#WolverineWay

Pretty good run today. We went up the trail to the top of the private road then down to main street on 6400 then we started down towards MVC. When we got to MVC we were told by our coach to race it back to Monarch. So thats what we did, when we got to the stoplight at 13400 I made the decision to just cross and I guess just Tommy decided to come with me, while everyone else stayed on the corner and waited to cross. Our average pace was around a 6:45 but our last mile was definately in the 5's because it felt like I was hauling.

Just an easy run with Christian and Mckay (other guys went further) before our races tomorrow, I am doing the Honeyville 5k and Mckay and Christian are doing the Riverton Country Mile 10k. I felt pretty good just a little beat up from yesterdays run but other than that I feel really good and I am hoping to run a 15:10ish to beat Braden Perry's course record from 2010. 

My strategy is to take off and leave the lead pack as there will be no-one that will be going that fast at this race this year (Box Elder's XC team is doing the Brigham City 5k the same day) and then at around 5 minutes I am going to settle in and keep trying to open up a gap on #2 if I feel good enough. With this I should be able to finish safely in the low 15's and will probably get me the win even if I tire a bit at the end. 

Got to the race about 45 minutes early so I got out of the car and went and walked around. Then I went for a mile warmup and scouted out the competition but the only one who would give me any pressure would be Adam Hendrickson from Box Elder because two of the Terrible Three were up at Blacksmith Fork 15k. Got to the line and started to talk to some of the competition and I met a girl from Box Elder (who actually won the girls race) and I talked to Luis Vidal from Logan who confirmed that Jerrell Mock, Conner Mantz (two of the Terrible Three) and Adam were not going to be here.

The gun sounded and I took off but the course was kind of confusing at first so I kept looking back to see if I was going the right way. I was moving pretty good for the first mile to try and open up a gap on the second place guy (Luis) which but me at least 200 meters ahead of him and 500 meters ahead of the rest of the people. The race was on a true cross country course which was super cool because I got to wear my Kilkenny flats for the first time. I got a side stitch at about 1.7 miles to go and it didn't go away till the water stop at mile 2.

After the water stop I was super bored and I just wanted to get this race done with and win so I started my kick and came  in 1st to finish at a 17:03 which was terrible for me. I wasn't in any kind of shape to beat Braden's course record of 16:09, but oh well I will do it next year. I got a huge jar of honey for winning (which is really good) and a gift certificate to a local grocery store so I went and got some ice cream.

I went on a lengthy cool down after I got home which turned out to be another 5k so I should be safely in my weekly goal of 34 miles. It was a well put on race by such a small town (population of about 1500) whose population nearly double this time of year. I'm going to turn all my focus on the half marathon on the 14th so I can have a shot at winning it.

I was planning on going just 3 miles today because I felt so beat from yesterdays race and last night but when I got to a quarter mile left I decided to make it a 5 miler. Then when I got to the lake I decided that I felt pretty good so I went to the temple and I kept making it just a bit longer. Mostly because the rain felt really good and I needed some thinking time. I ended up going 7 and a half but I felt like I could go way more which is kind of odd considering I raced yesterday. I need to start upping my miles this week in preparation for the Farmington Half Marathon on the 14th but I don't want to hurt myself so I think I'll just get my miles up to 40-45 this week and hopefully my body will respond positively.

I am beginning to understand why people blog, it helps me to get things out that I wouldn't normally say. 

Easy run with some of the guys, we decided to cut it a bit short because of our longer run yesterday and my 10 miler tomorrow with the coaches. I should be at about 40 miles this week so thats good I guess. Felt like pushing it today so I started to push the pace at the last mile and when I hit 1/2 to go I started to go as hard as I could because I wanted to practice going fast so i can get comfortable with it. Finished about 15 seconds ahead of Tommy who was surprisingly close considering how hard I was pushing it. 

Didn't get much sleep last night so I woke up way late and missed the 10 miler with the coaches so that kinda sucked. I went out and did the Mav route and then remembered that Connor's Half Marathon was today so I ran down to the district to see him finish. By the time I had gotten there he had already finished but he was second with a time of 1:25 which is pretty good for a first half marathon. The winner was Dave Rasmussen with a 1:21.

I got Connor to come with me for a cool down for about 20 minutes and we talked for a bit before I had to get running again. I went up to 4000 west I think and took that to 12600 and then up to Maverick (for the second time this run) to poo and then home on the trail. 

AM- 4 Run up to lava. We got to the start way before anyone else so we were standing around waiting for a while before we got going. When we started we were going a reasonably good pace for the first 1.5 then we hit a huge hill which hurts just as bad every year. Then when we got to the water stop we slowed a bit before the last push up the last 2 miles of the run. We got to the finish with Me, Connor, Tommy, Mckay, Jesse J. and Rory

PM- 5 Evening jog. Easy jog with the guys around camp we did it pretty fast but not fast enough to hurt us the next day.

AM- 3 Morning Mile. Me, Rory and Tommy got woken up way late this morning because our tent was way far away and nobody knew we were up there so we didn't get much preparation for the mile. We ran up to the starting line and I was feeling like crap, I was sick to my stomach and my throat hurt so I was just going for a little faster than last years time on this course which was a 4:51 putting me in around 15 seconds behind Connor. So when Barnes honked his horn to go we took off really fast and I settled in 3rd behind Jesse J. and Connor but I was feeling crappy so I didn't try to push the pace but Jesse dropped off and Connor started to slow so I took the lead and with a quarter mile to go and began to pull away from Connor. I started kicking with whatever was in my tank (probably nothing) and when I came across the line I felt like crap and I was thinking I would run like a 4:45 or 4:50 again, but no I ran a 4:25 beating the previous record by 11 seconds and beating Connor by 4 seconds giving me the fastest time on the course. We cooled down a mile afterwards with the guys and some of the girls.

PM- 9.1 Run to lava. This is the worst run we have ever done. Even though this is my third time doing I keep coming to camp. I hate this run more than anything but anyways we ran down the first two miles in about 11:30 which was really impressive considering our mile earlier that morning. Then we pretty coasted until the second water stop which was brutal but we kept our pace for a while. When we got to the water stop I took my GU which tasted really funky but good at the same time. We kept going and at the 2 mile left point Rory decided he was going to try and race so I just let him. I was feeling so crappy because of the heat that I was just trying to go fast enough to finish the run and at least finish sub 55 minutes. At a mile to go I finally decided to try and catch up to Rory and then at the half mile to go I blew past him and I came threw my last mile at a 4:52 pace which hurt like nothing I have ever felt. I beat Coach Brown's record who ran 55 high here two years ago when I was a sophomore Rory came in about a minute later (there was a bit of an argument over this because he thought it was less than that but I had a watch and he didn't.) We iced our legs in the water afterwards and then it started raining and thundering so we couldn't go swimming today :(

AM- 5 Team relays. We ran up to the starting point after a talk from our coach about some "hazing" last night. We got our teams and I was on a team with Mikie and Adam who were both pretty good at the mile and I was glad I got them on my team. But when we got to the first exchange Mikie gave it to Adam in second to last place and Adam gave it to me in third to last place which I then moved up quite a bit and caught Mckay and Tommy on the final hill. On the second exchange Mikie moved back into third to last and Gave it to Adam who went as fast as he could to put me in striking distance of a few guys. On my last leg I took off with everything I had left after the last few runs and caught Mckay, Braden and Tommy putting me in second, I then began to catch Rory's team (who won) and I came across the line at a 7:20 which was a 4:56 mile pace and a new course record (3 for this camp) and I was 30-40 seconds behind Rory's team.

Dead-beat tired today, I couldn't get out of bed so I decided to run a little later than usual but I was so sore from camp that I could only manage a 12 minute pace. I haven't gone that slow since I was like 8 running with my dad but I'm feeling much better after running and stretching a ton. I have been planning my race on Saturday, I am going to stay with the leaders for the first 7 miles and then when I hit the 10k left i'll make a move to lead and hopefully my speed will be enough to beat some of the more experienced marathoners and hopefully get a good time and place. 

Easy run up with the guys at Monarch up to Juniper, then to Rosecrest then back down to 134th. I took it really easy as I didn't want to be sore for my race tomorrow.  I am running the Farmington Half Marathon with a couple guys on my team.

Woke up really early to head over to the bus at Run Gr8, when we got there I got my bib, and packet and then got on the bus. It took us about 45 minutes to get to Farmington but I just listened to music the whole way and tried not to psych myself out because this is my first half marathon. I got out of the bus when we got there and I headed to the bathroom then did some striders and stretches to get my body ready. I saw a few Davis guys and some older guy with no shirt on who looked way familiar. 

When we started I got to the lead pack and some guy broke away immediately and none of us wanted to try and go with him so we all just stayed together. We came through our first mile at a 5:55 and I talked to the shirtless guy and found out he is Devin Lang from Utah State, he is one of the guys that coached me in the Steeplechase last summer. Our next two miles were 5:41 and 5:42 which seemed really slow at the time but I payed for it later. At around Mile 4 the Davis kids fell off and it was just me and Devin and we came through at a 5:49 but it was down hill so I guess it was okay but I started to cramp up.

Mile 5 was a 5:37 which totally seemed way slower but I started to fall off Devin but he didn't get too far. Mile 6 was a 5:48 and I kept Devin in sight because I didn't want to lose sight and then lose hope off catching him. Mile 7 I slowed for a the waterstop and couldn't get back into the pace and I ran a 6:03. Mile 8 was a 6:10 and I was just hurting at this point I kept forgetting to take my GU and this came back to bite me later on. Mile 9 was a 6:03 but only because I hit a massive hill (it may not have been that big but after 9 miles off fast racing and no training for it I was hurting) and Mile 10 was a 6:21 which was probably because I was trying to recover form the hill and I kind off lost track off where I was.

Mile 11 I got back into speed for a 5:57 and I kept thinking to myself 5k left and then I'm done. Mile 12 was a brutal hill and I could only hit a 6:26 on the way up it but Skylar Williams began to gain on me and I wasn't going to go down with out a fight. Mile 13 was a 5:48 and I pushed as hard as I could so Skylar wouldn't catch me because I know he has some speed as he ran a 4:19 mile in Track. The last .1 was downhill so I hit a 5:58 pace as I was so beat from my previous mile I couldn't get very far away from Skylar though.

I finished 3 minutes behind Devin Lang and 4 and a half Minutes behind the winner (who I later found out was Jason Nance from Weber State). I ran up against the course and found Braden and Jesse and ran with them till the end, their times were 1:25:20 and 1:25:21 as Braden out kicked Jesse. Christian Roth ran a 1:27:49, Haeden ran a 1:30:34 and Coach Haag ran a 1:42:10. Me, Braden and Jesse ran up to meet my dad but stopped to stretch on the corner, around 15 minutes later he came by and we ran with him to the end and his time was 2:08:26 which was good for him as he hasn't trained at all for it.

Easy run with Connor and Rory, we saw the team as we headed up Main Street but we crossed because we didn't want to start any drama. We ran up to the High School and we walked around a bit and got some water then went and looked at our trophies and talked about last XC season. We headed back and went and walked around but Barnes was waiting by our cars to talk to us. He talked to us for about an hour before he let us go. I stretched when I got home.

I woke up a bit later than I wanted to and MVC was shut down so I had to take the long way to practice. Coach Jones and Coach Linkletter called me and I told them to head up to the mistress and I would meet them up there. We did 6 repeats up the hill and I was so close to just killing myself but I wanted to get better. We cooled down a mile and I decided to stretch at home because the grass was wet.

Met Connor and Rory at Rosecrest park, we decided to do a longer day so we went up to Juniper then to Emmaline then to the cove and back on 134th and the trail behind treys house. We talked a lot about Deseret News and how fast we should go. Easy pace around 8:30ish. So excited for Duck Creek.

Drove 4 hours up to Duck Creek (ouch) then got out and unpacked our stuff and we got a really good spot for our tent and then we decided to go on a run. We ran up Lost Hunter Trail (which really is a bad name for a trail, LOST hunter?) which was really tough but we kept going at a fast pace even though it was up hill for the first 1.2 miles. We got to a split in the paths so we decided to go right and it took us down this big hill were we found this huge concrete circle (I figured it was probably for storing water for fighting forest fires) where we hit 2 miles. We turned around and headed up the road and got back on Lost Hunter trail and headed back down the mountain but we decided to go a bit further. We headed up the road away from the campsite and talked a bit about college choices and how pretty soon I should start thinking about where I want to go.

We hit about a 7:30 pace for the run and for the last bit on the road we picked it up and I hit a 4:50 pace in the sprint, I really need to work on that because Im tired of losing to Jake in XC because of his speed.

Ran up to Cascade with Connor and Rory at a pretty slow pace because I ate so much food for breakfast. We hiked the 1.25 miles into the falls and went on a little climb above the falls. We got down into the falls and soaked our heads and took a drink before heading back to the trailhead. We got back to the trailhead and Nik and My Dad were sitting there waiting for the rest of my family. Rory, Connor and I decided to race back to camp so they took off going way fast but I stayed back a bit to avoid tiring myself out. I took the lead at about .5 miles into the race and Rory surged up to try and catch me but I sped up and denied him any mental boost (it's a race) and maintained a huge lead and made it even bigger on the downhill which I thought Rory would try and catch me on the downhill because he is good on the downhill but he didn't.

I finished at around 15:50 Rory was 16:30 and Connor was 16:45. We ran around a .4 cool down back to camp as we only raced 5k. 

Woke up at 6 to head up to Angel's Landing. We got to the trailhead relatively early and hid our water bottles. We ran all the way up to the top which was one of the hardest climbs I have ever done. We got to the chains and I put my climbing skills to good use and pretty much ran up the chains as they were relatively easy compared to the previous climb. We go to the top and took pictures of the three of us on top of Angels Landing (I'll post them on the Sunday slot).

We got down the chains fast and ran down the switchbacks and cliffs and got back to the trailhead really fast. We decided to run up to the Emerald Pools and take some pictures which was way cool and added another 3 miles to the run. 

Ran by myself this morning for 3.1 miles as a sort of recovery run before my big race tomorrow and decided how I was going to run it. I'm going to take off at a sub 5 minute pace and then pretty much try and maintain it for as long as possible and then give it everything I have left at the end.

Woke up at around 4:30 and took a shower. I got my stuff on in the car and we went to pick up Jesse and Rory and were out of Herriman by 5. We got there with plenty of time but Rory forgot his number and chip at home so he had to rush around trying to find a replacement which he found. We got to the line with plenty of time and talked to some of the people there who were mostly high schoolers. The wheel chairs started first and then 5 minutes later we did.

I took off really fast and was in 6th place for quite a long way but Coach Brown caught up and then the other people did too. We came through our first mile at 4:45 and then I dropped Coach and went with the other high schoolers. The race pretty much went like this, some one passed me then I was alone then another person passed me then I was alone and so on and so forth. I did actually do some passing but it was only people who passed me. I finished with a 30:32 which was really surprising to see.

We cooled down around liberty park for 10 minutes and then headed home. I got home and then slept for 4 hours haha. 

Easy run by myself at a 8 minute pace. Still feeling Des News in my legs, I'll go harder tomorrow.

Still feeling really sore from Deseret News but I decided to push a little further and a little faster. My average pace was sub 8 but I deleted the run off my watch so I don't know for sure.

no sleep i need to go to bed sooner /: 

Easy run with rory

Easy run with rory,