Anything Will Burn If the Furnace is Hot Enough

Well I'm back! Haven't blogged in about two weeks and I'm sad to say that I have no valid excuse. I'll update the last two weeks in the mornign because it's pretty late right now. Can't sleep because I'm thinking really hard about a lot of things.

*Warning* super long random venting of feelings ahead

Well once upon a time I wanted to be a state champion and run on a state champion team. I also wanted to race at Nike Nationals. I once was so dedicated that I went to bed on time every single night and I blogged everyday and I worked hard at everything I did. Lately, however, I've made all of this seem like a dream. I haven't been fully focused on what's most important to me. I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's because it's summer. Maybe it's because I think I'm already good enough. But maybe it's because I'm scared. I thought a lot this week and realized how hard these goals are going to be. I think about all of the people who thing they are too unrealistic. People who are close to me and who I really wish would believe in them too. And that's what scares me. The fact that it's going to be difficult and not everyone will stand by my side. But I have come to realize at this late hour that it doesn't matter. Any dream can happen if you just be persistent and follow through with the plan. We've made our goals for this year and I've improved so much and I know that I can improve a lot more, and become the amazing athelete that I want to become. And I know I'm rambling but I can't sleep and I'm just coming to the realization that I can do it. We can do it. I just need to remember why and how I was once so committed, and start living that way again. I'm gonna start blogging every day and doing everything that I need to do in order to be great. This week has been really chill and I've liked it, but I'd rather be pushing just a bit harder in life and doing great things, then sitting at home in December having a "chill" time.

95 minutes 1-2-1-3-1-3 minute pickups with 3 min recovery

7:27 avg pace

Felt super good today. Not as much distance as usual, because we went up like 500 hills and started out pretty easy. Back started tensing up in the last 10 minutes. Getting some physical therapy sessions scheduled so hopefully I can get into those soon.

20 + 20 on grass + 8 striders

7:30 avg

Nice grass run today. We finally got the nice baseball field back because all of the scrubs are done practicing every Tuesday. Felt really good this morning

2.9 miles in 20 min then weights after

Had to run before weights today because I had work at 4. Also had a captains meeting at 2:15 so I ran at like 1:30. Felt really good because I haven't ran by myself in a long time. Thought a lot about how epic it'll be when one day people are like "Hey, I used to see that guy running by my house every once in a while, and now he's famous!" That would be the cooliest thing ever

75 min

Went and ran the Sand Hill to see exactly how long it is. Coach wants to do some sort of workout time trial thing on it. Sounds like a good idea, but it was freaking hard. SO MUCH SAND. 

60 minutes

Good workout today. I felt super great and could've gone longer for sure. Not sure about the rest of the guys. Our goal was to have 5 of us for most of the workout, and we barely had 3 at the end. Some people are out of town, but it still would be nice to know that we have a lot of depth. I'm pretty sure we'll all get to where we need to be once the season starts. I trust that everyone will step up and do what needs to be done. 

60 + 6 striders

7:30 avg pace

Went to Bloomington Hills Park, AKA the region course AKA time trial course AKA Desert Relays course AKA the place where I sucked super bad last year and I'm not very fond of because of my memories there. Ran the 2 mile loop and it made me excited for our time trials and our Desert Relays. Ready to do very well in those. Went and ran out on the river trail and found a beast pink semi-deflated ball and KICKED IT for quite a while, until I shot it up in the air and the wind carried it down to the river. Pretty sad moment for all of us, but especially me. I made a very strong connection with that ball, and then I accidentaly killed it. The rest of my day was pretty bad because of it.

80 minutes 5x1 minute pickups w/ 4 min recovery

8:56 avg pace

Well today's run sucked for all of us. Grant Julien Mikey and Jose. We went and ran Chuckwala trail and it was all fun and stuff and we got to the cool lookout cliff, but we were only 20 minutes out, so we decided to run down the mountain on Scout Cave trail and go check out the cool caves in the wall. Stopped for probably a lot longer than we should've and had fun climbing and almost dying. The run back up was incredibly exhausting and it sucked. We were going pretty dang slow and it was super hot and we were tired from stopping and running up the super steep hill. Julien was pukin and stuff and Jose flipped early and ended up getting lost and Grant Mikey and I were just dead tired. Went to Orange Peel after and got some nice yummy *healthy* smoothies.