16 In The Clip and 1 In The Hole

This past weekend was the Mountain State Games in Pocatello, Idaho. It was the first time I’ve raced in nearly a month. The last time I raced was back in January when BYU hosted an indoor meet. I ran the 3000 in a PR time of 8:47 and felt really good about it. However, I knew that I could go faster. Since then my training has been better than ever before. Every workout I’ve been hitting times I never thought possible…and it has felt good. My confidence is higher than ever, so I was pretty stoked going into this race. Some highlights from workouts include 4x1 mile repeats at about 4:47-4:50 pace with only 2.5 minutes of rest in between each one. Also, this last week we did a 5 mile tempo run in under 25 minutes. Our first mile was 4:50, and then our 2 mile was under 9:50, and we basically maintained from there.

I don’t know if I’ve ever been as excited to race as I was this weekend. My body feels great, the workouts have been going well, and it had been nearly a month, so I was dying to get on the track and compete again. I entered my time at 8:36, because that is what my altitude time converted to from last month. I ended up being the 12th and final seed in the Invitational race. I got pretty lucky, because otherwise I would have been stuck in the open heat which was won in an 8:56. So, going into the race, my overall goal was to run under 8:30 without the altitude conversion. It was kind of one of those goals that you would really like to hit, but you’re not quite sure if it’s even possible. It would be a 17 second PR, so I was hoping for it, but not quite banking on it. Anyways, my other “more realistic” goal was to get under 8:40. This one I knew I was capable of, and so it’s the one that was really engrained in my mind. I figured that if I could hit 68’s, that would put me through the mile in 4:32 and then from there I could hang on and be somewhere around 8:30.

The track in Pocatello is an interesting one. It’s a 200 meter wooden track, so it is definitely different form the usual mondo tracks that we usually run on. The only difference seemed to be that your spikes didn’t stick into the track all the way, so you felt it a bit more in your feet. Anyways, I’ll give you a quick run through of the race. There was a waterfall start, and I started off in the first group in lane four. After the first hundred meters or so, the second group broke in and I totally got shoved to the back of the pack. Literally, some guy just plowed into me with his shoulder and nearly sent me flying. So for the next 3 laps I was battling for position. A few times I had to sprint out into lane 3 just to get up front with the top guys. My splits for the first 1200 were 70-66-68, so I averaged my 68’s, however, you can also tell that I was all over the place trying to get position. I came through the mile in about 6th place at 4:32, which was right where I wanted to be. At that point, I made a move and caught up to the top group. There was one guy out front who had about a 5 second lead, and then there were two guys trailing behind him. I caught up to those guys and basically just hung on and made them do the work. I stayed right on them for about 1000 meters, and then they pulled away a bit. My 400 splits during that time were two 70’s, but I made up for it on the last 400. One guy passed me with about 400 to go, but I was able to stay with him. With 200 to go I kicked it in and passed him, and then on the final stretch I passed another guy. My final 200 was a 30, so I was really pleased with how I was able to finish. I ended up coming in 3rd with an 8:36. I was really happy with it, but I also know I can go faster. The guy who ended up winning it was actually one of the two guys that I tried to hang with. I think if I would have gone with them over the last little bit I would have had a shot at winning it. I think I just need to focus on laps 6 and 7 and I’ll be able to drop some more time. Overall, my time converts to an 8:25 with the altitude conversion. It was an 11 second PR and it felt really good. My legs feel really fresh today, so I’m hoping that the next time I race I’ll be able to get under 8:30, and hopefully under 8:20 with the conversion. If I can do that, it will really make me think hard about whether or not I want to redshirt the outdoor season. My next chance to race, and probably my final time for the indoor season, will be in two weeks at Weber State.

Full Results from the Meet: http://isubengals.cstv.com/auto_pdf/p_h ... MtnStGames

Another week has brought another solid week of running. Last week I hit my highest mileage since about 3 years ago. I hit around 68 and it felt amazing. I’ve been suffering from a case of shin splints for the last month or so, but the increase in mileage didn’t really seem to affect them at all. I’ve been getting them rubbed out, iced, taped, stretched and just about everything else imaginable; but I’ve come to the conclusion that as long as I am running 10 miles a day on the concrete streets of Provo they are probably going to be bothering me. The only time in the last month that they haven’t been hurting was the two weeks I spent running on dirt trails in Chico. Within 2-3 days of being back in Provo on the concrete they were sore again…go figure.

So shin splints aside, the running has really taken off this week. Tuesday we did 800 meter repeats. We’ve been doing a lot of short, quick stuff recently, so it was good to add a longer workout in. We did six of them with 2:30 rest in between. They went as follows: 2:14, 2:14, 2:13, 2:12, 2:11, and 2:09. It was by far the best I’ve ever done with an 800 meter workout. The best part about it was how good I felt. The whole time I felt really relaxed, and felt like I could have pushed it even more. There was hardly any strain at all, and at the end of it I felt like I could have busted out a few more at the same pace.

Then today we were back on the indoor track for another speed workout. This time we did 8x400 with 90 seconds recovery after each one. We hit all of them right around 62 and once again it felt really relaxed, though my legs were a bit fatigued from Tuesday. It was another solid workout, and fueled my desire to race even more. Right now I know I am in better shape than I have ever been before. I’m running faster times and I’m feeling stronger and more confident than I ever did my freshman year. Unfortunately, I just need to be patient and utilize the opportunities to race that I do have. It’s looking like I will have two other races for indoor. The first being in a couple of weeks (Feb 9th) in Pocatello, Idaho. The second will be Feb 23rd in Ogden, Utah at the Weber State Invite. I’ll probably do the 3k at both of them, and I am confident that I’ll be able to get my time well under 8:30 by the end of the year. If I can do well at both of these meets, then it will really make me think hard about whether or not I want to redshirt the outdoor season.

Well, it’s been a solid last month of training with a number of highlights. For Christmas break, I went back to the hometown of Chico where I enjoyed an amazing two weeks of running on soft dirt trails. The concrete streets of Provo had been doing a number on my shins, so it was a much needed break to hit up the trails. Some highlights from the break included pacing JRC to a PR in the mile (4:51), eating Tacos De for the first time in over two years with JRC and Mark Montgomery, and once again running in the Stilson Canyon New Years Day run. I think I only missed a day or two of running the whole break, so it set me up nicely to get back to Provo and get underway with track.

Last week was my first week back and it was a good one. On Monday we did one of our classic track workouts, the 30-40 1000 meter repeats. Basically you do alternating 200 hundreds at 30 sec then 40 sec and you go for 1000 meters. So basically it went like this 30-40-30-40-30 x 4 with about 2 and a half minutes rest in between. It’s not too bad of a workout, but the 30’s are tough just because my body isn’t used to running at that pace. The workout went really well. I was a bit worried it may take me a few days to get used to the altitude again after 2.5 weeks at sea level, but it didn’t seem to effect me at all. On Wednesday I had heard we were doing 400 meter repeats, which are usually pretty easy, however, I was in for a surprise. We ended up doing mile repeats on the indoor track. We did 3 of them and I hit 4:40, 4:37, 4:41. We took around 4-5 minutes rest in between, and once again it felt really solid, although I was starting to feel it a bit after the third one. This workout set me up perfect for the first track meet of the season, The BYU Cougar indoor invitational.

The race was last Saturday and I ran the 3k. I wasn’t really sure what I was capable of running, but I knew I wanted to get under 9 minutes for sure. I think my PR from my freshman year was like an 8:49, which ended up being an 8:39 with the altitude conversion. I set my goal for under 8:50 and decided I’d be happy with anything under that. There is one guy on the team that I was able to hang with in practice all week, so I figured I’d try to latch on to him and I’d see where I ended up. I’m redshirting the year, so I was sporting my Northern Ireland national running jersey that I picked up while on my mission. The first mile was about 4:39-4:40, and things were going just as planned. I latched onto the guy in front of me and basically just tried to hang on. I was feeling really good through the mile, and I ended up finishing in 8:47, taking 5th place. I held on to that guy the entire way until the last lap where he pulled away by a couple of seconds. I got beat by 4 other BYU guys, but overall, I was really happy with my time and where I ended up. We get 11 seconds of altitude conversion in Provo, so officially it ended up as an 8:36, which is a PR by 3 or 4 seconds. I felt really good about the race, and I feel like I can definitely go faster. It was the first race of the season and I feel like I’m in pretty good shape, but far from my peak.

I’m starting double days this week, so that should boost my mileage from around 55-60 a week to 65-70 a week. This should give me an extra boost and hopefully help to drop a bit more time. The next chance I will have to compete will probably be the second week of February at a meet in Idaho. I should be doing the 3k again, and my goal is to definitely get under 8:30. My goal for the season was to break 8:30, so if I can do it in the second race of the season I’ll be pretty stoked.

Complete Results: http://www.byutrack.com/Various/Special ... /index.htm

Well, the time trial was originally scheduled for this coming Thursday and Friday, however, it had to be moved to Monday for some weird NCAA rule. Apparently most schools are either already out for Christmas break or get out this week, so because of that we aren’t allowed to have “official” team practices from now until January. Sounds pretty lame, but it meant the last possible time we could pull off the time trial was Monday…so we did. They crammed it all into one day and dropped the 2 mile from the schedule, so that made my decision as to what to run a lot easier.

The meet was running behind schedule so I took a bit longer than usual on my warm-up run, however, as I came running into the indoor track finishing my warm up they were calling the milers onto the track. I had to quickly throw my spikes on and jump on the track without stretching a single muscle. Our indoor track is just over 300 meters, so in total the mile was 5 laps. There were about 11 of us running in it and I ended up taking 4th. The first lap I got really bad positioning, so on the straightaway 300 meters in I had to put in a surge to move up to the front of the pack. I hung 2 or 3 seconds back from the top 2 guys for the next 2 laps, then on the fourth one I picked it up and caught up to them. I was feeling really really strong at that point, but for some reason I ended up finishing crap. I’m still confused as to what happened, but let’s just say my closing lap wasn’t what it should have been. I ended up finishing in 4:25 and the winner took it in 4:20. We get just over 5 seconds for altitude conversion (Provo is somewhere around 5,000 feet) so it was somewhere around 4:20, which is an indoor PR for me. I was pretty happy with it, but I know I could have gone faster. It did get me way excited for track though, and I can’t wait to get on the track in an actual meet and see what I can do. I remember my time from this time trial my freshman year was around 4:29, so there is definite improvement from then.

Since I’m still here in the airport, and since the weather is still crap and I’m at least an hour and a half away from my flight, I figured I’d might as well continue with all of the posts that I’ve planned to do, but never figured I’d get around to….

Last week I had the chance to go down to Fresno to watch my little sister run at the California State Championships for Cross-Country. It brought back all kinds of memories; such as blasting rap music from the 15 passenger vans as we cruised through Fresno, cranberry juice, ice skating, jumping the school vans on the massive speed bumps, and maybe a few here and there of actually running. Most of these memories involved a certain coach that helped us to reach those championships pretty much every year he was there. This next entry is a shout out to one of the greatest coaches Pleasant Valley High School has ever seen, Joey Creighton (also known as both jayaresea and doobs). As can be read about in his bio, JRC was one of the top runners to compete at PV, and a few years after his graduation he decided to come back and share his running secrets with his alma mater. I think he was dubbed the nickname doobs cause that was the guy from some movie who couldn’t leave his high school days behind him, attending his senior prom every year up until his thirties. Though we gave Joey all kinds of crap for still sticking around the high school, the truth is that none of us would have ever accomplished what we did without his help. I really first started working with him sometime into my sophomore year. My freshman year of running basically consisted of walking to the bridge a mile away from the school, then spending the next 30 minutes hiding in the bushes as various Coaches scoured the park to keep us running. We’d then walk back to the school and call it a day. For some reason I left those days behind and began running with Joey and “the fast guys.” Though he took every opportunity to make fun of my high pitched voice and 8 year old body, he helped me to enjoy running and pushed me to see what I was capable of. After my freshman year, I actually had thoughts of giving up running, as I really wasn’t enjoying it too much. However, from my sophomore year on I loved every minute of it and started to work a lot harder.

JRC’s coaching career was impressive for a number of reasons. First off, you wouldn’t believe some of the crap he had to put up with. One run ended with a runner attempting to jump from one part of a bridge to another on a rainy day. He slipped and landed on his head, ending up with a pretty serious concussion. Another run ended with a runner chasing a Frisbee straight into somebody’s mailbox, cutting up his nose and face and requiring a number of stitches. Let’s just say the team wasn’t exactly what you would call “mature” all of the time. I think all of the immaturity was overshadowed by the great memories of “bridge ball,” the “Big Dogs,” Tacos De and total domination of both the EAL and the Northern Section.


His coaching career was also impressive because he managed to work every single one of us in the runs. I can’t ever remember a workout where he was lagging or struggling to keep up. He was always at the front of the pack pushing the pace and keeping us motivated.

Every accomplishment I have achieved in running I give a huge part of the credit to JRC. He helped me stick with it, whether I wanted to or not, and he’s a true friend. So this one’s to you, Mr. slowly balding distance runner extraordinaire…


He's come a long way since his days at the Nook

Well, here I am stuck in the Salt Lake Airport on a Friday night with nothing better to do with my time than write about running. I was all set for a sweet weekend down in Southern California and Mexico going to Six Flags and doing who knows what else with some buddies I met in Ireland. Now I’m waiting for my plane which has been delayed by 3 hours…at least. Though it shouldn’t mess up our plans too much, it’s still pretty lame to be stuck in the airport for this long…and on a Friday night nonetheless?

So as far as my running goes, there really isn’t too much exciting going on. I’ve just been doing basic mileage for the past 3 weeks or so, and will start up with the speed work again next week to get ready for track. Our team is having a big time trial two weeks from today, so that will be the next goal to set my sights on. I’m not sure what I’m going to run yet, but as it is only a time trial, I was actually thinking of jumping into an 800 just to see what I could run. My PR is something like a 2:04, and with the way I feel now I’m pretty sure I’d be able to go under 2 minutes, checking another milestone off of my list of things to do before I die. The time trial is a two day thing, with the 800 falling on Thursday and the mile falling on Friday. So if I did the 800, I’d probably double up and do the mile the next day. The other option is the two mile which will be run on Thursday. I’ve still got a few weeks to figure it out, so we’ll see what happens. Any suggestions from the peanut gallery (what does that mean anyway?) would be greatly appreciated…

With that said, I’ll get onto my real topic of discussion for the day. One of the greatest strengths I feel I have gained since getting back into running is that of mental strength. My two year journey as a Mormon missionary in Ireland did many things for me, and I really feel like this is one of the things that I gained. For those of you who aren’t entirely familiar with what a mission entails, I’ll try to give you a few of the details. Mormon missionaries are quite easily recognized in society. They are the ones in white shirts and ties that you see riding through town on their bikes. You know, the ones that you anxiously peek through the curtains to see if they have left your doorstep or not. That was me. I decided to go on a mission while I was completing my first year of school at BYU. It’s hard to describe why I made the decision, and all I can really say is that it just felt right. I filled out some papers about my personal information and a few things and sent it off to some of the Church Leaders in Salt Lake. About two weeks later they sent me a letter telling me I’d be going to Ireland for the next two years of my life. It’s pretty crazy, because really you have a chance of going anywhere in the world…literally, anywhere. I’ve had friends that have gone to Brazil, Australia, Venezuela, Africa, Norway, Chicago…you name it, there’s missionaries there. You don’t have any say in it at all, you just fill out the papers and they tell you where you are headed.

So for two years I set aside running, my family and friends, and a whole lot of other stuff and flew off to Ireland. The schedule that a missionary runs is pretty intense. Every day for two years, you wake up at 6:30 AM. You study for a few hours, and then basically from 10:00 AM until 9:00 PM you are out and about doing a variety of activities. These activities range from doing community service, to going door to door to talk to people about the church, to talking to people in the street, and a number of other things. For six days a week this was my schedule, then every Monday we had free time to go shopping or play sports or do whatever we wanted to do. Also, during these two years missionaries don’t watch television, go to school, date or do a number of things that most people do quite frequently. It sounds strict and demanding, but I loved every minute of it and wouldn’t trade the experiences I had for anything. I met some amazing people, worked for some really cool organizations like the British Red Cross and Enable Ireland, and was able to help people find direction in their lives.

So where does mental strength come into the picture? It was not easy to get up every day at 6:30 or maintain the schedule that I did. It helped me to be disciplined, and it pushed me and helped me realize I was capable of accomplishing more than I realized. This is the difference I have noticed thus far as I have raced and done workouts. I’ve been able to push myself more and I have a lot more confidence in myself and what I can accomplish. I’ve especially noticed a difference towards the end of the runs. I am always able to push myself a bit harder at the end, and have confidence that I can beat most people in the last mile or so of a race.