and I'm going to take care of that from now on. 3 easy this afternoon, but we went pretty dang fast. Probably the fastest I've gone on one of these runs. On the way there, we were all together, but then Byron and Trevor started to pull off a little and me, Cam, Dave, and Nick were the only ones who went with them and we were going fast! I was feeling pretty tired at the end and during weights and plios(how do you spell it?). I'm trying to get myself inspired for this race tomorrow... I just don't know how. I'm dreading the race tomorrow more than anything. Not my best running day today.

AM- Half a mile warmup. We went on a 5 miler to the double churches and back. I felt pretty good the way there, but got pretty tired by the end of the run. My legs were hurting enough to bug me, but nothing too serious. Afterwards we did 4x200 m accelerations and I felt really good on those. I'm trying to get myself pumped for the race and I'm definitely going to try my hardest today.

Race- I warmed up a good 1.5 miles and I felt like that was an appropriate amount of warmup and then we started the race. My first mile was 6:11 and I caught with Jake Taylor by the time we got to the track on the first lap and we were passing guys left and right and I'm glad he was there to help push me. We were still close together on the second lap and not much changed there but I started slowing down. The last lap was awful and I got passed by maybe 10 guys on that last lap. Overall a pretty good race and it is a PR. I pushed hard and I did my best. Good race.

PM- 3 miles easy and striders. We went sandburgs and it was really quite an enjoyable run! Can't believe we're in school! It doesn't feel right. The striders went pretty quick. My legs felt more sore than yesterday and were hurting pretty bad by the end. Then Matt picked me up and I banged my leg against his and now it really hurts. Tried stretching. Hopefully feels better soon.

AM- 3 miles easy AC route. We showed up like 2 minutes late and Trevor and Tyson were also there so we ran with them. And boy were we running fast! I couldn't keep up with them, but I caught up to the main group just a little after they did. The rest of the run felt super easy and nice.

PM- Ran our half a mile warmup then ran to the Sunrise Hill. We did 5x1 minutes hard then 7x30 seconds hard. And boy was it hard! I ran pretty good on the first 1 minute and just kept the same pretty much the whole timeIt felt like I was going to pass out after the 1 minutes so I went a got a quick drink then started the 30 seconds. These are always my favorite, and I was getting farther and farther each time. I decided on the last one that I wanted to CAM it so I did and finished the last 30 second in the lead. Then we had to run back and that was the really crappy part of the workout. Then we hit the weight room.

AM- 3 miles easy. Felt pretty good this morning and was really easy. Leg pain has left completely.

PM- 1x1s I made it to 13 of them but I probably could have made it to 15 if I really tried. My workout, warm, and cool all ended up at around 5.5 miles. Cool down was super tiring but I guess we have to do it... HAHA. Ready to race tomorrow.

Race- Best race ever! This was such a fast race. When we started, I was getting cut off by everyone, but I fought my way through by the end of the first mile and was around 15th place. I passed maybe 2 people on the second lap and was keeping a pretty good pace with this Hellian. I tried to pass this guy the whole last mile, but whenever I tried to pass him, he'd run right in front of me! It turns out this guy was really stupid because he didn't know where to enter the track on the last lap so he kept going the wrong way and he was passed by about a billion people. I almost felt bad for the guy. I ended up in 11th place 10 seconds behind Cam. I was 1 place from getting a medal and Jake won't let me hear the end of it. I ran 17:50 which is a 1:16 PR but this was a super fast race! After the race, I went to the running center and got some XC spikes and I'm super excited for SUU and I'm gonna try to medal there, but if I don't, that's okay too. End mileage was 6 miles.

AM- I've been dying to run since the race on Saturday! It felt really good this morning and I wish every run was like this. Easy AC three before school and then we did plyos afterwards. Good to have all these guys at morning runs.

PM- Started with a .5 warmup and then we did our agilites and core exercises while we talked about upcoming events. There were a ton of youngsters there today, but I bet that we're gonna lose a lot of them in the next few weeks. The level 2 guys ran a 1.5 warmup and cooldown before starting our repeats. Then we ran 6x1000 m repeats at a pretty hard pace. The first few were easy, but my energy level was just on the floor today. I was dead tired by the end of the third one and then Danny stopped because he was hurting or something so I stayed more with Jason on the rest of them. I hit faster then my time on all of these and it wasn't too hard other then the fact that I was super tired. I'm gonna get a lot of sleep tonight to prepare me for tomorrow.

AM- 3 miles easy. It felt pretty easy but it was super warm this morning! I was sweating so bad!

PM- 7 miles easy, .5 warmup, and Paul told me to add .5 for the trail at the park. I stayed with the guys until the turn around and then I kind of died off and it is not fun running in 108 degree weather by yourself with nobody within 100 meters of you. I got to a point where I was hoping someone would come out and shoot me in the leg because I wanted to be done so bad! I swear I almost passed out. I need to drink more water. Took one of the new leg ice baths in the tubs we got. That felt pretty good. Also I have just recieved word that I have an orthodontist appointment tomorrow so I'm gonna have to do my practice on my own. Is it smart to do 1/1s on the dirt mile? Should I go to the soccer field?

AM- 3 miles easy. I'm starting to really like these runs! I think they make me better at school for some reason... Felt pretty good and stayed up with the guys. I don't think staying up with the guys is a problem for me anymore... Which gets me pretty emotional haha!

PM- Couldn't make it to practice because of an orthodontist appointment, but I did it right when I got home. I did a 1.5 warmup and then I did the workout on the grass loops near my house. I mathmatically did the distance in my head which isn't very reliable, but I had my watch to tell me the times so I did 15 of them and I saw coach drive by right before my last one so that got my spirits going. It was really tough and I was sweating like no tomorrow. It is not fun to do these on your own. It seemed to go on and on and on and on and on and on. Afterwards I did just about a mile of cooldown. Wasn't sure if I was supposed to do striders before or after cooldown.... so I did them after.

AM- 3 miles easy AC. This morning, Byron, Dave, Bryan, and I were all late which I didn't mind because I felt really good this morning and wanted to go fast. So me Byron and Dave ran until Dave turned around then we finally caught up with the rest of the guys. Felt really good this morning. Only Byron, Bryan, Logan and I did plios this morning which was weird.

PM- 7.5 miles old man hills. Today we went over to the old man hills and I did 3 of the 800 m hills. It was really tough, but I managed to do pretty good on all 3 of them. As always, the cool down went on forever! When we got back, we did our weights and finally got our uniforms! On this run, my arch started feeling weird and it still does. It doesn't hurt, it just feels uncomfortable to walk or run.

Hit 300 miles in my Kinvara 3s!

AM- Ran 3 miles easy AC today with the guys in our car and Josh because we showed up late and we didn't know we were doing a grass run. We just ran that at a pretty good pace. I really love these runs.

PM- 5 miles easy and 4x200m acceleration. Ran the Sandberg route today and I felt really good. Stuck with the guys the whole time and I felt good on the 200s as well. I feel really good about tomorrow and I really want to push in the race to the best of my ability. Tonight we talked about our goals. We talked quite a bit about treating each other positivly. It made me feel really guilty because I kind of like to make fun of people, but I'm gonna take the challenge seriously and do at least 5 putups each day.

Race- Warmed up a good 1.5 at least and then we headed over to the starting line. My goal this race was to get top 20. The race started and I was about in the middle of everyone and I couldn't get passed anybody. I ran with Cam for a little bit and then I started to push ahead a little bit and I could see the front pack. I tried to go up with them, but I just couldn't. I ran with Jake and Logan for a little bit at the end of the second lap and then Logan fell off and Jake started to push ahead. I couldn't keep up. At the final stretch it was me, Dave, and Josh. Whoever got last out of the three of us would not get a shirt so I decided I didn't want it to be me ;) I did NOT want to get 11th again! Josh beat me by about half a second and I beat Dave by just a little bit. Super good race! First time ever getting top ten. End time was 18:14.7. Cool down to 6 miles (I could be wrong). Also, I'm going to hit 500 miles total since june next week! Pretty exciting!

AM- easy three. Starting to get used to these 1 mile tempos because we're late all the time! Hopefully it makes me faster ;)

PM- 6 minute VVO2 max test. I did okay, but I kind of wanted to be up with Andrew and Cam on this one. I know I probably could if I try hard enough, but I just can't get myself to do it! I finished just in front of Danny and got 2 laps+116 Hopefully I do a little bit better on the time trial on Wednesday. I know I belong with the faster guys.

Am- 3 miles easy. Finally showed up on time because Matt took me. It was a pretty easy run. Nothing spectacular.

PM- Dogpound tempo (4 miles total, 2 miles tempo). Fastest tempo ever! Felt really good, but it was not easy. Went at about 5:30 pace, which is a 2 mile PR for me and just about all the level 2 guys kept up. It was amazing. Striders afterwards

AM- we were late... Again! Just about a quarter mile tempo today ;) haha! Easy 3 AC route.

Time Trial- not sure what place I got on the team, but it was not as good as I wanted to be. I don't feel like I'm improving as much as I would like to be... Which means I need to keep rolling, stretching. icing, and running as much as possible. Finished probably less then a tenth of a second behind Jason and a few seconds in front of Dave. I tried out a new strategy, but it didn't work so I'm gonna stick with the same old same old. Coach said that since I'll be in the neighborhood, I CAN RACE ON SATURDAY! I'm so pumped! I'm ready to represent PV and kick Hellian Butt!

AM- Easy 3 mile barefoot. Was super easy and felt really good. We did haybales afterwards which was super fun!!

PM- "easy" 5 mile Sandburg route. It was pretty tough and I felt really dehydrated again... It didn't help that it was 100+ degrees outside! BUT I stayed with the guys the whole time and did haybales again afterwards. I'm starting to get a hang of these haybales.

Am- easy three and then some 200s added up to 4 miles.

PM- got up to AF and ran a late-ish run and I got lost, but luckily I found my aunts house! Added up to 4 miles total. Felt good and I'm ready to race.

Race- Woke up this morning feeling sick (which hasn't happened in forever!) so i was debating if i'd even wantto race. Ended up going.Warmed up about 2.5 total when you add it all together. Race started and I couldn't find Paul (there were about 400 kids according to the starter guy) and I got trapped at the beginning so I had to be aggressive and I kind of pushed some kids out of the way so I could pass them. Was never exactly where I wanted to be mostly because of the crappy start I had... I was in about 100th maybe by the end of the first 800 then I really started passing guys. Pretty uneventful 2nd lap. Finished okay and it makes me want to do really good at Dixie on Tuesday.