Week 8/25/2007

Took the first part of the week off since my left foot was still a little pained. By Tuesday, I was feeling better, so I ran an easy 6 on Wednesday. It felt pretty good. I took a day off and then ran a hard workout and did very well. I followed it up with an easy couple runs. I'm targeting next week to run a cross country long run at Erwin Park. I think that, along with my intervals and hard tempo runs, will help bring my 5k road race time down below 18. The tempo run I ran on Friday night in practice was the equivalent of a 16:44 5k!!! It's funny, because I thought I had started too fast, and was afraid I would die badly in the last couple laps, but I did quite well!

Total - 18

Tempo - 6 laps @ 5:23 pace (8:05.68 - 2:43.73, 2:45.25, 2:36.70)

Week 8/18/2007

After my 10 miler last week, I felt my left quadriceps was a little sore. I ran a tough week anyway, and I noticed it lingered throughout the week. I took Saturday off, but started running my long run on Sunday. Everything was fine until about 3 miles, so I decided to play it safe and not run the rest of the run. I will probably ran easy a couple days, and was feeling better, but then my lingering foot injury came back to incapacitate me. It wasn't as bad as when it struck in December of 2006, but it was enough that I stopped running the rest of the week, waiting for it to get better. A little rest won't hurt me anyway!!!

Total - 21

Week 8/11/2007

Regular week of training - upping the mileage, and managed my first 10 mile run in a long time. Also managed a respectable Tempo run, and did much quicker on my short-recovery intervals than I thought I would do, considering the quantity.

Total - 41

Tempo - 6 laps @ 5:36 pace (8:24.42 - 2:50.80, 2:50.81, 2:42.81)
Interval - 16 x 400 @ 1:18.4 (1:23 first 4 average; 1:21 second 4; 1:17 third 4; 1:12.5 fourth 4), 200 recovery jog

Back To Training

I need to get ready for the Richardson Corporate Challenge 5K on September 16. I took a week off after the USCAA Track meet to climb and explore National Parks, but I'm back into the swing of things. My first run was planned on being an 8 miler, but my body was NOT in the mood, so I cut it in half. But, I was able to get an endurance/speed workout in, and did ok, and ran an ok 2 mile cross country race, so I think I'll get back into it fairly well.

The 2 mile race I did was a cross country race. I ran with Luke Luo and Pedro Jara, two TI Track teammates. We won the Male Submaster division. Luke "jogged" his 11:34, while Pedro and I were a little beat up by running in grass, hurdling hay bales, and the 1/4 mile hill halfway through the race. It was fun though!

Total - 30

Interval 1 - 3 x 1 mile (5.42.33, 5.33.90, 5.39.84)

Race - Last leg of 2 mile race (team times were: 11:34.41; 12:47.44; 12:34.23)

Reward Time!

As a reward for my hard work through the season to get in shape for this track meet, I took a couple days off work and did some "outdoorsy" stuff. My dad flew into Ontario, CA to meet me. We climbed Mount Whitney in 1 day via the Mountaineers route (or North Fork route). We visited Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia National Parks. We also saw many sights in between. To read the trip report, go to my climbing logs. It was a LONG trip, and I ended up putting 1300 miles on the car!

2007 USCAA Championship

Well, the meet is over, a culmination of a year's worth of training. Other than the setback I had with my hamstring not long after last years meet (which lasted several months), I feel I prepared as well as I knew how for this years events.

Ken's Event summary:

I ran all my events on Saturday 7/21/07.

Submaster Distance Relay (10:50 am) (3rd leg, 1200 meters) - This being my first race, I was pretty nervous, and wanted to make sure I was warmed up properly. We did fairly well with the first 2 legs, and when I got the baton, I was in second place - but, ran into someone who had stopped in my lane after handing off her baton. I didn't lose my balance, but it slowed me down enough that I fell to 3rd place. I camped out behind 1st and second, and we all ran about the same pace for 700 meters. At that point, I pushed the pace and used the curve to go ahead of both of my opponents. I just kept running hard, and couldn't hear the 2nd place person after about 200 meters. I finished the last 300 strong and handed off to our last leg. Although he ran a very good mile time, UNUM had a strong final finisher and beat us by 16 seconds. Our team placed 2nd, in 11:40.2 - 11 seconds faster than the 2006 time. My split was 3:28.7, which was slightly faster than my goal.

Executive Relay (11:50 am) (Anchor leg, 1600 meters) - My team always does well in the Executive relay, but this year we had some competition from Booz Allen Hamilton. Booz jumped to an early lead, and didn't look back - all 3 of the runners before me did well. I got the baton and was about 150 meters behind 1st place. I ran a strong first 400, and only made up about 15-20 meters on him, so I kicked back a little, thinking of my next race in an hour. After the next lap, which I had run slower, I realized I had made up another 15 or so meters, and started thinking I might have a shot at catching him. I picked up the pace, and by the end of the 3rd lap, was within about 70 meters of 1st place. I was pushing hard, and catching him - with 200 meters to go, I was about 40 meters off of him. By this point, he started kicking for the finish line - although I ran as hard as I could, I didn't make up any more distance, finishing about 35 meters behind him... in retrospect, if I had focused all my energy on this race, we would have won a gold. Our team placed 2nd, in 11:26.6 - 28 seconds faster than 2006. My split was 5:07.8, which was ok with the short rest from the previous race, but unsatisfying to me since I had hit a 4:55 this year.

Distance Relay (12:55 pm) (4th leg, 1600 meters) - One of my teammates decided on Friday not to join us in San Diego because of a medical emergency his mom had. Because of that, I was chosen to substitute on his leg. We were in 2nd place when I got the baton. My first 400 was respectable, but my next 2 were bad - I came across the 1200 on pace for a 5:30 mile. I finished with an ok final 400, but the damage had been done... the final leg was an 8 lap leg, and UNUM caught our runner with 2 laps to go. Our team placed 3rd in 28:36.2 - a full 2:40 faster than 2006. My split was an AWFUL 5:25.4 (I can run 5:40 repeats). I was beat, and didn't have anything else to put in the race, but it was still VERY disappointing.

Pyramid Relay (prelim) (2:25 pm) (3rd leg, 1200 meters) - The team was going to drop the Pyramid since they thought I was too beat from the distance relay - but, I wanted the people who had prepared for this race a chance to run, and since it was a prelim, there was no pressure on me. My split for the 1200 was 3:53.9 - I took it easy, and although this was a full 25 seconds slower than my first 1200 for the day, I was ok with it!

Team summary:
TI's first day wasn't as good as it was in the past, so we entered the second day needing certain events to fall in our favor. With 2 events to go, we found that we had won the Long Jump/High Jump 1st place, giving us the overall championship! 8 Championships in a row for TI!

Next Year's Goals:
I want to continue training hard, and focus on events from the 800 to the 1600. Running fewer miles and more "quality" work (Hard intervals, tempo, etc) seemed to place me in similar shape as running a lot of miles and adding hard work later in the season. I am also thinking I want to start training with a coach, to see if that will help me gain an edge. So, if given the chance, my stretch goals by the next track meet are:

400 - 57
800 - 2:07
Mile - 4:45
5K - sub-17:00
10K - sub-36:00
Half marathon - sub-1:30