Racin' and Chasin'

9/8/07- First race of the season.

Conditions: Fairly hot, fairly humid, medium breeze from ocean.

Course: Constant gradual elevation change, mix of dirt, grass, and pavement. Moderate hilliness (somewhere between la Mirada and chino) .

Splits:

1: 6:00

2: 13:09 (possibly wrong)

3: 20:10

4: Unknow

5: 33:30

Well it was a PR but it felt quite slow. I went through the first mile with Steve. It was quite comfortable, and I thought my pace was sustainable. The 2^nd mile was substantially more hilly than the first, and while I approached and passed slightly into the oxygen debt right at 2 miles at the top, I couldn’t push too well on the downhill and after the next hill, I wasn’t able to achieve the pace of my first two miles. After this point, despite better than normal efforts to push back to the original pace, my body just could not respond. On my 2^nd to last lap, Dave passed me on his final and I was able to pick it up but this was not sustainable. Running with the two chapman guys really helped me to push while to catch them and made me feel as though I was racing. We did get into this unfortunate mentality of ‘just getting through it together’ and tended to fall of pace a bit. Overall an okay first race, so long as the legs come around and I can get them to respond during the latter portions of the race. Also Anton is awesome.

Miles:8

Hanging in there, barely

9/2/07- Chilling at the pool.

Miles: 0

9/3/07- (Morning) Monrovia Canyon trail. Steep at the beginning, mostly pavement the whole way. Medium. 41 minutes out, ? back, maybe 30 minutes. Pretty slow pace out but calves burned, controlled on the way down, but legs and hips sore on the descent.

Miles: 7-8

(Afternoon) 500 or 600 yards lap swimming, sprained R pinky trying to do a dive.

9/4/07- (Morning) Shenandoah’s-Hard. R Knee a little painful the first mile, went away. Stomach not so hot but survived. Felt okay. 5:10, 5:15, 5:05, 5:10, 4:58.

Miles: 10.5

(Afternoon) Lacy and Back plus 2.5 laps at Lacy. Legs tired but moving, pain still there in R knee. Went to Erin afterwards, she says its brunt force damage to the patella from so many hills.

Miles: 4.5

Total Miles: 15

9/5/07- (Morning) Knees hurt more today. Exhausted, legs shot. Huntingson painfully slow.

Miles: 7

(Afternoon) 2 barefoot miles on grass plus 20 min on stationary bike. Knees a bit better.

Miles: 2

Total Miles:9

9/6/07 (Morning) – Achilles’ sore in the morning, R knee a bit worse than yesterday, L knee also now starting to feel it, possible Patella tendonitis. Ran with the team extended Lacy long way, than 4x 5 on 2 off medium. 3 at 7:30-7:15 pace, last one at race pace. Felt okay, knees hurting a bit.

Miles: 8

(Afternoon) Did some PT with Andre and then jogged 3 miles on the N. field. Knees felt okay actually. Still tired, still filled with tons of minor injuries.

Miles: 3

Total Miles: 11

9/7/07 (Morning) – Garfield long way real easy. Knees feel better, rickety. Legs very tired, but felt better after stick massage and ice bath.

Miles: 5

Camping

(Afternoon): Went to see Erin. She thinks it is soft tissue damage, which I guess is good. Got new cushioning shoes that will help my foot roll the right way and all. Swam 700 or 800 yards plus 10 minutes of aqua jogging.

8/31/07 (Morning) – 6x Cannons, plus 1 warmup cannon, plus 20-25 minutes of warmup/cool down. Hard. Legs had energy and the weather was more tolerable. Stuck with Steve on all of them. Felt stronger than ever ( except on the 5^th one where I almost hurled). Foot sore this morning, but pain, as usual, went away during the run.

Miles: 7.5

(Afternoon) – 42 minutes medium-easy around the campground at Chilao recreation area-5000 ft. Steep trail running and very out of breath from altitude. Achilles’ a bit tight, but nothing sore, just a bit tired, stomach a little un easy.

Miles: 4.5

Total miles: 12

9/1/07 (Morning) – High adventures high in San Gabriel’s. Hard, 50 minutes out, 41 minutes back on the Silver Moccasin backpacking trail. Switchbacks climbing over 1000 ft., very out of breath, maxed out HR several times. Stomach bothering me.

Miles: 10-10.5

(Afternoon) – Down to the visitor center and back, medium-easy.

Miles: 4.5

Total Miles: 14-15

Weekly Miles: 45-46

Preseason Starts

PRESEASON!!!!!

8/29/07- Huntington. Medium, pushed up the hill. Hot and humid, felt tingly Goosebumps at times but things seemed to be working well, in order. Foot felt okay during the day but during the run, the acheiness started to go away! Some of the foot muscles were sore from not being used while in the insoles, but it felt good the whole way. I think I can carry on as planned so long as I keep a very watchful eye on everything.

Miles: 6

8/30/07 ( Morning) – Full arroyo, medium-hard. Hot and Humid. Took it out a bit fast, worked hard in the canyon. The last few miles the dehydration and overheating really got to me. Other than that foot felt decent, passable, and legs felt good. Foot sore but okay later.

Miles: 10

Time to Run Hard (Losing follows shortly)

8/26/07- Foot slight better again today. Went swimming and aqua jogging, about 1000 yards total.

Miles:0

Weekely Miles: 32

8/27/07- Foot again better. Preseason okay? We’ll have to see. Rode Chantry again today. Cycling legs felt much stronger already. Rocketed to the top.

Miles (bike) : 25

8/28/07- Foot about same, during the day it ached a bit when walking. Decided to try running a bit considering preseason is tomorrow. Jogged down to the track, but it still hurt. Shit. Decided to take off the shoes, run a bit barefoot to isolate the problem. This however, felt much better. The Insoles! Those were what killed me! Ran without insoles on the inside of the grass, foot pain almost went away. Good sign. 2.5 miles, did some aqua jogging and lap swimming too. The rest of the night the foot felt fine, a good sign I suppose. Ice, and later did some Achilles’ exercises.

Miles: 3 ish

Familiar Territory-Foot injuries

Something in my right foot is sprained. Its not that same as my big injury from the Spring, and I think it is certainly less serious, but I am going to be really conservative. My legs honestly need the rest anyways. With any luck, Ill be back in action on day 1 of preseason. If it takes a bit longer, I'm not going to complain, so long as I have a healthy season.

8/22/07- Was going to do Lower Arroyo but foot felt kinda weird so I aborted. Not the old injury, just general funkiness. Went down El Molino left on Monterey, to Lacy and back up to tech. Did 3 miles on the grass with Matt and Ian, who were way too fast for me. Foot felt okay towards the end.

Miles: 8

8/23/07- Woah foot not okay. Can’t tell what exactly hurts, but it’s the very outside right two digits, closer towards the ankle than the forefoot. Walking around today was a painful at times. Swam 1000 yards.

8/24/07- Foot felt much better during the day. Ran Lacy park long way, but it still was bothering me. I have decided to take off as much time as I need until preseason until it gets better.

Miles: 4.5

8/25/07- Biked to Chantry flats. Left mid-day, it was hot as hell, sweated dripping off. My cycling muscles are out of shape, it was quite tough. Foot hurt a bit at first when out of the saddle but by the end of the ride it was pain free. Perhaps (and hopefully) it is a sprain or ligamental, as opposed to a stress fracture or something serious. I guess my foot was in a kind of fine balance. Once something failed, everything went to hell.

Miles (bike): 25

Also I found this really cool video about Matt Withrow's Senior year of HS XC. It is pretty ridiculous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPT9qTbaGH0&mode=related&search=

If you haven't watched the video of his win at 2003 Foot Locker you should see that first.

Preseason Approaches! - last hard base training before the season starts

8/19/07- 35 min easy around campus+ N. field, a bit with Ian. Legs tired.

Miles: 4

Weekly miles: 58

8/20/07- How do you spell FUN? P-A-T-R-I-C-I-A-N! Went with Dave, moderate out- a controlled warm up, hard up the climb (need to work on climbing form), hard back through Pas, as low as 7:30 pace the last 2 miles. Felt quite good! Lots of energy, a little dehydrated at the end. Much stronger than last year, and it's not even preseason.

Miles: 11.5

8/21/07- Huntingson from Lloyd+ 2 laps at Lacy. Tiiiiired. Trudged through it in fairly painful and slow 65-70 minutes. On the plus side, no sign of injury, just tiredness. Saw Dave and Matt. Side note: Matt is a beast, I wouldn't be surprised if he runs consistently in the 25s, or possibly less.

Miles: 7.5-8