The Trail Running Blog

How to Start A Race & Running Etiquette Rules

Is this how you run in a race? If so you need some rules on running and racing etiquette. Try to follow them to avoid being called a “Phoebe”.

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Double Trail Running Entry

Monday, December 31, 2001
Work-out: 5 Miles Medium/Comfortable to Duarte
Time: Pretty Good, Weather: Chilly but good for running

                Coming up, I tried staying with Fernando. The first mile I pretty much hung with him, but it killed me. He said he was going up medium and coming back fast. So if he went up medium and I was dying, then I wonder how I would feel coming back with him? Evan and Ha ran up to Duarte while Fernando went to the Railroad. Evan and Ha were resting at Duarte when I got there. We waited pretty long, I was planning on stopping for about a minute, but they ended up staying longer. Then when we started heading back, there were going pretty slow. Ha said it was a “good” (as in easy) pace, but it was supposed to be a medium day. I guess they were hurting so much they had to go that easy. However, at Live Oak, we turned around and saw Fernando waiting to cross the street. He caught us even though he went one street further! So the rest of them decided to pick it up so he wouldn’t catch us. At the half mile mark, I guess Ha was trying to make his “move”, but I surged to keep up with him. I surged a little every now and then and then finally passed him. Right before the downhill, I started to pull away, but still felt good. Again, I still had enough energy for a kick.

Tuesday, January 1, 2002
Work-out: 4 Miles Easy/Recovery to Camino
Time: Pretty fast for easy, Weather: Cool & hot at the end

                The Cabreras didn’t show up today, but it was no surprise, seeing last night was New Year’s Eve and all. It was fine though, we knew what we had to do. Coming up, Frank was going pretty hard to Duarte. He turned around and stopped for me at Live Oak. We ran together and he asked me to go to Duarte with him. I couldn’t do it though because I was dying just keeping up with him. So at Camino, I turned right back and a little bit later, I saw Ha. Similarly to Saturday’s run, I surged ever once in a while and passed him. After each street, I would turn back to see how far behind me he was. At Live Oak, I turned around and saw that he was pretty close. But when I finished he was barely at the end of the downhill which is a pretty big gap. The real test will be tomorrow, when we finally start doing intervals on the track. That is the real time to show how much you improved and I hope I do well and run my times.

9 Running Stretches to Help Run Faster

Stretching is a very important thing to do before you go on a run. Other things are just as important, like the right pair of running shoes, good form, and a good warm-up run. When we used to meet up for practice at 6AM during the summer, before we started our workout on the trail, we would start everything out with a good-paced warm-up lap, which consisted of a perimeter around our baseball fields behind the gym. The warm-up run was not meant to be so fast that it affected our actual run, but fast enough to start to break a sweat and warm enough to loosen our muscles and relieve any tension, which is what you really want to do.

With your muscles loose, stretching will be a lot easier, and will benefit you in many ways. Stretching is definitely important: first of all, as a preventative measure. Runners pull muscles all the time by not properly stretching. Keeping your muscles loose will also help in keeping your form while on a run. Your body won’t be tight and allow you to really focus on your run.
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Choose the Right Pair of Running Shoes

I saw this article on Yahoo about how to choose the right pair of shoes for your sport and it reminded me of all the different running shoes I have had over the years. I can’t remember what years I had what shoes, but I have had almost every brand you can name: Nike, Adidas, Asics, New Balance, Brooks? In the beginning of the article it says that a pair of shoes will not make you better at any given sport, but it will prevent any unnecessary injuries that bad shoes will do to you. I have had quite a running few injuries in my day, including shin splints, as well as knee and hip injuries. But I never drew to the conclusion that one particular pair of shoes caused that particular injury. And that’s because I don’t think it’s true. I do believe that certain brands offer different features when it comes to running shoes. Some brands are more focused on weight so they lack a little in support and the other way around. Other shoes are made for specific types of feet shapes and sizes.

I remember back in Junior year when I got some really cheap racing flats. My feet would be burning so much that in a three mile race, my feet would be on fire by the first mile! I made the mistake of continuing to race in them, thinking, ‘oh it was a one time thing, it should be fine in the next race.’ It never was. And then one day one of my teammates offered an extra pair of flats that he had and they were also cheap too. But it felt so good running in those, it ws the greatest feeling ever (in a race). He was nice enough to let me keep racing in them. The ironic thing was my other teammate raced in those same flats that burned my feet and he had no problems with it.

Every runner is different, and this story shows it. While one shoe may be terrible for one runner, it will be okay for another. This is why you test out shoes before you buy them, maybe run around in them if possible (some stores actually let you do that).

No Dumping on a Trail Run

Note: It feels kind of weird jumping from races that happened the year before (2000) and then training on the trail a year after(2001), but I don’t really remember runs from when I first started cross country, and the only reason why I remember the runs after is because I kept a log. There aren’t that many races in a season, so I should catch up to more present time (even though the logs are still from 6 years ago). Hope no one is too confused.

Sunday, December 30, 2001

Work-out: 4 Mile Recovery/Easy to Camino
Time: 25/26 Minutes, Weather: Cool with Small Drizzle

I was pretty sore from yesterday, especially my calves (which is a good thing because that meant I was running on my toes, which I don’t think I do that often). Frank called to play basketball so I decided to run before at about four. As Ha was parking, we saw the Roosas and Fernando on the trail, so we ran with them. Coming up was alright, pretty fast for an easy/recovery run, but the rain made it easier. Just before we got to Camino, Ha decided to pick it up and tried to win it, but I didn’t let it happened and ran with him and outkicked him in the end. While resting at Camino, Fernando saw a “No Dumping” sign on the other side of the fence. He took it and ran back (pretty fast if you ask me) with the sign in his hands. Stealing that sign just made the run a little more interesting, and I still don’t know how he did it. His form must have been really bad and holding a sign like that would be pretty tiring. Anyways, back to running: again as we were finishing to the water tower, there was a pick-up. There usually is, just because it’s the end of a run and as runners, we have a tendency to finish runs (especially races, ie the kick) really fast.Whatever it was, we finished the last half mile at a much faster pace then the rest of the run. I out kicked them with not much effort, probably because it was an easy run and I had a lot of energy left. Check out the post for the previous run that I had..

First Race Jitters, And I Faint…During!

I’d like to briefly explain why I joined cross country in high school. You see, my brother was 3 years older than me and was a #2-3 Senior varsity cross country runner on the team. I was a freshman and didn’t really do much that first year, other than hang out with friends after school; I was in no clubs or sports. So the summer after freshman year I decided to join with another friend of mine. So we trained together and it was fun and all. Our coach was fairly young, with little or no coaching experience (although he was a very fast runner). But I’d like to emphasize that he was no coach..

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Running Trail Map Legend (Total Miles)

Here is a quick guide to the number of miles each checkpoint is in our running trail. As I have said in a previous post, the trail begins at a water tower and is a bike path through a wash. We run along the path, which is adjacent to a nearby driving range/golf course. Halfway through the first mile, you can finally start running on a real dirt/rubble trail. Live Oak and beyond is pretty much a horse trail (actual horses run on it!) with some sandy parts, and gravel as well. Now that I think about it, it was pretty tough running on our trail, and there have been times when we have tweaked our ankles because of the surfaces, we always had to be aware of what was ahead of us.
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Trail Running Blog: Day 1

This is the first entry in my running log that I kept from high school and even though a lot of details are skipped, it was a pretty intense workout. The End is about 10 miles back and forth, and since we warmed up and cooled down to and from Live Oak (1 mile), it was still a hard 8-mile workout. This is one of the more difficult runs that we had.

Saturday, December 29, 2001
Workout: Warm-up to Live Oak, Hard to The End & back to Live Oak, Cool Down
Time: 48:27, Weather: chilly with light rain

I missed this work-out a couple of weeks ago because of my mistiming of arrival, but I made it to this one. Recently, James Hake had been running on the trail (with us) and I guess he helped us out a lot. There was not much of a turnout due to the rain, but the ones who showed up began the work-out. The warm-up to Live Oak was cool. The rain helped keep us entertained. Fernando kept stepping on puddles that splashed on us. Just before we arrived at Live Oak, we saw Felipe. So he turned around with us. We stretched and talked a little at Live Oak and then we began. The first half mile to mile was pretty comfortable.

After what seemd like hours, I got to the end. But just before we go to the end, James Hake was coming back and he said to me “you can hang!” referring to Ha and Felipe who were just ahead of me. This seemed to help me a lot coming back. What also helped was when Felipe yelled to me “Lets’ go Phong!” at about Foothill. I caught him at the Park and as headed towards Ha. It took a while but I caught him at the Railroads. I was OK but, if Ha just gave one little surge and caugt up to me, he would have easily broken me, but he didn’t. The rest of the way the fear of getting caught caused me to surge constantly.

I finally finished at Live Oak and was really happy. I beat Ha and his time from lasts time. Also I have had really bad workouts until today. I actually did the whole workout, The End and back, nonstop. Cool…

The Running Trail Map

So our high school has been running on this trail for many many years, won many champsionships (even a state championship) training on this trail. It begins as a bike road along a wash, going along a golf course (there are horror stories about driving range nuts trying to behead us with golf balls). Once we get to the first street (Live Oak), it is pretty much all trail or dirt. This Google Map shows the trail from beginning to end. For a better look, check out the original Google Map that I screen-grabbed this from.

I think my next post will be the first entry in the running log/journal that I kept during my Junior year in high school.

What is The Trail Running Blog?

I guess this should have been my first post, but I created the About The Trail Running Blog page, so thought it would have been a sufficient explanation, but I will try to elaborate a little bit more.

I have wanted to start this running blog for quite some time now, but due to other events in my life, I never came around to doing it. I also didn’t know enough about blogging to truly make this work the way I wanted it to. So I patiently waited, for the right moment to start this.

Back in high school, I was told by my coach to start and keep a running log/journal of my runs, just to have to look back on in the future. Although it has not done much but bring back fond (and depressing) memories of past running experiences I had. Now that I have been able to set up this blog and upkeep it on a daily basis, I will share my stories, hoping to relate to others who have (had) the same passion for running that I used to have or still do, and hope to revive that passion that I once had.

Almost 5 years after running in my last track season, I have tried to get back to running on a daily basis. I have attempted this before, numerous times, to no avail. Either I was too busy with work, or too tired from it, I was never able to consistently run. I have run 3 times in the last 4 days, which is quite a feat for me. I hope I can run 4-5 times a week, for now, which is weak sauce since I ran 7 times a week in high school, 3-10 miles a day, as opposed to 1-2.5 these days.

But the fact that I can still run that long without having to stop for air or water, I think it just shows that I still have the running mentality in me. I am also getting inspiration from my Husky, Molly by having a companion with me while I run. Although she pulls like no other, and is afraid of the dark and sewer drains, she is still happy to get out of the house every now and then. Little does she know she is actually keeping me inspired to run every day.

I will try and post old running log entries as well as new ones from current runs that I find blog-worthy, not to mention any other running facts or knowledge that I can muster out of this old runner’s brain..