Super Happy Fun Long Awaited Update

Is coming later today...I SWEAR!

Editors Note:  I clearly lied here and appologize for my terrible job at blogging over the last month.  I have been very busy with work and other things, but should have updated by now.  I will do my best to get something put together that recaps my last 4 weeks.  Sorry to all my loyal readers...although I don't really there are any left!

Race Report: Ursula Rains Balboa Boogie 5k

Results:  8th place, 15:46.

I really didn't know what to think about this race so I went in to it attempting to run a fast time for once.  I didn't wear a watch and didn't hear any splits but ended up hitting a decent time by simply racing.  From all accounts my splits looked something like 4:52, 10:15.  That is probably the fastest mile I have run in about 2-3 years and the same goes for the 2 mile time, so I have to be happy that I was able to handle it and still finish well.  That also means I was sub 5min for the final mile as well, which is great.  

As far as the race itself I was happy and disappointed at the same time.   I ran about where I should have, however I only came in 8th which means that it was a fairly stacked race.  Unfortunately at least a couple of the top guys weren't even there, meaning that the championship race in November should be a tough battle for the top 10.  

The team was 2nd, which gives us 2 first places and a second place.  That ties us for first currently, meaning no matter what really happens the winner of the series will be the winner of the championship race.

In other news Dianna won, although her foot is still bothering her.  Hopefully she can get that fixed because she has a perfect 300 points (3 wins) and leads the series.  It was also excited this week because Jeff and Matt came down and ran, although Jeff only ran it as a workout, and on top Mario was here to cheer and take pictures!

The series is actually fairly deep this year.  Here are the updated Dirt Dog Series Standings:

Individual Standings

Team Standings

Training Summary: September 29 - October 5

Monday 9/29 - 9mi, 63:40, easy solo through La Jolla.

Tuesday 9/30 - 9mi, 61:20, with Garrett on the bay.

Wednesday 10/1 - AM 4+mi, with the Mizuno guys in San Luis Obispo

PM 7mi, easy on the bay with the Wednesday Movin Shoes group

Thursday 10/2 - 10+mi, 68:50, easy solo on the bay.

Friday 10/3 - 10+mi, 69:45, easy solo on the bay with 6X100 strides.

Saturday 10/4 - 3mi warmup, Balboa Boogie 5k race, 4mi cooldown.  See race recap.

Sunday 10/5 - 16mi, 1:54:15, easy on the bay with Mills and then 6mi through La Jolla to finish.  With about 3mi to go I got one of the worst side stitches ever and it made the run very rough to finish.

Summary: 75mi, 7 days.  Much better week than last.  Unfortunately no "workouts" but I got in a great race on Saturday.  I was pretty happy with this week and I think I can bump up next week back to 80mi again.  I think the decision is to race twice more for Cross Country (Cougar Challenge 8k and the San Diego USATF Championship).  After that I am going to bump the mileage up again through the New Year and give a run at a Half Marathon in January, most likely the Carlsbad Half-Marathon.  Until then, time to keep the mileage up and keep getting stronger.

Training Summary: September 22 - 28

Monday 9/22 - 9mi easy, tired from the race/long run.

Tuesday 9/23 - off, planned day off although my right ankle is sore.

Wednesday 9/24 - off, ankle still hurts, not too worried but an additional precautionary day off.

Thursday 9/25 - 6mi, easy test run to see how the leg felt.  Looks like I should be good to go from now on.

Friday 9/26 - 10+mi, 69:35, easy solo on the bay.

Saturday 9/27 - 10mi, 67:25 easy solo on the bay.

Sunday 9/28 - 16.2mi, 1:48:55, felt pretty decent but not great.  Legs are a little thrown off from taking the low days this week.

Summary:  ~51mi, 5 days.  It was a pretty crappy week with having to take the two days off.  I think what happened was that I tweaked my foot at the race on some of the tight turns.  It felt fine by the end of the week and still averaged over 10mi for the 5 days that I ran.  Hopefully next week will be better.  Legs definitely got a little messed up with the days off and the were sore after the long run.

Busy Busy

I haven't posted in about 2 weeks, but it has been a really busy time.  Since my last post I have been traveling for work, running, hanging out with Mario on his visit here and watching some great Boston sports!  I plan on updating tonight with a race recap from this past weekend and a recap of the last 2 weeks training.  Until then...

Training Summary: September 15 - 21

Monday 9/15 - 10+mi, 68:37, easy solo on the bay. 

Tuesday 9/16 - 10.03mi, 65:29, workout up Mt. Soledad, solo.  Solid effort, tough run.

Wednesday 9/17 - 13mi, 7mi solo and then right in to a 6mi at the Movin Shoes Run.  I did my run and met the Movin Shoes group and just continued in to that run.  It was a good way to get in a longer day without doubling.

Thursday 9/18 - 10mi, solo on the bay.  I threw in 10 X 1min on/off.  Good effort during the run with the pushes which are always harder than I remember!

Friday 9/19 - 9mi, 8mi with Di and the last solo, 6X100 strides.

Saturday 9/20 - 12mi total, ~3mi warmup, ~10k race, ~4mi cooldown.  See race recap.

Sunday 9/21 - 17.01mi, 1:57:23, solo through La Jolla to start and then down to the bay.  Started out slow and picked it up later.  Fairly tired from the race.

Summary: ~81 miles, 7 days.  I would say it was a very solid week for me.  I got in 80+ miles again, and this time it was on single runs, except for the race day.  I had a hard long run last Sunday, a solid hard hill run on Tuesday, pickups on Thursday, race Saturday with a less intense long run on Sunday.  So, counting long runs as hard days, I had 5 "hard" days in 8 days, which is great.  This coming week I will probably get in 2 workouts of some sort but I'll likely take a day off or a VERY easy day.  I am scheduled for a low week, I think, so it will work out well.  Things are looking up!

Race Recap: City College Invitational 10k

Result:  34:58, 5th place.

Well the time wasn't too flashy, although all reports point to the course being about 6.5mi, but my place was decent and that's all I was looking for.  The plan today was to try and snag a decent place to pick up a few extra points for the individual standings.  We didn't field a team so it was really just on me to do this for myself.

The course is on very uneven grass, wood chips, over little toy train tracks and on some nice dirt paths.  It is a loop course in which you do 4 "2.5k" loops.  Each loop starts out flat on very uneven grass, runs up a steep wood chip hill, around a sharp turn and back down the hill, then through a few sharp turns on wood chips, and then fairly flat for the remainder of the loop on dirt/grass and some interesting maneuvering over some toy train tracks.

The race plan was to run up with the "leaders" for about a lap and then see what happens.  I was probably 5 seconds off the leaders through the first loop, which was good.  This was good practice at running up with some of the guys I feel as though I should be running with once my form actually comes around.  This also put in well in the top 5 and I already had a clear 10-15sec over the next pack.  From there on out I just tried to maintain my pace as best as I could, push the tough, wood chip laden hill and accelerate on the downhills.  I think I probably lost a little time on the 3rd lap but regained composure and increased my lead to around 20sec over 6th place by the final half mile or so.

So I think I'd say I was happy with my place but I wish I could have stayed in contact with the leaders for a bit longer.  I had a relatively tough week of training, although i did take it easy the day before the race in hopes that it would lead to a good effort.  It was a good workout for sure and I can't complain.  I picked up a 5th place, which is my best so far this series, which helped me leap over a competitor or two in the standings and set me up well for the individual standings.

Next up is a 5k at Morley Field, home of the Footlocker XC Championships.

Mt. Soledad

The View From the Top during my Run

I did a "workout" up Mt. Soledad tonight and it went fairly well.  I never really know how this run goes but I always know it hurts!  The idea is to warm up for the first few miles and then pretty much run until it is uncomfortable to the top.  I wore my Garmin today to get a measure on a new loop from our apartment and it measured 10.07 which is perfect.  I use a program called SportTracks to keep track of mileage.  I have been REALLY bad about keeping my log going on days that I don't use the Garmin, which is most days.  I only wear it on runs I don't know, runs I want to know pace for and most long runs.  Luckily keeping this blog has given me a place to go back to later and re-record my miles in to my SportTracks file.  SportTracks is a shareware type deal and I think it is really great if you have a Garmin or similar piece of equipment because you can get all cool types of charts, maps, etc. with it.  I have tried out a few different programs for keeping GPS info in and this is by far my favorite, so I'd check it out if you don't already use it.

Anyways, to give you an idea of what my workout was like I thought I'd post a chart of the run up on the blog.  This chart shows elevation and pace.  I think the elevation may be slightly off because the top of Mt. Soledad is supposedly 822ft. and my Garmin only read it as 777ft, so who knows.  Well here goes, I think it is fun to see this kind of stuff and I'll try and show other runs at some point as well.  Enjoy!

Training Summary: September 8 - 14

Monday 9/8 - 10+mi, 64:53.  Ended up turning the day in to a progression run on the bay.  Felt good so I let my legs move as I went along.  8X100 strides.

Tuesday 9/9 - AM 7mi, 47:35.  Solo through La Jolla.

PM 6mi, around UCLA, including a mile on the track, with Millsy.

Wednesday 9/10 - 10+mi, 65:15.  Workout: 15min warmup/cooldown,  3X10min w/3min rest.  Each interval was progressively harder.  The "efforts" were as followed (be sure to read "effort" as just that, I did this completely off feel):  marathon-ish pace, tempo-ish pace, 10k-ish pace.  Felt really good and still getting used to doing workouts completely off feel.  This is a variation of a Robert Gary (Ohio State) workout that I really like, however his is done a bit more uptempo and on a measured 2mile loop.  I would like to get to the point where I can use this workout as a benchmark type workout that I can get on a measured loop.

Thursday 9/11 - 10mi, 73:45.  Easy 8 with Di and last 2 solo.  

Friday 9/12 - AM 7mi, 47:15, easy through La Jolla and back.

PM 5mi, 34:35, easy on the bay.  6X100 strides.

Saturday 9/13 - 2mi warmup, Aztec Invite 5k, 4mi cooldown.  See race recap.

Sunday 9/14 - 17.07 mi, 1:52:42.  SOLID long run mostly solo on the bay.  Started out the first mile with Di and ran in to Garrett for about 10min early on as well.  Went through 8mi in 56:25 and then the miles started to melt away as follows:  6:24, 6:16, 6:08, 6:07, 6:03, 5:59, 6:05, 6:17 (UP), 6:27 (UP).  The final 9mi was 55:48 which is pretty solid I think, especially at the end of an 80mi week and the day after a race.

Summary:  80mi, 9 runs.  Overall a good week with some good efforts mixed in.  I would like to have done the 80 in 8 runs, but some travel for work made me split the run on Tuesday.  However, having the chance to run on the UCLA track is always fun and it gave me an Mills some quality Patriot's discussion time.  The workout went well, although I feel as though I could have gone a bit harder on the initial intervals and saved too much for the final one, but it was my first time doing the workout and it was really an experiment more than anything else.  The race went pretty well and I look forward to moving up to a 10k next week.  

Race Report: Aztec Invitational "People's Race" 5k

Results:  8th place, 16:22.

Well I have mixed feelings about how this race went.  When I finished I felt as though I had raced pretty well and mixed it up early on, trying to hang with the lead pack through the mile. The course is actually pretty tough, all in the 2nd mile, which really kills your momentum.  I passed a few people just after the mile mark (5:0?) and from there I stayed in 8th place, briefly took over 7th on the switchbacks and then later got passed again by the same guy and finished in 8th.  It was my teammate Jeremy Brown, aka "7ft. Marine", that I passed and was then got passed by.  We worked together during the 3rd mile which is slightly downhill for the first half before you turn around for a slightly uphill finish.  

Now, the results confuse me a bit because 7ft. made a move on me with 600m to go and I wimped out and let him go, but according to the results he beat me by 11 seconds, which seems like too much.  Also, the guy behind me is listed as 1 second behind me and, after Jeremy made his move, I looked back and saw I had about 5sec+ cushion.  I did let up about 200m to go knowing I had 8th in the bag and he could have caught me a little but I don't think Jeremy put 11sec on me in the last 600m.  The reason I am rambling is that it sort of depresses me if he put that much on me and I just didn't notice and that Fernando caught me by so much.  Granted I pulled up at the finish and I guess that's what I get for not running through the line and giving less than 100% effort to finish.  Therefore, I should not bitch about it and take it for what it was.

Preliminary team results put us in 3rd, our first loss of the season.  We only fielded 5 guys and we were missing 2 of our top 5.  Adidas/Movin Shoes showed up with a full squad which we knew was going to be trouble even if we had a full team.  The other good team, BSK/Running Center, my old team, looks to have edged us as well.  Not the greatest moment in Lost Boys history but we will rebound and pick up that important 3rd win before the championship.

Knowing the season is still another 8 weeks before the championship in November and the fact that I want to do well next week in the 10k, I think the choice in this week's effort was a good idea.  I really pushed the start, cruised solo through the middle of the race, ran hard up with switchbacks and had a good go at it with 7ft. before we took the turn for home where I sorta shut it down.  Hopefully saving that effort will reflect next weekend.  I look forward to running double the distance of this week and seeing what I can do over a 10k that is on all grass with hills, sharp turns, a gap to jump...AKA REAL XC!

Updated standings:

Individual

Team