8/27/08- Preseason begins! Time for the summer to begin paying its worth in gold. A large pack of good frosh, all seem strong and good natured. Rather excited! Huntington medium/med. hard. Mar k and Matt were both there and pushed the pace (and Dennis/Chief) despite my specific directions to run no faster than 8 minute pace. As a result we dropped half of the frosh, on the first day. Bad! Hopefully we will be more careful tomorrow.
Miles: 6
8/28/08- a.m. Full Arroyo at a much more controlled pac, still medium exertion level. People packed up and ran smart. Ran with Travis, Andrew and Daniel today, the baller fast frosh group. I am excited, as all of them are cool guys and seem to have a lot of potential.
Miles: 10
8/29/08- a.m. Cannon’s. Easy 1.5 mile warm-up, then a practice, then 6 repeats going hard (3:15-3:20) most of the way. Knee feeling sore and stiff. The pain didn’t go away through the workout, so I called it a day after 5 and jogged back easy. Iced and contemplated being injured on the 3rd day of practice.
p.m. Knee still stiff after icing and US, did a slightly painful mile warm-up with the team. While they did 25 minutes easy around the south field, I did 25 minutes of aqua jogging and laps.
Miles: 7
8/30/08 – Knee better but still stiff. Andre thinks I pinched my meniscus and that the swelling should go down in a few days. Hopefully! Ran to the arroyo with the team and then while they went on to Patrician, I went back, around by the health center, and jogged on the N. fields until kangway got back, about 9.5 miles for me. Knee stiff but much less painful. Running 9 min miles doesn’t seem to bother it. Iced
Miles: 9.5
8/31/08 - Day off, slept in, went climbing at Point Dume with Natalya, Kimchie, et. al. Some hiking around the dunes.
Weekly Miles: 47
9/1/08 – a.m. We were going to do RB aquatics center to JPL, but there was a UCLA game in 12 hours so they had everything shut down. Parked up the street in the N.E. corner, ran down to the trail head, and then to Gould Mesa Hwy on the JPL trails. (75 minutes total). Knee was stiff at times but on the whole a big improvement.
Miles: 9
p.m. off
9/2/08- a.m. Oak Groves. Knee much better, still went a bit easy to be on the safe side. 5x Oak groves in 4:40-4:55, feeling good and consistent, ran with Andrew. Then a Shennendoah in 4:4x high. Knee holding up, feeling decently tired.
p.m. Lacy and back plus a loop at Lacy + abs.
Miles: 11.5
9/3/08- a.m. Huntingson easy. I got the whole team (minus Chief and Dennis) to stick together. Awesome.
p.m. 25 minutes easy on the south field plus abs and lifting.
Miles: 10
9/4/08- a.m. San Marino Hills. Took it a bit tougher than I would have liked, although we all went too hard up the hills and too easy in between. That’s okay, but knee a bit stiff and R knee now starting to hurt some.
p.m. 2 mile easy around the north field plus abs.
Miles: 10
9/5/08- a.m. Garfield long way easy.
p.m. playing in the pool and trying underwater running with a 40 lbs Pb brick.
Miles: 6
9/6/08- UCI Asics Invitational. Late start to the race (10 a.m.), hot and 60% humidity. Good 2 mile warm-up plus striders at and above race pace. Went out comfortably in 6:20 around the athletics field. First time over threshold on small uphill at 1 mile. Second mile, held back before and up the hill, coasted down, 13:18. I suppose I held back too much..? Solid effort but over threshold again on the uphill, 3 miles in 20:20. Really struggling to recover and keep pace back on the athletic field and up the little hill. Didn’t cross over threshold but heat and stomach getting to me, but I still managed to catch a few guys. Mile 4 in 27:58 (!). Began to accelerate up the hill medium hard, caught one or 2 more guys, but backed off on the finish, letting one pass me. Finish in 34:40. Cooled down about 2 tough miles, pretty wiped.
Miles: 9
9/7/08 – Nftc with Dennis, Chief, and Matt, easy 30 minutes
Miles: 3.5
Weekly Miles: 59
9/8/08 – a.m. Full Arroyo starting easy and then finishing in a very comfortable medium. Tired at first but felt great by the end.
p.m. Warm up to SMA and back and then plyos. Legs sore already and knee a bit stiff
Miles: 13
9/9/08 – a.m. Shenendoahs. First three in around 4:50-4:45 pretty comfortably, falling back to 5:00-5:10 for the last 2, knees pretty stiff. Felt good otherwise.
2+ 1.35*5 + 1.1 =10
p.m. Lacy and back
Miles: 12
9/10/06- a.m. Rosemead easy.
p.m. San Marino bridge run
Miles: 8
9/11/08- a.m. 5 on 2 off x 5 really nice fartlek-y tempo. 6:15-6:10 during the ons, 5 miles in 34:00 including rest, ran with Daniel. Felt good and encouraging.
p.m. 3 easy
Miles: 11
9/12/08 – 6 easy
p.m. drove to camping trip.
9/13/09- Mountain run at Idyllwild, climbed Tahqtuiz peak(8830 ft) from Humber park, 9 miles, 2500 v feet gain. Lots of fun on the way down.
Miles: 9
9/14/08- Hiking and scrambling. We managed to find some safe 5th class stuff, although not much. Camping trip continues to be epic.
Miles:0
Weekly Miles: 53
9/15/08- Full Arroyo plus a bit extra. Came late to practice after rush moving out of room.
Miles: 11
9/16/08- Missed morning practice due to moving all night. 3x 1.5 miles at Lacy, 2 repeats with Tommy. It was nice to cruise on some threshold intervals for once. Hot out.
Miles: 8
9/17/08 – a.m. A bit tired, huntingson backwards, easy.
p.m. plyos. My patella tendon acting up a bit.
Miles: 9
9/18/08- a.m. Patella rather sore. 6 on 2 off by 4 at Garfield, took it pleasantly moderate at what turned out to be a nice pace.
p.m. 15 min easy around N field and abs.
Miles: 12
9/19/08- a.m. pre race nice and easy.
p.m. two easy loops of the course, patella stiff but loosens up after a minute or two of running.
Miles: 6
9/20/08- Westmont Invite 8k. Before the race: moderately nervous, legs tired but not unusually so. 20 minutes of warm-up plus stretching and striders. No team chant this time, oh well. Took it easy from the very start, especially around the track, and never got passed once. 1st mile in 6:33, on target, felt very easy, with Daniel. Miles 2 we held the pace, which at times felt too quick but most likely this was do to my trying to preserve the easy feeling. 2nd mile in 6:52 at 13:25. Too slow, Daniel too off and so did I. It wasn’t fast enough however, despite passing several people and running a 20:00, or 6:35 again, Daniel got away. Fourth mile was strenuous. I had people to track the whole time but they were really crashing an burning. While I was hurting a bit and felt good a bout passing them, I really should I have been blowing by them. 4th mile in 6:50, 26:50. The last mile featured part of the hill at the beginning, which I didn’t really work, and the last hill near the soccer field at the end, which I worked hard. I was chasing a quick guy for much of mile 5 and as we crested the hill with 250 meters to the finish we caught a 3rd guy. We all took off down the hill and the first two of us started breaking away. At first I was going to give up but I realized I could catch him. I started accelerating to top speed (perhaps 13.5-14 sec 100 pace) as I closed he responded in the nick of time and beat me to the line, completely bowling over the cute chick given out place cards, which btw was completely unnecessary. Douche. Last mile in 6:21 for 33:11, not half bad, but I have a ways to go for Riverside.
Miles: 9
9/21/08- Beautiful Day completely off. First day completely off in several weeks.
Weekly Miles: 55
9/22/08- Delicious full arroyo today running with Ben, Daniel, and Riley(!) who is getting much stronger. Typical progression of awesomeness, slow opening, working it in the arroyo and then float on home. The day off yesterday really helped. I only hope I don’t get sick and Riverside will be very good.
Miles: 10
“ girl1 "you sure do run fast." me "thanks" girl2 "how far you run?" me "4 miles" guy1 "4 miles! holy shit!" girl1 "i bet you`re gonna win, whatever it is"”
From mark’s training log: http://www.therunninglog.com/Data/viewrunnerlog.asp?passuserid=meichenl
9/23/08 – 15 minutes tempo at Lacey. Chief took out the pace very fast, first 800 for me in 2:58, then 6:07, then 9:17, 12:27, 15:16 for 2.5 miles. Can I sustain at Riverside with a slower first 800? Only time will tell. Long way back. It was hot and with the hard effort I felt like hurling almost the whole way back, but I eventually got it under control. Low mileage day.
Miles: 7
9/24/08 – Late to practice for some reason, probably SURF related. I got there as first guys getting back, ran Huntington up Viriginia, not feeling particularly good. Worried I’m getting sick from kangway perhaps.
Miles: 6
9/25/08 – Lacy exteriors x 5. I cruised them, essentially as a tempo run. I think during the intervals I stayed below 7:30 but rarely exceed 7 minute pace. Oh wells I want my legs to be fresh for the big day.
Miles: 8
9/26/08- Neighboors moved in last night walls in Braun are hollow. DIdn’t get to sleep until past 1 a.m., slept in until 9:30 and ran pre-race. Apparently the team did something longer. Maybe that would have been a good idea since the mileage this week will be so low.
Miles: 3.5
9/27/08 – Riverside. Course conditions, generally good, warm (er than last year), perhaps mid 80s by the end o f the race. Big field this time. Mile 1 very easy in 6 flat. Mile 2 in 12:27. The usual mile 2 slow down but an unusual mid race cramp was affecting me. Mile 3 in 18:50. Slower than last year!! I think cramp still a factor, but I recovered better on the down hill. Mile 4, slow at 25: 30 but I felt good. At this point in the race I was swimming up through a stream of people dropping off of the pace, but the 5th mile took it’s toll and soon I was in equilibrium. Stomach really hurting and again the cause of much slow down, except it was still a 6:10 . Very little finishing kick, slowest in a long time. Time: 31:41 or so. A moderate sized drop in PR but I was honestly hoping for much more. Maybe it was the drop in mileage or heat or having people to run with was an excuse for slowing down? Don’t know, but I was pretty satisfied with the relief.
Miles: 8.5
9/28/08 – School starting when? Tomorrow? Psssh. Climbing at Tahquitz with Hamik. His first trad climb. We did the Trough (5.4+) in 4 long pitches. On the second (crux) pitch I spent almost an hour on lead, placing almost 20 pieces on the 170 foot pitch. A middle-aged free soloer asked us at the top if we had any herb. When we said sorry, he said he thought we were moving so slow because we had the herb. No mister, not quite, we just suck at climbing.
Miles; I hesistate to call this zero since I’m so damn tired. Maybe 2 for good measure.
Weekly Miles: 45 <- Hey that’s not bad!
