Justin's Blog

Today was a continue of our taper for tomorrows meet (City County). We ran to the duck pond and back running easy 8 minute miles. Me and Nathan gapped the guys but just barely. We then did 4 easy 100 meter strides. I felt alright but I still felt really tired. I hope I'll be ready for tomorrow. I'll be running the 1600 and the 800 on our medley team hoping to state qualify for both and set a new city county record. The record stands at 4:20 and is held by a former Ogden High runner (Riley Cook). Me and Mike Buckley will pace each other and see what happens.

Today was the first day of our annual city county meet. I was set to go in the 1600. I knew it would be Mike and I pushing the pace but I didn't know how I really felt warming up. Alek, Dylan, and I warmed up an easy 15 minutes and Mike joined soon after we started. We fianlly lined up and the gun went off. I took to the lead and led us through at 32-33 for the first 200 with a pretty crappy head wind and Mike right on my tail. As we hit the home straight, I moved aside for Mike to take the lead because that was the plan. We hit 67 (too slow but it hurt) and Mike lead the 2nd lap. As we hit the home straight, Mike moved aside and I took the led as planned, again we hit 67 (2:14, slow but really hurt). I took the 3rd lap and knew I had to start pushing but I was really hurting by this time. I lead us through at 66 (3:20 dying almost) and Mike soon took the lead. We went all out and as we hit the final straight Mike gapped me a little and I was too tired to care enough to try to catch him. Mike finished first at 4:26, I was second at 2:27-28, Alek was third at 4:28-29 which is a 4-5 second pr, and Dylan was 4:29-30 which is a 8-9 second pr (still unsure official results). It was really awesome to sweep it because Ogden has never done it in this meet. It is also the first time Ogden High school has ever had 4 guys sub 4:30 which is pretty sweet. However I'm unsatified with my personal time.

The guys and I cooled down pretty short because Mike and I still had the medley to run. We warmed up 1200 meters and stretched and it was time to race again. Our 200 meter runners did pretty well and kept within a second or two from Weber's team. Mike was then up on the 400. He underestimated the pace of the 400 and ran a too conservative but it was too late (he ran a 56). I was the anchor and took off trying to get the Weber kid who had a really huge lead on me. The Bonneville 800 runner was right on my tail and passed me on the first lap. I sat on him and we came through at 58 for the first lap. With 300 left, I passed the Bonneville runner and tried to gap him. The Weber runner still had a big lead on me and I only closed it a little. As a team we ended up taking 2nd in the medley (3:44). I ran a 2:00 for my 800 split but so had the Weber 800 runner so thats why I couldn't close the gap. It was a tough race and we missed state qualifying by a couple hundreths of seconds but I'm still happy with my 4 second pr. I cooled down an easy mile and a half and streched.

Tomorrow is day 2 for the meet and Im set to run the open 800, along with the 4x400 (with Alek, Dylan, and Nathan or someone else?).

Day 2 of City County was today. I was kind of upset I didn't get to run the 3200 today but I knew I had to help out on the 4x400. Mike, Alek, and Garret still were able to go 1,2,3 in the 3200 though!! Mike cruised to an easy 9:49, Alek a 4 second pr at 9:51 and Garret Barton the freshman phenom with a 8 second pr running a 9:53!!! I was really happy for them! Sadly Harrison still isnt fit enough to finish strong in the 3200 so he kind of lost it in the last 800 and took 7th but in due time he'll get there.

Soon it was time for the 800, so I warmed up an easy 15 with Dylan and Travis. We stretched, did plyos and strides, and it was time to race. I didn't get that good of a start. There was a lot of jostling around for position in the first 50 meters and I managed to take a spike to the shin which really stung but I couldn't worry about it. Dylan took the lead for the first lap and I sat back in 3rd place for a bit and we came throught at 60-61. As we moved onto the back straight of the last lap, Will Palmer from Weber moved into first but I saw his arms start to tie up. With 200 meters left I moved into 1st and gave it my all. With 75 meters left in the race I started to tie up really bad but I was able to hold off untill the finish winning in 2:00 (about 59 for my last lap). Dylan took 3rd at 2:01 and Travis was 6th with a 2:05 which is a 2 or 3 second pr I think. Mike was still feeling tired from the 3200 so he took 8th running a 2:07. I was realy happy with having my official pr being 2:00 but I was also really upset I still didn't qualify for state which is 1:59 but I'm sure I'll get it later. I cooled down by my self an easy 5 minutes and stretched.

As time drew near for the 4x400, I warmed up by myself again another 5 minutes. Still tired from the 800, Dylan was set to anchor while I took the 3rd leg. Alek started off running a strong 54 for his leg and keeping us close to the leaders which were Weber and Bonneville. Nathan was our second leg and ran a good 55, however the leaders had gapped him and he gapped the next pack of kids so he was in no man's land. He handed off to me and I ran out by myself and didn't really know how to pace myself. I hit the 200 at 29 and realized I ran too conservative. I sprinted as hard as I could closing in a solid 25 for 54, handing off the baton to Dylan, still in no man's land. Dylan gave it his all and ran a solid 55, taking 3rd place way behind the leaders but way ahead of the next pack for a combinedd time of 3:41. The four of us cooled down an easy 15 minutes.

As far as team scoring goes, we finished 2nd place with 133 behind Weber (166.5) and ahead of Fremont (81). Some of our guys just had an off day but we still did well as a team. This is the best we have done in this meet in over a few years but I still wish we could have pulled out the Win.

With today being the day after racing, we were told to run easy paces. For my first run, Mike and I ran to the duck pond and back, and then out another 1/2 mile and back to make it 4 miles. We took it pretty easy so took us about 30 minutes. I went home and did my 18 minutes of core like normal. After resting for a bit and waiting for the guys to get out of school, Mike and I went to go run with them. Alydia told us to do a 10 mile run with them because we were going to do a work out on Saturday (not excited for that). So we ran from the school to the park, did the mile loop around it twice, and then continued on to our normal 8 mile loop through the trails. The run tooks us about 75 minutes since we were all tired. I had some bad stomach issues today. I really hope I'm not coming down with a bug or something. Overall I didnt really feel sore at all, I just had tired legs.

Before running I did my normal core workout. Today was just another easy day. Mike, Alek, Dylan, Nathan, and I just ran the half mile to the park and ran the 1 mile loop seven times. We ran about 7:30 pace, until we had three laps left then Mike and Nathan picked up the pace. I went with them and we ran 7:00 pace for the last 3 1/2 miles while Alek and Dylan ran the the slower pace. We finished at the school, stretched, did plyos, and four 100 meter strides. Alydia locked her keys in her car which was pretty funny and we tried to break in it but our coat hanger was to short. So we just went home haha.

I forgot to type this up on Saturday but here it goes. We did a pretty easy workout. Mike, Alek, Dylan, Nathan, and I met in the morning and warmed up 2 miles easy. We finished our warmup and started the workout which was 10x400 at 2 mile pace with 80 seconds rest. Mike and I were supposed to be running 70-71's but it just felt way to easy so we ran 69's pretty much for the whole thing except the wind was really terrible which made it suck. All of the guys were ahead of their paces to so I guess we all felt pretty fine which was a suprise because we weren't too smart with our eating choices the night before haha. We finished the work out (69,69,69,70,68,69,69,69,69,68) really comfortably and cooled down. We ran out to the normal mile mark and the guys wanted to go back but Mike and I wanted more time so we just kept going while they turned back. When we got back to the school, me and him decided to run one more mile on the track so we did in 6:18 which felt really easy, like walking because we had a really good talk the whole time. Oh, today Mike and I took on the Warrior Challenge at The Pizza Pie Cafe and boy was that a mistake. It is litterally impossible. 

First run of the day, Mike and I just ran an easy 5 miles in about 36 minutes after 2nd period (I love having free periods haha). My stomach is still messed up from all the cheese from the pizza challenge me and him did on Saturday and my legs felt pretty tired today. After our run, we stretched and went home. I did my usual core workout which hurt extremely bad today.

For the second run, Mike and I did the warm up with the guys because they did a workout today (we both have to do it tomorrow on the indoor track, by ourselves.... kill me). After doing 15 minutes with them we had to sit around and wait to talk to Alydia so while we were waiting we just got our plyos and Six strides out of the way. After talking to her, we went to finish our run while the rest of the guys worked out. We ran another 45 minutes to make it an hour total. It was an easy, even pace the whole run. My stomach was still not feeling to good from the pizza but I think I'll be good to go tomorrow. Since I don't have a 4th period, I'll probably do the workout on my own. It would be that ways anyways because Mike is doing a workout for the 2mile but I'm doing one for the Mile. We'll see what happens.