Southern California XC Championships

Sat. Nov. 10, 2007

K. Hahn Park, West LA
8k Championships

The race for me today was at 9am and 11am for Libby, so I had an early morning by myself. I woke up at 5:15, had my 3 egg omelette with cheese, 2 pieces of our homemade bread with peanut butter, banana and honey....and a handful of granola. Afterwards I hit the bed again for one more go at a nap for 45 min. I left the house at about 7:15 to make sure I got there with enough time to get some spikes in my shoes. The course was an all grass course that we looped around 4 times, quick math makes that 2k loops. It was only Matt and I today in the morning, because Ozzie quit the team yesterday. It would have been cool if he finished the last meet with us.....or ran with us the past 7 weeks, but what can you do. We warmed up and did our drills, which was then followed by a nice sized dump to get me ready for action.

The race had some pretty good guys in the field, even though there were like 50 people. There were 4 guys who have gone under 14 minutes for 5k, a 2:17 marathon guy, a 29 min 10k guy and then myself and Matt, not to sell ourselves short. The course was a little sloppy in parts but overall a good day for racing, about 70 degrees, sunny and no wind.

So we started off pretty comfortably, not too fast and probably in a pack of like 10 for the first loop. After the first loop, I felt that it would be wise for me to back off a little bit to make sure I didn't kill myself too early. So for the rest of the race, I was mostly alone. Matt was a few spots ahead of me, not too far, but far enough where I couldn't get him. Long story short, I got 9th, holding off 2 guys right at the end, and Matt was 8th. I had a nice PR, 24:52.1, and I can't complain. I finally had a XC race where I felt confident and didn't quit. Matt was 10 seconds ahead of me.

Eric led his 4k race for the first 1000 meters or so, and then a guy hammered past him and pushed for the rest of the race. Eric ended up second in the race, but a strong performance, especially for his first XC race ever.

Went to work after, and then jogged for like 2 miles to loosen the legs.

12 miles today

The day before

Fri. Nov. 9, 2007

6pm - 3 miles + strides

Had an easy day today, just had to work and run. Ran the 3 mile loop around Artesia, then did some strides. Tomorrow is the Southern California XC Championships.

Rest Day

Thurs. Nov. 8, 2007

I love training hard, but there is nothing like an off day. Sometimes you don't realize how tired you are until you take a day off, it puts all the training in perspective. I didn't do too much today either. I went up to Dr. Paul's office to have him adjust my orthotics and make the arch a little higher. Then Libby and I made bread and granola.....which is awesome. Then we ate blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes for dinner. I also screwed up the first couple, so I think there is a possibility of Salmonella creepin in here, but we'll see what happens.

PS....this is what Libby looks like cooking.

USC day

Wed. Nov. 7, 2007

7:30am - 3 miles with Libby
3:30pm - 2 mile warmup, 5x800 w/ 2min recovery, 3 mile cooldown

Today Skip wasn't able to meet with me in the afternoon, so he told me to get onto the USC track before my lab tonight and do 5x800 between 2:24-2:28 w/ 2 min recov. Libby also decided that he would rather work out with me today then with the team, so we piled into the C-dub, or Camry, and headed to USC. We warmed up around the school, cause that time of day would be terrible to run throughout campus. Got back, did our drills and strides and took off. We started together, but the pace was not something that Libby was used to, so after the first one he backed off and did his own thing. My reps went ( 2:26, 2:21, 2:18, 2:18, 2:15 ). It was a little faster than I was supposed to be doing these reps, but they felts comfortable, so I just rolled with them. Libby averaged right about 2:31. After, we cooled down and stretched quickly because I was gonna be lab for lab, which was the next building over.

Lab today was working with thermoregulation. So roughly how the body heats up during exercise. It was kinda cool, and pretty funny. The Lab TA had 3 volunteers, I was not one of them for a reason. They were to perform 30 min of exercise on a bike at a speed of their choice, with others checking their temp, BP and perceived effort of exertion. But the funny part about it was these three volunteers had to do the lab with a rectal thermomter up their bums for the test. This is why it was VOLUNTARY. I chose to sit this one out. Good lab though.

Libby hung around USC and we ate dinner afterwards at Whole Foods.

10.5 miles today

Tuesday

Tues. Nov. 6, 2007

10am - 3 miles
5pm - 9 miles

Pretty much just took care of my school work today and then ran with Eric at 5pm for 9 miles. It was a good comfortable run and felt good. Thats it, then we ate pasta....not much happened today

12 miles today

Monday

Mon. Nov. 5, 2007

7am - 3 miles with Libby
5pm - 6.75 miles with the middle 2.1 miles at tempo pace

Did the whole morning thing, then headed to work for a few hours.

Libby and I drove to practice at the normal meeting spot on Monday at San Vicente and Ocean Ave. in Santa Monica. The team met and started the conversation with a nice joke on Damian. Then we started our easy part of the run for 2 miles then did the 2.1 mile tempo in 10:35, which is about 4:58-4:59 per mile, and it felt pretty comfortable. Matt and I finished together and Libby finished at 11:35 by himself. Afterwards we cruised back down to the start to do our drills, strides and stretching. We also got free adjustments from the team chiropractor, Dr. Paul, who is the team chiropractor for the USA Olympic Trials. Great chiropractor.

The big thing came afterwards when Damian wanted to talk to Eric and I about finding an apartment for us. Damian had promised Eric a job and an apartment and both fell through, and this has led to some sore spots about living in Southern California. So we really didn't want to hear about the apts. because we already have the idea about leaving to go run somewhere else. Today was the day that we told Skip what we were thinking about the upcoming months. I was kind of hesitant because I wasn't sure how he was gonna take it, but it went much better than anticipated. Skip is a great guy and a great coach. He is very understanding and knows what we are going through and recommended that we find what we need to make ourselves happy and run our fastest. I really appreciate everything he has done and is still doing for us.
So now we just have to plan on what we are gonna do for after Decemeber. Time to ponder....

10 miles today

Very Busy Week

Sun. Nov. 4, 2007
8am - 13-14 miles in Palos Verdes with Libby

Sat. Nov. 3, 2007
9pm - 12x300 meter hills with Libby down in Hermosa Beach

Fri. Nov. 2, 2007
7am - 3 miles
6pm - 10 min warmup, 20 min of 30sec. on 30 sec off, 20 min cool down

Thurs. Nov. 1, 2007
6pm - 12.5 miles

Wed. Oct. 31, 2007
7am - 3 miles
5pm - I was supposed to do a VO2 max test, but halfway through the mouthpiece broke and air stopped coming in and I was forced to stop. When I stopped, my heart rate was at 175 and through calculations at that point my VO2 was at 63.

Tues. Oct. 30, 2007
7am - 3 miles
5pm - 7.8 miles

Mon. Oct. 29, 2007
5pm - 10 miles