Aztec Invitational

Leading the 2009 Aztec Invitational

I have been looking forward to posting my race report of the Aztec Invitational all week. School was quite busy last week, with three tests on top of the usual load, and I couldn’t justify spending time updating this blog when there was other work to be done.

Last weekend’s Aztec Invitational was the first time I led a cross country race alone since the Woodbridge Invitational in 2002, my freshman year of high school. I ended up winning and it still stands as the last cross country race I have won.

The race started out exactly as Coach Heins wanted it to, fairly conservative with NAU packing it up in the 10-20 spots. University of San Francisco had seven or eight runners leading the charge through one mile, with Junior Eric Lynch, freshman Tim Freriks and myself following close behind. The course is rather hilly, and shortly after the mile marker, an extremely steep hill kicks up towards the heavens. Lynch swore “that hill is definitely over 45°.” As I predicted the day before as we jogged the course, several runners found it necessary to make a move up the hill. Maybe us Lumberjacks are a little conservative when it comes to hills because we are used to reaching a point of no return level of oxygen debt when making moves up hills in Flagstaff at 7,000 feet… Nevertheless, the USF runners quickly paid for their efforts.

At the top of the hill, we meandered our way through a dog park, of all things, and a few more inclines before reaching the 2 mile mark. Around this point, NAU took over in a dominating fashion with Tim, sophomore Diego Estrada, and juniors Ahmed Osman and Jordan Chipangama taking over the lead pack. After a fast downhill half mile, the course kicked up again with a short, steep uphill with Jordan moving to the lead. I followed his move and closed the gap. Jordan seemed content to let someone else lead, and just like that, there I was in the lead.

Pretty quickly I realized that this was the first time in a long time that I had led a cross country race. Might as well roll with it, right? So I continued on, passing a large group of spectators (where I specifically heard my Mom with a very excited voice), back through the dog park and down that very steep hill. Shortly after reaching the bottom, Jordan came by with some words of encouragement, but I was unable to keep up. Ahmed and Diego came by me within the next mile, and I ended up finishing the 8km course in 25:41 in fourth.

I was really amazed that I was actually slower than a year ago on this course — 9 seconds slower. There was no doubt better competition last year. Add that to a very conservative first two miles and I guess that leaves me with a slower time than last year.

Nonetheless, I still finished really excited about the race, especially since we scored an almost-perfect-16. Leading the race, even for just a short kilometer or so, re-lit a little flame inside of me. Why not stick my nose in it and go for it?

Shout outs need to go out to the middle distance guys (“MD Crew”) for really stepping it up. Sophomore Darius Terry finished 6th overall and 5th on the team. Just a few seconds behind him were sophomore Joe Withers and junior (and roommate) Kam Holbrook. They suffer through the beatdowns in long runs and workouts all fall from the longer distance guys. I know they were happy to be putting the hurt on the other guys for a change.

In a week NAU will be competing at the Cowboy Jamboree at Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Ok. Last year we finished 2nd to a very strong Oklahoma State team. This year they are even stronger, with rankings of 1st and 2nd from Letsrun.com and the national poll. This will be our team’s first test of the season, even though team leader David McNeill may opt to miss the meet for a couple more weeks of solid training.

Results | Recap on NAUAthletics.com | Photos

Summer training, Internship & Cross Country

Wow, is it August already? Nearly done with another summer break. I don’t have too many of these left actually, which is kind of depressing.

Since the triathlon, I have been increasing my mileage to prepare for what I believe will be my 16th cross country season (I took the 2000 season off to keep me feeling fresh. Great decision). Since the break I have logged 70, 80 and 90 mile weeks and should finish this week a bit over 80 with a day off. I have started to throw in a few workouts and I have been happy with all of them. The plan is to get in a couple of 100 mile weeks before I head back to Flagstaff on the 18th.

I am really excited about this season and I have high hopes. In 2008 I had a great season and would love to continue to build on it. The team is looking great with returners David McNeill (competing in the World Championships in Berlin for his native Australia this month), Ben Ashkettle, Diego Estrada and myself. Ahmed Osman had a great track season breaking 29 minutes in the 10k and finishing the year as an All-American. We have lots of new faces coming in that should mix it up with the rest of us.

Just like last year, it looks like I will be fighting for my spot on the team.

The only thing standing in my way lately is work. I got a 6-week internship at ITT Aerospace Controls. It is a great opportunity especially since my resume is lacking in experience. I am learning a lot and I am being included in a lot of different aspects. With that said, it does make running a little more difficult. Many of my weekdays lately consist of waking up at ~6, commuting to work 35-45 minutes each way, working 8-9 hours, getting my run in, dinner and then off to bed by 10. I just barely fit everything in, but barely is enough. I hope.

I can see how trying to do anything well in addition to working full time (e.g. running, triathlons, studying, parenting) would be extremely difficult. It is crazy to think that for many years, the world’s best athletes had to be amateurs and could not be paid for competing in their sport.

The Good Life

Last Saturday’s KROQ Weenie Roast was awesome! Weezer came out in Snuggies and played a great show. Kings of Leon and the Travis Barker-DJ AM duo were great as well. My sister and her boyfriend were able to join us up on the lawn at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Irvine.

Training

Training continues to be good and tough. I have started to swim with a masters swim group Tuesday and Thursday mornings. The coach has me doing a lot more kicking and other stroke work than I have ever done before. I am getting more and more comfortable in the water each passing workout and have come to realize that my butterfly needs a lot of work!

Saturday I got a 13 mile “long run” before the I left for the concert. This was my longest run in about a month.

Sunday I took the day off and went to the beach with my girlfriend, and my sister and her boyfriend. We had a great time near the Huntington Beach pier…. LOTS of volleyball going on there.

Monday – Got back to work with a fartlek in the morning that consisted of 5-4-3-2-1-1-2-3-4-5 minute intervals with half recovery. The total run was just over 10 miles. Later in the afternoon I biked 28.6 miles and went to the pool for 2000 yards that evening. Swimming after eating barbecued pulled pork at Famous Dave’s isn’t the best idea.

Tuesday – Swam with the masters group in the morning for 2000 yards and then ran 9.66 miles in the afternoon.

Wednesday – 10 mile run in the morning, a hard 3000 yard swim that consisted of 2 x 2 x 300 yard repeats at goal race pace, and 30 mile bike ride in the afternoon. Total of about 3 hours and 50 minutes of pretty hard exercise. Still felt pretty good at the end of the day too.

Thursday – Masters group swim of 2350 yards with lots of IM stuff. 3 mile tempo run in the afternoon with some of the Royal High School boys… 8 miles of total running.

Friday – Easy, hilly 10 mile run in the morning then a 25 mile bike ride. I quickly changed into my running gear and headed out the door at 5:30 mile pace for half a mile, then finished an easy 5 mile run. The running felt pretty weird, but a few minutes after I slowed down to an easier pace I felt back to normal.

The plan for the next couple of days is to get in a 14 mile run tomorrow and a long bike ride on Sunday. I will be meeting up with my old friend Dylan Jaedtke (who is training for next week’s regional meet in the steeplechase) for tomorrow’s run and will hopefully do Sunday’s bike ride in Ventura either on PCH or on the course for the Breath of Life triathlon.

Triple Crown

My teammates completed the triple crown at the Big Sky Outdoor Championships on Saturday. Shout outs to Ahmed Osman for winning the 10,000m and Dave McNeill for winning the 1500m and 5,000m.