Concord-Carlisle Meet

The meet against a massive D1 school was a serious loss for most of the team. Then again, they are D1 with some of the best runners in the whole country so it surprised nobody that they beat us by double digits. Due to constant renovation of the school and the track, it was the first time since my freshman year that I had been to this track. The actual track itself had a good feel to it. It was a new compact rubber track with a light bounce to it. I was hoping to use the good track during the race to compensate for the heat and strong winds. During warm ups I was approached by several CC runners, all of whom called me by name, to my surprise. It was actually pretty flattering to be known by the school with the #1 track team in the DCL. The CC track team always starts out pretty average as freshman; typically a time of 18:30 ish for a 5k and a 5:20 ish for a mile. Much better than I was as a freshman, but stunning that these were CC kids that I could run better than as a sophomore. But out of no where, they come back as incredible sophomores. They typically will now finish a 5k in sub-17 and usually around  a 4:40 ish for a mile. This is what scared me about running with a lot of people I remember from last year, especially now that Tyler was in it, but after strides and a lot of water I just wanted to get the race through and quick with at least a sub-5:10. At the very start of the race I found myself getting elbowed repeatedly, so I sped up ahead of the pack to avoid them. But this was unfortunate because going out too fast made the second lap especially difficult. Luckily the second lap is always the lap to conserve, even though it is hard to hold a pace when people go ahead of you and your natural instinct would be to speed up. But the third lap is where I started building up speed and began passing many CC runners. By the fourth lap I was going all out, breathing hard through my nose, and eventually was able to pass Christopher Ratcliffe, the younger brother of the legendary Thomas Ratcliffe. Then again, Chris Ratcliffe is a freshman, so I never had an excuse to finish behind him. The top time in the race was a 4:49 by one of the sophomores, and Tyler ended up breaking 5 for the second time. I was happy to learn I had clocked in a 5:03, though I was still disappointed to be the only runner in the top 4 to not break 5:00 that day. About 30 minutes after the race my coach had Tyler and I go on a, get this, 20 minute cool-down run. The problem with Tyler is that he treats every run like a Kenyan run, progressively getting faster until we were going at race pace. I survived, but just barely. I did not see us win any other running events besides a couple of sprint relays that were able to edge out CC. So it was no surprise that the next day out coach said we had been brutally massacred by them. Not the best day for the team as a whole, but overall, I'd say personally that my day could have been a lot worse.

Real first meet

The what-would-have-now-been first meet was again cancelled by Bedford hours before it was supposed to take place. So instead, my coach decided that because the weather was perfectly good enough in our opinion, which it was, we would have a mock-meet. An inter-squad competition against each other. Because we did not feel like spending as much time as at a regular meet, all distance people were put into the one mile instead of those who typically do the 800m or two-mile. The problem now was that, in every meet, I always had a couple-hour period of mentally preparing before the race. Now that I only now knew that we would still run a mock-meet, I was nervous that I would not run as well. Instead of a meet, where my adrenalin keeps up my motivation and endurance to go harder with less pain, it would be a long workout where I start at the top of my energy level and only go down from there. The only part that would make it feel like a real meet is that I had two puffs with my inhaler and had hydrated plenty over the past 24 hours. The other benefactor is that it was cold and foggy so I would not overheat, even though cold weather makes it harder to run faster because the blood thickens and cannot flow as fast. But I have always noticed that I always feel better, though not always run super well, whenever it is cold outside. And in the heat, the opposite happens; I always feel terrible for most of the race but usually end up clocking in a better time. At the start of the race, I noticed that I felt light and stable; not perfect, but stable. The entire race went by so quickly I cannot really remember anything specific about it. All I know is that I felt much better than if I were doing a workout and that I was already on the last lap in no time. To my surprise, while Vincent Dong and Tyler Morris still just narrowly beat me, I was able to run it in 5:14. Obviously not my greatest time, but for my first meet that was not even a real meet, I can't be too upset.

That was all two weeks ago. This past week over Spring Break, there was a meet scheduled at Waltham. I had just returned from Pittsburgh the day before and had only managed to get a few runs in before the day of the meet because I was gone for the two preceding practices. I was relieved to find out that Tyler would be doing the 800m instead of the mile, just one less reason to embarrass myself by losing to a freshman. My only real competition would be with Vincent. It was a boiling hot day with fast winds, the exact opposite of what you want in any running event. There were only three Waltham runners doing the one-mile compared to the ten of us Weston runners, which is a first for us. At the start of the race, I found myself stable but not breathing smoothly, it did not slow me down but certainly did not help. Vincent and one of the Waltham runners was ahead of me for the first two laps, but halfway through the third I gradually began to speed up and passed the Waltham runner. Through the fourth lap I gradually got faster and faster, I was never able to quite catch Vincent, but I only finished s quarter-second behind him, clocking in a 5:10. I would have expected faster but it wad the first actual meet of the season and the weather was miserable. Our next meet is now Wednesday the 27th at Concord Carlisle, who have been D1 for as long as I can remember. So I'm hoping to have competition to push me to go faster.

Last week before the first race

My apologies, those last two posts were posted in the wrong order.

Now then, onto the running part. I am actually glad to start the season later. I don't think that having more time to get in shape and get mentally prepared before the first race could possibly do any harm, really. Part of me was nervous for this meet 1. Because it's a race and I get nervous typically and 2. We had a very hard week last week and I thought I would be dead the second my race started. But this week has treated me fairly well. I can tell that I have been getting back into shape because I feel so much better even during hard sprint workouts and tempo-runs. My coach even told me that he noticed that my endurance has been getting higher in the last 2 weeks. And as of now our first meet is, most likely, on Tuesday the 11th against Bedford. Bedford always used to worry me because they "were" D1. But ever since last year when the seniors left in 2014, they have never been the same, frankly we've been able to beat them in Cross Country and Track because they lost all of their good runners. The only team we go up against that has had us pinned down from the very start is Concord-Carlisle; if anything our team only beat them last year because they only brought their freshman. Non of the upper-classmen were allowed to compete because they all got suspended from school for being caught with drugs and alcohol at a party by one of their parents. Plus, CC has the legendary Thomas Ratcliffe, with a 4:13 mile and a 9:06 2-mile; he has qualified for the state championship in every running event for every distance every year. I don't know how he does it but this is his senior year too, and it will be a very long time before CC has another runner like him. It was like we were when we lost Matt Herzig in 2013.

Almost time

This one is going to be a little different as well. This will not have much to do with running as there is nothing new or different to report regarding the offseason. However the offseason itself is finally coming to a close. In 5 days (March 21st) my senior and final running season of high school officially begins. It has been a long and boring offseason. I haven't been able to work out the way I used to back in the fall during XC. I can feel and see myself getting weaker and skinnier and I don't wish to lose anymore weight. My runs don't feel the way they used to and my upper-body strength has been slowly declining over the last 4 months and I haven't been able to update this blog periodically or make any exciting posts because nothing has been going on. If anything I have been far more focused on school and college and whether I even want to run after high school or not. My hope is that I will not be too far behind in shape when the season starts and we begin the harder and longer runs and workouts again. My biggest fear is that I still have not gotten the feel for running the mile since the last spring season. I am unaware of whether I still only have the mentality and fell for the 5k and that it will be embarrassing to spend the first couple of meets building up the shape for sprinting a shorter distance than getting a good mile time. The other thing that worries me is that it was last spring when my running block began which caused me to believe I had plateaued and temporarily quit running. Meanwhile the year before that is when I finally broke the 5 minute mile with a 4:51 is the DCL championships yet could not even break 5 minutes last year. I always thought it was all in my head at first but after it persisted for months, despite my parents not believing me, I knew it had to be something physical.  I went to so many doctors and attempted so many workout and dietary changes, but I never found out what in the hell could possibly have caused it. And part of me is worried that it could possibly happen again. In fact I even had a dream the there night that we were doing sprint drills and I could not follow through, and my coach just gave me an odd and disappointed look.

Spring is finally here...sort of

Outdoor track has officially begun and could not have come soon enough. Though there are differences between this year and previous seasons. Our warm-ups have changed; it used to be sets of extensions like bend-n-snaps, scoopes, high-knee skips, and shuffles. Now we do quad stretches, frankensteins, calve-raises, and running in place for endurance. Also, the workout schedule is different. It used to be a random selection by my coach of what we would be doing. Whether it be a long or short run or a workout day. I'm thankful that this past week has been fairly easy because last week was so difficult; with three sprint workout days in a row. THREE! The worst part about last week was also how warm and humid it became. You've been running in wet-heat before, you know how it is. You sweat, your shirt chafes against your chest, and the worst part is that the sweat heats up and makes you hotter and more tired. The worst part about it is that Tyler and Jillian will always make it into a Kenyan run (a run where you gradually pick up the pace until your sprinting at the end) no matter how many times my coach says to "take it easy" because we'll have a sprint workout the next day. Maybe its just me, because they seem to feel fine throughout the entire run, though me and the rest of my teammates seem to be dying throughout the run. But the only workouts we have done so far that we really hard were the sets of 800s on the track 2 weeks ago and the 600m uphill sprints we did last Tuesday. I was a bit stressed to learn that our first meet was to be on Tuesday, April 5th. Though the current and sudden change in weather has made that possibility very limited.

It's been about three days and so far the meet has been moved THREE times. It was originally scheduled for Tuesday and then April decided to leave for a while and we had a blizzard. Then it was scheduled for Wednesday but Newton-South could not get their track cleared of snow in time. It was then moved to Friday (today), and then God decided to drench us with a rainstorm yesterday and now N.S.' field is flooded like a swamp. Our meet is now postponed to May 11th. As of now our first race is this coming Tuesday, April 11th. In a way I am somewhat relieved that our meet was moved so many times. As the season started later so we were not scheduled to have as much practice time before the season officially began. Plus, with a new season comes new injuries at the beginning, and this gives the team a chance to heal and get one last week of improvement in before our first meet. Hopefully I will not take me long to get back in the rhythm of the mile and move away from the rhythm of a 5k. After all, it has been over a year since the last time I raced the mile. And over two years since I raced it well.

Aside from running

I thought I would take this week to explain the other side of my off-season workouts. Other than running, I still have to keep my upper body in check with core and lifting. Core is the easy part because there is no equipment needed; just a flat soft surface and 15 minutes of your busy day. Lifting is another story. I only have a set of 15 and 20 lb dumbbells and one 50 lb barbell. Every once in a while after my runs I will alternate between lifting and core. For lifting, I use the barbell for cleans, snatches, and curls. I then turn to my 20-pounders for benches, triceps, more curls, and forearms. Still, it can be difficult to get a decent workout when lifting really light weights, and plus the workout room at my school is way too small and always over so overcrowded that it can be impossible to get a turn on any machine. On every other day I come home from running and take a short rest before starting my core workout. My core exercises typically consists of 30 second-1 minute in-and-outs, v-ups, Russian-twists, leg-lifts, flutter kicks, and planks (both front and side). We do not typically do v-ups or flutter kicks in practice, but I find they give an extra challenge and more awarding results. After all, by doing gymnastics for 9 years up until 8th grade, I kind of got an unfair head start on getting a tough core and upper body. There are times when one of my parents will take the weights out of the room to use for themselves; to which I compensate with true improvisation. Out of major desperation, I use an old huge and heavy empty liquor bottle that used to belong to my grandfather and do my curls and forearms with that instead. This is leading me to the idea of spending a little extra money when I get older to have my own small home workout room. After all I feel like it would be worth it not to have to spend more money in the long run on a gym membership like my fitness-crazed mother. I don't want to have to keep trying to make room for myself in my own bedroom for doing home workouts, and a gym membership is 1. Expensive and 2. Embarrassing if you lift less than others around you or forget how to use a machine (I know, I hold myself to a higher standard than I should, but you still get it). The sad thing is that it has been a long time since I have had a period of tie where I a consistently in the weight room. Due to time and scheduling, being a high school senior and all, I haven't had more time for non-school related issues. But I hope to get back on track (literally) this spring; which by the way has now been delayed to March 21st. Just my luck, right?

Almost time for the season

Part of me was almost nervous to run again in that same area in my neighborhood for fear of falling trees. After all, I had already been stopped by the police while driving to and from school for tree work areas and had to go an alternate route. I still find it difficult to update this blog because, lucky for me, outdoor track is beginning very late this year and will be the shortest season for this year. What a way to end my last high school running season. In the meantime the Coach Monz sent out an email of the indoor track banquet (which I will most likely not be attending) on March 17th. Funny because the new outdoor season starts on the 18th. As opposed the March 6th when it usually starts. Monz sent out an email detailing a workout schedule of slowly building up on the time for runs and then ending the week with a shorter but faster tempo run. And as the weeks go on, slowly growing toward Kenyan runs. While distance rarely goes into the weight room, as bulging muscles make it awkward to run distance events, he did add cleans, deadlifts, and running arms. He also added core exercises with v-ups, planks, Russian-twists, and lunge curls. He also reminded us to warm up, stretch out, and use a foam roller before and after workouts. At some point, he also wanted us to do hill sprints either up at Regis College or any either hilly spot we can get to. Lucky for me I have been doing all of this all along, and I was grateful to my dad for recommending running the Meadowbrooke hills for the last 4 weeks. They suck a@# but they are worth it to stay in good running shape.
But after two straight days of 4+ mile runs, I decided to take a short day. I just went around Loring Rd and Summer St, back to Meadowbrooke and back down to my house: in total about 2-2.5 miles. The other thing that can keep me from actually going out and running is the ever-changing weather (people from Boston will understand); it will be 30 degrees one day and then 65 the next. Constantly breathing in cold or hot air will make running uncomfortable and make my chest ache. This is why I try to run in the afternoon on cold days and at night on warm days. Plus running very early or very late eliminates the possibility of seeing someone from school on the road. During each of my shorter runs, I go up to my local aqueduct and take a short 5-minute rest before cutting through the forest (my shortcut) and jogging back to my house. It can be hard to keep this up without a specific schedule and writing about these runs when you forget everything as soon as its over doesn't help me.