Luke Beauchamp's training log

Ran 8 laps at 6:40-ish pace around the track with my ankle taped to keep it from collapsing. Very little pain after the run.

Ran 6 laps around the track at 6:20-ish pace. The tape I had on was weaker and I feel like it stabilized my ankle less. I felt some pain afterwards.

School finally finished and yes I did sleep that long. My ankle was giving me a little bit of pain so I did not run.

Another rest day. I will be consulting the PT I work with about my injury again on Monday.

Today the PT said the minor pains I am experiencing are to be expected. I went to the track and decided to do a fairly fast and relaxed mile. I could see that my time off has taken a toll on my fitness, but I was able to run 5:27 without too much effort. I ran 2 cooldown laps and have experienced fairly minor pain after the run. I'm planning on running this same thing every other day this week.

I did not run today, but I stayed fairly active. I biked to practice, biked 5 miles with Chris,  cruised around the area, then went back home. I think it was like 15 miles total. Then I did a swim workout with my brother. I'm anticipating a small run tomorrow.

Same deal as Monday. Ran a 5:28 mile and did 2 cooldown laps. Got a little bit of feedback from my ankle a while after my run. I visited the PT and he gave me some warm-up exercisds to do before runs. I really should get more sleep. School really threw me off and I'm on average getting around 6-7 hours despite not having a job or any sort of serious obligation other than practice. That amount of sleep isn't terrible, but it's not great, either. Rest day tomorrow most likely followed by a Friday run.

 I didn't do any running today, but there was a cross country get together at my friend's house. Most of the games they played involved physical activity and I found it hard not to get sucked in, and I participated a little bit. I probably shouldn't have done that, although I haven't felt any serious resulting pains in my ankle.

Biked to and from practice for a total of 8 miles today. I ran 1.5 miles on the track a shade under 6 minute pace (8:56 total). I decided to be more cautious with my ankle to more effectively move up my mileage. There will be a point where I'm ready to get in some harder running, but right now I've decided to focus on recovery and maybe get some light tempos in if I manage to move up past 30 miles a week without major issues.

Biked to and from practice today. I also rode alongside Chris and Carter for their run. I ended up biking 15.5 miles, but 7.5 were at running pace. My ankle isn't perfect right now, but it's pretty good for the day after a run. I think my daily strengthening exercises are starting to make a difference.

Today was a rest day. Did some strengthening and a lifting session. Anticipating 4x2mile runs this week.

I told myself I wouldn't get carried away with my pace, but it's hard not to when I've been instructed to do easy mileage on the track. I will try to slow down in the future. Today I ran with even 82.X laps and did 11:01 over 3200. My pace slowed by 1 second in the last lap because I had to swerve into lane 8 to avoid a herd of people moving hurdles across the track. I'm recovering well from the damage school has done to my sleep schedule and I am consistently getting 7 hours, although I giving myself much time in the mornings. As a result I have not been eating breakfast or hydrating before practice, which is a problem for my running.

Today I biked to practice and then biked with Chris, Carter, Matthew, and Joseph for a total of 15 miles. I did some lifting and an extended strengthening session.

Ran 3200m at 11:45. Felt surprisingly good today. Followed up with a strengthening and lifting session. My cardio is still lacking from the time I spent without being able to run, but I can feel that it's cleaning up a bit.

No running today, just a very lengthy strengthening session.

Today was my first day off the track. I ran 2 miles around the block with Chris and Mark. We were going at a pretty fast pace, and I felt my breathing working, but it was absolutely no problem for my legs, which I probably owe to the strengthening. I did a 10 mile bike ride around 2 PM. I finished off the day with a swim. Today was the first time I did long distance for a swim workout and it was pretty taxing. I didn't do strengthening as I was occupied for most of the day.

Another day of 2 miles around the block. I ran with Will and we were going pretty fast. I should probably start wearing my GPS watch so I know my pace. Ankle feels pretty good. I'll try to do 4x3mile runs next week. I guess the plan is to do 4x3mile then 5x3mile. Then I'll move up my mileage per run and do 6 runs a week once I hit 5x5mile. Finished up the day with some swimming (mainly kicking because my shoulders flipped out on me) and some strengthening.

Today was a rest day so I just did a swim workout and a strengthening session. This will be my first week above ten miles. I'm encouraged by the fact that I haven't run into any significant problems yet.

Ran 3 miles with Matthew. I finished the day with swimming and strengthening. Swimming felt a little odd and I got some hamstring pain but no ankle pain at all.

Today was a rest day. I got in the pool to swim but my hamstring gave pain immediately. I cut my swim off and just did strengthening.

Just ran an easy 3 miles to crossroads park and back. I was cruising today but it felt difficult. Had a fairly extensive strengthening session today.

No running today, just strengthening and lifting. I will run twice in a row over the next two days.

Ran an easy 3 with Will and Chris. The pace was barely below 7 but I felt a little off. I'm beginning to feel like my cardio isn't actually behind and that the bad feeling in runs is just part of my continuing struggle with morning runs, which I abhor. I seriously wish our team had practice in the evening but I guess I'll just have to wait until the Fall.

Any issue I have had with morning runs really did not present itself today. I was planning on using the bathroom at the halfway mark but I felt too good and didn't want to disrupt a wonderful run for the sake of my bladder. Finished the day with some strengthening. I'm beginning to like the new route I'm taking to Crossroads park because there are very few obstacles to good training on there. However, I'm also excited to move on to higher mileage and throw a few tempos back in the mix. Finished up the day with my strengthening routine. Hopefully more runs like this to come.

Rest day today. Did my strengthening as always.

Crushed a 4-Miler today. Faster and longer than Saturday but it did feel more difficult. It probably didn't help that I forgot to eat breakfast in my morning stupor before practice. I was unaware of this until my stomach aggressively reminded me on the way there. Unfortunately I've been waking up too close to practice since it was moved earlier to get my bike out but I'll try to do it tomorrow.

No running today, only strengthening.

No running today, but I did a pretty hard swim. I did a distance workout.

I fell behind on my posting, so I just updated my mileage for the past week to catch up. I feel fairly in shape. 5 miles with Chris and Carter this morning. Chris is noticeably a lot faster than he's ever been.

5 miles with Matthew at Robinswood. I'll be at camp for the next week so I won't post for a bit. I'll try to update as soon as I can when I get back.

Added Morning run of 2 miles to an evening run of 5 miles.

Morning poker run.

Lack of quick updates last week because of camp. Today I did 8 hill repeats with the team up a 1k hill at 70-80% effort. Hills usually feel awful for me but daily strengthening must be paying off because I felt great today. I might even be in the greatest racing shape of my life at only 25 miles a week. Finished off the day with some core and lifting.

I wasn't expecting to do that much yesterday, so I just did strengthening in the morning at team practice and a solid 2 mile night run with my dad.
 

Ran a decent 5 miler with Dante and Chris. Felt good today.

20 minute tempo in my trainers at 80-85% effort today. The grass was not quite as wet from last night's rain as I thought it could be, which helped. Came through at the 5k in 17:40 on Interlake's old home course. Felt generally pretty good and no lower leg pains to be concerned about. I have not come anywhere remotely close to that pace at that effort in my previous tempos at this location or even anywhere outside the track. I feel very good about this season given how well I am doing with such little training due to my previous injury. Team also looked great today despite a few key players being absent. I've been told that I can ramp up my mileage pretty fast because of how good my legs are feeling. This should be my last week at 5 days a week and then I will be at 6 days a week and maybe even 40+ miles.

Ran 4.5 with Chris, Michael, and Matthew to cap off the week of running. I will run 6 days next week. A few pains but it feels good for adding 10 more miles plus workouts to my training. I'm going to be close to my normal training again by the time September hits, so I'm pretty excited.

Did not run today, but I realized I should probably be more regular about recording my non-running activities as I may want to look at what I was doing in the future. Today I did my leg strengthening and then team abs. I hiked for 3 hours and then did a swim workout.

No run but I did swim and strengthening.

7 miles total with a 20 minute fartlek in the middle. I felt pretty good and we mixed up some longer tempo-ish intervals with shorter fast ones because we were instructed to avoid a structured fartlek. Did some weightlifting and extra abs today along with leg strengthening.

6 miles with Chris Watson and Mitch, who is looking great. I wasn't feeling great so we dialed back the pace for today. Later I did some extended core, weightlifting, and leg strengthening exercises.

Ran 6 miles with Mitch, Carter, and Dante on Blueberry trail. Mitch and Dante pushed the pace but it was nothing terrible. I had some shin pain yesterday but it seems to be subsiding fairly quickly.

10:42 2 mile tempo with warmup and cooldown. I did this about 20 seconds faster than earlier this summer and with definitely less effort. I think I can do better than this. At this same time last Summer, however, I tried to do this workout at full effort and failed miserably. Given that I had a very good start to my season last year, I am satisfied and feel that I am most likely at a significantly higher level right now than I was back then.

Red eye to Burlington, Vermont so I ran in the evening. It is very hot and humid here and there are plenty of bugs to inhale on runs. Despite feeling like absolute garbage from sleeping, eating, and drinking very little from the day of travel, I matched my ideal training pace and felt comfortable. It could be because it was in the evening that I ran rather than the morning. I've always suspected that my runs are way worse in the morning. Not sure what made up for my poor state today but it could be the fact that it was in the evening. Finished up with some leg strengthening.

Legs felt a little sore from the late-night strengthening. 8 mile out and back long run today a little past middays. I have found that I am an extraordinarily different runner later in the day. It was quite hot outside but I held 6:15 average pace, which I previously have only been able to hold on shorter runs with many stoplights and lots of effort. There were no stoplights today and I was comfortable. I have noticed that hills bother me a lot less now and they did little to disrupt my very consistent groove today. Hopefully more runs like this will follow. I cannot wait until I can train consistently later in the day so I can better see, like today, what my capabilities are.

Today I did a hill workout of 10x400 repeats uphill with the rest of jogging back down the hill. My GPS watch was out so I measured by jogging downhill from the top at 7-ish mile pace for 1:45. My results were intervals that were a little bit short. I alternated between a gradual-moderate hill and a nasty one. I averaged 62 seconds up the gradual one and 71 up the very steep one. Not sure what speed I was going but it felt very good,

Was quite sore today from extended leg work and hill workout from Monday. Ran easy .6 to the trail where I ran 4.8 miles at 6:20 pace and then easy .6 back to the house up the hill. I measured the hills with my GPS watch today. I was going 71 second pace up the moderate-gradual hill and 78 up the nasty steep one, which is good considering hills have always been a battle for me. I am feeling the difference my leg strengthening is making. This injury has been a blessing in disguise, as I never would have met my miracle working PT Richard without it. I feel my PT sessions have significantly improved my speed and durability and are continuing to rapidly develop me as a runner.

6 miles with Dante. Tempo run tomorrow morning. I am now back to morning runs, but thankfully practices will start becoming evening runs next week. I'm excited to see how I can do as I know it will be a step up given the runs that I did in Vermont. I'm very thankful that I've been performing so well despite being very low mileage and recovering from injury for most of the Summer.

Tempo run this morning with the crew. 4x5 minute intervals with 1 minute rest in between. I felt wonderful and outperformed what I did in previous years in this same workout.

Easy 3 mile with the crew, followed up with swim, lifting, abs, and leg strength.

8 mile long run and then road trip with my family. I did leg strengthening when I got back.

10x1 minute hill repeats at 85% effort. They felt quite good even though these have typically been my weakness. Today was the first official day of practice.
 

Ran 6 miles with Mitch today. Fairly sore as a result of the hill workout yesterday and my recently increased leg strength routine. Our coach is also having us do hip and glute strength activities during practice so I am doing that as well. My ankle felt alright today and Mitch is running exceptionally well and is set for huge improvement.

6 miles today with Tom for the first 2 and then 4 by myself. Today I am still feeling it from the added leg work. It may take a bit to get used to. During the part where I was on my own, I felt most comfortable today at 6:25 pace. I noticed that my speed does not change in training runs whether I am going uphill, downhill, or on flat ground, whereas it used to vary heavily.

We did a bunch of slightly less than 1k repeats at Tillicum park. It was my mom's birthday and I was out bowling without my water bottle (my fault), so there was minimal hydration early in the day and I also didn't eat a lunch before practice because of the bowling. As a result my workout didn't feel too great but I stayed very consistent in my intervals even though my legs felt weak. My coach, however, said he was very happy with how I ran so I am encouraged. The team looked fast today, but the vast majority of them were totally spent after interval number 6. My coach had planned for 8 but when he saw that some of my teammates were no longer standing and that others had taken the opportunity to empty their stomachs midway through the interval, he decided to stop us. It would be hard for anyone to argue that effort was not put in today and I am proud of my team.

Did an easy 3.5 with Tom, Chris T., and Dante. I did .5 around the school and went right into a very smooth, light mile on the track just to kind of shake out my legs and work on my pacing abilities. I hit every 200 mark at 45 seconds and came in pretty much exactly as my watch turned to 6:00. There will be a time trial (in trainers as always) next week and I hope to beat my time trial best (4:40) that I did during the track season earlier this year. It's a shame I didn't get to finish my track season because that mark was way better than the 4:54 that I did in the season leading up to my PR's. However, I am running more responsibly and am confident that I will break my PR's multiple times next spring.

Bridle Trails 8 mile with Mitch today. We kept the pace honest. When I got back to the track I went right into a smooth 800 to finish off my 42 miles for the week. I have a mile time trial in my trainers next Tuesday and I aimed to run the first 600 at 6:00 pace my last 200 of the 800 at my ideal time trial pace: 34.5. However, I ended up at 5:45 pace for the first bit and finished with a 33 second 200. That was the easiest I have felt running that fast for 200 and I am encouraged.

4x5 minute tempo around uniguard park with the crew to work on tempo effort in a hilly area. I did not actually do a mile per 5 minute interval but it was close and I did total 8 anyway so that's just a guesstimate.
 

Easy 5 mile with Will and Dante in preparation for the time trial tomorrow (1600 in trainers). Feeling a little sick and I hope it doesn't affect tomorrow.

Time trial today, our coach doesn't think that spikes are a good idea because this event is not too important and is just used for assessing workouts. Today I ran warm up to start off. Not sure if I drank too much water or if it was my nerves. Either way what began as an attempt to eject sinus drainage from my residual cold-esque feelings ended in me barely stopping myself from actually throwing up and having to spit like 25 times to get rid of the excess saliva due to my body's reaction to the throw-up process. Quite the chain reaction. All of this happened while the coach was detailing the time trial while we were all at the start line. I was doubled over and did not hear a single word. Shortly after I began regaining control of my seizing stomach and lungs, we were sent off. This combined with my lack of a recent mile race may have affected my splits: (1: 73.0, 2: 71.X, 3: 71.x, 4: 66.x). I went out slow, realized my mistake upon seeing my split, turned it up for lap 2, realized I could go faster for lap 3, finally realized I could go a lot faster, and closed hard, coming through at 4:42 on the dot. I missed the motivating presence of Alex Doran, who usually kept pace with me for these, this year. However, I was 3 seconds faster for this than I was for last year's cross country time trial, and I was very happy with the opening races of last year's season although my rigorous academics prevented me from improving at all throughout the season and I ended poorly. Classes are easier this year and it's safe to say I could have gone faster today. Also I was average 40-45 mpw throughout last year's summer yet average 20 mpw coming off of a 2 month hiatus from running that extended into the summer. I feel like I've got a lot of progress to make throughout the season despite already being at a great speed. Followed the time trial with 8x400 average 69s in trainers with lap jog in between each to work on rhythm. Rough Results from the trial today:

Interlake

1. Luke Beauchamp 4:42

2. Dante Paszkeicz 4:51

3. Will Oden 4:52

4. Raymond Salgado 4:56 (Completely new and out of nowhere, no prior running experience or Summer training)

5. Matthew Roberts 4:56

6. Bryce Rosenwald 4:59

7. Chris Taves 4:59

8. Carter Blunden 4:59

9. Joseph Rodgers 5:02

10. Mitch House 5:09 (Not really a mile guy but today was a lifetime PR)

11. Chris Watson 5:12 (Not at his usual form but ran the trial anyways like a champ)

12. Sebastian Brinkman 5:22 (Freshman with no prior running experience or Summer training. Stomach was killing him today but he was running between Joseph Rodgers and Chris Taves for Monday's tempo)

After that we had plenty more fast dudes but these are all the guys who have spots on the top 14 locked down.

Easy 5-mile with Dante, Will, and Chris Taves. I updated the results from Wednesday to be more accurate. I also found out today that my time trial is apparently just about the fastest xc time trial of anyone coached by my coach. I also found that Sebastian ate a bunch of yogurt right before practice, which would explain his stomach issues. At least he learned the lesson before an actual race. It's safe to assume that he would have been closer to Mitch and that Chris Watson would have been up with Carter in normal circumstances. All in all a very fast time trial for the team.

Ran 3.5 in the morning. I forgot to mention that on Tuesday I started weights class for school, so I also did that in the morning. Afternoon I did an easy 4 mile then 800m on the track just to work on keeping a rhythm. Did 4 buildups in my spikes from last year. They feel pretty good.

Long run today at Robinswood Park. My watch was bugging out today. Probably because of all of the trees in the park. As such I could not use the GPS function so I just used what I knew about the course, which pretty much forced me into doing a bunch of hills. I ran the 5k course twice and then ran the first two miles of the 5k course. For the 2 mile section of my run I ran into Matthew and Carter pretty quickly and just ran with them. After the two miles we ran around the field and one lap around the pond, which gave me at least 8.5 total. Did 4 buildups in my spikes. My ankle felt great today, so this is the best I've felt at the end of a week in a while.

Rest day. Just stretching

Today was a morning practice, but it wasn't that bad. 5x1k track repeats around race pace with 1 minute rest in between. I wore my new trainers that I haven't finished breaking in, so my lower legs were a little more strained than I would have liked to maintain effective stride. Nevertheless, I averaged 3:10. I am encouraged by this because this was my usual pace for postseason workouts during evening practices and with much larger rest. There will be a race on Thursday of 2 miles. I ran the course in 9:56 last year and would be very pleased if I could beat that time. 6 buildups in the spikes that I will be racing the course in after practice. Same ones I used last year.

2 miles in the morning on the track in PE and 6 miles in the afternoon.

Ran 5 miles towards Bridle Trails and then turned around. I was angry so I ran very fast, which wasn't a good idea. I didn't have my watch but I know it's 5 because I've run it with a watch before. It was definitely faster than I've ever gone on a mileage run.

First race back was a success, I would say, although maybe a little poorly executed. I did not feel as much resistance from my stomach as I usually do for my racing. Today everybody took it out fast, with JR leading the pack for almost 800 meters. Then the three Issaquah fast kids took the lead. Kennan took the lead and started surging as we approached a series of sharp turns. I went with him and we began to move away from the pack. I got right up next to him ~50m before the mile mark on a brief straightaway. I felt really good and thought I could negative split, but moderate amounts of tiredness seemed to pop out of nowhere just before the mile mark. I think we went through 4:58-ish. Kennan continued at an elevated pace. I stayed with him for another 1.5 minutes or so. I think if I pushed my limits I would have been able to hold with him for longer, but I felt like keeping things comfortable and within my control so I let him gap me with the hopes of maybe coming back. This was a mistake. For the rest of the race I kept a solid turnover and finished with a powerful kick, but Kennan got 8 seconds on me and I was on my own for most of the second mile. I feel good about the race because I was just about as fast as last year, and last year I stayed the same speed the entire season, whereas I know I will progress if healthy this season due to ample sleep and being fairly undertrained coming out of the Summer.

Today I ran 6.5 miles on the Blueberry Trail by myself. Very stiff legs. Turns out we beat every team yesterday except for Issaquah. Pretty good provided we were missing out #2 and #4 from the time trial. Also almost all of the freshmen cut the course and ran 1.4 miles. It was kind of funny watching Tom run sub-8, though. Long run tomorrow.
 

9 miles with the crew today to Mercer Island and back. Carter and Matthew went half a mile farther down before turning around so they were only there for the first half. Ran with Chris Watson, Chris Taves, Will, and Sebastian, who is coming back now after a series of absences due to soccer.

1k repeat workout at Lake Samammish State Park today. We alternated between two 1ks of the course, which now has an altered second loop, so we practiced the first and last 1k, as measured by my coach's wheely thing measurer that he uses for our home course. They were supposed to be hard, and the first 1k was 300m of sand, and the second one was really just flat and rough terrain so the opening 1ks were considerably slower than the closing ones. We ran each 1k then jogged to the start of the next. My first repeat was 3:12 on the hard one, then 2:58 on the easier one. My coach told me to slow down, so I thought like 5-6 seconds would do. I ran 3:16 for the next hard one and followed it up with 3:04 for the easier one. My next hard one I kinda got thrown off because the other guys must have been burning out and slowing down and got out of earshot quicker than usual so I thought I was speeding up. I came in at 3:18 so not that bad, but I was hoping to hold 3:16s but I know I was in control enough to do that. I then did another 3:04 for the easier 1k. My coach then pulled me out of the workout with the sophomores because I do 45 miles per week! That made me angry because he said we were doing 8, and I had another sub-3 cooking for #8. It doesn't make sense that he tells me it's a hard workout, and then makes me slow down my splits and then pulls me out early. I really feel like I didn't exert myself much but whatever. I warmed up by doing the Jamboree course, blackberry bushes and all, forwards. Then I cooled down by doing it backwards.

5 miles on the brogre trail easy. Race tomorrow. It's a brand new course and Andrew from Liberty will be doing a tempo so I guess I get the very first course record I've ever gotten. I will be running in flats because it's apparently not a spike-compatible course. It's also supposed to be rainy tomorrow and I've heard the course is really difficult. I'm pumped.

Very wonky 3 mile course today. Ran through some neighborhoods and some construction areas around Liberty's campus. I held a pretty consistent pace in my flats and it felt pretty good, although I briefly went off course early in the race, which probably added a few seconds. Cooled down 3 miles with Andrew. My warmup was 2 miles so I totaled 8.
 

It was dumping rain for the run today. Ran 5 with Carter. Real bad stomach issues I had to resolve. Then I ran 1 mile on the track until they closed it for a soccer game. I would have finished before it had I not had to receive my warmup gear with the other top 14s and 4th year seniors before my run. I then moved all of my stuff to my car and ran 2 of the most miserable miles I've done. I had to stop midway to resolve the stomach issue again. It felt really good to be done, though.

Ran the course plus a little. Fell behind on my posting so I'm posting this on Tuesday.

Long warmup and long cooldown. Salt Creek was alright this year, but I ran alone up front after 400 meters. Kept a consistent stride and effort and the only real disruption was when I went off course, which only cost me 4 or 5 seconds. Still, I think sub-15 was a possibility this year. Minor bummer but I was still 11 seconds faster than the year before. I am not going to enter next week because I have fallen behind on my entries and do not have a good recollection of the week. I am writing this on Sunday, September 27th. I felt a little crummy the morning of Salt Creek, and then really bad on the way home. I woke up feeling sick, and deduced by the end of that Sunday that I was developing a fever. It peaked at 102 degrees on Monday. My coach and parents didn't let me run on Monday. Felt a little better Tuesday, and went to school because I had tests I didn't want to have to make up. I ran that day as well. Decided to run the meet on Wednesday. Bad idea, felt awful, but I still ran 16:35 on a pretty hard course. It must have taken a lot out of me, because my Thursday run was one of my worst experiences ever. Friday we went to Portland and I ran the course and did build ups. I felt better but as I am typing this I am still coughing up mucus and expelling snot with great frequency, and my nightly sinus drainage on saturday is probably what killed my race. I got even worse stomach cramps than I did on Wednesday during the Danner race and it was a trainwreck. I ran horribly, 26 seconds behind where my coach and myself wanted me to be. Coincidentally, I got beat by Will, who I can usually be expected to be 20-25 seconds ahead of, so I know I could have run faster in this race. Bryce has also been sick and did not run too well. Matthew didn't run very well either. Raymond rolled his ankle and didn't race, so Dante ran, although he has been hurting, and ran #6 for us that day. Chris was #7 and needed help walking after the race. I'm not sure what part of his leg he hurt. Really the only people who ran well were Will and Joseph, who ran 15 seconds behind me that day. I am now 10 pounds under what I was a few weeks ago. Hopefully I can get back in action this week. I would like to run low-16s or sub-16 at Luther Burbank, a fairly difficult 5k course, on Wednesday and follow it up with a sub-15:40 at Twilight. Essentially, I'd just like to forget all about last week because I was clearly out of it and set myself up for a 15:30 performance at the state meet.

Today we ran the KingCo 5k course for warmup. Coach then measured out a 400m track at the park and had us partner up and run a continuous 2x400 relay. Our rest was how quick our partners could run a 400. I had Dante for a few, but he stopped. So for most of the workout I was partnered with Michael. I kept trying to catch Carter, who was partnered with Matthew, but he would start with a sizable lead on me. I started to gain more ground on Carter than Matthew was getting on Michael but then Carter dropped out. Unfortunately for Michael, I was booking, and he started to get tired. The longer he took, the more rest I got, and the faster I went, and thus the less rest he got. It kind of created a positive feedback loop and he is pretty upset with me.

5 miles for the day before the Luther Burbank race. Went over the course map and it looks fine.

It turns out the Mercer Island people don't know their own course (they called the 5k I did sophomore year a 3 mile because they didn't know and hadn't measured so they just guessed). They said they had to lengthen it because construction cut off parts of the course. However, I checked and it matched exactly what the course map showed and exactly what I ran 2 years ago there. Nevertheless, they lengthened the finish. Coach told us to go out super fast and dial it back after 1.5-2 miles if he thought it was right. I think I got carried away. I went out in 4:48. However, I didn't lose it like I usually would have, I just kept on chugging. It felt very good. Matt Roberts ran super well and probably would have come very very close to me had I run like I did at Portland. He split from the main group early and ran isolated the whole time, probably the best race he's had this season. Raymond and Bryce looked quite strong and ran together in 3-4 most the race. Some MI guy ran out of his head and disrupted our sweep. His team went crazy when they saw him so far up. Chris and Carter had extremely good races. This is the first time Carter has run at a level greater than his freshman speed, even though his time didn't reflect it. Both of them almost matched their Portland times, which nobody did on this course. My dad yelled 15:02 at me when I was nearing the final stretch for the course I ran sophomore year (the official one that they have online). Had I run that one, I would have been 15:40-15:45. My sophomore year I topped the MI time I ran that Saturday at Twilight by about 10 seconds. If I could take 10 seconds off of the time I would have gotten and run under 15:40 at Twilight, that would be fantastic. I feel stronger each day now that I am recovering from my illness. I still weigh like nothing though.

Ran 2 miles in the morning. Ran Tillicum for 5 miles plus 1 on the track in the afternoon for 6 miles. 8 miles total today. Went hard on my leg strengthening yesterday so today was like trying to run on two bricks. Did some build ups. Excited to run fast at Twilight. This may be my first fast 5k of the year. I'm getting good sleep for this one. This is the first year that I've ever experienced that I've allotted so much time to being in bed that I wake up before my alarm goes off and have to lie in bed to wait for it.

3 miles for the day before race. Very stiff calves so no build-ups. Aiming for 15:40-15:45 tomorrow. Slow journey back from cutting off 8% of my body weight all of a sudden but I can do it.

Hard racing today. Got out fast, but so did everybody else so I spent the first mile just trying to get remotely close to the front. Expected to get beat by Beamer, Kennan, and Inglemoor #1 for sure. What I did not anticipate was Nathan Pixler beating all of them and Inglemoor's #2 beating Inglemoor #1 (Maybe #2 just had a really bad day in Portland). Also got beat by Cullen from Kamiak, spent a good portion of the race chasing him down for him just to put distance back between us with 600 to go. Pendleton from Eastlake beat me the same time Cullen did and Adamson outkicked me in the last stretch. I did hold off a considerable number of people who would have beaten me if my kick hadn't been strong. Happy with my time, sad that I had to have a setback firmly planted in my season by whatever I came down with last week. Should be well off of it by post-season though. As such, I think I can be in an even better place by the state meet. Maybe 15:30. I know it's real far away, but I just want to get running the 3200 again. This Spring I believe a 9:15 is in order. Not sure how 3.1 is a nonstandard distance but it's making me check the box.

I see how it is, Marysville Getchell High School. They announced my time during awards as 15:45 (The dude behind me was even 15:45) and then they bumped my time 1 second up into the range of disappointment when putting it on athletic.net. Whatever. Also, interesting that Adamson ended up getting 15:39, because he passed me in the finishing stretch. I have no idea how he could have such a monster kick but if I had gotten 15:39 that would seem astronomically better than 15:46. I'll just have to PR at Marymoor this Wednesday. Probably not a whole lot of people pushing me if Juanita does their traditional league meet tempo crap but I am getting stronger daily so who knows how I'll do. If Tom Mikkelson runs fast then it should be a battle. I want to break 16 for the first time there even if he doesn't and I think that I might even PR.

Ran the course twice and did some long buildups. Coach said no workout because we've had workout + double meets for the past 3 weeks. He wants our Wednesday run to be good also.

Coach limited everybody on the team to 3 miles so I ran them on boring loop with Matthew Roberts.

Didn't get as much sleep last night as I wanted but it's all good. It rained all day today so the course was real soggy when we got there. Also, I just remembered that they lengthened it by a fair amount. Today Andrew was at the race doing his workout, so he went hard for a mile, cruised and then finished the last half mile hard. I began running and Andrew was quickly in the lead. He was booking so I settled in behind him for almost 800 meters and then decided it was in my best interest for him to get a distance on me, which ended up being fairly small, but maybe 2 seconds when we got to the mile, where he began jogging and I passed him. Behind him, the front pack was all sitting on my butt. They thought they could get me today, so they tried to make it easy by making me lead. I didn't let it get to my head and kept pushing. Eventually, I made separation approaching 1.5 miles and the start of loop #2. By ear Tom was only 1-1.5 seconds behind me for our second time through the starting stretch, but I knew that he was hurting by the tiny gap that had formed. I managed to open it up to 5 seconds by a little past 2 miles. I've been having a stomach nightmare this week, and today was no better, but I didn't let it affect me until the last mile when it hurt too much to ignore. However, I managed to keep pushing, and despite my lack of a kick, open up the gap to 14 seconds. This is 8 seconds faster than I ran on the older, shorter course during dry conditions. For having to lead the whole way, I'm convinced this is a good performance and an indication of my continously improving state. Seeing Andrew ahead of me helped me not panic.

7 easy miles, most of which were with Matthew. Then 8 buildups. I think I will break 16 at Marymoor for the first time. Guaranteed if the conditions are drier than this Wednesday was for the race.

Went hard at Tillicum park today. We spiked up so times were pretty good. The sets were 800 mile effort - 1000 cruise - 400 fast and relaxed x 3 sets. 800s interestingly enough got progressively slower, 2:17, 2:20, 2:23. However, my 1ks were more even, 3:05, 3:01, 3:02. It was strange that I completed the 800 loop during my 1000 repeats in usually around 2:25-2:28, which wasn't much slower than my last 800, although lower effort. My 400s were 65, 65, then 64.

Dumping rain today for the Robinswood practice and my legs were exhausted from all the hard work I did in the second half of the week. I ran at a relaxed pace with Matthew, Gavin, Carter, Sebastian, and Lucas. It's good to see Sebastian training more regularly. Ran to Bellevue Square and back with a detour at the end, so 9.5 miles. I ran 1 mile back at Robinswood.
 

Cruised 6x1000 at Lake Sammamish. 1st, second, and third were all around 3:09-3:10. Ran the first 1k easily faster than when I tried to run it during the last workout, which is a good sign. 4th 1k I got lost and Matthew showed me the way to go during cooldown. For that one I just went at my normal pace for 3 minutes and ten seconds. The fifth 1k was the last 1k of the course. I felt like ramping it up a bit and the ground for that one was a lot friendlier than that of the other regions. I came through at 2:54, which is very fast for me. I was very surprised when I ran 2:59 earlier in the season, so this was good. My 6th repeat was another run-through of that sandy first 1k. Obviously my fifth took a toll on my energy, but I kept it controlled and ran 3:11. Overall a satisfying workout.
 

Felt very off today. Probably allergies as my airways felt restricted, my sinuses inflamed, and a couch to boot. Ran 3 easy miles. Hopefully my racing is unaffected tomorrow and I can get in a dope time at Marymoor. I'm hopeful that I will feel better.

Turns out that my issues yesterday ended up having an impact. I still felt the allergic flare-up today and the drainage really messed with my stomach. Additionally, due to my lack of school today, I woke up way late and my breakfast ended up being two hours before my pre race lunch, which ended half an hour later than is customary. My race as a result was sloppy. My legs felt tight and weak and my stomach was an absolute mess. My effort level, however, was good and I can be happy with that. I think I made the best of my situation. The gap between me and my teammates wasn't even that much smaller than it usually is. Also, if on Tuesday I could've chosen any race out of all of my races for the rest of the season for me to lay an egg, I would've chosen this one in a heartbeat. It's not something to kick myself over and was well out of my control. All I need to do now is just prepare to blow the field apart at KingCo Championships next Saturday. Also I need to work on my kick. It doesn't matter right now, but I need one for Districts and State.

7 miles at a fairly rigorous training pace today. Ankle got a slight ache for a few steps close to 6 miles in. Went away then came back so I stopped immediately and massaged it. Not dealing with that ever again. Not the first time this has happened this season and it hasn't resulted in anything so that's fine. I feel way better than yesterday, but my mom measured and I have an elevated temperature, which was probably higher yesterday as well. I'm glad it was short-lived and probably won't have anywhere near as big of an effect on me as my last sickness. Maybe 400 repeats tomorrow for rhythm. Should be interesting to see if I'm anywhere close to full capacity.

Really wasn't thinking I would run hard today, but coach surprised me as I thought it would be 400 repeats and it ended up being a 20 minute tempo run. He gave everyone goal paces that he deemed equivalent for runners a little, sometimes a lot, faster than their PRs. For example, Matthew (16:09) and Joseph (16:18) got the suggested pace for a 16:00 5k runner. Coach told me to run at 5:22 mile pace, which he said was the suggested tempo pace for a 15:25 5k runner. Most people ended up falling off of their paces. However, I got off pace in the wrong direction and ended up hitting splits slightly faster than the suggested ones and ran 5:19 mile pace the entire time. I felt in control, consistent, and relaxed, which isn't to say it was easy. It just felt like what a tempo run should be. Unfortunately, the rest of our varsity couldn't hit the paces assigned to them. My workout on Monday made me happy and seemed like an indicator of big development, but I was disappointed that allergies prevented me from seeing that in play on Wednesday. This is the best workout I've had in a very long time, especially considering the way it felt. Now I'm actually really looking forward to the races I will run in the next month and I can't wait to see what I do.
 

Easy 8 miles today with Matthew, Carter, Bryce, and Raymond. I realized today that back in track season (when I was in fantastic shape and not injured) I held a pace 2.25 seconds per lap slower than what I did yesterday for the same workout and struggled hard to get it. That amount of time adds up over 20 minutes. I think Alex and I may have even fallen off the pace. Now that I think about it Bryce and Raymond maybe weren't too far away from their assigned pace yesterday. It's real nice to see Bryce back and running like a champ. Watched the middle school meet, and Jakob Picciotto's little brother won. Jakob's really trying to get him to go to Interlake, but he's thinking Bellevue right now. Also a good race from 6th grader mini Joseph Rodgers.

2 Mile Warmup and long cooldown today. 5x1k on the course. Legs tightened up the very first one, but we had higher rest. Nevertheless, I could've done with a little more mobility. Ground was also a little to unfriendly for us to be running in trainers, and the sharp turns were a little risky. I ran 3:05, 3:05, 3:17 (Long section for everyone), 3:11 (I'm not familiar with this section of the new course so I accidentally elongated it), and finished with 2:55 (Short section for everyone). Honestly based on today and last week I think I'm getting better at trying harder when I feel like crap and it's resulting in better performance. I'm not always going to feel good so this is an important skill. However, I wish I had developed this skill a little more before Portland.

6 miles Blueberry, .5 on the track, and 1 to the stoplight and back for 7.5 total. Leg strength exercises may be partially why my legs feel like bricks but I'm taking it easy on those for maybe 2 days before KingCo just to be sure. Not going to dial back the training noticeably for now.

Ran a 8x400 workout in trainers with 60 seconds rest at a pace that I could groove in. I did 4 66s and 4 67s. It could have been 5 66s but I don't know. It didn't really feel difficult until the last 100 of the last interval, but the last one was 66 flat anyway so I never slowed at all. I think this is very good news because I had to struggle to hit this pace with a ton more recovery (lap slow jog, which takes probably 2:30) during last year's track season at my peak. I think that maybe I could, at full effort, consistently hit 66s at the very least and probably dip into 65s with this workout in trainers if coach told me to go at it full effort. It was far from easy today but I definitely had some gas left in the tank.

5 miles today easy and then 4x200 on the track. I went pretty fast but coach told me not to time myself.

3 miles followed by 3x200 on the track. Why 3 I'm not quite sure, but I went pretty fast. Once again, they weren't timed, so all I know is how I felt.

Woke up and was generally unhappy about having to race at 11:30. Unfortunately, I'll have to race around the same time for both districts and state, so I will use KingCo and Districts to learn. Ran a 1 mile shakeout run in the morn like 8 minutes after I emerged from my lair. Proceeded home to eat breakfast of rice mixed with egg, sausage, and miniscule bits of bacon. After eating, I promptly returned to my lair and reengaged slumber mode for almost an hour. This was a bad idea. Apparently sleeping inhibits digestion, plus I was kinda tired when I awoke again. Nevertheless, I shook it off as we were waiting to warm up at the meet by not lying down, walking the course, and stretching out. Warmed up with the team, course was pretty soggy. My fingers started getting numb from the cold so I decided to wear gloves for the first race this season. First mile was 4:57 courtesy of Will taking it out hard. Tom sat right on us while I kept trying to get up even with Will, who kept speeding up. I then took the reigns at like 1.1ish miles and Will disengaged soon after. I could've done with better legs today, but then again I've been doing random hard stuff all week so I'll probably feel better when I dial it back. However, despite feeling a little sluggish today, I made it happen. Tom stayed with me after I took the lead the first time, and moved slightly ahead of me. I took it back at the sand and pushed it across there because the sand is usually difficult for people, but once again he took the lead from me. I noticed after one corner he rounded soon after his pace slowed so I took the lead a third time as we were fast approaching the 4k mark. This time I made separation. I got 8 seconds on him in the last 1k. I've definitely learned to fight harder through the ick should it arise on race day. Also, kudos to Tom for improvement, we came through the 2 mile split for the 5k today at 10:11, but when he ran the same 2 mile for the 2 mile Jamboree he was 10:18. Most of my teammates ran slow times today, but Joseph and Raymond really stepped it up. We won pretty handily. Excited for next week. Finished with a 1 mile cool down. Don't know why I cooled down cause I then did a 5 mile training run at 6:55s.

Workout in spikes at Lake Sammamish State Park, which was very muddy today. It was 2x3x800 where our rest was to jog to the start point of the next 800, which I'm estimating totaled 1600m jog rest as we completed the 2 mile loop twice. The repeats were actually only roughly 800. First one was probably short, second one was quite long, about 950 meters, and second one was by far the closest. First repeat of each set of three was meant to be like the beginning of our race, and very fast. So I did 2:07 then 2:06. Second one was tempo, and I did 2:57 then 2:54. Not wiping out was very difficult but I'm prepared for it provided the race on Saturday is muddy and miserable, which it is supposed to be. Thankfully, those are my kind of conditions. The last one was tempo plus a little bit. I felt very relaxed, but I'm convinced I was well ahead of my race pace from Saturday. First was 2:24, second was 2:20. The workout was good and it was on the easy side, which was nice. I am excited to race on Saturday, and I will use last Saturday as a learning experience and avoid the 2 hour nap in the morning so as to promote digestion and prevent fatigue during the race. As it turns out, I watched the evening 4A race and it lead me to believe that my performance on Saturday was better than my Twilight performance. A bunch of 4A kids who were right behind me at Twilight got times much further behind me in the KingCo race and pretty much every one of them who was ahead of me at Twilight either finished with a slower time than me or got a lot closer to me, with the sole exception of Nate Pendleton, who ran a beastly race. I'm making progress and I am ready to compete at districts and state.

Coach said easy day of 6 miles for most people, but he told me I could go 7. Because of this, I ran 6 with my friends and 1 on the track. Legs were a little tight today

Wasn't expecting a workout today, but I got one. Rained substantially from 11AM onward and then cleared up just as practice began, which everybody but me somehow anticipated, leaving me awkwardly warming up in my parachute pants and assorted rain gear. Workout was 8 laps in our trainers, 3200 meters, first 300 of each lap at 5k race pace effort, and then dial back the last 100 to a cruise only slightly more than training run pace. This was interesting because it wasn't super slow but I was able to recover while doing it. Anyways, my first two were a little fast before I settled in. Somebody went out with me, as I heard breathing behind, but they fell off hard after like 3 intervals and the closest person was like 30 seconds back in the end. The workout felt smooth and comfortable, came through 1600 at 4:57 due to the first two laps being pretty fast and then came through 3200 at 10:03. I'm very encouraged by this workout as I was running disrupted intervals and changing speeds yet still had fast splits. I think that if I ran the 3200 right now I would get a sizable PR. All I need to do now is show this sort of fitness in a race and I'll run a great 5k PR as well. Unfortunately the course is gonna be miserable on Saturday. Fortunately, those are my kind of conditions. Obviously my time won't be great, but I race well when things are ugly.

Stubbed my toe really hard and it hurt to run on today so I couldn't complete my run.

Buddy taped my toe and got through my run. Did some strides afterwards.
 

I was right about my time not being very good today, but I wasn't right about a positive result. The course was really messy when I ran it. I stuck with the lead group for 2 miles and then Peter Hogan, a Ballard kid, and a guy from Garfield kind of pulled ahead. The Ballard kid was trailing the other two so I kept trying to move up to him. I almost got him at one point, but he ended up pushing his way up to Peter. The Garfield kid took off and somehow ran a 16:09. Peter got 16:23 and the Ballard kid 16:25. I was expecting to be more competitive at this meet. For some reason, my workouts continue to get better and better but every race since the end of my sophomore track season follows this pattern of running "okay", but never well. Nevertheless, the results in the 4A race were also confusing. Two kids who I was able to compete with at Twilight almost caught Pixler, who ran I think a time a little bit faster than the Garfield guy. They also beat a kid from Inglemoor who was 15:25 at Nike Portland. Kennan was only 3 seconds ahead of my time from today, and finished a few seconds behind some random Henry Jackson kid. It seemed that slow people ran fast, fast people ran slow, and the order was all messed up. Thus, I am mentally throwing away the results because I don't think they mean anything. As much as I tried to psych myself out about it, I've never run well in crummy conditions. Possibly because I weigh so little. Either way, I hope for a much more satisfying performance at the State Meet.

Today was the State Championships. I've fallen behind on my Running Blog so I will just resume here. Today I got out pretty strong, but since everybody at the state meet goes out really fast, that put me at like 40th place for the first 800. By the time I got to the mile, which I believe was 4:53 or so, I was in 25th. I started picking off people who still meant business pretty well at this point in the race. Unfortunately it had become fairly strung out up front due to Justin Janke ditching everyone while I was moving through the people who thought they were running the 1600. That meant I was always at the front of a group trying to reach somebody who was 10-20 yards in front of me. Thus, I spent a large portion of the race in no man's land with a small pack of 5 or so people feeding off of each other and moving up 10 yards behind me, but at the same rate as me. I hit 2 miles at like 10:02 and kept trying to get the pack 20 yards ahead of me, in which one straggler came in 15:44 but most were around 15:35-15:38. Unfortunately, the distance was too hard to make up. Central Kitsap's number 1 blew by me with 800 to go and kicked it in at 15:38. Not surprising given how fast he's run so far this season and given his 800m speed. Tom from Juanita and the Bainbridge kid both challenged me in the final stratch but I held them off and came in 15:46.0, matching my PR down to the tenth of a second. The straggler from the pack ahead of me was a Ballard kid who had not been a factor up front this season up to this point. Peter and the Ballard kid who beat me at Districts both ran strangely well and came in 3-4 with 15:20 and 15:25, which was really confusing mostly due to the Ballard guy. Garfield guy ran 15:39.5. I was the 5th district 2 finisher and 12th overall. It was a pretty good race relative to how I've run this season. However, I'm not very happy with where my season ended up but I guess I need to keep in mind that my mileage is still quite low and that I did not really have a Summer of training. I qualified for BorderClash, which is nice. Will came in near his PR with 15:59, Joseph ran a giant PR and ran 15:57. Our typical 7th runner, Dante, ran 16:37, also a sizable PR, but that's where the positives stop for Interlake. Raymond, who could probably run around 16:20, ran 16:36. Bryce got his leg stepped on or something and rolled his ankle, which prevented him from finishing. Matthew was feeling off and ran 16:38. We knew 4 teams were in competition for the win, and we got 4th out of those teams. If our 4 and 5 had been around 16:20, which is conservative for Matthew, we would have taken a close second to North Central. I still have BorderClash to run an impressive race and I also feel positive about the room I have to grow for track season.

I've fallen behind in posting, but in general I've been doing consistent runs of a solid distance but a little less mileage than before. Great workout on the track today. 48 degrees out tonight and a little wet, but not too rainy when I was running. 8x400 in my trainers with a lap jog of rest. My splits were very consistent: 64, 63, 63, 63, 64, 63, 62, 63 in that order. The last time I did this I was in great shape earlier this year during track season, a few days before my injury popped up. In that one I ran 5 67s and 3 66s. On that one I also went really slow on the lap jog. This one couldn't have given me much more than my rest for the 800 workout last week. Either way, I haven't ever run 400s this fast even in my spiked workouts. So, I think the development I've been seeing, although not visible for cross country, only comes into play on the track, so I'm likely to surprise quite a few people in the 1600 this Spring. Also we had the banquet today, and Chris Watson baked me a pretzel shaped like my name, which was glorious. I also received as captain's gifts an America hat and some flashing gloves, combined with Shrek-colored shwings and light-up shoelaces. Additionally, I received a large bag or Doritos to enjoy after my season ends. My team spoils me.

Probably my highest-quality Cross Country performance. I think that my run today showed what I'm capable of doing well in a way I hadn't yet this season. I believe that I was ranked around 40th of the overall Washington runners, all of whom came to the race except for Peter, who was there for the run-through the day before but disappeared on race day. Thus, my goal was to pass a few guys ranked ahead of me and be top 50. The race goes out hard and so I started out pretty much last, although I was going at a strong pace. The course was narrow and it was very difficult to pass, so moving up was very difficult. At first, I slowly made my way up past a bunch of guys, mostly Oregon, that I didn't recognize. Then I realized I was passing some guys who were ranked slightly behind me who I was a little worried about, and I started to get more comfortable with how my race was going. I kept passing and started going by people who were of my speed and some who I knew were a little ahead of me. Approaching the two-mile mark, I passed some people who were considerably ahead of me this season. At this point I went past Andrew and he went with me. After that I began passing people I never even fathomed beating. I crested a hill and realized I was in like 20th place. I brought it home, but my kick could have been a lot better, maybe I would have finished in the 16:00-16:03 range had it been strong. Either way I'm not complaining about my race: though I finished 12th in the Washington 3A state race, I was 21st out of both states, 12th out of all Washington runners, and 5th out of 3A(Whoops I had entered it as 2A before). Andrew came in about 3 seconds behind me and was the 1st 2A competitor after getting 4th during the state meet (Barely outleaning 5th). Both of us had great races and I'm very happy that it ended on this note. Now for my 2 week break and then track season.

Microsoft trail at 7:30 pace. First run after my break. Felt much less awful than any of my other first runs throughout the years.

Microsoft again in the opposite direction. I think I might just do Microsoft every day this week. My left calf started tweaking up the big hill so I stopped to stretch it. The pain waned and I finished my run.

Microsoft again. Same calf tweak, same time in my run. Stopped to stretch and it waned a bit. Today I'm guessing it was because Richard demolished my legs in PT. I'll see what happens tomorrow but there will be lots of calf stretching before my run. Also I'll do Microsoft in the direction I did it on Monday because that way I only go down the big hill and the uphills are just small and numerous.

I should start bringing my GPS watch to practice. Matthew got 3.8ish when we got back on what I had thought was a 3.5 mile trail. We finished up to 4 around the park.

Microsoft trail again. People ramped up the pace at the start so I just let them dictate it until they eventually slowed down.

Got 3.65 on my watch running around Bridle Trails with Matthew and Will. I stopped my watch to look for cars crossing the street on the way back to the plaza at the end and forgot to unpause it for a stretch. Compensating I added a tenth of a mile. However, I think I ran more but I won't attribute it to my mileage because at this time there's no point in estimating. Due to the dense forest, the pace readings were at like 8:10 even though we dropped a guy at the start and the people who stayed with it said the pace was really difficult. Either way, I'm already feeling really fit.

Easy run. Moving up my mileage.

The seasonal dusting of the cobwebs occurred today. Much earlier than usual, but I saw the opportunity today because I was alone. Matthew and I did two 6:50s and he split off from me for a reason I can't remember. I started to move faster and really enjoyed the new form adjustment I'm trying to implement. I ran 6:02 for that mile. Sped up without realizing and ran 5:49. At that point I realized that today would be the dusting of the cobwebs. This influenced my next mile pretty clearly as it was the only one with zero stop lights and actually was 1/3 uphill climb with no downhill, yet it was my fastest at 5:44. Decided to slow down as I had aimed to do 5 miles and I was still out a bit from the park. Maintained a rigorous pace but I realized I could hold that pace (6:06) and recover from the faster mile I had just done. Either way, I've never been in this good of a shape so early. It was a lot of fun to move quickly again, but I need to limit myself.

Another 5 mile. This time in my Santa costume with Chris Watson. I was surprisingly able to run fairly well in it. The track was open so Watson and I jogged down there. Just to get a feel for my legs and get moving a it I did a 200 in 31 with Watson and a 400 in 62 by myself. I would like to do workouts but it's way too early in my training. Still feeling healthy. If I'm cautious and maintain my upward trajectory in mileage and health I may be looking at a 5k PR in February and huge PRs during track season. Since this is looking like my first solid block of training in a long time, I'll probably have the best pre-season aerobic base I've ever had.

Flight arrived late so 3AM treadmill run it is. Technically done on Sunday but whatever.

Got home later again so another late treadmill run.

First run outside out and back from the hotel. Felt great to be off a treadmill here. Super muggy in Florida. There do not appear to be any natural hills here, but the bridges I was running over more than made up for it so it was a pretty hilly run. Felt like cruising so I held a consistent fast pace except for the third mile where I got carried away. Feel great but I need to stay careful so my great shape can manifest itself into fast times this spring.

Another late treadmill run with gradually increasing speed.