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