9/14/05
Week-13 Wedsnday
Workout: 10 miles easy, with 35mins Ultimate Frisbee afterwards.
We kicked the danm frosh/soph team to pieces. Grrr…
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9/15/05
Week-13 Thursday
Workout: 50 pushups (silly freshmen), 7 miles steady state, 10x100m sprints, 50 pushups 100 situps
Today was fun. We did a steady state. Our first mile was 7:20, and we we’re really chillen’. We picked it up a lot after that. Our last 1/2 mile was about 2:50. Danm Ivan, was bitchin’ the whole run about his godanm gut. (He ate a big lunch, and my gut was fine) and then he sprints like a madman on the last 800. I just chilled behind him. The wind sprints where kind of tough, though. Everyone wanted to race me, b/c I’m the 800m champ or something. I only got 4-5 of them done relaxed by myself. The rest of the time people were racing. And I couldn’t focus on myself. (In other words, I had to teach the new assistant coach why I’ve got the “All League” patch on my letterman’s jacket.
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9/16/05
week-13 Friday
Workout: 50 pushups (late), 6 miles easy, stretches.
Easy workout, just ran to the hills and back. I was bored senseless listening to my partners talk about soccer. I couldn’t imagine anything less interesting, except baseball.
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Edit: I feel very primed for the race tommorrow. Nothin’ hurts, and I’m in good shape. I’m going to stick with Machado, and then make a big move with 500m to go.
9/17/05
Week-13 Saturday Cheiftan Invitational
–Not much to say besides a shitty race. See my results section for full details.
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9/18/05
Week-13 Sunday
Workout: Just hung out with my ladyfriend.
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9/19/05
Week-14 Monday
Workout: 1 mile warmup, stretches, 11 miles easy/hard finish. (and 20 minute rock-throw at halfway)
Tonight was fun. We stopped at about the halfway mark and threw rocks for at least 20 minutes. Albert got pegged in the arse and in the gut. Very funny. On the way back I shadowed Ivan (our top runner) for the entire time from about 30 meters back. He will surge like nuts if I run up with him, and he’s very strong, so I didn’t want that. I just chilled and ran comfortable, until the last mile, where after almost giving up, I put down a major surge and held it all the way back with a strong finishing kick. He was kind of mad that I sprinted… 
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I dont think I will ever understand cross-country. In what other sport do athletes stop to throw rocks for 20 minutes in the middle of a workout
9/20/05
Week-14 Tuesday
Workout: 2 mile warmup, agilities, strides, 6x800 w/3:00 rest,
2:44, 2:47, 2:36, 2:38, 2:33, 2:25 (Ouch!) 15:43 3-mile. 5:12 miles 2:36.9 800’s… That workout was tough, Oh my good lord I wanted to die. The first and second rep we were lagging it. Or actually, they felt fast, but we hadn’t even “started” our engines. After that we pounded out the reps, each one inducing more pain than the one before. It was an excersize in self-motivation to keep my legs going. During the last interval, I didn’t push 500-600 meters, and I almost dropped out. But when my feet touched the hard gravel track… a fire went off under my ass. I went from 5th-6th to second. I sprinted faster than I’ve ever sprinted in a workout in my life!
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Oh yah, and my time is 8 seconds faster than last year’s time. And I’m not injured or anything.
9/21/05
Week-14 Wedsnday
Workout: 8 miles easy, stretches, 50abs, 40 pushups (we’re starting easy I’m doin’ more on my own, though)
Today was tough as shit to get a good workout. The rest of the varsity team kept fucking around. It took us 1:10 to do an 8 mile run. Very much too slow.
Anyone have any advice for dealing for fuck-offs? Heh… I mean guys that enjoy having fun too much during the workout?
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Push the pace and run away from them? I mean, if they have any pride in what they’re doing at all and they see you starting to push the pace and run off someone will eventually be struck with the thought “What the hell is he doing up there, and why am I back here messing around?” The key I guess for you would be to stay strong and run at a strong pace even when they start yelling at you to slow down, cuz then they’ll probably get pissed and that’ll motivate them to run faster. Of course they could just not give a damn and let you run by yourself, but if you want a good workout then maybe that’s what it’ll take?
That’s, unfortunately, the only tactic I can’t use. We need to build our varsity. These guys are the ones on our team that, if they put in the work, they could come up with some serious results and make a big impact on our team. We need to get used to running together as a pack, so we are “forced” to run together during every easy run.
9/22/05
Week-14 Thursday
Workout: 7 mile steady state run, 5 strides
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9/23/05
Week-14 Friday
Workout: 6 miles easy, 10 strides
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9/24/05
Week-14 Saturday: Stanford Inviational
Results: 17:42, team:10th
I ran well my first mile, and I was in good position, then after that, I started to lag a bit, but i managed to hang onto my teammate up the hill to the 2mile mark (at the top of a huge hill), but on the way down it, my gut cramped so bad I started lookin’ at the grass (stanford’s golf course is very nice) and thinking how nice it would be to fall on it. I stopped to stretch, jogged/easy run the last mile, and then kicked faster and further that I’ve ever kicked before. I passed 25-30 guys the last 400m.
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9/25/05
Week-14 Sunday
Workout: I didn’t really workout, I just went to the beach with my lady.
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9/26/05
Week-14 Monday
Workout: 7 miles steady
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11200
9/27/05
Week-15 Tuesday Madera/Hollister/Auckland(New Zealand)/North County Skirmish
Today was a bad day. Bad ankle roll, and faith went out my window. This race sucked, but as I post this a day later, I’m… I’ll explain later.
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9/28/05
Week-15 Wedsnday
Workout: 3 miles easy 1x50m stride.
Today I had a long talk with my coach. It’s hard to explain what we talked about without it sounding silly, but I haven’t a care. We talked about how I was not the first to go through a slump. I was not special in my misery. In general I think I felt my connection with racing was one that paled in comparison to what it was a year or two ago. Where once I was a tough proud runner who seldom surrendered, for any reason, I grew to become a runner that shirked off my responsibility to myself and to my team. I had given in to complacency. Where once pain and glory where my lovers, and I fiercely strived for their effection, I became only the business partner to the physical mechanics of a race. Emotion, no matter how strong, cannot fuel a runner for three miles. The runner will fade. Logic, no matter how sound cannot fuel a runner for three miles. Pride, no matter how strong, will not give a runner the strength to endure. Only love will do it. During my easy three mile run I thought of these things. I thought of my first race; in such vivid detail did I recall it that I ran with tears running (hah! Punny…) down my cheeks. I ran back and sat down to write down the words that tumbled in my head. I poured myself into that story. I admit it wasn’t a remarkable piece. Just another descriptive piece, of which I have written many, but when I’d finished the danm thing I felt spent. During my run I’d overflowed with emotion, but the writing of -the physical act of recording- my thoughts helped me center myself. I can’t say that I’m a changed man, or any of that bullshit. But I’m sorry to use another metaphor, but before now, I was running through a soft dirt field, freshly plowed, large dirt clods made my passage unbearable. I struggled and roared trying to find the path I had so easily traveled before. And I was so wrapt up in that search that I forgot that I had no path to travel on before. No smooth trail. No paved road. I had blazed a trail. I had ran with heart and dedication proving to myself and the world that I was proud and strong, that I loved pain and glory. I realize I am not a seperate creature from that naive youth. I am more grizzled, -more learn-ed from my failure, and unfortunately more hardened from my failures too. Each race this season I felt a part of myself cry out in anger. And today I cried with that part of me.
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You’re deep, man… I wish more athletes had the emotion you do.
I’m a writer. I think a lot. I’ve never really had a hard time expressing myself using either my voice or my written word. I wonder if the simpleton feels the same emotions that I do? And maybe I am not wiser than he, but gifted with the ability to express myself?
Edit: In other words, my journal entry is saying, “I was a fuckin’ slacker and I needed to work harder.”