The last month has been pretty hectic getting back into the swing of school, and getting organized for all the projects that I have going on this semester. I have been getting out for a couple of short runs each week though so I am not feeling as awful as I did last year. The cross country series has been great motivation to keep up some workouts, and maintain some decent fitness. The last pair of races were three weeks apart, and each one was an 8k. Both had comparable profiles, and the main difference in terms of conditions was the weather.
This weekend Santa Ana conditions settled in and the air dried out severely, the temperature jumped 10-15 degrees, and the later start in the second race meant heat was a substantial element to contest with. On balance, the numbers did not slip off too much this month and my performance at the Cougar challenge mirrored that from the Bonita 8k several weeks ago, so I am very happy with that. Somehow the semester is flying by and it feels good to know that I am not letting my body deteriorate into an equal composition of coffee and cookies like last year. There are only two more events in the series and I am proud of myself for sticking to it.
Balboa Park 4 Miler
Saturday was the Balboa Park 4 Miler, the second in the Dirt Dog Series and a long standing XC classic. There is a hurricane pushing up through Baja so the it has been humid and hot, and even in the early morning the conditions were tough. The course is a fun round-about looping course on the west end of the park, and has some really punchy hills in it. The field was a lot faster than the first race and I went with a few faster guys for the first mile and then just tried to stay controlled on the hills. I finished up around the same group that I was with at the first race and kept my HR under control, so I am pretty happy with the day. My core temperature has still not settled down but it was a good hard course and I am glad to be in decent fitness with school starting up in a couple days. I hope I can keep it up!
Rae Lakes Loop - August 2017
Rae Lakes Loop is about 45 miles and gains 7,000+ feet along the way. My friend Josh and I did it clockwise in four days, with one night at Castle Domes Meadow, one night at Rae Lakes, and the last night at East Lake. The scenery is unbelievable, and we bumped into some bears along the way too. Here are some of the highlights.
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| Crescent Meadow, Giant Forest - Sequoia NP |
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| Castle Domes Meadow, Rae Lakes Loop - Kings Canyon NP |
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| Add caption |
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| Rae Lakes, Looking South - Kings Canyon NP |
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| Rae Lakes, Looking North - Kings Canyon NP |
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| Camping under the Painted Lady |
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| East Lake - Kings Canyon NP |
Wild Duck 5k 2017 - Race Report
Hello All!!! I'M BACK!!! But not really...
When I finished up racing, almost two years ago, I promised myself some serious time off to give my body a rest and clear my mind of the competitive fervor that had saturated it for so long. I planned on giving my self at least two years off and next month will have been just that. The time off has been great, but with how consumed my life has been with school last year my complete lack of fitness passed the range of healthy rest and moved on into sedentary discomfort. I definitely noticed that my energy, concentration, and well-being were suffering from lack of exercise. This summer has been a welcome change, and we have been able to get in tons of hiking and running all over the place.
Having built up some decent fitness, and done some speed work with the speedster girls of Prado Racing Team, I decided to give my legs and lungs a little test to see where I was at, and if I could enjoy a fun little local race. San Diego has a great informal cross country series called the Dirt Dog which are all close by, short, and cheap to boot! The Wild Duck 5k is the first one of the season, and my wife's team races the whole series, so I decided to tag along.
I jogged the course in reverse to warm up while cheering for the masters race, and did some strides to get my lungs and heart heated up. I had no idea how my system or my legs would respond to a full-gas effort after so much time off. The line up was amazing with almost 100 high school and junior high school athletes in the back and about 50 open age groupers up front. I set some heart rate restrictions for my self based on my old numbers less 5% to make sure I didn't blow my doors off at the start.
The mass start was great, and lots of young kids went out super fast. The first mile was slightly up hill so I cruised along behind the first few groups just watching my HR and staying under control. The second mile was a slight downhill so once we crested the top I let my legs open up and ran on feeling. I got together with a young high school kid and a super fast PRT girl that were setting a great pace. At 2.5 miles they both dropped me by a number of yards on the last small hill, but that left me with great incentive to push hard the last half mile downhill. I finished in about 17:55 which is about 5:45/mile and my HR average was 182-bpm which is not far off what my old numbers would have dictated.
I am very happy that the race went so well and to be able to go hard without it totally destroying me. Beforehand I was really worried that it was going to feel awful, I wouldn't enjoy it, and I would still have a really long way to go before being able to do fun fast stuff again. There was an awesome chocolate fountain at the expo, and tons of fun give-away items. These races have a great atmosphere, are filled with fun people, and are so accessible. I hope to try to maintain enough activity this next year to hit a few more in the series so that I have a goal to stay motivated to work out during school.
It is great to be back enjoying exercise and hard efforts again. By the time school was out, I was getting out of breath walking up stairs and cramps in my stomach from lack of muscle tone. Sitting in chairs all day, leaning over thousand-paged books, and surviving off of coffee and cookies does not lend itself to thriving physically...or mentally. I am so glad to have had such a wonderful summer and to be feeling healthy again.
We will see if I can keep it up when school really gets going again but for now it is a good goal and hopefully will make this year better than the last.
When I finished up racing, almost two years ago, I promised myself some serious time off to give my body a rest and clear my mind of the competitive fervor that had saturated it for so long. I planned on giving my self at least two years off and next month will have been just that. The time off has been great, but with how consumed my life has been with school last year my complete lack of fitness passed the range of healthy rest and moved on into sedentary discomfort. I definitely noticed that my energy, concentration, and well-being were suffering from lack of exercise. This summer has been a welcome change, and we have been able to get in tons of hiking and running all over the place.
Having built up some decent fitness, and done some speed work with the speedster girls of Prado Racing Team, I decided to give my legs and lungs a little test to see where I was at, and if I could enjoy a fun little local race. San Diego has a great informal cross country series called the Dirt Dog which are all close by, short, and cheap to boot! The Wild Duck 5k is the first one of the season, and my wife's team races the whole series, so I decided to tag along.
I jogged the course in reverse to warm up while cheering for the masters race, and did some strides to get my lungs and heart heated up. I had no idea how my system or my legs would respond to a full-gas effort after so much time off. The line up was amazing with almost 100 high school and junior high school athletes in the back and about 50 open age groupers up front. I set some heart rate restrictions for my self based on my old numbers less 5% to make sure I didn't blow my doors off at the start.
The mass start was great, and lots of young kids went out super fast. The first mile was slightly up hill so I cruised along behind the first few groups just watching my HR and staying under control. The second mile was a slight downhill so once we crested the top I let my legs open up and ran on feeling. I got together with a young high school kid and a super fast PRT girl that were setting a great pace. At 2.5 miles they both dropped me by a number of yards on the last small hill, but that left me with great incentive to push hard the last half mile downhill. I finished in about 17:55 which is about 5:45/mile and my HR average was 182-bpm which is not far off what my old numbers would have dictated.
I am very happy that the race went so well and to be able to go hard without it totally destroying me. Beforehand I was really worried that it was going to feel awful, I wouldn't enjoy it, and I would still have a really long way to go before being able to do fun fast stuff again. There was an awesome chocolate fountain at the expo, and tons of fun give-away items. These races have a great atmosphere, are filled with fun people, and are so accessible. I hope to try to maintain enough activity this next year to hit a few more in the series so that I have a goal to stay motivated to work out during school.
It is great to be back enjoying exercise and hard efforts again. By the time school was out, I was getting out of breath walking up stairs and cramps in my stomach from lack of muscle tone. Sitting in chairs all day, leaning over thousand-paged books, and surviving off of coffee and cookies does not lend itself to thriving physically...or mentally. I am so glad to have had such a wonderful summer and to be feeling healthy again.
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| 1/2 Mile to Go Charging Grimace PC- Maureen Friend |
We will see if I can keep it up when school really gets going again but for now it is a good goal and hopefully will make this year better than the last.
Seasons End & New Beginnings
With the feeling of fall finally creeping into the air this week, it is hard to believe another year is coming to an end. This season is wrapping up for me in a somewhat disappointing but not altogether surprising way. This years trend seems to have been a struggle between remaining hopeful that I would get training back on track, and pull from other areas of my life shifting me away from racing. I had some decent races this year but never felt really motivated or driven; I seldom felt the hunger of competitive spirit spurring me on in training or races. With a lot of other things changing in my life, triathlon often took a back seat. Though I have loved and gotten so much out of the sport for so long, something has changed and whether I like it or not I am moving on.
I was talking with a good friend at the pool the other day as I floated back and forth listlessly. Being young and enthusiastic, he kept saying how I just needed some time off and that it was too much a part of who I am for me to just walk away. I will always enjoy athletic events and some level of competition but the commitment of time, energy and money it takes to competitive is just not what I want to do with my life any more. One of the things that I am certain of is that racing is no longer 'enough' for me. There are so many other aspects to life and who I am as a person that even if I had been much more successful, as I once hoped I would be, I know that it still would not have been entirely fulfilling. In some ways I am disappointed with the results I produced this year but that seems to be short lived and it doesn't leave me wanting to train harder or recommit. My body does not have the snap it once did and my spirit just doesn't hold the stubborn, self-flagellating attachment to the pursuit of my absolute physiological potential or that ultimate experience of a perfect race.
My interests have drifted on to new things and back to other things that I had set aside to have this time in my life to pursue my goals in this crazy sport. The people I have met and the strength I have drawn from them, the things I have learned and all the growth I have experienced in my life these past several years of racing will always be a part of who I am and for all of it I will be eternally grateful. I am so happy that I took the time to do it and I don't have any regrets.
The number of things that I want to do with my life is still so vast and I am really looking forward to delving into that list! I can not thank you all enough for being a part of this journey with me and making all of it possible! I got to see and do some incredible things and even though I fell short of some of my goals along the way, I feel fulfilled in the end result. All I ever wanted was to be able to take my shot at racing professionally and I got to do that...an experience I know a lot of people don't get the opportunity to have. It is and always will be very special to me and I am so glad that I had all of you along for the ride!
Zoot Sports
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