2008-11-20T15:11:05Z Nate Ogden Copyright 2008, Nate Ogden SPHPBLOG
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
]]> http://ogden.jayaresea.com/index.php?entry=entry080210-195955 2008-02-11T00:00:00Z 2008-02-11T00:00:00Z
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.
]]> http://ogden.jayaresea.com/index.php?entry=entry080124-235831 2008-01-25T00:00:00Z 2008-01-25T00:00:00Z
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
]]> http://ogden.jayaresea.com/index.php?entry=entry080116-234808 2008-01-17T00:00:00Z 2008-01-17T00:00:00Z
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.
]]> http://ogden.jayaresea.com/index.php?entry=entry071212-014132 2007-12-12T00:00:00Z 2007-12-12T00:00:00Z
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]]> http://ogden.jayaresea.com/index.php?entry=entry071203-225329 2007-12-04T00:00:00Z 2007-12-04T00:00:00Z
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.
]]> http://ogden.jayaresea.com/index.php?entry=entry071203-222740 2007-12-04T00:00:00Z 2007-12-04T00:00:00Z
This week has been spent back in Chico with the family celebrating the thanksgiving holiday. Running over the past few weeks has been going well. I’ve eased off quite a bit in my training simply because the rest of the team has been tapering down for the big races. Last week coach had the few of us not competing just do mileage and this week has basically been the same. It’s been a nice break from the speed workouts and I can tell my body has been appreciating it as well.

This week in Chico they had the annual “Thanksgiving Run for Food 5k.” They started it last year to raise money for the Jesus Center; a local group that helps feed and support the homeless. They were expecting about 300 for the race last year, and over 1000 ended up showing up and competing. This year they said they were hoping for 2000-3000 people, so I was pretty excited to get out and compete with some good competition. The race was on Thursday, and I was feeling pretty good most of the week. I’ve been playing a lot of basketball over the last couple of weeks, so I was a little sore from that, but I felt confident that I’d be able to put out a pretty solid time. I figured the best 5k I’ve run was that 16:11 about 2 months back at the homecoming race, and I knew that I’d be able to improve on that. My best 5k ever was a 14:53 that I ran on the track at the Stanford Invite my freshman year, and I feel like I’m pretty close to being in the same shape I was then. I decided that if I could really push myself I could run it under 15, so I set that as my goal.

The start was pretty intense, as there were over 2000 people on the line. Kristen and I got stuck about 3 rows back, so it took a good 300 yards of weaving in and out of people in order to make it to the front. There were quite a few local running celebrities in the race, such as Tom Cushman, Chico High coach Kevin Girt and former teammate Ryan Matz. After I had made my way to the front I took the lead and ended up winning it in a 15:46. I felt like I went out pretty quick, but unfortunately there were no mile markers or anything along the way, so I had no way of measuring my pace. The race felt really relaxed, and I feel like I could have pushed it quite a bit more. I obviously didn’t reach my goal, but it was an encouraging race nonetheless and I was pretty pleased with it. My sister, Kristen easily won the women’s division with an 18:12. After the race, it was off to play a little football and then watch the Dallas Cowboys dismantle the Jets while eating turkey, potatoes and stuffing…what more could you want from a Thanksgiving Day?

Full Results: http://www.runforfood.com/?cf=2007Times

http://chicoer.mycapture.com/mycapture/ ... thispage=2 ]]> http://ogden.jayaresea.com/index.php?entry=entry071124-002832 2007-11-24T00:00:00Z 2007-11-24T00:00:00Z
The awards were probably the best part of the event. They announced me as the winner and rewarded me with a flippin sweet plastic WWF Wrestling Championship belt. I was pretty stoked until they announced the second place finisher (Kristen) and awarded her with a free one hour massage. Plastic WWF Wrestling belt vs. One hour massage…go figure. One lady was really impressed and asked if she was my wife. Just as she asked they announced that she was my sister…awkward.


(It did serve as a great halloween costume a few days later)


Results From The Race
http://www.thepimi.com/results.htm]]> http://ogden.jayaresea.com/index.php?entry=entry071106-003545 2007-11-06T00:00:00Z 2007-11-06T00:00:00Z
As most of the running community is probably already aware, tragedy struck Saturday at the Marathon Olympic Trials in NYC. I was really looking forward to the race as two of my former teammates from freshman year (Josh Rohatinsky and Nick McCombs) were both competing. I was at the BYU football game Saturday afternoon when I got a phone call informing me that Ryan Shay had collapsed 5.5 miles into the race, and had passed away sometime later. It was especially saddening because Ryan’s younger brother, Stephan is one of the top runners on the BYU XC team. He transferred this last year from Michigan State and is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. It was a tough hit to the team, and all of our thoughts and prayers are with Stephan and his family right now. He’s flying home this week to be with his family, but is planning on returning Friday to compete in the Regional Championships in Ogden, Utah.

Today we had a pretty sweet workout. As was mentioned earlier, Regionals is on Saturday, so Coach isn’t having the team do too anything too much. We went over to the intramural field where we did a mile breakdown workout. The intramural field is about 1000 meters around with about half of it slightly downhill and the other half slightly uphill. We do a lot of our speed workouts there, so I have come to know it very well. Anyways, the mile breakdown consisted of a mile, 1200, 800, 400, 400 with about 4 minutes rest after the mile, 3 after the 1200 and then a few minutes rest after the others. Just warming up and stretching I felt amazing and I knew it was going to be a good workout. The mile felt very relaxed, and the whole time I never really felt like I was pushing myself. I was shocked when I came through and Coach called out 4:36. It was probably the fastest mile I’ve ever done on the grass, and come to think of it, probably the fastest mile I’ve ever done in a workout. It made me really curious as to what I would be able to race a mile in on the track. I felt really good on the 1200, although my stomach starting acting up with about 800 meters left which slowed me down a bit. I ended up coming through in 3:34, a bit slower than I was hoping for. I hit about 2:18 on the 800, and then Coach just had us do the 400’s no faster than 66-68. My legs felt stronger and fresher than they have ever felt before, and if it wasn’t for my stomach acting up I think I could have gone quite a bit faster.

With Regionals coming up on Saturday, Coach announced that we will be having another time trial Saturday morning before the race to determine the alternates for Nationals. I don’t have much of a shot at that, but I would really like to run the time trial just because it would give me another chance to compete. He hasn’t announced yet who will be running it, but hopefully I’ll find out in the next day or two.
]]> http://ogden.jayaresea.com/index.php?entry=entry071106-001348 2007-11-06T00:00:00Z 2007-11-06T00:00:00Z We drove down Friday night, loaded up on pasta at the Pizza Factory and basically just kicked it and took it easy. Saturday morning we woke up and went over to the course about 2 hours early so that we could have a chance to walk through it all. The weather was supposed to be terrible, but it ended up being amazing. It was sunny, but yet still quite cool and there was relatively no wind at all. We ended up walking about ¾ of the course, but unfortunately didn’t have time to walk the last mile (this will come into play later). To be honest, up until Friday night, I really had no strategy at all. I just knew I wanted to run somewhere around 26:00. Friday night I checked my e-mail before I went to bed and found an e-mail from JRC. He recommended I go out hard (around 5:00) and then try to hang with some guys. It sounded good, so I decided to go for it.

There were 2 of us running in uniform for BYU and then three other guys on the team who were running unattached. We went out in a 4:50, and I was running in about 6th place. The first mile was mostly downhill, so it felt amazingly relaxed. After the mile mark, the fun was over and the course started going uphill. The second mile was mostly uphill, and I think I came across the two mile in about 10:15 and was still holding my same position. I ran the first two miles with the other guy running for BYU, but at that point he started to pull away, so I packed it up with some guy from Weber State and another guy from UVSC. We ran most of the rest of the race together; although the Weber guy kept surging and then dying, so he was kind of off and on. At about mile 3 we hit a massive hill and my legs started to feel it a bit. I’ve only done one hill workout since I’ve been running again, so I was a bit worried I might struggle on the hills a bit. Luckily, at the top of the hill there was a long gradual downhill, so I was able to pick it up and recover and make up some ground on the guys in front of me.

We finally hit the 4 mile mark and I was feeling amazing. I really wanted to finish the last mile quick, so I had been saving enough for it. However, right as we hit the 4 mile mark the Weber guy and UVSC guy passed me and basically started sprinting. I didn’t pay them too much attention because I knew (or at least thought) that there was still a full mile left. Anyways, I turned the corner and realized that the finish line was about 400 meters in front of me and the 2 guys in front of me had opened up a pretty substantial lead. Ever since my senior year of High School I have prided myself on my kick at the end, and this was no exception. I had a lot left, so I kicked it and probably had the best finish of my running career. I ended up passing the Weber guy with about 15 meters left, but unfortunately I couldn’t quite get the UVSC guy. It turns out they decided to change the course from an 8K to a 4.5 miler, and apparently decided to tell everyone about it except the BYU guys. I was happy with my time and place, but I was still a bit ticked just because I really feel like I could have knocked a good 15 seconds or so off my time had I known it was only a 4.5 mile race.

All in all, I was really pleased with the performance. The course was really hilly, but I felt like I did surprisingly well considering the lack of hill training. I never could find my time on the course from my freshman year, but I am pretty sure I ran about a minute faster this time around. I felt amazing throughout the race, and my body seemed to recover really quickly over the next few days. My coach was really happy with the race as well, which always helps to add a bit of motivation. Unfortunately, that is more than likely the end of the XC season for me, as all we have left is Conference, Regionals and then Nationals, and I’m not quite in good enough shape to compete there. I’ll probably jump in all the road races I can between now and Track just to keep the competition up.

Full Results at: http://www.suu.edu/athletics/mensxc/xcmeet/2007men.htm]]> http://ogden.jayaresea.com/index.php?entry=entry071021-171130 2007-10-21T00:00:00Z 2007-10-21T00:00:00Z
Wednesday we were on the track doing a watered down mile breakdown as most of the team is running at Pre-Nats and the rest of us will be at SUU. We did a 1600-1200-800 with a lap of jogging for rest in between. I went 4:40-3:30-2:17 and it felt very comfortable. I was amazed at how fast the 1600 was and how relaxed I felt throughout it. Also, my quads and calfs would usually be dead afterwards (especially considering the 1000's workout on Monday) but they felt surprisingly fresh. I ran 45 minutes relaxed today and felt great, and I'll probably just do another 40 minutes easy tomorrow to prep for the race.

I'm not sure what the competition is going to be like, as most big schools should be heading to Indiana for Pre-Nats, so I guess we'll see. I've been thinking a lot about a goal as far as time, and I figure if I could maintain the pace I ran at the 5k a few weeks back I'd be pretty pleased. That would be 5:11 pace for 8k which would put me somewhere around 25:55. It's supposed to be a fairly hilly course and is rated at "medium hard"...whatever that means. So I'd basically be happy with anything under 26:00, though if I can figure out my time from my freshman year I'd definitely like to beat that as well.]]> http://ogden.jayaresea.com/index.php?entry=entry071011-205318 2007-10-12T00:00:00Z 2007-10-12T00:00:00Z
So the last post updated you on the 5K and the track workout. I was feeling pretty good after those workouts and felt like maybe things were really starting to come back…and then last week hit. We did a sort of fartlek workout where we did a 5k followed by a 3k with about 5 minutes rest in between the two. We ran it in increments of a fast 400 followed by a 400 of semi fast. We did the fast 400’s in about 75 and the others in about 83. It all started off great, but after about 1200 meters my lower back starting cramping up and I basically died mentally. I ended up finishing about 20 seconds behind the last guy and was quite embarrassed to be honest. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but it sucked and I wasn’t happy about it. So after a nice easy 10 mile recovery the next day we went and did a 13-12 Tempo run on the asphalt. The workout entails doing a 13 minute temp run, then taking a one minute rest, and then doing 12 minutes, but covering the same distance as the 13. It went better than the fartlek, but I still wasn’t running anywhere near where I wanted to. Friday entailed another 10 mile recovery and then a long run on Saturday in sub-freezing temperatures (I miss California).

Monday rolled around and I knew we were doing another speed workout, and I didn’t want a repeat of last week’s meltdown. I tried to prepare myself mentally and decided that today’s workout was going to be one of my best, regardless of how I felt. I got to the locker room and found out we were doing the infamous 1000 meter repeats on the intramural field. We usually do 10 of them, and on a good day I have averaged about 3:10-3:15. Before the workout, Coach also announced that he would be sending the team to two meets this weekend, and so most everyone would get the chance to race. The thought of maybe being able to jump in my first XC race of the year definitely gave a bit more motivation to the workout. We ended up doing 8 of them because of the race this coming weekend and my breakdown went like this:

3:07—3:07—3:07—3:04—3:04—3:04—3:02—2:55 with 50-60 seconds rest in between each one.

It was by far the best I have felt since I’ve been back, and it was also the fastest I’ve ever done the workout…freshman year included. I was pretty pumped afterward and I could tell that Coach was pleased as well. Every other guy on the team has served a mission as well and so they have all been through the experience of trying to get back into running after 2 years off. A lot of them have told me that it was tough at first, but at some point they did a workout and they just knew they were back…I felt like this was my workout.

Then today Coach told me I’d be running this weekend down at the Southern Utah University Color Invite. It’s an 8K course and I ran it my freshman year, though I have no idea what my time was. I’m well excited for it, so we’ll see how it goes
]]> http://ogden.jayaresea.com/index.php?entry=entry071010-014929 2007-10-10T00:00:00Z 2007-10-10T00:00:00Z