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.