The Spruce's Blog

The blog starts here.   My coach wants me to blog so here I am.  I figured the first official team practice was a good time. 

I woke up sore after sleeping on my shoulder.  When my coach an I ran past a radar spedometer, it showed how fast we were going.

This was the easiest of my three legs.

I could've done much better on the 6.4 leg.  As for the 4-mile dead uphill, I'm never doing that again.  Thank you to everyone who had spray bottles, those made it easier.  And thanks for that ice water.

My brother and I were attacked by the pavement.  I didn't get to go running because I was taken to the ER.  There are fifteen stitches in my chin and I have a sprained jaw. 

Finally the effects of the pain killers are over.  I hope I haven't slowed down too much. 

3 laps around sugarhouse (warm up lap and then fartleks). 

Team workout.

The prizes were cool!  I'm lovin' the new speakers!

7 miles am, 5 miles pm.  I ran hard today.  Stefan got back from Mexico.  I like running with Stefan because he can push me.  I'll try this season to keep up with him.

See Bre's blog for course description.  See Susannah's for an essay.

I felt like I was going faster than I really was at the beginning, and I felt sick the last mile.  I puked in the straightaway.  My PR is a whole minute faster.

I could've sworn this was a six mile loop, but g-maps pedometer disagrees.  By the time I checked the pedometer, it was too late to start running again.  I am full of food and it is dark out.  From now on I'll do pedometer beforehand and plan my routes.

Morning: 6 with the team

Evening: 4 alone.  I g-mapped before I ran this time so I knew exactly hows far to go before turning around.  I'm now in love with the pedometer.

5 miles a.m. with the team.

I love the shoreline trail.  Today it was perfect!  I ran 6.25 on the trail.

I didn't feel like leaving the house for an evening run, so I suffered the mental pains of 3.75 miles on the treadmill.

2 mile warm up, 4 mile fartleks, 4 mile cooldown.

Fartleks: 5 min on, 5 0ff, 4 on, 4 off, 3 on, 3 off, 2 on, 2 off, 1 on 1 off.
 

FREE SLURPEE DAY RUN!

    We started at Sunnyside Park and ran to 6 different seven-elevens.  We ran to the one on 2nd south & 13th east first, where I had monster black ice flavor (it was that or full throttle; the machine was broken).  We then went to the one on 3rd avenue & 7th east, where I had twizzler cherry.  Third was on 1st south & 3rd east.  I had banana.  Fourth was on 4th south and 3rd east.  I had blue raspberry.  The fifth one was on 2nd east and 8th south, where I had another banana flavor.  We then went up the big hill to the one on 8th south and 13th east.  I had pina colada there. 

     My teammates were complaining about running with the slurpees in their stomachs, saying it wanted to come out.  I didn't feel them hardly at all, which I thought was unusual because I've had more post-race puking sessions than my whole team combined.  I think later I'll head to the ones between 17th south & 11th east, and 13th south & 5th east.

I didn't warm up as much as I should have, I was tired because my dad kept me awake until 11:00 the night before.  I think I learned two lessons here.

team workout @ suarhouse

4 laps @ Liberty A.M.

workout @ Sugarhouse P.M.

Pipeline.  I fell once, but not terribly.

Fartleks @ Sunnyside.  3 min on, 2 off

Indian files @ Liberty park.  1 warm-up lap, 1 files lap, 1 cool-down lap.

Mile one:  About six minutes even, relatively flat.

Mile two:  About twelve even, mostly downhill.

Mile three:  About eighteen-thirty, Mostly up and down

Final stretch:  I started sprinting at the 3-mile marker.  I should have waited, It would've been better to not use it all where I did. 

Kudos to all those involved in organizing this race.  There was absolutely no way possible to
get off course.  There was water, otter pops, and fresh bananas (and other fresh fruit, but it's all about the bananas).  I won an "executive lunch" at a restaurant in Draper in the raffle (I can add this to my I-pod speakers and supersoakers).  I'll eat it when I go to the aquarium later this summer, as I'm almost never in Draper.

Team workout @ Sugarhouse.  I felt that we intimidated the HHS football team...

Team workout @ Liberty.  We ran the last portion of the Des news 10k course.  I can't wait for Thursday...

Light easy run, the 10 k is tomorrow.  I can't wait!

It was a great race.  I ran the first 3 miles in 17:20.  Since there was no 5k marker, I'll use that as my PR.  The state course is only 3 miles anyways.

I didn't run until about 9:30 p.m.  I almost stepped on a cat.  It scared the living crap out of me!  I turned on to my street, which was pitch black, picked up the pace because I was almost done, and it shot out almost directly from under my left foot.  If my heart wasn't beating during the run, It was when that darned critter showed up.  From now on, I run in the mornings.  It is too hot during the day, and I won't run at night again!

I'm sore from last night.

A little tired, but it felt good.

At 1:p.m I went out to hang flyers on doors.  I did this for 2 miles, not counting the distances to the doors and back (which could easily double those 2 miles)  I'm not sure what the rules are for blogging my walking miles, so I'll Just add 1.5  to make an even 10 for today.  If this is too much, let me know.  I'm not like that loser Cheston and I'll be glad to change it.

A.M. Dry Creek run.  I carried two rocks the size of softballs up to a pile of rocks at the overlook... except I missed the pile and carried them way too far.  I did six miles total.

P.M. Fartleks.  10 sets of 1 on 1 off.  I felt good.  This plus warm-up and cool-down equaled 8 miles.

Team workout @ Cottonwood Complex

Evening run @ Sugarhouse.  I woke up with a bloody nose, about 40 minutes before I was supposed to be at morning practice.  Because of my medical history involving nosebleeds and surgeries, (not the Michael Jackson kind, the kind to help me breath,) I decided the best thing to do would be to wait until later in the day to run.  I even called in sick to make sure I would have time before dark.  I'm not running in to anymore cats!

Team workout and breakfast at Liberty.  It was good!

I felt good.  I was wearing my new flats.  I ran 5:48 at the mile, 11:40 at the two, 18:01 at the three mile, and pulled across the line at 18:36.  I was second from East High.

Cemetery loop

Shoreline trail.  

Team workout @ Cottonwood Complex

Jordan river trail. Now on to the time trials!

The time trials went well.  I ran the first mile sluggish, but finished strong.  I got sixth place and made varsity!

Pipeline trail.  I got stuck at the back on the way back.  I tried to catch up, and I almost did, but the steep hill on the way back did me in.  I need to work harder on hills.

Ran to Sugarhouse, did 4 laps, and went home.  I think there was some sort of race/walk there because there were people all around the road.

Fartlek workout at sugarhouse: 5 4 3 2 1, equal recovery.  Today I learned that my watch CAN be set to go off every minute.  This makes it so much easier to do fartleks, arm swings, and other workouts with set time intervals. 

I can't wait for the season to start.  I don't want it to end either. 

Dry creek run.  I bombed it coming downhill!  I think I heard a rattlesnake on the way back, but it could have been a plant in the wind.  I'm not sure exactly what a rattlesnake sounds like, but it didn't sound like a plant.

Hills @ cottonwood complex.  They seemed harder than they should've. 

I ran five and biked five, but I won't count the biking miles.  

Laps @ liberty park.  My 3-mile time (after 3 miles warm up) was 18:37, which was faster than I planned on going. 

Was going for 10 or 12, but my stomach only wanted 0.

Five 1000's @ sugarhouse.  My right ankle hurt on all but the first one, just before and after the bridge.  My splits were 3:45, 3:50, 3:53, 3:50, 3:49. 

Shoreline.  My ankle did the same thing as yesterday towards the beginning, but overall was just fine.  

10-mile hike @ desolation lake.

A.M. Indian files @ Liberty. Our goal was 20:15 (for 3 miles), but we ran 19:00 flat. It was easy.

P.M. To sugarhouse, 2 laps, and back home.

A.M: Same run I did last night (almost, I added .25). I planned to do ten, but I was almost limping. I'll try and ice it now and run later, completing ten miles for today. For now, I don't want to favor one leg.

P.M: 2.5 mile loop

I barely missed the cash prizes!  I was struggling yesterday to stay under 10 minutes a mile, I didn't expect to run under 20:00.  I hope I'm back up to speed.

Speed workout 

1 mile warm up

1 mile speed changes

1 lap cooldown

1 mile fast (5:25, within target range)

2 laps recovery

2 800's with one lap recovery each (2:36, 2:36, below target range)

Cool down loop

 Mizuno wave inspire 4, no injuries

Breakfast at Village Inn was the bomb!

I put 6th on division place because that's where I placed on the team.

I finished ahead of the 4th and 5th scorers from Cottonwood, and the 3rd, 4th, and 5th scorers from Murray. 

6 miles in the morning, 7 miles in the afternoon.

Afternoon speedwork.  We did one 800 with 400 recovery, and eight 400's with 400 recovery.  My splits were 2:41 for the 800, and between 1:12 and 1:16 for the 400's.  I was mostly 1:14 and below.

To sugarhouse, 1 lap, and home.

It started hailing during the cooldown. I was right by my car, so I grabbed an umbrella and held it sideways to use as a shield.

I did 6.5 miles in the late afternoon.  It was really nice.  There was no wind and the temperature was perfect.  I hope cross country season is just like tonight.

A.M. 5 miles.  10 sets of 1 min on, 1 min off.

Afternoon 5 miles to Shriners hospital and back to the track, followed by a 300.

Once again I put my team ranking on division place.  We ran as a pack (the top six on our team) for the first 3k.  Up to that point we were behind the top four Cottonwood runners.  As soon as we reached the 3k mark, we broke the pack.  I'm not sure of the exact standings, but I think we took first, third, fifth, sixth, eighth, and ninth.  The fastest Olympus runner only beat our seventh man.  Both boys and girls did the pack run, and both teams took first, so we remain undefeated.

 How would you like to be Cottonwoods' coach right now?

A.M. @ Sunnyside:  Tempo run

Afternoon run to legacy bridge and back.

We only did two miles so we could be rested for BYU tomorrow.  We then waited two hours for the photographer to show up.  I was 45 minutes late for work (which is absolutely no big deal)  and today is payday, so I'm one step closer to recovering from the deficit of the upcoming Minnesota trip. 

My time on my card is different from the online results. I think the card is more accurate because according to the card, I beat someone by .2 seconds. I know I barely beat someone in the last meter.

I'm going off the distance everyone with a satellite had.  I bet the same guy who measured this measured the Bear Lake 10k.  That race was a mile over!

AM:  To sugarhouse, 5 hills, and back to the stadium.  Some of the runners got into a minor argument with a biker, who happened to be my uncle.  Apparently he wasn't too happy with us being in the bike lane (although maybe he was just mad that Greeny was running straight at him). 

PM:  AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Ladder speedwork in the heat of day.  I'm so glad there was a breeze!  2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2

200 m @ 0:32, 0:30   I stopped my watch at exactly 0:30.00!  No decimals! 

400 m @ 1:12, 1:14

600 m @ 1:52, 1:57

800 m @ 2:32, 2:42

1000 m @ 3:32  I don't know if I felt like passing out or if it just got bright and I started to squint.

I am definitely glad I did this workout.  I have plenty of strength, I needed today's speed.

AM hills

PM sugarhouse lap 

EPIC!!!!!!!

I ran right behind Greeny the whole time.  I wanted to beat him.  He was hurting and dropped back several times, but each time I just said "C'mon, Jon" and he pushed.  He beat me by one second, and I barely beat the fifth Highland runner.  Our girls' soccer team beat Highland yesterday, we beat Highland today, and hopefully our football team beats them on Friday.

I can't wait for the Murray invite on Friday.

Easy run today, invite tomorrow.

You would expect the slower runners to not start out in the front.  I finally had some space just before the mile mark to move up. 

Too many dogs not on leashes. I have been scared of big dogs since I was a child. I don't care how "friendly" your dog is, put it on a leash! The big dog that knocked me down on the ground as a first grader multiple times on my way home from school was supposedly a "friendly" dog. The idiots who owned the stupid thing refused to take orders from animal control to leash the beast. Leash your dog, leash your dog, leash your dog, leash your dog, leash your dog. And in case you were wondering, dogs are in no way, shape, or form like your children. You can't love a dog like you love a child. Leash your dogs!

AM  200's  (6 miles)
PM   5 miles

AM hills 5 miles

PM light stride workout

It was an okay race, but I wish we weren't missing 3 of our top runners.

Later at night there was a shooting at the park. 

5 in the morning, 5 in the afternoon.  There were 2 crazy ladies yelling at each other up at the hospital (we run through the sky walk up there).  One was in the elevator screaming at the other to get in, the other refused to do so.  As we went past she yelled at us that the elevator was taken and we had to find another one.  We took the stairs (as we planned to anyways).  I guess there was a cop there when my coach ran by.  Some people are idiots. 

Mormon Blackjack-You don't gamble, you just win prizes.

We did hills and added a form of blackjack to it.  I won the third round. 

I know I haven't blogged for a while, I'll just start again here.  I just haven't had time to record my running.

My state race sucked.