A quest to maintain a wisp of my southern California lifestyle in a city that couldn't be any more different from Pasadena.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Summer Base Week 7: some great running
Miles: 6
6/24/08- Awesome dusk Full Arroyo from Lloyd in 85.5 minutes. Started out nice and easy (actually was 8 min pace!) and then gradually picked it up feeling really strong the whole way. I have forgotten how smart it is to start easy and gradually pick it up, and how much I love the arroyo at dusk. The whole thing averaged 8 minute pace, which is good for the hill. Quality running. I have also decided that I can pull of 75 mile weeks with smart double days. R Achilles a bit tight, but things looking good.
Miles: 10.6
6/25/08- A nice chill evening huntingson. Note chill, not chilly. It was quite humid and really reminded me of home. I actually miss home and my friends quite a bit. I need to work out plans for going back.
Miles: 7
6/26/06- Eichenlaub grassy special with Dennis, started out slow, ended up medium. Late, not feeling super good. I hope Dennis will be around next year.
Miles: 9
6/27/08- Group softball practice at 4 p.m. and then very easy night Lacy long way from Lloyd. Very easy and relaxed. 38 minutes for 4.5 miles
Miles: 5.5
6/28/08- Very nice half marathon progressions run. I was bored and I decided it was time to put my plans into action: I did the Penis run (slightly modified as shown below). Much better than the last 13 miler I did, plus I did over 2 miles of walking around campus earlier in the day. With 4 miles to go started to accelerate until I was running a very nice 7:45-7:30 pace or so in the last stretch down California/campus. Knees a bit swollen at times but in quite good shape. Man this was a good week.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2030745
Miles: 13.2
6/29/08- Was going to swim but missed the pool hours. Decided to fix up and get back on the bike. Nice easy 11 mile ride to and around the Rose Bowl with Todd. Bike still needs work and will definitely take it to Steve’s. Legs feeling surprisingly great!
Miles: (11)
Weekly Miles: 51 + (11)
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Summer Base Week 6: A jump in mileage
Miles: 5.6
6/17/08- Awesome summer full moon midnight lower arroyo (night variant) with Dennis. Started out easy, slowly picking up the pace to a comfortable 7:45 pace by the end. Excellent run.
Miles: 8.5
6/18/08- Medium easy Huntington backwards from Lloyd, to san Pasqual. I thought I was going pretty slow but apparently it only took 46:48. That’s a solid 7:11 min pace. I don’t believe I was actually going that fast I think I must have forgotten to start at a light and forgot to stop at a later one. Probably more like 8-8:15 pace.
Miles: 6.5
6/19/08- The great Eaton Canyon midnight adventure. Legs were feeling un injured and pretty good through the day so I decided I would go for an epic long run. Unfortunately I choose something a bit too demanding. N hill was fine but felt a little too hard. I still felt pretty good once I reached Altadena Dr. and had descending down to the base of Eaton Canyon. Once I started the climb up the ridge, I really started to feel it. Once of the fire roads was blocked off as private, which I think is wrong, so I had to back track all the way around. Once I had made it down to Sierra madre my legs had already crashed. I slowly made my way back but really bonked on San Pasqual. Somehow made it back alive and I think uninjured. 1:45.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2004999
Miles: 13
6/20/08- Easy Huntington Virginia. Legs better than I was expected but stomach was bothersome.
Miles: 5.1
6/21/08- Afternoon swim of 500 yards. Lower Arroyo. Tired, not so much the legs, just overall tired. 68 minutes.
Miles: 8.2
6/22/08- Awesome day vacation to Malibu-El Matador Beach with some ocean swimming (~2-300 yards off shore and back) and some barefoot walking to Malibu Seafood to Solstice canyon for a 2.5 mile hike.
Miles: 3 walking
Weekly Miles: 47 + 3 hiking
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Summer Training Weeks 4&5: The wrath of finals
Miles: 7.3
6/3/08- Nice Lacy slightly longer way reverse with Dennis. Legs tired but feeling okay. Finals tough.
Miles: 5
6/4/08- Concordi LT Treadmill test with Ian, Chief, and Dennis. Max HR 202, LT at between 178-184 at 8.5-8.6 mph (7 minute pace) That seems about right but hopefully we can lower this to 6:30 or 6:20 pace by the middle of the season. Later we will do a treadmill workout and I might bring my HR monitor along on some runs. 4 laps N field warm-up and Lacy and back cool down.
Miles: 5.75
6/5/08- Nice huntingson variant medium-easy with Chief. 53 minutes for 6.7 miles at 7:55 ish pace. Legs getting tired!
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1964797
Miles: 6.75
6/6/07- Slow, easy Huntington Virginia plus warmup across campus. If my legs are tired and getting better/not hurt, that’s a very good thing. Now that my legs are healing up, I can add in some more variation into my runs.
Miles: 5.5
6/7/08- Very tough full Arroyo. Legs were fairly tired but not ridiculous. Really felt labored for the beginning, but kept going, got really bad the last 2 miles. This shows two things, one that I’m in pretty horrible shape, and the other that I need to listen to my body more and do things when they feel right. Also this has been 49 miles in 7 days, too much.
Miles: 10.5
6/8/08- Very homework filled off day. Legs tired in the morning but not horribly so. A bit of swelling in my L knee but much less than I expected, went down during the day. Still iced. I think I will do my long run mid week, but I will have to do it much more by feel, but 12-14 is hard to do solely on feel. Possible options are a grass extravaganza, epic trail run from RB to the damn, run to the hills, or chief style out and back. I would like one run to be a trial run and climb some, regardless. Also I must break out the ice bath.
Miles: 0
Weekly Miles: 41
6/9/08- Legs feeling much better, still tired. Medium Huntington with Dave at 5 p.m., warm out, at least much warmer than 1 a.m. Need to get used to heat, but a good run.
Miles: 6.4
6/10/08- Really outstanding run. Headed N on Hill to end, then Holliston, and back and Lake/Michigan/Hill. Was originally going for time but ended up going a bit longer. I thought my legs were going to be dead or hurting but instead they were full of energy. A nice surprise. A nice quick pace on the way down, averaged 8:15 pace. 74.5 minutes.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1980020
Miles: 9
6/11/08- NFTC beer mile championships, 2nd place 18 minutes DFL. Ow my stomach.
Miles: 1.5
6/12/08- I should have stretched and warmed up properly yesterday. Nice medium easy run with Chief Huntington to los Robles back up by Lacy. 66 Minutes
Miles: 7.5
6/13/08- Hungry Tu Madre, legs, self out of energy. Tripped over a big water main thing in grass, foot a bit bloody and bruised but seems okay.
Miles: 5.5
6/14/08- Moving day, exhausted. Day off is good.
Miles:0
6/15/08- Legs still tired from moving. Garfield long way plus a bit extra slow. 62 minutes.
Miles: 7
Weekly Miles: 37
6/16/08- Legs still kinda tired. Hot 5 p.m. Huntington Virginia down Canterbury and then to softball. Ran into Ian and Katherine and ran a mile with them easy.
Miles: 5.6
Monday, June 2, 2008
The Aftermath of Beach Trip
5/26/08- Ugh my feet hurt. Blisters better, cuts still hurt, knee pretty stiff but doesn’t hurt
Miles:0
5/27/08- Blisters much better, cuts still bothersome. 11:30 p.m. Easy Huntington Virginia. Knee started hurting at 3.5 miles once on the uphill. Lower knee, seems like patella tendon but could be more deep. Iced afterwards.
Miles: 5.2
5/28/08- Same as yesterday, 5 p.m., legs feeling crappy, knee slightly better but still began hurting a bit by the top of the stairs. Slow.
Miles: 5.2
5/29/08 – Knee much better, blisters and feet better. Reverse hunting + extra north at 11:00 p.m.. Feeling good the whole way, working at a moderate clip. Knee stiff but never hurting. Awesome.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1942955
Miles: 7.1
5/30/08- Knee fairly swollen from yesterday but no pain, blisters still better. Short Pre-race from Lloyd to keep it easy.
Miles: 2.7
5/31/08- No run, orchestra concert, busy didn’t get around to it. Ugh. I can’t believe one stupid run has put me out for a full week or more.
Miles:0
6/1/08- Cross Country Season unofficially begins today. Legs feeling good, knee okay. Medium Lower arroyo at 8 p.m. from Lloyd, but got dark so I had to cut out a bit early. Knee stiff, a bit achy, but not hurting. Iced afterwards. A good run.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1951070
Miles: 8.5
Weekly Miles: 29
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Summer Base Week 2
5/19/08- Nice solid run. Supposedly the long run of the week. Huntington Long way medium. Felt quite strong, like I was moving decently the whole way, maybe 7:50-8:00 pace. Nice evening with full moon.
Miles: 7.4
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1911813
5/20/08- Lacy Long way medium at 3:30 in the afternoon. Warm and humid, lots of gardners out, reminded me of home. R little toe tendon quite achy later that night.
Miles: 4.5
5/21/08- Ditch Day Wooo! Did Dave’s stack. Massive power outage at 5 till 7 basically trashed the stack thanks to dumb Page boys ( who apparently are also now involved in animal cruelty charges (felonies!) for a goal of theirs that they let loose and got hit by a car). Legs quite tired, foot still sore. I’ll call this one a day off.
Miles: 0
5/22/08- Long pre-race with Anton medium-easy.
Miles: 4.5
5/23/08-Garfield Long way medium from Lloyd in the cold rain. Amazing run, felt like ’24 in the rain’ . Lost track of time and was late to Ascit movie but who cares?
Miles: 6.5
5/24/08- Extended pre-race in the cold evening easy.
Miles: 4
5/25/08- Medium hour run at Lloyd beach trip with Chief and then watts. Bare foot on the sand chariots of fire style. I started feeling blister formation only 3 miles in but continued. Bad idea. Also stepped on glass. I now have 4 bad blisters and two moderate cuts. Hmm perhaps wearing shoes would have been a good idea. I’m calling this run ‘Lloyd beach trip blisterfest 08’.
Miles: 7.6
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1929168
Weekly Miles: 34.5
5/26/08- Ugh my feet hurt. Blisters better, cuts still hurt, knee pretty stiff but doesn’t hurt
Miles:0
5/27/08- Blisters much better, cuts still bothersome. 11:30 p.m. Easy Huntington Virginia. Knee started hurting at 3.5 miles once on the uphill. Lower knee, seems like patella tendon but could be more deep. Iced afterwards.
Miles:5.2
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The Beginning of the Best Summer Ever: Down Time + Summer Base Week 1
4/28/08- Lacy long way very easy with Dennis.
Miles: 4
4/29/08 – Medium Lacy long way with Dave and Chief.
Miles: 5
4/30/08-5/2/08- Off
5/3/08- 1000 yards swimming easy late.
Weekly Miles: 9
5/4/08- 1000 yards easy, 100-250-350-250-100 with Prof. Rob Phillips, cool down. Total 2500 yards
5/5/08-5/7/08- Off
5/8/08- 4 miles medium on south field with chief in Free’s.
Miles: 4.5
5/9/08-5/11/08- Off. On 5/10 sharp pain in L ball of foot upon toe-off when walking. Disappears after a few minutes of walking. Erin believes minor nerve damage from crouching work during Interhouse party construction.
Weekly Miles: 4.5
5/12/08- 25 minutes easy on N. field with Chief. Cold and drizzly. Foot feels fine.
Miles: 3
5/13/08- Ran after orchestra (11 pm) with Anton. Cool and damp. Medium-Easy E. California, S. Sierra madre, W. Euston, N. Oxford, W. Orlando and back to school. 37 minutes, 4.25 miles. It felt a lot quicker than 8:40 pace but it was all soft grass and a bit hilly.
Miles: 4.25
5/14/08- Ran late again today due to option tea (11pm) with Chief. Warm and damp. Medium Garfield Long way. I am pretty sure we weren’t going that fast and I could tell that, while it felt like we pushing hard. I guess it’s just humid and I’m out of shape.
Miles: 5.75
5/15/08- Pre race easy again at 11 pm.
Miles: 3.5
5/16/08- Cool easy city run with Dennis to old Pas on Del Mar and back on Green. Feeling stronger/more comfortable pushing a bit again. 40 minutes. L Foot feeling better, R knee still stiff.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1905756
Miles: 4.7
5/17/08- Late dinner and casino night mean Huntington will have to wait until tomorrow.
Miles: 0
5/18/08- Ian, Katherine, Kangway, Dennis, Megumi, Peter and I went to the 08 Addidas Track classic in Carson. Awesome meet. Leer ran a PR in 3:38. I also confirmed that indeed, Kara Goucher is the most attractive women on the planet. Track banquet that evening. Got first Caltech Varsity Letter! Very tired afterwards, skipped again.
Miles: 0
Weekly Miles: 21
5/19/08- Nice solid run. Supposedly the long run of the week. Huntington Long way medium. Felt quite strong, like I was moving decently the whole way, maybe 7:50-8:00 pace. Nice evening with full moon.
Miles: 7.4
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1911813
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
The End of Track
3/28/08- My favorite home run feeling pretty good. Medium CJ trail almost to River Road.
Miles: 8.5
3/29/08- Eichenlaub grassy up Virginia, picked up tempo from Virginia to Los Robles and then pushed hard back, accelerating to 5 min/mile pace by the end. Feeling good, except for a bit of Achilles/Plantar to work on.
Miles: 7.5
3/30/08- NFTC with Kangway, Mark. 25 minutes medium, 5 min cool down. Lifted afterwards. Feeling stronger, but it was still disturbing how surprisingly not easy that 25 minutes was.
Miles: 4
Weekly Miles: 25
3/31/08- Feeling better today. Medium-hard Arroyo to casting pond. Kept 7:30 pace (at times less) the whole way. Going to be a bit tired tomorrow though!
Miles: 8.7
4/1/08- 10x400 going every 2 min at 5k pace. Did a 2 mile warm-up. Then went 90,89,91,90,89,87,88,87,88, 87,86, bonus in 72. Felt good and relaxed the whole way, a great workout for the first hard workout in 2 weeks, and track workout in 3. I think I could have gone faster for the workout. Lacy fountain and back cool down.
Miles: 7
4/2/08- Huntington medium easy. Legs a bit tired but feeling otherwise fine. High mileage for track (47 miles in the past 7 days)
Miles: 7
4/3/08- Had 4 p.m. class so went at 12:30 instead. I went Lacy long was as a warm-up, but cramped up very badly after only ½ a mile. I tried to relax a bit at Lacy but I couldn’t shake a lingering feeling that I would throw up. Jogged back easy.
Miles: 4.6
4/4/08- Easy Pre-race. Stomach still feeling out of it, cramped up again.
Miles: 4.2
4/5/08- Skipped out of the race due to orchestra concert, lingering concerns about stomach. I later found out the a stomach flu was going around campus. Later that evening after the concert Dennis, Chief, who was upset about his race and wanted to run more, and I drove to the Rose Bowl for a midnight interval workout. We parked at the closest residential street south ran to Lot K and did ~1000,700,500,300 at 1500m race pace with Dennis and Chief pacing me. First 1k in about 3:30-3:35 uphill. 700 in 2:40 again uphill, 500 in 90 rolling, 300 in about 48 slightly downhill (Lot K sign to Savlia Canyon Road, Salvia Canyon to service building, service building to N. bridge and N bridge to dirt path form perfect intervals. A great workout and feeling good. Afterwards we got In N Out and Dennis told us he is enrolled again! Good times.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1765272
Miles: 7
4/6/08-I was planning on attending NTFC but was busy doing math homework.
Weekly miles: 39 (Between Thursday to Thursday 48)
4/7/08- Medium Lower Arroyo. Foot bothering me in old injury area. I am a bit worried about this, although it seems to have not gotten too much worse since the run. Tomorrow morning will tell if anything serious has happened. At least for tomorrow, I may have to scale down the track workout.
Miles: 8
I stopped recording around here. My computer bit the dust hard the next day. I was able to save a lot of data files, including the log, but the rest was trashed. It took a while to figure out the problem and to get everything back up and running again. I’ll fill in what I remember. Because of my foot I remember taking this week a bit down. I ran the whole week with a metatarsal pad on my foot. Maybe a total weekly mileage around 30.
Sat- Multi-duals at Redlands 1500m in 5:00. Very hot, breezy. It must have been 95 degrees or so and very bright sunlight. Strangely enough, there was still a good deal of visible snow up in the San Bernadinos. We got to Redlands around 1:30 p.m. and sat in the heat for 3 hours. Warm-up around campus, foot feeling okay, dipped my head in the steeple pit 5 min before the race. There were several people entered at very similar times to me so I took the race out in an easy 80 while I was immediately dropped by the pack. At this point I noticed some guy was sitting right behind me. Ian kept telling me to listen for him. I was very constant with the pace and about 300 to go the guy made a big move. I shifted gears but the guy still blew right by me. Almost threw up at the end. Long cool down with Chief afterwards, ran through the big campus fountain. Chief PRed in the 5k in 16:59.76.
Weekly Miles: ~30
This next week I decided to put in one last hard week of very solid effort.
Mon- Medium hard Lower Arroyo. Stayed with the whole team until half way down California. Still hot but pushed hard and kept up.
Miles: ~8
Tues- 12 400s going every 120 seconds in 88-87 consistently the whole way. Ran alone because I got there late. Chief timed me.
Wed-Garfield long way.
Thurs-med not sure what run
Fri- 3 on 2 x7 off hard(~3k pace) at Lacey with Dennis. Went anaerobic after the 2nd one and held on for an okay finish.
Sat-RB lot K to JPL with Watts medium. Watts is a surprisingly strong runner. It doesn’t surprise me his brother is a top member on the Williams team.
Miles: 7
Weekly Miles: ~40
Mon- Super easy Lower arroyo.
Tues- 8x400s going every 120. 87-86s the whole way.
Wed- Lacy long way super easy with 2 laps and back.
Thursday- 5-4-3-2-1 with Dennis
Fri- easy jogging around Pomona with Dennis. Very hot.My 1500 got moved straight to finals.
Sat- SCIAC finals 1500m-4:59 12th. Very hot and windy again! This time I sat behind that mofo that did the same to me last time. With 250 to go he did the same thing but again I couldn’t respond. I kicked it in real hard and barfed all over the field. Part of me wanted to run the 5k but I just wasn’t feeling it.
Driving back, there was a huge fire in Sierra Madre. It lit up the whole mountainside with 200 foot flames. Then Black interhouse. I drank for the first time in several months. Basically the entire team showed up to the party which was hella cool. Dennis kept trying to think of a crazy adventure which would involve us using our super speed to escape security or the Po-Po. I promised we would streak through the houses at some point.
Weekly Miles: ~30
Totals:
Wk 1: 36
Wk 2; 38 (37 cycling)
Wk 3: 45
Wk 4: 43
Wk 5: 40 (12 backpacking)
Wk 6: 26 – no long day from backpacking
Wk 7: 40
Wk 8: 23.5 – Groin Injury
Wk 9: 37
Wk 10: 39
Wk 11: 23.5- Spring break skiing + sick
Wk 12: 25 –sick
Wk 13: 39
Wk 14: 30-foot thing
Wk 15: 40
Wk 16: 30
Season Total: 516 ± 20 ( ≈ 505 is my guess)
I have mixed feelings about this season. On one hand it was my first complete track season as a distance runner. I ran three PRs, stayed quite healthy, and gained valuable racing experience, albeit not in the main pack. However some part of me is quite disappointed by the season. This was supposed to be the season where stuff started happening. Little glimpses of future speed would show through and the fruits of 8 months continuous running would be realized. That never happened. I thought that, hey, if I ran 5:01 at interhouse last year in trainers with a fairly brief winter off-season, I could definitely hit 4:40 this year, maybe even 4:35 in the 1500. I hit 5:01 again at interhouse this year off a much bigger winter base. I did PR in the 3000 and 800 slightly, but my 1500s never got that good. Even after Oxy, where I ran a 4:57 alone and a bit sick, I was still a bit hopeful. But it never came. It just…didn’t. Maybe I wasn’t running hard enough. Maybe I was backing off instead of attacking and not having people around me kept me from being motivated. But at SCIACs I ran behind someone the whole way, still only in 4:59, and proceeded to hurl afterwards suggesting that I did indeed run almost as hard as I could have. This will still be my first XC season off of a full base with a solid summer of training, but I am a bit doubtful. I could just run Scott’s plan and come in and hope for the best. Or instead of just sitting there and being sad that I’m not fast, I could go out and work my ass off. I could get up to 75-80 miles. I could drop 800 miles this summer. I could see what happens. If I get horribly injured and drained all season, well I have one more season to not do that. If I break 30 or 29, well then I will know I did something right. To do this I will have to be very careful to take excellent care of myself and my legs. I’ll have to dedicate myself. If that’s what it takes, I’ll do it.
4/28/08- Lacy Long way very easy with Dennis. Dave met us above Lacy and we went 6:45 pace back to school.
Miles: 4
4/29/08- Lacy long way plus laps medium-hard with Dave and Chief.
Miles: 5
5/3/08- Easy 1000 yards
5/4/08- 2500 yards plus a ladder workout med. Hard.
I added up the miles for this year:
Summer Training: 300
XC: 435
Winter: 235
Track: 505
Total: 1475-1500 Miles