10/13/07- Multi-duals at Prado. Feeling good, mainly due to Steve’s American flag running shorts. Rained overnight, still raining when we arrive, rain broke just in time for our race, but the course was quite muddy with plenty of ankle deep mud and standing water. Went out easy : 6:30ish and held strong through the entire race, never dropping more than 20 sec off that pace. Went much better than I feared given my sickness. Nathan still passed me at 3 miles. Even though I wasn’t going for time, I got to race people, which was more fun and less painful. I passed one Cal Lu and a Pomona guy in the first ½ mile, knocked off two Whittier guys in the 3rd mile, and caught an Oxy guy in the last 800m. Pretty cool. Time was slow, performance was mediocre, but it was pretty fun. Plus we got to get covered in mud! Time: 34:10 . Last man in for Tech: that’s right, no techers in the bottom 5. Note: after being inspired by Kevin Chaves’ mad ripped legs, I have decided to train pretty hard during the off season and commence getting fast.
Miles: 9 ( played lots of ultimate egg afterwards)
10/14/07- I tried to run, had too much homework.
Miles: 0
Weekly Miles: 35
10/15/07- Lower arroyo medium/medium hard. Still congested but had lots of energy, so I pushed a bit. Felt good afterwards.
Miles: 8
10/16/07- 400 on 400 off x12 at ghetto park. Kind of tired from yesterday. Made it through the workout surprisingly well. It seemed very long. Extended warm-up, regular way back.
Miles: 10
10/17/07- Huntingson but back on oak knoll (hunting baby). Medium. Pushing the pace, felt good Steve + Nathan.
Miles: 5.5
10/18/07- 2 on 1 off x10 at lacy. Felt much less sick today. Had plenty of energy. Just under race pace for most of the ons, tried to also work the offs but it didn’t happen. Ran with Steve.
Miles: 7.5
10/19/07- Garfield park and back. Legs kinda tired but feeling okay, sinuses infected.
Miles: 5.5
10/20/07- 5k+ tempo in the arroyo: two Ian loops. Missed morning practice, so we ran at night. Cool and perfect. Ran very fast, felt great, not limited by anything. 20:10 for the whole thing. 6:10 pace? Need to be able to sustain now for 5 miles.
Miles: 8
10/21/07- Being a physics major is a lot of work.
Miles: 0
Weekly miles: 44
10/22/07- Ran Lower Arroyo medium easy with Nathan, Chris S., and Ben Lin. Great run, legs surprisingly tired, pretty hot out.
Miles: 8
10/23/07- Big fires, air smokey. Missed practice due to lab (practice was riding on the stationary bikes). Ran to Lacy and back with Julian.
Miles: 3.5
10/24/07- 400 on at race pace, 400 off at central (ghetto) park x 9 (I only did 8). Felt okay, more tiring than r.p. should have been. Air still sucks, lungs hurt.
Miles: 8
10/25/07- Lacy and back with 6 striders and 2 laps. Easy, felt okay, not completely rested.
Miles: 4
10/26/07- Pre-race. Legs tired, felt like I was having a hard time keeping up with the team. I’m sure tomorrow will be okay though. Go out and race, have fun, push myself. The end of this season marks a new quest to get fast. It won’t just come to me, although I will get stronger with age. I have to have quality training in the off season and stay away from injury. This winter, I want to average 45 miles a week with lots of aerobic and lactate threshold running. I need to use my base to build upon, get my base pace down, bring my sustainable speed up. This summer I will get an extensive base to be able to hold that for a 5 mile XC race. This is my goal for the next year. Also, minor plantar faschitis developing, saw Andre, doing some PT for it. With diligence we can keep that at a minimum through finals and then have it heal up. My goals for tomorrow. Start out at 6:30, pass 3 people, stay with Nathan for at least 1 mile when he passes me.
Miles: 3.5
10/27/07- XC Champs at La Mirada. Conditions: Overcast, humid, low 70s, air still Smokey, wet grass and some mud. I felt okay during the warmup, plenty of energy, looking forward to the race. Everyone, especially the seniors, had been talking about “going all out” and such. It was my last race of the season, plenty of energy, not sick anymore, why not? The gun goes off, I knew I was breathing a bit hard, possibly due to the air quality, but I still felt like I was holding back, especially in lieu of last Sat.’s breakthrough workout. At 800m going up the sidewalk, some old asian women had found her way on the course and must have been completely oblivious to the horde of brightly colored runners coming at her because she was decked. Luckily she managed to avoid being trampled. As I ran by she seemed completely petrified and was being helped up by course officials. First mile in 6:20. My goal was to go out just fast enough to be in striking range of people, but I found myself in an unfortunate gap, but wow that was a bit too fast, but it didn’t feel like it. Going up the hills, tough but not horrible. Coming by the start and up in front of the school I could feel it. Suddenly my pace dropped 30 seconds. I made a big mistake, Nathan comes by me and I already know I can’t keep up with him and I let him go. I was recovering my but slowly. I knew the damage had been done and my chances of moving up were finished. Already I had given up. What I had recovered was promptly removed by the wall, which dropped my pace another 10 or 20 seconds. Chris is catching me. I slowly lose time, just waiting to get the race over with. I can feel my heel starting to hurt. As I come by the tennis courts again, I noticed Chaves is still 30 seconds from passing me. Well at least I’m quicker than last year. Coming by the finish area I had basically lost all will to fight. The four mile mark sees a renewed effort to push. My slowly trudgery had given me more energy and I push enough to keep up a constant 10 m behind Chris. I already know my time sucks : 27:40 for 4 miles. I have no drive to finish strong, it is just not there. At least I was under 35, but what a disappointment. This was a lesson in poor pacing and resignation.
What were my expectations going into the season. I knew I wasn’t going to be under 30 as Ian had predicted, just because of my foot, but I still hoped. After running 35 minutes at San Diego, how could I have done so? I still hoped for low 31s, but my poor pacing again got the best of me. Alas, 32 flat is not bad at all, and it surpassed my goal from Freshman year, to run 32:30. But still, I had hope that I would run faster yet. As my sleep declined, so did my energy level and times. It was sort of by chance that conditions were bad at the last two races, but my race at Prado was well paced and actually enjoyable. However, that involved me going deliberately slow. Did I meet my goals for the season? My hopeful goals, no, my realistic goals, almost. I keep telling myself that I’m just not cut out for 5 miles, I am a miler, but they are too one in the same to say something like that. I need a base, I have come into the last two seasons off of several continual months off. And yes, while cycling did help my aerobic capacity, and my legs eventually turned around, running would have done much more. The lesson? At first I would say run more, get a better base, more miles, build endurance. But realistically, it is to stay uninjured an hold a consistent training through the winter. If I can stay healthy through track, quite a feat, I can get a good base during the summer. Right now I have to deal with my plantar fasciitis. Getting’ fast.
Miles: 8
Weekly Miles: 35
Season Milage: 436
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