ben

Well, first day of tryouts. first of all: man it's really nice to run with people faster/as fast as you. it makes such a big big difference. Before we ran we had an hour and a half long meeting that was mainly for track and field information with everyone that's walking on or already on the team. It was pretty cool. they talked about all the nike swag they get and free laundry and stuff like that. After since all the people who are trying out can't run with the team till tomorrow we just went on an 8 mile run in the heat of the day. It was supposed to be nice and easy. guess what? it wasnt. first 6.5 miles we were averaging a 6:20 pace. ridiculous. we slowed down the rest of the way, but still averaged a 6:40/mile pace for the whole 8. there are 28 people already on the team whether scholarshipped or a preferred walkon. there are 9 people like me trying out. out of the 9 the coach said they MAYBE will take 1. not only does the 1 have to beat the other walkon guys but he has to be better than several guys already on the team, so yeah not likely. and get this. tomorrow's workout is 4x1 miles between 4:40-4:50. The coach said it's just "nice medium workout" and "hopefully that pace sounds pretty easy and comfortable"..Huh..can you say domination? cause that's what's happening tomorrow! oh well, i'm okay. it'll still be a good experience i guess. running isn't everything in life.

day 2 of tryouts. ran as a whole team from the fieldhouse to the track and probably did like 3 miles there total for warmup. split into 2 groups for the workout. after the third mile eyestone told the second group we were done for the day. unfortunately i bailed midway through the third mile. alot of the advanced guys were only doing 800;s so that's not bad, but it's still disppointing. my gut was having serious problems and i was feeling it major. eyestone said it's fine since it was 100degrees outside, but still. first mile was 4:47 and secondn was 4:57. pretty frustrating because i know i was much much faster back in early march and i haven't been able to do really any speed of consequence since then, but oh well. it's still a cool experience nonetheless. all the fast guys were doing 4:45, 4:40, 4:40 and some went 4:30 on the last. i went with on a four mile cool down with all the guys after which was cool. it's a really cool experience, but just so frustrating that i was so unlucky with my injury in march so i've just been out of it. a couple of the tryout guys are transfers from suu and were doing low 4:40's so yeah it's pretty much impossible, but cool nonetheless.

Today was supposed to be a nice easy day before we do 1000's on the grass fields across from the football stadium. all the team started off slow in the high 7:00's/mile but after we started picking it up obviously and for the 8.5 miles we averaged a 6:40/mile. what an easy day huh? it did feel okay though. running w/ a big group is so nice. all the guys are pretty chill guys. pretty suprising, but not one of the guys runs with a shirt or with shorts longer than uniform shorts. after the 8.5 i just did a couple of indoor track laps pretty slow for a recovery. Tomorrow, 1000's. I hear we do 10. we will see.