Trail Running Blog

Run on my Own to the Railroads

Saturday, February 2, 2002 (02-02-02)
Workout: Hard (pace) to Railroad
Time: 44:40 Weather: nice

Well I would have ran the real workout this morning (6 laps around Arcadia Park and finish at the top of the hill) if not for the alarm clock glitching or me not getting up from it. I’m pretty sure it is the latter, but who knows? So I decided to run on my own on the trail to the Railroad. When I first started running, I wanted it to be a hard workout since that was the type of run we were supposed to have today and I made it just that (but in the wrong way).

My first mile was 6:30 and that was what Fernando said we should run for the workouts. He wanted us to be able to run 6:30 for six miles, comfortable. But I was dying, so that wasn’t good. I was tired and was running all alone, two very bad combinations. I ran the last two miles coming up at 8:00 pace, which is pretty slow. It seriously felt like I was just jogging, even though I was trying to run faster.

I rested for a little bit at the Railroad and just wanted to get the workout done with. Coming back was the same as when I was running up: really bad. The last mile, I wanted to kind of pick it up and I did, sort of. The pace coming back was about 7:23 average which I think is alright. I was just glad I finished the run and went home without stretching or doing any strides.

2 Mile Run on the Trail on Pace

Wednesday, January 30, 2002
Workout: Warm-up to the Park, One loop around the park and back to the Tower
Run: 6:30 pace to the Park, then to the 800-meter mark and finish at the Tower (2 Miles)
2 perimeter cooldown
Time: 12:46 (6:23 pace) Weather: Chilly

I thought we were going to run intervals today, and even if they aren’t that hard, I still don’t like them. But I guess that depends on what type of intervals we run. The type of intervals we have been running lately have been mile repeats, which are pretty hard, just because it’s running a mile each time, rather than a shorter faster distance. Today, we were just going to run two miles (at pace) on the Trail. Two miles sounded pretty easy and it was a completely different workout than the mile repeats. The coach said it wasn’t going to be hard, so I was pretty relieved. He kept saying our first half mile was going to be fast, but before we got to that point, we were actually off pace. So we had to pick up the pace a little bit. Read the rest of this entry »

Another Run on the Trail to The End

Sunday, January 27, 2002
Workout: Warm-up to Live Oak, hard to The End and back to Live Oak, Cool down Live Oak
Time: 48:38 Weather: chilly

While running the warm-up on the trail, I thought I felt pretty alright: no pain, injuries, no real complaints really. When we were stretching at Live Oak after the warm-up run, I realized that only four guys would be running today, so there would be big gaps between the people (which means we would most likely be running alone, which I hated). I guess all four of us could have ran together as a pack, but the odds of that happening were very slim. I think it’s a combination of the fact that all four of us are on different skill levels and there is always this feeling that we need to beat each other..

We started the run extremely fast, under 6 minutes (5:45-5:50) and after that I felt really tired. Other times before, I felt alright because I didn’t start out that fast. But this defnitely had an adverse affect on me, like it would with anyone starting a run too fast. A little bit before coming up to The End, I realized that Raymond was running right behind me. The rest of the way, I got discouraged because I thought he was going to beat me (I kept thinking, “Is he going to pass me now, which is fine or later on toward the end of the run, which would suck”) I saw how close he was to me when I got to The End and turned around and saw him running up toward the fence. It was literally 100 feet away or less. At the Park, I turned around (which I really didn’t want to do) and didn’t see him anywhere. That relieved me..a little.
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Easy Run to the Park

Friday, January 25, 2002
Workout: Run to the Park, do 3 laps and finish back at the Tower (about 2 miles)
Time: Easy Weather: warm

We were standing at the Tower, ready to begin running on the trail, but then some people said that they didn’t feel like running. At the same time, we were randomly talking about a noose that we saw at the park the week before. One of the runners said that she wanted to see it and just started running toward the park, so we followed suit and started running toward the park after her. We were about to head off in the opposite direction towards the trail, but we then decided to go after the other runner to the Park. I guess nobody really wanted to run that day, so this was a good enough alternative. We caught her when we reached the park and then showed her the noose. Since we were already at the park, everybody else decided to run some laps around it, which is about 1000 meters each lap. To finish up the run, we just ran from the park back to the Tower at the beginning of the trail. Read the rest of this entry »

Recovery Run After Intervals

Thursday, January 24, 2002
Workout: Easy/recovery to Camino
Time: 30:03 (7:30 pace) Weather: warm

Today, like many other days, I was on the verge of not running. But a few other runners did, so I joined Felipe to get a quick run in on the trail. So we changed and started running from the campus and when we finally got to the trail, we saw some other runners about 600 meters ahead. So we ran pretty fast to catch up to them (probably too fast as you will read later on). The strange thing though, when we caught the other runners, one of the runners was saying to pick it up, like to ditch us.
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Mile Repeats on the Track #2

Wednesday, January 23, 2002
Workout: 2 Perimeter warmup, 6 1-mile repeat intervals @ 6:32 pace, 1 mile cooldown
Time: 6:25, 6:28, 6:09, 6:28,  6:28, 6:29 (Total: about 38:00) Weather: windy at the  end

While running the 2 perimeter warm-ups before the mile repeats on the track, Frank was telling me how worried he was about having to run his mile interval repeats at 5:40 pace. Hearing that I got a little worried too because I thought I also had to run a faster pace (most likely not as fast as 5:40 though). But after running the warm-ups, Fernando told us we were running the same workout as last week, which was a huge relief. This time though, Artie was going to be running in our group which would definitely help us out a lot. Running the first two mile interval repeats weren’t that bad, just a little faster than the pace because Ha was leading them. However, on the third mile repeat, Ha took off, I guess he thought we were running off pace or something. So we finished running that mile interval at 6:08, way faster than the pace that we were supposed to run at.
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Still Sore from Trail Run to The Rise

Monday, January 21, 2002
Workout: Medium/Hard to Duarte
Time: Up: 35:23 (7:04 pace)

Today, we were either going to run to Duarte or the Railroads on the trail, but I told the coaches that a few of us were sore from the run Trail Run to The Rise on Saturday, so he told us all to go to Duarte. Frank told us he was going to Camino pretty hard and come back and do stair workouts on the track stadium seats. Coming up, we were all running pretty close together, but the group started breaking up and the first group was me, Frank and Ha. I remembered that Frank was going running hard to Camino, so I wanted to get away from that pack, but Ha stayed, so I decided to hang with them. Also, at Longden, Frank told us to pack it up, but it seemed like we picked it up instead. I guess he meant pack it up and run together at that faster pace. At Camino, I thought Frank was going to stop, but he kept running with us. Just before Duarte, Ha was falling back and Frank was yelling at him to keep up and catch us, which he eventually did do. It felt pretty good keeping up with Frank though, especially at the pace we were running at. Read the rest of this entry »

Recovery Run to Camino

Sunday, January 20, 2002
Workout: recovery to Camino
Time: Easy Weather: Sunny

I was really sore today (even last night) from the workout. I don’t know why, but I also had cereal for breakfast that morning, which made the run worse. Good thing  the run was supposed to be a recovery. Nobody else wanted to run today except Ha; Raymond just flat out said no. Anyways, coming up, it was alright, except right before Camino, when Ha picked up the pace. It wasn’t that fast, just faster than usual, especially on an easy/recovery run. We stopped, rested and stretched at Camino for a while. I brought up the old days when we first started running cross country and how we would be dying just running to Longden or Camino. There was also a time when we were so thirsty at Longden that we walked to a nearby home’s sprinklers and drank the water; that’s how tired we were.

We ran back was at a pretty good pace, it  was actually better than on the way up. I don’t think it was faster or slower, just felt a lot more comforatble. We just talked and joked around and finished  together, which was a change. Today was a good day to recover from the workout the day before. But I am still sore, so I don’t know how well I will run tomorrow,  which will not be such an easy workout.

Trail Run to The Rise

Saturday, January 19, 2002
Workout: 8 Miles: Warm-up from Huntington to The Rise, run hard from The Rise back to the Water Tower, cool down to the park and back
Time: 36:17 for 5.5 miles Weather: cold during warm-up, sunny after

Since running up the trail was a gradual uphill, Fernando told us we would be going pretty fast back downhill especially the first mile, which was clocked at about 5:30. When we got out and started, we were running really fast and I did feel the downhill. But after the first mile, I wasn’t that tired, but we had to stop to get out of the fence at The End. The End is literally a fence with a hole in it, so it’s almost impossible to just run by or jump over this part. And that’s where I caught Andrew and passed him. I’m pretty sure Ha caught him a little bit later as well, but I think he just ran with him. So during the rest of the run, like many of my other runs, I ran with the fear of being caught and passed. It is a real motivation when you think there is someone running up behind you. But you don’t want to make it obvious by constantly looking back, so you only do it every now and then. Read the rest of this entry »

Trail That Leads to the Mountains

I found this old blog post about how Google Maps has contour lines when you are in terrain mode. Looking at this view gives you an idea of all the hills that you would encounter during a run. So I decided to take a look at the route we used to take when running on the trail and see if there were any significant hills that we had to run during that route..

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