Running

4 miles down pleasant view drive to the highway.  Averaged 6:14's.  Hurt way worse than it should've.  I burned out super hard at about mile 2 and had a heck of a time running back.  It's something to work on!

7 miles later with Brayden, Henry and McKenna.  Averaged 7:23 pace.  Felt good and relaxed for the most part.  Good mileage today trying to make up for this weekend when I get my wisdom teeth out.

7 miles this morning. Super sore from yesterday which is not good.. But I felt decent by the time I finished. Stretched good, then went a little over 5 more with Brayden and Henry later on. Super easy pace, but it got the miles.

7 miles this morning out to the elk farms.  On the way back I took the upper road onto the higher canal road.  Lots of hills but I averaged 7:26 pace.  

Wisdom teeth out tomorrow morning with McKenna. Not looking forward to it. I'm gonna be a lot of miles behind after this.

5 miles later with Henry and Paul at an easy pace, then abaout an hour of Frisbee with friends.

Got my widom teeth out today, no running for the rest of this week.

I ate soup and focussed on rapid healing of the gums.

Almost ran, but then I didn't.  It was a horrible day.

Ran up to weber for cross country practice, then we ran to the lightpost at the bottom of the divide.  I ran with Henry and watched Talon, Paul, Kyler and Addi all leave us in the dust.  It was a great run.. JK it felt like race pace the whole time and we averaged an epic 6:57 pace. (that was 5 miles total)  Then I cooled down to Haeli's for breakfast and ran home but I don't think I counted any of that as actual mileage..  We played a rather exciting game of ultimate frisbee where Talon's team went underfeated for several rounds, and then I did a fatlek with Henry Hall.  I'm not entirely sure what a fartlek actually is but we called it one of those.  We chose random crap and raced to it and it was sick.  I think I beat him at least twice.  So there was 4 miles of that and then a mile cooldown from the canal road back to the park and home. Great times.

I ran 5 miles at barely under 7 minute pace and I'm not sure where.  That is all the information my records provide.  My right hip started hurting like satan himself was massaging me as I ran.  Later I attempted a run with McKenna, but her pure blazing speed plus the satanic massage convinced me to turn around at about a mile.. I averaged 7:30's on that run.  Lathered on the icy hot and hoped for the best.

Ran 4 miles at 6:22 pace this morning.  And then that was it because it really really hurt.. It was probably about race effort combined with my hip and that was not a very good idea.

6.5 miles [6:47 pace] with the team for practice at North Arm I think..  I took a wrong turn that added about a total of a half mile, and I remember I was incredibly frustrated because I almost beat Henry and Addi back and I was gonna be the first one for the first freaking time ever, and then I was kidnapped by a forest trail.  I hate the wild.  3.5 miles [7:19 pace] later and between my suicidal guts and ever persistent hip cripplage, I was nearly killed.

Well today I figured that I should just not run because my everything hurt and also I'm lazy.  So instead I decided to swim for a solid 20 minutes.  This was not your average lap swimming, thats far too easy.  Instead I brought half of my pantry out and set it next to the pool and practiced eating and standing in the deep end for when I will need to use this skill later in life.  I also did 20 pushups afterward so I wouldn't feel like a complete failure today.

I did a long run today, except it sorta didn't end up being a ligitimate long run.. Just because that's not the way destiny works.  I ran over to 1050, down and then up that other road and then onto the canal road.  This might make sense if you've ran it before.. Anyways so I did that and then while I was debating on taking a dump in somebody's backyard, I happened upon a miracle park that had an incredibly clean bathroom.  So I ended up in there for a solid 20 minutes and then finished the 3 miles home after I had fully recovered.  It ended up being 8.5 miles total at 6:51 pace.

Ran 7 miles with the team at Ogden Parkway.  Started out super fast with Paul and Addi and Kyler, and then Kyler tied his shoe and I burned out at like mile 4.. So then they all took off and I just died.  But I still averaged 6:23 pace for the 7!! I was pretty freaking proud of that.  I would greatly appreciate it if Talon did not comment on this..  But I recorded the mile splits because I was so proud of my start. 1) 5:59 2)5:58 3)6:10 4)6:19 5)6:34 6)6:35 7)6:53

This was my birthday!! And I decided I would treat myself to a track workout because those are my favorite.  (Not a bit of sarcasm. For reals.) So I ran to the track and did 8 x 400m repeats at just whatever pace I was feeling.. Which was most definitely not 5K pace.  They ended up being 70, 73, 73, 71, 72, 72, 70, 62.  I wanted to slow down after the second one cuz I was awful tired, except then the football team showed up to be fat on the track and I had to run around them every lap because they were too fat to move.  But Boehme was there and he confessed to me at that moment that he was leaving XC to join the fat kids.  That is what gave me the power to continue on at this not very fast but faster than usual pace.  So, thank you Boehme.  But do cross country anyways please because we need you badly.

Ran to 89 and back in the morning, because I really wanted to be faster than that very first summer run when I did it at 6:14 pace.  ( I still have not done it to this day (July 22) )  So I ran my little heart out and only averaged 6:18 pace at like race effort.  And the workers that were hogging the road looked shamefully upon me because they knew before I did that I had already shamed myself and my family.  Anyways I did 4 miles later that night with BJ at 7:15 pace.

We did a trail run this morning with the team starting at makeout point.  It was 6 miles and I averaged a fantastic 8:00 pace.  Later that night I did 4 miles easy with BJ.  My book of information doesn't say a pace it just says easy... Which means I convinced BJ to let me run so slowly that the pace wasn't worth writing down. (and 8:00 pace apparently is worth writing down..)

On this beautiful day, I took my poor friend KJazz and put him through hell.  Well I attempted to but then he decided to fake his way free..  We ran 1.5 miles to Lomond View park and warmed up a bit there, and then I did hill repeats up the west side hill.  It was the same workout that Chili had us do for footlocker.. Or cross country i forget when we did it.  I did 12 with a walk down recovery.  My splits were 43, 44, 45, 44, 43, 41, 43, 43, 42, 43, 37.  Also, Kayden decided after the first one that his stomach wanted to kill him so he just happily layed on the grass and dry heaved for the duration of the workout.  So I suppose he wasn't actually faking because he told me his breakfast was a heavy dose of ibuprofen for his knees... And nothing else.  So then afterwards I ran home with the speed of an african sea bear and retrieved my rescue vehicle so that I could go save young KJazz.  He lived I'm happy to report.

Young Yoshi had a track meet today and I paced/raced him in his mile.  He ended up running a 6:33 which is freaking sick because he's like 10.. Or something. And also he beat me.  Later that night I ran 11 miles with Henry and Sam and BJ, but there were several stops for trivial things such as meeting Sam or reading about the Bread and Butter disease..  But then me and Henry left and fought off the darkness for like 4 miles alone on the canal road in the wee hours of the night.  Also some dogs tried to rape us through the fence.  We averaged 7:32 pace.

I think I was just lazy or something this day.. Or had stomach junk going on from eating bad stuff. Which is anything according to my stomach.  But!!! I did get a much needed nap I'll have you know.

I ran to the Elk farm today and averaged 7:16 pace for the 7 miles.   Later that night I did another 4 miles at 7:03 pace.

I went to the dermitologist and the fagit lady thought it would be funny to chop me open in one of the few places that would prevent me from running so she gave me some drugs and then did that.  So thats why I have no mileage for the rest of this week..

Well today I listened to the motivating words of eminem for several hours while laying on my floor pondering the meaning of life.  And then i did 17 sets of 20 pushups with 2 minutes rest because Henry told me to.  And then I did some pullups and wall sits because I felt pain deprived.

2 minutes of wall sitting (thats all I could take sadly) and then 2 sets of calves.

The exact same thing as yesterday.

6.3 miles with the team at north arm. Averaged 6:54 pace.  I stayed with Henry for the first half of the run and then my body remembered I hadn't ran for a week and decided to die.  Later that night I had the bright idea to run barefoot.  It's not actually a bad idea except that I ran on a road with BJ and I think I ran through some broken glass and stuff.. Either way I ended up with some massive blisters and my feet hurt for the rest of the week.  It was 3.2 miles and I averaged 7:19 pace.

7.3 miles with BJ straight up 900 to pole patch and then onto a trail where we threw rocks at imaginary rattlesnakes.  Also we daydreamed about having female friends and sitting on a hill we found. That was cool.  We averaged 8:22 pace for that and I blame the hill and my legs.  That night I ran to and from the church for mutual, and it was about 1.5 miles each way.. but on the way there I ran a 5:29 down the road and then coming home I ran like a 6:15 coming back up.

Ran with BJ down to Orion and explored some neighborhoods and parks and such. It was 8 miles and we averaged 7:39 pace.

Ran with the team on the top of the divide today.. I ran to the top and it was 4.5 miles round trip.  Averaged 8:21 pace on that.  At night I ran another 4.5 miles over past Talon's house to remember him because its been an awful long time.   I averaged 6:38 pace.

I just ran 4.5 miles easy with BJ tonight and I assume that was because of the race the next day.

So I ran the Pleasant View 5k and tailed Monson (my junior high track coach) the whole time.. And that's pretty much how the whole race went.  There were two guys that ran 14 miles and finished their run up at the starting line of the race, where they warmed up with some strides and then ran like 14:45 and 15:30 or something like that.. Turns out they are both training for the Olympic trials in the half marathon so I was not ashamed to lose to them.  Then Ben Vanbeekum beat me so that was cool and Monson had me by 7 seconds..  So I was really happy with it!  My PR from last year was a 16:48 for a 3 mile, and I just beat that in a full 5K.  Even if the course was a full mile downhill its still awesome.  After the race I did a short cool down and then ran to get the parked car about a mile way.  That night I ran up to Weber to watch the fireworks so I'm counting that as another mile.

Ran the Bonneville Shoreline trail with the team (5 miles @ 8:30 pace).  I ran with Boehme and Paul and BJ and we ran to some canyon where Paul morphed into a freaking mountain goat and ran to the top of the mountain at light speed.  Me and Boehme were forced to walk.  Bj was an animal and convinced me to run for a solid 50 seconds before we got the priviledge of turning back.  Boehme thought running was absurd and stood still until we ran down the hill back to him.  He said he showed up to practice because the fat kids broke his nose and he needed surgery so he was forced to be cool for a day.  So that's what happened.  That night me and Henry and BJ ran 5 more miles at 6:57 pace (Henry was actually on a bike to ensure that his heart didn't explode).  When I got home I ran another mile barefoot on the road because my feet felt too good and my dog also ran away so I had to be a hero and save her life.

Today was like the greatest day ever because I found my homeskillet Levi and forced him to run with us.  I was actually running up to meet BJ and Levi sprinted up the street just to beat me to the top and then he realized it was a bad idea because he was really tired and then I convinced him to run with us.  But he did because he's a freaking sexy beast! (as is BJ but thats the norm) So the three of us ran into the sunset at 7 am and averaged 7:34 pace for 6 miles.  That night I did 6 more miles and averaged like 6:30's ish..

Ran 9 miles with BJ and we averaged 7:18 pace.. That's all the info I put down.. But my last mile coming home was a 5:48 so our average was probably actually much slower than 7:18.

Ran 9 miles this morning.  1 mile to Weber for practice, 7 more for practice (we befriended several wild moosen) and then 1 more mile home.  Averaged 6:55 for the first 8 and the last one was probably about that too..  That night I ran a mile to the park (I took the long way) and then did 3 miles barefoot around the park, then took the same route home totalling 5 miles at 6:28 pace.

Me McKenna and BJ did a nice easy 8 minute pace for about 4.5 miles while we helped my parents map out a course for the Cross Country Fundraiser this year..  The course was later discarded so this was all pointless but it got some miles.  That night we ran another 3 miles scouting out the Cherry Days 5K course for the next day.  We had quite the group and we had too good of a time to run fast.  Also Kyler interrupted us midway and told us about some ghosts and such and some dude got possesed from eating a bad breakfast or something.. 

Woke up nice and early, drank some magic Chia drinks and then went to the race.  I saw Henry running like a mile away from where the race was so I jumped out and ran with him to warm up. Turns out he did like a 2-3 mile warmup or something.. Crazy kid.  Anyways the race started and Paul jumped out in front and ran with Ben Vanbeekum and some other kid and I think Paul's cousin was also up there at the start.  Henry was behind them and then there was some old dude and me.  Henry was chatting with people because he likes to frustrate the competition, and then he looked around and couldn't find me so then he like jogged in place and let me catch up.  What a nice guy.  We passed the old dude before we turned and ran up the hill, and then about halfway up we passed Paul's cousin.  Paul had fallen back a bit from Ben and the other guy (some 24 year old from ogden) and me and Henry reeled him in up the hill.  We caught Paul at the very top of the hill (our first mile was 5:58 and ended at the top of that hill) and I told him to come with us but I'm not sure if he heard me in his race mode.. Anyways he didn't quite come with us because I didn't see him for the rest of the race, but he didn't finish far behind us either so he either had a really good kick or he did come with but he just chilled right behind us.  Anyways, me and Henry were switching off the lead back and forth for the next mile, and I think he was being nice trying to let me draft off of him except if somebody passes me I mentally don't handle it all that well and I either pass them back immediately or they lose me and I break.. So naturally I would have to pull up next to him every time he took the lead.  We ran like this for about 1.25 miles and then he said something that I didn't quite catch.. But in my mind I assumed it was something like "seeya at the finish" and I was expecting him to take off.  So I just said "okay" and pulled ahead.  I assumed he was right behind me that whole time and that was pushing me really hard because I couldn't lose after that move.  With a little over 400 left I looked back very secretly so he wouldn't know I was scared and I saw a second shadow right behind mine and it was catching me.  Plus I could hear footsteps right behind me so at that point I took off at an all out sprint and just prayed I could hold it to the finish.  I did and ended in 16:51, which I was really happy with because of the course.  My last mile was 5:17.  Henry ended up coming in at 17:21, so I think I was either hallucinating or racing a spectator's shadow or something.. I dunno but it was lucky.  I ended up 3rd and 1st in my age group, but me and Henry both ghost ran it so we got no awards sadly.   Cooled down with Paul afterwards, Henry's knee was hurting so he didn't cool down.

After the race I ran 3 miles home at 7:18 pace then took a nap and partied.  That night I did another 6 miles up on the canal road at 6:47 pace.

5 mile trail run at Weber State [7:48 pace] Ran with Addi for most of it, but then he took off and I got lost so we parted ways.  I found him later and we joined forces and caught McKenna.  It was great.  

7 miles later.  I ran 3 miles at 6:25 pace then I met BJ and we did 3 more at 7:50ish pace, then I ran another mile home in 6:34.  My left achilles was super tight and scaring me but not hurting..

6 miles with BJ in the morning.  We did a 2 mile warm up, then a 2 mile tempo and then 2 mile cooldown.  On my tempo I hit 5:35 and 5:41.  We went back to Brayden's and did some abs then I ran half a mile home.

4.5 miles later with BJ again at 6:46 pace.

Well, I told BJ I needed recovery and slept in.. Then I forgot to do an easy morning run because I sorta slept through the whole morning.. So I did a long run out to Paul's and back on Washington.  The only time I had to stop was at a light for about 6 seconds.  It was 10.5 miles and I averaged 6:47 pace.  All of my miles were within 10 seconds of that average which rarely happens with me so that was awesome.

So, on that run last night, my hip pain came back from the very beginning of june but it wasn't till the last like 3 miles so I just ran through it.  Today we met at North Arm and it was freaking wet and muddy so we ended up just road running for most of it.  I averaged 8:21 pace for 5 miles and almost died..  When I got home my left quad like exploded and I thought I tore it but I think it was just some sketchy cramp or something that sorta pulled it.

Everything hurt too bad to run, So i just sat around all day and iced multiple times and then took a hot bath because I'm sure that has some type of health benefits..

I still hurt today so I iced some more and didn't run.  I googled some hip strengthening exercises and did those just to feel slightly productive.

Ran at North Arm for the first time ever today.  It was pretty sick.  On the way back I caught a root with my toe and sorta swam down the trail on my back.. I'm not sure exactly what happened because I fell and hit my face and then ended up sliding on my back so that was weird..  My back looked the worst by far because I was shirtless and so I got totally shredded, but my left hip and knee got super junked up.  My great amigo Nate drove home so that I could pose epicly in the back seat as we drove. Mostly to avoid touching anything.

My amazing mother lathered on some magical ointments and such and I basically healed. So then I went on a 6 mile run along the highway at 6:55 pace.  Also, my right hip felt better today.  Not completely pain-free but much better than last week.

4.5 miles this morning all alone because BJ has left me for EFY..  I averaged 6:55 pace on the canal road.

5 more miles at night at 6:49 pace.

All alone yet again, So i ran down to orion (2 miles) then did 3 miles around the Orion perimeter barefoot in the grass (6:30, 6:31, 5:56) and then ran 2 miles back home.  The whole run averaged about 6:34 pace.  

I was planning on going like 4 or 5, but I only made it about a mile before I had to turn around because my knee was hurting so bad.  The outside of my left knee where I landed on it was killing me so I just cut it short and did 2 miles at 7:30 pace.

Ran 4 miles easy with the team.  My knee was still hurting but its okay because we went adventuring and dodged crazy asian rice farming women with hoes.  (We were dodging the woman who had the hoe, not using a hoe to dodge the asian woman, just to clarify) Then I went to lagoon and walked around lots and rode my favorite ride (the ferris wheel) multiple times and I think it healed my knee. 

So I'm at my uncles for a family reunion all this weekend in Draper, but I found this epic lake with a paved path around it and so I ran there and did 2 laps around the lake and then ran back to my uncles.  It totalled 7 miles at 6:52 pace.  My knee and hips all felt good the whole time surprisingly! That is why I assumed that lagoon had healed me. little did i know..

Well, I did nothing today and my book of information provides no excuse so I'm assuming I was just lazy..

Ran the top of the divide with the team.  Me and Addi took off at the start and we flew up the mountain at like just over 7 minute pace.  Thats wayyyy faster than the last time we came up here.  Last time I ran like 9:50 pace the whole way up.. Anyways we hauled.  And then instead of turning around at 20 minutes we just went to the top because we could.  I made it in 21:54 (for future reference) and Addi was a tiny bit behind me.  We enjoyed the few for about 50 seconds and then I had Addi lead going down because I am now paranoid about leading running downhill on trails.  North Fork has ruined me. We met Paul coming up a few minutes later (he showed up late) and then we all ran down in a beautiful pack.  We made it to the bottom without incident, except for all the young children we got stuck behind.  That was rather unfortunate.

Well my knee started hurting after the run, but not at all during the run so that was weird. I figured I could just run on it and it would go away as I ran.  It didn't.  I actually only made it around the block but I was basically holding back tears by the end of it because that hurt really effing bad..  But at least I got exactly .8 miles which was enough to finish off my 6 for today.

Ran 4.5 miles with BJ at night.  I left about a half hour before I was supposed to meet him, hoping I could get in a few extra miles, but my knee hurt too bad so I just ran to the park and stretched for like 20 minutes while I waited for him.  We started running and my knee felt good for about a mile and a half, and then it gradually got worse as the run progressed.  We made it back to the park and averaged 7:05 pace.  I was really holding back BJ cuz I was dying and he was loaded with energy, and when we got to the park I layed down to die/stretch and he took several laps around the park because he's a beast.  He gave me a ride home afterwards because I couldn't really run or walk so I was just hobbling around and he's such a nice fellow that he took me home. 

Alright.  So, now everything is caught up and this is today..  Everything from June up till now has just barely been filled in.  Well, not really just barely cuz its taken a few hours but now it's all filled in!  I've done a small amount of research and I think I have ITBS in my left leg and that's whats hurting my knee.  So I don't know if it actually had anything to do with my fall, but I still feel like it does even tho that makes no sense.  But I'm taking the whole rest of this week off because all of these injuries are really really really pissing me off.  So, with the combined powers of ice and a foam roller I'm praying I can be done with this by next week.

So I'm at my grandma's because my parents ditched me and went to Canada, but my grandma happens to live right by Skyview so I thought I would go train with them.  It just so happens that the one day I show up happens to be their time trial so that was unfortunate. Ethan wasn't running and I didn't know how I would compare to these kids so I just ran with the topish group.  I caught up to Connor after like a half mile and stuck to his back. He was kinda stressed out because he thought I was a freshman or something and somebody said something about me being from Preston which I guess was some sort of ongoing joke from the coaches..? Anyways, I ran with him for most of it and with about 800 left he slowed down a little for some reason.. By then I had the course figured out so I got a small lead and held it to the finish.  The final time was 17:25 for me so not bad but not great either.. I'm pretty worried for the Skyview/Weber meet in a few weeks because Connor (sorry if I'm spelling the name wrong) has a dang fast 800 time and a really good kick which he didn't use today..  I think they are luring us all into a false sense of security.  Also, I didn't hear him breathe a single time during that whole race.  Which means he was probably totalling chilling and getting me comfortable so he can kick my butt at the real race.  But thats okay. It was fun.  Skyview is sick. I ran a 2 mile cooldown home. The end.

Old Ben has been conquered.