Wage War On Slow Running

Reaper today! It was pretty good but Brady is back at SUU and Tyler was late, so I didn't have much competiton to push me. I ran a 9:08, so not as good as the past two weeks but still solid. I finished first on the team. With warm-up and cool down mileage was 6.12. Stretched, abs, wall-sits, and shin splint excercises. We had a debate during wall sits whether we could hit faster reapers if we did less of a warm-up. We'll have to test that out one of these days.

Our new varsity uniforms came today and they are sick! After we got ours Tyler, Riley, Brian, and I delivered the other uniforms to our teammates.. It was super fun to deliver them all and it hyped me for racing season a ton!

Tuesday's run was a 60-minute distance run. We ran to discovery park and then made it all the way to AF. There were some arguments on the run but it happens. I back with Riley and eventually others caught up to us. We hit 9.62 and then we did four strideouts for another .52. Kneaders afterwards with Nicole, Mia, Melanie, Tyler, Matt, and Ali. We also saw Preston there. It was a good time.

PM- Speed workout at 5 was 8 buddy 400's. Tyler was my buddy and we were in close competition with Reed and Matt for the entire race. We all pushed each other and thanks to Tyler's hustle we pulled out the win. Regular warm up and cool down and afternoon total was 4.15. 

Wednesday was a speed workout. Mile warmup and then we ran 8 800 repeats. For the first 200 on each we ran a 3-mile pace then sped up to a 1-mile pace for the second, then back to 3-mile pace and then to 1-Mile pace. We had a 400 jog rest in between the all of the first four repeats, a 5-minute standing rest in between the fourth and fifth repeat, then the jog rest in between the last four with a mile cooldown. It was a great speed workout, and I spent most of it running with Tyler, Ali, and Reed. Riley wasn't there because his knee was hurting. I was able to finish first but lots of people on the team did well in the workout.

60-minute run Thursday. We didn't go as fast as usual because the time trial is coming up, but still a good run. We ran to Timpanogos High School and on the way back Riley's knee started to hurt. He told us to tell coach he would be back a little late and then we heard a cry of pain, but we still ran back. We finished the run, did strides, strechted, and we're getting ready to do weights when we realized Riley wasn't back yet. Tyler, Matt, Brian, and I hopped into Brian's Bronco and went to look for Riley. We found him on the east side of Valley View, living off of some grapes he found on Tanner's Trail. That was pretty funny. 

Tomorrow is the time trial, so we did an easy 40-minute run this morning. I ran with Tyler, Matt Morrison and Reed. We had some good discussions, some related to running and some not. We hit 5.29 then did three 200m strideouts where we got faster each one. Reed invited us over for waffles after, and they were delicious. We also watched a Harambe tribute video there that Ali and Brayjo found.

Saturday was our time trial. The varsity hopefuls all took it pretty seriously and we treated it like a real race day. We warmed up 1.6 reviewing the course at Manila pond, drained our legs, and then raced two miles. The girls went first, and then the guys. Tyler started out fast and I stayed with him for a while, but eventually Riley passed us both and I sped up to keep up with him. He got a bit ahead of me, but by the end of the race I was able to get super close and I ended up taking second by one second, as timed by my coach. He got a 10:32 and I got a 10:33. Tyler took third, Brian took fourth, and Ali took fifth. Tyler got 10:47 and Brian and Ali were super close, both with a 10:57. Looking over last years time trial we realized that eight guys on our team this year performed better than the top runner, Riley, did last year, which was encouraging. Very proud of all my boys and the girls did well also. Did a cooldown and then Brian, Riley, and I swam in Manila pond and Riley tried to catch ducks. Then we cooled down further to get back to coach's, ate breakfast, and swam in his pool. The time trial made me super pumped for XC season and I can't wait for Grass Relays. I'm ready.