fuck this season

more stuff

thursday
*45 minutes & then 2 fast toploops
i fell off after we went into the nature trails. shins were killing me. i ran back up the bw (they went up fw), went to mile mark & did the first toploop from there (9:13), i stayed up for the second one too (8:51). felt like a dick for falling off and then catching up but you gotta do what you gotta do,

friday
35 minutes premeet. had some pretty bad cramps.

saturday
bernie magee class meet. EPIC. so glad i decided to run this. i hit 18:52.7 for 5250m, which is a 17:58c for 5k.....YESSSSS! i finally broke 18!!!* even if it is w/ an asterik lol

race went out pretty well. i got out hard so i wouldn't get raped on the first post. i got shoved turning aroung to post but i shoved back lol. i didn't know any of my splits, i heard some but they weren't accurate. i started out behind jon tai & kyle & caught them both. i was dead the last mile. i completly died on the track lap but still managed to finish 58th...8 places shy of a medal.

pros: got out hard, raced like an animaln ran first two miles really well
negs: gave up last mile. should've tried to catch friggly

george won the sr race & the sr team got first. beastly. george ran about the same time as andrew brodeur & dan stiles last year....he's gonna be amazing. his splits were 5:02, 5:08. his last 2050m or so were in 4:45 pace. he beat 2nd place by 20 seconds....i smell a sub-16 at holmdel.

results:
george - 16:14 - 15:27c
robby - 17:04 - 16:15c
ollie - 17:26 - 16:36c
bert - 18:00 - 17:08c
aaron - 18:01 - 17:09c
stefan - 18:02 - 17:10c
kerl - 18:15 - 17:21c
sean - 18:22 - 17:29c
friggly - 18:32 - 17:39c
miracle - 18:52 - 17:58c
me - 18:52 - 17:58c
jc - 19:00 - 18:05c
karl - 19:01 - 18:06c
jon tai - 19:04 - 18:09c
kyle - 19:07 - 18:12c
arthur - 19:11 - 18:16c
tsang - 19:22 - 18:26c

overdue update

wow i haven't updated in a long time. 

so last week was one of my best weeks yet. 

monday - long run. stayed up until we came out of nature trails. didn't really try that hard. 

tuesday - 4 toploops w/ group 1. felt awesome. major confidence booster. 

wednesday - 2x3200. 11:53, 11:47. behind sean & dave. very good workout.

thursday & friday - recovery/easy runs...did not try at all

saturday - fw in 3:31, 7x300 = death

this week

monday - 45 min premeet

tuesday - rbc dual. we lost b/c robby & sean got outkicked but it's all good. we'll kick their asses come november. geoge won by 22 seconds after losing his shoe. i pb'd by 15 seconds (19:15)....could've ran so much faster if i had gone out more aggresively. my forevers are a half size too big -_-. o well i always have my kilkennys >>.

runners of the day: george, robby, jon tsand (12:33 holy shit), jmac (12:59)

wednesday - 4 toploops moderate. felt dead.

preseaon rankings (as of 9/6)

these are imo. very subject to change. trying not to be biased. based on recent performance (not track)

top 20ish
*sean - injured, not sure (anywhere from 3-6)
1. george - still on top
2. hoffman - drastically improved over the summer, slightly ahead of oliver
3. oliver - got injured but still ran super fast
4. bert - great improvement in spring/summer
5. aaron - idk how he managed to stay in shape over spring but he is fit
6. kerl - been running w/ group 1 a lot lately
7. stefan - toe injury hampered him a bit but def. still top 1-2 for jv, lookin the gun down kerl
8. kyle - great improvement recently, been leading group 2 consistentley
9. dave sun - came out of nowhere recentley, staying up quite well
10. me - started strong, went downwards (heath camp & time trial), ran great this week, need to learn to race better
11. sam - was in top 3 for jv/top 10 for a while in mid-summer but has faltered a little lately, still in def contention for top 10
12. jc - consistently in top 5 for jv, started off summer bad, improved to top 5 & has stayed there
13. jon tai - needs more confidence, should be looking to varsity esp after spring
14. karl - i feel like he's burned out from tons of miles. has base, but needs speed
15. friggly - good but hasn't really been in contention for top 10/top 5 jv all summer, occasionally shows glimpses of brilliance but is very inconsistent
16. arthur - borderline group 2/3 right now. races well.
17. miracle - recovering from injury. races very well.
19. jon tsang - got out of shape on vacation but has been right behind miracle for a while now
20. sam walter
21. brian
22. darren

froshies to look at for: fodor, jmac, dawei, thakker

3 fw/bw workout

8:05 (*8:00) - stayed up, a little off of pace (8:00) at beginning but didn't want to sprint all out. behind kyle, jon tai, friggly, karl, dave sun, stefan

8:15 (*7:5-x) - fell off pace towards end of backwoods (8:00). everyone except kyle, stefan, dave & me dropped back on the start field.....behind kyle, stefan, finished w/ dave.

8:10 (*7:4x-5x) - went out charging, shared lead w/ stefan in fw, surge a few times up hills. led until first downhill in bw, after big surge to help pace. finished 10 seconds off pace (8:00). behind kyle, stefan, dave sun.

first week of september

wednesday
2 fw/bw

8:25 (*8:30): good pacing by kyle finally
8:20 (*8:15): picked up a little, pretty good; kyle, sean, sam, dave sun & me up

1/2 loughran loop job to starting line

8:05: nice & fast, so close to breaking 8

kyle & sean - 7:33
dave sun - 7:53
me: 8:05

felt pretty good, nothing sore, nothing aching

thursday
so hot out.

4 toploops (*6 toploops starting @ 10:00)

10:00 - went out decent, sam liu paced
9:55 - people started falling off, sam, kyle, stefan, dave sun up
10:05 - arthur, me, kyle, stefan...kyle fell off..everyone way back, i was way out in front
10:00 - kyle caught back up to me & we finished together. stopped after this one b/c i didn't want to pass out lol

stuff

sunday
bad tempo run

toploops - 9:11, 9:45
biggie loop: 13:5x

monday
lol 3 meadowwood loops @ 8:20 pace

today
toploop moderdate day
fucking kyle & aaron

9:55..felt slow but picked it up at the end
9:15...felt good but.....wtf
9:20...tired...but still up at this point
10:15...coach told me and karl to lay off
10:3x-4x...didn't finish, went backwards at little tennis court hill/stump
2:45 (1-mile mark to finish, around .4-.5 miles)...finish w/ robby

so basically the run went like this. stayed up till start of 4th one where aaron, kerl, oliver, kyle jumped on w/ group 1. everyone fell off after 2nd or 3rd one except those 4 + me & karl. ran w/ karl for 4th one, slowed down a lot but still way ahead of everyone else in group 2. coach told us to stop & go slow aroung 10:00 for 5th one. went way slow & stopped & went back, finished w/ robby. kinda stupid. tomorrow is our hard day. fuck.

total - 8 miles @ 6:32 pace
w/0 last 1...6 miles @ 6:39
first 3.....4.5 miles @ 6:22

burned out & frustrated

2 fw/bw - 9:16, 9:23....simply horrendous

my running has been pretty bad lately. bad week @ heath, disappointing time trial....
this always happens to me. i start out a season in great shape & either burn out or never improve or get worse. i really don't know what to do. i've debated quitting a couple of times but i know i'm not going to. just gotta hang in there...

heath camp & time trial

heath camp

1st day - went out w/ group 2...got dropped in first 8 minutes, caught by group 3, finished w/ group 3

2nd day - ran w/ group 3 for 27 minutes, ran back w/ group 2, 3 minutes behind pace, 54 total

3rd day - ran w/ group 3, got dropped

4th day - easy day, got dropped by jc

5th day - long run, 12 miles, went out too fast so i decided to stay behind, fell way off, more than 10 minutes off pace

6th day - went out 20 minutes, came back in 17

so i pretty much got owned. hills weren't as bad as i thought but there were two killer ones in the end.

time trial: 12:58
not that good of a day. i wanted to go like 12:20ish. didn't happen. i went out w/ arthur & miracle & pounded to front woods. i died after the freshman hill & got passed by arthur & miracle in the backwoods. i made up ground in the kill zone & finished 12:58 to miracle's 12:55 & arthur's 12:52.

some results that i remember

george - dnf, lost shoe, was w/ lampell probably would've went 10:4x
robby - 11:5x
oliver - 11:42
aaron - 11:58
stefan - 12:13
sean - 12:06
bert - 12:20
dave sun - 12:3x
sam liu - 12:31
jc - 13:06
karl - 13:03
kerl: 12:3x-4x?
kyle: 12:3x-4x?
miracle: 12:55
arthur: 12:52
lampell: 10:42
jayram: 10:52

bad news: i lost to basically everyone in my group + arthur & miracle whom i've been ahead of this whole summer & i didn't reach my goal

good news: i broke 13, pb'd, and beat karl & jc, whom both owned me in heath camp

i didn't really expect to run that fast because i haven't been doing any speed work at all, only base. i really don't know what direction i should head in now. my base is not as strong as i thought it was after going through heath camp & my speed is nowhere near race level right now. i need to focus & keep working.

45 minutes @ thompson (cross farms)

went out ok...was in front pack...kind of a mistake because i fell back towards the end. rolled my ankle for like the 15th time in the reservoir trail but it wasn't anything serious. a little faster than i would have liked to go for a "moderate" day but still ok in the end. jon tsang ran w/ us...he stayed up very well. him & brian should run w/ us more if they wanna run low 18:00's. time trial is on the 28th i think...pretty stoked but kind of nervous as it will be my first race in a long time.

goal is still 11:45 although i don't think i'm in that kind of shape. i'm in like 12:1x-12:2x shape right now but i'm still gonna go after 11:45. ordered the forever xc's but i don't know if they will come in time for the time trial....if they don't...i will be pissed. it's more of a psychological thing (better spikes = faster) lol but i don't wanna wear the kilkennys again.

taking tomorrow off as it will be my only day off for a while (till after the time trial at least). camp will we very....difficult & challenging but i must surpass my limits lawlz. sticking up w/ cba on a 14 mile run?...idk we'll see....

75 minutes

too fast. kyle pushed from the beginning & went out too fast. coach said to go out in like 8:00 minute pace & then work out way down. we probably went out in like 7:2x pace. we went into nature trails after starting from the school & running through the arboretum and then came out on the road to village school, went back into nature trails, ran back to school, did a school loop, and ran a lap on the track. the front pack consisted of kyle, sam, jc, friggly in the beginning, but friggly eventually fell off right towards the end. karl, dave sun, and jon tai fell off (jon tai was in the front pack for quite a bit). i was the chase pack i guess. jc stayed up very well, he's been showing a huge progress lately. i was pretty pissed that we went out too fast & went back even faster, but i guess in the end, it will make me better.

10.x(5?) in 75 minutes or so.

so...mathematically calculated....i hate it when kyle paces....but he's better than me so...tough luck

idk how stefan stays in such good shape running 4 days a week. i've been doing 30-50s & still can't keep up with him. ugh...my efforts once again are futile.

so...apparently heath camp was like today (long, hard runs) + a million hills + cba + heat + pavement + fuck i'm totally screwed. well let's assess the situation shall we?

long runs (+): well i've already a 10 miles @ 7:07, a 12 miler @ 7:36, a 10 miler @ 7:09, a 12.5 miler @ 7:13, a 10 miler @ 6:51, a 10 miler @ 7:13. i think i'm pretty decent at the long run...but these times are w/ breaks in between (crossing the street). however, i find as long as i run smart (don't go out crazy) i can always do well at the long run.

hills (-): fuck....i hate hills. fuck the start hill, fuck that little shitter at the top of the bowl hill. apparently these hills are like every hill at heath camp and there's supposed to be a gigantic mother of a hill that never ends & is like the start hill....fan-fucking-tastic

cba (?/-): not sure...this is an opportunity to assess my fitness against my greatest opponent to come in xc. these are the guys i'm gonna be facing (hines, bohny, costa, bogan, mykityshyn, mazz?) come october/november.......not sure on this one but probably a (-)....

heat (-): i'm not too good at running in 80-90+ but i can stand it...

pavement (+): i've been training on pavement my entire short career as a runner...i'm pretty used to it by now.

so that makes 2 (+), 3 (-)...not too bad. but yea, i'm fucked.

ok ten miler

72:09 = 7:13 pace

1st - 17:52 (7:08 pace)
2nd - 18:06 (7:14 pace)
3rd - 17:44 (7:05 pace)
4th - 18:40 (7:28 pace)

could've gone way faster if i had actually tried on the 3rd & 4th ones. doesn't matter. just a moderate run.

terrible

*4 fw/bw - 9:00, 8:45, 8:30, 8:15

3 fw/bw - 9:08, 8:49, 9:41....wtf

calves were dead after 2nd one...went backwards & died on 3rd one...shitty week

treadmill run

practice at cross farms canceled today due to rain. i hate running on my treadmill. it's in the basement & there's like no ac or oxygen....jk! but really...it sucks. ran 4 miles moderate. supposedly went 8 minute pace but actually felt harder...more like sub-7 to 7:1x ish. running on a treadmill & running outside is very different.

so...i'm not gonna be able to hit 6x miles this week...i'll just try to go for 45-50.

bad day

3 toploops - supposed to go 9:15, 9:00, 8:45

9:20
9:11
9:46...absolutely terrible

i tried to lay back and conserve for the first two...but made a bad early move at the end of the second one w/ about 500m to go. felt terrible going into the last one. finished 6th in group 2 behind kyle, stefan, karl, friggly, and sam. ugh...

cons: ran poorly, let a lot of ppl beat me
pros: beat jc & dave sun

possible explanation for my dead legs: coming off two 50 mile weeks, haven't done toploops for a while or tempo runs, calves were really sore after monday.

ouch

loughran-2 courses-loughran-run back to school

first course - 23:3x
2nd - 21:3x

stayed back w/ karl on first one..started catching ppl after bowl hill. caught jon tai, then stefan, then kyle & friggly, then dave sun. jc stayed up really well....we would've caught sam if we did another fw/bw.

my calves are killing me right now. they started hurting after the 2nd varsity course.....i'm gonna take tomorrow off...can't risk injury in the middle of base building & right before heath camp

5x1mile + 4x800

6:01
6:03
6:01
6:03
6:02
3:01
3:03
2:58
2:57

wanted to do 6 milers but i cramped up on the 6th one & just did 800s after that. felt kinda tight.

4 target loops

10 miles in 68:33!!!

1st loop - 17:34 (7:02 pace)
2nd loop - 17:20 (6:56 pace)
3rd loop - 17:06 (6:50 pace)
4th loop - 16:33 (6:37 pace)

felt ok... a little sluggish in the beginning. picked it up the 2nd & 3rd one & just sprinted the last one. very good. far beyond my expectations. 17:30 is mine!

4 fw/bw

so no toploops today. coach wants us to run the start hill more which is good because that's my weak point on the course. i wore my sinisters because i thought we were doing a fast tempo run.

1st one - 8:56 (supposed to be 9:00)
2nd - 8:47 (8:45)
3rd - 8:3x? (8:30)
4th - 8:4x? (8:15)

so i stayed back on the first two...felt like a jog actually. i moved up on the third one...at that point it was sam, jon tai, stefan, dave sun & me. 4th one i fell off a little on the start hill & passed jon tai. jon tai caught back up to me in the backwoods & i ended up going with him till the end. we were like 10-20 seconds off the pace. i'm improving by a lot lately. today didn't feel hard at all although i probably should've pushed myself to stay up. if i keep this up....17:30 should be in the bag.

cross training & other stuff

so i haven't done like any cross training this summer.

i've decided to do the hundredpushups.com plan as a start. i did 40 pushups for the initial test...which is 10 less then i was able to do last year...running has made my upper body scrawny & weak lulz

i should probably start a core routine too...idk we'll see

i also signed up for heath camp...should be fun if i don't raped too badly by a combination of heat, hills, and cba.

2 varsity courses + 2 fw/bw

9.5 miles in 1:06:55...felt AWESOME! (7:02 pace)

group 2 was sean, kerl, kyle, miracle, aaron, karl, jon tai, stefan, friggly, jc, dave sun, sam

we went out too fast for the first varsity course..like 21 high. like right on the start hill of the second one jon tai, friggly, and a bunch of other ppl dropped off...i ran alone until i was caught by aaron & karl & then stefan in the meadow/beginning of the bowl. stefan passed me up the bowl hill but then i passed him afterwards. i drafted off this fast girl in the backwoods and caught sam liu on the start of the first fw/bw. i caught karl at the very end of the first fw/bw and sprinted the final fw/bw. the longs runs are definitely paying off cuz i didn't feel like any lactic acid today and it didn't even seem that hard of a run.

kerl's back and he's in amazing shape. i don't know how him, oliver, and aaron stay in shape running by themselves haha.

i finished 4th total in my group (behind sean, aaron, and kerl). great run.

stuff

wednesday
wanted to do a 4x2 mile workout but raritan & holmdel tracks were bring used so i just did toploops. did 2x2 toploops. forget splits but slower than i wanted. 6:24 pace total.

thursday
went to thompson park & ran with george, robby, jayrom, craig, sam liu, and jon tai......i got raped. i fell off after 23-24 minutes. i estimate around 6:45 pace cuz i slowed down alot after i fell off.

friday
5 target loops - 12.5 miles

1st - 17:30 (7:00 pace)
2nd - 17:50 (7:08 pace)
3rd - 18:10 (7:16 pace)
4th - 18:45 (7:30 pace)
5th - 18:07 (7:14 pace)

total pace - 7:13

i went out way to fast and positive split by alot. still a very good run though. i intended to hit 7:30 pace....went way faster

saturday
track workout at raritan.

2x2miles, 3x1 miles, 2x800

first 2 mile - 12:24
2nd 2 mile - 12:22
1st miler - 6:14
2nd miler - 6:10
3rd miler - 6:12
1st 800 - 3:07
2nd 800 - 3:01

total - 8 miles @ 6:11 pace

sunday
2 target loops/5 miles easy/ very slow

morning 10 miler

4 target loops "moderate-hard" near aerobic threshold.

each loop was 2.5 miles

1st loop - 18:00 (7:12 pace)
2nd loop - 18:30 (7:24 pace)
3rd loop - 18:00 (7:12 pace)
4th loop - 17:00 (6:48 pace)

huge negative split =D

felt ok, kinda tired cuz it was early but o well...good run

i really wanna do 10 miles in under 70 minutes by the end of this summer...that would be sick

back from vacation

running in cali sucked....the hills are crazy. i ran a total of 16 miles over 6 days lol.

friday i did 10 miles @ 7:07/mile. i stopped after 3.5 to stretch my IT band and felt fine the rest of the run.

today i did 12.1 miles @ 7:36/mile. felt bad in the beginning but ok at the end...still gotta do like 12 more tomorrow to get around 45 miles for the week -_-

lol sam...i meant i did 16 miles in 6 days...that's like less than 3 miles a day haha...and i only did 30 miles last week ><

3 tops, 1 frosh

supposed to do: 4 tops starting @ 9:20 & dropping 10 seconds each

we went out in 9:40, then dropped a lot so i felt an overwhelming amount of lactic acid on the second one & jogged a frosh loop for the third one. after i stretched out, i felt fine & finished the fourth one a little behind.

i ended up doing 5.4 miles @ 6:28 pace....not that bad but not good either

conclusion: i need more tempo runs/ speedwork

mid-week update

monday
scheduled to do 4 fw/bw starting at 9:10 and taking like 10 seconds off each time. i stayed up for the first two (9:05, 8:42) and fell off right on the start hill for the last one. in time i will be able to run consecutive start hills but man did it hurt on monday.

tuesday
51:30 run in thompson. stayed in the front for the first of the reservoir trail and then moved back when we did the mile loop on the way back through the reservoir trail. then caught up w/ the front on the way back but fell off a little for the last 10 minutes which was crazy fast cuz sam liu went crazy. caught up w/ kyle right before we ended.

wednesday
3 biggie loops, 2 toploops (around 9 miles) in 64 minutes. (7:06/mile). felt pretty good in the beginning, gutted out last 3.5 miles. cba is looking really good...shit

yea...

thursday
group 2 went w/ group 1 to do 3 of 4 toploops. we were supposed to go out in 9:10 and then knock 10 seconds off each time....instead we went out in 8:45...-_-

i managed to stay up on the first one and fell off on the second one. i finished 3rd in my group behind stefan & dave sun. my total time was 28:04 (avg 9:20 toploop) so i slowed down a lot. even tho i felt terrible from going out so fast, i still finished in front of a lot of ppl who are better than me(kyle, sam, karl, friggly, etc.)

friday
tried to do a 10 mile lsd at like 7:30 pace. felt too tight and only did 5.5 at 7:50 pace...yea

july update & stuff

so...things have been pretty good. i've been staying up in group 2 (lower varsity/upper jv). i'm 13th man on the team now. i think our jv will be really good next year, even better than last years. our varsity will be the best in school history but we might not even win sectionals. wwpnorth is pretty insane. i did some research and i came up w/ this list.

2008 XC Group 3

This is a comparison of how Holmdel stacks up against the top Group 3 teams in the state. (Teams that beat Holmdel in the 2008 NJ Meet of Champs)

Holmdel (Central Jersey) Top 5

Galasso (Sr) – 16:22

Song (Jr) – 17:12

Hoffman (Sr) – 17:31

S.Monga (Sr) – 17:32

A.Sun (Sr) – 18:03c

Five Man Average – 17:20

West-Windsor Plainsborough North (Central Jersey) Top 5

Joe Rosa (So) – 16:16

Corkedale (Sr) – 16:50

Squeri (Jr) – 16:53

James Rosa (So) – 17:08

Ellwood??? – 17:41c

Five Man Average – 16:58

Morris Hills (North Jersey) Top 5

Poherence (Sr) – 16:11

Tansey (Sr) – 16:30

Hendrickson (Sr) – 16:54

Chiusano (Sr) – 17:15

Bararro (Sr) – 17:25

Five Man Average – 16:51

Millburn (North Jersey) Top 5

Udland (Jr) – 16:22

Kirschner (Sr) – 16:48

Robinson (Jr) – 17:06

Murphy (Fr) – 17:47

???

Four Man Average – 17:00

Moorestown (Central Jersey) Top 5

Greenwood (Jr) – 17:09

B. Friedman (Sr) – 17:12

Ringwood (Sr) – 17:23

Matteson (Sr) – 17:38

Wolff (Sr) – 17:59

Five Man Average – 17:28

so as you can see....we're are kinda screwed.

change of plans & getting back on track

so i guess i was right, last week was just a fluke. monday i stayed up ok for a toploop & a biggie loop considering i can't climb hills for my life. today was a very good run in the thompson park trails although i fell and got some scratches on my leg. 45 minutes at around 7:00-7:15 pace. felt comfortable but not easy b/c my right achilles was a little bitchy.

in other news, lagat totally owned the 5000 as i expected. no one can touch his kick at this point. manzano outkicked him last year in US champs but i really doubt that he will again. webb is...idk.

im totally changing my summer running plans. instead of doing mccaffs tempo runs/moderate run plan at incredibly fast paces (6:20-6:30), im going w/ long, hard runs at moderate to hard paces (7:00-7:30). so tomorrow i will do a nice 8-10 miler. for speed and tempo runs, ill just do w/e mccaff tells us to do at practice. this is kinda like karl's plan except im gradually building up to more mileage & im not going at a slow pace.

ive finally decided on an xc spike: Nike Zoom Forever XC in black/yellow/blue/white. i can get em cheap for $50 on eastbay.

now that my running is back on track, the next step is to bring it to the next level.

another failure

what is happening to me? today was supposed to be my makeup day for the tempo run i missed (4 miles @ 6:20 pace) instead, i get 4 miles @ 7:00 pace.

i did 2 meadowwood loops 7 then 2 smaller ones (.22 cut off)

first one (bigger: 1.12 miles) - 7:08 (6:20 pace) on pace
second one (bigger 1.12 miles) - 7:40 (6:49 pace)
last two (smaller: 1.82 miles) - 13:5x (around 7:35-7:40 pace)

i dont know what the fuck is happening. my legs felt ok after the first one. i slowed a lot on the second and after that i was like o shit. the last one i was completely dead.

how the fuck am i supposed to run 17:30 at holmdel if i can't even run 4 miles at fucking 6:20 pace? i wasn't just a couple of second off either...i was fucking 40 seconds off pace each mile! wtf. i dont know what happened. last week was great. i ran really fast without much effort. these last three days have been horrible.

possible reasons
-i've been running with myself and i'm not good at pacing when running by myself, but still...40 seconds of pace?!?
-i was running on pavement, which i'm not good at.

despite these reasons....i was still incredibly off pace. i'm so pissed right now i can't even describe it. i really hope this is just from a lack of rest or just shot phase..i guess i'll find out monday.

worst run so far - 2 meaddowood loops.

terrible just terrible. it was pouring. my legs just felt dead. quads, shins, calves all dead.

first one - 7:07 (6:21 pace)
second one - 8:23 (7:30 pace)

i need more rest from hill running.

june xc update

haven't update in a while.

wednesday
hardest run so far.
2 toploops - 9:15, 9:30
1 freshman - 5:18ish

thursday
2 frontwoods/backwoods - 9:00, 8:45

friday - first bad day
5 mile trail moderate. hills were bad. achilles started acting up again, calves tight....not going near hills for a while


ultimate xc spike haha

30 min & 2 meadowwood loops

30 min w/ group two. i dont know why mccaff didnt put me in group one. oh well. i still ran pretty fast and dropped everyone except brian & sam.

did 2 meaddowwood loops after practice. felt ok.

2 toploops & 2 meadowwood loops

first day of xc practice. mccaff put me in lower group so i did 2 toploops then jogged back adn did 1/2 mile.

first one - 9:15 (6:10 pace)
second one - around 9:30-9:40ish (didnt have watch)

did 2 meadowwood loops to keep my mileage up. did then moderate pace. left quad hurt a bit for a sec. felt ok/hard

4 meaddowood loops

felt ok.

splits
8:2x
8:00
8:2x
8:2x

rolled my ankle right before the start of the last one.

3 meadowwood loops

ran 3 w/ tai. slow on the first one, picked it up on the last two. fell behind a little, was pretty beat up from yesterday's crazy pace. pretty good tho. 6:24/mile for 3.4 miles. i def think that a meadowwood loop is harder than a normal 1.x mile. it feels so much slower. i'd estimate it's the same time as like 1.25 miles but w/e.

2 toploops

felt very good. ran with stefan, aaron, and sam. aaron pushed the pace and we went really fast. felt a lot better than monday.

avg. 6:11/mile

5 meadowwood loops = 5.7

felt kinda bad today b/c my quads were tight. gotta stretch more, everything else felt ok. hit around 8:00 8:08, 8:20-30, 8:10, 7:30. managed to negative split it so that was good. average mile was around 7:06.

first official day of xc: 3 miles

lol i'm so out of shape.

supposed to do 3 miles @ 6:30 pace or 2 toploops @ 9:45

instead i did a toploop in 9:45 & a toploop in 10:00 which is 6:34 pace

i strained at the end of the second one..o well could've been worse.

5:01

so spring track is officially over. my race was...ok. i gave a good effort but didn't go out and really race enough. i was in a slower heat so i just went with the leaders and tried to hang on. i should have taken pace at some points. the last lap was way slow i went 70, 76,78,77. i need to finish and really kick. next winter: 4:50

this season has been pretty....bad. i got injured right at the beginning and just started getting back in shape at the end. i only ran two 1600s so its ok. no varsity letter for me but that's ok...it's just more motivation for xc.

this summer is going to be awesome

45 minutes

5 meadow wood loops
9:00
9:00
8:35
8:35
7:28

i am fired up for wednesday!

10 miles

did 10 mile long run in 73 minutes 12 seconds which is 7:19 per mile. i did a biggie loop, 3 toploops, another biggie loop, and a toploop. felt great first mile, legs tightened up a little in the 3-5 miles. stopped a couple times to stretch my calf. overall ok run better than what i thought i would do.

last workout of the season: 4x400

race pace/motivation builder. supposed to be around 70s for the first three and then all out on the last one. i was with sam liu. we went 66, 73, 71. the last one was all out with everyone going at once. i was in the back so i started like a second off the leaders. after about 250m, i kicked and got up to the front, only to be out kicked by friggly. my raw time was 61 but i was at least a second back so i hit about 60 flat. pretty good workout

3 toploops, 50 minutes + 800

tuesday: supposed to do 3 toploops averaging around 9:00-9:15, i dropped by about 20 seconds b/c of rain and averaged 9:40 :T

wednesday: 50 moderate, went to nature trails, go lost, went through poison ivy, went into lucent and back to school...i stayed up very well, was in front for most of the time. we were supposed to do an "all-out 800" but since i was in the first group w/ no one w/ me b/c sam & jon got tangled up & sam fell, i hit 2:28 (negative splits 75,73) not that fast but a controlled even effort w/o straining.

4xhills + 2x300s

ok workout. about a 250m-300m hillsprint up the start hill. first one was fast, died on the second and third, flew on the last one (or stumbled haha). 300s were in about 45 & 47 seconds. pretty good day, not too bad.

what a bad week

so after my great comeback week i get this shit. oh well

thursday & friday - easy runs, achilles a little tight
saturday - 1600 + 12x200s - just horrible

hopefully next week will be better

terrible f***ing race

just terrible. i didn't race at all. instead of going after it and just racing, i worried about going out too fast and feeling pain, sat in the back and faded to a fucking shitty 5:05.74. wtf. i completely abandoned everything i was focusing on doing and just pussied out like a little bitch. i was so pissed afterwards.

positives of race:
-now i know not to bitch out next time and fucking grow some balls
-even though i pussied out i still ran 5:05.74, which is basically my pb
-friggly & stefan ran huge pbs of 4:53 & tai ran 4:51, which is the fastest he's run since his pb of 4:46

one more chance on the 28th or 29th....i am going fucking apeshit

no time goals, no place goals, just fucking racing the shit out of myself

premeet 25 minutes

calf felt ok. a little tight at the end but it was ok. tomorrow im going all out, taking as much risks as i can. racing = taking risks.

bad 40 minutes

achilles acted up again. not an excruciating pain like yesterday, but still tight enough to make me fall behind a little on a relatively easy run. i hope this goes away by wednesday b/c i need to need at 100% if i want to run 4:50.

terrible 30 minutes

some recovery. my achilles tightened up after 15 minutes. i ran for another 15 and then decided not to risk it and cut my run short..again. o well.

holmdel results from monmouth county champs

1600
galasso - 4:27
tai - 4:56

800
tai- 2:08 pb

3200
galasso - 9:36
s. monga - 10:00 pb
bobby - 10:33 pb
bert - 10:41
dave sun - 10:49 pb
arthur - 10:59 pb
friggly - 11:07 pb
jc - 11:26

2x600, 4x400, 2x200

supposed to do a hard workout yesterday so i did. 600s were in 1:49 & 1:50 (73 pace), 400s were in 71,74,73,73 & i just added in the 200s (both 33) for turnover. overall not bad workout but not what i wanted. the 400s should have been faster + i had a pretty long break in between the repeats. o well still not bad.

planning on doing an easy, long recovery day today. so about 60-90min @ 8 min pace or so.

25 easy

25 easy premeet even though im not racing tomorrow. planning on doing a really hard track workout tomorrow. i found once a runner online hehe.

40 minutes + 5x200

40 easy. felt bad first 20-30 minutes then felt ok. 200s were good. george got 6th in monmouth championships. byrne won in 4:23 0_o george ran a season best 4:27

good 60 minutes

nice hour long run today. went w/ group 1 & 2 guys + ashu & sourav. sean, karl, jc, robby, ashu, sourav, oliver, sam, sam, johnson, and everyone else except me, friggly, and bert did 50 minutes. bert wanted to go for 60 so me & friggly went w/ him. i stayed up really well & friggly fell off near the end cuz he had to take a shit. first good long run in a while.

great 4 toploops

supposed to do 10:00, 9:45, 9:30, 9:15. ended up doing 9:44, 9:41, 9:15, 8:5x. i stayed up the entire time with karl & sam. i lead for like the beginning and end of each toploop. a lot of ppl dropped and dave sun caught us. group one passed us and dave sun went with them b/c he thought mccaff told us to so we went way fast on the last one. it didn't even feel that hard, only the last one was kinda hard and that was cause i started flying on the second half. finished ahead of my entire group except for dave sun. i am officially back =D

bad 30 minutes

tried to go for an hour but my achilles tightened up again so i stopped so i wouldn't risk another injury. monmouth county champs on wednesday and thursday i'll prolly be running the 1600 yay. 4:50 time

bored....team analysis & xc preview

so it's 12 o clock and i don't feel like studying...here's a look at almost everyone on the team + a projection of xc '08

galasso
1600 - 4:24 indoors
800 - 2:02
3200 - 9:36
george is still the top dog but unfortunately he hasn't improved since his sophomore year of spring track. he should be around 4:15 by now but has struggled with injury during xc & hasn't been running to his full potential. i could be totally wrong however, and he might just be taking it easy for moc & stuff. i still expect him to go 4:12-4:15 this year.

sean
1600 - 4:41
3200 - 10:00
800 - 2:10
sean has really stepped his game up with the departure of all our seniors and with oliver out for spring. he went from our 4th guy in xc to a distant 2nd man from the rest of the team. his 1600 & 800 times show that he not only has endurance but speed also. i will be trying to mimic sean's success next year haha. i expect sean to go sub 10 by the end of spring and sub 4:40 & 2:10.

bert
1600 - 4:46
3200 - 10:28
kev hsu has also made a huge jump after winter track. he is part of the trio (along w/ tai & albert) knocking at the 4:45 door. i am def excited to see what he can do in xc. i expect him to go sub 4:45.

jon tai
1600 - 4:46
800 - 2:09
jon imo is an md guy. with some more training he can def go sub 4:45 and at least 10:30. i'm saying it now - he is going to be the x factor come xc next season.

albert
1600 - 4:47
800 - 2:07
albert has run very fast times despite not running xc and not logging many miles. i still don't know if he can run the 3200 & 5k but it would be a + to have him for xc.

robby
1600 - 4:55 indoor
3200 - 10:45
robby has struggled w/ injury but has recently come back to rung pretty good times. i expect him to be our 3rd man in xc and hey, he might even catch sean in xc.

karl
1600 - 4:55
3200 - 10:56
karl has improved by a lot since winter. going from 5:2x to 4:55, karl def has potential to go sub 4:50.

stefan
3200 - 10:41
stefan has a history of improving dramatically in a short amount of time and then getting sick. his performances at the end of xc were astonishing and his 5:06 in xc time trials showed sub 5 potential. however, stefan has been running poorly for the first half of spring until the twilight meet. if he can stay healthy, stefan has 10:3x potential.

friggly
1600 - 5:01
3000 - 10:01
friggly has also improved by a lot since winter. i def expect him to be running sub 4:55 by the end of the season.

jc
3000 - 10:03
3200 - 11:07
jc has sub 11 potential if he can just put together a good race.

dave sun
3200 - 10:5x
dave has a chance to be one of the best 3200 guys on the team and run 10:4x

me
1600 - 5:05 indoors
3200 - 10:59
i've struggled w/ injury that basically ruined my spring season but i've been able to come back and still run sub 11. i should be able to go sub 4:55 by the end of the season considering i'm in about 4:57-59 shape right now.

jon tsang
3200 - 11:33
1600 - 5:27
tsang has recently gotten good and ha surpassed sam walter and brian tsai. i expect him to be running sub 5:20 and 11:30

sam walter
3200 - 11:52
sam has improved by a lot he should def be able to got sub 11:30

brian tsai
1600 - 5:3x
3200 - 12:00
brian imo is the most underrated person on the team. he has improved drastically since freshman year. i def. expect him to go sub 5:30 & 12:00

arthur
1600 - 5:01
3200 - 11:05
arthur has run very good and consistent times for the 1600 this spring. he has established himself as top froshy and is def a threat next year for xc. he should be able to go sub 5 & 11 soon. i hope he can follow oliver's success and dominate next year in xc.

kieran
800 - 2:22
kieran is a very good racer. with some harder training, he should be able to catch up to arthur by xc.

miracle
800 - 2:13
miracle is struggling w/ injury but i def expect him to be running fast in xc

sam liu
1600 - 5:00.9
3000 - 10:23
sam has struggle with injury and other issues but has still put up good results. he is generally better in xc and should run fast in xc.

xc preview (@ holmdel)
varsity
galasso - 15:55
sean - 16:40
oliver - 16:40
robby - 16:45
bert - 17:00
jon tai - 17:00
kyle - 17:15
kerl - 17:00

jv
dave sun - 17:30
sam liu - 17:30
stefan - 17:15
friggly - 17:30
me - 17:30
jc - 17:45
tsang - 18:45
arthur - 18:00

t.i.t.s.

twilight meet + bad long run

ran 10:59.6x in the 3200 on friday. the race went pretty well. i felt great after going through in about 5:25-27 and i passed on the inside and sat right behind the leaders. stefan went with me w/ karl right behind me. stefan kept up w/ the leaders and led for the 7th lap. he ended up running 10:41.xx. karl caught up to me and helped me break 11. he ran 10:56.xx. arthur (11:05) and sam (11:21) drifted back. sean ran an amazing 10:03 (so close!) bert ran 10:28 despite struggling during the first mile. jon tai ran 10:55 which is mediocre for him but still fast. jc ran 11:07 which should be close to his pb & friggly struggled & ran 11:12. right now we have 9 guys under 11 & 7 guys under 5. this # should improve by the end of spring to around 13 under 11 & 5.

bad run today supposed to do 65 minutes w/ varsity but fell off by a lot and ended up running 73 minutes.

25 minutes + strides

3200 tommorow. sub 11 is mine! plan: go out in 5:20 for 1600, hit around 8:00-8:10 for 2400 and lift like hell the last 800 (aiming for around 2:20-2:35)

45 minutes + strides

another nice 45 minutes that i lead for most of. i'm running the 3200 in the holmdel twilight meet on friday. good schools are coming. cba, wwpn & wwps are coming. i'm just gonna aim for sub 11

rbc meet + bad workout

8x400s

:79, :77, :79, :75, :74, :71

we were supposed to do 4 :@ 80 and then 4 @ :70 but we went to fast on the first 4 and then died on the last three and he just decided to end it. fuckin a

rbc meet

1600 - galasso lost to the freshman rbc kid who runs 4:30s but he wasn't really trying if he had gone out quicker he would have wrecked them, hoffman 4:56-58, arthur 5:01-02, johnson 5:2x, tsang 5:27

800 - byrne took it again in like 2:04-05, albert 2:08-09, sean 2:10, bert 2:12-13, tai 2:15
3200 - guys treated it as a workout

45 min + 5 strides

easy run today. i struggled to get in the front for the first 10 minutes or so and then got in the front or the second row for the rest of the run. dual meet vs. rbc tomorrow. i wanna see mcgann vs. galasso so george can make him eat shit for xc monmouth county champs. i'm not running but i'm doing a quick workout before the meet so it'll prolly be 400s or something. theres a twilight meet on friday which i'm prolly running. its mostly 3200s but there might be a 1600. thank god

update

haven't been able to blog in a while so this is what's happened that i can remember since colts neck relays.

cn relays - ran a shitty 2:21, went out to hard and died & pussied out of a challenge

had a good toploop run, got back in shape

holmdel relays 3k: ran 10:23, got 6th, did ok, passed kyle, sam, and rbr kid

cruise: ran about 1 hour each day. met this new hampshire girl. she said she ran a 5:30 1600 which is pretty fast.

colts neck relays tomorrow

so tomorrow i find out if i'm an 800 runner or not. my 4x800 team (A-Varsity) is me, miracle, kevin chang, and ryan johnson. we are so fucked. i say miracle runs like 2:15, kevin chang 2:25 & ryan johnson 2:25. i think i'm anchoring so i'm gonna try to just kill myself and run a sub 2:10. this is going to be interesting...

bad run + colts neck relays on saturday

bad run today. achilles/gastroc/calf area tightened up again and i couldn't do a 45 min easy run. i did about 38-39 minutes. i fell off after about 20 something minutes and ran w/ sean monga, who has shin splints, and stefan. fuck this.

anyways saturday is colts neck relays and i'm running the 4x800m w/ karl, kevin chang, and some one else. time to show and prove.

35 minutes easy

easy recovery day. i felt kinda tight so it wasn't that easy. my achilles/ calf area was tight but it wasn't that bad because i still ran the whole thing. groups one & two did a crazy 800-400-400-800-400-400 workout. bert & tai were flying. def. 4:35 by end of may.

12x400

another workout today. did 12 400s. first 6 or so were at 78-80. next few were at 74-77. last two i did 72 and then 74. not a "great" workout but definitely a confidence booster. i'm either running the novice meet on friday or the colts neck relays on saturday.

next time i run the 1600 shit's hitting the fan 4:50.

no meet, 2 hard toploops instead

so today mccaff pulled me out of the 800 so galasso could triple up lol. i did a 2 toploop workout. first one was about 9:00, then a 2 minute break, the second one was like 8:31. so pretty good run, i'm getting back in shape.

i kinda wanted to see galasso vs. metlitz, arnone, kolodziej but o well. george has to run about 4:35 for the 1600, 2:05 for the 800, and 9:40 for the 3200 assuming none of the rbr kids double up....

pre-meet 30 min easy + 6 strides

did 30 easy minutes around meadowwood and some hazlet residential areas. found an empty construction zone and did some strides there. im pretty excited for the 800 tomorrow because i've always thought that i would make a good 800 runner because i have raw speed. im changing my goal to 2:10 and under =D

50 min

50 minutes moderate. i fell off a little mid way through and ended up being behind by 100m-200m. o well at least my legs didn't hurt they just got tight again after about 25-30 min. running the 800m against rbr on monday. aiming for about 2:13 and under. should be fun.

4 toploops

so mccaff wasn't here today so we ran on our own. group 2 did 4 toploops at any pace. i stayed up for the first two, then rested on the 3rd one because my legs tightened up again and then finished the last one with them. the times were 9:50, 9:30, 9:40, 9:15

11:32 = 2nd place? & good 45 minutes

The Manasquan Dual Meet:

1600
Sean Monga - 4:41 w/o competition....and i thought he was a 2 miler
Jon Tai - 4:46 pretty sick...4:35 is def. w/in reach
Bert - 4:52 tied his pb on the first meet!
Sam - 5:06 tied his pb
Stefan - 5:12 pretty good considering he had a cramp with 300 to go

800
Galasso - 2:02 tied his pb
Albert - 2:06?
Karl - 2:15
Friggly - 2:17

3200
Galasso - 10:5x treated it as a workout and still burned us
Me - 11:32 lulz
Kyle - 11:34
JC - 11:4x-5x?

so we went out in about 5:37 and i was pretty tense the first mile...at least according to tsang. i relaxed a little and passed jc about 1 lap into the second mile. with 200 to go i moved up and got w/in striking distance of kyle and w/ 100 i easily passed kyle b/c he was hurting. so ifound out that i'm def. not a 2 miler but i still got second so ehh. we totally owned squan thanks to the distance events.


45 minutes - 5-6 miles
so today we did kind of a light/recovery run of 45 minutes. we ran down longstreet to the park, did a loughran loop, went up the front woods, and did 2 toploops

the pace was relatively easy. at first i was in the back but about half way into it i felt good so i moved up to the front at the start of the 1st toploop. i stayed up and led w/ karl for the rest of the run. i think my injury is starting to go away. i didn't hurt that much today and i didn't take any pain relievers. good sign.

interesting 45 minutes...

so for our "pre-meet" today we did a 45 minutes moderate run. we ran down longstreet, did half a loughran loop into the frontwoods, did two toploops, and went tennis court trails back to the school. i fell off when we went up the frontwoods hill cuz my achilles & calf area tightened up. i was pretty far behind by the time we started the first toploop (10-15 seconds maybe?). but then i just was like fuck it and ran fast and caught up even though my legs were killing me. i thought i would die out on the second toploop but i actually stayed up and was in front at the end. hmm...maybe the motrin is working....

3200 tomorrow....fuck.....

2 toploops

crappy 2 toploops. hit first one in 10:15, second in 11: 25. nothing else to say.

45 minutes easy = 45 minutes by myself

so i fell of again today on a 45 minute easy run (35 minutes on toploops & one athletic loop). i didn't cut off and ran the whole thing by myself for the most part. don't know where i really fell off....somewhere around the first mile i think. i dunno what's wrong with me. my shins are better but no my calves, achilles, and everything in between is tight. it's not a stress fracture because the pain actually gets more bearable after running for a while.

time trial tomorrow.....fuck. i would try to get 4:52 if i was in shape but now i'll settles for anything that's under 5:10. this is seriously embarrassing....

plan for tomorrow: stay in middle of first pack or start of chase pack for first 500-600m. gut out the rest....unless i do the time trial with varsity guys...then i'll just try to chase the lead pack down.

yea...i'm getting pretty sick of track. i've thought about just quitting and coming back in cross country but i know that will just make me worse. for now...i guess i'll just run through the pain. 4:39 seems pretty far away now. if i don't get back to how i was running before by like mid-april, i guess i'll just try to go at least sub-5 and maybe sub-4:50....*sigh*

15x200s

i did 15x200s today with a lower group. we hit around 33-38 seconds. i'm getting pretty sick of running like shit.

5 mile run

today we was a "moderate-light" run to the park (1 mile), 2 loughran loops (2 miles), a front woods/ back woods (1.2 miles), and another loughran loop (1 mile). i actually stayed up for this run, although i did fall back a little at times. my shins didn't hurt as much but they were still bothersome, my calf tightened up and my achilles still was tight. yea...ok day, tomorrow's gonna suck.

Update 3/25/08

So I recently went to an orthopedist to talk about my shin splints he basically told me everything I already knew (no hills, run on soft surface, warm-up, stretch, etc.). My shins have been feeling better and today they didn't really hurt. However, now my achilles tendon and the lower calf/gastrocnemius has been tight/sore and today it totally fucked up my run. We were supposed to do 4 toploops at 10:00-9:50-9:30-9:20. The first one was 9:40 which i stayed up for, the second one I fell off a little and hit around 19:45-20:00. The third one my achilles tightened up and i did like a friggin 11:3x-4x. Coach says it's because I ran the 5k but I don't think so because I didn't feel it during the 5k, only the few days after but I still did the tempo run on Monday. I can't fucking stand how whenever it seems like I'm making an even the slightest improvement, I take a huge step back. This has happened multiple times in both cross country and winter track. Fuck it. I'll take all of spring track to come back if I have to. I'm putting in 50-70 miles per week over the summer if I have to.

Monday's tempo run was on the track. We were supposed to do 3x1600 at 6 minute pace and 2x800 at 3 minute pace. I hit like 5:58 for the first 1600, 6:15-6:18 for the second one and took a 800m break. I jumped on for the second 800m of the last 1600 and hit 2:58. I stayed up for both 800m's.

I started taking Endurox to help recover better. I'm thinking of maybe getting a heating pad to warm my legs up before practice. Once I recover, I'm doing the morning runs at 6:30.

Sgt. Pat's 5k

18:44.1 today. I could've ran faster had i not gone out in 5:30 for the first mile and then fade to 11:4x for the second mile. Bert got 17:30 and Friggly got 18:40. It was a pretty fun race, I tried to catch up to Friggly the whole time but I was dieing by the second mile thanks to a 5:30 first mile.
Tsang got 20:10

Shitty Time Trial

5:4x 1600 in terrible wind....lulz

Tomorrow: 18:15!

3x1600

We were supposed to do a 3x1600 at 6:00 to 5:50 to 5:40 today. I felt like total shit the entire day and it hurt to walk. I fell off the warm-up and i was like there's no way i can do this workout today but i decided to try it anyway and maybe go for like a 1600 & 1/2 if i could. The first 1600 was around 6:02 or something. We only got a minute break and then were supposed to hit 5:50. I fell off and caught back on on the second one and hit 5:48-5:50. McCaff let me rest for the first 800 of the 1600 and i jumped back on the last 800 and felt fine.

Update on running/injury

so recently my shins have been killing me and i've pretty much given up on every moderate/easy run. i do well on workouts and stay up for the most part but i just don't have the endurance for a longer type run. plus my achilles and hamstring have been giving me some occasional problems. i don't know if i should gut it out and keep running through it or just take some time off to recover. nothing else worth blogging about besides that we have a workout tomorrow (Motrin ftw) and a possible time trial within the next few days and a scrimmage against ocean on thursday. on one hand i think i have a good shot at breaking 4:40 because i think i can definitely stay up with group one on some of the harder workouts if my shins will let me but on the other hand, falling of on easy days doesn't really boost my confidence and my shins are still shit.

Easy 8x400s

Easy workout today. We (me, jc, karl, dave, friggly, stefan) were supposed to hit 75's i hit around 74-76 for most of then and they felt really easy. Smalls pushed pace like a dumbass cause he decided to pussy out of running with group one and screw us over. One the last one i was like that's it and just sprinted to catch up to him and coach made him slow down. What a douche. I mean, i know he's fast and has so much potential, but he just does stupid shit like this and doesn't work hard. Whatever, my legs felt better cause i took Motrin but now they feel like crap. At least i get a day off tommorow.

In other news, Geb decided that he's not running the Olympic Marathon in Beijing due to poor air quality and is running the 10000. I smell and Ethiopian sweep...

Memorable Runs: Runs with Tai

So, at the beginning of winter track, Jon Tai was just coming off injury and disappointment from cross-country and i was coming off a dry spell from the end of cross country. McCaff both put us in the Hawks (group three) with Karl, Horace, Friggly, and some other guys. I felt kinda pissed because i wanted to be in the Hornets but i was excited to run with Jon. We killed each other. Every "moderate" run or workout, it was Horace leading for the first few loops or w/e, then Tai for the first half of the last one, then I would push it towards the end and we would end up flying towards the finish. For example, one day were were supposed to do three moderate front woods & back woods. First one Horace led with Jon next to him and me in the second row. Second one was about the same. On the start hill of the second one, we dropped everyone, it was all us for the rest of it. Tai lead for a majority until the backwoods where i pushed it a lot. We practically sprinted up the backwoods hill and flew through the kill zone, hell even Oliver was impressed with Jon's sudden recovery. Baddass run. Also, on numerous toploop runs, Jon and I would just kill it on the last one and drop everyone by a good 10-20 seconds. The last killer run i had with Jon was when he was in group two with me at the end of winter track, it was a monday so it was supposed to be a relatively easy run. We were supposed to do 5 toploops pretty easy. After the first one, half the group dropped, after the second or third one, it was just me, Jon, and Sam. Me and Jon finished the last two alone. Pretty sick. Toploop runs were awesome in general, our last toploop of moderate or workouts would be anywhere from like 8:50-9:10. Alas, now Jon is running workouts with group one and I'm falling behind on warm-ups trying not to shit myself from the pain of my shins.

Memorable Runs: Manasquan Reservoir

So along with my daily runs & rants, i'll be posting about good runs that i've had in the past (their are so few so i can make it into a mini-blogging series) to try to motivate myself out of kinda-injuredness back to healthy again.

Manasquan Reservoir Ten Mile Run (mid-summer):
So, one day McCaff decided to take us to the Manasuqan Reservoir for a ten mile long run. I ran with group 2 (navin, sam, stefan, robby, perveen, jc, some other guys). We were supposed to do one loop, 5 miles, and run back. My group was basically split between some varsity guys and upper jv guys. The varsity guys dropped us (upper jv guys) and we ran with sam leading. McCaff caught up to us on his bike and told us to just run with sam for the 5 miles. I went with sam but i fet good after the first miles so i was like screw it, i'll run the last 5. So i ran back with myself for a while until i saw kyle. He fell of from the group one so i ran the rest of the way back with him. Pretty good run.

3 toploops + all-out 300

wth...5 toploops at 9:30-9:15-9:00-8:45-8:30? yea right.....more like 3 in 28:30 haha. i still averaged 9:30 per toploop (roughly 6:20 pace). my shins were aching again during the warm-up and after we did the toploops on the jog back to the track. i shit myself at the thought at Xx300s but then mccaff was like "ok just do an all-out 300". so i paced myself because my partner was johnson...and he sprinted away from me in the first 50m like an idiot, i caught him about 125m in and then passed everyone else who was staggered ahead of me until there was only brian and tsang left (who started about 1 second and 2 seconds ahead of me respectively), i passed brian and almost caught tsang and finished in 45 flat (60 second 400 pace). the thing is...i could have gone a lot faster if i didn't do my traditional close-my-eyes-swerve-around-the-lanes-groan-like-crazy finishing 80m haha. but it's all good i guess.

easy 2 toploops + frosh loop

easy day today. we (me, karl, arthur, stefan) ran to the park via tennis court trails then did an easy toploop at 10:24. then we brought it down to about 9:50 and did a frosh loop in 5:45. pretty easy day. my hamstrings started aching for some reason during the warm-up...time to ice.

4x800 + 4x200

today we did some 800s and 200s. we did 4x800s at 2:40 (5:20 pace). i stayed in the back for the most part and hit around 2:41-2:43. i really didn't feel like giving it my all on the 800s (probably because i got <4 hours of sleep). my shins were bothering me again during the warm-up but the pain went away after stretching. after the 800s we did some 200s at 35 seconds (4:40 pace) and under. we hit 34, 35, 32, 34. at first i thought these 200s would suck but they turned out to be better than my 800 workout haha. i found out the secret to running fast: short, fast strides vs. long strides. i decided to try out short, fast strides and the first 50m felt great but about 150m into it i started feeling it and had to open up my stride a little. group one did like 6x800? at 2:30 (5:00 pace) and george did like 6-8x1000 at 2:30(800) or <3:10(1000). so next time i'm blazing down the home straight at 4:25....short, fast strides!

the other guys did a 12x400 relay w/ 2 people so 6x400 each. jon tsang and ben edlin won....i think i would've rather ran the relay than the 800s today...except with the other guys and not varsity hehe.

moderate/easy 45 min

"easy" 45 minutes today at about 7 min pace/mile. yea right. it wasn't hard but it certainly wasn't easy. i felt ehh for the first 20 minutes then i started feeling "strong" but then i faded back for the rest of the run. o well at least i didn't fall off. after the 45 min. we did 8x150m diagonals which were ok and some drills. my legs felt ok again today, shin hurting went away after the warmup and stretching. i just found out we have a scrimmage vs. ocean on the 20th...this better not screw me over for the long branch 5k.

easy 70 min

so today i did a nice slow and easy 70 minutes. i ran from my house did a target loop + a barbershop back & forth + 3 meadowwood loops. my legs felt fine. pretty good run.

Easy 2 mile workout

so today we did a really easy 2 mile workout. we were supposed to hit 12:30 but we got 12:45 cuz the first mile was a little slow. i took the lead to pick up the pace for the first 800 of the second half. i ran with karl, jc, friggly, dave sun, kieran, arthur. then we did some 2 mile goal pace 300's at 60 seconds (80 second 400). my legs felt pretty good today, they felt like crap during the warmup but then they felt better after stretching. overall good day today. planning to do a 70 min run tomorrow at a relatively easy pace

45 min

ok run today. ran with oliver, bert, karl, friggly, sam, jc, adam. i stayed up fairly well although i did drop back a little at some points. my legs felt better today but i tightened up a little and my calves started burning. overall ok rub. jon tai and kyle ran with george and sean for an hour. i def see like 15-20 people going sub 5 this season and 8-10 people going sub 4:50, maybe 5 people going sub 4:40.

Last Day before Spring Track starts

So today we did a 45 minute run. I stayed up but my legs still felt tight even though it was relatively easy. I stayed up a lot better than i did yesterday and we did basically the same thing so yea...i don't think i'm injured.

First Post

Crappy run today. I stayed back a little from the get go but then my achilles tightened up and i fell of by a lot. Oh well, it's just another shitty run. I don't think I'm injured because i ran fine the other day for the hard 3 mile workout (18:37) and dropped 34 seconds from the same workout like 5 days before (19:11). My shins are kinda on and off right now. They hurt for like the first half of long runs and then go away (today) and then during workouts i feel fine. hmmm...

Spring Track '08 Varsity & Upper JV Predictions - times are very high and vague (either :00 or :05) i'll do more specific ones some other time

Galasso - 1600 4:12 3200 9:00
S. Monga - 3200 9:45
K. Hsu - 1600 4:40
Sam Liu - 1600 4:50
Oliver - 1600 4:37
K. Monga - 1600 4:35
Jon Tai - 1600 4:35
Stefan - 1600 4:55
Friggly - 1600 4:50
Arthur - 1600 4:55
Miracle - 1600 4:45
D. Sun - 3200 10:15
J. Chang - 3200 10:30
Smalls - 1600 4:35
Albert - 800 2:07
Rob Hoffman - 1600 4:35 800 2:05
Karl - 4:55

and just for the hell of it i'll do some elite NJ runners predictions
Brian Leung - 3200 8:45 1600 4:10
Doug Smith - 3200 8:45 1600 4:08
Brandon Jarrett - 3200 8:45 1600 4:05


The Long Branch St. Patrick's Day 5k is in 17 days. My goal is 18:15-18:30. So far only Friggly's running it with me, he should be able to hit around 19:5x. This should be an interesting race. Man, Friggly and Karl are getting pretty good, they've been staying up on long runs and getting pretty fast.

Man, Craig Segal is a beast! He won the Lincroft Half Marathon in 1:09. I ran this when i was 12 but i got 2:07 haha. His dad is beastly too he runs a 19:xx 5k & a 1:24 half marathon and he's 57.