It’s that time of the week again. I hope you all have enjoyed my past two entries, and are looking forward to more. I also hope that any fellow athletes reading my entries have been doing well in their own training as I continue to progress in mine. Keep training. Who knows, we might race this year.

To recap, last week was my second week of training. I logged a total of 50.73 miles for the week and ran some pretty good workouts. Ending the week with a huge boost in confidence is always something to look forward to.

This week would be much the same.

On Monday, we switched it up a bit, running up and down the bridge instead of the sand hills. We did over-and-backs on the bridge, which is about .75 of a mile going one way, followed by a series of 400 meter, 200 meter, 100 meter and 50 meter strides, each going a bit faster as the distance lessened.

Tuesday featured the first 10-miler of the year. I’ll admit, it felt a bit rough since I haven’t done one since January, but I’m glad that I did it. My teammates and I have a set plan and schedule for upping our mileage, and this was the first step.

Wednesday was a shorter day and featured a 20-minute fartlek run. Since it’s the first one of the season, we only alternated between recovery pace and 5K pace. My teammates and I finished the fartlek with about three miles and finished with a mile cool-down.

Thursday was another seven-miler through the woods, running up and down hills, dodging rocks, and running into the occasional spider web. Let’s just say that since I was leading, I had my fair share of webs at the end of the run. Then we got down and did some pushups, and had some very interesting characters pass by as we worked. One, in particular, was an older gentleman riding his bike. As he passed, he slowed down and said something that sounded like “duurrrh.”

Who knows. Maybe he was saying good job.

Friday was my confidence boosting day of the week. We had a four-mile tempo run, which is arguably my favorite cross country workout. It’s been that way since freshman year, and I don’t know why.

However, this was a redeeming moment for me. Another opportunity to truly test my legs and newfound strength and confidence. My sophomore season was my last good tempo run. I ran my PR for the workout of 23:04, and since then, I haven’t been able to get back to that point. I think that best I did last year was somewhere around the 23:20s or 30s.

Not this time.

The night before, I told myself to start running and doing things with all of my heart. To never hold back. Only when necessary, but when it’s time to go, go.

I finished in 22:48. The splits were 5:50, 11:42(5:52), 17:20(5:38), and 5:28 the last mile.

Now I know the times aren’t the greatest. People like Grant Fisher could probably do this workout jogging a 5:10 average. But for me, this was a huge step. A step I’ve been trying and waiting to take for a long time.

I took yesterday off again though probably starting this week I will do maybe a 25 to 30-minute run just to keep the mileage up.

Now the end of another solid week. Earlier this morning, I went for another 10-mile run, felt good, and ended with 11.47 miles. I guess I'm just a mileage junkie.

This week, I logged a total of 47.27 miles. A small drop from last week, but still a great week of running. On my bike, I will end with a total of 56.2 miles. Currently, it's 53.4, but I haven't gone to work yet, and biking is how I usually get there.

Alright. I'm done with this update. I'm going to take a nap now. I'll see you all next week.

A special shout-out to all of the fathers today. Happy Father's Day! We appreciate all that you do for us!

To all of my runners, keep this thought in mind:

Don't hope for victory. Train for it.

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