#WolverineWay

PM-7.2. Easyish exploring run around Herriman. We went up the horse trail at Rosecrest and then we went up a trail near the middle school.

AM-4. Easy run with striders.

Got the race early and did a long warmup with Connor and Rory then headed to the bathrooms. Got our spikes on and headed to the line and did some striders and idiot drills but I felt like crap so I only did a few and my striders were slow. I hate being sick.

RACE: I took off and got to the front with Connor and maintained the lead for the first 3/4 then Tomy from East took the lead and Brayden from AF said "Who is that kid?'. We passed Tomy near where the hay bales would have been on the second lap and sadly never saw him again and two AF guys and Kramer passed me. I was feeling like crap still but I was trying to give it everything I had to keep up but couldn't keep my legs moving.

Around 1000m left Jaydn pulled up on me and I wasn't about to let another guy beat me so I pushed as hard as I could and around the 500m mark I threw up a bit and decided that as long as I was already going to die I should at least give it everything I had. I gained a bit on Zac Jacklin from AF but he had too much on me and I came in 6th.

After I stood around and talked to Kramer and Brayden and they invited me to go cool down with them. I declined because we were going to do an extra 4 to get our mileage for the week. Good race overall with how I was feeling but I should be able to run sub 15:40 at NXR.  

PM-8. Ran 1.5 up to Lil' Grinder and did striders and idiot drills. We were racing it the first time and I hit 2:37 which is my PR on it. Then we were to do 4x800 on the hill and our splits were 2:59ish, 2:57, 3:01, and 2:54. With 800 meter cool down in between them. After I went and did weights at the high school with Rory. I am setting a goal to lift weights after every workout.

PM-5.5 Easy run around Riverton. I have no idea why we are running down there instead of in Herriman but what ever.

PM- Got to the race late and had to go warmup as soon as we got out of the car. We did around a mile and a half then I went and changed out my spikes and put blanks in a few of the holes. Did some striders and I was as ready to race as I could have been because we have done some tough workouts lately so I was still pretty beat up.

RACE: Took off and got behind the Davis guys and pretty much just chilled while everyone else fought for position and moved around. At a mile in it was me, Rory, Cross, Hedquist, Cromar and Perry in the lead and everyone else was back a ways. We came through the mile at 4:57 which was too fast in my opinion but I do prefer to get a slower start. The next mile I was feeling pretty good still and staying relaxed but was starting to slow on my stride so I would take a 200m surge and catch back up.

I came through the second mile in 10:06 (5:09) and started to move up a bit on Cromar but couldn't keep pace. I finished in 15:12 so my last mile was 5:06 which is not bad but I would have liked a better finish. After I went and did a 2 and a half mile cool down with Coach Barnes. I will lift tomorrow morning. 

PM- 7.5. Tempo run on Dimple Dell trails with an extra mile afterwards. 

PM- 5.8. Snow sucks really bad. I can't wait for NXR so I don't have to be cold.

AM- Progression/ Tempo run with 2 miles at 5:30 then the second one at 5:05. 1 mile cool down after we finished.

PM-10. Little grinder with 12 x 1 minutes fartlecks with 1 minute recovery.

Then later that night I ran an extra 3 at Run Gr8 with Coach Brown. 

PM- Easy run up to the private road and back.

PM- 7. 12 x 30 second repeats with a minute recovery. I felt good through the first 8 then the last 4 my shoulder started killing me. After we finished we went and did another mile. I am so excited to leave for Arizona tomorrow!

PM- 5. Ran 5 miles in Page AZ! I love Arizona, everyone is so nice and its not cold at all! I took it easy because I was still feeling the run yesterday. I stretched really well that night.

AM-1.  Did an easy mile with the guys before we headed out to Mesa. We talked about our race strategies and how close we are to going to NXN. I really hope I can get top 21.

PM-3.5. Got to Toka Sticks kinda late and had to wait for the other guys because they took so long to get there. When they got there we went and ran the course and saw a few of the AF guys at the T-shirt exchange. I feel really good about the race tomorrow and I know I'm going to do well. 

AM- Got up 20 minutes early to get a shakeout in before we headed over to the race. I focused on other things and made sure I wasn't getting psyched out.

When we got to the course we went and watched Braden race and finish in a 16:20. Then we waited around a bit before getting warmed up. We went to the bathroom at the dirt pile because we didn't want to wait in line at the bathrooms. We ran a good 1.5 miles for a warmup and I saw a few of the people we would be competing against. We got our spikes and got to the line and did our striders while they were introducing us. I felt really good.

RACE: I got out hard and got to the front because I hate running behind people were I can't see and stayed there for the first mile coming through in 4:52. I was feeling really good and just kept next to Jake because I didn't want anyone to get in front of me. At around the 1.9 mile mark I almost took a spill and accidentally grabbed onto Luis Martinez's jersey to keep me from falling, I stayed up and Luis did too so that was good. The race has been really physical so far and I think that Jerrell Mock got tripped and fell down.

 I came through the 2 mile at 9:53 which is faster than my sophomore PR in the 3200 and I was in 17th place according to the timing system. I got passed by Bernie Montoya (who then went on to win it) and a few other guys who I caught except for Jerrell and I heard someone yell at a racer that they were in 21st so I picked it up so I would at least get an award. I passed Brayden Cromar from Davis and Caleb Thompson from AF and took a look back and saw Rory was close so I just started sprinting to the finish with whatever I had left and he came in .7 seconds behind me.

I finished in a 15:24, Rory was right behind me and Connor was a 15:37 which was amazing for him because he has never gone that fast before. Jesse J. was a 16:03 and Jesse D. was 16:16 and it looked like we had done pretty well and I was thinking we were for sure going to Nationals. We cooled down a mile and a half before heading to the awards. Long story short we ended up finishing 4th and we have a small chance for an at-large bid but its not guaranteed. We went and filled out our papers just incase we get the bid before we left.

PM-8.7. 2.2 mile warmup, 8x200 and 8x300 w/ a hill alternating every other one with a minute and a half  cool down. I felt good for the 200's but when it came to the hill at the end of the 300s I couldn't keep moving, I need to figure out a way to do that. After we did a mile and a half cool down. Then I went to the high school to lift.

PM- 6.2. 3.1 miles easy then we turned around and I decided to make it a tempo run for the run back. I am running the Cottonwood Heights 5k on Thursday. I'm pretty excited.

AM-4. Easy run with Jesse J. and Jesse D. we talked about colleges and I encouraged them to try out or walk on at SUU or UVU.

AM- Got up at 6:40 to shower then I ate a nutri-grain bar and my drank my Muscle Milk. I slept for most of the drive over to Cottonwood. I looked around for some good runners and I saw a few Cottonwood, East, and Hillcrest kids, none of which I recognized and a kid from Colorado that was in the box next to me at Southwest. I did a mile and half out against tthe course to see where the two mile was and where I was going to half to start my kick. I ran back to the gym and got my Mayflys on and got to the start line. I didn't get to do any striders because I got there so late.

RACE- I took off and was in second behind some kid that looked like he should be in college, there was a person next to me but I didn't look to see who it was until like a half mile into it and I saw that it was Tomy Gutierrez from East (a fellow blogger!). We ran together for the next 3/4s of a mile and then I tried to surge away but he matched me everytime and whenever I would get a gap he would close it almost immediately. I stopped trying to surge away at around 1.8 and began preparing for my last mile which would be were I would do my kick and hopefully get far enough away so he wouldn't be able to catch me on the downhill. I got caught on the downhill two years ago by Josh Haertel from Jordan so I wasn't about to let that happen again.

As I neared the 2 mile I looked down at my watch and saw that I could break the course record if I threw down this last mile in at least 5:10. So when I got to the point where I began to push really hard but Tomy stayed on me but he was like 3 seconds back so I couldn't see or hear him and I had to look back when I rounded a corner to see how close he was. When I reached the top of the hill I looked down at my watch and kicked harder than I have ever gone before (because it was downhill) and came threw the 3 mile in 15:03 and into the finish in 15:39. Tomy finished in a 15:58 and third was a ways back.

After the race I went and cooled down but I wanted to see if it was a true or close to a 5k and when I finished I had 3.09 on my watch. I went over to the awards and got my trophy and left immediately because I had to go to Brigham City for Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for my talents and for running.

AM- 6.1. Easy run by myself. I felt like crap the whole time but I wanted to get at least 6 in today. It was a lot harder to keep myself moving even though yesterday I felt like I could run a half marathon after my race.

AM- 6.0 4k of speed on sand, over fences, and on uneven surfaces.

AM- 7.  Warmup to Lil' Grinder. I was not looking forward to doing this today but I just didn't want to lose to Connor again. We took off and I was with Connor the whole way until the last 200 meters then he took off and I had nothing left. Rory was 4 seconds back and everyone else was way back. Then we did 5x400 meter hill repeats and 3x400 downhill repeats. I did a 52 on the downhill one so thats my PR now.

PM- 4.5. Easy recovery run around Herriman. Im feeling pretty good about Footlocker but i'm not sure my mind wants to do another race.

PM-7. Long warmup about 2.5 miles around the high school then we went to the track for some speed work. We did striders and idiot drillls before Barnes told us the workout. Our workout was 16x200 meter repeats with 200m recovery. We were hitting 31-32 on all of the repeats and then on my last one I ran a 27 low to see how fast I could hit it in. We went and ran another mile afterwards before heading to the weight room.

PM-4. Our first day in Cali! The bus ride was okay, we have Kramer Morton on our bus so we talked to him the whole ride to California which was like 12 hours.  After unpacking all of our stuff we went on a run. It was supposed to be an easy run but ended up being a 3 mile moderate with 1 mile tempo at the end. In the last 400 meters Kramer and I were in the lead and we started to sprint but I couldn't beat him, he is just too fast. We went to Chili's and spent 256 dollars on food. I posted a picture of the bill and our cash on Intagram and Twitter. 

Drove to the course at Walnut and learned that certain parts of the course were blocked off because it was so wet. We decided to run up the opposite way up to the switch backsand then down on the switchbacks. We went up to Poop-Out and learned very quickly that it was way to slippery to run because many off the kids could not even make it up. We went to Reservoir Hill and it was fine, it wouldn't be much of a problem during the race. After that we went and ran around the campus at Mount SAC and then to the football field for striders. I am way nervous for the race tomorrow because if I don't do well enough it might be my last XC race as a high schooler.