Getting Fast, Track Season Week 3 and more

1/20/08- Clear Creek with Kangway and Timbo. Felt rather good for the first time on the bike in a while. Wonderful ride. Chilly near the top.
Miles: (37)

Weekly Miles: 38 (37)

1/21/08- Full Arroyo medium. Had bad cramp entering the arroyo and new metatarsal pad was blistering a bit. Ended up feeling better once onto Green Street.
Miles: 10

1/22/08- First track workout of the year. Wore DS trainers. Shins felt fine during the day, good after heating. Used a disposable metatarsal pad. Lombary to Allen warmup. 7x400 going every 2:30 in 80,84,83,83,82,80,74, then bonus in 66. Felt relaxed the whole way, could have possibly gone faster? Lacy and back cool down. Shins hurt a bit during, iced, sore a bit at night but not bad.
Miles: 7

1/23/08- Raining, 50 Degrees. Legs not sore but a tad tired from yesterday, shins okay. Crazy tree. Shins hurting after/during the run. Felt pretty good, quick pace, tired by the end.
Miles: 7

1/24/08- 15 minute tempo at Lacy. Jogged down easy in the pouring rain/hail, stretched a bit, and went. Was hitting 3:05 per lap for the standard loop (~0.48 miles) in soggy conditions. Did 5 laps total, feeling pretty good, starting slow, keeping with Scott the whole way except for the end, where I fell off a bit. Long way back, ½ mile cool down on the track. Shins feeling okay again today, a bit tight during the run, after icing, but fine otherwise.
Miles: 7

1/25/08- Pretty tired and a bit sick. Huntingson up Los Robles, pretty slow. Shins and stuff feel pretty good today.
Miles: 7

1/26/08- Working on Physics
Miles: 0

1/27/08- Easy Huntington. Legs very tired for some reason. Guy in a pick up truck cat called me by the ritz. Shins better, sesamoid almost unoticable, plantar fascia a bit prickly afterwards. I should wear the strassburg sock around a bit.
Miles: 6.5

Weekly Miles: 45

1/28/08- Huntington long-Kiesz’s way : http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1585256 . Started slow, the pace picked up, including the guys pulling away from me. Actually got up to a pretty good pace. Felt much better than yesterday.
Miles: 8

The Start of Track (Read: Don't Break This Time)

Ahh the start of track. The glorious days of medium run-outs, ending runs in the dark, snow in the mountains, and wistful hope of fast times to come. These two weeks saw some healing and good runs, but also some old injuries being aggravated and missing practice due to Ph 6. My goals for this week: Run first track workout smart, Run 6 full ~8 mile practices, get shins and Neuroma down to negligible levels by careful and smart running and icing. Goals for from now until first race: Clear up all old injures and keep new ones at bay, bring mileage up to 50 and hold, get smart track workouts and a good tempo run of 3 or more miles(good fartleks also thrown in cannot hurt), begin to get into racing shape.

12/31/07- 0, New Years party

1/1/08- Nada

1/2/08- Went to pool. Did some core and minor lifting, jogged ½ mile on the treadmill at 7:00 min pace, shins still pretty sore, stretched out. Did 30 minutes of light swimming.
Miles: 0.5

1/3/08- 0,Worried about shins, pretty sore. I don’t think I have a stress fracture but we’ll see when next Monday comes around.

1/4/08- Squat, as in 0, not the leg exercises

1/5/08- Going back to tech!, 0

1/6/08- Cleaning, errands, running not one of them, 0

1/7/08- Got Nike Frees this morning. Awesome. Classes seem okay this term, which is important. Heated shins, ran ½ miles warm-up, Lacy long way down to monterrey and up Virginia. A bit out of shape, lungs have weird almondy tastes, everyone went very fast. Scotticus and I had to hold up the rear at 7:30 pace. Shins didn’t hurt that much! Orthodics a bit weird but I’ll get used to them.
Miles: 5

1/8/08- Shins much less sore when I woke up, although they started to work in there on the run, although not badly. Crazy Tree medium with Scott and Julian. Legs felt heavy again, especially after lunges, but feeling a bit better. Sesamoid sore from pavement, but not bad.
Miles: 6

1/9/08- Lacy long way, 12 striders in lacy, 1 lap, then back. Legs sore from yesterday, haven’t ran quick in a while. Shins continuing to get better slowly, might have blister from orthodics, which still aren’t sitting right in my shoes.
Miles: 6

1/10/08- Garfield long way, didn’t have time to warm up due to getting out gear. Not as quick or stressful as the past two days. Everything slowly on the mend.
Miles: 5.7

1/11/08- Tu Madre pretty chill. It was nice to go at a bit slower pace.
Miles: 6.5

1/12/08- Skiing at Big Bear
Miles: 0
1/13/08- Huntington Sunday Run. Went for the first 4 miles with Chief and Anton. Calfs sore and legs tired from yesterday. Not feeling so hot today. Speaking of which, at least 78-80 degrees outside.
Miles: 6.5

Weekly Miles: 36

1/14/08- Lower Arroyo medium with quick finish. Tired by the end! Ran with Scott and Julian.
Miles: 8.5

1/15/08- Stucking in Ph 6 lab until 5:45, too busy to run. Ugh work
Miles: 0

1/16/08- Lacy long way, 16 striders, 2 laps and back. Fairly chill. Foot felt a bit weird after icing.
Miles: 7.5

1/17/08- Neuroma aggravated, not too bad though. Iced before practice, used metatarsal pad. Felt pretty good as the run progressed. Garfield, 3 laps at tempo pace (6:40 pace) plus a medium warm-up lap. Felt strong, breathing very labored, but was able to hold the pace with relative ease.
Miles: 8.5

1/18/08- Ph 6 consuming my life. Worked on Lab report until 4:30 where I went to practice and did Lacy long way pretty easy, foot was a bit sorer today but again went away during the run. Shins still sore.
Miles: 4.5

1/19/08- JPL run with Chief. Really fantastic run, working at a medium level the whole way, quite comfortably. Stream was at a good level to just charge right through. Shins still quite sore, will have to watch. Should do that run more often.
Miles: ~9

1/20/08-

Weekly Miles: 38

267 Miles Later

Here is my full winter training log. I have finished 8 weeks of solid winter off-season base training. I am not injured but am I bit beat up, so I will take the final week before track starts off.

Sophomore Winter Training Log

10/28/07- 11/4/07- Off. Physical Therapy every day. Friday I ran 15 minutes on the N. field and it went pretty well. I still took the weekend off

11/5/07- Heated, stretched, and did a very nice relaxed 20 minutes around the N. field at just under 8 min pace. Heel felt fine. It was very cool and moist outside, which made for great running conditions. I think I will start slowly and carefully returning to training. Ultrasounded and Iced bath.

Miles: 2.5

11/6/07- Fairly sore, but not painful. Didn’t run, did the usual physical therapy.
Miles: 0

11/7/07- Felt a lot better today, a good sign. Ran 8 laps around the N. field at a moderate pace. 20 minutes total.
Miles: 2.5

11/8/07- Aside from a weird soreness near my 5th digit (R foot), felt good. Ran 7 laps of N. field at a quick pace.
Miles: 2

11/9/07- Foot felt pretty good. Ran ~30 min near campus and on N. field, mostly on grass. Started slow, was able to pick it up very comfortably. Foot felt fine afterwards.
Miles: 3.5

11/10/07- Huntington girl’s way with Julian. Took it slow, worked up to a nice moderate pace. Foot seemed fine the whole way. I guess we’ll see tomorrow. Played some ctf.
Miles: 5.5

Weekly Miles: 16

11/11/07- Off.
Miles: 0

11/12/07- Huntingson reverse. Took it out easy, accelerated to a medium pace. Between miles 1-3 5th digit R side of foot thing acting up, but it subsided. Heel felt a bit aggravated by the end but not bad.
Miles: 7

11/13/07- Huntington short way reverse medium.
Miles: 5.5

11/14/07- San Pasqual out to San Gabriel, N to Colorado, W to Sierra Madre, S to Lombardy back. Heel feels tingly, Achilles’ tight. Medium.
Miles: 5.5

11/15/07- Achilles a bit irritated at the insertion on the heel. Backing off a bit. Ran to Lacy, did 2 laps with Nathan easy.
Miles: 3.5

11/16/07- El Molino to Monterey back up by Lacy and the stairs. Medium.
Miles: 5

11/17/07- Huntington girls way with Julian. Wasn’t feeling too good, I think I was dehydrated and a bit sick. Slow.
Miles: 5

11/18/07- Off

Miles: 32

11/19/07- Huntington with J.R. Medium, not particularly comfortable. 47 min, so about 7:40 pace. Heel okay. “Do 8 miles at that pace every day.” Probably pretty good advice, if I'm healthy and in shape.
Miles: 6

11/20/07- Garfield Long way (up Virgina) easy. Took it chill from the start, couldn’t go that fast in the dark, still 8:15 or so. Foot getting better.
Miles: 6.5

11/21/07- Plane home for thanksgiving.
Miles: 0

11/22/07- Big Jungle Long way (back up gainsborough). Okay.
Miles: 6.5

11/23/07- 6 Miles on the canal, windy and quite cold (40 F), lungs very tight. Not that fast, hamstring tendons sore.
Miles: 6

11/24/07- Big Jungle plus 1 mile on the track with Tarik (=hard). Not a good run, colder (37 F) Tarik pulling away from me in miles 4 and 5. Lungs pretty tight.
Miles: 6

11/25/07- Off. Achilles' stiff this morning.

Miles: 31

11/26/07- River road trail much better. Easy first 3 miles, much warmer, 55 degrees, lots of energy and good speed coming back. Also doctor says that in addition to my high arches being terrible for shock absorption, and thus need orthodics, for some read my right ankle has a very limited up and down range of motion, which my be the cause of all of my right foot and lower leg injuries the past year.
Miles: 7

11/27/07- Good to be back in Pasadena. Garfield long way home, felt pretty good but pace was slow. Erin worked on my ankle for 15 min, very sore but already noticeable more flexible. Also sesamoid was swollen.
Miles: 6.5

11/28/07- Feeling good. Lower arroyo with a bit of exploring and cool down on N field with Anton. Averaged 8:15 pace, at times slower, accelerating once in the arroyo, down to 7:40 pace down California.
Miles: 8.5

11/29/07- Legs a bit tired. good. Huntington girls way pretty mellow. Swam for 45 minutes afterwards, prep for interhouse.
Miles: 5

11/30/07- 6 wonderful miles in the rain. Huntingson modified backwards,, got hit by car on los robles, kicked starting at the entrance to Huntington gardens, felt great.
Miles: 6.5
12/1/07- Upper Arroyo with Julian. Started out pretty chill, accelerating down to 7:30 pace or less like usual, julian with me every step of the way.
Miles: 7.5

12/2/07- Off. Lots of work

Weekly Miles: 41

12/3/07- Beautiful Day! Drove to Wedny's for epic lunch in paradisic weather. Parked in lot K of the Rose Bowl and ran to JPL with Anton. Out in 8:20 pace, back down to 7 min after Devil's Gate, Avg 7:45. One day will run from there to the Dam.
Miles: 7

12/4/07- Interhouse Swimming. A few hundred yards than 50 fly. Got second! Not sure about time. Lacy and back with Nathan and someone in my class who had flamed out. Shins stiff and sore.
Miles: 3.5

12/5/07- Huntington Girl's way. Was going to go longer but weird pain in left shin got me worried. Erin said I need to watch my shins as they are inflamed at the insertion of the tendon/where stress fractures commonly happen. Sesamoid sore as well. Going to tone it down this week.
Miles: 5

12/6/07- Interhouse swimming finals. Gave my shins and a sesamoid rest. Swam some fun 50 frees.
Miles: 0

12/7/07- Huntington Girl's way with chief. Shins feeling better. Quick pace, feeling good.
Miles: 5

12/8/07- Went to Mt. Baldy Ski resort to go sledding, ended up climbing Mt. Baldy in hurricane force, -10 F wind chill winds and white out conditions. Pretty cool, good workout!
Miles: (6)

12/9/07- Sesamoid pretty irritated.
Miles: 0

Weekly Miles: 26

12/10/07- Would have ran but Ph 5 project not looking so hot.
Miles: 0

12/11/07- Hunt ington Girl's way with Stef and Perrin.
Miles: 5

12/12/07- Some more huntington action with Julian. Got up to pretty quick pace, felt okay.
Miles: 6

12/13/07- Fantastic Run on huntington up to Los Robles and back through Lacy. &7:30 or less pace with ease, sesamoid okay. Where did this energy/speed come from!? Finals a lot of work.
Miles: 8

12/14/07-Huntington backwards with mr. horikoski. Legs like bricks from yesterday. A bit depressed.
Miles: 6

12/15/07- I was grudgingly paying some bills and tying up some loose ends before leave when a voice out in the hall caught my ear. I walked out into the hall and sure enough it was Kangway, arriving completely unannounced. I was completely at a loss for words. Man I miss that dude. Him coming back really showed me how different this place is without him. To make things better, we went running this morning. Legs still sluggish, probably also a result of the early morning hour. Ran thus usual but came back on Euston to Lacy for old times sake. Good Luck Kangway, do not give up running! Give Tech another shot.
Miles: 4.5

12/16/07- Went lifting at the P.C.C (Potomac Community Center) gym, jogged a bit with the A-rab.
Miles: 1

Weekly Miles: 31

12/17/07- Went to H.S. Track practice. 1 mile warm-up plus 7 miles of various running through the woods . At first chill pace, than pushing to aerobic limit. Cold, 35 degrees, but lungs held up okay.
Miles: 8

12/18/07- Again at H.S. Track practice. 3 Mile warm-up, did part of a ladder workout 1 on, 1 off, 2 on, 2 off...5 on at 6 min pace before peeling off to do a side 2.5 miles. For some reason this workout was somewhat harder than I had expected, I wasn't feeling very comfortable. Also I ended up cutting my toe pretty badly. I'll hold off on any sort of track or speed workouts for a while I think.
Miles: 9

12/19/07- Toe cut very painful. In other news Caltech guys were in D.C. went with John Shen to visit Dave, Jon Tsai and others, walked around a lot, but not much running.
Miles: 0


12/20/07- Ran on C.J. Trail from River Road up to the baseball fields and turned around. Pretty chillax, nice run.
Miles: 7

12/21/07- Not sure what I did but I am pretty sure it involved the C.J. trail again.
Miles: 7-8 ?

12/22/07- Drove to Chicago. As soon as we got to my Aunt's house in Willmette, I set off for a medium tempo workout. 3 mile warm-up, 3 mile at tempo (maybe starting out at 6 min pace, slowing to 6:30 pace), 2 mile cool down. Raining, at night, 44 degrees, slushy snow and grass/sidewalk most of the walk. Not a half bad workout.
Miles: 8

12/23/07- Very Very Cold in Chicago after cold front passed (-5 degrees with bad wind chill). Day off!

Weekly Miles: ~40

12/24/07- Close to dusk, Matt Wiesbard (close cousin who runs for Willamette) and I hit the trails by his house in Willmette, I.L. Very icy, about 20 degrees but okay. Ran to his old HS and back with some extra by myself to make a good 10.
Miles: 10.

12/25/07- Christmas morning run with Matt. Started in the same place as yesterday, head out in the other direction on the trails. Had a small hangover from way to much wine last night, but the run wasn’t half bad.
Miles:7

12/26/07- Early morning run in Mequon W.I.. Ran from the cousin’s house out to Lake Shore drive to Vermond Park. Running through the ankle deep snow and ice, I came upon the bluffs and stared out upon a perfectly calm Lake Michigan in the early morning winter sun light. Made two loops around the park and back. Pretty chill the whole way.
Miles: 5-6

12/27/07- Very nice long run along the CJ trail. Started out River Road, up to Tuckerman through the old HS XC course, back along 7 locks to the trail again. Moderate, relaxed pace, feeling good the whole way, a bit tired by the end.
Miles: 10

12/28/07- Close Calls: Cheating Death 3-The Drayna Aougab run. Drove to Berkeley Springs W.V. for a weekend away. We ran out from the cabin along some really creepy dirt roads which turned into loose dirt ATV tracks which turned into abandoned fire roads in the middle of nowhere. Started out 7:40 pace, down to 6:45 pace as we got steadily more and more freaked out. Tarik broke off after 8 to run into town. Very solid run, pretty tired.
Miles: 10-11

12/29/07- Nice day in W.V. Ran to the top of the Cacapon overlook and to the top of prospect peak and back. Climbed 1200 feet or so. Shins and feet sore, took it slow.
Miles: 7-8

12/30/07- Quite sore. Shins, sesamoid tendons, forefeet all fairly irritated. Going on NSAID therapy, cross training, light running for one week until track starts.
Miles:0

Weekly Miles: 51

This is the off season I should have had last year. I do miss cycling, but there will be plenty of time for that in future. My runs were fairly consistent with a good build up in mileage and a nice progression. I wish my shins and sesamoid were feeling better but 8 days off should help with both of those. Being consistent and staying (relatively) healthy, my two goals were accomplished. Plus I do feel a good deal stronger. I have now been training for 6 months almost straight (3 total weeks off, in seperate segments, by the start of track). We have almost one month of track for long base runs. I hope to quickly work up and sustain a mileage of 45-50 miles per week while lowering my base pace, then working in tempo and fartleks as we normally do. At this point though, I am optimistic and very pleased with my choice to focus heavily on running for the next 2 and a half years.

Total Off Season Miles: 267

From thanksgiving break

So my windows partition died so it has been hard to keep continuity in my log, but here is thanksgiving break and onwards.

>11/21/07- Plane home for thanksgiving.

Miles: 0

11/22/07- Big Jungle Long way (back up gainsborough). Okay.

Miles: 6.5

11/23/07- 6 Miles on the canal, windy and quite cold (40 F), lungs very tight. Not that fast, hamstring tendons sore.

Miles: 6

11/24/07- Big Jungle plus 1 mile on the track with Tarik (=hard). Not a good run, coolder (37 F) Tarik pulling away from me in miles 4 and 5. Lungs pretty tight.

Miles: 6

11/25/07- Off. Achilles' stiff this morning.

Miles: 31

11/26/07- River road trail much better. Easy first 3 miles, much warmer, 55 degrees, lots of energy and good speed coming back. Also doctor says that in addition to my high arches being terrible for shock absorption, and thus need orthodics, for some read my right ankle has a very limited up and down range of motion, which my be the cause of all of my right foot and lower leg injuries the past year.

Miles: 7

11/27/07- Good to be back in Pasadena. Garfield long way home, felt pretty good but pace was slow. Erin worked on my ankle for 15 min, very sore but already noticeable more flexible. Also sesamoid was swollen.

Miles: 6.5

11/28/07- Feeling good. Lower arroyo with a bit of exploring and cool down on N field with Anton. Averaged 8:15 pace, at times slower, accelerating once in the arroyo, down to 7:40 pace down California.

Miles: 8.5

11/29/07- Legs a bit tired. good. Huntington girls way pretty mellow. Swam for 45 minutes afterwards, prep for interhouse.

Miles: 5

11/30/07- 6wonderful miles in the rain. Huntingson modified backwards,, got hit by car on los robles, kicked starting at the entrance to Huntington gardens, felt great.

Miles: 6.5

12/1/07- Upper Arroyo with Julian. Started out pretty chill, accelerating down to 7:30 pace or less like usual, julian with me every step of the way.

Miles: 7.5

12/2/07- Off. Lots of work

Weekly Miles: 41

12/3/07- Beautiful Day! Drove to Wedny's for epic lunch in paradisic weather. Parked in lot K of the Rose Bowl and ran to JPL with Anton. Out in 8:20 pace, back down to 7 min after Devil's Gate, Avg 7:45. One day will run from there to the Dam.

Miles: 7

12/4/07- Interhouse Swimming. A few hundred yards than 50 fly. Got second! Not sure about time. Lacy and back with Nathan and someone in my class who had flamed out. Shins stiff and sore.

Miles: 3.5

12/5/07- Huntington Girl's way. Was going to go longer but weird pain in left shin got me worried. Erin said I need to watch my shins as they are inflamed at the insertion of the tendon/where stress fractures commonly happen. Sesamoid sore as well. Going to tone it down this week.

Miles: 5

12/6/07- Interhouse swimming finals. Gave my shins and a sesamoid rest. Swam some fun 50 frees.

Miles: 0

12/7/07- Huntington Girl's way with chief. Shins feeling better. Quick pace, feeling good.

Miles: 5

12/8/07- Went to Mt. Baldy Ski resort to go sledding, ended up climbing Mt. Baldy in hurricane force, -10 F wind chill winds and white out conditions. Pretty cool, good workout!

Miles: (6)

12/9/07- Sesamoid pretty irritated.

Miles: 0

Weekly Miles: 26

12/10/07- Would have ran but Ph 5 project not looking so hot.

Miles: 0

12/11/07- Hunt ington Girl's way with Stef and Perrin.

Miles: 5

12/12/07- Some more huntington action with Julian. Got up to pretty quick pace, felt okay.

Miles: 6

12/13/07- Fantastic Run on huntington up to Los Robles and back through Lacy. &7:30 or less pace with ease, sesamoid okay. Finals killing me

Miles: 8

The Off Season Begins

10/28/07- 11/4/07- Off. Physical Therapy every day. Friday I ran 15 minutes on the N. field and it went pretty well. I still took the weekend off

11/5/07- Heated, stretched, and did a very nice relaxed 20 minutes around the N. field at just under 8 min pace. Heel felt fine. It was very cool and moist outside, which made for great running conditions. I think I will start slowly and carefully returning to training. Ultrasounded and Iced bath.

Miles: 2.5

11/6/07- Fairly sore, but not painful. Didn’t run, did the usual physical therapy.

Miles: 0

11/7/07- Felt a lot better today, a good sign. Ran 8 laps around the N. field at a moderate pace. 20 minutes total.

Miles: 2.5

11/8/07- Aside from a weird soreness near my 5^th digit (R foot), felt good. Ran 7 laps of N. field at a quick pace.

Miles: 2

11/9/07- Foot felt pretty good. Ran ~30 min near campus and on N. field, mostly on grass. Started slow, was able to pick it up very comfortably. Foot felt fine afterwards.

Miles: 3.5

11/10/07- Huntington girl’s way with Julian. Took it slow, worked up to a nice moderate pace. Foot seemed fine the whole way. I guess we’ll see tomorrow. Played some ctf.

Miles: 5.5

Weekly Miles: 16

11/11/07- Off.

Miles: 0

11/12/07- Huntingson reverse. Took it out easy, accelerated to a medium pace. Between miles 1-3 5^th digit R side of foot thing acting up, but it subsided. Heel felt a bit aggravated by the end but not bad.

Miles: 7

11/13/07- Huntington short way reverse medium.

Miles: 5.5

11/14/07- San Pasqual out to San Gabriel, N to Colorado, W to Sierra Madre, S to Lombardy back. Heel feels tingly, Achilles’ tight. Medium.

Miles: 5.5

11/15/07- Achilles a bit irritated at the insertion on the heel. Backing off a bit. Ran to Lacy, did 2 laps with Nathan easy.

Miles: 3.5

11/16/07- El Molino to Monterey back up by Lacy and the stairs. Medium.

Miles: 5

11/17/07- Huntington girls way with Julian. Wasn’t feeling too good, I think I was dehydrated and a bit sick. Slow.

Miles: 5

11/18/07- Off

Miles: 32

Sophomore Winter Training Log

10/28/07- 11/4/07- Off. Physical Therapy every day. Friday I ran 15 minutes on the N. field and it went pretty well. I still took the weekend off

11/5/07- Heated, stretched, and did a very nice relaxed 20 minutes around the N. field at just under 8 min pace. Heel felt fine. It was very cool and moist outside, which made for great running conditions. I think I will start slowly and carefully returning to training. Ultrasounded and Iced bath.

Miles: 2.5

11/6/07- Fairly sore, but not painful. Didn’t run, did the usual physical therapy.

Miles: 0

11/7/07- Felt a lot better today, a good sign. Ran 8 laps around the N. field at a moderate pace. 20 minutes total.

Miles: 2.5

11/8/07- Aside from a weird soreness near my 5^th digit (R foot), felt good. Ran 7 laps of N. field at a quick pace.

Miles: 2

11/9/07- Foot felt pretty good. Ran ~30 min near campus and on N. field, mostly on grass. Started slow, was able to pick it up very comfortably. Foot felt fine afterwards.

Miles: 3.5

The pitiful end of XC

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 3^rd 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