It's been a while!
Welcome back faithful reader(s). I've been thinking about restarting the website for a while now, and now that I've had a week to get settled in here, I think it's time.
So, where is here? Currently, here is located a couple thousand miles South of chilly, icy Concord, MA. I'm living on the east coast of Florida in a town called Ft. Pierce, about 3 hours north of Miami. I'm living with my grandparents and plan to stay for another month and a bit. But how did I get here and how did my plans change so drastically? Well, let's go back to the last time I wrote in here.
I wrote my last entry just a few days before my parents arrived in Quito. It seems like an eternity, though it was just a little over two months. My parents flew down to Ecuador and after my stunning Half-Marathon debut in a time of 1:23:25 (at 10,000 ft, I'll add), we flew to the Galapagos Islands. We spent 5 days on a boat, traveling from one Martian landscape to the next. After that, we flew to Peru, took a plane to Cusco and then a train to Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas. Overall, the trip was tiring but well worth it.
Upon returning to Concord, I was a little bit shocked by the weather. My first week back saw a cold front move in with temperatures dropping into the low 20s, unseasonably cool. The following week, Mother Nature started to drop foot after foot of unrelenting snow. Yikes!
My training suffered a bit in the few weeks right after I got back, as I was getting used to the cold and the snow. I raced on an indoor track for the first time, with few remarkable results. The weeks I spent back in Concord were nice, though, as I got to spend time with the many people who I had missed in Ecuador. I got to spend a good bit of time with Anna, do some workouts and races with my coach and friend, Jon Waldron, and party like the good old days with Duncan, Paxton, and the rest of the gang. All in all, December was a pretty comfortable and low-key month.
January brought my first running injury in a while which forced me to take off a few days and miss a race. However, I rebounded pretty quickly, running my best race, 16 minutes, for the 5000m at the Dartmouth Relays the next Sunday. I should have ended my racing season there, but decided to push it one more week, despite my body giving me signs that it needed a break, and finished the season with a pitiful 3000m at the poorly run GBTC invite.
We're now up to mid January. The week following the GBTC race was my "off week" from running. I wanted to take a down week between my indoor racing season and my late winter-early spring buildup to let my legs and body just relax a bit. It ended up good timing, as I had to spend the beginning of the week in Canaan, NH with my Mom's parents while my Grandfather was having surgery. All was well, though, and we returned to Concord and prepared for my departure.
After a good bit of discussion in late December and early January, my parents and I had decided that they would feel better and thus it would be better for all parties if I were to spend my winter with my Grandparents in Florida as opposed to my dad's friend who had offered to house me in Colorado. Originally, the plan had dictated that my Dad and I would drive down together so that he could visit his parents and then fly back and we would do the drive in one long day, but the complications with my maternal Grandfather led to him staying home.
So, on Friday, January 23rd, around 6:30am, I hit the road in my lovely Toyota Matrix, packed full of my stuff. I drove about 11 hours the first day, which got me to the bustling metropolis of Roanoke Rapids, NC, a small developement on the border of North Carolina and Virginia. Wanting to get to Ft. Pierce in time to get a run in the next day, I got up and hit the road by 4:30 and drove for another 11 hours or so, to arrive in Ft. Pierce in the afternoon.
Since I arrived here in Ft. Pierce, things have been going pretty well. I have a lot of time and not a lot of responsibility, so I can really focus on my running and everything that goes around it. I've also been looking for work, which has so far been unsuccessful, and helping out my grandparents with their day-to-day needs.
One other project I've been tackling is to become a decent laptop-DJ. Tim Douglas introduced me to a program called Abelton Live, which is a mixing, recording, and producing program. Well, I love music and I think this will be a worthwhile project to undertake. There's actually much more that goes into mixing tracks together well than I used to think. I'm hoping that when I get to Skidmore in the Fall, I might be able to put this to use.
So, what's my plan for now? I'm staying here until the beginning of March. On March 6th, I'm seeing Phish's first show back in Hampton, Virginia with Mr. C, and then I think we'll probably drive back together. After that, I'm planning on heading to Hanover to live with Brett and Erin until summer time. My grandfather who lives near there is getting more surgery in mid-march, so I'll be able to help them with things and also possibly do same training with Dartmouth's track team. Summer is a long ways away, but I'm trying to find a job at a local day camp or something. I've already applied to a few and hopefully at least one will pan out.
In the immediate future, I'm about to head out for a run. I had a pretty tough one yesterday, so today's will be an easy moderate. I've got a half-marathon coming up next weekend, which I'm pretty excited about. I'll keep you posted on how everything is going.
Okay, well, I'll try and update this relatively regularly, but not a whole lot of exciting stuff happens down here. Gotta run.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, November 21, 2008
The Beginning of the End
Today was my last day working at the hospital, so I decided to take in my camera and take a few shots. It was a bit nostalgic, but I was definitely ready to leave. Though I did meet a pretty nice American guy named Josh. It turns out he´s been working here for a while too but somehow we never really crossed paths.
This shot below is me and my ¨boss¨, Tania, if you could call her that. She is basically the nicest person I´ve ever met and somehow manages to be cheerful, but not obnoxiously so, every day. This hospital is really quite blessed to have her.
These are some shots of the Ludoteca, the play area where I spent most of my time.
The phooseball table, where I spent a good number of hours being not competetive in the slightest.
And finally, this is what my room looks like as I try to pack all of my stuff up. See, I packed it all up on Tuesday, and have basically just been living out of my suitcase since then. Still, it´s a bit hectic.
Anyways, I just got back from picking up my race number and packet, which was fun. Jefferson Perez was there, but unfortunately my camera was not. Still, I got to shake hands and talk a bit with an Olympic gold medalist. Pretty sweet!
This shot below is me and my ¨boss¨, Tania, if you could call her that. She is basically the nicest person I´ve ever met and somehow manages to be cheerful, but not obnoxiously so, every day. This hospital is really quite blessed to have her.
These are some shots of the Ludoteca, the play area where I spent most of my time.
The phooseball table, where I spent a good number of hours being not competetive in the slightest.
And finally, this is what my room looks like as I try to pack all of my stuff up. See, I packed it all up on Tuesday, and have basically just been living out of my suitcase since then. Still, it´s a bit hectic.
Anyways, I just got back from picking up my race number and packet, which was fun. Jefferson Perez was there, but unfortunately my camera was not. Still, I got to shake hands and talk a bit with an Olympic gold medalist. Pretty sweet!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Ryan Hall: Living with everything I need, not everything I want
The always gracious Ryan Hall has written a very nice ¨journal entry¨ available here:
Ryan Hall Journal Entry
Ryan´s letdown at the 2008 Olympics didn´t hold him back from continuing with his life or his running. I´m always amazed when I hear this young man speak and this is no exception.
Also, this comes at an interesting time after Ryan recently announced he will be running in the 2009 Boston Marathon!
Ryan Hall Journal Entry
Ryan´s letdown at the 2008 Olympics didn´t hold him back from continuing with his life or his running. I´m always amazed when I hear this young man speak and this is no exception.
Also, this comes at an interesting time after Ryan recently announced he will be running in the 2009 Boston Marathon!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Okayalright
I know how worried you all were, but my toe is feeling fine.
Today was pretty solid. A reasonably normal day, but solid nonetheless. I iced my foot a bunch last night so it was feeling pretty decent this morning. Still, I decided to take it safe and take the bus to work. Unfortunately, having never taken the bus before, I took the wrong bus and ended up farther away than when I started by the time I realized it. Oops! But I ended up still getting there on time.
Work was all right and then I took the bus home and had some lunch before heading out for a run. One thing I´ve noticed is that my moderate runs are getting both easier and quicker. I´m hoping this is a result of both my lungs becoming more efficient at this altitude and my body and muscular system become more efficient at covering ground. Either way, I covered about 8 miles at 6:40 pace and felt pretty comfortable the whole time.
Anyways, I only have two days of my project at the hospital left, which is a bit weird. The last few weeks have gone by really quickly; it´s hard to believe that in a few days my parents come and then it´s adios a Quito.
Today was pretty solid. A reasonably normal day, but solid nonetheless. I iced my foot a bunch last night so it was feeling pretty decent this morning. Still, I decided to take it safe and take the bus to work. Unfortunately, having never taken the bus before, I took the wrong bus and ended up farther away than when I started by the time I realized it. Oops! But I ended up still getting there on time.
Work was all right and then I took the bus home and had some lunch before heading out for a run. One thing I´ve noticed is that my moderate runs are getting both easier and quicker. I´m hoping this is a result of both my lungs becoming more efficient at this altitude and my body and muscular system become more efficient at covering ground. Either way, I covered about 8 miles at 6:40 pace and felt pretty comfortable the whole time.
Anyways, I only have two days of my project at the hospital left, which is a bit weird. The last few weeks have gone by really quickly; it´s hard to believe that in a few days my parents come and then it´s adios a Quito.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Photo Update!
I just got the chance to upload some photos from the weekend so here they are!
The always lovely beach!
My roommate Carla with a beer the size of her head.
Another shot of the beach and the coast heading South.
Yes, I DID eat that whole pizza. Thank you very much.
Me and Margaret, our fellow i-to-i volunteer.
Margaret and Carla at cocktail hour.
I just thought this was a nice artsy shot of a palm tree
These next few are from my run. Here, any CAXCer will remember with great joy Jon´s foot drills. Frankensteins!
Happy and oxygen deprived after 15 minutes and 49 seconds of hard, fast running.
The always lovely beach!
My roommate Carla with a beer the size of her head.
Another shot of the beach and the coast heading South.
Yes, I DID eat that whole pizza. Thank you very much.
Me and Margaret, our fellow i-to-i volunteer.
Margaret and Carla at cocktail hour.
I just thought this was a nice artsy shot of a palm tree
These next few are from my run. Here, any CAXCer will remember with great joy Jon´s foot drills. Frankensteins!
Happy and oxygen deprived after 15 minutes and 49 seconds of hard, fast running.
15 Minutes
It´s been a pretty hectic bit and it´s probably going to stay that way until I get back. It seems a bit wierd that I can now say ¨until I get back¨ and not have it be that long.
Anyways, this past weekend, I went to the coast with my roomate Carla and an older Irish woman who works at the hospital with me named Margaret. It was a pretty solid trip. The weather was actually a lot nicer than the last time we went. Unlike the two women, my main purpose for going to the beach was to run a 5k time trial at sea level to see how my intervals had affected my fitness.
Well, it seems that Jon´s workouts have been doing pretty good work getting my legs and lungs and heart into an unstoppable trifecta. I ran the same route as last time (Early October, 5km, 16:07, 5:11/mile pace) and my goal was to go under 16:00. My secondary goal was to run negative mile splits, meaning each mile is faster than its predecessor. Well, I was able to meet both my goals! I ran 5:08, 5:07, 4:56, with a total time of 15:49, 5:05/mile (average) pace. I was pretty happy with my results and I think that my entry into the realm of 15 minutes can finally qualify me as a decent (pre-)collegiate runner.
The only buzz kill about that trip happened after my time trial when I walked down to the beach for a morning of reading and soaking up the equatorial sun and I saw a big crowd of people down by the ocean. I walked down, not exactly sure what to expect, but with a pretty bad feeling about it. I saw that there was a man lying on the sand and this didn´t help me feel any better. Finally I saw his face and he was very dead. It looked like he´d been dead for a while, too. He probably drowned the day or night before and was washed ashore. It was pretty haunting and a pretty nasty way to end an otherwise pleasant weekend.
We got back late Sunday night and so far this week has been pretty hectic. I´ve been packing and making sure I have enough room in my suitcases. It turns out I´m only allowed to bring one suitcase on the flight out of Quito, so I´ve had to consolidate a good bit.
I took a day off from running yesterday, but today I had a pretty decent workout, despite my time trial 2 days prior. For those of you who aren´t runners, you can probably just skip the next paragraph or so.
I did my usual 2 mile warmup and then foot drills. Today, though, I think I might have pulled something in my right foot during my drills. I was doing the long-walk and I got a pretty bad pain in my right big toe. I stopped and took a few minutes to massage my foot and try and feel where the pain was, and it ended up feeling all right. I didn´t do anymore long walking but finished up the rest of the drills and felt fine. It was still bugging me a bit so I said I´d do some striders and if it was bothering me, I´d call it off. strangely enough, it really only bugged me when I was walking and I didn´t really notice it at all during running. So, I figured I´d go ahead with the workout.
I was able to keep all my times at or below our goal times. The 300s I ran like you said: the first two on pace at 51 and the second two a bit faster. The 200s I tried to get faster with each, but I started a bit fast.
Here´s the workout:
2 Miles easy (7:30 pace), Drills, 4x Striders
2x400 (70): 70.3, 67.2
4x300 (51): 51.7, 51.3, 47.7, 47.4
4x200 (30): 29.7, 27.5, 29.6, 27.4
2 Mile cooldown easy (7:45 pace)
It was actually quite a fun workout. I liked the idea of getting faster and faster with each distance.
Anyways, the rest of the week I´m working, doing another interval workout on Thursday or Friday and my parents get here saturday night! Sunday morning, I think I´m going to run in a half marathon, but only as my long run (so I can get a cool t-shirt). Sunday, my parents and I are in Quito and then we´re off on our adventures. I believe the schedule looks something like this: Monday, we leave early for the Galapagos where we have 5 or 6 days on a boat tour around the islands. After that, we have a few days traveling and then we get to Perú, where we have a few days to see Maccu Piccu. I think we fly home from there and get back on 12/3.
I´ve been spending a good amount of time thinking about these past 12 weeks and I don´t think there´s a whole lot I´d change. I´ve accomplished things with my running that I never dreamed of being able to accomplish, at least not in such a short amount of time. I´ve also gone way farther with my Spanish than I ever could have dreamed. I´ve learned a lot about myself and I´ve spent a lot of time alone.
I´m incredibly happy I did this, but I´m also looking forward to going home. I don´t think these ideas have to be mutually exclusive. I´m all right with the idea that my time here is coming to an end. I am really excited to get back to the States and see my parents and friends and eat good chinese food and pizza and run outside of a city.
Anyways, this past weekend, I went to the coast with my roomate Carla and an older Irish woman who works at the hospital with me named Margaret. It was a pretty solid trip. The weather was actually a lot nicer than the last time we went. Unlike the two women, my main purpose for going to the beach was to run a 5k time trial at sea level to see how my intervals had affected my fitness.
Well, it seems that Jon´s workouts have been doing pretty good work getting my legs and lungs and heart into an unstoppable trifecta. I ran the same route as last time (Early October, 5km, 16:07, 5:11/mile pace) and my goal was to go under 16:00. My secondary goal was to run negative mile splits, meaning each mile is faster than its predecessor. Well, I was able to meet both my goals! I ran 5:08, 5:07, 4:56, with a total time of 15:49, 5:05/mile (average) pace. I was pretty happy with my results and I think that my entry into the realm of 15 minutes can finally qualify me as a decent (pre-)collegiate runner.
The only buzz kill about that trip happened after my time trial when I walked down to the beach for a morning of reading and soaking up the equatorial sun and I saw a big crowd of people down by the ocean. I walked down, not exactly sure what to expect, but with a pretty bad feeling about it. I saw that there was a man lying on the sand and this didn´t help me feel any better. Finally I saw his face and he was very dead. It looked like he´d been dead for a while, too. He probably drowned the day or night before and was washed ashore. It was pretty haunting and a pretty nasty way to end an otherwise pleasant weekend.
We got back late Sunday night and so far this week has been pretty hectic. I´ve been packing and making sure I have enough room in my suitcases. It turns out I´m only allowed to bring one suitcase on the flight out of Quito, so I´ve had to consolidate a good bit.
I took a day off from running yesterday, but today I had a pretty decent workout, despite my time trial 2 days prior. For those of you who aren´t runners, you can probably just skip the next paragraph or so.
I did my usual 2 mile warmup and then foot drills. Today, though, I think I might have pulled something in my right foot during my drills. I was doing the long-walk and I got a pretty bad pain in my right big toe. I stopped and took a few minutes to massage my foot and try and feel where the pain was, and it ended up feeling all right. I didn´t do anymore long walking but finished up the rest of the drills and felt fine. It was still bugging me a bit so I said I´d do some striders and if it was bothering me, I´d call it off. strangely enough, it really only bugged me when I was walking and I didn´t really notice it at all during running. So, I figured I´d go ahead with the workout.
I was able to keep all my times at or below our goal times. The 300s I ran like you said: the first two on pace at 51 and the second two a bit faster. The 200s I tried to get faster with each, but I started a bit fast.
Here´s the workout:
2 Miles easy (7:30 pace), Drills, 4x Striders
2x400 (70): 70.3, 67.2
4x300 (51): 51.7, 51.3, 47.7, 47.4
4x200 (30): 29.7, 27.5, 29.6, 27.4
2 Mile cooldown easy (7:45 pace)
It was actually quite a fun workout. I liked the idea of getting faster and faster with each distance.
Anyways, the rest of the week I´m working, doing another interval workout on Thursday or Friday and my parents get here saturday night! Sunday morning, I think I´m going to run in a half marathon, but only as my long run (so I can get a cool t-shirt). Sunday, my parents and I are in Quito and then we´re off on our adventures. I believe the schedule looks something like this: Monday, we leave early for the Galapagos where we have 5 or 6 days on a boat tour around the islands. After that, we have a few days traveling and then we get to Perú, where we have a few days to see Maccu Piccu. I think we fly home from there and get back on 12/3.
I´ve been spending a good amount of time thinking about these past 12 weeks and I don´t think there´s a whole lot I´d change. I´ve accomplished things with my running that I never dreamed of being able to accomplish, at least not in such a short amount of time. I´ve also gone way farther with my Spanish than I ever could have dreamed. I´ve learned a lot about myself and I´ve spent a lot of time alone.
I´m incredibly happy I did this, but I´m also looking forward to going home. I don´t think these ideas have to be mutually exclusive. I´m all right with the idea that my time here is coming to an end. I am really excited to get back to the States and see my parents and friends and eat good chinese food and pizza and run outside of a city.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
The Start of Something
I did my second interval workout in three days this morning. It was what Jon has dubbed a ¨Benchmark Workout.¨ That is, it´s a workout that will be repeated after another 4-6 weeks of good hard training.
The workout consisted of 5x800 meters at 2:36 or better, with 90 seconds jogging in between each. Basically, it´s 800s at VO2 max pace with very little rest between each. The workout would not only let us know how my body has been reacting to the intervals that I´ve been running for the past 5 weeks but also it would give me a better estimate for what I can run for my time trial this coming weekend.
I was still a bit stiff starting off, so I was almost pessemistic. Nonetheless, I got into my normal routine: 2 miles easy to warm up, full foot drills and dynamic stretching and two sets of striders. By the time I was ready to start, it had warmed up considerably, so I was glad to have worn layers.
The workout ended up going a lot better than I expected. I ended up averaging about 2:33 per rep, which I was pretty happy with, with the last at 2:29.
Looking over my intervals, I´m really happy with the progress I´ve made. This week, the 5x800 workout was a bit less volume than usual, and I felt it. However, looking back even a few weeks shows that I was doing shorter workouts, with more rest, and at slower paces. With that in mind, I´m feeling relatively confident.
In other news, I´m making some progress on my plans for next year, though a lot is still up in the air and seems as if it´ll stay that way for a while. The one thing that I´m feeling quite strong about is that I don´t want to spend the whole six months in one place. This presents a bit of a problem with finding a job, especially with the state of the current economy, but I´m confident that I can find some work.
My thoughts right now are some sort of permutation of the following: Spend December and part of January in Concord living at home. Here I can see my friends, get some work, and run in some indoor track races.
In January, I´m hoping to drive west somewhere for several reasons: First, to avoid (part of) the super cold and icy New England winter. Second, the two cities I´m thinking about living in right now are Tucson, AZ and Boulder, CO (slightly less warm...) which are both at relatively high altitudes, Tucson not as much. Being here in Quito has shown that my body reacts really well to altitude training, so this would give me another few months of that. It would also give me a nice change of scenery, which I´ve found is really important to me. Hopefully I´d be able to find a job in either place, and since both of them are high tourist season (Boulder, skiiers, Tucson, snowbirds) I´m relatively confident I could find some sort of work.
I would head back East in early March to see Phish in Hampton, VA. And then drive back up to Concord. The next few months depend a bit on my monetary state at the time. I have the possibility of living at home, living in Hanover with my brother, and living in Western Mass somewhere. I would try and get a job here as well and continue training and be able to race some outdoor track in the Spring.
It´s an ambitious and complicated plan, I know, but I´m hoping it works out.
Anyways, I´m headed to the coast on Friday early morning. I´ll try and update before then, but I may be busy with work and getting ready. I´m running my time trial Sunday morning, so send me fast vibes if you´re up between 7:00 and 8:00am!
The workout consisted of 5x800 meters at 2:36 or better, with 90 seconds jogging in between each. Basically, it´s 800s at VO2 max pace with very little rest between each. The workout would not only let us know how my body has been reacting to the intervals that I´ve been running for the past 5 weeks but also it would give me a better estimate for what I can run for my time trial this coming weekend.
I was still a bit stiff starting off, so I was almost pessemistic. Nonetheless, I got into my normal routine: 2 miles easy to warm up, full foot drills and dynamic stretching and two sets of striders. By the time I was ready to start, it had warmed up considerably, so I was glad to have worn layers.
The workout ended up going a lot better than I expected. I ended up averaging about 2:33 per rep, which I was pretty happy with, with the last at 2:29.
Looking over my intervals, I´m really happy with the progress I´ve made. This week, the 5x800 workout was a bit less volume than usual, and I felt it. However, looking back even a few weeks shows that I was doing shorter workouts, with more rest, and at slower paces. With that in mind, I´m feeling relatively confident.
In other news, I´m making some progress on my plans for next year, though a lot is still up in the air and seems as if it´ll stay that way for a while. The one thing that I´m feeling quite strong about is that I don´t want to spend the whole six months in one place. This presents a bit of a problem with finding a job, especially with the state of the current economy, but I´m confident that I can find some work.
My thoughts right now are some sort of permutation of the following: Spend December and part of January in Concord living at home. Here I can see my friends, get some work, and run in some indoor track races.
In January, I´m hoping to drive west somewhere for several reasons: First, to avoid (part of) the super cold and icy New England winter. Second, the two cities I´m thinking about living in right now are Tucson, AZ and Boulder, CO (slightly less warm...) which are both at relatively high altitudes, Tucson not as much. Being here in Quito has shown that my body reacts really well to altitude training, so this would give me another few months of that. It would also give me a nice change of scenery, which I´ve found is really important to me. Hopefully I´d be able to find a job in either place, and since both of them are high tourist season (Boulder, skiiers, Tucson, snowbirds) I´m relatively confident I could find some sort of work.
I would head back East in early March to see Phish in Hampton, VA. And then drive back up to Concord. The next few months depend a bit on my monetary state at the time. I have the possibility of living at home, living in Hanover with my brother, and living in Western Mass somewhere. I would try and get a job here as well and continue training and be able to race some outdoor track in the Spring.
It´s an ambitious and complicated plan, I know, but I´m hoping it works out.
Anyways, I´m headed to the coast on Friday early morning. I´ll try and update before then, but I may be busy with work and getting ready. I´m running my time trial Sunday morning, so send me fast vibes if you´re up between 7:00 and 8:00am!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)