C Mantz Running

      7 miles with Noah, Wolfgang Beck, and Kenan around the Princeton campus and inside.  It was freezing and really wet.  The sidewalks had atleast a half an inch of water, but there were also a lot of big puddles.

     Ran with Ethan and he was feeling a little sick, but we still averaged around a 6:30, then after 8 miles I hit the track and ran a 400m and 2X200m. I felt a little sluggish, but that was expected from the lack of quality sleep and the flights yesterday.

      4 miles with Ethan, 2 on grass, then an 800m on the track at goal race pace(so for an 8k, that isn't too quick), then 4 more miles. 

     4.7 miles easy and then some strides.  I didn't feel particularly good, but I have two days to get feeling better.

     I did 2 loops of the course with Johnny and then did some strides and a little part of a lap.  I felt really good and the course looked fast, so I'm pretty excited about tomorrow. 

Today went perfect for me. I did a shakeout at 7(I couldn`t sleep well so I decided to do the shakeout early.). I warmed up with Johnny Dressel and Thomas Pollard for a bit. I got to the start and started in box 7 near the end. I got a perfect start for how I wanted to race, found Cerake and just decided (at this moment) to stick on him because he, from what I heard, was having some great results(which he was) recently. It felt slow, but I just stuck in the front of the pack. After 2k Paul Roberts kicked the pace up a bit, but it was still quite relaxed and a big pack. At 4k(the race was in 2k loops) Cerake put a move in, so I thought the whole pack would run with him, so I just pushed to stay with him, but he was flying so I wasn`t able to catch up for a while. After a few hundred meters he had to walk and massage out his quad. Right after I caught up to him and we ran together for the next mile. I was so scared that the 6th place guy would pass me, so I tried to keep the pace strong. With about a kilometer to go Cerake fell off. I still thought he would outkick me, so I just kept trying to put some room between me and 6th place. The rest of the race was hard, but it felt great to be racing. There was a bunch of Utah guys cheering me on for a lot of the race and after(if you`re reading this, thanks!) and I saw Ben with his shirt off cheering me on at 600m to go, which was pretty funny. All the cheering helped motivate me. After I felt great, did a cool down, watched the pro races, then went and did processing/paperwork for worlds. Thanks everyone for the support all season long!

     12 miles.  I just kept trying to get a good effort. I was fairly tired, so it probably wasn't that quick, but it was amazing weather so it was fun. 

     8 miles with Ethan. Felt not the greatest, but the pace wasn't bad. 

     2 miles later.

     8 easyish miles. 

     5 miles tempo. It hurt, but went really well. About a 5:09 average. 2 miles cool down then 3 more miles later in the evening. 

      11 miles really easy.

     9  miles.  I was planning on some hill repeats, but my legs weren't feeling the best so I just played it safe. 

     10 miles. I ran to Mack Park then did 4Xtriple crown(a loop including 3 different hills; Beast, Beauty, and Lions park). It didn't go good at all.  I just felt slow the whole time.  I did 4.4 afterward to bring it up to ten. Maybe I'll run more later because I'll be traveling all day on Wednesday and might not be able to run.

     10 miles.  I ran 2.5 miles waiting for Ethan, then did an 800m at what was supposed to be race pace for this weekend, but I started out way too quick and just cruised the last bit.  2:11, so way too quick, but it didn't feel way bad.  After my left quad area started hurting again and hurt for the rest of the run.  It doesn't feel good, so with the flight tomorrow, I'm just going to take it off. 

Long day of flying

     3 miles.  My legs hadn't started feeling much better, and the 2.5 hours of sleep due to layovers and missed flights didn't help.  I ran with Fred Huxham, John Dressel, and Conner Hendrickson.  We ran in a huge soccer stadium that had a track around it.

      3 miles around the course.  The course was all dirt, no real markings and it was really trashy.  Lots of wind as it was by a beach.  The course was in a dry river bed where they chopped down a lot of cat-tails and plants, and in a dirt area in between two roads.  Pretty Ghetto.  I qualified for this race on the nicest xc course I've ever ran on, and this is the most ghetto xc course I've ever ran on. 

    Pre-meet.  The right leg didn't hurt yesterday, but I played it safe, and today it hurt a bit.  3 loops on the course with strides.  I feel ready for tomorrow.  I had the trainer/massauge therapist help massauge it out before the run the last few days.

    Maybe 8 miles, and I don't know how long the course was. They told us 7km, but on that course with those conditions, I would be surprised if it was even 4 miles.  But it was at sea-level, so maybe 4 miles, but I still doubt it.

    We warmed up together on the junior USA team.  It was a great experience, and those guys are some great athletes(Fred Huxham, John Dressel, Conner Hendrickson, and Eric Hamer) and individuals.  I was very nervous going into it, but we heard that many of these teams were going to go out hard, and in a humid 90-degree day with lot of wind coming, it was more important to run smart than fast the first 3 laps.  We did just that.  The gun went off whistle blew and with the wind at our back, everyone went out super quick, so we just relaxed near the back.  When we hit the first U-turn(there were 2 per lap and a lot of other quick turns) and the rest of the field slowed dramtically.  We relaxed and started passing people.  We crossed the street and went into the dried riverbank/weed area.  I went a little hard here because we were running so slow at this part, so I just passed a bunch of individuals.  I kept the pace comfortable.  The second lap started and a pack had started to form up front, so the USA team worked together and we stayed within kicking range of them.  Conner Hendrickson took the lead of our pack when we went into the wind the second time and we just kept going.  I got a water at the 2nd U-turn on the second lap. It was water in sealed small bags, so you had to pop them with your teeth or squeeze them hard with your hands. 

      About at half-way, John and I started to work up to the pack some more, but we didn't work hard enough and just passed the people dropping from the pack and the pack got slowly farther away.  More my mistake than John's, I slowed because I thought we were going to early, but we weren't.  John led into the wind, and we stayed together just passing people. John was in 3rd, and I passed 4th right before the river area, and then we ran up the sand hill and I got another water.  With a lap to go we were right next to each other and I tried to focus on catching the two guys that had survived leading the front.  One guy from Canada, another from Brazil.  Into the wind I saw the Brazil kid was fading a bit, so I picked it up and worked hard and caught him near the end of the riverbed area.  I ran up the hill quick, but the Canadian was too far away.  He's a great runner and had a lot on me, so I just tried to make a gap on the Brazilian.  I finished 2nd, which I'm happy about, but I feel a little disappointed.  I know I shouldn't, but I feel like I could've raced more aggressive and atleast tried to mix it up upfront.  Oh well, I still have worlds in a month.

     Cool down later. Our team won, everyone finished in the top-9, which was great. 

    12.5 Easy miles. I just got new shoes, so they hurt to run in, but hopefully I'll have them broken in soon.

    It was freezing, so I ran home, got tights, gloves and a hat, then ran back.  After I started the workout, but my hamstrings and whole body just hadn't recovered from the trip.  I just felt out of it.  I did my first 1600m in 4:40ish, but then asked coach what to do and he said not to worry about it with the travel. I then did 5 more miles.

      Rough day, so I just kept it at an easy 10 miler. 

    1.5 miles warm up, then 5XMile with 1 min. in between each mile. It was windy and I wasn't feeling it at first, but as the workout went on I felt better.  4:56, 4:57, 4:54, 4:54, 4:48.  1.5 miles cool down. It was snowing, so that was cool. I used my old trainers because I haven't broken my new ones in yet.

    Long run up Smithfield Canyon.  The campgrounds had a bit of snow. It was great and peaceful. I was sore, but it's great to be running.