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.

Storm Run

This post is being written in real time simply because I just received an email from the other coach. Apparently against my word, my father had emailed him to tell him (in a polite way) to not give me such a hard time about not competing this season. My father had told him that me and the top coach had already worked it out and that "it would be great" if the two of us could just move in from there and stop arguing with each other. At first I was infuriated and a little bit scared, but my older brother (who has a very big eye for public acceptance) and my dad both assured me that it was written in a very friendly way. Plus he said that the other coach had already responded with an apology, claiming that he "was just kidding" the entire time. But I have to admit, from then on, we simply never spoke to me another during practice. But I did see him eyeballing me every now and then. Part of me honestly felt pretty terrible that I had pretty much ruined a relationship between me and a coach who had such a good friendship with me during my early days as a runner.
Speaking of running, I recently found myself in a fairly perilous situation when I decided to be stupid and not check the weather forecast for this past week. I decided that I had taken too many shorter-run days and decided to go my usual 4-mile Lands-Sake Farm run through the golf course, past the town center, and around Newton St all the way back to my house. What I did not know is that about one mile int my run I would be met with an extreme rainstorm. The worst part abut it being wet and windy was that it was also 45 degrees (which is pretty good considering the winter New England has had this past year). I usually like running in the rain, but not when a car runs through a puddle and splashes the hell out of you. The worst part came a the very end: I saw in the distant woods and tree fall down and then there was a loud cracking sound on one of the trees above me. Then it gave way, I'm lucky I had energy that day, because I had to sprint so fast to dodge that massive tree. Lucky for me that was the only tree that fell down that day, but I didn't know that at the time. So I stayed in the middle of the road whenever there were no cars to dodge more possible falling trees on the sidewalk. I was in fat even more lucky when I made it home, as I heard the first loud instance of thunder as soon as I stepped through basement door.

Offseason solo-runs

I have recently began to run on my own now that indoor has ended for my brother and the vast majority of the team, who did not qualify for the state championships once again this year. It reminds me of outdoor sophomore year when I ran a qualifying time of 4:51 in the varsity one-mile. The original qualifying time for states was a 4:55, but there was one problem. So many other runners had great days state wide that day alone that way too many people had qualified; thus the qualifying time wad then changed to 4:46, where it has remained ever since. The past 4-5 runs on my own have been better due to the weather temporarily warming up. I cannot remember the last time in was in the high 50s during late January in Massachusetts. I am usually not my best when running alone, on one hand I have the benefit of being able to stop when I'm tired if I feel the need to do so. But on the other,  I have nobody to communicate with and keep me going for longer, plus I cannot make water breaks for myself unless I feel like spending hours setting up water checkpoints before I start each of my runs. The only other major problem I have with my neighborhood specifically is how hilly it is. It is pretty much impossible even for me to do even a short 2-mile at an average pace without tiring myself out. My neighborhood was built on a large tectonic area and therefore there is basically no flat land unless you spend thousands hiring landscapers to make it for you, like the Meadowbrook School with their soccer field. But I try to make the best out of it.  I haven't said it yet, but one of my neighbors is the legendary Garrett O'Toole, who I sometimes say hello to as we pass each other on our runs. Every once in a while, I would see him doing sprint drills up the long hill of Meadowbrook Road; my father and I agreed that doing the same would greatly help my sprinting and endurance. So I began doing them as well; of course not with him (I wouldn't want to look like I was stealing from him). Needless to say they have helped quite a lot, the set I do consists of three sets of three, each one a little bit faster than the last. I'm not going to lie to you and say that it is easy. Believe me, it is a huge pain in the neck, but "no pain no gain." There are times when I seriously consider skipping it, sometimes I actually do; however, I do not want to cheat myself. And I will keep this up until outdoor. After moving on from whatever I suffered from last year, I am looking to have the best season of my high-school career this Spring.

Done

I recently decided to make the change to stopping indoor practices and running on my own instead. This comes after multiple controversial arguments with one of the assistant coaches that was upset that I was still showing up to practice every now and then yet doing nothing to help the team by not coming to meets. I almost took it as a compliment at first when he said that I was the force that could always lead us to victory in years before. He said I could always help them win or come closer to winning each meet. So far, for the rest of the team, we have less wins and more ties than in years before. I understand that this coach is upset that I am no longer present to help the team squeeze out those few extra points to bring the team into the lead. However, this dilemma was already worked out between me and my coach weeks ago and it was working fine for me until the assistant decided to get involved. I told him that I appreciate it and the only reason why I am still even on the team is to stay in shape between cross-country and the outdoor season, which I will compete in. But, (and I know this sounds incredibly mean), if it really all comes down to just me and the points that I would score in an indoor meet that would lead the team to victory, I cannot help but think that's a signal that maybe some members of the team need to improve as well. It still bothers me when I think about it now, even though my teammates watched the entire argument and some even vouched for me. However, after that one day, I made the false accusation that that was the last time that I would ever get in a confrontation with this coach.
I was wrong, I made the decision yesterday after one last and final fight between us. I ended up getting loud, saying "Well it doesn't matter, Coach Monz and I already worked this whole thing out! I'm gonna keep coming to practice and if you don't like it, then that's too bad for you!"
"Excuse me? I am your coach!"
"No, Monz is my coach, you and I have never worked together before, you're opinion doesn't matter to me! This is between me and Monz, so just stay the hell out of it!"
He walked away, so quietly, and I saw other members of the team looking at us, them immediately turn around as soon as I looked at them. After leaving practice that day, I decided on the drive home that the assistant coach was right; if I wasn't going to compete and help the team win then I really did not have any place going there. Therefore, I will continue to run on my own time and over the weekends. This would also give me more free time for homework and social gatherings. I'm still finding it difficult to find time to run on my own before it gets dark. I'm hoping that days will get longer and that it warms up outside within the next bit of time before March when the outdoor season begins.

Settling

Before setting out for a long run our second week of practice, my coach did not assign me a group. Instead, he told me to follow him to his car and that he wanted to have a talk with me. I got nervous when he started the conversation with "I'm hoping that this is something you'll understand." "I know you don't want to run in any meets", he said. I told him that my reason for not competing was not that I did not want to, but that the indoor air (regardless of how well the fumigation tests) always makes me very sick and it takes upwards of 4-6 months to heal completely. If not for my sensitivity to the air, I would have been more than happy to compete. My coach began to tell me that because he believes that all I had done for the track and cross-country team over the years, I had basically become an important symbol to the rest of my younger teammates. And he told me that if I was not going to run, then he did not want me to show up to practice as often. He claimed that this was because having me around all the time would give a false impression to the others that I would be one to help lead us to a wide range of wins for the season. While I had given it my best attempt in the past, I could never run a race too well on too-small an arena.And the worst part was getting hopelessly sick for months and I would end up missing the vast majority of the season anyway. When my parents found out, they strongly disagreed; I honesty had the sam thoughts as them but my coach and I have built a very good relationship over the past 4 years, and i would not want to jeopardize that by creating any controversy with him. On a more positive note, my younger brother just had his first race ever last night at the Boston University indoor facility and while he did fairly well with a 6:03 mile (it's his first race, cut him some slack) he kept complaining about how dry his nose and throat felt and he probably could have broken 6-minutes is the air had not been so poorly fumigated. I kind of feel bad for this next part, but I have to admit that I was surprised to hear about my brother's time. I hate to say it but I would have assumed he would have been somewhere in the high 7's or even possibly dropped out of the race. But he said that running with his other sophomore friends made it less frightening and made him feel naturally more compelled to stick with them. He unfortunately could not end up beating any of them, but at least he did not finish in last overall. It came to a big surprise that my brother could hit around the 6-minute mark when I noticed him struggling in practice almost every day. Then again, he does share practically the same DNA as me.