The King of Controversy

AM - 2.75 miles. 20 min easy. Felt good.

PM - 6 miles. Herriman Invite 1600 and 800. 4:58 and 2:19. Absolutely terrible meet for me today. 1600 started out good and pretty much right where I needed to be to State Qualify for the first two laps - 2:15. Everything fell apart again like last week. I just gave up. That's the simplest way to put it. 800 was super sad too and was slower than the first 2 laps of my 1600. I'm in a slump mentally right now. My workouts have been solid but these last two weeks of racing have been the worst of my life. I'll probably just be running JV next week at Region so next week will pretty much be my last week of my high school running career.

AM - 6.5 miles. 50 min easy. Fun run in Sandy this morning before we headed home. I felt really good. No soreness or nothing. I guess that's cause I didn't run very hard yesterday.

AM - 2.75 miles. 20 min easy. Felt pretty good this morning.

PM - 4 miles. 25 min easy with 4x200. Fun run but it was so hot today. I think I sweated more today then I have on some of our workouts. Final Youngster meet after was hectic but fun. 

AM - 2.75 miles. 20 min easy. Same old. 

PM - 5 miles. Region 9 Championships 800m. I'm a Region Champ!!! Well JV Region Champ that is. Coach bumped me down to JV for region since I've been running really cruddy lately. I was a bit disappointed at first because I wouldn't get another shot at State Qualifying but I forgot how much fun it is to be a JV guy. Plus, I'm glad that the younger guys can get some more experience heading into next year. The race went really well and pretty much just how I'd planned. I was just focused on winning and since I knew I had a lot more strength than everyone in the race, I used that to my advantage. I got out slower than I usually do and let the anxious JV guys lead. Coming around the corner to the home stretch on the first lap is where I decided to take the lead and I hit the first lap in 1:03ish. Then I made another little surge at 400 to go and moved strong down the back stretch. I could hear a bunch of people cheering on Caden from DH and they made it sound like he was right behind me so I made sure I ran hard the last 200. Ended up winning comfortably and suprisingly got a PR. I think my biggest weakness has always been that I always am worried about everyone else and don't have confidence in myself. In my mind I build up other runners to be much better than me and so I never have the courage to go with them. It has held me back from reaching my full potential and is the biggest reason that I failed to state qualify. Running JV today helped me to stay relaxed and run with more confidence. It's just a bummer that Region is the end of my high school career because I am just barely starting to figure myself out as a runner.

AM - 2.75 miles. 20 min easy. Last morning run of the year. 

PM - 5.5 miles. Region 9 Championships 1600, 4x100, and 400. I'm now a 3 time JV Region Champ! I was a bit worried for the 1600 today since Andrew actually had the fastest time coming in but I relaxed and reminded myself that I had beat Andrew before. Anyways, the race started and Boston Wood of DH took the lead but everyone else got out really slow so I got caught in between both those groups. Andrew and some other kid came up towards the end of the first lap and I went with them and we caught Boston on the 2nd lap. Coming around the corner to the home stretch of the 2nd lap, I felt like it was time to take the lead. My head said it was too early and I might die out but I could just feel in my heart that it was time to go for it. Andrew and Boston came with me and I could hear them right behind me for most of the 3rd lap but I made a surge coming off the corner coming into the home stretch again and I never heard those guys again. I felt really good the last lap and I cruised down the back stretch and flew down the home stretch. I'm pretty sure that's the fastest I've ever finished a 1600. My dad said I ran like a 1:05 last lap. I ended up winning by like 8 seconds and tied my PR. I realized after, that I ran my race just like I run my 1000m repeats in practice. All the places I made surges in my race were the places Coach had made us surge in practice. It was just another reminder that you race how you practice. I also ran my 800 yesterday a lot like practice too.

I ran the 4x100 just a little bit after the 1600 with Jake, Andrew, and Zach. We got fried by some actual sprinters and took 5th. The 400 was next and I felt really good and I ended up running a PR of 54.87. I was shocked to find out that I won the 400m too. They had run out of medals though so I didn't get a medal for the 400. Bummer.

PM - 5.75 miles. 45 min with fartleks. Well Coach invited me to go to State with them as an alternate for the 4x400 or medley or something. I'm not sure if I'll get to race but it should be fun to watch all the races up there. Anyways, the run today was fun. Not exactly sure how many fartleks we did. Coach just wanted us to throw in some whenever. I actually felt really good for most of it. Felt a bit tired towards the end but for racing yesterday, I felt pretty solid. 

AM - 5 miles. 45 min easy. Trail Run - Mustang Pass. Decided to hit up trail today. Mustang Pass is really overgrown. People need to go and run it more. Fun run. 

PM - 4 miles. 4x400 at 800 pace (goal - 1:02 to 1:03) with 2-3 min recovery. Times - 1:03, 1:03, 1:05, 1:03. Tough workout but I was able to do okay.  It definitely helped that we got to do the workout in our spikes. 

Controversy - State Qualifying Standards. Now that all the Region meets are over, I'm stunned by some of the people who qualified for State in 3A. In 3A, the top 4 from each of the 4 region meets qualify for State as well as those who have hit the qualifying standard throughout the year. Region 9 (my region) qualified 12 guys for State in the 3200. 11 of those hit the qualifying time of 9:59 and the 12th guy ran a 10:03. The other 3 regions combined only qualified 12 (though only 11 of those are signed up as of now) and only 2 of those actually hit the qualifying time. 2 of those qualifiers ran 10:40. It's ridiculous. Our top JV guy at Region would have qualified in the other regions. I think we need to revise the system to qualify for State because this is absolutely ridiculous. I'm not sure if this is a problem for all classifications but it definitely is for 3A. This isn't the first year it has happened. If you have any thoughts, opinions, questions, or possible revisions on this matter, please share. 

PM - 4 miles. 2xMaster Blasters. Felt really dehydrated today. My mouth was really dry especially on the second set and I just didn't run very fast.

Controversy - Is Matthew Maton actually a high school sub 4 guy? I'm not denying that Maton is a sub 4 guy or saying that it's not impressive that he broke the 4 minute barrier. I just wonder if we should count him as a high school sub 4 guy when rumor has it that he's already graduated and not attending high school anymore. He also isn't running for a high school, just unattached and he's also 19 years old. I mean who the heck turns 19 when they are in high school. I graduate in 1 week and I'm still 17. Where's the fairness in that. He's 2 years older than me. 

PM - 5,5 miles. 40 min easy with 300, 200, 100 finishes. Fun last run of my life (my Coach predicted I will probably die before I ever run again). 

Controversy - Valedictorians. I love my school so much but we have the most ridiculous system of choosing Valdedictorian or should I say Valdedictorians. They just let anyone who has a 4.0 non-weighted GPA be a Valdedictorian which is stupid because this year we have 14 Valedictorians! 14! It's the stupidest thing ever. Being a valedictorian is supposed to be a great honor but we've watered it down so that regardless of how hard or easy your classes are, you can get it. We need to revise it because this is just ridiculous. Does any of your schools do this too? And do you have a suggestion for fixing this garbage?

PM - 3 miles. Drove up north today for State Track.  Had practice on Provo High's track until lightning showed up. 

Controversy - Cross Country or Track? Well Track is nearing its end and Cross Country is right around the corner. So one of the biggest running debates of all time would have to be which one is better: Cross Country or Track? I've always loved Cross Country more but Track this year was so fun and I don't know which I like better now. What's your favorite and why?

AM - 5.5 miles. Ran with Coach over to BYU's track to get our team a good spot. Then ran some laps on BYU's track. I'm sad I never got to race on it this year because it such a nice track. 

AM - 4 miles. Ran a few laps on BYU's track again and then a bit more on their campus. We really need a track like BYU's in St. George because all the tracks in our region suck.