Murray Sophmore XC Runner

Today i ran about 9-10 miles give or take. it was a fast jog pace with one rest inbetween to use the restroom. The whole time I was running i focused on my stride. When i finished my legs were really sore because while i was running i was really trying to lengthen my stride so that i would be going faster. I was talking with a good friend of mine the day after and he said that it is bad to lengthen your stride unnaturally because you could injure yourself. So looks like i wont be doing that anymore. Anyway, I have been getting ready to go to the BYU invite this Saturday. My goal is to not come in last because I am going to be in the back of the pack time wise. I have been working really hard and I hope to break 5 minutes. I have been wanting to this whole season and i think it would be awesome to finish off the track year with my pr in the 4's.

12x 400s (alternate with a partner)

1 mile cool off

50x toe raises each foot

Today was a good workout.  Not too hard because im getting ready for BYU but still good. I  think my average pace was about 75 each lap but i didnt have a watch to keep track so its just an estimate.  I worked on just keeping a good stride.  In every race that i have ran this year, my stride always cuts in half, so thats all i have been working on this whole week. I hope that my stride has improved enough for BYU, but im unsure at the moment.  Tomorrow I am probably going to do a small amount of fartleks and then get a lot of sleep.

Until later, Im out

Just an easy jog for today.  I went and spat on a sewer plate. sounds funny i know, but its a high school ritual for distance runners i guess... The day before you race in a big race, you go and spit on a sewer plate a mile from the school. Kinda lame, but w/e.  Tomorrow I am off to BYU. YAYA

Man, what a day.  Probably one of the most nerve racking and exciting days of my life. For starters, i slept in till 10 and did nothing for the whole day just to get rested and prepared for my race.  Frequently, i called 2 people at the BYU track meet to know what race they were at in the meet and when i had to leave.  Then, after about an hour, i decide to check again with my friends to see where the meet was at.  Call after call, there was never an answer.  Finally i got annoyed and decided to leave on the spot for safety measures so that i would not be late for my race.  15 minutes away from the track, my friend calls me back and says that they just had 1st calls for the mile.  I AM FREAKING OUT!!!

My dad steps on the gas and heads to the track at 85 MPH.  Then, 5 minutes later, my OTHER friend calls me back and says that they still have the 200m left and that the first call for the mile was actually meant for th 200m.  I am really angry at my first friend and my dad slows down to the regular speed on the freeway.  I ended up having to wait an hour or so before my mile, and luckly everything turned out alright.  Anyway, then i start warming up and getting all energized and such.  I start talking to my buddy from school who has been at the meet the whole day, and he says that someone broke the national high school 2 mile record with a time of 8:57.  Of course it was set by Luke Puskedra. ( a distance runner i knew from cross but i didn't know he was amazing at track too...)  I thought it was insane, and it got me pumped to do well in the one mile.

As we lined up on the track to start the race, they had us in a weird formation.  I have started all of my races on a waterfall but this one they had you split up in three groups of about 7-8.  It was kinda how they do things for the 200m, or the 400m.  Anyway, it completely screwed me up and I probably lost a second on my time because I didn't really know what to do. 

The first lap i was feeling great, everyone started out really fast and i ended up in the back pack at the start.  I had a 71 first lap and i think i was like... 2nd to last.  TOUGH.

My second lap i felt pretty good but I started to have a little hard time hanging in there.  I got about a 77.

The third lap I felt like junk.  I got like a 78 though, so I still hung in there.

The fourth lap i felt on fire.  I cought a second wind.  I think i ran a  70 flat.  The last 300m i passed one guy and that was all i passed the whole race.  I came in third to last, but I still felt good about my time and how I performed.  I did a lot better than usual and I was very pleased.

 After the race, I watched Luke Puskedra run the mile with my dad and my brother.  He ran a 4:15.  As he was within 25m I am pretty sure he starting going really slow.  My guess is that he saw the clock and that he noticed he was not going to beat the national record, so he kinda just jogged the last bit in.  The record is 4:13, and I am pretty sure he can break it at state.

After watching Luke, me and my dad dropped my brother off at his apartment and headed to celebrate.  We went to Cafe Rio and bought our favorites.  Probably one of the best days of my life that I will not forget.

Jogged an easy 4 miles with my dog on the parkway just to get the miles in.

Easy two mile jog and 6 50m striders... regions tomorrow, and im excited.  I am really nervous though... I  hope I get another pr.

Wow! What an exciting week.  Sorry I haven't updated...  Anyway, region was canceled completely Wednesday, so everything was held in one day on thursday.  I ran the two and the one mile. Here are my times:

 Mile: 4:57.  Wasn't a PR but i stayed under 5 minutes so I am ok with it.

11th overall 1st in age division

2 Mile: 10:35  I broke my PR by 16 seconds! it was a great race for me.  I came in seventh though, so i was exactly one off from going to state :( really dissappointing...  oh well though, what can you do.

7th overall 1st in age division 

Overall it has been a crazy week, but I am really happy with what i have done.  I don't think i will get over missing out on state for a while though.

Peace

Felt good during the race. i came in fourth for my school with the first place of our team like 12 seconds in front of me. so we were all very close...  good first race. im happy about it

I ran sprints on and off today.   We did about 20 minutes of sprinting 100m, jogging 100m, sprinting 100m jogging 100m... I got really tired and a little dehydrated, but i still ended up doing the most laps on the track for my team.  It was a good workout and I felt pretty good except for a small side ache.  I need to do more ab work outs lol

I did pretty well, but I regret having that big mac at lunch before my race.  It basically killed my sides.  I was feeling pretty good the first 2.5 miles though, then i started to kick the last 800m and i felt a really bad pain.  It hurt but i pushed through and still did pretty well.  I finished 3rd for Murray, and I beat Christian Hunter for the first time this year so it was a good race.  I am happy about it, but I still think i could have done 30 seconds faster or so.  A guy that beat me by 10 seconds last race beat me by a full minute this one and i think i could have been a bit more up there.

Hey, sorry for the late update... i almost forgot completely :( anyway.  The race was really good, i felt pretty good throughout the race and I ended up placing decently.  But i still wish i could have done better... The race was a tad bit longer then the usual 5k so my time may not be so good, but I did well in placement so im still ok with things.  I came in third for Murray once again behind another Murray runner by 1 second.  It was heartbreaking because i was behind him the last 100m and i passed him with about 40 left and then he kicked even more and passed me.  Kinda depressing but hey, im getting closer every race.  The guy that beat me by a second also beat me by a minute last race when i wasnt feeling the greatest, so im pleased with things... Sorry my updates havent been so good, ill try and get them on the evening of the race so i can you know earlier brent.

I dont know how much I ran today but im sure it was probably one of the most tiring workouts i have ever ran.  We ran SNAKE REPEATS... ( The snake is what we call a very crooked hill that is on the Murray course, its steep and very tiring during the race because its right in the middle and it drains your energy fast)  I think we ran up and down that stupid hill 20x times... Then after that we ran even MORE hills on a different hill in Murray Park.  We did it based off time though.  I am guessing 2 minutes up and down then a rest for about 5 minutes to stretch and then 3 minutes up and down etc. so it increased everytime.  I think we did like 3 reps of that.  Then to top it off we did some sprints.  1x 50m 1x 150m 1x 200m ( just estimates, i dunno the actually distances because we did them on a gradual uphill).  It was a hard workout but im glad I did it.  my ankles are extremely sore though, so i dunno if i will be able to go to practice tomorrow, I am really hurting... I have ice on for now, but i dunno if that will do the trick.

didnt practice today.  my ankles were killing me so i decided to go home early today.  Instead i get to run the workout we did today and run it tomorrow on saturday.  A good old 60 min. Long run.  yippee... 

It says easy miles on the top, but when i ran today, it felt like horrible pain... It was a really hard run and very tiring.  We started out well and everything was good. But as the day wore on. from running on the road constantly, it began to get very hot and hard to run on the concrete for such long consecutive miles...  I hated it. By the end of the run i was dehydrated and I was in a bad mood.  I went strait home and had an ice bath 3 minutes after i got through the door.

definately a bad day

YES! I WON A 5k!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was a really fun race and right off the bat I took the lead by a good 20m.  The course was a 2 lap course that was kinda done in a super 8 fashion, so when i cam around the first bend and crossed where we started, I was way out in front. It felt good... I had a long stride, and no one was even close to me.  It was basically like this the whole race, except for the last 400m or so my I noticed my stride was a lot smaller then what it was before... I think I am going to try and work on my stride more so I can keep it long the whole race next time I run a 5k.  anyway, back to the race, I got to break the tape at the end!! it was a really cool experience... but to be honest there wasnt really that big of competition.  I won by 3 and a half minutes to second and third place, and I dont even think that it was a legitimate 5k distance.  Oh well though, im not complaining ha ha.