Wage War On Slow Running

On Monday we ran the reaper, and I got my first PR of the summer. I led for most of the road but Riley caught up to me just as we were getting to Battle Creek. I was almost able to catch him but not quite. Riley got a 9:20 and I got a 9:21, which is a PR! My last PR was a 9:27 at the end of last summer. I just gotta say, there's nothing like that run down the reaper after having PR'd. You feel great. With my warm up and cool down I got 6.12 miles total.

Pleasant Grove's Cross Country camp also started on Monday for me, because the captains (Riley, Wade, Nicole, Haley, and I) went up a day early to set things up at Timpanooke. We didn't do a run, but our coach did take us off roading to set the distance markers for the gut run.

Cross Country camp continued on Tuesday. We did a run in the mountains and althought our coach said there wouldn't be many hills, there were many hills. I stubbed my left big toe super hard and it bruised over pretty bad but it was a fine trail run at 7 miles. Later before bed we did a recovery run with the entire team of 1.91 miles so 8.91 in all. 

Before bed I gave a little devotional about overcoming discourgament. It was nothing special but a few things I suggested were:

-Remember why you love running.

-Work with people, not against them. 

-Make running a part of your identity.

-Take satisfaction in each run.

Two more runs on Wednesday for camp. First the GUT RUN, which starts next to the resevior and goes up the mountain. I didn't do as well as I would have hoped and a few of my teammates passed me but I ran 8.54 miles at 8:41 pace with a time of 74:09. We did another recovery at night for 1.64 miles, so 10.18 total. Tyler, Mat, Brian and I had some plans to do a night run but it was freezing outside and we all fell asleep before it went down.

Thursday was the last day of Cross Country camp, and we did our yearly RELAYS. I always look forward to these. This year I was on a team with Brian Schulz, Tyler Barry, Ben, Paige, and Michaela. We did a .76 warm up and then we each did four laps during the relay. They were supposed to be 800's, but they were a bit short so total distance for the four laps was 1.33. Our team fought bravely but we took second to Tyler's team, who also had Harambe on it. I did a .75 cool down and before I knew it camp was over. I don't know if anyone actually reads this but if you are and you went to camp this year, thanks! It was great. Tyler and I went to El Azteca with his dad because it's a three year tradition, and because it's pretty good.

PM- Not really about running at all but I hung out with some of the LP guys and Connor at Josh Ericksen's party. Birthday shout out to Jeriksen, hope 16 treats you well.

On Friday it was back to running in PG. We did a field trip to Huggard's farm and drank from the spring. I was tired and it was tough, but I hit 8.83 miles at 6:48 pace so I'm still happy with the run. The time was 60:05.

Today was the first double digit workout of the summer! We did a 70 minute cap run and I  ran most of the run with Riley and Reed. Riley and I ran ahead near the end and eventually Riley passed me (common theme on this blog) but I ran 10.51 at a 6:41 pace over the 70:17 time.

PM- I wanted to hit 50 miles this week and so I did a 3.25 mile recovery run to hit it. I ran through my neighborhood and down to the start of AF's grinder, then looped back to my house. With 13.76 total today I hit 50.64 for the week. 

PG is doing a program this summer called the ham challenge, and mine is going well. The requirements are a) attend 22 of the 24 practices held over four weeks of the summer b) run four reapers c) run four cap runs d) set a goal with coach and make progress on that goal. Today was my 18th day and it doesn't look like I'll miss any of my days, except for the day I did Freedom Run but there was no practice on that day and my coach counts it.