Trail Running Blog

Another Run on the Trail to The End

Sunday, January 27, 2002
Workout: Warm-up to Live Oak, hard to The End and back to Live Oak, Cool down Live Oak
Time: 48:38 Weather: chilly

While running the warm-up on the trail, I thought I felt pretty alright: no pain, injuries, no real complaints really. When we were stretching at Live Oak after the warm-up run, I realized that only four guys would be running today, so there would be big gaps between the people (which means we would most likely be running alone, which I hated). I guess all four of us could have ran together as a pack, but the odds of that happening were very slim. I think it’s a combination of the fact that all four of us are on different skill levels and there is always this feeling that we need to beat each other..

We started the run extremely fast, under 6 minutes (5:45-5:50) and after that I felt really tired. Other times before, I felt alright because I didn’t start out that fast. But this defnitely had an adverse affect on me, like it would with anyone starting a run too fast. A little bit before coming up to The End, I realized that Raymond was running right behind me. The rest of the way, I got discouraged because I thought he was going to beat me (I kept thinking, “Is he going to pass me now, which is fine or later on toward the end of the run, which would suck”) I saw how close he was to me when I got to The End and turned around and saw him running up toward the fence. It was literally 100 feet away or less. At the Park, I turned around (which I really didn’t want to do) and didn’t see him anywhere. That relieved me..a little.
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Recovery Run After Intervals

Thursday, January 24, 2002
Workout: Easy/recovery to Camino
Time: 30:03 (7:30 pace) Weather: warm

Today, like many other days, I was on the verge of not running. But a few other runners did, so I joined Felipe to get a quick run in on the trail. So we changed and started running from the campus and when we finally got to the trail, we saw some other runners about 600 meters ahead. So we ran pretty fast to catch up to them (probably too fast as you will read later on). The strange thing though, when we caught the other runners, one of the runners was saying to pick it up, like to ditch us.
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Still Sore from Trail Run to The Rise

Monday, January 21, 2002
Workout: Medium/Hard to Duarte
Time: Up: 35:23 (7:04 pace)

Today, we were either going to run to Duarte or the Railroads on the trail, but I told the coaches that a few of us were sore from the run Trail Run to The Rise on Saturday, so he told us all to go to Duarte. Frank told us he was going to Camino pretty hard and come back and do stair workouts on the track stadium seats. Coming up, we were all running pretty close together, but the group started breaking up and the first group was me, Frank and Ha. I remembered that Frank was going running hard to Camino, so I wanted to get away from that pack, but Ha stayed, so I decided to hang with them. Also, at Longden, Frank told us to pack it up, but it seemed like we picked it up instead. I guess he meant pack it up and run together at that faster pace. At Camino, I thought Frank was going to stop, but he kept running with us. Just before Duarte, Ha was falling back and Frank was yelling at him to keep up and catch us, which he eventually did do. It felt pretty good keeping up with Frank though, especially at the pace we were running at. Read the rest of this entry »

Recovery Run to Camino

Sunday, January 20, 2002
Workout: recovery to Camino
Time: Easy Weather: Sunny

I was really sore today (even last night) from the workout. I don’t know why, but I also had cereal for breakfast that morning, which made the run worse. Good thing  the run was supposed to be a recovery. Nobody else wanted to run today except Ha; Raymond just flat out said no. Anyways, coming up, it was alright, except right before Camino, when Ha picked up the pace. It wasn’t that fast, just faster than usual, especially on an easy/recovery run. We stopped, rested and stretched at Camino for a while. I brought up the old days when we first started running cross country and how we would be dying just running to Longden or Camino. There was also a time when we were so thirsty at Longden that we walked to a nearby home’s sprinklers and drank the water; that’s how tired we were.

We ran back was at a pretty good pace, it  was actually better than on the way up. I don’t think it was faster or slower, just felt a lot more comforatble. We just talked and joked around and finished  together, which was a change. Today was a good day to recover from the workout the day before. But I am still sore, so I don’t know how well I will run tomorrow,  which will not be such an easy workout.

Trail Run to The Rise

Saturday, January 19, 2002
Workout: 8 Miles: Warm-up from Huntington to The Rise, run hard from The Rise back to the Water Tower, cool down to the park and back
Time: 36:17 for 5.5 miles Weather: cold during warm-up, sunny after

Since running up the trail was a gradual uphill, Fernando told us we would be going pretty fast back downhill especially the first mile, which was clocked at about 5:30. When we got out and started, we were running really fast and I did feel the downhill. But after the first mile, I wasn’t that tired, but we had to stop to get out of the fence at The End. The End is literally a fence with a hole in it, so it’s almost impossible to just run by or jump over this part. And that’s where I caught Andrew and passed him. I’m pretty sure Ha caught him a little bit later as well, but I think he just ran with him. So during the rest of the run, like many of my other runs, I ran with the fear of being caught and passed. It is a real motivation when you think there is someone running up behind you. But you don’t want to make it obvious by constantly looking back, so you only do it every now and then. Read the rest of this entry »

Easy Group Run to Camino

Friday, January 18, 2002
Workout: Easy to Camino
Time: easy Weather: warm

Coming up, Fernando said he was going to run hard to Duarte, so I tried staying at his fast pace along with some other runners. Then at the golf course, everyone started to packed it up and run in a group, so he decided that we should all run up together easy to Camino. It was pretty fun and easy going up. I remember some time during the run, Fernando told us his experience about missing CIF finals in track by .2 of a second because he got cutt off during the 800. Read the rest of this entry »

Trail Run to The End…And Back

Sunday, January 13, 2002
Workout: Warmup to Live Oak, Hard to The End and back to Live Oak, Cooldown Live Oak (Total 9 miles)
Time: 51:33 Weather: cold, then sunny

Today’s run on the trail was the first one since Wednesday, so I didn’t know if the three days off would kill me or help me run even faster. So we came in the morning and everybody came except Fernando. He came to the trail late, but was in street clothes. He said he had to be somewhere so he would run later on in the day. But before he left, we just stood in a small circle just talking and telling jokes. We finally started running and warmed up to Live Oak. After stretching at Live Oak, we took off, and as we started running, Frank was going kind of slow (as a joke), so I passed him.. Read the rest of this entry »

Teaching An Old Runner a Lesson

Tuesday, January 8, 2002
Workout: Easy to Camino
Time: Easy Weather: Sunny/warm

Running up to Camino, we thought it was going to be an easy run, but we were running with an old classmate and he made the workout not as easy as we expected. We ran up hard until Longden and then a couple of them stopped, including the old runner. Frank and I continued to Longden and immediately toned down the pace. Frank said that he killed the old runner, and I thought that was pretty funny. I think it was his first couple of days back to running, and I guess he was trying to show off. We stopped at the 2 mile mark and rested for a while. We then started running back together, but at a much easier pace. At the dirt downhill, Frank slowed down to do something, so I kept running with another runner. But right before the cement, Frank caught up to us and it looked like he was going to kick, so I went with him. I finished the run right before Frank medium, kind of hard. Then, after resting a while, he said we should do strides. Read the rest of this entry »

The Benefits of Running in a Pack

Monday, January 7, 2002
Workout: medium/comfortable to Duarte
Time: slow (easy) Weather: warm

Today was the first day of school after winter break. I felt kind of weird to be running, it may have been because we were running at a different time of day, but it could have also been because I was tired from having to get up so early for school and then having to have to run after. I wasn’t necessarily tired, but I just didn’t feel like running. I guess this happens when you run 6-7 days a week for months at a time. There just doesn’t seem to be an end to it. So for today’s run on the trail, we went a little easier than usual, probably because there were other runners out there that didn’t really run like they were supposed to during the winter break. I was kind of glad though, but I should have made it some kind of workout and at some points in the run, I felt that I could have easily picked up the pace a little. Everyone started running before us and we were the last group of runners on the trail. Coming up, Felipe kind of took off and I tried to keep up with him. We stopped at the 2-mile mark and started resting. But Frank came by and told us to keep going (to Duarte), so we kept running. It’s always good to have other runners around to push you. If I were running alone, it would be a lot easier to slow down or even worse, stop running. But with other runners around, you sort of have to be on your toes, and even better, they’ll be around to push you when you need help. So we ran together as a pack, but I started falling back. So as I was falling back, Frank called me up to the group and that was enough for me to give a little surge to catch up. I mean, it wasn’t a hard pace, it was just the distance between me and the group was the hard part. So, once I got over that part, the rest was easier. Read the rest of this entry »

Much-Delayed, Post 4-Cities Run

There has been a long delay in posts, but hopefully I will be more diligent about being more consistent with these posts. So here goes..

Sunday, January 6, 2002
Workout: easy/recovery to Camino
Time: pretty fast (5:50-6:00 last mile) Weather: sunny, warm

At the beginning of the run on the trail, I wasn’t sore like some other runners from the 4-Cities Run, so I went a little faster with Ray. He told me it was going to be a hard run, so I wasn’t surprised at the pace he was running at. I also had in mind the day before, the really bad run that I didn’t even finish. However, I finished up before Ray, but just by a little. We started running back and caught up to another runner at Longden (he already ran and went again to Longden). So the three of us ran back and at Live Oak, Frank asked if we were going to run a killer last mile. Read the rest of this entry »