Jesse Armijo - A Pondering Runner

The Roads Will Always Be Open, But The Track Never Lies

2012-01-31T15:01:00.009-07:00

US Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field June 22 - July 1, 2012

After a much needed break from 2 marathons in 41 days, I am back running again. I decided to take about 8 days off, and it was an abysmal attempt of laying low and doing nothing with myself, as I felt the need to get back into reality ASAP. Without running, and by choosing not to run, created a void that could only be filled by planning my next training cycle and reevaluating my goals in life. I'm now armed with a Master's degree and soon will have to choice to teach full time or become a running bum... what choice shall I make?

Well, after some metal debating, I feel that many runners surround themselves with other runners and work at running stores to fulfill they running potential. Not many runners at the Olympic Trials had full time jobs, or teaching full time either. For the most part, they work part-time, and train full time. Yet, I felt the strongest and the most determined when I had a class of students to educate and my mind focus on other things besides running. So, at my current point in life I've determined two things: (1) I may not have the opportunity or ability to race in the track trials ever again, which I will attempt to do this spring, and (2) I am going to substitute teach so that I may still train, and hopefully find a full time teaching position.

I still feel the desire and passion to compete on the track this spring as I prepare for another marathon or if I qualify for the 10000m on the track for the Eugene Trials. To me, the marathon is such a great race, as it parallels life. The amount of work and time put into it, just for one race, creates countless memories and truly expresses how the journey is just as fulfilling as the destination. Each marathon I've done, I've learned something new, and have embraced the pain and joy that came with crossing the finish line, as to put the final punctuation of a chapter.

The many races that lead up to a marathon create different emotions, but at the end of the marathon cycle awaits 26.2 miles of a seer testament to your physical ability. However, with track races, there are many to choose from, and hopefully you can achieve your goal of hitting a qualifying time. In this years 10000m Olympic Trials at Hayward Field the "A" standard is 28:15 and a "B" standard of 29:00. In my opinion, no one slower than 28:25 will be allowed to compete. To run that fast, I need to pr by over 35 seconds... So in life, nothing is certain, which is why I want to seek the opportunity to toe the line at Hayward Field and actually be in shape to compete amongst the best Americans in the 10000m distance.

The Conclusion of the 2012 Olympic Trials Marathon

2012-01-18T14:32:00.013-07:00

Well, it's all over. A 2:22:25 finishing time, and a 69th place finish are all I can prolifically announce on paper, but I feel that I took a whole lot more from the carnage that took place on January 14th in Houston.

To start things off, I can always shine in on dinner conversations, and on ballroom floors that I ran in the 2012 Olympic Trials Marathon. Once the looks of discuss flow away off peoples faces, I can then revert to only speaking to those who actually care about running, and know what actually occurred at the 2012 Marathon trials - Total Insanity! I could be classified as an "idiot" for only giving myself 5 weeks after CIM to get ready and run in the Trials, but of course my main goal was to just get there. I am a 2:17 guy competing mainly against myself. The sheer opportunity to toe the line amongst the greatest American marathoners is a blessing in it self. Then, having the opportunity to run in a race that is only held once every 4 years is something that may never happen again (although I plan on being at the trials in 2016). But for some, this was their last chance to run amongst the best.

From my perspective, I will give you 3 insights I had: once before the race, during the race, and of course after the race.

So, after qualifying and being on cloud-nine for the 5 weeks leading up to the trials, I had a Dick Beardsley attitude, that I could and will improve on my 2:17 time. By how much, I had no idea. But it was ingrained in my thought process that with the pervious training I've done, I could run faster in 5 weeks time. My workouts and mileage were going ok, and I was healthy as could be. Nothing was going to stop me from dreaming or believing that I could run another PR, possibly run under 2:16. So, this was my mentality going into the trials.

Once in Houston, I have to admit that I was overwhelmed with all the trials hype. All alone amongst the talented runners that would soon face each other come Saturday morning; this was a feeling that you didn't want to have. So, right away, alliances started to form with other runners that I've known throughout the past 1, 2, or even 3 years of competing against and with each other, brought a slight calmness. Friends started to ensue onto the scene, and since I had my own room, I had Loren and his girlfriend Laura stay with me to calm my nerves. Josh soon arrived, and I felt more relaxed as my Mom and Dad finally arrived as well. Things were starting to feel at ease, and I was getting anxiously ready to start. Other details could be listed, but to manifest them now wouldn't serve justice, as the main show was about to happen.

On Saturday morning I had a nice plain oatmeal breakfast at 5:15am after getting up at around 4:55am to slump through the halls of the Hilton towards the hospitality suite for some grub. I got ready and was out the hotel door towards the "Elite Staging Area" at around 6:45am. After a short 8 minute warm-up on the streets around the GRB convention center with Josh, I felt warm enough to start the race. A few more hoops to jump through; from getting all the athletes ready from inside the convention center, to countless nervous strides, to the National Anthem, and then finally walking up to the start of the race to hear the final commands, which were all I really was waiting for.

As soon as the gun goes off, I swiftly notice how fast the pace is, and how far behind I am. The short 2.2 mile loop through the immediate downtown area goes by in a flash, as fans are cow belling, and cheering their brains out! This excitement only adds to the ghastly pace, as the first mile; compared to the leaders was a tempered 5:17 mile, but the second mile was 5:03 for me, and I was still getting past by other runners. I managed to maintain pace in the neighborhood of 5:0? something and 5:13 for about 16 miles, but I didn't know I was going to be doing that, as I had no watch, and no one was around me.

I managed to run very stupid going into the wind, as I was a solus runner in between two small packs. This race strung out rather quickly, and only a pocket of runners were together, so I needed to either, slow down and allow myself to run with runners behind me, or pick it up towards the next pack. Well, the racer in me told me to battle the fear of being alone, and chase down the pack ahead. One by one, runners were falling off of the pack I was chasing, and a few runners were eating me up as they past me with ease. I attempted to go with these groups of guys passing me, but couldn't manage to stay with them. The original pack I was chasing finally dissolved and I was able to run with Allen Wagner for a bit at mile 14. I maintained my momentum towards the finish line, but once I came to mile 16, I really started to hurt.

From the beginning of the race, I never felt comfortable. I thought I could get into a groove, and maintain an even effort while running an even pace. What reality was telling me was a little different. I was able to maintain somewhat of an even pace (5:09 average for 16 miles), but my effort was suffering. The fatigue in my legs was a small remembrance from CIM, and it was going to stay until I stopped. Mile 17, 18 and 19 were: 5:23, 5:28 and 5:33. Of course I didn't know that, but I knew I was slowing down, and I wasn't in good shape. Some guys were coming back to me, but just as many were passing me. This would continue on as a buddy of mine came up on me with about 10k to go. So, with about 6 miles to go on our last 8 mile loop, Crossby Freeman says, "Hey Jesse.... this isn't how we pictured it to be, is it?". I quickly responded by saying, "nope, but stay positive.". He slowly inched away from me and kept me behind him until the last 200 meters of the race. But, that was an interesting point he made. This wasn't how I was picturing the Trials to be. This amount of pain felt pretty bad, but I knew I was going to finish, and by making some small calculations, I knew I'd at least be under 2:23 (which isn't good anymore). I'm not saying I'm completely happy with my time, but considering I raced a marathon 5 weeks ago, I can hold my head up high.

I was able to hold it together towards the end as I entered the downtown area. The roar of the crowds were getting louder, and I knew I was close. With about a mile to go, the only positive aspect I was thinking was that I would be finishing the Olympic Trials Marathon, as I knew many other runners had dropped out due to injury, or pride. But my pride would be to finish, and to come back in the following trials to improve on my place, and time. With 400 meters to go, I tried to pass as many guys as possible, and was able to get a few. To my right I could see the American flag draped around Meb, and I was pretty content to be finishing as strong as I could in the most loaded and competitive Olympic Trials in U.S. History.

Thank you everyone for all your love and support! This would mean nothing if I didn't have my friends and family to share this with! It has been a long road, and many sacrifices have been made, which is why I apologize for any trouble that may have occurred, but for the most part, it has been a great journey, and I will always cherish the moments we share together! Thank you all!!!

Results:

http://www.usatf.org/events/2012/OlympicTrials-Marathon/results/Men.asp

Splits:

By Miles (5:17, 5:03, 5:06, 5:07, 5:04, 5:09 (6miles- 30:46), 5:13, 5:07, 5:11, 5:10, 5:09, 5:11, 5:13 (13miles - 1:07:00), 5:12, 5:08, 5:04, 5:23, 5:28, 5:33, 5:42 (20miles - 1:44:30), 5:44, 6:10, 6:18, 6:10, 6:22, 6:01, 70sec for .2)

Pike Athletics Interview

2012-01-07T22:43:00.001-07:00

An interview a friend did for me:

http://www.pikeathletics.com/blog/interview-with-jesse-armijo?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook

100% Optimism

2012-01-07T22:23:00.005-07:00

Well, it's one week until the US Olympic Trials, and I am obviously very excited. As many interviews and youtube videos float around on the internet, I've decided to add to the flood of guys/gals talking about their experience towards reaching the trials.

I think I've commented plenty of my experience and what it's been like making the standard, so all I have left to do is wait and rest until the gun goes off in Houston. There wasn't much I could have done to improve my performance when 8:00am on January 14th comes around. I am expecting an emotional race, and the possibility to PR, while soaking in all the excitement that the Trials has been built up to be. The talk of amazing things has been in the minds of countless runners (actually just 122 men, and 197 women), so the odds are that not everyone is going to PR and run the race of their lives, which is why we all get to race to see what happens. And, that is what I am excited for! Everyone should be giving it everything they have and hopefully we can hobble away from it with high heads and pride. Pride that we got to compete in the most competitive Marathon of our lives.

A Southern California Christmas

2011-12-25T15:45:00.006-07:00

Well, Christmas is upon us and another week has gone by. This was an interesting week to be back with my parents. It was also my first "real" week of training, as I finally got back to 100 miles for the week. And it didn't seem that bad, both mentally and physically. Of, course I didn't do any real workouts, just mileage. There's nothing too special to write about at this point. Two interesting things to comment about is the contrast of runs and weather I've dealt with this week. Thursday was a nice 8 mile run in the Foothills with Dana and Pat through a Snow Storm! The wind was howling up to 40 miles/hour with snow pelting us continuously. I believe the visibility was about 400m in the foothills, and the wind chill wasn't too pleasant, but it was a great run to put in the record books. Then I had a long run this Christmas day in Laguna Niguel, California with a sunny temperature of around 70 degrees. Since my pale Albuquerque winter chest hadn't seen sunlight since August, it felt nice to run shirtless with shorts on, under the sun. I ran in the Aliso Woods Canyon up to "Top of the World" and back. At around mile 16 I decided to drop a 5:01 mile for good measure and to see if I could. It felt good to finally move my legs, which was the fastest pace I've done since the marathon 3 weeks ago.

Mon - am. 8 mile easy
Tue - am. 10 miles easy / pm. 6 miles easy
Wed - am. 10 miles easy / pm. 6 miles easy
Thur - am. 6 miles easy / pm. 8 miles in a Snow Storm
Fri - am. 10 miles easy / pm. 8 miles easy
Sat - am. flew to Cali / pm. 14 miles med/easy
Sun - am. 20 mile Long Run

Total: 106

29 days...

2011-12-15T13:33:00.006-07:00

It's only 29 days until the most anticipated American road race takes place in Houston, Texas. The marathon trials have been my goal since graduating from Cal State San Marcos, yet I didn't even give it a shot until moving to New Mexico. I could say that the 60-80 mile weeks in Southern California were preparing me to become a better runner, but after many miles later, I now know that was a lie. I should have been running 100 plus mile weeks for about 2 years to see any real benefit in the marathon, which may be why I didn't attempt one until 2009. And that was a year after moving to New Mexico to pursue a running lifestyle, hidden behind a pursuit of a master's degree. But, I kept running low mileage and ran local races, never exposing myself to what other top runners where doing at the time. So, when Sean Brosnan convinced me that there were better places to train in the United States, and that a change of scenery would not only get me out of my comfort zone, but force me to focus on why I would be training there, I decided that I would need to move. Luckily for me, Kris Houghton wanted me to move to New Mexico and train with him and be coached by Henry Rono. This worked out, and the rest is history.

So, After 3 years of training and the casual injuries, I've finally hit a few PR's that are respectable, in my mind. I can finally say that I'm an Olympic Trials Qualifier, and will be toeing the line on January 14th, 2012, with the best Marathoners of our day. It's going to be a 26.2 mile victory race, and I have no idea how its going to play out. All I know is that I am excited and proud to be there, and can't wait to see what happens. I hope to be posting more frequently, now that school is over, graduation is upon me, and the trials are staring at me in the face!

2012 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon Promotional Video

2011-12-07T21:31:00.003-07:00

Just a little taste of something special:

Nothing to Lose, and Everything to Gain... California International Marathon

2011-12-05T13:26:00.027-07:00

Boom! It has all paid off... 2:17:19 for 6th place at the California International Marathon was something I can't even fathom!!! I knew I had it in me, but I just had to do it on the right day, with the right circumstances, and those circumstances can barely be transcribed, but I'm going to try...

This epic weekend starts off on a now winterish Friday with a cold front moving in on Albuquerque. I knew this, because I planed on teaching all day and would leave for Sacramento at 5:30pm to arrive there at around 8:45pm. In the classroom at S.Y. Jackson Elementary, the day is going as planned. Students are learning, and I'm learning how to become a better teacher from them... Once the day is over, I leave for home to an already packed bag and head for Sacramento. The flight was extremely delayed, and I assumed I was going to miss my connecting flight out of LAX. But, that didn't happen as the wonderful people at Southwest held that flight and I made it out of LAX and into Sacramento at 8:45pm.

Kris had an entirely different ordeal, as he left Abq in the early afternoon, flew into Oakland, rented a car and would drive to Sacramento. This, astonishing as it is, would save him time, and it did, as he arrived at the airport to pick me up. We zipped out of there in the spunky compact sized rental car as Kris handles it as a formula 1 racing car. We're weaving in and out of semi-trucks to get to downtown Sacramento so that we can grab something to eat. But, once we park the car in downtown, we had the unfortunate, and fortunate experience of meeting what I will call a "troubled" women. She had so much disparity about her, and the very detailed and long story she expressed only lead Kris and I to help her in what little way we could. Not to get into the detail of what we did, but to express the amount of emotion that came from this experience was very eye-opening. Here I am, fortunate enough to travel across the country to chase a dream of qualifying for the Olympic Trials, and this destitute of a women is here asking for help in more ways than one. The outlook I had on what I was there to do seemed to matter little to the struggle this women and her family would be experiencing. I decided to keep this thought as the weekend progressed... So, after a quick dinner, we headed to our hotel on the outskirts of Sacramento, checked in, and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

So, the next morning we went on a run and the theme of destitution arose once more. Kris and I ran along the American River Trail and ran by what is called "Tent City", due to the hundreds of homeless people living in tents along the river. One guy looked pretty cold and mentioned something about gloves. I didn't understand him, but Kris did, and decided to give him his favorite pair of gloves. That was an emotional detachment, that looked like it hurt. Well, the rest of the day was pretty mellow. We headed out to get bottles and drop them off, got our race numbers, had a nice lunch, picked up Solomon (another Dukes Track Club member and Kenyan) and went to dinner. Solomon and I went with my parents to Old Spaghetti Factory, and Kris went with his family somewhere else. After this, the real action starts...

Solomon and I got home and just relaxed and went to bed around 9:30. This is when Kris barges into the room with a panic stricken voice, stating that "We have a situation!". I thought that at this point, Maria was going into labor (his wife was due on the 12th of December and would most-likely be early), but Kris made it clear that there was a bat on the staircase. A freakin bat that wouldn't fly was laying on the staircase and Kris wanted to rehabilitate it back to health... I told him, "who cares, it's a freakin bat!". Solomon just laid there trying to sleep peacefully, and I knew this whole weekend was too good to be true with all the chaos going on in our room. Here's a little background history: Kris cannot relax before a big marathon! The past three marathon's I've been to with Kris have been an emotional roller-coster. The guy, simply can't chill out! It's the combination of tapering for a marathon, and Kris Houghton genetics. So why shouldn't he relax before CIM?!?! Well, he's frantically running around the room on his iphone trying to google: what to do if you find a bat, and I'm surprised it didn't tell him to pull his head out of his A$$ and leave the damn thing alone! They have rabies!!!! So, after an hour of running back and forth from the room to the staircase to his iphone, he finally made a bat bed, put the damn thing in it, and placed it in a cabinet in the hotel room until this bat lady showed up to take it to a conservation place or something... Just as long as everyone was in bed, and "trying" to rest for the morning ordeal, I would be a little more at ease.

Then, at around 2:50am Kris' phone rang, and Maria was on the other end explaining that her water broke and she'd be going into labor. Now, this was for real! Kris was able to get a flight out of Oakland at 7am and would be back in Albuquerque by 10am. He organized this in a matter of minutes, and told me sorry he wouldn't be able to race. He also told me to qualify for him, since he wouldn't even have the opportunity to... Those emotional words stayed in my heart as the morning went on.

Finally... it's 4:30am and my parents take Solomon and I to the host hotel so that we can get bused to the start. I get separated from Solomon and end up in the back of a random school bus sitting next to a nice girl who happens to work for Brooks and is attempting to qualify for the trials as well. The 45 minute bus ride goes by very quickly as we talk about running and Brooks as a company. Once we arrive at the start, the temperature seems colder and all the "elite" runners huddle in the Elite Tents. The thought of claustrophobia sets in, as a few dozen runners are packed into these tents. I leave immediately after I get my socks and shoes on for a short warm up. This lovely girl comes along, but I never see her after I sneak off into the brush to water the bushes from over hydration. I frantically get back to the tent and attempt to strip down so that I can get to the starting line. I notice how cold it is, and leave my gloves on, and I almost kept my watch on, but decided at the last minute that I would run back to my bag and ditch it. I'm thinking, I'm just going to race off of feeling and not worry about splits. So, with the luck of my entire 5th grade class and their signatures on my racing flats, I feel ready to go.

I am finally on the starting area and I still don't see Solomon or anyone else that I recognized. I thought there'd be a slew of guys that I knew, like: Paul Wellman, Nate Pennington, Mario Macias, Ryan Bak, Mario Mendoza... but I didn't see any of them at the start, only at the tent area. There was just too many people in this race, and I knew at that moment it was going to be a gagglefest of runners trying to hit the Olympic Trials Standard. A lot of dreams where going to get crushed, and a couple were going to come true. Well, the National anthem was sung and a quick count down was started right before the barrage of runners took to the streets! And the mayhem began!

In the first mile I could finally see everyone settle into a rhythm. There was two distinct packs forming and I was cruising behind the guys in the chase pack (2nd pack). The lead group of about 15 runners had Ryan Bak leading the group and Mario Macias in the mix of African runners. In this first mile with a slight downhill I decided to keep my composure and stick behind this chase pack of bobbling idiots. We come by the first mile and I hear an array of GPS/Watches clicking and beeping off all around me. One runner (who happens to be a Hansons runner) is directly to my left and is signaling to me as a police officer directing traffic, that he wants to move across my line of running to be next to his "teammate". He couldn't wait in this wonderfully long marathon race that he anxiously jumps across my path to get next to his teammate. I'm thinking that there's too much anxiety going on around these idiots and I have to get out of here. "5:14... perfect!" is called out by one runner. Another asks what pace they want to run, and a conversation of "Well, 5:18 pace, just what everyone here wants to run..." is going on right in front of me. Again, I can't stand this and immediately move to the right and leave the group of digglefucks, never to see a single one of these runners again until I finish. But, I didn't know that at the time...

I see the original leader Ryan Bak relinquish the lead and ease up behind the lead group. I figure I could catch him so that I wouldn't be alone, and neither would he. We could work together in-a-sense. So it takes me a little less than a mile and I run up beside him. At this point I feel like the old school marathoners from the 70's, especially since Ryan's wearing the nostalgic Oregon Track Club singlet, and I've got the Dukes Track Club singlet on, and we are about to have an unnecessary conversation.

He looks over with a questioning tone and says "Jesse?".

I acknowledge quickly with a "Hey Ryan.".

And now a quick question of, "What are you looking to run?" is asked.

And I reply, sounding like a tool, "Something FAST...!".

He nods his head, and I continue my with another quirky response of, "Lets do this!".

We are now stride for stride, watching the lead pack gain ground on us, over, and down, and up hills. With each mile marker being past, I can hear Ryan's Garmin beeping. I never bother to ask him what pace we are on, but it was a curious thought. At each designated elite aid station, we grab our bottles and take in the desired fuel. Miles start to come up quickly and the lead group is still putting ground on us, but only at the cost of a few African runners fading off for us to overcome. The crowds are cheering us on and the pace feels great. The lead pack is now shedding guys from their pace and the winner of this marathon is being determined right in front of us.

Ryan and I turn a bend and head up a slight hill that leads us to the half way spilt and a clock ticking away. I see 1:07:10 as we approach, and we ran pass the mat in 1:07:16. This meant nothing to me. I felt pretty good and under control at this point, and that split could have said anything. I guess at halfway, the time doesn't matter, and the effort is all that matters. It was a complete arbitrary number. I just knew I had to keep the same effort for the next half of the race. Well, after coming up on mile 14, I started to feel really good. The leaders where coming back to us, and I had these thoughts of grander... maybe I could pick all these guys off and win this thing... this performance could change my life! Well... I started pressing harder and harder at this point. A few Africans fell off and I started feeling better! Ryan must have kept his cool, because he was now a few meters behind me. I tried to keep pressing, then at around mile 18, I couldn't push the pace anymore. I was overcome by Ryan and couldn't respond to the continued pace I had started. I started to fade a little, but not much...

Mile 20 came up pretty quick after that mess, and I just kept cool and looked forward to my last aid station at mile 21.5. I may have been slowing down, but I had no idea by how much. Mile 21.5 came and I saw my bottle, but failed to grab it tight, so it slipped out of my hands. I could hear the aid station crew regurgitate what just happen by saying, "oh, he dropped his bottle.". Yes, I dropped a bottle of precious fuel, oh no, the world is going to end... not exactly! I just kept going, and kept my cool, grabbing whatever was offered at the water stations. Things would be fine. The next couple miles were painful as I hoped I didn't just screw up this race by sprinting my brains out from mile 14-17. Oh well, time would only tell.

By the time I got to mile 23, this buster comes up on me and tells me to come with him. I attempt to move my legs, but I can't match his stride for more than 400 meters. He takes off on me, and I think to myself that if this guy just flew by me, then the whole train of guys are coming soon! It turns out that he was on the relay team, but I didn't know that at the time. Now, some guy on the street is looking at his watch and tells us we still have a shot at qualifying for the trials. I am in denial at this point, there is no way we are going to hit a sub 2:19. I also think, I might run an okay PR. About two miles or so go by, and I start to hear more foot steps. I look at the street signs and still see 30 something street, as the finish is closer to 9th or 8th street, so this only means I am going to get passed by more guys. Well, once those footsteps come next to me, a familiar voice with a Kenyan accent tells me, "hello, lets go.".

It's Solomon! Now, I have to go with him. I can't let him down. I also think, I still have a shot at a PR. His momentum and stride is very smooth, so I muster myself together to stay with him. My muscles are pumping nothing but battery acid at this point, and are as heavy as bricks. But, I still must stay with Solomon. The finish line is near, as we pass the capitol building on out left and mile marker 26 appears! 400 meters is all that's left! Solomon's speed is increasing, and the steeple chaser in him is coming out. I try to go with him and think to myself that I have plenty of pain to push out of this body to finish as strong as I can. With about 100 meters to go, a clock is on the corner of the street with the lucky digits of 2:17:00 clicking away...! My heart and lungs suddenly open up and take in that emotional feeling that I've already accomplished everything I wanted. And with this flood of emotion overcoming inside of me, I start to sprint harder than I've every felt; maybe not faster than every, but gut wrenching and teeth grinning fast! I lose control of my senses and start fist pumping and screaming inside! Arms are waving and the last reaction I have is of victory as I am looking to the heavens and just thanking God from my heart with my hands held high!

One

Two

Three

Victory!

And it didn't stop there... I saw my parents, and my mom screaming her brains out with joy. My dad was practically speechless while a volunteer place a medal over me and I was trying to catch my breath. I could feel all the emotion pouring down on me that I couldn't even breathe. A slight bit of hyperventilating was occurring as I was so freakin excited. I also had a stupid grin on my face for hitting the time, but I didn't care. I went over to my mom to give her a hug as tears of joy were about to stream down my face. Needless to say, she was very happy, as well as my father. I was so glad they were there to share this with me. I love them with all my heart, and thank God I have such wonderful parents to support me throughout all those years of training and being there for me when it counted. They are my motivation, inspiration, and keep me determined to do the best I can! Like the rest of the Armijo's in my family, we always do things at the last minute and up against the clock, as this was literally the last chance to qualify for the trials!

To everyone else that has supported me through this crazy ordeal:

THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU ALL!

And baby Alma Rose Houghton was born on this same day during this race! Congratulations Kris and Maria!

Results:

http://www.flashresults.com/2012_Meets/CIM/searchind/Results.htm

End of the Line

2011-11-28T20:04:00.004-07:00

Less than a week till marathon day in Sacramento, and what have I done? Well, considering last week was Thanksgiving week, meaning loads of turkey and stuffing being shoveled into my month at my own will, I haven't been doing much. Although, I did start my: taper, peaking, mileage decrease, laziness or whatever phase it's called when you gear down towards a marathon preparation. Also, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, and heading back to my parents house in Laguna Niguel, I decided to run my favorite Turkey Trot race in Dana Point. The 10k at the Dana Point Turkey Trot is always stacked with fast guys that can carry you to a sweet road PR, which is what I was intending 10 days out from my marathon. Instead of another marathon workout, I was going to get 10,000m worth of speed to get me ready for C.I.M..

Well, after a couple days of easy running, and a quick flight home, I would be ready to go on Thursday morning. It had rained the night before and was clearing up in the beach city of Dana Point. I decided not to wear a watch and just go with the flow. After getting out pretty comfortable, I stayed with the top pack until I got dropped at around 4 miles. I stayed in 4th relatively comfortable, but couldn't make up any ground on 3rd place. And to my amazement I came through the finish in 29:19 for 4th place! I usually get 5th at this race, and usually run in the 30:00's on this course, but things turned out pretty good on this day. I also credit the notation that this course was slightly different than the previous years, and could have been 100m short... Nevertheless, I am sure I would've still been well under 30 minutes on the roads.

The following days, I took easy since I was extremely sore, and finished up the week with my last "long run" of 15 miles back in Albuquerque. I don't really know how I'm suppose to feel at this point. I remember the last few marathons vaguely, and can't recall how this taper feels. I know my mileage is extremely low, and I feel pretty rested, but very eager to race the full 26.2 miles! It's only Monday, and I want the end of the week to come. And I know I have a lot of other things on my mind besides the marathon, which I hope is a good thing. Let's go down the list: I have a rigorous class presentation on Tuesday along with a few projects that I just completed before this blog posting, one last week of teaching my full assumption (which I can't believe is already over, since these kids were a blast!), and my late flight on Friday after a full day of teaching. I guess it isn't that bad, now that I have it written down...

Well, here's to a great marathon build up which all started in March when I was just coming back from an injury. I had planned to run the New York City Marathon, and changed my plans countless times which concluded in me to still run a marathon before the Trials. God only knows if this was a good choice. I feel that it is! Good luck to everyone else out there gearing up for a winter marathon!

Hypothermic Shock, And A Few Weeks To Go

2011-11-20T21:05:00.004-07:00

Well, another week in the books, or actually my running journal... Yes, I actually have a hand written running journal that I've kept up to date since college. I actually have every workout I've done since my junior year of high school. I may have to document them onto this blog someday, but until then, you get to read my thoughts instead of quickly referencing them in my trusted running journal. Besides, my workouts and mileage was about half as much as I am doing now, and very unimpressive.

So, this week started off pretty well with some decent mileage and early morning runs. I was a bit sore and tired from last weeks Sunday long run workout, so I postponed any real workouts until Thursday, which turned out to be a bad decision. I was planning on hitting one more high mileage week, but towards the end of the week I brought it down a bit. There was a lot of other things going on this week such as: a field trip to the ballon museum, a Thanksgiving luncheon, and another field trip to Kris' job at the Court of Appeals, and I had to house sit up in the Foothills. So, I was mentally burned out in an attempt to not lose any kids on these field trips... And I am proud to say, I have not lost a student yet, and we've had a lot of field trips this year (4 total). So, back to running... Thursday's workout went fairly well. I did 4x2 mile tempo repeats on the river. When I woke up at 5:20am, I did my normal routine of checking the weather and saw that the thermometer read 26 degrees! I didn't take much note to it and layered up, NOT according to the weather, but to limited clothing so that I would not be weighed down. This would be a huge mistake. I got out the door at around 5:35am and headed to the river to start my repeats. It was cold, but nothing too bad as I jogged very easy. Once I started my first rep in the dark, I hit a comfortable time of 5:23 and 5:13.

I don't know if you've ever done workouts in this temperature, but when you start breathing in that cold of air, while running, it doesn't make for the most pleasant feeling in your chest. I kept debating if I should cut the workout short and do the rest later, but as an overbearing and self conscience runner, I decided to just finish it. The next two sets where hit in (5:21, 5:23) and (5:19, 5:15). At this point I lost all feeling in my hands and had only one more set to complete. The pain in my hands was unbearable, but the next set would put me 2 miles closer to my house, and only leave me with a 2 mile cool down. I ran an unimpressive (5:21, 5:23) and once I finished I thought I had frostbite in my hands. I ripped off my watch from my left wrist, which inevitably was cutting blood circulation to my left hand and tried to hold the watch as I hobbled home in pain. I was actually fearing for my hands not to be lost to any type of frostbite. I knew it couldn't have been that serious, but when you are in that situation, you only think of the worst. I managed to get to my front door and pounded for someone to let me in, as I could not grip the door handle to open it. Scotty was still home and saved my life! I rushed to the stove, and Scott turned on the kettle to boil water for tea, and I stood in front of the heat, hoping to gain some kind of sensation back in my hands. At this point, my stomach was lurching up towards my throat and I felt as if someone had just done a jump kick into my stomach! Well, to make a short story long, I stood there for about 15 minutes, got some tea and laid down crying like a little girl, not really, but I might as well have. I finally composed myself, took a hot shower and felt the cold burn in my hands as they attempted to get blood back into them, and got ready for my 5th graders and their last field trip of the week.

After that ordeal on Thursday, I took the next few days easy and got ready for Sunday's long run workout. The long run would be an out and back run of 10 miles easy, turn around and complete 2x2 miles at tempo pace, then whatever left over to finish up a total run of 20 miles. I ran from my house heading north with a nice tailwind. Once I turned around to start my workout, I had that lovely tailwind turn into a headwind. I hit those 2 mile repeats in (5:13, 5:13) 2 minutes rest, then (5:18, 5:19). It wasn't that bad, but I sure felt like I was working hard into that wind. I think it was only going about 6-10 mph, but I could sure feel it! So, all and all, another great week. I'm looking forward to my peaking phase and running a great time at CIM!

Mon - pm. 10 miles easy

Tue - am. 10 miles easy

Wed - am 10 miles easy / pm. 10 miles easy

Thur - am. 4x2 miles at tempo (5:23, 5:13), (5:21, 5:23), (5:19, 5:15), (5:21, 5:23) total:12.5 miles / pm. 6 miles easy

Fri - pm. 14 miles med/easy

Sat - am. 12 miles easy + 2x hill strides / pm. 8 miles med

Sun - am. 20 miles in 2:10:28 w/2x2 miles at tempo (5:13, 5:13), (5:18, 5:19)

Total: 112.5 miles

Marathon Training (recovery week)

2011-11-19T14:17:00.004-07:00

Well, after toiling in my own pity and realizing that I actually had a good race last weekend, I took this week as a recovery week and a time to mentally think about my next race, the California International Marathon in Sacramento. This race is about a month away and I am all set for it. So, this week only consisted of mileage and one long run workout on Sunday. There isn't much to write about the weekly training details except that it has been getting cold but the daylight savings has helped the morning runs as there is more light out between 5:30 - 7:00 am. So that is a nice treat. Well, I managed to get in 118 miles and a nice 24 miler on Sunday with some repeat miles in it. Sunday's run was a little torturous as I ran it on Tramway, which is up by the Foothills and is a rolling course at an elevation between 6300' - 6600'.

I ran an easy 7 miles with Kris and Pev, and then turned around to start my out and back run with 4x1 mile tempo repeats with 1 minute rest jog in between. The first 4 repeats were: [5:08, 5:13, 5:05, 5:14], then I ran an easy 7 miles and started another set of 4x1 miles over slightly hilly section of the bike path in [5:15, 5:18, 5:14, 5:38], yeah that last one sucked. I guess I could blame the massive hill for that one, but I wasn't too concerned about it as my effort was pretty similar to all the others in that set. I finished up whatever mileage I had left to round out the day with 24 and a quarter miles, or actually round down to 24 miles. So, that is that. CIM here I come!

Mon - am. 8 miles easy / pm. 8 miles easy

Tue - am. 10 miles easy

Wed - pm. 16 miles med/easy

Thur - am. 10 miles easy / pm. 12 miles easy

Fri - am. 12 miles easy / pm. 8 miles easy 2x hill strides

Sat - am. 8 miles easy / pm. 10 miles easy

Sun - am. 24 miles in 2:36:20, w/4x1 mile (5:08, 5:13, 5:05, 5:14), 7 mile easy, 4x1 mile (5:15, 5:18, 5:14, 5:38)

Total: 118

I've also figured out that in the last 20 weeks I've averaged 109 miles per week! It might not seem that high of mileage, but consider that I had some race weeks of 70's and 80 mile weeks, and some UP weeks in the 130's and a lifetime high of a 137 mile week. This isn't as high as some competitors that I know, but I am getting there.

California International Marathon

2011-11-17T13:58:00.009-07:00

The California International Marathon is coming quick, and I am still registered to race this 26.2 mile race. It was first started in 1983 as a marathon course for those looking to qualify for the USA Olympic Trials, hum... sounds a little familiar. Well, this is seriously the last chance to qualify, and I am sure a slew of guys and gals will be attempting to make their mark at this years event. The race is on December 4th, 2011 and as I sit here in my 5th grade classroom while my students work quietly, I am pondering how this race will transpire.

I have debated over and over again what the best method of approach would be to qualify and run a PR at CIM. At this point those lousy running formula calculators all give me a false sense of achievement. I know I can run a quick marathon time in the neighborhood of 2:17-2:19, based on my training and race performance at the half marathon. However, the full marathon is a completely different story than running a fast half and plugging that number into a calculator and BOOM a sweet time is not as easy as that. In order to achieve what I plan on doing, I could either attempt to run an even pace and hit the first half in around 69:20 and come back with about the same time to run a qualifier... Since I've been able to run a half all out in 65:26 by myself under this marathon training, running a smart half in the marathon at 69:20 could prove to be the best outcome. Although, every other time I've done this, it hasn't been good. I tend to fall apart and run about 3-5 minutes slower in the second half. So, that would be one way to race it and hope that I am much more stronger than I've been in the past.

Another approach that fits my personality better, would be to just GO FOR IT! I could go out with the leaders, or at around 67:30-68:30 pace for the first half and just hang on for dear life! I will be expecting the painful wall and lack of energy in my muscles, which is almost inevitable no matter what happens in the marathon, and just fight through it as I've been doing in all my training and racing! I've always looked at the marathon as a giant beast and I've failed at it because I've attempted to think about it too much and logically "pace" the race according to certain calculations that actually don't pertain to my abilities. This race is the last chance to make the trials for 2012 and I am not going to passively race it. I am going to do it. I'm going for it and if I fail, or even end up walking in the end, then so be it.

"Do or do not, there is no try."

-Yoda

Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon

2011-11-07T20:43:00.008-07:00

Failure...

Well, when you look at what I was attempting to accomplish, then it was a failure. Many great and positive things came out of this trip, but ultimately I did not succeed in what I was set out to do. I can also cry about this, but after a few days of thinking about this race, I tend to realize that there are more important things in life than a race. However, this was an important aspect in my life, and I wanted to succeed in it. So, what I will reflect on is the positive events, and throw in a few cynical comments to ease my suffering.

First, I can start by explaining how the week turned out. Monday was Halloween, and of course my little 5th graders were amped out of their minds for our party, which consisted of copious amounts of sugar! Candy bars, popcorn, donuts, super donuts (I don't need to explain), punch with ice cream sorbet in it (as if it doesn't need more sugar), fruit that was drowning in carmel, chips, junk, junk, and more junk... All and all, it was great for them, and I already decided to take the day off of running and attempt to mend a sore throat I had. Tuesday would be the only workout of the week, as I did a Fartlek on the River. The rest of the week was easy as I flew out to Indy on Thursday for the Saturday race. Kris Houghton and I left for one heck of an adventure.

Once we got into Indianapolis we got to the host hotel... but left shortly after to find a Whole Foods to stock up on provisions. Friday morning started off with a nice 5 mile run along the canals and some strides in front of the NCAA Hall of Fame Museum. That afternoon, Kris and I drove all over town looking for some racing flats for Kris. After that, we headed over to the Expo to get our race numbers, and meet Bill Rodgers. After Bill gave a nice speech, we stood in line to get autographs. We were about 4th in line, and Bill, as nice and outgoing as he is would talk to each person for nearly 5 minutes each. Once we got to Bill, I asked him about his experience with Henry Rono (my current roommate). Bill started talking to us about their race in San Blass, Puerto Rico and all sorts of other stories. He gave us some words of wisdom, and he's now one of my favorite runners of all time, just because of how sincere he was towards us. So.... as the night came to an end, and Saturday morning came I was ready to run a great race! Before the race we chatted with some old friends: Paul Howarth and Nate Pennington (who I finally got to meet, and is a great guy). I of course was ready to run a sub 65 minute half marathon, but things would prove differently.

As the gun went off, I found myself with 3 other Kenyans. I was planning on starting off slower than in San Jose, and work my way down. The first mile was 5:00, Perfect! Then I just kept it around that pace. The 3 other Kenyans didn't want to take the lead, and I was forced to lead since I was more concerned about time than place and money. The following splits were for the 2nd mile to the 10th mile are: [4:55, 4:56, 4:51, 5:09, 4:44, 4:52, 5:06, 5:06, 5:01] I came up on the 10th mile in 49:44 and felt 10 times better than in San Jose. I was on pace to break 65, and was ready to run this next 5k faster than the first 5k of the race. But to my complete and F***ing surprise I clicked off a 5:26 mile. When I saw that, I flipped out! I knew I hadn't slowed down that much, and there was no change in elevation on the course. It had to be wrong! It had to be too long! Either way, there was no explanation for it. I ran the next mile at 5:02 and knew I was out of it. Nothing was going to bring back 20 something seconds. My last mile I decided not to give up and blitzed my brains out for a 4:45 mile and a finishing time of 1:05:27. I missed it again. It was a course record, and I won some pocket money, but that's not what I wanted. Now I have to do CIM and qualify with no excuses!

Not as happy as I should've been, but a win is still something to be thankful for!

Results:

http://www.tuxbro.com/IMMHalfAge2011.html

Training (week unknown...)

2011-11-07T20:34:00.003-07:00

With one week before the Indy race I have quickly regained some speed and some solid workouts... all done before the sun rises of course. This was a relative "light" week, as I wanted to be fresh for the half marathon, as suppose to running 130 miles the week before San Jose. I want to have no excuses for this attempt at the "A" Standard! The only workouts this week were a track session of 1000m repeats, followed by a Saturday Tempo run at Anderson Fields, a favorite of mine, especially during the cold winter months.

Mon - am. 10 miles easy

Tue - am. 8 miles easy

Wed - am. 8x1000m w/400m rec. [3:14, 3:00, 3:05, 2:57, 2:54, 2:58, 2:54, 2:51] total: 10 miles / pm. 6 miles easy

Thur - pm. 14 miles easy

Fri - am. 8 miles easy / pm. 6 miles easy w/3x strides

Sat - am. 6 mile tempo [5:30, 5:23, 5:17, 5:19, 5:20, 5:11] total: 11 miles / pm. 6 miles easy

Sun - am. 14 miles medium effort

Total: 93 miles

On the Bubble

2011-10-25T13:54:00.006-06:00

At this point in the season, I've started to produce some decent workouts and feel like a different runner. I've also managed to get one rest day completely off of running during the week, but this is usually not planned, as I feel too tired to start my day off at 5am, get a run in, head to school to teach all day, then attend class all night. So the past few Tuesday's have been a "rest" day, as I only juggle two things around throughout my day, instead of three things. Although, I am still able to get in around 115 plus miles a week in 6 days, so I feel pretty strong.

The workouts are also going very well. On my easy days I feel like a slug, especially in the early morning darkness that starts each day. Just as the sun rises over the Sandia's, my pace increases and I start to feel energized by the coming of a new day. The soreness also dissipates from the body as I finish an easy 10 miler nearly every morning. I guess you could say I am a boring runner, but I feel completely happy getting in the miles needed to produce a fast marathon. I start to think about the most random things while running in the darkness. Most of the time it's about getting to the Trials, and getting to toe the line ready to run the race of my life. I know I only have 2 more chances to get there this year, but I would much rather prefer to make it 1 chance. And that 1 chance will be in Indianapolis.

At this point in my running career, I feel that I should be in Houston, running the US Olympic Marathon Trials, and be 100% ready to race. And just as most of my qualifying attempts in life; from qualifying for CIF prelims in high school, to getting the "B" standard in college to compete at the NAIA Nationals, to being one of the last runners to qualify for the USA Track and Field Championships, my sole goal was just to make it to Nationals. So, if I am forced to run a full marathon one month before the Trials to qualify, I will be the same runner I've been since high school... Just trying to make it into the big meet, and not in contention of doing well there. Although, things could change in the next 2 weeks...

I have an opportunity to control my own destiny by hitting the US Olympic Trials "A" standard on November 5th in Indianapolis for the Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon. If I can hit the time there, then I will not have to worry about running a full marathon to qualify, which I feel completely positive I can do, but don't wish to do one month before the trials. I would like to save a good marathon effort for the trials, and actually do very well there.

(Week 14) A new Path

2011-10-15T17:00:00.002-06:00

So, outside of running, I've been leading my kids on some field trips and have been allowed to take over the classroom with more liberty. It's been a great experience, and allows me to venture away from running, which is very hard to do. When I'm in the classroom I think about running, when I'm running I think about lessons, so its a good trade off for now. I still feel pretty strong running hard and being at school and class all day, so this is a good sign in my opinion.

This week, I was very sore from the race. I decided to change the training up a little, so that it was geared towards running a fast half marathon in a months time. These next few weeks were suppose to be focused on peaking for the marathon and getting in some marathon specific workouts, but I need to shave 46 seconds off a 13 mile race... So I've kept things relatively simple. Some track workouts, and maintain the tempo runs and long run workouts with enough time in between workout days. This week of course is just a recovery week, and a time to watch the Chicago Marathon without having to worry about being there to gruel it out!

I ran easy all week and threw in a staple long run workout in on Saturday morning. A 22 miler with 4x1 mile at tempo effort with 1 minute rest, then 10 miles easy, and another 4x1 mile at tempo effort with 400m rest. I only got the first set of splits as my watch died, and they were (5:21, 5:14, 5:20, 5:20). It was a great workout and really put some crap back into my legs, which is just wanted I needed, but not what I wanted. I've also been obsessed with running 1:05 or fast, so that's all I've been thinking about, and all I've been trying not to think about (yeah, try to wrap that around your head...).

Week 14

Mon - am. 10 miles easy

Tue - am. 10 miles easy

Wed - am. 12 miles easy

Thur - am. 8 miles easy / pm. 12 miles easy

Fri - am. 10 miles easy w/3x strides / pm. 10 miles easy

Sat - am. 22 mile Long Run w/4x1 mile at tempo, 10 miles easy, 4x1 mile at tempo

Sun - am. 12.5 miles easy

Total: 106.5 miles

(Week 13) Re-Thinking the Trials... and San Jose 1/2 Marathon

2011-10-15T15:57:00.004-06:00

Well, one of the fastest half marathon's of the year was at the end of this week. I should have been a little more serious about the last few weeks, but I was just excited to get out to California to race on a flat and fast course at sea level. I decided to take Monday off, as I usually do, and complete a pretty good workout on Wednesday, leaving the rest of the week for recovery leading up to the race.

Wednesday's workout was 2 sets of 3 miles easy - 3 miles at tempo. This was done at the river and some math was needed to figure out how we were going to get a warm up in from the house and complete this thing with enough time to get back home without overdoing the mileage. Well, the splits were (5:35, 5:17, 5:12) then the easy 3 miles and the other tempo was in (5:18, 5:18, 5:10). The first one was done in total darkness and it felt very weird trying to tempo without any idea of what was going on around us. Chris, Kris, Pat and I did this together, so we at least had each other (no homo!). Then the rest of the week was easy miles leading up the race that Kris and I went to.

I flew out to San Jose a few hours before Kris, and got a ride to our shady hotel, which was about 2 miles north of the starting line. Kris got a rental car and arrived a few hours later to pick me up so we could head over to the Expo and get our bibs. Once we arrived at the Expo and received out bibs, we had a chance to check out our comp! I thought, that since these Rock and Roll races bailed out on brining "elite" guys out to race and putting them up in hotels, and only paying 3 deep, that not many guys were competing. Boy was I wrong. Meb was here along with a whole slew of guys were racing! This was a good thing for me, since I figured these guys were going for the Olympic Trials Standard of 1:05:00. I could just hang on to the pack and go for a PR and a ticket to the Trials! So that got me pumped up.

We went out to dinner after my old roommate Robby Nelson came down to hangout with us from San Francisco. My parents also made the trip out to San Jose, so it was a great evening. I had to hit up the Old Spaghetti Factory, as well as the rest of the people racing in the half marathon. We also got a glimpse of Meb at one of the booths eating with his agent, whose also his brother. He was also sporting his new sponsored kicks - Skecters!

Once race morning came, the three of us (Robby, Kris and I) did a little shake out run and got ready to head down to the race. We got lost getting there, of course, but once we did we searched around for the elite VIP area, and posted our gear there. One funny thing happened when I was in line about to use one of the VIP porta-potties... Meb's brother/agent was in front of me, then decided to leave the line, at that moment I saw someone leave a porta-potty, so I approached it, but was called back by the brother/agent of Meb saying he was in line holding a spot for Meb... I just laughed on the inside and watched as Meb walked on by. I guess Olympians have special privileges. I wasn't bothered by it at all, as I thought it was funny, but I decided to turn the awkward situation around and introduce myself to Meb's bother, whose name was Howie. He was a nice dude, and after I told him who I was, he thought he heard of me before and also recognized me from last night at the restaurant. Either way, it was a neat little story I had.

So, one the race started I went out too fast and ended up leading my little pack of guys looking to qualify for the trials. Meb and a few other idiots went out hard, as Meb would be the overall winner. Most of the guys that went out with him died. I on the other hand ran like a fool! Out first mile was hit in 4:48, and the guy next to me, also named Jesse, asked if that was the first mile. I said, "yup", and he stated that he only wanted to run 4:55's and that, that last mile was okay for some "time in the bank". I agreed and decided to run with this guy and hit my goal. I could sense a gaggle of guys behind me, but didn't want to look back. Out next mile was hit in 4:59... much better. The pace was good now and I took water whenever I could. Once we crossed the 3 mile line I clocked off a 4:59 and heard about 20 other guys click off their watch splits. At that moment, I felt a strong clip on my foot as I got tripped up almost making contact with the San Jose pavement! I took a few awful stomps to the ground to regain balance so I didn't have to eat pavement and composed myself. Once that happened I took a fucking 180 look at who the hell did that and found out it was a guy I knew from college training with Meb in Mammoth. I don't think he got the message as he continued to draft off of me. I felt like hanging back and tucking into the pack after the 3 mile mark, but after the trip up, I had a stupid urge to "run away" from the traffic of guys all bunch up together. The 4 mile spilt was hit in 4:56, as well as mile 5. I got a small clip on the bottom of my shoes 2 more times by the same guy, and decided I had enough of this shit. I moved away from the pack to let some other dingleberry lead. And right at that moment, I had a feeling that I was leading for 6 miles and thought that these guys were going to hit their mark because of how stupid I was to lead them through on pace. Well, no one really took over, so I stayed right next to the other Jesse as we hit mile 6 in 4:54, then 4:57 and a 4:54. I started to fade after that, which forced someone else to lead and I attempted to hang on... It didn't work. I kept fading, and fading as I saw the group leave me to qualify for the Olympic Trials. I ended up in 11th place with a time of 1:05:46. 46 seconds from the standard, and it was all in the last 4 miles.

That group ended up hitting 1:04:42 - 1:04:52 with 6 new guys qualifying for the Trials, including the guy who tripped me, and the other Jesse. And, to cap the story off with a heart-warming-dream-come-true, the guy who tripped me proposed to his girlfriend at the finish line... How perfect!

Well, from that race I was expected to gear up for the New York City Marathon. I would have about 5 weeks to peak, but after coming soo close, I've decided to chase another qualifying time in the half marathon, and if need be, run a marathon in December. I've picked the Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon in November, and the California International Marathon in December. I think it's a better decision than running New York City, so here goes another 8 weeks of marathon training. Marathon season is here, and has been extended!!!

Week 13

Mon - Off Day

Tue - am. 10 miles easy

Wed - am. (3 miles easy 3 mile tempo)x2 total: 14 miles / pm. 6 miles easy

Thur - am. 10 miles easy

Fri - am 10 miles easy / pm. 5 miles easy w/3x strides

Sat - am. 4 miles easy, travel to San Jose / pm. 4 miles easy w/4x strides

Sun - San Jose Half Marathon, splits (4:48, 4:58, 4:59, 4:56, 4:56, 4:54, 4:57, 4:54, 5:03, 5:11, 5:05, 5:21, ?:??) 1:05:46. 4 mile cool down. total: 20 miles

Total: 83 miles

Week 12

2011-10-15T15:44:00.003-06:00

It's been a long time since I've updated this thing, but training is still going very strong and I've decided to compile the past few weeks into separate postings. This week is as follows with only 1 workout, on Thursday and a long run on Sunday.

Thursday's workout was done at 5:30am as usual, and on the bosque paved river path. It was a simple 4x2 mile with 2 minute rest jog. The splits were (5:26, 5:19), (5:17, 5:23), (5:15, 5:11), (5:19, 5:19). I felt really good and didn't want to push the last set too much. It's nice running at this time because when we head south on the river, we run past the Hispanic Culture Center and a Chile Roasting facility, which the aroma makes the air smell like chile heaven!

Sunday's run was just a 24 1/2 mile run from Nature Center to Corrales and back. I also got the time to Ice after the run once I got home. This week was designed to be a recovery week from the race, but it turned out to be a big mileage week for me, totally 131 miles. After looking back on it, I may have over did it, since the following week was a very important 1/2 marathon in San Jose, Ca.. Nevertheless, it was a good week and will only help me in the long run.

Mon - am. 8 miles easy / pm. 8 miles easy

Tue - am. 10 miles easy

Wed - am. 10 miles easy / pm. 10 miles easy w/2x hill strides, 2x strides

Thur - am. 4x2 miles total:12.5 miles / pm. 8 miles easy

Fri - am. 10 miles easy / pm. 10 miles easy w/5x strides

Sat - am. 12 miles easy / pm. 8 miles easy

Sun - am. 24.5 mile Long Run

Total: 131

Chips and Salsa Half Marathon & the road to NYC (Week 11)

2011-09-24T21:48:00.003-06:00

Race week! Half Marathon race week that is, and it's at altitude, so it doesn't really feel like a race, but it fits in perfect for my marathon training, as I wanted to get in about 13-15 miles at marathon pace. Granted, this half marathon wasn't paced perfectly like workout, and money was on the line, so I raced it to a certain degree...

Well, the week starts off pretty easy with some mileage and one workout of an 8 mile continuous tempo run on the river, then a few regular mileage days followed by the Sunday extravaganza!

The workout on Wednesday was good old fashion tempo run of 8 miles. The pace was pretty even, for the most part, and the splits were (5:33, 5:22, 5:15, 5:26, 5:17, 5:16, 5:24, 5:18). That left me pretty tired for a few days, but with just enough energy to be ready to go on Sunday... The Chips and Salsa half marathon has turned into a classic meeting place for me since I've moved here. It's been a great experience and usually pays top 3; which I've come in 3rd the last two times I've run it in 2008 and 2010. This time, I was looking for a bigger check and a faster time; hopefully the better time would come first and the check would just follow. And it did, as I ran away with the victory and lead our Track Club to a 1-2-3 overall sweep! The Dukes Track Club ran a great race that day as Kris Houghton put's it best in our Dukes Track Club Blog. I have my splits as follows (5:06, 5:00, 5:06, 5:09, 5:14, 5:16, 5:07, 5:15, 5:25, 5:21, 5:26, 5:06) and one mile in there is missing...? Well, I finished with a time of 1:08:22, and good enough for that 1st place victory, a nice check, and a sweet metal plate made in Turkey!

Week 11

Mon - am. 10 miles easy

Tue - am. 10 miles easy / pm. 4 miles easy

Wed - am. 8 mile tempo (5:33, 5:22, 5:15, 5:26, 5:17, 5:16, 5:24, 5:18) total 12 miles / pm. 8 miles easy

Thur - am. 8 miles easy / pm. 12 miles easy

Fri - am 8 miles easy / pm. 6 miles easy

Sat - am. 12 miles med / pm. 4 miles easy

Sun - am. Chips and Salsa 1/2 Marathon 1:08:22 / pm. 6 miles easy

Total: 116 miles

Marathon Training (Week 10)

2011-09-24T21:32:00.003-06:00

Another solid week of training, balanced with other hectic things in life...

Starting on Monday, I decided to sleep in a bit till 7:00 am and take the day off of running. This was planned, as I usually take one day off every three weeks. This week only called for two basic workouts, which would take place on Wednesday and one in the middle of the long run on Sunday.

Wednesday's workout was a somewhat complicated 3 mile tempo, 3 mile tempo and a final 2 mile tempo all with 3 minutes rest in between each tempo run. As usual, it was done on the river. Now, at 5:30 am it's starting to become hard to see as the sun doesn't rise this early anymore... This week wasn't too bad, but I'm sure the weeks to come will be pitch black as we're running our tempo runs. Nevertheless, it was a good workout with times of (5:30, 5:23, 5:16) for the first set, then (5:16, 5:14, 5:24) for the next 3 miles, followed by (5:16, 5:19). I usually slowed down on the last mile because I felt that I didn't need to push it and was really relaxed. The next few days were just mileage and recovery with some strides here and there. Sunday's workout was tough, but much needed to simulate the marathon. It was a 22 miler with about 3 1/2 mile warm up, followed by 2x2 miles at tempo pace with 2 minutes in between, then 10 miles easy and another tempo of 3 miles... Those splits for the tempo portion were: (5:14, 5:16), 2 minutes jog rest, (5:10, 5:20), 10 miles medium-easy effort, (5:14, 5:16, 5:22). Now, that was one of the toughest workouts I've ever done.

All and all, this was a great week filled with crazy workouts that make me want to stay in bed, but force me to rise to the occasion and stay the course!

Week 10

Mon - Off Day

Tue - am. 10 miles easy

Wed - am. tempo run: 3 miles, 3 miles, 2 miles w/3min rest (5:30, 5:23, 5:16) (5:16, 5:14, 5:24) (5:16, 5:19) total 13 miles/ pm. 10 miles easy

Thur - am. 10 miles easy / pm. 10 miles easy w/3x strides

Fri - am. 8 miles easy / pm. 12 miles easy

Sat - am. 9 miles med / pm. 10 miles easy

Sun - am. 22 miles w/2x2 miles at tempo (5:14, 5:16) 2 min jog rest (5:10, 5:20) 10 miles med/easy 3 mile tempo (5:14, 5:16, 5:22)

Total: 112

Marathon Training & Cross Country (Week 9)

2011-09-11T17:00:00.008-06:00

A little over due, but nevertheless, it's here... cross country season that is. Well, at least college cross country, the "real" cross country season doesn't start until the winter. So, to clarify some things, our Dukes Track Club put together a pretty solid cross country team to go up against some local colleges including the UNM Lobos. The Lobo Invitational, as it is rightly named, was held on Saturday. Before that, I had only one workout leading up to the race. The rest of the days were just easy miles and some strides here and there.

The workout was conveniently held around the Lobo cross country course, which is held on the UNM North gold course. The cross country course is a nice well groomed grass golf course with many angulating hills and quite a few turns. But, the tempo workout we planned was not on the course, but rather around it on a 2 mile dirt perimeter loop with some hills. The plan was a simple 20 minute tempo, then 10 minutes jogging rest, then another 20 minute tempo. I wore a garmin to get some mile splits, which were: 5:51, 5:26, 5:43, and 5:45 pace for the remaining half mile in the 20 minute segment. After that, we had a nice 10 minute rest and hit the 20 minute tempo again, with mile splits of: 5:46, 5:26, 5:41, and 5:32 pace for a little more than half a mile. It wasn't that fast, but a good workout over some different terrain.

The rest of the week leading up to the 8k cross country race consisted of easy runs and some strides. Once race day came on that Saturday, the Dukes Track Club had a full team, along with a few more guys totaling 10 guys. The meet wasn't scored, but we knew were going to score it once the carnage subsided. In my opinion, this was one of the best teams I've ever been on for a cross country team! The team consisted of the following with times and placing:

4th - Jesse Armijo 25:20

11th - Allen Wagner 25:47

12th - Neal Holtschulte 25:50

14th - Kris Houghton 25:56

17th - Soloman Kandie 26:04

37th - Chris Peverada 26:56

51st - Loren Wholetz 27:57

52nd - Mark Pepple 28:02

76th - Trevor Manzanares 31:05

79th - Dana Patton 33:58

With a 1st man to 5th man spread of only 44 seconds, this team beat out: Utep, New Mexico State, UNM and a few other's that aren't that significant... The race itself was pretty sweet, since out track club is a bunch of rag-tag road racers that don't give a crap of what other people think! So, as the race started, Kris took the lead with about 800m into the start. Allen and I crept up to make it a Dukes TC 1 through 3 through the mile. But after that, I got a little excited and took over for about a mile and got taken over to settle in 4th place. Most of the hilly and tangly course I remained in 4th, while getting past by some guys here and there. Towards the end, I was in 6th and was kicking with about 800m to go. At that point, I managed to take over 3 guys and found myself in 3rd place, yet once I got to that point another Kenyan/Utep runner flew by all of us to take 3rd; leaving me in 4th place. Nevertheless, after crossing the line in a time faster than my previous attempt on this course, I watched as more and more Dukes TC guys came barreling down the straightaway! After everyone came in, we tallied up the score and figured out we won... unofficially, since the meet isn't scored. Oh well, we had our glory. The next day was just an easy 22 miler, which felt hard as I was very tired.

Week 9

Mon - am. easy 10 miles / pm. easy 4 miles w/3x hill strides

Tue - am. easy 4 miles

Wed - am. tempo workout, total 12 miles / pm. easy 8 miles

Thur - am. easy 8 miles / pm. med 12 miles w/some strides

Fri - pm. easy 8 miles

Sat - 8k xc race, total 10 miles / pm. easy 8 miles

Sun - med/easy 22 miles

Total: 106

Edmonton Half Marathon and Training (Weeks 7 & 8)

2011-08-30T15:40:00.010-06:00

Well, it's been awhile since I've written anything, mostly due to a much more hectic schedule of Student-Teaching 5 days a week 8:30-3:50, one and final grad class on Tuesday nights, a thesis that hasn't been worked on in over a month, and pounding away 100 plus mile weeks! Either way, no excuses to get in the quality marathon training and posting. First and foremost will be the Canada trip a few weeks ago, then the training sessions that lead up to it and that preceded it to culminate weeks 7 & 8 of my New York City Marathon Training.

Edmonton, Canada.... that's all I have to say about that. Well, I guess I had a race, and I guess I got to wear a U.S. Jersey in what was considered to be an International Exhibition at the half marathon distance. This was a great experience for me to finally test my fitness after being injured over the winter months, and not getting a true gauge of my race fitness, until now. I was planning on racing the AFC Half Marathon, but decided to race Edmonton due to the flatter course, possibly better weather, and an opportunity to wear a US Jersey.

After the hectic ordeal of getting to Canada, going through customs, and not getting a ride to the hotel, I attempted to relax till race day. On race day, the weather was slightly warmer than expected, but the course was awesome! A nice out and back on relatively flat streets, made for a great race. A couple of Kenyans, Ethiopians and 3 Americans consisted of the elite field and for some decent times. Since we where in another country, they had kilometer marks, so I attempted to get 2k splits, but once the race started getting hard and my pace fell off my goal pace of 65 minutes, I started taking 1k splits. I also managed to miss a couple kilometer splits and got a 4k split. The following times are my splits:

[6:21, 6:28, 5:51, 6:12 (24:53-8k), 6:12 (31:06-10k), 12:49, 2:54, (46:50-15k), 3:19, 3:13, 3:05, 3:18, 3:19 (1:03:12-20k), ?:??] Total time: 1:06:28

It didn't go too bad, and I was happy with my performance. Again, it's a great indicator to where I'm at and how I'm progressing towards the Marathon.

Week 7 Training:

Mon - am. 6 miles easy

Tue - am. 4x2 mile at tempo pace (10:53, 10:49, 10:40, 10:42) total: 13 miles / pm. 6 miles easy

Wed - am. 12 miles easy / pm. 6 miles easy

Thur - am. 10 miles easy / pm. 4 miles easy w/4x hill strides

Fri - am. Travel to Edmonton / pm. 6 miles easy

Sat - am. 4 miles easy w/3x strides on the grass

Sun - am. half marathon race. Total: 18 miles / pm. Travel Home

Total: 85 miles

The next day I couldn't believe how sore I was. I was lucky enough to get a massage on Monday after teaching, and the soreness would slowly subside throughout the week with more miles. I was a bit hesitant to do a workout this week, and didn't think I'd be able to finish the planned tempo session. But, the body can prove the mind wrong. The workout was scheduled on Thursday, which was ample time for my quads to stop aching, and the session was 4x1 mile at tempo pace with 1 minute rest, followed by 5 minutes rest, then 3x1 mile at tempo pace. With "only" 7 miles at tempo pace, I still thought I should just do the first 7, and call it. Yet, once the workout started with the help of Kris Houghton and Soloman Kandie (Kenyan), we were able to get it done quite fast... At least, fast for me.

Sunday was another workout in our long run. Again, the temperature crept into some dangerous highs, but we were able to get it done before it got too hot. The long run would have us: warming up for 4 miles, then straight into 4x1 mile repeats at tempo pace/effort, then 60 minutes easy to medium pace, then a 3 mile continuous tempo, and whatever remained of the 22 miler, which was about 1 1/2 miles.

All in all, this week was a little tough as I had to get back into the teaching rhythm and recover from the race along with some workouts. But, I'm feeling strong, and the workouts are transitioning towards more marathon specific workouts without much "speed" oriented work. The only speed work will be done through strides, which I'll be combining both hill strides and flat fast strides. Most of this stuff will be at goal mile pace, or in my case, dream mile pace (4:00 minute mile). This is actually pretty easy as they're done at a distance of less than 200m.

Week 8

Mon - am. 8 miles easy

Tue - am. 10 miles easy / pm. 4 miles easy

Wed - am. 8 miles easy / pm. 10 miles easy

Thur - am. 4x1 mile at tempo, 5 min rest, 3x1 mile at tempo (5:24, 5:13, 5:17, 5:18) (5:14, 5:07, 5:10) total: 12 miles / pm. 8 miles easy

Fri - am. 2 miles dead tired / pm. 12 miles med/easy

Sat - am. 12 miles med

Sun - am. 22 miles w/4x1 miles at tempo, 60 min rest, 3 mile tempo (5:30, 5:25, 5:30, 5:25), (5:32, 5:27, 5:26)

Total: 108

Edmonton - Canada (Canadian Derby Edmonton Half Marathon)

2011-08-20T13:26:00.007-06:00

Well, it's day 2 here in Edmonton and it's been a pretty pleasant ride. There hasn't been too much to talk about after being here for about 24 hours, but it's definitely a nice place. The flights here were fine without incident, and getting a ride to the hotel could be the only adventurous event that occurred since I had no idea which hotel I was going to, and no one was there to pick me up. But, other than that it has been fine compared to the other Americans getting here. My roommate, Joesph Chrilee is another story. His flight arrived at midnight and had no one to get him. Fortunately, he bummed a ride to the hotel, but had to pay for his night. I met up with him at around 11am when he knocked on my hotel door. After I heard about his late night experience of Canada, we went for an easy run on some grass fields. A much different run, from what I experienced yesterday. This was a nice and easy 30 minute pre-race day run with some strides, as oppose to the scavenger hunt run I went on yesterday.

Yesterday, I planned on running by some quintessential Edmontonian landmarks and a few other general spots I might find useful, such as a grocery store and a restaurant. The path I plotted out on google maps seemed simple on the computer screen, but once out on the roads, it was a little more hillier than I'd prefer. Nevertheless, I found what I was looking for and ended up out of the town, across a river and onto some nice rolling trials through the forest. One thing I didn't expect was the abundance of mosquitoes here in Edmonton, and neither did the locals. On the last two runs, which totaled less than 90minutes, I've been bitten 6 times. I figure they haven't had some American blood in a long time...

Well, tomorrow is race day and I'm feeling good, we'll just have to see how good I'm feeling once the gun goes off.

Marathon Training (Week 6)

2011-08-15T14:05:00.007-06:00

Boom! Another week in the books. This was also suppose to be a slight down week with two decent workouts, an easy long run, and my first week of student-teaching at the elementary level. Well, the student-teaching started midweek and it was just setting up the classroom and a few parent teacher conferences. Although, it was a bit demanding as my daily routine will have to start even earlier now. Either way, I decided to take this week slightly down and the following week of the race a bit easy as well. I capped the week off with 111 miles and some confidence with those two workouts.

After taking a much needed rest day on Monday after that God Forsaken La Luz trail "race", I had a pretty productive 6 mile tempo run on Tuesday on the river, followed by some rest days, a speed workout on Friday and a medium effort 20 miler on Sunday. The tempo along the river was great, especially since I got to allow my legs some turnover from beating myself up on that trail race. I averaged 5:22 for the distance and got to steeple a few barriers along the way. The mornings here in Albuquerque are starting to cool off and stay cool for a longer duration of the morning. It's either that perception, or that fact that I'm starting earlier... But, summer is winding down, and the beautiful months of fall are approaching, along with the tempered climate. After a few easy days of running and some strides, Friday's session was an exciting one. Getting back on the track is nice, and the track never lies. So the workout was 8 x 1000m with 400m recovery jog. The last time I was on the track I did 1000 meter repeats, so naturally it would be nice to hit them faster. You can really get caught up in time and comparison to other track workouts, which I may have done. However, I had a great workout and felt good for the rest of the week, including the long run, which was done at the river. The long run took place at Alameda, and we headed north into the Bosque trail, which is shaded and has plenty of turns on soft pack dirt. The 20 miler was a nice run to end the week.

Next week is the Edmonton Half marathon, and I'm getting pretty excited for it. I know it's going to be fast, and there'll be plenty of fast guys to hang with. Since the USA uniform arrived on Friday, I'm very anxious to put it on and get after it! Nothing like some friendly competition to get the blood flowing for a PR.

Mon - Off Day

Tue - am. 6 mile tempo (5:20, 5:19, 5:18, 5:25, 5:24, 5:23, 5:14) total: 12 / pm. 8 easy

Wed - am. 8 miles easy / pm. 12 miles med.

Thur - am. 10 miles easy / pm. 5 miles easy w/4x hill strides

Fri - am. Track 8x1000m w/400m jog recovery (3:08, 2:59, 3:00, 2:59, 3:00, 3:00, 2:59, 2:56) total: 11 miles / pm. 10 miles easy

Sat - am. 10 miles easy / pm. 5 miles easy w/5x hill strides

Sun - am. 20 miles med.

Total: 111

Training (Week 5)

2011-08-08T15:38:00.002-06:00

After seven more days of running, I've finally finished my highest mileage week ever. Not much excitement occurred this week as I just did mileage, one speed workout, and an uphill race which was incorporated into my long run on sunday. The only speed workout this past week was a fartlek workout at Bullhead park. The usual 5-4-3-2-1 done twice was a nice bit of change from the usual intervals done in the past. Bullhead park is a nice 2 mile loop (1.8 miles to be exact) over wet grass, dirt, and very few bits of pavement. This speed session was done on Wednesday with a pretty decent group of guys. After that workout, the rest of the week was just mileage leading up to the famous La Luz Trail Run on Sunday.

When the Trail Run came around, I was planning on warming up a few miles, then racing the 9 mile up-the-mountain "race", then add on at the top. The race starts at 6000' and climbs up to 10,678'. This was my second year doing it, and it's a very nice thing to be a part of. Kris Houghton won the race, of course, and I have trouble climbing and running over the rock slide but ended up finishing 4th overall. The Dukes cleaned house with a 1-4 finish on the mens side! It was pretty sweet, even though we didn't have our new uniforms yet... Well, once we got some fluids and food in our systems at the top, we added on about 5 miles then headed down the mountain to an after race party, which was very nice with more delicious food and beer with great people. Later that afternoon, I added on 5 more easy miles to shake out the days work, and ended the week with 137 miles! Now begins a slight taper for a very exciting race...

The exciting race was kind of a last minute thing as I've been selected to represent the US at an unofficial USA verse Canada international challenge road race! This will be my first time putting on a USA Jersey and competing on a USA team! The race will be held in Edmonton, Canada, in the Providence of Alberta. The race distance will be a half marathon, and it's suppose to be flat, fast and cool on August 21st. I've checked out the course, and it looks promising! But, what's more promising is the fact that I get that coveted USA jersey. Since this isn't an "official" USA team, I don't get to wait for the elusive brown boxes that arrive on your doorstep full of USA Gear... I just get a pair of shorts and top, but that's all I need to race in!

So, all in all, this has been a great week and now I start to freshen up.

Mon - am. easy 10 / pm. easy 5 w/4xhill strides

Tue - am. easy 10 / pm. easy 10

Wed - am. fartlek 2x 5-4-3-2-1 total:12 / pm. easy 8

Thur - am. easy 12 / pm. easy 8 w/3xhill strides

Fri - am. easy 10 / pm. easy 10

Sat - am. med 12 / pm. easy 8

Sun - am. 17 up La Luz / pm. easy 5

Total: 137

Marathon Training (week 4)

2011-07-31T20:23:00.002-06:00

One month of solid training has proven to been very successful so far. A couple of milestones occurred this week, which I feel proud of. First off, I finished up my summer school classes for grad school and only have my thesis and student-teaching to finish up by December. This summer encompassed 2 huge classes that I never thought would end, but thank God it's over... for now. I guess it was slightly easy to focus these past few weeks, as Laura is in Europe on vacation, which gives me sometime to sit in front of a computer and get shit done, as well as nap, since this weeks mileage tied my highest week ever.

So, after starting the week off with some easy miles, I only had 2 major workouts for the week. 6x1 mile repeats on Wedesnday and a long run with 2x2 miles at tempo pace on Sunday. I've been playing around with caffeine before major workouts and instead of focusing all my research attention towards my thesis, I decided to find some articles that supported caffeine consumption before endurance activity. As everyone knows, caffeine is a psychoactive ergogenic stimulant that helps with endurance athletes. My question was how much is beneficial, and how much is too much for what can be considered a dependent stimulant? Since I don't consume much caffeine on a daily, or weekly bases, I figured I might as well start! As of a few weeks ago, I started double brewing black tea for my pre-workout caffeine consumption; and in long runs, I'd use GU with caffeine, as I have in the past. The black tea only produces about 40mg of caffeine per brew, so it totals about 80mg of caffeine. The GU has about 35mg of caffeine in it. So what the heck does this mean...? Well, the scholarly study that I found (2007 Sports Medicine Australia) basically made it clear that with "well trained" athletes in the 5km would have a 1% improvement with the use of 5mg of caffeine per kg of body weight 60 minutes prior to their time trial. Well, that doesn't quite help me if I want to do well in a workout that may last 4 times that time frame, or in a race. With my weight I may have to consume around 300mg of caffeine before any type of "hard" workout or race. But, regardless of the caffeine intake, there's staggering amounts of evidence that show with any amount of caffeine consumption provides benefits, as caffeine is a psychoactive drug that acts as a blockade to the central nervous system receptors and effects perceived levels of fatigue. So, basically, it's helping when I use it during and before workouts.

So, with all that, the mile repeats on the river where great. A bunch of us met at Nature Center at 6am, did a little warm-up and started the workout. I was able to hit them in (4:59, 4:53, 4:53, 4:53, 4:55, 4:51) with 4-5 minutes jog rest in between. The next workout was actually a sushi eating "contest" Saturday night before the long run... 5 of us: Mark, Chris P., Pat, Dana and myself went to this sweet all you can eat sushi place and just pigged out while tallying how many pieces we ate. The final tally over the 3 hours and to the best of my recollection: Chris P. - 50 pieces, Pat - 50, Mark - 45, Me - 38, Dana - 32. Then of course Sunday came around and we had a 20 miler with the 2x2 miles at tempo pace/effort. A nice and easy 5 mile warm-up was followed by the first segment in 10:30, then 2 minutes easy jogging and a 10:25 for the final 2 mile portion, followed by the remainder of a little more than 10 miles. All and all, it was a nice week of 130 miles.

Mon - am. 10 easy

Tue - am. 12 easy / pm. 8 easy

Wed - am. 6x1 miles (4:59, 4:53, 4:53, 4:53, 4:55, 4:51) total: 12 / pm. 8 easy

Thur - am. 10 easy / pm. 10 easy

Fri - am. 10 easy / pm. 10 easy

Sat - am. 11 med/easy / pm. 9 easy

Sun - am. 20 w/ 2x2 miles at tempo w/2min recovery (10:30, 10:25)

Total: 130

Marathon Training (Week 3)

2011-07-26T15:45:00.002-06:00

Another week for the books. This was a down week and felt really nice to recovery all throughout the week. I got a good 60 hours of sleep this week, and still managed to get some work done towards my Master's Thesis. This week only had one real workout on the track, and an "easy" long run on sunday. All and all, it was a good week and now I'm already into full swing towards another "up" week.

Mon - off day

Tue - am. 10 easy / pm. 8 easy

Wed - am. 12 easy / pm. 4 easy

Thur - am. 10x1000m (3:09, 3:07, 3:06, 3:07, 3:03, 3:05, 3:02, 3:00, 2:59, 2:54) total 14 / pm. 4 easy

Fri - am. 12 easy / pm. 4 easy

Sat - am. 9 med / pm. 6 easy

Sun - am. 21 med/easy

Total: 104

Marathon Training (Week 2)

2011-07-17T16:42:00.004-06:00

Well... another good week under my belt. This week topped out at 122 miles for the week for the 2nd week of this 18 week cycle (that's a lot of "week" words in there). It seems to be going very well with my trusty Daniel's Running Formula at my side, along with the support of our Dukes Track Club runners! This week, aside from miles, were two major workouts: 10x800 meters with 400m jog recovery on Thursday, and a Long Run with 5x1 miles at Tempo pace/effort; since we're at altitude, on sunday.

The 800's went well as we averaged 2:23.8 starting at 2:30 and coming down to 2:15 for the last one. Then friday came, and a couple of us decided to head up to Taos for a nice midday run through the busy tourist ski town. It was hot, and none of the trials were open as Chris Peverada and I ran on some side roads. Unfortunately, this side road took us straight towards the Taos Pueblo. Once we got to the entrance of their Pueblo with a Native Taos Pueblo Indian directing traffic and collecting money for parking, we decided to turn around and head out. But, we were quickly stopped, as we are not allowed to: walk, run, or ride bikes on the Taos Pueblo land. We had to wait 40 minutes for public transportation to take us off their "land". Once that ordeal was over, we finished our run around town and called it a day with only 8 miles in. I was livid! So, sunday finally came along and a decent group of us did our long run tempo workout. 20 miles total with a 4 mile warm-up before the fun began. Four of us worked together for about 3 1/2 of the 5 miles. The first one was hit in 5:29, then 5:23, 5:17, 5:17 and 5:08 for the last one. This was all done on the Bosque Bike Path by the river, so it was flat and nice. Once we finished our tempo, we ran 1/4 mile to make the total distance of 10 miles from where we started. We had a nice 10 mile cool down back to end the week.

All in all, it's another great week, with a recovery week coming starting on monday.

Mon- easy 10

Tue- am. easy 10/ pm. easy 8 w/4xstrides

Wed- am. easy 12/ pm. easy 6

Thur- am. 10x800m total: 11 / pm. easy 8

Fri- am. easy 8 / pm. easy 10

Sat- am med/easy 11 / pm. easy 8

Sun- am 2o miles w/5x1 miles @ tempo w/1min rec.

Total: 122

Marathon Training 18 weeks till NYC (week 1)

2011-07-13T15:21:00.003-06:00

So, last week was a great week of training with some good workouts in it. I had to reassess my mileage plan since our new roommate Chris Peverada moved in with an all time high mileage count of 229 miles for a week. So, I had originally planned my peak mileage to be 120 miles with my first week of marathon training at 95 miles... That changed in mid week. I had one track session of 16x400m on thursday and a long run with 4x2 miles at tempo pace/effort. I increased my easy runs and got to 118 miles last week for my first week of marathon specific training.

It felt pretty good as I was only going to hit that mileage 3 times during my previous marathon plan. This plan is going to be great with a few half marathons leading up to NYC marathon! I'm hoping to hit the OT marathon qualifier in either a half or in the full this coming fall. We shall see how it pans out as I'll try to post weekly reflections on my training. As of now, its going well, and I already feel strong. Looking to run very fast this coming fall, thanks to Jack Daniels the PhD. guy, not the drink. His training has influenced me, and my 18 week build up for New York City is based on his running formula.

Another Crazy Week

2011-06-12T21:19:00.003-06:00

Well, after a decent track workout on Tuesday, I was ready to put in a hard effort on the trails for a half marathon in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. This was looking like a pretty good week, with a tune-up speed work at the UNM track. Just some 400's in 65 seconds, and the rest of the week as mileage leading up to Saturday's race as a Tempo effort, since it will be on the trails.

So, after not having class on Friday, my roommate Loren and I head up to Colorado to camp, race and meet some nice mountain folk. A nice 4 hour drive and we are in Pagosa Springs checking in to receive our race packet. After that, we head out of this quaint little town towards the race start, and park my 4Runner at the designated trailhead for an easy 8 miles on the course. The altitude is at a lush green 7300' with lovely pine trees and single track trails heading up to about 7800' to where the cows are at pasture. We run easy, spotting a few wild creatures on the trail, and hope to see some Turkey, since the name of the half marathon/marathon is the Turkey Track Marathon and Half Marathon. But, none are spotted. We turn around and head back to my truck to get the camping gear, as we are going to set up camp by the start on a nice little snipers hill... Once that's accomplished, we head back to town for dinner.

We narrowed it down to two options for dinner, (1) go to the pre-meal dinner for ribs and pasta at a outrageous tourist price, or (2) head to the grocery store and pick up provisions for dinner and post race munches. We decided on the latter, and grabbed a bunch of grub for a reasonable price. The next few decisions would turn this trip into a crazy adventure...

We had the food for dinner, but needed a place to eat. So instead of just eating in the parking lot, we found an open pasture. We finished up our meal, and had to find a place to dispose of our trash. The most logical place would be the nearest gas station. We see one a discription cross the highway and head through the intersection. This is where some; for lack of a harsh description, women, coming from the opposite lane decided to turn her car directly at us and slam into my driver side door and wheel well! She had no turn signal, and zero thought of braking as she haphazardly struck my vehicle. The police showed up instantly, and took a report, as they suspected her of being under the influence, as her last known location was a restaurant bar. Luckily, no one was hurt, but I'm sure she just didn't know what the hell was going on, since her drunken ass stayed in the car for over 30 minutes as she complained that she's on new medication for her high blood pressure. Anyways, the police wrote her a ticket for negligence, and who knows what else.

After that ordeal, my truck got towed to a auto shop at around 11pm. The damage was a busted up driver side fender, a door that won't shut all the way, and for some apparent reason, my rear tire blew up and deflated. So, I needed realignment done to the front tire, and a spare tire on the back. I would make due with the door. We were out of there and barely driving back to our campsite by midnight. I parked my truck were the start would be, and we hiked up to hill to the tent for a brief nights rest before the race.

About 6 hours later, we woke up to race volunteers setting up and rocking out to some music. We broke down the tent and marched down the hill in plain sight as the early race participants and volunteers were snickering as we packed our gear back into my beat up looking Toyota 4Runner. By the scrutinizing eyes scanning us and the damage of my truck, all they needed to see was our New Mexican license plate to make sense of the entire situation. Once that ended, Loren and I warmed up and got ready for the race to start.

Once the signal for us to start occurred, we headed up the longest hill of the entire race within the the first mile. I took over the lead and kept it all the way to the first aid station at around mile 4.8. I kept looking at my watch and to figured out my pace as I made it to the aid station. With the hill and the gradual downhill and other slight hills, I figured I would be around 6:10 pace or so and be at the aid station in around 30 minutes. And I was there as estimated. This is where things continued to worsen for me. I was suppose to make a turn to start a loop, but missed it and ran off towards the Full Marathon course. I didn't see any markers until it was too late, and I was at the wrong aid station. At the time, I thought I was at the right station and asked which way to go, instead of asking them "is this the half marathon course?". They sent me off in what looked like the correct route, with landmarks described to me in detail. I kept running, and running, looking at my watch wondering when am I going to see some familiar trails? The watch kept ticking away well past my project time of around 1:20 for the 13.1 miles on trails. Once I got to about 1:26 I just figured this course could be much harder than I anticipated. But I finally reached another aid station. A full marathon aid station...

The volunteer there told me they've been looking for me and that the quickest way back was to follow the trail directly to the right heading south. I ask how far is it back and he told me "5 miles."! I had easily gone 13 miles at that point, and just figured this might as well serve as my long run... So I got on the trail and headed back to the finish. I was greeted with very apologetic race crew and congratulated me on winning the "30k race". It was pleasant to be back and see that Loren won as he was getting a massage. I knew, that if I couldn't win, at least Loren can win this thing! And, only after a few moments of refueling, I started to feel pretty tired. So, I stubbled back to my self reflection of a motor vehicle, as my truck looked the way I felt. Slightly leaning to one side, with a tore apart frame, a borrowed tire, and a look of satisfaction that it's finally over... but not quite. We still had the drive home, which was uneventful and windy. All in all, it was still a grand adventure, and Loren and I took home some hardware, as the winner received a small statue of a man running, made out of railroad iron stakes and Turkey looking feet! I got just got a Coke for my first experience of a trail half marathon!

Another Week

2011-06-05T12:02:00.005-06:00

I've finally got some decent mileage in and can't wait to get ready for a good marathon build up for the fall. I've only got the rest of this month to mess around with mileage and whatever races I feel like doing until I'll follow a specific Jack Daniels Marathon plan that I devised, which will not involve drinking heavily amounts of the Brand Whisky... I believe it's going to force me to train specially for the marathon and not allow me to venture off on another tangent of random races; which I've done in the past and ended a "season" on a marathon. This time, starting July, I'll just pound our marathon workouts, and the end goal will be a nice race finishing in Central Park in November.

Although, this week didn't go as well as I'd liked, I still got some good workouts in. The track workout on tuesday was a pleasant taste of some speed, which I haven't touched in a very long time. My tempo workout on friday was a little hectic as a large forest fire in easter Arizona created massive smoke inhalation throughout New Mexico. This forced me to save my lungs form inundating them with smoke, and move my tempo workout onto the treadmill. This wasn't something I was completely pleased about, but it was kind of nice to try something new. I just ran 6 miles at tempo effort, and it went really well as I started off at 5:40 and came down to 5:22. I averaged 5:34 pretty comfortably, and was very happy with that. Although, this hard effort would take its unknowingly toll on my long run on sunday with some of the guys. That long run was only 17 miles; the longest I've run since my injury, and by the time we hit 14 miles, I started to fade as the rest of the gang started to hit their stride and drop some quicker miles on me. Nevertheless, I was still happy with it and will continue to increase my mileage as the USA Outdoor Championships approach.

Getting in the Groove of things

2011-05-14T19:27:00.003-06:00

Things are starting to feel better on/in my knee. I know it is not 100% healthy, but its getting there. I've been slowly increasing my mileage and using some local races as workouts. But, I think I'll start to incorporate some workouts in the next few weeks. It's starting to feel good to just run more, but I can feel the lack of fitness in me, so proper workouts will help throughout the next few weeks.

Kris, Fristoe and I figured out a good marathon schedule that will lead us to the New York Marathon in November. We will do a couple of half marathons here and there, but my main focus is going to be a huge PR in New York! It would be nice to run a fast half marathon this fall and hit the USA Olympic Trials Standard, but we shall see how things turn out.

A few key points to recovery; in my opinion, have been using a rope for Isolated Stretching. This method of stretching has seemed to lengthen some of my quad and hamstring muscles and lessened the tightness on my kneecap. I've also used a variety of Acupuncturist/Eastern Doctors here in town. One lady; Judy Lui, used a machine called ONDAMED, which is complicated enough to explain, except that Paula Radcliffe sought her out to be treated by that same machine. Another Eastern Doctor/Acupuncturist named Karla Koch has been really great! So all in all, I should be 100% soon, and my confidence in my health and the help I've received from these wonderful people is greatly appreciated!

Road to Recovery

2011-04-13T11:40:00.004-06:00

The MRI showed nothing of significance, but the pain still lingers on...

I've decided to continue running small amounts on it for the time being, and get any type of treatment to help with recovery. This includes: swimming, running, more stretching, core, acupuncture, Glucosamine pills, Krill pills, icing, topical anti-inflammatory cream, massages, and anything else you can think of. Either way, I've excepted that I cannot training at 100%, but will do other things to stay active and somewhat aerobically fit for a fall marathon; which I've also added to the crazyness of being addicted to running. 6-7 miles a day has been the normal routine, and I think I'll gradually increase it as the knee seems to stay the same, perhaps even slightly "better" (?). At any rate, spring is in the air, and its nice to feel the warm sun, and a cool breeze every once in awhile.

Still Hurt

2011-03-08T09:20:00.001-07:00

It goes on...

Last tuesday I had an MRI and I'm still waiting for results. I think the worse thing about being hurt is not knowing what is going on. Once that is determined, then I think I can accept it and recover. But, until then, it is a struggle... and very depressing.

A few weeks down

2011-01-05T16:39:00.003-07:00

After a few weeks of running, I am feeling more confident with myself and what goals I have for this upcoming spring. Each day isn't as hard as before, and the fitness is coming around. I have sat down a few times with my coach (Henry Rono), who has been forced to move in with us after coming back from Yemen. He has a new direction with his coaching philosophy; actually he has just implemented more things into his program. It is very exciting to discuss with him what the future brings to both of us.

My injury is gone, and as I begin my base phase of training, Henry and I are going to focus on the USA Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field in the 10,000m. I want to get back in great shape and improve on my disappointing 21st place finish last year. I know I can crack into the top 10, or even top 6. But, its going to take a great deal of work and consistent training every morning. There are many more things that I can improve on, and Henry is going to help out with that along with my lovely girlfriend Laura. She is big on drills and dynamic stretching, which is going to help with mobility and injury prevention. I see how Henry wants to develop American runners, and how to integrate Kenyan ways into our minds and bodies... Its just going to take some time, and I'm looking forward to it!

Getting Back Into It

2010-12-27T19:36:00.002-07:00

After about 7 weeks with an injured knee, I am feeling better and ready to start training hard. Well, not hard right away, but a slow and smart approach into getting in shape and racing well this spring. Last week was my first "real" week of running after those dreadful 7 weeks, and it was a miniscule 37 miles. But it was 37 miles of no pain.

I shall be in ready for the 10,000m at Outdoor Nationals in June.

Rest and Recovery

2010-10-18T11:19:00.003-06:00

After a week of not running and trying to relax, I've made a few evaluations. It was interesting to look back on my training and realize that I was not in top shape to run a great time in Chicago. My training was inconstant and the volume wasn't as high as it should have been. I had a week at 27 miles (yes, 27 miles) and then jumped back to 100 plus miles. Also, after I took a much needed break in July, I only had 13 weeks to get ready for Chicago and out of those 13 weeks, I had 6 over 100. Very poor training...

Now that it is all done, I have refocused on a possible Spring marathon. My base building should be huge and I will set a point about 12 weeks before the marathon to start marathon specific training. I'm looking forward to this next marathon cycle and all that it entails.

10-10-10 Chicago Marathon

2010-10-12T15:03:00.002-06:00

This was an epic fail for marathon number 3. After the fact I felt like the race itself was horrible. Everything leading up to this race seemed to go wrong, but I didn't notice it until it was too late. I did way to much walking around before my race, the weather wasn't in our favor, and I wasn't eating as regularly or as often as I should have.

The temperature was warmer than expected, but I ignored that by not hydrating or staying relaxed on friday and saturday. And once race day came along, I knew I was in trouble when it was already in the upper 60's at 6:30 am. But, again, I didn't take notice and had high hopes for a sub 2:19 as everyone else was excited to run a fast one that day. Once the gun went off at 7:30 a pack of about 30 guys formed and we were on 2:19 pace from mile 1 till everyone fell apart. I missed my first bottle at the aid station, but just stayed focused and attempted to get in more water and gatorade from the side aid stations. At 10k someone took my bottle again, so I just grabbed whatever bottle I could get a hold of. It was better than nothing.

At that point in the race, the group of 30 was still intact and everyone looked comfortable. I was sitting on some Brooks Hanson guys and whoever else wanted to be in the lead. The crowds were going ballistic as we sailed away at 5:19 pace through downtown Chicago. I've never heard such a loud crowd before, so that was exciting and motivating. I kept looking for Laura on the course; as she said she was going to be at certain locations, but I never heard or saw her among the mayhem. At half-way we hit 1:09:37 and I felt pretty good. We started dropping a few seconds off out pace and I figured we were going to hold this till the end and I was going to hit the standard. As the group started to lose a few guys here and there, I still kept my composer and was keeping an even effort.

Everything felt great till about mile 17 when I hit a slow 5:27 mile. It didn't really bother me, and I figured I was going to hold 5:30's to the end and finish with a nice PR. But mile after mile I was adding one 10-20 seconds and feeling worse and worse. I kept thinking to myself that I'll just hold that pace and still get a PR, but I kept falling off the pervious pace. By mile 23, I knew I'd just have to finish and take whatever it is. Which was a 2:26:16. My worst time yet out of the three marathons.

As I look back on it and notice all the other American's that dropped out, I thought to myself that I should have dropped out. But I wanted a PR and by the time I knew it was over it wasn't worth it to drop out.

On the plus side, the course and crowds were amazing! I'd love to run this race again with cold temperatures, instead of 80 degree weather.

Right now and on the plane home, I figure I am going to stick with what I'm good at and attempt to qualify in the half marathon at Houston for the USA Half Marathon Championships in January. That way I'll have more chances in the half and can run USA Track & Field Championships if I get in.

Last Marathon Workout - 5 days left

2010-10-05T14:26:00.005-06:00

This morning was my last workout before I head to Chicago to qualify for the Trials! We just did a nice and easy track workout, which was just some pace work for the marathon. 3x 1000m at marathon pace, which was 3:20ish for the k's. It seemed easy, as it should be and felt good. I wore my goofy looking arm warmers, so that I could get a feel for them if I need to wear them in Chicago, since it's going to be pretty cool out there. I still need to figure out my fueling situation when I get out there...

So at this point, things seem to be great leading up to the race. Everything is aligned, and I feel great, despite one horrible workout on saturday. Either way, I'm excited to get out there and race one of the most stacked marathon's of the year, and definitely, the fastest race in North America.

2 Weeks Left

2010-09-28T11:25:00.003-06:00

Last week was a decent, but lower mileage week as The Chicago Marathon is on the horizon. Only two main workouts last week. One was a track workout in that miserable monsoon, and the other was a hard long run which consisted of a 2.5 mile warm up from my house to the river and to the first mile mark by Central Ave. We would start at about 6:00 minute pace and work down towards 5:40 or so in the next 16 miles and cool down about 2.5 miles back to the house, finishing off the day with 21 miles. Well, the first mile of this hard effort was 6:00 minutes, the next few were around 5:50 ish, then we started dropping down towards 5:30 and a few 5:24's here and there. With three miles to go, I backed off from the burning pace and came in at a comfortable 5:30 pace for the last 3 miles.

The overall run was great and the effort really shows how good of a shape we are in. Also, Kris and Jae Young were among the culprits of the quick pace, as Ben Fletcher and I backed off. I also decided to run the workout in my Brooks T6 racers, so I could get use to the pounding of the pavement with little foam, since these racers are all but finished as they've held together for a marathon, a half marathon, a full season of track workouts and a couple of longer tempo runs and finally this harder long run.

Chicago here I come.

Chips and Salsa Half Marathon to Chicago Marathon

2010-09-23T21:14:00.004-06:00

Another thing to add from last week was the Chips and Salsa Half marathon we have here in Albuquerque. This was last sunday, and the point of it was to run about marathon pace or faster up here at altitude. The course is flat with a bunch of turns, but it actually is a nice course. There were two Moroccans being paced on a bike, me, Kris and John. My lovely girlfriend; Laura, was going to pace us on a bike as well. So after blitzing the first mile in 5:02, I make a wrong turn and have to turn around. Once back on track, everyone in the top five makes another wrong turn which ends up being a 210 meter diversion. After that little mishap, everyone is back on course and back on pace. I clicked off a few solid miles, while staying as comfortable as possible and taking in water and gatorade along the way. At this point I am in 3rd place and am not able to gain much ground on the two Moroccans. I ended up finishing in 3rd place with a time of 1:09:34 with the 210 meter diversion.

After that effort, I feel pretty good about going into Chicago. That effort, with some rest before the marathon should prove to be a great day in a few weeks. I'm also excited to be in a huge group of guys going for that Olympic Trials time, as well as being in a big city marathon with a ton of spectators. Basically, this marathon is going to be like the Olympic Trials, since there are going to be a bunch of Americans in that field. And finally, this will be my first Major Marathon.

Rain Workout

2010-09-23T14:56:00.003-06:00

Last night at 6:30pm on one of the local high schools tracks (La Cueva H.S.) A group of us met there to do our track workout instead of in the morning, due to schedule complications. It seemed fine at the time, but being the first day of fall, mother nature decided to remind us that summer was officially over with a constant cool downpour. During the warm up for our 6x 2000m, I thought the rain would subside, and all we'd have to deal with would be the lack of sunlight. In reality, we just dealt with the combination of the two. Once we hit our splits and switched off leads every kilometer between the four of us, it wasn't so bad. I felt like I was in a time warp, as nothing around me seemed to be moving. The lakes that formed on the track made each step filled with extra cushion, but of course, no traction as we hydroplaned with each landing.

It was a great experience and I'm glad we completed the entire workout in those conditions. As the quote states, "whatever doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger.". With that said, the 2k's with 200m jog went well as we planned on hitting marathon pace or close to marathon pace. My Brooks T6 racers felt great out there, and I got them cleaned in the process.

[6:34, 6:32, 6:32, 6:33, 6:35, 6:28]

High Mileage

2010-09-20T14:12:00.003-06:00

Last week was an all time high for mileage. I hit 141 miles for the week with two solid workouts and a long 40k run to finish out the week. This was planned of course, and was the peak mileage for this marathon cycle. The following week (this past), was a race week with little tapering and resting. I ran a half marathon here in Albuquerque at altitude and ran it as a marathon specific workout. It went really well and I hit my splits dead on. I fell off a little bit at the end, but that could have been because of the fast miles at the beginning, and a slight deviation that occurred in the race.

Getting lost in an Albuquerque road race is quite common since many races aren't that marked or marshaled correctly. But, either way it was a great effort and I was pleased with the outcome. We basically made a 210 meter detour which costed about 40 seconds in the race, with a steeple barrier. The 2010 Chips and Salsa half marathon, was still a great event and I was pleased to push hard in those conditions. My splits are: [5:02, 5:15, ???, ???, 5:11, 5:10, 5:20, 5:08, 5:10, 5:21, 5:23, 5:26, 5:17, ???]. So I was pleased. Chicago is looking good at this point.

Mileage break down:

9/6 - 9/12

Mon - 10 easy

Tue - am track workout 12x 1000m. 14 miles

pm easy 8 miles.

Wed - am easy 10 miles

pm easy 12 miles

Thur - am easy 14 miles

pm easy 6 miles

Fri - am 10 mile tempo. 14 miles total

pm easy 8 miles

Sat - am easy 12 miles

pm easy 8 miles

Sun - 25 mile long run

Total: 141

9/13 - 9/19

Mon - Off, no running

Tue - am easy 8 miles

pm easy 10 miles

Wed - am 18 miles w/6 miles @ marathon pace (5:31, 5:23, 5:15, 5:19, 5:18, 5:14)

pm easy 6 miles

Thur - pm 12 miles

Fri - am easy 4 miles

pm easy 12 miles

Sat - am easy 7 miles

pm easy 4 miles

Sun - am 1/2 marathon 1:08:54. total 17 miles

pm easy 4 miles

Total: 102

The Mayhem

2010-09-05T15:41:00.002-06:00

So after USA outdoor's and the 10k Road Championships, I've had a hiatus from gathering my thoughts on this thing. Basically, I've been running and training for Chicago Marathon, which was decided in July, and will be executed on October 10th. I've always loved the marathon since last years debut at Twin Cities, and even after the struggle at Nashville. It is one heck of a race that needs precise planning, and if one thing goes wrong, the whole shebang goes south.

So with training being very inconsistent but also purposeful, I feel like its going to be a great marathon. A few thoughts I've are: 1) My training has not been as high of mileage as I'd like. 2) I've done more marathon pace work and longer marathon specific workouts than any other cycle, which is a huge importance when trying to run 5:18 pace if you've never practiced it (especially at altitude). 3) My weeks have been all over the place with mileage (i.e. 27 one week, 110 another week...). This may not be as bad as I'm thinking it could be, especially if I'm getting in the big miles now, as well as long runs in. 4) We're getting some advise from a Korean 2:10 marathoner who has run 39 marathons all in the 2:10 - 2:20 range. His training is helping and is simple. 5) Chicago Marathon is Flat and Fast!!!

With these few hiccups in training; its still going to be another great learning experience.

This past week was 126 miles with two long runs:

M- 10 easy

T- am 9 miles easy

pm 4 miles easy

W- am 18 miles (9 easy, 4 miles in: 5:20, 5:18, 5:10, 5:18, 5 miles easy)

pm 4 miles easy

R- am 12 easy

pm 8 easy

F- am 11 miles easy

pm 12x 400m on the grass

S- am 12.5 easy/hilly

pm 6 miles easy

S- am 22.5 miles with fartlek 1200m-1600m-1200m

Total: 126

USA outdoor Championships

2010-06-21T18:37:00.002-06:00

Well, it is official... they let me into the race this coming week! The 10,000m is going to be a stacked field, and possibly the most prestigious field that I've ever been in that requires a qualifying time. So, this news is very exciting to me. The race is a championships race, so it's going to be very tactical, and I'm just going to hold on to whoever so that I can finish as high as possible. More updates should follow, or info can be found at:

http://www.usatf.org/events/2010/USAOutdoorTFChampionships/

And television times are:

On TV:
ESPN, June 25 8:00-10:00 pm
ESPN, June 26 1:00-2:30 pm
NBC, June 26 3:00-4:00 pm
ESPN, June 27 1:00-2:30 pm
NBC, June 27 3:00-4:00 pm

Recovery, Race and Relax

2010-05-19T21:49:00.004-06:00

Things are starting to feel good again. The mileage is getting back up there (100+), so I just need to hold it there for, oh, about 4 more years and I should be good for some fast times. Right now, I'm just running mileage, without any major workouts. I may start doing a few quicker stuff as well as some long tempo stuff before USA Outdoors in June. Which I am desperately hoping to get into since I only have the "B" standard for the 10,000m. After that race I shall race another 10k, but this time on the roads at the USA road 10k championships in Hotlanta.... Peachtree 10k in Atlanta. Then its off to Chicago for a half marathon. More to come...

Nashville

2010-05-06T11:12:00.005-06:00

Eh, the Country Music Marathon in Nashville, Tennessee. I thought this was going to be a nice little break though in the marathon, but instead I bit it hard at this one. This being my second marathon I've ever done, and the goal of qualifying for the US Olympic trials in the marathon with a time of 2:19 or better was the plan. But, as we all know, things don't always go according to plan.

The weather seemed to be a bit of a hamper with rain and wind, but I wasn't thinking too much about that. The course was also a little more difficult that I was expecting too. I knew there were going to be some hills involved, but once I got to the course, I noticed a lot more hills than I expected. When the race transpired, I didn't noticed the hills and just raced. There was a good pack of 10 runners, two Americans only with me being the other one. So, we were cruising along at about 5:18 average for the first half of the race with all the wonderful hills here and there. But, once we passed through half way, we dropped a 4:57 mile uphill. It didn't seem to bad at the moment, but I faded back with another runner to our more rhythmic 5:18's for the next 3 miles. The pack left us, and then I suddenly fell behind the lone runner as we climbed another hill at mile 17.

My pace started to fall apart at that point, and I could no longer manage my 2:18 marathon pace. At this point of the race I was trying to be optimistic. I was thinking that I could fall back a bit and maintain a slower, or more "easier" pace and still run faster than my previous marathon time of 2:24. Also at this point, Laura, who we managed to get on the lead vehicle and watch the race from a nice position was completely gone with the leaders. I was so far behind anyone, I felt like I was crawling. My pace was falling apart as the course kept climbing through the city.

By the time there was 3 miles to go, I felt like I was on a death march, just trying to get to the finish line. There was no more desire to race, as I knew I was dead. Inch by inch, I crawled to the finish with a time of 2:25:36 for 10th place and of course 2nd American. It was nice to be done with another marathon, and very disappointing not to have run a PR. I thought deep down, that no matter the course or condition, I was going to crush my previous time. Now, that I look back on it, I must have mentally given up at around 20 miles. Nevertheless, it was nice to get another marathon in, and look forward to my next one in the fall. Just as my first marathon finish, I was, and still am eager to race another one. Its a great distance and I love punishing myself through a city.

Now, its back to the drawing board.....

Stanford 10k - New PR

2010-03-30T13:38:00.008-06:00

Well, last weekend was the Stanford Invite, and there were a lot of great performances there. I was grateful to travel out there with Laura and stay with her at a hotel that was only 1/2 a mile away. My parents were also there and they picked us up from the airport the day before our races, which was on friday. Friday morning came very quick, as suppose to the duration of the entire day. Laura woke up fairly early for her shake out run before her 11:18am 5000m race. We headed over to the track accompanied by Laura's parents, who were also out there to watch both our races. As Laura mingled with her team, I left to the stands and to find both my parents and Laura's parents. Once I saw my mom emerge from the bathroom, and my father not far behind, I saw Laura's parents and had everyone meet. Luck for Laura, she was not there to witness the parents finally meeting. Once that quick tear of a bandage occurred, I said my farewell to everyone as I told them I was going to position myself along the backstretch for Laura's race. I saw the two couples wander off to the stands as I couldn't help but laugh on the inside as I kept thinking about how goofy parents can be.

I saw Laura right before her race, wished her luck and found a nice spot on the 100m turn to take splits as she came across the finishing line. Her race was perfect for her, and she went out

at an ok pace. A couple of her laps were slow, and fast, but with 200m to go it looked as if she

hit a wall, and then a limp was noticeable. I figured it was her knee, since it was bugging her

for a couple of weeks, but once she crossed the line, met with her coach and walked over to me, I found out it was her fascia on her foot. She could barely walk, let alone cool down, which I was going to accompany her in for my shake out run before tonight's race. It was a definitely a terrible to thing for her, and as I write this she is well on her way to recovery and cross training.

So, after the morning incident and watching a few 1500m races, Laura and I meet up with our parents and head out to get lunch with her parents as mine head to their hotel for lunch.

We get sandwiches from a nice deli and head back to our hotel, where Laura and her parents eat, and I leave for a short run to get the blood flowing. I find a nice neighborhood to run through and a nice gradual hill to do some hill strides on. This is a must for me, since Henry Rono always emphasized some light speed work on a hill the day or so before your race.

After a few of those, I head back to the hotel, stretch out and have lunch with Laura in the courtyard of our hotel. Tuna Salad sandwich, some chips and a couple of cookies are all I desire before a nice little nap and off to the track.

At this point, it is about 7:15ish, and Laura and I get there in time to watch some of the 5k's. We just hang around till about 8:30 or so, when I start freaking out about warming up, and who to warm up with, since I was going to jog around with one of the UNM guys who was in my heat. I watch a few more laps of Section 1 of the 5000m and find Keith (UNM 10k guy). We head out for our warm up and talk all about how amazing this track is and how we plan to race.

With all the emotions stirring up in my stomach, I can only respond with a few short phrases as we come back to the check-in area. I keep running/trotting along for a few more minutes, till my watch hits 17 something total minutes for my warm up. A few stretches and drills and all the 10000m guys are called to the check-in section for our final check-in an lane assignments. I get lane/number 13 and rush back to my seat where my stuff is located and change out of my warm-ups. Many of the other runners are already out on the track doing strides and drills, so I figured I should get out there asap. In most cases, I am more worried about the preparation of getting to the start line, than the race itself. Once I can get to the line and the gun goes off, I feel much better. But, that won't occur for another 10 minutes or so.

Last call had been announced, and I throw my last few layers of clothes to Laura as she wishes me luck with a beautiful smile. One last stride on the back stretch towards the start and all the runners timidly place themselves in numerical order based on lane assignments. I find myself with my highlighter yellow singlet squished between two Brooks-Hanson runners.

I wish whoever can hear me, let alone make eye contact with me a "good luck" before the race and tuck in when the starter sets us off. The gun goes off and I just stay relaxed and aim for the rail as quick as possible. It becomes a mess to get over, but with a few elbows here and there, I find my way to the rail. Once there, I start thinking about pace, and how this is an ok pace. Mile 1 was hit in around 4:41. I keep hearing other coaches shout out splits of 69 or 70 to our chase group. After a quick evaluation, I figure this is a good place to be. 9:20 or so for 2 Miles.

To me, this is perfect, and I plan on being here through 5k and move up if I can. To this point, I have never covered a 5k faster than 14:35, and as we approach the 5k mark, that familiar number is still there. But this time I feel pretty good and have another 5k to go. I leave our pack and start working on the next pack in front of me.

No one from that pack is fall off yet, but i keep on pressing and since I'm pretty much alone, I don't hear any splits. From the starting line on, I have the jumbo-tron to look at and the famous Drums being beaten from the Stanford team. The back stretch has the UNM's assistant coach Erin Howarth cheering me on till I get to the 200m mark were out of a million voices, I hear Laura's soft but annunciated voice cheer me on, along with a few more UNM athletes' voices and the head coach on the 250m mark. In the stands on the 300m mark I hear another buddy's voice cheering me on and both my parents and Laura's parents on the home stretch. So with all those lovely voices to carry me around the track, I couldn't see how I could fade. Instead I just kept pressing on lap after lap. The times on the clock didn't make sense to me, so I was not going to add or subtract times to estimate a final time. All I wanted to see was the lap counter flip closer and closer to 1 Lap to Go! Once that number came up I glanced over at the time and saw 27:57. With one lap to go I figured I could run about a 63 or so to break 29. And breaking that barrier would be amazing. I knew I didn't want to regret coming this close and missing that mark by a few seconds, so I thought I could do it since I had run a 63 in practice before. While I'm thinking about all of this and pressing hard for the finish, I reach the 200m mark and the clock over here reads 28:30! Now I quickly think to myself in about 2 seconds, 2 thoughts. I just ran a 33 second 200 which is a 66 quarter, and that is not enough to break 29 minutes. I need a 28! And I'VE run that in practice too! So I start kicking with everything I got and start catching some random guys. I have no idea who they are, but that they are in front of me and if I can catch them or gain on them, then I'm going to get a good time. I sprint in all the way through the line as I look over at the clock. It still reads 28:59 as I narrowly miss stepping on a guy who was pasted out on the track. I stumble to a stop and I only know that I ran the "B" Standard for the USA Outdoor Championships! If I ran under 29, that would be icing on the cake. The scoreboard didn't go that far down the list to my 16th place finish to reveal my time. But I didn't care too much, I had a feeling I did it. I saw one of the Flotrack guys, Ryan Fenton and talked to him for a bit as I staggered over to where my stuff was at, and where Laura would be.

I reach her with a smile and a congratulatory hug. I grab my warm-ups and leave for a short cool down on my own with a smile from ear to ear. I later find Keith cooling down and we chat for a bit as we come around to the results list. I look down the list and see my name next to a time of 28:59.96! .96!!! I didn't care what the milliseconds were, as long as the minutes were in the 28's. I was stocked and stoked out of my mind! I ran another loop around the track facility with an even bigger smile on my face. I finished up and saw Laura again, as she was telling me I broke 29:00!

After that performance, we walked back to our hotel, both limping since Laura's foot was damaged and I just had a few blisters. We get back to the hotel, drop off our stuff at around 11:30pm and head down the street to the only restaurant open, Jack-in-the-Box.

All in all, I was too excited to fall asleep that night and couldn't believe I ran under 29:00. After dinner, an ice bath, a shower and just laying there till about 1:30am I fell asleep with a well satisfied performance.

Results:

http://www.sml1.com/recordtiming/stanford/invite10/

Video:

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/236780/321558

Pictures:

Stanford and Training

2010-03-22T10:52:00.002-06:00

So another few weeks have past by and the preparation for performing well is on the horizon. This coming week will be a chance for a new pr in the 10,000m at Stanford. And after that another four weeks till the marathon. I am very pleased with the training and the higher mileage that I've been doing. The support I've been receiving from friends and family is great, so the only enemy will be myself, and the fear of not performing well. At this point, I have no one to fall back on or to blame if my performances aren't what I expected. In most races, I am very pleased with my performance as I reflect back on them. But, with these races ahead, I know I will perform well and be satisfied with the outcome.

Albuquerque

2010-03-04T11:02:00.002-07:00

This past weekend was an exciting weekend with many running related events going on. First off, the USA Indoor Track and Field Championships were in town, so all the local runners were at the Indoor facility along with the sold out crowd to watch all the distance events. Saturday started off with the Mountain West Conference Championships, were plenty of UNM athletes got to compete and rock the Mountain West Conference. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend this meet, which I was very upset about. But, I was able to attend the US Indoor Championships that evening following the Mountain West Championships.

The highlights of the evening in my opinion were the the mens and womens 3000m final. The men's race went out at a pedestrian pace with Lagat controlling the jog for about a kilometer. After that a few other guys slightly took the lead, but still remained at a meandering pace of 4:40 for the mile. It was a hard race to watch among the fans who wanted to see a "race" transpire, but with about 400 meters to go, Lagat started his kick and took the field with ease. Rupp was second in this race, so both of them get to go to the World Championships in Qartar.

After watching that race, I regret not trying to qualify for it and have the privilege to race against some of the best mid-distance runners in the country. When I saw the leaders coming through at 4:40, and some guys falling off from that pace, it only inspired me to enter in this race next year and race to the best of my potential, and hopefully other guys will do the same. Instead, this race was more of a sit and kick race, with only a few of those guys able to sit and kick without much contention.

Anyways, training now is focused on the spring marathon and a 10k on the track about a month before the marathon. Speaking of which, I need to buy my ticket. Hopefully a special someone will be there and I can watch her (Laura) run the 5000m to a new PB. So, training is more strength oriented with longer and more constant tempo runs and only one track workout a week, which was done this past tuesday (16 x 400m - avg. 66). Hopefully things turn out for the best.

USA Cross Country Championships

2010-02-17T10:17:00.003-07:00

This past weekend was the US cross country championships in Spokane, Washington. It was a great race to be in and I have been gearing towards this race since last year. So, for 365 days, I've been dreaming of racing well here and making a US team. And by the feel of my workouts leading up to this race, I felt as if it were possible.

The trip to Spokane was great, and I was accompanied with some great people. So, when race day came it was going to be a familiar feeling. That morning, the weather was "perfect". I was and hoping for rain and cold miserable weather, but that wasn't the case. A nice 50 degrees and sunny skies would pave way for a great race. The gun goes off at 2pm and I had a feeling that 20 guys or so would be capable of making the two US teams. One being the World Cross Country team (6 guys) and the other being the NACAC team (5 guys). So, ideally, you want to be at least top 11 in order to be on one of those teams if no one declines. And that was the goal...

By the first kilometer I was in great position in around 9th or 10th place. We hit that kilometer in about 2:47, which was pretty quick, but I felt alright. I just wanted to stay there and hopefully other guys would fall apart and I would maintain a good position. The first loop was pretty quick and I was still in that lead pack. At that point I felt good but everyone else were feeling better. The pack starts to drift apart over the next few kilometers and I start fading and getting passed. The 5k came up in about 14:40 something and I was feeling it. As each guy came up on me I tried to go with them and surge just to hold on. But, that would not help as I still faded. I finally held on to 16th place as the finish was coming up. So I finished in 36:36 in 16th place. It was faster than last year and a better placing than last year, but not exactly what I wanted.

I kept thinking that I needed to be stronger so that I could hold on to the position I started off at, but ultimately that performance was the best I could do. It was a great race and I am now happy with the way it turned out. I originally wanted more from that race, but I can only take what happened and use that for next year and other racing in the future.

Next on the schedule is Stanford 10k and then the Country Music Marathon in April.

Results:

http://www.usatf.org/events/2010/USAXCChampionships/results/Overall%20Open%20M.pdf

Video:

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/236481/299000

On the Horizon, the USA Cross Country Championships

2010-02-05T21:04:00.002-07:00

So the USA Cross Country Championships is just about a week away and the entry list is looking pretty good! There are only 6 spots to make the USA World Cross team and 5 spots to make the NACAC team. Both of them are US teams, and I would be honored to make either of them. So the goal is to be top 10 and secure a spot on either team. I know its going to take a lot of grit and grind to make anyone of those teams, but I've been thinking about this race for a year. Since last year, this has been all I've been thinking about and all I want, among a few other achievements in running. The obvious would be to: make a US team, make the Olympic Trials, run sub 14 in the 5k, or make a US National Championships race. Anyone of those things and I may feel content with all the years of running I've done.

UNM Lobo Indoor 3k

2010-02-02T17:05:00.004-07:00

Running a PR is always something to be happy with, which is what occurred this past weekend. It was another UNM indoor race, with loads of runners in all sorts of events. Allyson Felix was at the meet and she ran a Stadium record in the 400m in 52.05! So that was sweet to see. Then it was nice to see some of the UNM guys and girls run well leading up to the mens 3k. I knew in the weeks leading up to this race, that it was going to be stacked with a grip load of studs and NCAA All-Americans. So, it was nice to see that I made it into that heat, as there were two heats of this race.

To name a few guys, we had: Rory Fraser (13:39 5k), Patrick Smyth (1:02 half-marathon among other top 5 performances at USA Championships), Ben Bruce (8:26 sc), Jason Lehmekule (5th at the US Marathon Trials, 2:14) and a couple of other sub 14:00 5k guys.

So, with all this talent in the field and a rabbit to pace the leaders through at 8:05 pace for 3k, it was going to be exciting. There was a waterfall start, and since I was seeded second to last in this heat I was on the waterfall on the outside lanes, which was fine. Once the gun went off, everyone took off like a bat out of hell. Our little group didn't cut in, until the 100m mark and I positioned myself around 6th or 7th place through the first 400m. After that point, I was still running in lane 2 so I decided to move up and sit on the inside lane, but there was no way to get in unless I moved up to 4th place behind Rory and Smyth. So, like an impatient runner I did exactly that. I was nice and secure in 4th place through the 800m mark in about 2:13. The pace started to heat up and I was holding on while a few guys passed me as we hit the mile in about 4:24. I was in about 7th place at this time and Jason Lehmekule started to move and pass a bunch of us on the outside. At that point I decided I could go with him and position myself back in 4th place, since at this point the rabbit dropped off and the leaders were now: Smyth, Fraser and Lehmekule. I was in 4th again for a short amount of time as Ben Bruce passed me and then Aucencio Martinetz passed me as well. Naturally, I tried to stick on them but could only hold their pace for a few hundred meters and would fade off of each of them. I could hear the announcer and the crowds going nuts, since it was a great battle between UNM's Rory Fraser and Team USA Minnesota's Patrick Smyth at the bell lap. I could see them killing each other as I was trying to close the gap on Lehmekule, since Bruce and Martinetz passed him, but that didn't happen in the finally 200 meters. The crowd roared to Fraser's win of 8:08 and a wake of runners that still bettered the Stadium record of 8:10. Four guys went under the old record and Lehmekule finished in 8:13 as I was kicking in just under 8:20 with a new PR of 8:19.99.

It has a catchy ring to say 8:19, instead of 8:20... So I was full of smiles and happy to run that fast before the US Cross Championships. I know two of those guys in my race are racing Cross, so its going to be a great race out there in Spokane. I am getting excited and wonder how fast I could run a 5k at sea level...? Sub 14:00? And I don't know if I'll get the chance to do that this year. It would be nice, but it also would be nice to make a US Team. I think I'll go for the US team and see what happens.

Results:

http://www.golobos.com/sports/c-track/stats/2009-2010/unm13010_res.html

Article:

http://www.dailylobo.com/index.php/article/2010/02/dashingfellows_best_their_own_times

Indoors... among other things

2010-01-26T18:04:00.003-07:00

This week shall be another attempt at an indoor race. I will be racing the 3k here in ABQ and hope to run a PB, which was set here last year at the same meet. It should be a good one. Besides that, I feel that training is going well. I had a few hiccups in the past 2 weeks which were minor sicknesses that hampered training to a minimum. When sickness occur they always tend to mentally bring you down more that physically; from a runners standpoint that is. I felt that my fitness and consistency were compromised, which has a huge effect on me when training was going so well. And after looking back at my log and the trend of sicknesses that I've had, its clear that it was contributed to lack of sleep. A funny hypothesis I made was that I always get sick after a wedding; which happened over the summer as well. Nevertheless, its over and training is going well again. This weekend shall be a testament to that thought.

Also, with so many great things happening in the marathon these past couple of weeks I "consulted" with my roommate (Allen Wagner) about doing a marathon this spring. After Twin Cities I was eager to run another marathon. The only thing holding me back in my mind was the idea of developing and working on my speed over the spring. And when "working" on speed, it meant racing shorter distances on and off the track. But, the more I think about it, I can always work on speed during marathon training. The only thing that I can't attain from working on speed, is actually going to a bunch of track races and racing a PB. But, at this point its out weighed by the fact that I haven't qualified for the US Olympic Trials and want to! So, that's why I will be racing one this April. I know its going to go well!

Lobo Mile

2010-01-19T11:34:00.004-07:00

Well, this past weekend I ran the mile here in Albuquerque and it went well. The UNM indoor track is an amazing facility and I always enjoy racing on it. Although, this was only my second time racing on it, it was still a great experience. There were about seven guys in our race, of which two of them are sub 4 minute milers at sea level. Kris and I knew we had no business racing those guys, so we decided to trail them and close fast. We went out somewhat conservative and then I started to press the pace in attempts to close the second half of the race faster than the first half. One of the UNM guys (Matt Everett) was with me when we separated from the chase pack and then with about 400 to go I started to push even harder with the intent to "kick". The winner of the race ran 4:08, second was 4:10 and I was third in 4:14. Matt ran 4:18 and Kris ran 4:24. All in all it was great to get on the track and move that fast. It is something well needed before US Cross.

Race Video:

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/236281/265880

UNM Lobo Opener

2010-01-15T10:39:00.002-07:00

Tomorrow is the first indoor race of the year, and I shall be racing the mile. Its more of a workout than a race, but its going to be a great performance and effort. A couple of OTC guys should be in the race, so I won't be anywhere near them. Updates of the race should be posted.

2010 Training

2010-01-07T11:52:00.002-07:00

2010 is going to be a great year, I can already tell. Training is going to be great and the friends and family that encompass this new year are going to be great companies for these wonderful experiences. However, I have one minor set back, and that is while I write this I am a bit under the weather. Yet, it's nothing too serious and as I watch my other training partners get healthy and logging in the miles, I can only hope that we will be running new pr's and competing against some good guys.

The most immediate goal that has been on my mind since last year is focused towards the USA Cross Country Championships next month in Spokane, Washington. This 12k cross country race is something that I cannot wait to race and do well in. I hope to make a US National Team and represent my country in running. It would be such an honor and dream come true to achieve. There will be a few of us out there, and a buddy of mine lives in Spokane, so the experience is going to be great. The weather; God willing, should be miserable! Snow, windy and mud should prove to be a great cross country experience. And the training leading up to this race has been great! Mileage has been relatively high, but could be higher and the quality of the workouts has been great. Yet, my biggest problem has been rest. My recovery runs have been great, but the amount of sleep has been awful. I have about 5 weeks till the race and I need to incorporate more sleep into my training in order to make that team.

USATF Club Nationals

2009-12-16T19:00:00.004-07:00

Last weekend was one hell of an experience at Club Nationals. There were only three of us out there from the Dukes Track Club, but that's all we needed to have a good time. I know that if we sent a full squad, we could have scored really well and placed high... Next year. Anyways, it was a nice 30 degrees out there on the 10k grassy course in Lexington, Kentucky. The race went off at 1:30pm with the sun slowly setting beneath some clouds, which made for a much colder race than the warm up. The start goes up a 600m hill and after the crest it dips down to a lower field for a loop and back across another rolling hill. Those rollers lead to the back side of the course and past the start to do it all over again. I wanted to get out hard, so I just went with the leaders and stayed on whoever was in the top ten for as long as possible. Lots of gut grinding and teeth chopping occurred throughout this course, as well as loss of blood flow in my fingers. After the race I realized I could have used some gloves, but it didn't really matter in the race. Our first mile was hit in 4:40 with about 10 guys packed together. Next mile was 9:20 something with about 8 guys. This is where the leaders (two of them) took off and the packed dispersed. I was in 7th place trying to race with the 6th place guy for the third mile, which was hit in around 14:07 and 14:47 for 5k. After half way I was still in 7th racing with Ryan Bak. We came past the starting line again and a few more guys caught us on the up hill. I knew I had to stay in the top 10, so after the hill I crested it and opened up my stride so that only Bak came with me. It pasted me on the turns and we pushed up the next uphill. At this point we had about a mile or so to go. I started maintaining stride till we came into the finishing area with 800m to go. Another guy caught us and our finishing pack was now to 3 guys. The mud at this area wasn't too bad, more compacted soft dirt than anything else, and the windy was howling in our face with 400m to go. The six mile mark was final visible and counting down from 28:55 to about 29 flat by the time we past it. So with about 400 to go and two turns I was still trailing and decided to go a little wide to start kicking. The straightaway and the finish were in sight and I slightly edged out the other guys for 6th place and a new over all 10k PR of 30:03.

I was very pleased with the place and time, and still think that I can improve my 10k PR from a cross country time to a faster time on the track. But, since this is cross country I was more pleased with the place. The next step is to place in the top 10 at the USA Cross Country Championships come February and make that US team!

Pictures:

http://www.usatf.org/events/2009/USATFClubXCChampionships/photos/racePhotos/openMen/index.asp

http://www.usatf.org/events/2009/USATFClubXCChampionships/

Base Building

2009-11-10T10:45:00.003-07:00

It has been about 4 weeks since Twin Cities Marathon, and I am back on the Trials of Miles... I think I was around 110 for last week and will continue to build up towards 140 miles/week. We haven't been doing any workouts, so it is a bit easier to hit higher mileage. This past sunday, there was a big group of us. There were about four Americans and four Africans with us on our 18 mile long run. We went 6 miles easy, 6 miles a little faster, and the last 6 was very, very fast... But, it felt great!

Things are shaping up, and I am very excited to focus on one thing this winter, which will be the USA Cross Country Championships. I will do a few indoor races, but the main goal is to make a National Team. Workouts will come in a few weeks, and I'll jump into a few races for fun. And the quote of the month between all of us has been: "More is Better!"

Twin Cities Marathon

2009-09-23T19:42:00.003-06:00

As I keep reading about the Elite Fields for the Twin Cities Marathon, and the American hopefuls to win this event, it becomes very inspiring. The race is only 11 days away and I can't wait for it to start. The two American hopefuls are Luke Watson and Jason Hartman, both very talented runners. This will be Watson's debut marathon, so it will be interesting to see how he does, and Hartman was 10th at the 2007 Olympic Trials. That combination makes for a pretty decent American Field. I just hope to be in the mix with those guys. At this point, I feel very confident in racing my own race, and not worrying about things I can't control.

So, as far as training goes, last week (9/14/09) went really well. We had one fartlek workout on tuesday, which consisted of 5 sets of 3-2-1. The rest of the week leading up to sunday's long run/tempo was just easy mileage. Now, sunday's long run/tempo was interesting. As usual, we start late because Kris and I are off marking a 10k loop that we will run marathon goal pace at, at the end of our long run. Once that "course" it set up, we leave some water bottles and fuel, and head over to meet up with the rest of the gang. The long run starts off fine, with everyone: Me, Kris, Robby, Dustin, and Josh goofing off and trotting along the river for 12 miles. Oh, and every so often Kris gets a bright idea to throw in a surge for a minute to spice things up... Well, once we finish 12 miles (or so), we head over to "the course" and start the last 10k of our long run. Unfortunately, I started us off a little too quick and forgot to start my watch (so we had no idea how fast we were going), but I think it went well. The course had a few turns through some neighborhoods, past some pit-bulls that wanted us dead, a few disgruntled sunday morning drivers and finished by a lovely fire station... All and all, it could have been worst. I actually liked the course and I think we will use it for more of these marathon simulation workouts. But, as I was saying, we didn't get a full time on the 10k loop, but I'm pretty sure we got the last 2 miles, which were in 11:11.

On tuesday, our other semi-last workout of the season, we just did 5x1000m at Albuquerque Academy. This was another makeshift workout, since lanes 1-3 were blocked. We had to calculate the correct stager in lane 4 and stay in lane 4. That workout went well and Kris, Allen and I worked together on it.

As we have 11 days till the marathon, I just hope to stay healthy and hungry to race. "Tapering" is an interesting experience, and I don't even know if we are doing it right, but either way I know we'll be ready at the start of that marathon.

3 Weeks and Counting/Hood to Coast

2009-09-14T18:32:00.005-06:00

So, there are only three weeks left till my marathon debut. I am both excited and nervous about this ordeal. At times I feel like I could use another month of training, or just pick another marathon, but I'm sure the Twin Cities Marathon is a fine choice. Kris and I have been preparing very well for this, and a few weeks ago we just completed the Hood to Coast relay. Although, Kris and I were on different teams and different lengths the effort was still there, as well as the confidence.

The Hood to Coast relay was a logistical nightmare; fun, but insane... This "experience" transpired back in March when I got an email from Steve Dekoker, a Brooks Sports Marketing guy, and talented runner. His emailed explained how Brooks has been putting together a team every year at this NIKE Hood To Coast relay in Oregon. This relay is "The mother of all relays", as it says on the back of the corny T-Shirts. Well, Steve had invited a few Brooks athletes to be on this team, as well as local Brooks guys. And with the lure of gear incentives, travel and free food, why wouldn't I take this opportunity. Not to mention that the entire relay covers 198 miles from Mt. Hood to Seaside, mostly done at night. It was a nightmare, but fun! Our team, the "Brooks Beast" won in a time of 16 hours and 55 minutes, an average of 5:09 miles. Two years ago the Brooks team took 3rd to 2 Nike teams, Last year they were 2nd to the Nike team and finally, this year we won. So, needless to say, it was a great experience!

Now, its roughly 2 1/2 weeks till the marathon. Last week I tapped out at 124 miles for the week, which was the most I've ever done. Hopefully I can post as much as possible leading up to the marathon.

Coming into Form

2009-08-05T15:51:00.002-06:00

Things have been going pretty well the last couple of weeks. I think I've been hitting 90 plus miles for the last 2 weeks and over 100 for this past week. A teammate and I are slowly creeping up towards 120 miles for this week. The reason for this is due to the amount of success other runners had when increasing their mileage. Just as long as we do it smart and under a fine microscope. The workouts have been good, but only a few of them a week.

This past sunday we did a 20 miler with the last 8 at around tempo pace. It didn't go as great as I planned, since I started off too fast and died toward the end, but only to recover the last mile in the fastest mile of the day. So not a complete failure. It was also good for us to practice fuel intake. We grabbed some water bottles and a GU to take during the tempo portion, and I was able to take it without any problems.

So, this week should be the most mileage I've ever done, then a slight drop in mileage next week for the half marathon in San Diego. This half marathon should be a stepping stone towards the marathon. It's going to be fun, being back at home to see my family and friends. I'm looking forward to it! Kris, Dustin and I should have a good time out there and preform fairly well, if the weather isn't as hot as some say its going to be. Nonetheless, everyone has to run in it, and I think I'm going to compete in this race as suppose to going after a time.

Should be fun!

Flu and another Epic Run

2009-07-15T21:28:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago I got the flu which totally put a damper on my training. But now in my second week back I am feeling 100 percent and ready to be more consistent with my training. After a moderate 95 mile week after having about a week off from the flu, I was ready to run with our team. That week included an unexpected Epic run... well, it was expected just not from me coming back from a sickness. Regardless, we decided to get back on our marathon schedule which entailed a lovely Epic run up La Luz and back. When I got word of this on saturday night, I contacted a few other team members: Kris (who planned this epic run), Juan (who has joined us before in a 35 mile run to Belen), and two newer members Josh (who ran one Epic run before and can't get enough of them) and Dustin (who moved here from North Carolina to train for the marathon). Yes, our crew has grown from 3 to 5 insane individuals...

This run was more of a mental challenge than anything else. Even though it took us 3:25 to cover the 9000ft of accent and decent over 24 miles, it still was a culminating factor of mental toughness and physical toughness. I was happy to see everyone get through this run without any injuries. There were doubts and frustration at times, but in the end it was a great experience. It was also surprising that we finished 20 minutes faster than the last time we did this God forsaken run. And I didn't feel completely dead at the top, compared to last time. Everyone was in good posture...

Now, with that run under our belts a few of us have 12 or 13 weeks till our marathon. These should be the crucial weeks leading up to the race, so I'm hoping things will continue to progress as they have and the Dukes Track Club get better throughout the months. Things are taking form and it's real exciting to see new addictions to the team.

Crazyness

2009-06-22T15:50:00.003-06:00

As training has been going well, sleep and socializing have been crazy. From a bachelor party, to running parties, to a wedding... this past week has been very interesting. I must say it has been fun, but to certain degree it can be a little too much fun. Its a bit out of the ordinary for our house/friends to be embracing life this much, and I shall take it for what its worth. The marathon is months away, but I'm sure every hour of debauchery can add up over the course of time to hinder on any performance. We shall see how things turn out...

Focused

2009-06-15T09:32:00.003-06:00

So the past couple of weeks have been pretty good as far as training goes. Not too many distractions, and surprisingly I've hit some high mileage weeks without even noticing it. A few of us did our traditional Epic run over the Sandia's, which we completed in a much faster time than the previous times, and I felt a lot better this time. Maybe it was due to the fluids I was taking... Either way, it was Epic and exciting. We will be doing two more "Epic" runs leading up to Twin Cities Marathon in October. Besides that run and tempo runs, we will be adding some fartleks into the training regimen starting tomorrow! This I am excited for! Some speed should help us out just as it did last fall.

Our team also has another member; Dustin Hicks, who drove out here from North Carolina with his girlfriend to train with us for the marathon trials standard. The group/team looks promising and all the guys are getting along. As I titled this blog "Focused", it does seem as if many of the runners are very focused and determined to reach our goals. There are so many personal and team goals that I have for us, which I know we can accomplish. Some are broad, like wanting Albuquerque to be an American Distance mecca. This will take time, support and collaboration, but its worth it. And some are more personal, of course like hitting the US olympic trials standard. Whereas others would be to have our team (Dukes Track Club) become a known training group where aspiring runners can train and develop. Its all in good fun, and I'm excited to see everyone enjoying themselves.

Once our damn website comes up, I'll have to post it on here. Also, a congratulations to our temporary roommate, UNM athlete Matt Ashton, who finished 16th at NCAA 10k this past week. This Brit is a great guy and brings a different aspect of life to us. His teammate Chris Barnicle also placed well in the 10k, with a 13th place finish. And of course Lee Emanuel was 3rd in the 1500m final, which was won wire to wire by German Fernandez. Either way, these UNM guys are putting New Mexico on the map, and I only hope a tiny post-colligate group can add to the allure that Albuquerque offers.

Again

2009-05-10T16:31:00.002-06:00

Another great week of training has passed, and hopefully man more will come. It was so amazing to be out there training with the guys and gals.... But more importantly the guys. It can be tempting to push it and start full force, but I shall hold back for the time being. Besides, my fitness doesn't even allow me to come back at full force, so that's a good thing.

For the next few weeks I will just be building my mileage back up again for a late summer half marathon and a fall marathon with my team. It should be fun and exciting. Our team has grown and a few guys from different parts of the country have contacted us, so that is exciting as well. If we can have a decent team for Club Cross Country, it should be a blast.

Back to Running

2009-05-03T16:38:00.003-06:00

I got to run for the entire week last week. And so for things are feeling great! I should be off to a few more weeks of just building up mileage, and then add in some tempo/threshold runs. It should be interesting and exciting, but I am still upset that I did not have a track season. I guess there is always next year...

6 week injury

2009-04-28T21:01:00.002-06:00

Injuries are always fun, and I seem to always get one at the end of winter. I had something pretty bad on my right leg along the perineal tendon. I guess I rolled my ankle on a fartlek session and kept running through it. I was not proactive about it, and didn't roll myself out, take rest, ice or anything that could help it out. Just kept doing track sessions on it and after a few days it was unbearable. Now, after 3 weeks of attempted cross-training/jogging, I'm now back to just jogging around. Hopefully this will get better, and hopefully I've learned something about this.

What I do know is, watching the other guys running track sessions is killer! I just want to be out there pounding away intervals with these guys and racing! I seem to never have a decent track season, and my track pr's NEED to come down! Oh well, there's always the roads...... which I am getting sick of, because I always want what I can't have. In a few months when I'm racing on the roads, I'll be loving it and not thinking about track.

USA Cross Country Championships

2009-04-01T10:25:00.004-06:00

Another long awaited post from a race nearly 2 months ago...

On the weekend of February 7th, a group of Dukes Track Club runners (Myself, Kris, Juan, Robby & Dana) flew to Baltimore, Maryland to compete at the 2009 USA Cross Country Championships/USA World Cross Country Trials. I was very excited for this race once I got to the airport. The four of us, minus Kris were on-time checking in and getting to the gate, whereas Kris was nowhere to be found. As we meandered to our gate, we met up with a small crew of UNM athletes that were racing, including: Jeremy Johnson, Alan Pitman & Lacy Oeding. We were on the same flight so it was going to be a fun little trip. Once we we landed, the two groups raced off to get our rental cars and headed over to the course and get a quick peek at what we were about to suffer through!

The course was amazing. We found ourselves in the middle of a forest with rolling hills carved into a 10 meter wide cross country course. The frozen mud gave room for horrible footing along the undulating terrain for each 2k loop. I don't recall any flat surfaces on the entire course, because if there wasn't an uphill or downhill, there was a slope to run along that threw your stride. Our entire group of New Mexican runners were very pleased with the course, since it reflected the foothills back at home that we loved to run! Once the sun rested over the farmland hills and red barn at the starting line, we decided to finish up our run and head to dinner and get some rest.

The next day we all slowly woke up, got ready for a shake out run (which included some light hill repeats) and get some breakfast. Our race was scheduled to go off at 2pm, so we arrived at the race around 12 and watched some of the junior races. German Fernandez won the junior race with an impressive breakaway in the last lap. Our UNM runner Al Pitman finished an impressive 17th, which was very motivating for us. And Lacy placed 10th, earning her a spot on the US NACAC team.

Once we got our warm up in, which was 40 minutes of running around lost in the hills behind the course, we did some strides and stretched back at our little spot by the course. At this time we laced up, did some drills and headed over to the start. Jeremy was no where to be found at this point, but the five of us headed over there as a small pack of lost Albuquerque runners. After some more strides on the course, the runners were gathered to start on a long hilly 12k cross country race. Kris and I had a strategy from our coach Henry Rono to run conservative for the first 4 loops and then start racing after that. So we agreed that Kris would take the first lap and we would switch leads for the 4 loops. After the gun went off a huge group of nearly 60 runners converged in front of me towards our uphill start. I stayed as comfortable as possible for the first loop with Kris. Once the second loop came I started to lead Kris and pick off a few guys every quarter mile or so. The hills were relentless, especially the down hills, since they were very steep and slightly muddy from the previous races.

As the third loop came, I was expecting Kris to take over, but he was not there. I was not going to look back, so I kept my composure and attempted to pick off guys that went out too hard in the first half of the race. I was very surprised to be passing such high caliber runners. At this point fans were calling out places, so I had an idea that I was in the top 30 at this point. Another discouraging moment, was when guys where dropping out of the race. This issue gets to me, but nevertheless I still pressed forward through the hills and mud. For the next 2 loops I was amongst the top 20 and still pressing. I could see Jeremy up in front and I wanted to reach him, but this late in the race with these amazing runners would be a tremendous effort to reach anyone. I could feel the guys behind me struggling through the course as much as I was, so our positions seemed frozen for the time being. On the largest downhill of the course many runners fell, and I witnessed many runners sliding well off the course to avoid a horrible fall. At one point I nearly fell, but thankful not.

At the beginning of our last lap I saw Anthony Famiglietti in a red singlet in front of me. At the moment I did not know who it was, but once a fan called out his name to cheer him on I got excited. The excitement was that I was closing in on a great American distance runner, who just competed at the 2008 Olympics. I put in a surge to catch him on the downhill, and we were running together up the hill leading to the back side of the course. I think we were running together for a bit, then he let me go with 1k to go. At this point I was pressing as hard as I could without sprinting. I had an idea where the quarter mile mark would be, but i still wanted to hold my position; which was 17th I believe. Once I hit the turn for the finish I started my kick...which was too soon. I could feel the lactic acid build in my legs like battery acid and was just praying I could catch the guys in front of me. That was not going to happen. Instead, the opposite happen, a group of guys ate me apart in the last few hundred meters. It was tough! They flew by me as if I was standing still, then they started to come back to me. If they kept their momentum I think they would have gaped me by almost 30 seconds in those few meters, but fortunately I was not standing still and finished a few seconds behind them in 20th.

As I crossed the line in compete pain and exertion I waited there for the rest of our team. A brief chat with the fellow runners and friends that beat me and Kris soon crossed the finish line in 37th place. Juan came in a few moments later in 81st place followed by Robby and Dana in 119th & 141st respectively. This was Robby's first real race since moving back to Albuquerque, at it was a great performance at the National level. Dana was real pleased with his performance as well, since he has never been on a team before. As for Juan, this race just fueled the fire for him. He has always been a competitor, so he used this as a testament to further his training. Kris was joking stating that he was the fastest Lawyer in the race and was very pleased with it. This was a huge improvement from last year and he is going to have a huge track season!

I was very pleased and excited with my placing! This may have been one of my best performances to date. But, another thing was lingering in my mind. The team competition! Now, USA Cross Country Championships is not really regarded as a team event, but they do score teams. I noticed a table with the Championship Trophy and Runner-up Trophies. Once I saw that, I knew we won! There was no way any of those teams beat us, but even if they did I still figured we'd get second and take home some hardware! But of course, they screwed up the scoring and didn't even score us as a team. Oh well, maybe next year!

2009 USA Cross Country Championship Results

So on the cool down we were applauding each others performances and joking around from such a great experience. Many Olympians and Professional runners had bad days and I was very fortunate to have a great day! Our good friend Jeremy Johnson finished an amazing 12th place, earning him a spot on the US NACAC team as well! It is such an honor to represent your country in any kind of international competition and I am very proud of Jeremy for making that team. I only hope that I can have the fitness and integrity to make that team next year. It would surly be a dream to wear the US Jersey in competition, doing something I love.

That night we headed out to the post-race party and had an amazing, crazy, lost night throughout Baltimore with random people! One of my buddies/old roommate (Mike Crouch) who runs for Queens University and just ran 7:57 (indoor 3ooom) that same day drove down from New York with his coach, Scott Simmons and stayed in Baltimore for the night came out with us. All I can say was that we had a night we would never forget, or for a time being we would forget...

And the adventure didn't end there..... The next day, in a slump of sickness we geared up very slowly, packed and drove to Washington D.C. to tour our nations capitol. Dana lost his wallet so he had to drive back to the hotel to recover it as the rest of us toured the capitol while getting in a run. This was the last thing I ever wanted to do, but as soon as we got out there running the spinning seemed to slow down. That night I seemed to have consumed the most beverages and was paying the price that day. Although the Mall in D.C. was quite amazing. We meandered through each monument and gazed in awe. After a few hours of running/sightseeing I started to feel "tapped out". We got a call from Dana that he'd returned and was looking for us. We told him we'd run towards his direction, but I was feeling too tired to continue and sat down trying to recover. Kris was getting irritated and wanted to meet up with Dana first, but before Kris could freak out I heard a women's voice from a car in traffic yell my name. I looked over in shock and saw an old college teammate, Jenny Hauser. I ran over to see her and told her to meet up with us after she parked. Once everyone converged to exchange stories and why we were in D.C. Jenny directed us to a wonderful restaurant where we could complete our Maryland experience with some Crap Cakes! We arrived at the restaurant, had a great crap cake experience wearing our running clothes and sweat then left straight to the airport for our journey home.

Once again, for lack of a better word, this was an Epic Adventure. One we shall not forget...

Houston 1/2 Marathon

2009-02-02T20:59:00.003-07:00

Well, this is going to be short and quick. The only reason for the shortness of this entry is because the race was quite awhile ago, and I wasn't too proud of it. I ran 1:05:38 for the half marathon and came in 24th place. This was considered the USA Half Marathon Championships and there were 59 elite men and 50 elite women invited to this race. It was nice, and a great experience to roam around the hotel with other athletes. At times it was a little overwhelming having everything taken care of for people who just run.

I had a really good roommate, and I met a lot of awesome runners. It felt like a networking experience, as well as a race. Some of these athletes have been at the hotel and venue since wednesday, and everything was free. Since the entire atmosphere was all about running/racing I started to get a little nervous. I got countless text messages from family and friends wishing me luck, and also not to go out too fast in the race! Which I didn't do...

The night of the race we headed down to one of the many ballrooms to have dinner and mingle with other athletes. Once that was over, and everyone was full, my roommate (Joel Hamilton) and I headed up to our room. I thought I was going to get some sleep, but it was very hard to rest. It felt like a very long night, disturbed by both nervous thoughts in my mind and in my stomach. I remember one dream where I was wondering around after the race and asking people what I ran. I saw a blurry result sheet with a time of 1:05 something. I couldn't remember what it was, but then in the dream someone said it was actually faster. In reality, all I wanted to run was under 1:05, and I didn't get that time in my dream or in reality.

Once I finally woke up, I suited up and headed down stairs for a mile shake out run at 5am. After that nice little run, I stretched out and took a shower. Joel and I headed down to the convention center, and unfortunately I decided to warm up on my own by myself. This lead me to think about the race more than I needed to and mentally freak out during my warm up. As I looked at my watch to see how long I've been running, I also noticed that it was 6:30. I remember something about being back at the elite area at 6:30 to be escorted to the starting line... Oh well. I headed back to the elite area, only to find no one there. Apparently, all the athletes heard that memo and were already escorted to the start. Well, I guess this would have been a great opportunity to skip the race, but I decided to grab my gear as quick as possible and head in the direction where I thought the start would be.

I started to notice other elite athletes wondering around lost and following a group of people heading in the "correct" vicinity of the start. I had a feeling that this group of people where the marathoners and we needed to be directed to the half marathon start, which was the case. I figured that if eight or so elite guys where not at the start they would hold it up. But, fortunately we made it to the correct start. Once I was there, I did some strides and drills and toed the line for the start.

I kept telling myself not to go out too fast, but once the gun went off I completely blanked. I let the first group of guys go out hard and stayed with the chase pack for as long as possible. Many guys where in this pack, and for some idiotic reason I kept pressing harder to stay in the front of this pack. Many guys from the first pack where falling off, but I too could feel myself fatigue. I had mixed feelings coming through the 10k in a personal best of 30:16. One thought was: "this is a good pace, I should pr and hit the standard", the other thought was: "holy shit, that was too fast, and when am I going to hit the wall?". These two thoughts were whispering in my head from both sides as I started to lose focus on the chase pack. Guys where slowly creeping away as I could feel the burning sensation in my feet get hotter and hotter.

As the mile splits started clocking away slower and slower I started thinking about just finishing the race. The competitiveness inside had burned out, and I was holding on. That expression is something I hate to think about. Holding on after pushing so hard seems to be the hardest way to run a race. There were plenty of guys to focus on in front and chase down, but there was no response from my legs. I had pressed too hard in the beginning half of the race to have anything left but to float behind the other runners.

As the straight away came, I knew I was not going to pr, let alone run under 1:05. I ran home hard only to finish 1:05:38. At this point; a month and a half later, I feel very pleased with that time and that effort. Yet, at that very moment I was disappointed. I almost knew before hand that I was not going to hit the time, that this race was going to be a trial to see how I would approach failure. Dreams tend to pop in our minds so quickly, and we hold on to them for so long. But once they are accomplished, we need to look for other dreams. I feel that it would be dream to make the trials, and that accomplishing it so soon would take away the enjoyment of chasing that dream. I could have been very discouraged from this performance, but on the flight home I came to realize that traveling to these races, meeting all these great people are what really made this experience worth wild. Right away, I wanted to race another half marathon and prove that I could run faster. But as the the steam settled, I knew that it was time for cross country and track!

Splits [4:54, 4:47, 4:42, 4:53, 4:55, 4:55, 5:00, 5:05, 5:13, 5:10, 5:09, 5:14, ?:??]

Journey To Belen (Bethlehem)

2008-12-30T15:14:00.003-07:00

Last sunday a group of us decided for our Epic long run be a religious journey or pilgrimage. We would start at Old Town Albuquerque and run along the river to Belen; which is about 35 miles south of Albuquerque. We had planned this right about our other Epic long run, and the time finally came. Now, this being the Christmas season and all, and Belen translated from spanish to english means Bethlehem, we thought it was a good idea.

Well, there were four of us this time. The usual trio which includes myself, Kris and Dana. But this trip gathered another unfortunate soul- Juan Ortega, a UNM graduate and pretty damn good runner. Although he has never ran more than 18 miles for a long run; this would prove to be quite the journey. Once we got out of morning mass at old town, we left at a very slow pace. There are many crazy runners out there that do this once a week, but those guys are ultramarathoners. This was more of a combination of our traditional epic runs and a religious thing as well. And it was an out of body experience, due to the fatigue and tiredness we felt. Once we got to around 12 we ran into a small river crossing/ditch. It was about 20 feet across and who knows how deep. I suggested we turn around and run back to the nearest crossing, but Kris and Dana were jazzed about crossing the damn thing. So once Kris striped down naked so he wouldn't get his clothes wet and crossed it, we all followed, but not naked. Luckily it wasn't that deep, and just cold enough for it to be refreshing.

Once that ordeal was over, we found ourselves on train tracks heading further south towards Belen. At around 17 miles; which is about halfway, we took a wrong turn which lead us being devoured by a forest of 15 foot high branches. We figured there would be a trail that paralleled the old trail, and after navigating through the dense forest we emerged to find the train tracks in front of us. So after a few more miles on the tracks we find the trail and continue south on the soft terrain, which is comforting after running on train track beams and loose rock.

We are at around mile 24 or so and Kris watches our pace increase. Unfortunately Dana has already dropped off pace and I start to notice myself laboring. Kris and Juan look pretty good and maintain for a bit. Mile after mile I start to fall apart. I've already taken in two clif bars and some clif blocks with sportea, but thats not enough. The trail sits up against the dead trees of the New Mexican winter to my left and barren land to my right. To the horizon in front of me I see is a red spec which is Juan and further in front of him is Kris as a black spec. I turn to see if Dana is anywhere in sight, but I can't see him. I feel like falling over to die, but the tightness in my hips can't even allow me to do that. I have no idea where I am, or where I am going to be in the projected time of 2 hours till I finish.....if I finish.

We looked at maps and figured we could cover that amount of ground in under 5 hours. As I look at my watch, I see its been just a little over 3 hours. I have no idea how I can continue this torture for hopefully 2 more hours. I finally past by some civilization, which consists of a few run down homes and some kids fishing. One kid is wearing a Belen Elementary school sweater and asks me if I'm from Albuquerque. I tell him yeah and ask him how far is it to Belen. To my disappointment and confusion he says its "16 or 17 miles". In the seclusion of my mind I have a mental break down and freak out!!! I also start to think that he is completely wrong and maybe he's out of his mind! I look at him as if i've been lost in the desert, then he says my buddy just pasted a few minutes ago. Thats a good sign, so I thank him and take off, with a new sense of energy and direction.

After about a mile I see Juan talking to some guy by his truck on the trail and his kids fishing. Of course they're fishing, what else is there to do but wait for the fish to bite and for random runners from Albuquerque to pass by? The look on Juan's face tells me he is in pain and his body has already hit the wall. I feel the same way, but the guy tells us that Belen is about 6 or 7 miles away on that trail. Since there are 3 trails that seem to be heading off in the same direction, but he clarifies that we should take the one he tells us. He also tells us that Kris pasted by about 10 minutes ago down the trail he specified, so we thank him and follow in pursuit.

Moments later Juan and I discuss how we are in dire need for water and finally find a house to approach and ask for some water. We knock on the door and before the gentlemen can say hello, Juan tells him our story and asks for some water. After a quick glance at our running attire he tells us that he'll grab us some bottle water. As we thank him and ask him if we are on the right road/trail, he calmly tells us to keep following it south and we will run into the town. That was music to our ears, and we head out. Juan starts to fade and he tells me to continue on without him. I disagree, and stay with him for a bit, but as he stops he continues to tell me to go on without him. I finally comply and start to pick up the pace. I look down on the ground, and since I am moving so slow I start to make out the foot prints and notice they are Kris' shoes in the dirt. Its hard to keep the momentum but I start to think about random stuff. I start to say things out loud over and over again. At some points I start to curse out loud, but I notice that my pace is getting faster. It might be the water finally getting in my system. So I take that momentum and start to fight that feeling I had many miles ago. Minutes start to past and the clock is ticking towards 5 hours. It has been a long five hours, but I haven't seen any sign of a city or more realistically a town.

Its more than a feeling to finally see a road cut across the trail and cars coming and going. My pace seems faster than a race, but I know I am merely cruising along. I stop at the end of the trail and draw an arrow for Juan to turn right and head into town towards the train station. I recollect myself and start running on the road. It might have been a mile to the station, but I just kept sprinting and striding out on the hard asphalt. I had no idea where Kris would be, I had no idea how far it was, I had no idea! I just figured if I pick up the pace maybe it would be over soon. After nearly 5 minutes of this pace I see Kris in the distance walking around aimlessly by the only bridge in town. I start to yell while laboring at this pace, and once I get his attention I run up to him and towards the station. After a few strides past Kris I stop, and realize its all over.

Kris finished the 35 mile journey in 4:48, I finished in 5:08 and Juan was a couple minutes back where he finished at a burger joint. Dana came in at 6:07, just two weeks after racing a marathon! This was another journey that none of us will ever forget. The distance felt longer than it actually was, and its always easier said than done. Kris and I brought some money, so we got some food and change for a pay phone. After 30 minutes Kris' father-in-law picked us up and we were shuttled to a huge Christmas party with all sorts of food! It was a feast of recovering and eating, and it was great! We started the run just as the sun colored the sky with an array of redish purple clouds, and when we left the party the sky was pillowed again with the same beautiful colors. A perfect ending to another Epic adventure.

A.R.T. and the Dukes Track Club

2008-12-08T10:48:00.003-07:00

So I was referred to an A.R.T. specialist for my planter fasciitis. A.R.T. mean Active Release Treatment. It seems to work. Kris has been talking about it for a couple of years, and last Thursday was the first time I went. It is pretty interesting, just a combination of breaking down scar tissue while creating a range of motion. Of course it was painful, but tolerable. After last weeks session, i felt a huge improvement later than evening on my run with the guys. Speaking of which, last Thursday was an official team meeting for the newest track/running club in Albuquerque.

The Dukes Track Club! Right now we have 11 guys that are very interested in training together and having fun. We have been organizing for a couple of months now, but last Thursday was an exciting time for everyone. One of the guys on the team (Tristan Willey, who helps out with Flotrack) got a new video camera and did some filming and interview about the Dukes. You can find the video here. Its funny and interesting, which parallels who we are and why we train together, its all about having fun! Soon we will have a website and that will be posted here as well.

San Antonio 1/2 Marathon - New PR

2008-11-20T18:15:00.018-07:00

What a great trip to a far off place called Texas..... San Antonio to be exact. I haven't posted in a very long time, so I'll try to make this entertaining for the lack of updates. This is another Rock 'n Roll event and I find myself excited and a bit nervous. I was mainly worried about getting to San Antonio too early Saturday afternoon, waiting around for Kris, Dana and Lauren to show up. Fortunately and unfortunately, my connection flight to Denver was delayed and I missed my flight to San Antonio. My new flight came 5 hours later, with a food voucher to spend at DIA (Denver International Airport) and a $100 plane voucher, so I can't really complain. I was now getting into San Antonio after the gang, and they would pick me up. Once I arrived to San Antonio, Kris, and car packed with fun loving people left for our hotel that Dana arranged for us. We got in an easy 30 minute run through the outskirts of some sketchy area, and some strides at a local elementary school soccer field. Once that was over, we all piled in the car (6 total) and headed off on a scavenger hunt for restaurants. After we coordinated a group of about 13 family members and friends at Olive Garden, we all ate and enjoyed a wonderful meal and conversation of the most random things possible. It was Great!

Race day! Dana, Lauren and I woke up to about 15 different alarm clocks/wake up calls at 5am to get in an early morning shake out run. What I really wanted was to sleep through those alarm clocks and even the race! Oh well, Dana and I get in a short run and the temperature didn't seem too bad outside of the hotel; but once we got back and met up with Kris to leave, it seemed as if the temperature kept dropping. As we leave the hotel, and a car now packed with 7 lovely people, we drive aimlessly towards the race. Mercilessly, Kris gets the car within 10 feet of the starting line, which is not allowed, but whatever we're just going with the flow as we always do. New Mexican rag tag style.

Once we got our race bibs and a late warm up in we head over to the starting line. We mingle with some of the other runners and see Brain Sell (USA olympic marathoner - 2008) doing some strides with his Brooks-Hanson's teammates. We get to listen to the National Anthem and then group up on the starting line for the race. Kris is on the far left of the field, and I position myself on the right of all the Brooks-Hanson's guys. The starting gun fires and everyone dashes off. Two Hanson's guys go out pretty hard (Nick and Brian) and I stay back and run with Kris and the other Hanson's guy.

As we come up to the first mile we hit 5:00. We have a decent little group of three guys and the two leaders are increasing their lead. The second mile winds us through downtown and past the Alamo; which is surprisingly small, but we come through two miles in 4:51 and keep pushing on. The crowds in downtown were very cheerful and that helped out a bit going into mile three, which was hit in 4:56 (5k-15:17). At around this time, Kris and the other Hansons guy faded a little bit. I was a little concerned to be running on my own, but I could see Nick

way up in front, and I thought if I kept visual in him maybe I could run a good time. I think I cam through mile four in 4:57. I wasn't thinking of much at this moment. Now the course takes up hill through a nice neighborhood and a water station, where I grab some cold water. Mile five is hit in 5:08, and off the down hill I start to pick it up to catch up to Nick. I hit mile six in 4:42, because of the downhill. At around this point I see Lauren (Dana's fiance) and Kris' mom cheering from a nearby park. It was nice to have some support along the course, not only from all the bands and random people, but from people who you actually know. Mile seven, eight, nine and ten are hit in: 4:58, 4:55, 4:57 and 4:57. I come through 10 miles in a personal best time of 49:26. Those four miles were kind of a blur. I was just focusing on catching Nick and thinking of random stuff. I remember thinking about the Sandia mountain run, and how the three of us journeyed to a state of mind that could never be replicated.

Images kept coming to mind of that epic run and how beautiful those mountains look at sunset. Being at peace with nature can be pretty hard to do when you're tired and feeling the pain of exertion. But if the scenery can out weigh the tiredness, then it seems worth it. Thats what I felt on the Sandias, a sense of peace, and earth beneath my feet. But in San Antonio, there was only violent pounding on the hard asphalt in order to finish the race, with the best effort possible.

Another thing I kept thinking about was the training we've done. For some reason I kept visualizing a Rocky video montage of our training. Especially from Rocky III and IV! Those awesome training montages are amazing and inspiring. I know its kind of corky to think about this stuff, but I couldn't get these images out of my mind. The underdog; Rocky, training like a mad man with the most rudimentary training techniques and no outside support while his competitor had a sea of trainers and high tech equipment. This is what kept me motivated. It kept me thinking about all these other guys out there, with the most expensive coaches, access to great facilities, and a plethora of gear at their disposal. While guys like Brain Sell, one of America's greatest long distance runners, rises through the ranks and makes an olympic team, has only the bear essentials for training and winning! With our little group in Albuquerque, mentored by a legend; Henry Rono, it's hard not to try and prove ourselves that we can run with the best Americans. I finally caught Nick at around mile 11, and he urged me on to a 4:55 mile. The next two miles were pretty hard. I kept thinking to myself, after mile 10, that it was a 5k race to the finish. But after that mile it was hard to push onward. With my calves now on fire as if they were going to burn off and rip out of my skin, I come through mile 12 in 5:05. I wasn't really paying attention to my total time, but I had a feeling that I was going to run a PR. But I had to finish strong. This mile seemed pretty tough, as I was all alone in the streets of San Antonio. There were some rolling hills in and out and here and there. I saw the huge Alamodome in the distance; which is were the finish line was and where the San Antonio Spurs play, and I had a great feeling that I was almost there.

Mile 13 was on a uphill and I could see the clock tick away to 1:04:30. At that point I knew I wasn't going to break 65 minutes, but as I turned the corner the finish seemed a lot closer than I expected. I started to get up on my toes to kick as hard as I could. The clock was approaching 65 minutes, but I was lucky enough to just dip under that time with an official time of 1:04:55. As I gather my thoughts and take some deep breaths of air, Brian Sell is waiting for his teammates. I was fortunate enough to talk to him briefly about running and random stuff. Once his teammates finish, and I congratulate them, they all walk off. I wait around for Dana and Kris to finish, at that moment I see Lauren and Kris' mom on the other side of the fence cheering with excitement. Dana and Kris finish together, and Dana runs a huge personal best. Kris had a little stomach problem and had run into a hotel to use the bathroom and decided to pace Dana to a PR.

After the race we grab a bunch of free food, t-shirts, free bags, and all sorts of free crap. At times, we are like vultures running around grabbing everything we can get our hands on.

Once thats over with had to hurry to the hotel and check out and get to the airport for our

flights. I felt like things were moving faster than the race, as we rushed to get a cool down in and then to the car. As we leave, I get a phone call

from Omar to head back to the VIP section for some quick interviews. I just wanted to get the

heck out of there, but everyone in the car (all 6 of them) told me it would be fine and it would be fun. So we went back, grabbed some more free food, did the interviews, said thanks to everyone and then we were off. It was Great!

This was another great 1/2 marathon, and it could not have happened without the support and love from my friends and family. It seemed like everything was taken care of for me. Transportation, food, hotel, everything! I was not worried about anything, I had a good feeling about the race, and as long as the three of use were at the start, thats all that mattered. Our preparation leading up to this race was more than I could ask for, and the moments before and after the race are more important than the race itself. Being with loved ones, joking around and enjoying the moment at hand could out weigh any performance that day. I was just blessed to have everything line up for me. I am very proud of that time, but I am more impressed with the relationships I've gained here in New Mexico. I am also blessed to have a better relationship with God. As I was preparing for this race; the following tuesday and wednesday, I was preparing to receive first holy Communion and Confirmation. I am very grateful for all that I have received, and I hope to give inspiration to my friends as they have fueled my inspiration. There is no point to receive all these gifts if you have no one to share it with. To everybody, thank you for sharing these moments with me!

Mile Splits: [5:00, 4:51, 4:56 (5k-15:17), 4:57, 5:08, 4:42, 4:58, 4:55, 4:57, 4:57 (10 miles-49:26), 4:55, 5:05, 5:03] 1:04:55

A few more pictures:

Before the Start

Brooks-Hanson's Team

Starting

Finishing

Three Amigos!

After the Race

Yes We Can!

2008-11-05T10:34:00.003-07:00

The outcome of this election brings faith to many Americans. Just as Obama said:

"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer... It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled - Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always be, the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA."

Those words sent a chill down my spine. It is a sign of change and hope. I actually felt good about the outcome, and feel that things are going to get "better". I know its not going to happen over night, but with optimism on our side, maybe thats all we really need...

To Heaven and Back - Running over the Sandia's

2008-10-30T12:30:00.011-06:00

It has been three months in the making, and we (Kris, Dana and I) finally ran the most Epic Adventure run of our lives. Since the creation of our little 3 man group; which we call the Trifecta, it has been very interesting. We have planned out races, mingled with Kenyan runners, met beautiful women, discovered insanity, and embraced this sport of distance running even more than ever! Every month or so, we embark on some kind of epic run. The first of which was up the Sandia Mountains to the Tram (18 miles-3:17:54). The second was up La Luz trail to the Tram and back (22 miles-3:52:23). Now it was time to test our limits and run something truly epic. We have planned to accomplish this run together after the San Jose half marathon, and roughly 3 weeks out from our San Antonio half marathon. This past sunday, October 26 was a perfect weekend to do it.

Many friends soon learned we were doing this and wanted in on the action. Running on the most iconic image in Albuquerque, a span of 28 miles starting from 5500' just at the base up to 10500' and back, something so epic as this was bound to gain allure, and who wouldn't want to be in on this? We started to tally up, and soon reached a total of 8 runners by the week of the run. The Trifecta would soon be eclipsed and a whole bunch of us would be doing something amazing...

As D-Day approached, we started to lose soldiers. One by one, each runner had something come up and could not partake in the experience. Just looking at the Mountains can be enough to detour anyone away. But as Sunday finally came, the numbers were at 3. We would start the run late in the morning, parking one car (my lovely truck) at the north end on the trail head, and take Dana's car to the south end. The name of the trail where we start is called Three Gun Springs. Ironic, that only 3 of us will be gunning up this mountain. We have run this trail before to South Peak, so we know the terrain. Once we reach South Peak in record time, we take a short break to absorb to view. It is truly amazing up there, and has changed so much since the last time we ran it in August. No picture can express the beauty and serenity up there. But of course I have a few pictures:

Looking West over the City:

Group Picture:

Looking north from south peak. The end of the run is still beyond that north peak:

After some quick R&R, we head back on the crest trail to the Tram and towards Goldilocks. We are now within 2 miles of the Tram and I start to feel sluggish, tired and fatigued. Dana and Kris are at a fork in the road and wait for me. We now have 1.2 miles to the Tram and more water. We already finished our fluids, and I have some Clif Blocks and a Bar, but at this point its too late, water is pretty much what I need. We are also at around 10000' approaching the last assent to the Tram. Kris took off and Dana stayed behind to make sure I didn't die or anything. Which I guess thats how I looked, stumbling up the trail, bobbing my head around with my eyes and mouth wide open gasping for air. All I hear is Dana chanting, "Don't worry man, we're there, we're there. You can refuel at the Tram, just make it to the Tram!" Holy shit! He must have said that a hundred times, because we weren't even close to the Tram.

After what seems like forever; we reach the Tram house 30 minutes faster than the last time we ran this, and its just a few flights of old wooden stairs to the water fountain and some serious rest. I lean up against the sheet metal of the Tram house, as tourist, again look at me like I'm an idiot. I can't help but laugh about it now, but at the moment I felt pretty messed up laying there while family members all trying to enjoy their sunday afternoon on the Sandia. Hell, I was enjoying myself laying there on the ground.

Dana and Kris venture inside to get me some water, but I soon recoup and get up to follow them inside. I grab a seat and try to focus on the Football game on the TV...Lo and behold, its my beloved San Diego Chargers playing the Saints. About a minute 40 left and they are getting pounded on a crucial play to tie up the game. At that moment Kris eagerly and comically asks if I'm ready to go. "No...... let me just watch the Chargers tie up the game and win."

At least, thats what I was hoping for. Their fate of winning the game was as likely as me feeling like a champ at that moment. So, as the Saints intercept the ball and totally make a mockery out of the Chargers, I'm ready to get the hell out of there. We fill up our water bottles, finish up our Clif Bars and head out. Now, it must be some kind of conspiracy or amazement or something, but someone always comments on how crazy we are right when we leave. This time a gentlemen bluntly says, "You guys are crazy." I can agree.

The last part of the run is about 10 miles and mostly downhill, or rather down-mountain. It is beautiful, shady, rocky and a long 10 miles back. Oh, did I mention it was rocky?! Miles after miles and hours later we are in uncharted territory. I feel much better and the sun has gone from the east side of the mountain to nearly the western horizon. We approach another sheer cliff that curves its way far enough out that we can see the trail head where my truck is parked. We are a couple thousand feet directly above the trail head and Goldilocks, but we don't know how the hell we are going to make it down there. A little jump off would be the easiest way to finally rest and get off our feet, but we follow the trail further away. We are still going down, just in far, far opposite direction.

We kind of already knew this might happen, but we are pissed at how the trail can tease us. As my watch creeps up to 5 hours, I start to pick it up, hoping that maybe we are close. We are definitely at a lower altitude, and I can feel that we are almost there. Dana and I turn a corner and I see Goldilocks parked all by herself. "There it is!" I shout to Dana, and we start sprinting home.

We finally made it to the Truck....... DEAD! With a time of 5:02:18, we gather some food and discuss the odd muscles that are in pain, sore, or whatever term you want to use that describes that sensation after a 5 hour mountain run.

Even our heads were hurting, but it was a good feeling. The whole experience was amazing, and I really believe that it was a life changing experience. I always see those mountains everyday. No matter where you are in Albuquerque you can always see the Sandia Mountains. We now know what it feels like to run on the edge of the earth and take a glimpse of heaven. We have run point to point, end to end, and have touched the sky. It is a feeling like no other and I still can't believe we did it. Thanks for everything you guys.

Raining in New Mexico

2008-10-14T13:09:00.005-06:00

It is now cold and wet in Albuquerque. The weather has changed, and will be changing as the frigid winter approaches. It should be fun, compared to California where the winters are a mild 60 degrees, layering up with only a long sleeve. No, New Mexico shall bring snow, wind and I've been told hail. Well, at least I have some winter gear. I may need to invest in some running gloves since my fingers are already freezing in October!

These next few months should be very interesting. I have one more 1/2 marathon next month, then I will be preparing for the USA 1/2 Marathon Championships in Houston. That race will be my first chance in qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Trials Marathon. If I can run under 1:05:00 for the 1/2 then I will be in. Another thing, if for some reason I am really fit and run under 1:04:00 then that puts me in contention to qualify for a US team. Most likely the World Half Marathon Team. Its a long, long shot and possibly years of preparation, but anything is possible. It would truly be a dream come true to represent my country at the international level. Faith and Hope are what have been inspiring me throughout these past months and years. And with these two gifts, I know I can accomplish something truly amazing. Runners are breaking through some barriers that seemed impossible at first, but now tangible. It is just a matter how much we believe, how much faith and dedication we have. We are all inspired by something greater, we all have hope and we all have faith. It is just a matter of how much. So much support has been given to me from my parents, family members and friends, you guys are what inspire me and help me keep the faith. I really want to thank everyone for all you've done. Thanks for reading and your support.

This weekend is a marathon relay that 5 of us are doing for fun. Next sunday will be another Epic Long run. This long run will be 28 miles and will start from the South base of the Sandia mountains and continue up and over the Sandias to the North end. I will try and bring a camera to post some truly Heavenly pictures.

San Jose 1/2 Marathon - New PR

2008-10-07T14:46:00.012-06:00

What a great experience, again! The weather was amazing and it seemed like the weeks leading up to the event were quality workouts and miles. I got into San Jose on saturday went for a second run, had some dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory, hopped some fences to get into BevMo! for some water, relaxed and slept great on my buddy Chris O'Neal's couch. Once I woke up at 5:30am, we went on a little shake out run to the local high school and back, just a mile or so, nothing crazy, but just enough to wake up the body. We got ready, made a makeshift bib number for Chris and drove to the race. Once we parked I got a phone call from Kris Houghton asking us where we were so we could get a warm up in. I looked at my watch and saw that we only had an hour before the race. So we ran over to the VIP section to get my bib and warm up with Kris. But lo and behold he was gone with some of the Moroccans. Typical of Kris, so Chris O'Neal and I went for an easy run around the streets.

Its amazing seeing all these people walking around, warming up, chatting to friends and family. This sport is truly blowing up! I love it! So, I get in about 17 minutes, its a lucky number of mine, and start stretching by the VIP tent. I didn't want to go in and get my stuff, since there were just too many runners and other elites in there. Adam Goucher, Josh Rohantinsky, Bolota Asmeron, and number of 1:01:00 Kenyans & Moroccans. I finally see Kris and we talk about race strategies. As we run over to the starting line with the other elites, Kris and I agree that we are going to go out conservative. I'm thinking 5:05-5:10 per mile, for at least the first 4 should be conservative. So we get in a couple of strides and drills in, a brief chit-chat with fellow runners like Brooks-Hanson's Nick Arciniaga on what pace they are going to go out in. He was aiming for a sub 1:04 half marathon time. A little too quick for me.

So we are finally corralled over to the start. I was fortunate enough to find one photo thus far from the race. I am tucked away like a dear in headlights behind Rohantinsky and Bolota

was to his right. Once the gun went off, everyone took off like a bat out of hell. The first group already established themselves with about 15 guys including the 3 top Americans. Kris and I were behind in another group of about 7 guys. It seemed like a good place to be. Three runners that come to mine in our chase pack were: Charlie Serrano (a McMillan elite runner), Miguel Nuci (a 2:15 marathoner) and Cristian Hesch. All top caliber runners. So I just figured I should stay with these guys and I might get a PR. Our first mile was 4:57. Not bad, a little worried that we might have gone out too fast, but oh well, its too late to slow down now.

As we come up to mile two I click off my watch and its 4:59. Ok, thats good. Now the first water station is coming up, not too many runners went for water or the Cytomax they had. But this being my third marathon I figure I better get some and "practice" my fuel intake...again. So we come up to mile three and Hesch runs off the course and heads for the bathroom. That doesn't surprise me, since Hesch does all sorts of crazy things. Three miles comes up pretty quick and we hit it in 4:56, and the 5k in 15:26. Wow, if I keep this up I am sure to PR. Now I just have to keep this pace, or I could even drop back to 5:10s and still PR. This is all going through my head as we pass tons of spectators and bands jamming at 8:15 in the morning. The course now takes us back through the start and a whole crowd of people cheering their brains out. Its really a great sensation, nothing like the previous two halves I've done.

So by mile four I hit 5:02, which is now expected of me to fade a little, as well as the other runners in our pack. Its now myself, Nuci and Serrano pressing on. Mile five comes in 4:55. Nuci holds pace while the next mile is hit in 5:10. Serrano and I are trying to maintain pace and keep Nuci in our sights. Now, Nuci runs 200 miles a week three times a day, and tapers down to 140 mpw. I am told he doesn't have a job, except for running. He is a 2:15 marathoner and I know I can stick with him! But he is creeping away as I press forward. Mile six is hit in 5:10...now I know why and how he got away, we also go through the 10k in 30:51. I like the pace we are at, it isn't the most comfortable pace in the world but it feels rhythmic. Mile seven is hit in 4:54, the fastest mile yet. And now Serrano has a lead on me but starts to veer to his right and stops. I pass by him calling his name to follow me, but he just looks at me with his hands on his head and a sign of pain from his side. At this point in the neighborhood an older women cheers me on and comments on how she likes my shoes! I immediately think to myself, "hell yeah! I love these shoes!". They are the adidas adizero pro, but the significantly bright blue and red heel cup are what gets the attention.

Mile eight comes up in 5:01, and within 800 meters there is one of many 90 degree turns. But this turn has a quaint little family on the corner and a small girl yells with her 9 year old voice "I love your shoes!" As I turn the corner I look back to make eye contact and pump my fist with a smile in agreement. The whole family looks happy and cheerful at that point, and I will soon feel that way once I get to the finish line with hopefully a new PR. Mile nine comes a little slower than the rest in 5:12, followed by ten miles in 5:10 (50:21). Mile ten....just 5k to go. I seem to always think of it as a long 5k, which it tends to be. No one is around me, and Kenyans and Moroccans are finally fading back due to the insanely fast pace they started off at.

5k to go, 5k to go. Anything can happen in the next few miles. My watch read 50:21 for ten miles. I need to run 15:38 or faster to break 1:06:00. I never thought I would be in the vicinity of 1:06:00, but now its in my hands to push through the pain or stay at a comfortable pace.

Comfortable pace....at this point I didn't even know what that meant. Mile eleven was hit in 5:00. Ok, that's right on pace. It seems as if Nuci was coming back on me, but he wasn't. Mile twelve comes up at the slowest time of the day - 5:14. Oh man, "its over", thats what I was thinking. But there was still hope, I was still pressing forward around the long turn. Then as I make eye contact with one of the spectators, he yells at me, "COME ON! ADAM IS RIGHT THERE!" Holy shit! Adam Goucher is right there?!?! I started pressing even more around that long turn and once it straighten out I saw Adam about 300 or 400 meters away. Dude, there is no way I can catch him, or is there? I just start breathing and start pumping my arms and legs. Thirteen miles comes up in 4:54, and Adam already finished. With about 100 meters to go I see the clock tick away from 1:05:55 inching its way closer to 1:06 and I finish in 1:06:06.

I could not be happier with that time and that performance. The crowds were amazing, and the bands helped out in soo many ways. If anyone is considering doing an event like this, I highly suggest it! And the medal was pretty cool too!

One last picture with all the Moroccans including Khalid Khannouchi.

Splits: [4:57, 4:59, 4:56 (5k-15:26) 5:02, 4:55, 5:10 (10k-30:51) 4:54, 5:01, 5:12, 5:10 (10miles-50:21) 5:00, 5:14, 4:54 (.1-35sec)] Total time: 1:06:06

The Little Emperor Does it Again - 2:03:59

2008-09-29T10:48:00.003-06:00

This is truly amazing! Halie Gebreselassie does it again in Berlin, running a new marathon world record of 2:03:59. Very dramatic just creeping under the 2:04 mark, and still inspirational. I think he ran his first half in 1:02:04, then came back like a mad man. I can't even image running a half marathon in that time. Most Americans can't even do that! But it still gives me hope to improve my times and push the limits of human capabilities. Truly, truly amazing! It is a great time to be a runner and a part of this running movement or running boom or golden age of running, or whatever term they are calling it now...

La Luz Trail Run

2008-09-21T20:02:00.014-06:00

After a grueling 3 hours and 52 minutes of running one of the most difficult trails in New Mexico, I feel that it is in order to reflect on this monstrosity of a run. It is by far the longest time I have ever spent running, and it could be the longest distance, totaling 22 miles, of which half that distance was at a 12% ascend (and the other half a 12% decent). The La Luz Trail is supposedly a world famous trail and the La Luz Trail Run is considered the "12 Most Grueling Trail Races in North America" by the fall 2001 issue of Trail Runner Magazine. Yeah, its tough I guess!

We (Kris, Dana and myself) started at 10:30am. This time of year in new mexico is a beautiful time since the weather is changing and the colors are starting to take change with fall approaching. Its also been said that hiking La Luz is "gorgeous this time of year", whoever said that, was definitely hiking and not running the damn trail. Nevertheless, I was excited beforehand, and we trotted up the paved road 2 miles before the trailhead. The trail itself is 7.2 miles straight up!

This is where we started, at my little truck. The paved road lead us up the 2 miles to the trailhead, which is basically at the base of those Mountains in the foreground. Then its up, up, up the trail. There were some points where the views were amazing. Damn, I should have brought my camera. Or maybe we should have brought some water. At least we were half smart enough to bring some Cliff bars, on this 3 plus hour excursion.

So, while running up the mountain we experienced all sorts of hikers troting along. You could also hear the wind howling through the ponderosa pines and blue spruce trees. It almost sounded like running water or maybe 50 foot waterfalls. At least that's what I was dreaming of....water! So nearly 2 hours later we crested the trail and ended at the peak, where a quaint little gift shop at 10,678 ft seems to be very practical. So after meeting Kris at the top of the crest, all I could think of was some water. As I staggered over, tripping over rocks here and there, a young couple were asking us if we ran the whole trail. With a delusional look on my face, and halfway out of breath I told them "yeah.... in about an hour fifty". They were impressed and thankfully gave us a water bottle with some water; most likely out of pity and the stupidity of us not being prepared. Once Dana made it up, I was ready to charge into the gift shop and fill up our bottles. Without a moment too soon, Kris told me "they don't have any water in there." And I came back with a remark along the lines of "WTF?!?!!? How can they not have any water in there!" Apparently the only water they had was for sell, to all the tourist that drove up from the back side of the mountain! The lady was kind enough to inform us that 2 miles south on the crest trail was the tram and the restaurant. No shit! That's what I was afraid of..... 2 miles there and 2 miles back just to get some water! "Well, lets do it!"

After we crawled into the tramway station to gaze upon onlookers in amazement, I quoted Dumb and Dumber, "We're there!" Oh, water never tasted soo good! A quick pit stop and rummaging through trash cans looking for water bottles, we filled up and headed home. I remember hearing one women state, "I am inspired by your insanity!" Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking, we are insane...

Now, getting down was entirely different. We had water, we finished our Cliff bars and it was a rocky down hill for the first half. Not as dramatic as climbing up, but still a journey. Drinking on the go, seemed soo much better than burning our legs up the trail. Kris took off after a few miles, and Dana stopped with only 3 miles to go. I was running

alone for the last 3, and once I hit the paved road, all I wanted was to see my truck. I started to pick up the pace down the hill and became a little more delusional. Laughing in my head, and sometimes out loud. Once I saw the truck and Kris laying in the bed with his feet sticking up I knew it was over. I took a breather in the middle of the road and then grabbed some water/tea. Dana appeared a few moments later and collapsed on the hood of his car.

All in all, it was a great experience! The run was Epic and I am sure we shall do it again, but until then I am just going to take it easy for a day or two. San Jose is in two weeks, so this should be good! La Luz trail is a run I shall never forget, I am ever so glad of the experience and the safety we all had.

One last picture:

After the run looking down upon the rain over Albuquerque.

Burn After Reading

2008-09-18T15:49:00.002-06:00

What a very cynical movie. Sure it was funny, with Brad Pitt acting like a workout junky; which many of us runners can relate to, and George Clooney's character portraying a total sleazeball of a husband. Their anecdotes definitely made the movie funny in more ways than one. I just can't believe these actors nowadays, they are really good! I didn't really know what to expect from this movie, just the fact that it was good and a Coen brothers movie, and it had some dark humor. Nevertheless, it was a great movie. I recommended this one, and I can't wait to see some more of their stuff.

Chips and Salsa 1/2 Marathon

2008-09-09T22:15:00.003-06:00

My second ever half marathon, and it was in Albuquerque, so its a New Mexico style race. Which means it is very unorganized; running on the street for part of the race, then through a construction zone and then through some dirt, and finally on a bike path...yes a bike path. I can't believe these people pay to run these makeshift races, but lucky for me I got a comp entry.

So as for the race, there was prize money involved, so whenever that happens in New Mexico all the Kenyans come out aiming to bring home some dough. It started off at what seemed like a pedestrian, but at the first sign of a mile marker; which was the 2nd mile marker, we hit it at 10:23. Pretty good, I guess. At that point we had a good little pack of 6-7 Kenyans, 1 Korean stud, a Moroccan, Kris, and myself. I knew before the race that I was going to have fun and practice my fuel intake. Which I did, and it went pretty well. I didn't get much water/gatorade out of the cups, since I spilled most of the liquid, but it was a good experience.

At around mile 4 some of the Kenyans started dropping off, so I was somewhere in the neighborhood of 7th place. Kris was right there with me, but backed off a little with another Kenyan/friend of ours. I didn't really know what to think, so I just focused on the next guy in front. I finally caught him and passed him and worked on a few more guys. Once we passed some shady dirt area near mile 7, I was in 4th place. Seeing 3rd place a few seconds in front, I thought, why not go for 3rd and take home some cash while your at it? So, as Forest Gump would say, "I just kept runnin", and I caught 3rd. Once that happened Kris and Jay Young (the 2:10 marathoner Korean) came up on me. Now I was thinking, "oh great, I'm going to die now and crawl into the finish after these guys smoke me". But, I made a little surge and gaped them. Apparently, Kris dropped off the bike path and took a dumb; so that dropped him back a bit.

From mile 9 to 10 we were now approaching the 10k runners on the same course. Damn New Mexico style road races. Once mile 10 came up, I just figured I had to hold off anyone for the next 5k. Its only a 5k... Well, that seemed like a long 5k, as the race volunteers directed us through a maze of residential streets, finally to come out on the last 2.5k of the 10k course. Crazy, I know. Well, from here on home Jay and I were battling quite a bit. I let him take the lead for a bit to gauge where he was at. At a few points he would surge a little, so I had to stick with him. The last 400m or so I took over the lead he had on me and just kicked it in. Dodging countless 10k finishers at the same time to finish in 68:49 for 3rd and a little prize money.

Overall, it was a great race, despite the organization. One of my buddies got lost, and once he finished he was cussing up a storm about how poorly the course was marked, which it was. But having this race as my 2nd 1/2 marathon, and a relative close PR, I was extremely happy. After the race, I spoke with many of the Kenyans and they are very impressed with my performance. It would be nice to train with them and learn a few things from them. Hopefully in the weeks and months to come I can learn some good stuff from them.

I plan on racing the San Jose 1/2 marathon next month, and hopefully run a personal best! It would also be nice to have a fun filled weekend like this one, with corny t-shirts and finishers medals...

Land of Enchantment

2008-08-24T17:05:00.005-06:00

Another great week has pasted here in New Mexico. I am really enjoying myself in the Land of Enchantment, even though I have not ventured out of Albuquerque since I moved here. Although what I remember of Taos and Santa Fe is pure amazement. This week, I got some good mileage in running at different places. Kris and I ran at Bullhead park over by the airport/military hospital. It was a typical park with large grass fields and some good dirt trails for a fartlek workout, which we did. After the workout [2 sets of 5-4-3-2-1 with half rest] we did a cool down with Peter Koech, who was running easy to loosen his calf.

Another great thing that happened was the Salsa Festival here in Old Town. Great live music, open air and of course salsa dancing. It was nice to be out and about.

I also started working part-time at a local running shop, so its fun just to mingle with other runners and talk shop. One of the guys that works at our shop is John Bednarski, a great old english chap who ran for UTEP and finished 4th to Pre and Gerry Lindgren at the 1969 ncaa xc championships.

This blog seems to idolize many runners, but its just the environment here in New Mexico. It's as if everything is being set up for me and all these great positive people are everywhere. A new one every week. I have no complaints and only wish others could experience these little moments that make life so fulfilling.

Running:

mon: easy [8]

tue: am foothills [8]

pm easy [4]

wed: am fartlek [10]

pm easy [4]

thur: easy [10]

fri: easy [11]

sat: 6 mile cont tempo + warm up/cool down [11]

sun: long run [18]

total: 85

Running with Hendrick Ramaala

2008-08-18T14:49:00.005-06:00

A week ago a few of us got to train with 3 time Olympian from South Africa Hendrick Ramaala. A quick bio of him can be found at the bottom of this article. So anyways, we met him on the track talking to our coach Henry Rono about running of course. He was set on running his traditional tune up workout for Beijing of 3 x 2000m on the track at around 70 second quarters. We were ecstatic at the opportunity to pace him for as many quarters as we could. So after a grueling workout we started our cool down and conversation about American distance runners.

It was great to pick at his brain and observe his outlook on running. He has a "do or die" approach, with so much charism. The Africans are very positive and approachable. When listening to him talk, he gives the impression that anything is possible. It was truly a great experience.

The following week, we met with him and his family twice and jumped into another workout. The rewarding part of meeting this remarkable man and his family was the openness and inspiration they gave. I will definitely be cheering for him to run a successful race at the Olympics. Good Luck Hendrick!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrick_Ramaala

Moving to New Mexico

2008-08-18T14:43:00.002-06:00

This is the first time I have moved out of California. I arrived in New Mexico on the 1st of August and so far I am enjoying myself. I came out here for two reasons: Graduate school and running. I think I will try to keep a running log on this thing.