Questions about Winter Training

We recently got a question from one of our readers (The Red Line, huh? nice username.) about winter training, specifically geared toward the 3200:

So I have a lot of questions about winter training..... How should young runners (about one year of experience) go about winter training?
What the overall goal and how does it differ from summer training?
What percent of intensity for workouts?
If we are training for a race in May, is doing full workouts in December ok?
What should be more built up for the track season our anaerobic or aerobic fitness?
Should an aspiring 3200 runner train different then a 800/1600 runner?
And any other valuable "Tid-Bits" of info just so that i can get a better understanding of what Winter Training truly is/does!!!

-Thanks in advance!!

An aspiring, but beginning runner shouldn't go overboard their first winter of training. Definitely do a slow build-up of mileage, always in reference to and working toward your peak mileage goals for later in the season. Some programs do this buildup of mileage per week as a percentage of your peak mileage for the season, starting at 50% for the first week and then building up, with a slight dip in mileage every three to four weeks, throughout the winter.

Personal opinion from Joey- I think it's best to get to about 90-95% of the mileage you will want to run all season by the last week of your base period. I then think it is important to keep this mileage all season except in "down weeks." I didn't do this my senior year before cross country and ended up being at my best mid-season because I had dropped my mileage so early, then staying at pretty much the same fitness level until state, maybe 10 seconds faster over 3 miles, but not that great of a peak. For track I got up to a mileage, then tried to keep it all season long until the taper at the end, except for down weeks which I took at about 70% of peak mileage. By doing this I was able to have a better peak and dropped seconds off my 3200 every time I had a major race, case in point, the three times I raced it competitively; 9:36, 9:34, 9:30, 9:21. When I did this, my biggest week was the week of the 9:30 at 71 miles. That winter my biggest week was 69. The idea behind this keep your mileage up then taper idea has to do with glucose stores. While you are in more intense training, your body needs to produce glucose in order to fuel you for the training you are doing. Now if you do 70mpw from January to May, then cut your mileage down to 30mpw as I did for the last few weeks, your glucose stores go crazy, all the glucose you have been producing is now being stored for when you need it instead of being used a whole bunch every day. You get to the line on race day, you aren't sore because your training isn't leaving you dead and your fuel stores are up. Muscles have hardened as well do to getting proper rest. Of course you will have a great race on this day.
-In addition I watched the progress of some high schoolers over the course of cross country who did a lot of miles in the summer but dropped them when the season started, (case in point 70mpw summer, 40mpw in season) did great in the early-mid season then ate it in the post season. Their aerobic base wasn't getting better, and though they were in roughly the same shape as mid-season, they were expecting to feel better and it hurt them mentally in races more than physically and led to bad post-seasons. Their glucose rise and muscle hardening had happened months earlier.

The goal is really pretty much the same as summer training. You are trying to build an aerobic base upon which you can add speed later. At this point, base/foundation runs are emphasized, which are just your basic runs at base pace that you will do for almost every run of the week. Base pace is not an exact science, it is basically what pace you can run, day after day without getting too tired for between 4 and 10 mile runs. Long runs should be at roughly this pace as well, whether your long run is 8 or 15 miles.

On top of that, some speed maintanence is recommended about 3 times a week after you finish a foundation run. One simple way is just 4-10 100s on the track at a quick pace, emphasizing proper technique and form. A good way to build into these is to start your first 1/3rd at mile pace, your middle ones at 800 pace and your last 2 or so at 400(basically all out) pace. It is very important to keep your form when doing these, your top speed will be at its best when everything is working fluid and efficiently. You don't want to do these with bad form because you will then get bad form into your muscle memory when you are running fast and though maybe your fast twitch muscles will be firing as best they can, you won't be going as fast as you can. One way to do speed that I think helps a lot is as follows: after a good warmup and a couple striders, then do a few more strides at a quicker pace. The first 30 meters or so you want to accelerate, then for 30-50m go all out, while keeping form of course, then decelerate the last part until you have gone about 100-110m or so. The key to these is taking a LOT of rest. The more rest you take, the better your muscles can fire because the creatine stores in your body need 5 minutes to recover and fire at their best again. So by taking this much rest, your muscles are able to fire at their freshest and thus their fastest and thus your top speed improves best by taking a lot of rest. You don't need this much rest for strides per say, but when doing that workout, the closer to 5 minutes rest, the better. 3 is pretty good too.

If by full workouts you mean intense interval workouts, I would certainly advise against that. The whole point of those workouts is to sharpen your speed and get used to your race pace later on in the season. This doesn't mean to cut out all workouts though. Jack Daniels has proved a lot about the importance of early intervals, but with high rest and not too high of intensity. If your workouts are 5k pace, say 1000s or 800s and you are getting between 3 and 4 minutes rest, and you are doing only 5k worth of running, thats fine. This type of work isn't so much anaerobic as efficiency work. If you are doing intervals that don't tax you too hard, they are working on your efficiency at a given pace, and your V02 max to an extent. Workouts at 10k pace and tempo pace are great too, they help lower your lactate threshold.

In the winter, 800/1600 runners and 3200 runners hardly need to do different training at all. Maybe the mid-distancers need more top speed work, such as strides and the thing mentioned a couple points up.

For workouts, another thing to remember is that you are mainly working at date-pace. That means that if you are hoping to run sub 4:30 and 9:50 or so, you should not do workouts at that pace now. In most cases, you are not even as good as you were in cross country. If your 5k pace was 17:00, its probably around 17:30-45 right now unless you have been doing your workouts too hard in which case you have screwed over your peak.

As far as what winter training does, it helps develop an aerobic base which will help in your season, it helps build speed, it gets you ready for the season's workouts and it helps build efficiency. Simply put, by running more you are building your muscles to be efficient at running. Your muscles form to landing, your muscle memory gets good running mechanics. You build capillaries which help transport oxygen through blood to the essential muscles. You build mitochondria which help fuel you better and produce more energy etc. By doing winter running, you are maintaining all your systems, most importantly the aerobic system which works so hard to bring oxygen to the muscles that need it. You are really getting ready for in-season workouts, without winter training it would take months to get to the point you will be when you start the season by maintaining your cross country base. Long term aerobic development, thats the key. Consistency and just keep building mitochondria and capillaries. Long term, uninterrupted aerobic development. Let me reiterate. Long term aerobic development.

So yeah, don't go too hard or fast in winter workouts, keep things at date pace, don't drop your mileage too soon, keep normal runs at base pace, do your speed maintenance with good form, and mid distance and distance don't need to train terribly different.

Up to date- Joey

Since I haven't been able to talk to Calvin in some time, I figured I would go ahead with a new post and share my training situation and some thoughts I have.

First off, it is really really hard to be in college and run with other collegiate runners in the East Bay and run only 55 miles a week. I end up taking a couple really low days every week so that I don't go over my mileage, yet still went 59 for what was supposed to be a 55. I suppose that's not too bad. Training has been pretty easy here in early base phase but I am already feeling like my speed is pretty good, just based on strides. Soon enough I will be running a 60 mile week and get to build toward my 80mpw with real workouts that will hopefully last for a good while before I have to drop my mileage.

This track season I am going to focus on the 1500 and 5k, off what is mostly 5k training. Lately I have been thinking that because of my height, my potential lies in the 1500/5k. I am 6' 2" and a white boy, the best 10k runners and marathoners are all considerably shorter than me. Now bare with me here. Shorter runners are more efficient at longer distances because in their form, they have a shorter lever, which is more efficient because it requires less energy to make a shorter lever work, while a longer lever takes more energy, but produces more power. Thus Haile Gebrselassie is the fastest marathoner in the world at 5' 4" and Asafa Powell holds the world record in the 100m at 6' 3". Now here's the other thing that leads me to believe that 1500/5k should be my distance. Craig Mottram. Like me, he is white and 6' 2". He runs a 12:55 5k and 3:48 full mile. I don't mean this to be racist in any way or form, but Craig Mottram is my personal inspiration due to the fact that he has the same Caucasian heritage and he is my height, he gives me hope. If this man who is similar in genetics and body can compete with the Africans, maybe I can too, that is my thought. This is not to say I don't think I should run the 10k, as Mottram is a great at that distance in road races from time to time, but he is definitely better as a 1500/5k man.

Now this is not to discourage tall people from wanting to develop themselves at the longer distances, in fact I have always been an advocate of the mentality "Everyone runs the shortest race they have the speed to run, when they should move up in distance to be great." At this point though, I am not so sure which is right, that tall people should run the race they are more efficient at or move up in distance and let the mileage carry them to have great endurance.

Just some thoughts. Feedback would be great, leave comments and I will try to analyze and learn.

Shameless Plug

Campolindo High School's video "I am a Runner" needs your support on flotrackr.

If you have a flotrackr account, you can vote for it. There isn't a normal voting system, this one is done by rating, if you rate the video 5 stars, that helps it a lot.

So please everyone, go give this video 5 stars.

http://www.flocasts.org/flotrack/flotrackr/videos.php?a=video_show&show=videos_team&vid=9129

Thanks

And as I procrastinate for my finals tomorrow, I stumble across a quote, and thus exit teh intrawebz for teh nite

I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. Henceforth, I will repeat these words each hour, each day, everyday, until the words become as much a habit as my breathing, and the action which follows becomes as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids. With these words I can condition my mind to perform every action necessary for my success. I will act now. I will repeat these words again and again and again. I will walk where failures fear to walk. I will work when failures seek rest. I will act now for now is all I have. Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labor of the lazy. I am not lazy. Tomorrow is the day when the failure will succeed. I am not a failure. I will act now. Success will not wait. If I delay, success will become wed to another and lost to me forever. This is the time. This is the place. I am the person.

Weight lifting-Completed Version.

I received the question that follows and decided that it deserves its own post.

"What is your stance on weight lifting? How often? What tyoe? Core work? Types of reps? When to do it? How long into the season to hold it? ect. ect." - Winter Lifter

Joey: My stance on weight lifting is that it is not necessary, but I know its not harmful and may even be helpful. As my high school coach, Chuck Woolridge described it, the point is to teach your muscles to all fire at once. I was skeptical when he first started giving us light-weight training and I really didn't believe in it. The weight training is really more for speed, it helps far more with sprinting than it does distance running, as you want your muscles to all fire effectively in order to produce a powerful stride. The idea as I understand it, with distance running, is that it would possibly make your stride more efficient because top speed and explosive muscle make you more efficient at all distances. It also helps with your kick. The idea is also that it helps your form stay together and having upper body strength at the end of a race helps you to drive your arms to kick harder.

Personally, I do not believe it really has any positive benefits that doing core work and top-speed work don't give. As Wetmore says "Why borrow from Peter to pay Paul?" He also says that death tastes like pennies, so I don't know how right he is. He has coached several national championship teams and multiple individual national champions, so I'll take his word that weight lifting is unnecessary for the distance runner. Another person who doesn't make distance runners do weight lifting is my coach, Gary Towne. Though not as mainstream successful as Wetmore, Towne's methods work really well. I can also vouch for the fact that Scott Bauhs has never done any sort of weight lifting or even core work for that matter, but my intuitive mind tells me that he would be even faster if he did do core. And strides. How he is fast is beyond me.

Anyways, what I do know about weight lifting is what actually does help running. Squats, and just about everything to do with your hamstrings and quads. In low weight. High reps, low weights. Calf work is unnecessary. Being powered by your quads is the most effective way to go.

High reps, low weights. If you dont do them at all, whatever. Dont skimp on the core work though.

How long to keep doing weights? Until your taper for your peak race starts, about 2-4 weeks out from target race.

Calvin: I agree with Joey on the most part, and it definitely depends on what sort of event you are training for. Middle distance and shorter events, in my opinion, can find beneficial gains in strength by doing actual weight-room lifting. But the way we do it for the long-distance runners at Davis is a regimen of strength and core exercises, the vast majority of which can be done with a medicine ball, swiss ball, a bench, and a dumbbell. In fact, many of the exercise we do don't require equipment at all. In regards to reps, at Davis we keep it fairly small, but we definitely are looking to progress. So at the beginning of the season we are looking at around 10 reps per exercise, to be increased as we improve. As Joey said, you want to keep the weights low, you aren't looking to gain a whole lot of muscle mass.

The exercises we do range from squats to pushups and planks to pull-ups to abs. I would look online, I actually found a pretty good set of core/strength stuff at various sites that I incorporated into my high school on my own. Here's a plyometric workout regimen, a circuit training regimen, and another circuit training regimen. Personally, I used the last link, as I thought the article was pretty informative and it's a pretty good way to get in an aerobic effort and some strength/core in a fairly limited amount of time. I actually added thirty minute jog loops after each exercise and then immediately started the next one, in addition to the prescribed 400 meters at 5k pace. They mentioned in the article that adding these jogs would be beneficial, and believe me, my heart rate was really high after the deceivingly difficult circuit. Also, I would definitely not launch into this sort of stuff without already having a good base of fitness, it is surprisingly hard.

Back to the topic - At UC Davis we have several different "programs," which are basically a set of a dozen or so core and strength exercises, that we do throughout the week. So, if you had three "programs," you would do the first one on monday, the second on wednesday, and the third on friday, and then repeat the following week. So to answer your question about the duration and timing, I would recommend doing it all year, and only skipping one of your programs to all for a better taper for an important race. Near the end of the season, for the peak races, I would suggest dropping weight/strength altogether until you start all over with another season.

Winter Training Pointers - "How to Achieve your Track Goals"

We just wanted to collaborate on winter training pointers, mostly just covering the "whole picture" that can make all the difference several months later when the post-season finally rolls around. Training isn't just running every day, living the life of a runner, including getting good nutrition, getting adequate and regular sleep, and staying healthy, is how you can make the biggest difference and get those PRs.

Here's our 8 winter training pointers:

1) Live like a clock, especially in season. This means going to bed at the same time EVERY night, and waking up at the same time EVERY morning. Your body responds extremely well to this. This is just as important as getting ENOUGH sleep.

2) Recovery. There are some really good recovery benefits from ingesting a 4:1 ratio of carbohydrates to protein. It's been proven to be the most effective way to recover, if you have any questions, just ask about it. Having chocolate milk and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, eating a banana and a gatorade, or eating an energy bar and washing it down with a sports drink within a half hour of the running will provide the protein and glucose to your muscles that they need in order to run well the next time you run. If you do this every time, eventually it could lead to you dropping serious seconds off your PRs.

3) Drills/strides. Get efficient. Strides and other speed work that don't get too intense are great. 4-8x100m strides will help with turnover(stride frequency) and recruit fast twitch muscle. Make sure you do your strides with good form so that efficiency translates over to all running. Recruiting fast twitch muscle to help your top speed helps a lot. Having good form helps a lot.

4) Consistency is key. Don't drop your mileage until you have down weeks(breaking up the cycle) or taper. This also means don't get injured. The best runners out there are the ones who have gone the longest time without being injured. Uninterrupted training brings you to the top. Now how do we prevent injury? Below

5) Injury prevention can be very simple. It takes a while to know what injuries are injuries and which are just funny feelings that you can run through, no one can explain it, its just intuitive to those who have been running long enough to know. For those of you who are new though, or maybe a veteran with something that is sore, here are some pointers. ICE. Ice the spot that hurts several times a day but not close to when you will begin your run, after is good, before is bad. Don't ice for over 20 minutes on any one spot. MASSAGE. Massage spots that hurt. Pretty simple. If it isnt hurting it isnt doing anything. ELEVATE. If the injured spot can be elevated above your heart, do it. REST. Don't run on something that hurts. This is especially important in knee, hip and achilles injuries. Those linger for ever if you try to run through them.

Cold weather: if it is cold enough that you feel even slightly tight in the early parts of your run as a result, wear sweats or tights when you run. That cold tightness can cause real problems. Make sure to warm up before running fast as well.

6) Don't kill yourself in the winter workouts, you can go hard but remember that your are just getting in shape to the point that it will help your in season workouts, you don't really need to gain fitness, just maintain. When the season starts you can go harder, your hardest efforts should be mid-late season. You are peaking for May or June.

7) Motivation. During the stormy winter days, it can be tough to get out there and slog through a miserable run. There are many different ways to motivate yourself, from goal setting to reading motivational quotes to watching a clip of a famous race. Whatever can get you juiced to get out the door and running.

8) Illness. Some people, however, can get too enthusiastic about their running and try to train through illness, like a cold or flu. Unfortunately, this well-intentioned effort to maintain fitness can really backfire, because if training through sickness can make that sore throat or runny nose linger up to an extra 2 weeks. This will just make your training fall further behind, so just take the time to really take care of yourself and you'll be back at it in no time. In fact, the best way to keep your training consistent is to avoid sickness altogether. If you are able and willing, Vitamin C supplements and other health products can help you avoid sickness and have a productive winter.

Calvin and I answer some questions from Albert Caruana

1) Training wise, what do you think contributed to your success in high school?

Calvin: The success I had in high school stemmed from several key components: a great coach, a training system that got me in comparable shape with the other top runners in my section and division, and a drive to "own" the sport both inside and out. It also didn't hurt that I never got a serious injury from running...

I became a runner after 10 years of soccer, so I would guess that the transition was made easier by this basic aerobic base. What made me transition to cross country was three-fold: an ankle injury from soccer, my love of running, and all the friends I had on the cross country team.

First off, Danny Aldridge is both a great coach and a great runner (he's attempting to set the 800 master's record. Go Danny!) Danny's style as a coach was very laid back and inclusive. He appreciated the JV runners just as much as the Varsity runners, which I think has helped our team to be so successful. But more importantly, Danny wouldn't pressure any runners to do more than they wanted, so the kids who came to practice for fun could have their fun, but those who came to improve could learn a lot from his experience and knowledge and realize their potentials as runners.

Danny implemented a training regimen that emphasized low mileage and high quality. My peak mileage in high school was 45, for my senior year of track, but most of my weeks were hovering from the low to high 30s. This is pretty low mileage, but with the success that Maria Carrillo has seen in the past 5 years or so, it's hard to argue that it doesn't make sense. We tended to do short intervals at the beginning of the season (ranging from 200-800) combined with some tempos, and then did cutdowns near the end of the season as we peaked for league, sections, and state. In retrospect, I think that this low mileage sets me up for some real success in college, as I can really move up in the mileage and make some serious improvements.

On top of all this, and I think I speak for both Joey and myself, I truly love the sport of running. I love the sport and enjoy reading training manuals, biographies, and fictional running books. An enthusiasm for running can really make all the difference, as approaching a workout with the requisite sense of dread but with a slight enjoyment can make you work all the harder and improve just that much faster.

Joey: There are several things that really helped me in high school, the two which I think are most important were staying uninjured for an entire year and a half and having two great coaches. I was injured somewhat frequently my first year running, I lost 6 weeks going into junior year including a week during the season to what I believe was a bone bruise on my knee cap. That injury was caused by BMX biking, which I soon gave up for running after having been a rider for almost 6 years. I started running track during sophomore year because my PE teacher was coach Walsh and he is a very inspirational person, he made me feel like I could achieve anything. Walsh had pretty good workouts that were Bowerman style and I was able to progress rapidly. Sorry for going on a tangent but I think this is relevant enough. Anyway after my junior cross country season I decided to run high mileage and thought I should get up to 70 miles a week so of course I got injured and had knee problems which made my winter training very sporadic, with a high week of no more than 45 and quite a few less than 30. After this I didn't get seriously injured again throughout high school, despite having my same mindset of running high mileage and jumping to 70 miles a week that summer, how I kept away from injury is beyond me. The other thing that helped was the arrival of Chuck my senior year. Chuck brought more scientific training and we worked for 9 months on making me have better form. The efficiency paid off, as well as his workouts and the base I had from that summer.

I forgot to mention this before, but having an incredible team as well as front runner in Chris Vizcaino. Having teammates around my level helped a lot during my sophomore and junior years, especially Viz, chasing him and trying to beat his times helped me focus. I never beat any of his times except the 400 and tied his Woodward PR, but having a ghost to chase my senior year was essential. The other Chris, Chris Harland Dunaway, helped with senior cross but as soon as track rolled around workouts were on my own.

2) What do you think you could have done different in hs that would have eased your transition to college?

C: I think I should have done a little more mileage over the summer, but what's done is done. Obviously, I came from a program that stressed low mileage, so transitioning to college mileage and paces could have been made easier if I had worked a little harder over the summer. I really don't regret it too much though, I think I adjusted well in general.

J: I think the only thing I could have done is run more mileage, done longer tempoes and longer intervals, which I personally dont think would have helped my running in high school. I think what I did is working fine because if I had done more, I wouldnt be able to add new stress as easily and thus Jack Daniels' "New Stress New Fitness" module would be hard to implicate and I would have trouble improving.

3) What is the hardest part to adjust to in college running?

C: Although I don't do double days yet, that will be a difficult adjustment. Also, the mile repeats were difficult for me to adjust to, as was the increased speed on the runs. But after a month or so the pace became second nature. As Joey also said, I am constantly tired and wanting to take a nap. But if you're not sore and tired you aren't trying hard enough.

J: The long intervals and double days. I actually picked up on long tempos very quickly, however it took me till the end of the season to have good mile repeats. Just being tired all the time, but I wouldnt want it any other way.
"International running is just about feeling tired all the time. It is very difficult for people to really understand this, the worst thing I can do is to walk around a department store. That is just such a dreadful waste of energy." - Sebastian Coe
Too bad Im not running internationally. I think this quote should be applied taking out the word "International"

What to look forward to...

Just so people have an idea of what to look forward to with this blog, I thought I would give a brief introduction to some of the stuff we'll be covering. During the season, we would ideally like to be writing predictions, race summaries/analysis, and other fun stuff, depending on our interest and inclination. In addition, we plan on writing training information, ranging from interval workouts to endurance runs, and from base training to tapering.

Also, a thank you to Albert Caruana for his post about our blog at this post. Thanks Albert.

Calvin's season

My decision to run for Davis was a fairly simple one after comparing it to other schools - the team was best suited to my interests and ability, the school itself is well-known for it's Biosci programs, which I would like to major in, and the freshman recruiting class. So after a fairly successful postseason, winning the NCS-Redwood Empire in 9:25 and finishing 6th to Joey at NCS, I embarked on my summer training. During high school, my peak mileage was about 45, but I had stayed well under 40 for the majority of my training. So after talking with Coach Puppione, I moved up my peak mileage to 50 and moved up to 50 very slowly, progressing with 25, 30, 30, 35, 35, 45, 50, 50, 40, 45. The training went without a hitch, luckily, and I was feeling pretty good about my fitness. At this point I found out that I had made the UC Davis cross country team, and I went to the summer training camp, where I met David Buscho, Andy Peabody, and Jonathan Peterson, along with the rest of the team. At that point, my peak mileage quickly jumped to 60, where it hovered for the rest of the season, with slight drops in mileage every fourth week or so.


After a fun week of training for the first time with the Davis team, I traveled up to compete in the Chico Invite. I was chosen to race along with 4 other Davis runners to see who would go to Sundodger the following week. I went through the first mile fairly quickly, just doing my best to stick with the other Davis guys. I have no recollection of any splits, just a vague strategy of how to work the hills. On the third loop over the big hill, I gave it all I got, remembering all of the runs I had done over the summer in hilly Annadel Park in Santa Rosa. I eventually caught one of our runners to come in 3rd out of the 5 guys, in 27:58, averaging about 5:30 a mile. Not at all spectacular, but considering the week of training beforehand, not bad.

Returning to Davis, I was truly introduced to the training grounds I would frequent the coming months. Known as the levees, this flat stretch of gravel road takes a runner south of campus, past the highways and railways. For me, this flatland running was unnerving, especially coming from hilly Sonoma County. But I quickly came to appreciate the advantages of pancake-flat running, especially with the mile-markers on the levees. With three different loops that could take me from 7 to 10 miles, I had a pretty good range of training runs at my disposal.

On top of the mileage difference, the pace of college running quickened dramatically, from base runs to intervals. I especially noticed the difference on the base runs, as I shifted from running 7:00 pace in high school to routinely running 6:00 to 6:30 pace on our easy days. It was difficult to adjust to at first, and my workouts suffered dramatically as a result. But once I got into a groove, I was able to perform well in the workouts again.


After Chico was the Stanford Invite, which was a pretty incredible experience. I had a huge breakfast but then almost nothing before the race, so I was a little worried, especially since I was tired on top of it all. But after going out fairly conservatively, I started to work up on guys with about 2k left, just picked up the tempo enough to pass people as they went into their painful death march to the finish. I eventually came through in 26:15, good enough for 6th on my team! However, this was a decidedly off day for Davis XC, and I was one of the few guys to actually run well. Regardless, I was happy with a new PR.



Resuming training, our team as a whole was fairly disheartened, and I think we all got too involved in our own, individual training rather than thinking about what we could do together as a team. At this point, I was still getting used to college running, and another one of the runs that really gave me confidence was a 10 miler that began at 7:00 pace and dropped steadily until we were running 5:45-5:35 over the last four miles! Pretty cool considering how far I had come since high school.

A breakthrough workout came after our disappointing performance at the Santa Clara Invite. We did 2x800, 3 mile tempo, 2x800. All of the 800s were in the low 2:20s for me, which felt good, but the true inspiration was the 3 mile. Our team really worked together, talking and encouraging each other the whole way. I went through the first mile around 5:10 and then held strong, despite my body crying out for me to slow down. I stuck with Himmelberger and was able to gut out a 15:27. The awesome part was how much easier the third mile was after the grueling second mile, just putting one foot in front of the other, fairly quickly... Everyone really performed well, and our team felt good going into Big West.

From here on out, I started slowly winding down my season. After not making the Big West squad, I decided to go down with some teammates to cheer on the team. Stopping in Isla Vista on the Friday night before Halloween was a wild time, there were thousands of people going crazy. The next day, we painted ourselves up, yelled like crazy people, and waved around a UC Davis flag, cheering on the guys and the ladies, which was a lot of fun.

After that, I knew I was not going to make the West Regionals squad, so I just focused on performing in the remaining workouts before taking my time off.

The final workout of the season was a great send off. After a two-mile warm-up, we launched into a 6 mile tempo. The first five miles we were supposed to keep the pace around 5:25 to 5:20, which we did superbly with 5:22, 5:17, 5:24, 5:22, and 5:18. What I want to emphasize here is how incredibly easy this felt. I just focused on staying on my Ben's shoulder and I just felt like I was cruising. A truly awesome feeling, especially considering how previous tempos had ended with me dropping off at the last couple miles. After executing the first 5 miles perfectly, we then launched into the last mile, which was supposed to be sub-5:00 at the minimum. We really hammered this last mile and came through in 4:45!! This tempo, which had felt positively easy the first 5 miles, was almost good enough for a 8k PR, and I wasn't even racing! This workout left me confident and enthusiastic about what I'll be able to do this spring and next cross country season!!

Joey's season in a nutshell- from flotrackr

I shall start with my choice to come to Chico State. In the last ten years, Chico has become one of the premier distance running programs in the nation under head coach, Gary Towne and his success as a coach was one of my major deciding factors in coming here. Gary has coached numerous top-5 teams in cross country and many individual All-Americans in both track and XC, as well as two individual track champions in 2007. This program was just bursting with success, I saw the opportunity to become what I wanted to become as a runner and took it. I have very, very high expectations of myself. I have never been one to care too much about academics... the running, beautiful campus and Bidwell Park were my incentives.

Bidwell Park. Bidwell Park is the third largest municipal park in the United States, behind Central Park and Golden Gate Park. The main path is much like the bike path in Lafayette, in the Burton Valley area. Slight uphill on the way out from town, slight downhill the way back, but ever so slight, just like the bike path. The difference is that this is a dirt trail with trees hanging over for the entire way. The trails of Bidwell go out to Upper Bidwell Park and thus eventually to the Sierra Nevada. I am sure you could run from Chico to Tahoe by trail if you knew the way. The trail within Chico has half mile marks, making it great for intervals and tempos without having to go on hard surface or the track. We run in Bidwell Park almost daily to avoid over-pounding on asphalt America. Anyone who has had a stress fracture or connective tissue problems in their Achilles or heel can tell you how essential this is. Picture at top.

So lets get to training. At the beginning of summer, Gary gave me my mileage plan. I would start out at 40 miles for the first week, then the next weeks would be 50, 60, 65, 75, 55, 75, 75, 80, 85, 55 then see what I would be ready to run for the rest of the season. I made it through the 75, then the 55 before getting a minor injury while running with Tyler and Colby Pines. I ran 35, 65, 75, 83 for the next weeks following that. It was odd running that 83, I didn't really get that tired. In order to get back to this mileage I had stopped doing workouts and focused on volume for the time being, I was afraid a workout would re-injure the spot that was hurting.

The season began. The first workouts were excruciating, I couldn't finish the first 4 workouts. They weren't even that hard, I just hadn't been doing workouts since July and it was 100 degrees even in shady Bidwell. The reason I couldn't finish these first few workouts was dry heaving. Towards the end of the workouts, I would begin to dry heave, that is throw up but have nothing to throw up, so just retching with nothing coming. It is not a pleasant feeling. Since then I have learned how to counter-balance the causes of dry heaving by over-hydrating and trying to breath very deep and slow while running. I only needed to dry heave on hot days anyway.

The first "race"
Chico Invite: I go out in 5:23 and think I have gone out conservatively. Oh no, I was wrong. 5 minutes later I cannot get any turnover, my breathing is fine but my body cannot move. I finish the race, my breathing is fine and I have not been able to even kick, I have averaged 5:36 per mile.

I have a few more practices where I drop out of the workout.

A breakthrough. One morning we wake up EARLY to go for our 8 mile tempo run that begins at 6:30. I make sure to get up extra early so I can drink a lot of water and have some breakfast. It is important to eat some carbs before running so I eat some oatmeal so that my body doesn't have to go to stores it doesn't have. We do our warm/up: drills, dynamic stretching and strides. We begin. First mile in 6:04, then start running some faster ones. At the end I have dropped 11:00 for the last two miles and averaged 5:42 per mile for a continuous 8 mile tempo run, and I wasn't ever troubled to do it, it was easy. Confidence is back up. This workout was in an 80 mile week.

Season keeps going, I keep running 75-80 miles a week with down weeks of 55 miles in order to break it up into phases and recover. During this time I do strides, lots of strides, to try to keep my speed up. I have gained speed. I do a workout of 3x400, 3200, 3x400 in splits of 69, 68, 70. This first set was ridiculously easy. Then a 10:27 for the 3200 part, this part was surprisingly hard, but I have a LOT left in the tank nonetheless. My next interval is a 66, it was really easy. I then run a 62 thinking I have just run a 65. I came through 200 in 30 seconds feeling like its a 33... confusion? I run the last interval in 61. This was the easiest workout ever, I dont know how I have come to the point where a 62 felt like a 68 did last year. The next time I do quarters it is not with as much success. I ran 8x400 in 69, 68, 68, 68, 66, 65, 64, 64. No ridiculous splits, but still not a hard workout, it was basically what Gary had intended, an introduction to speed without going too hard and taking short rest (60 seconds between intervals).

Stanford. I didn't get into the 8k race but they let me have a spot in the 4k. Redshirts like me had a hard time getting into the 8k, but we find ourselves in the 4k. First mile 4:40. Second mile must have been around 5:00, and the last half mile should have been around 2:30. I have averaged 4:53 for a 2.5 mile cross country race.

I ran the 8 mile tempo again, this time after having run a 4 mile morning run the morning of. With warm/up and cool/down I have run a 20 mile day. I ran the same average as the first time, but after having run in the morning, it is fairly successful.

San Francisco invite: 26:23 for 8k (5:18 average). Nothing really special to say about this one.

Mile repeats. 3x1600, 3 minutes rest. 4:54, damn that was easy. 4:49, wow this is easy. 4:41, oh wow, that was fast. Still not that hard. Excellent.

Training goes as usual but I cut down to 65s then a 55 the week leading up to Almond Bowl, the 10k I am peaking for.
Almond Bowl is a 10k that runs through Bidwell Park on roads, starting with 3 miles of slight uphill then coming down for 3 miles before making a spiral to the finish that briefly goes uphill then back downhill. All hills are so slight it seems dumb to even mention them at the end portion of the course, but there you have it. So I go out in 4:57... on the slight uphill. Crap race is ruined. So I dont think that negative and proceed to keep running hard splits uphill, a 5:14, a 5:22. Ouch. Then I start going downhill and convince myself to push this part of the race. 5:14. Ouch. 5:25, 5:25 for the last two then I come to the .2 miles to go. Too bad I starting kicking 200 meters ago, I didn't know how much longer I had to go. Ouch. So basically all I can do at this point is remember what Chuck has taught me about keeping form together at the end of a race and use my own finishing toughness to get me the hell to the finish line as fast as I can. Ouch. 32:43 for my first 10k, 5:15 average. Not too bad, Gary just wanted me to run under 33 and I did it the hard way.

That was on Sunday, but on Thursday I have the 3200 time trial.
I do the usual warmup, drills, strides, long strides. I sport the old Campo boys uniform. Blue top, red shorts. Lanangs, the socks I won NCS in, but not the same pair, a blue version. Gun goes off (okay the gun is Gary saying "Kaayyyy, GO!") but its just as effective and him telling us that that will be the command relaxes us. Pat Boivin, the assistant coach has agreed to pace the first 6 laps as 70, 70, 70, 69, 69, 69 then let the race go as it will in the last 2 laps. This sounds like an excellent way to drop my PR from 9:21 to 9:16. I run behind Pat and am 4:40 at the mile, off almost perfectly even splits. We were 35 at 200 and 70 at the 400, Pat's pacing ability is uncanny. So at the 5th lap I am 5:51, I was 5:55 there when I ran 9:21, this is good. Next lap, arg 72, then ARGH 73. Closed in like 70 to finish in 9:26. This is only the second time I have run under 9:30 and is quite remarkable to me since I havent done many workouts geared for the 3200. I wanted to PR, but this is a great sign for track season.

NATIONALS TRIP

Last Wednesday night (a week before Thanksgiving) 3 vans with 7 people each rolled out of Sacramento after an hour and a half drive down from Chico. The 21 people in these vans embarked upon one of the greatest adventures of our young lives, the trip across the country to Joplin, Missouri for Division 2 NCAA Cross Country Nationals. Chico men's and women's teams flew, but the non-top-seven fans had a 30 hour drive... each way.

My van included some of my newly-made favorite people. Danny and Thomas I felt I knew decently before the trip, kind of Nick as well, but I didnt know Alia, Katie or Stephanie well at all... that changed a good deal.

I won't bore you with too much crap that happened in the vans though, except the time all 3 vans got pulled over for running a red light (I was driving the van that didnt do this... though I was the last van through and probably would have had I been driving in either of the first two) and doing 48 in a 25. Since we were in a caravan cross country, the two cops decided to not ticket us, but did point out to me that I should try to "match the numbers on the dashboard with the numbers on the big white signs with black letters" oops. I told him, "sorry officer, I was following the caravan and forgot to pay attention." Remarkably, that worked.

Our first major stop was Salt Lake City, Utah. We had intended on making this a one hour stop since we wanted to drive to Arches National Park that night and try to make it to Boulder as well, but we stopped for 4 hours, hanging out at the Mormon Temple and walking around a shopping center. Now Arches and Boulder were out of the question. We did get to Denver though... but missed all of Colorado's beauty due to driving at night.

The shifts I drove were the very early morning shifts that contained the sunrise, which was always awesome. Next major stops were Kansas City, then Joplin. As you may have guessed we drive straight through the night.

Joplin: we arrive, get into a hotel room that Gary has gotten us, chill, eat etc. Go to course, party, sleep, wake up by the host school's (Missouri Southern U.) coach blasting "California Dreaming" by The Mamas and the Papas at us. He was cool though, he even gave us NCAA banners because he knew we were going to steal them anyways.

Paint: we are now all (there are now around 30 Chico fans as others have traveled that were'nt in our caravan) painted red, black, and white. Personally I have "Brendan" written across my front to support Brendan. So we are all running around doing our Chico chants and then other schools' fans come at us, then others, it looks like Braveheart. Painted fans running at painted fans... pretty soon there are over 100 fans running around in a big circle of mayhem that really resembles Braveheart, save the lack of swords and shields and everyone screaming their school's chants.

We go out to where the girls are doing strides, do their epic chant, which was a mystery to the men's team up to this point but I have forgotten already. Soon after the race starts. Epic, the women are ranked 7th I believe going into the race. Everyone clicks, Sarah Montez gets 13th place, Kayla gets the second to last All American spot in the low 30s and Aisha misses All American by .7 seconds, but helps her team to their 4th place finish. Top 4 get hardware, the women have achieved their goal. The fans are psyched.

Men's race. Once again we battle the other fans then go out to do the men's chant, which is epic. Doing Grape Vine style Greek dancing in a circle all linked at the shoulders, the fans and team chant "C. H. I. C. O. C. H. I. C. O. C. H. I. C. O. CHICO, CHICO, CHICO, THERE AINT NO RUNNER LIKE A CHICO RUNNER CUZ A CHICO RUNNER DONT STOP, YOU KNOW!!!" yipes and clapping. Men get back to the line, race begins!!!

At about 600 in, Timmy is around 35th and Brendan is not too far behind, the rest of the men come through. The race is led by a pack of 10, all but 2 are Kenyan, or at least East African. Too bad Scotty is redshirting, that would give the pack more diversity. Later, the pack is pretty spread out, Timmy looks like he has gone too hard too early, something is not clicking with him... redlining is shown in his grimace. Timmy redlined longer than I have ever seen someone redline before.

A few miles in it is Timmy, Brendan, then a pack with Angel, Wickman, Manny and followed by Page and Fairley. Brendan moves up, Timmy falls back, Angel moves to Tim, Wickman falls back and Manny and Fairley maintain. I am screaming, running around with Beau. I yell to each Chico man that passes me to go find the next Chico man. I yell to Brendan that "THIS KENYAN IS DYING, START BY PASSING HIM." To my joy, he passes the Kenyan and keeps rolling up on guys. Brendan finishes 20th, getting the All American spot he had been eyeing all season. Excellent. Timmy and Angel finish just outside of All American contention. Heartbreaking. Manny and Page come in. Wickman's foot bothered him to no end and he finishes outside the top 5, followed by Fairley. The men have not clicked as well as the women, but have not done horribly either. They just expected higher, at least Brendan clicked. The men are happy to hear that they have gotten 6th. 4th was the goal but after their performances it wasnt bad to hear, especially with most of them coming back next year.

At night there is much partying, but since I havent slept a wink in 3 nights, I sleep pretty early.

On the drive back I got the morning shift again, this time going into the Grand Canyon, which is beautiful at sunrise. We spend about 2 and a half hours there then get back on the road. Late that afternoon we drive through Barstow. Multiple D3 State Champions, I see why Barstow is so good at running... there is nothing else to do. It looks like a spaghetti western's downtown.

So we get back to the bay later that night and I sleep forever. We have gone through Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Damn. Good times.

Next year nationals is in Pennsylvania, so I am hoping to make the team. That trip is fun but I think flying there would be nice too.

The Beginnings...

Well, this is just the first post, hopefully this blog will broadcast the opinions of Joey and me, and anyone else I guess.